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For much of the 90's, doing photo work was out of the question, so the creativity went
to the kitchen, which came to be called "Heros Diner". Heroic experimentation ruled, and
the wonderful recipes remain. Here are some of the best recipes you'll ever taste.
Chili Fest Recipes
-
Lentil Chili
- Start with a quicker-than-most chili: Lentil Chili. The recipe
calls for a half pound of ground meat, but it's very good as a
vegetarian meal, too.
-
Cincy Chili
- Cincy Chili is the "historically accurate" ancestor to the Diner's
famous "Perfect Chili," which is too powerful to distribute openly.
Don't cook this recipe before the other Diner chili recipes, or you
might never try another.
-
White Lightning Chili
- You might think White Lightning Chili was designed just to
appease those non-red-meat eaters, but it's not so. There's
something about that smooth but bright light bite that keeps it at the
top of the Diner's favorites.
-
California Chili
- The most hard core Chili eaters might not consider California
Chili the genuine thing, but you'll be surprised at just how tasty
it is. Its extra bell pepper and herb seasonings make it a vegetarian delight. It's
especially good for a summertime chili fix.
Turkey Fest Recipes
It always makes great sense to roast a big turkey even if you aren't cooking for guests.
Roast a fresh one, for goodness sake, and then freeze portions in zipped up freezer bags.
You'll have lots of great turkey to use for Turkey Fest recipes!
- Texas Turkey Stomp Soup
- They do a lot of Turkey Trot kinds of things in Texas, but this soup
represents an even more vigorous image of what the Turkey thing is all about. A few
historical turkeys have done more than trot. Texas Turkey Stomp Soup has brown and wild rice in it along with some corn. It's wildly
wonderful.
- Posh Poultry Pies
- If you happened to think you were looking for a chicken pot pie
recipe or something like that, stand back, gentle chef, 'cause you have discovered
Posh Poultry Pies! Don't even blink a blink
at the prospect, as yes, this is exactly the recipe you have been
needing. They are versatile (make little pies or one big one) and easier
than you think. I thought grandma knew something about doing crust that
the rest of us couldn't figure out. Ha... this recipe made me a pro.
Bread Recipes
Bread, bread and more bread baked at Heros Diner... pretty much exhausting three
different bread machines! The great recipes could fill a book.
Until the book comes out, here are a few to try.
-
Corny Colonel's Whole Bread
-
As the cosmic title, Corny Colonel's Whole Bread, suggests, this is a high-ranking
sort of heroic bread. You're right to think it's more than plain cornbread.
It has whole corn kernals (either frozen or fresh) and happy flecks of chili
pepper mixed right in. If you don't like the way regular cornbread is often a
bit crumbly, you'll think this is great. This yeast-risen, bread machine-processed version is a cut above.
Besides that, it's the perfect thing to make a meal out of a batch of chili.
- Mother Hubbard's Best Bread
-
Truly now, wouldn't some ~low brows~ out there pass it up if it was just called "Squash Bread"?
It IS NOT "just" squash bread, and you can put your money on that.
Here is a chance to raise you consciousness, broaden your horizons and perhaps
fall in love. At least it will make you feel good... which might be a better
course, anyway.
Did you know
that the "Old Mother Hubbard" of the childrens' rhyme is the same woman
for whom the Hubbard Squash was named? If you've seen a few of the
hubbard squashes, you might not think it's a very complimentary
namesake. Here's a
little picture of one... and this one was actually a rather fetching one. They
are generally humongous... as winter squashes go, and kinda "blue-green" on the
outside. This one is also shaped pretty conservatively; they can be rather
weird.
This is what you do: Buy a large winter
squash when they are in season (especially in the Fall, though they are
available mostly year round these days), cut it in half, scoop out the seeds,
stick it in the oven at 350F, and bake it till it's nicely "roasted." Okay...
that sounds rather vague if you haven't done it before, but it really is
flexible. If you are in a hurry, cook it until the flesh is soft enough eat
like a baked potato. If you are not in a hurry, lower the temperature and leave
it overnight, so it makes your kitchen smell sweet and warm. Really.
If you are REALLY in a hurry, you can MICROWAVE the thing! In some ways, it's a
small joke. You can make this bread with any kind of winter squash.
Pumpkin is, of course, everywhere. You can even
make it with canned pumpkin. I like Hubbard Squash the best. At Heros Diner,
some of the best has been from Buttercup squash... but if it's what you have,
use Acorn Squash or even Butternut Squash.
After you've baked a whole gigantic humongous Hubbard Squash, you probably won't want to make 10
loaves of bread with it right then. What you want to do is put it in small portions in
little zipper plastic bags and stick 'em in the freezer. Then, you'll find
other recipes that use a little portion of squash, too, and you'll use that
wonderful Hubbard Squash just every now and then through the Fall and
Winter!
It makes a DELICIOUS bread... sweet with cinnamon and ginger. Ooooo!
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