Well, Dude and my mother liked it. I can’t stand pineapple, so I was having none of it. Neither was XY TD, who ate about two cans of green beans by himself. XX TD had some but she’d been noshing all day and wasn’t hungry (also, she ate all the pineapple I carved out of the middle).
cooking
Father’s Day Swineapple Phase 2
Father’s Day Swineapple Phase 1
I don’t know where I ran across the “Swineapple” recipe, but it got posted to Reddit not too long ago and immediately went semi-viral.

Confessions of a wannabe foodie
My relationship with food is like having an abusive ex-boyfriend: He keeps coming back and coming back, every day, even though you don’t want to see him. You want to get rid of him but he won’t go away. It’s not an analogy of “I eat because I have to” and “I can’t really live without him.” It’s that you really don’t want want food in the house the way you really don’t want him to come back. That’s where the analogy stops. Read more
Comfort foot: Barbecued beans
There’s nothing special about this and there is no weird story behind it like yesterday’s; it’s just a childhood favorite I haven’t made in years. However, we had a block party Saturday and thus I bade Dude to purchase the dreaded pork’n’beans.
hot dogs or sausage (sliced)
2 large onions, chopped
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 Tb. molasses
1/2 c. barbecue sauce (I use Gates. Do NOT use Bryant’s!)
3 tsp. liquid smoke
bacon
Combine all ingredients but bacon. Put in a 13 x 9 and cover with bacon. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.
Comfort food: Trouble salad
Okay, it’s really macaroni salad and about as ubiquitous as can be, but there’s a story behind the title.
It was 1980. In Kansas City. In the summer.
And we did not have air conditioning. No, we did not. But my grandmother, who lived about four blocks away, had a little window unit, so every afternoon, we would hie ourselves up there to sit in her living room for a while, then come home to sleep. If you can call it that. (Oh, and a little trivia: My room faced east, so I had the joy of the first blast of heat every morning.)
My mother would make dinner that we would bring to grandma’s while we sat in the cool. And one day she made this:
- 7 oz. dry pasta
- 1/2 c. Miracle Whip
- 1/2 c. sour cream
- 1 15-oz can drained sweet peas
- 1 c. diced ham
- 1 c. diced cheese
- 1/2 tsp. celery seed
- 1/2 tsp. onion salt
Cook pasta while mixing Miracle Whip, sour cream, and spices. Stir in peas, meat, cheese, and pasta. Chill.
As you see, it involves a stove and boiling water. We three children (12, 6, and 4) were lined up at the door waiting for mom to bring the ginormous stoneware crock full of this so that we could go to grandma’s. Unfortunately, two steps from the front door, she tripped, dropped the bowl (which broke), and sprayed macaroni salad and clay shards everywhere.
My brother laughed.
He, um, got in trouble. (Turrble turrrrrrrrrrrble trouble.)
Hence the name. I don’t think my mother’s made this since and I have only a couple of times, but I love it and thus, the block party Saturday was graced with TWO dishes out of the Dude-and-Mojo household.
That’s what the fresh concrete in front of our beautiful porch says: Dude + Mojo = ?
Comfort food: Chicken rolls
Got a wild hare to be a real mom for a minute and a half, which involved preparing freezer meals of things I like but the TDs will not eat because it didn’t come from McDonald’s, Subway, or Sonic. What I have planned for the freezer are side dishes, not the entrée, so for today’s entrée, I made chicken rolls, which they didn’t like any better than they like anything else I make. Because I am not McDonald’s. (FYI: They went hungry.)
I have no real history with this dish to legitimately call it a “comfort food,” but goodness they were good!
1 c chicken, diced
3 oz cream cheese
1 Tb lemon juice
1/2 c onion, chopped
3 Tb. soft butter
corn flake crumbs
Place mixture on a crescent roll.
Roll up.
Dip in melted butter and roll in corn flake crumbs.
Bake at 350F for 25 minutes.
Next time, I’m going to up the cream cheese and not cook them quite so long. I served it (heh, only to myself) with green rice, which recipe used to be a comfort food, but one I now have little taste for. I don’t know why.
Comfort food: Marinara sauce
[2025-07-30: I have since learned that if it has meat, it’s not technically1 “marinara.” It’s just “spaghetti sauce.”
I make this with different measurements all the time because A) it depends on what I have on hand; B) I never measure; and C) I can’t be arsed to write it down. This is how I made it today, and all measurements are approximate:
- 3 lb hamburger
- 1 diced yellow onion
- 1 T minced garlic (I use the stuff in the jars)
- salt
- pepper
- 1/4 c basil (dried)
- 1/2 c oregano (dried)
- 1/2 c parsley (dried)
- Fry all that up together, then drain off the grease.
- 5 4-oz cans mushroom pieces and stems (with water)
- 2 cans tomato sauce
- 5 cans tomato paste
- water to make it the consistency you like
- Mix all that up really well, let simmer for a while with the lid on it. On low, you could keep it on the stove all day if you wanted. The idea is to let the herbs steep. I’ll add more oregano2 once I get it stirred up, as I like oregano. Lots.
- Serve on whatever shaped of pasta (cooked) that you like.
If I have stewed tomatoes on hand, I’ll use those. If I have whole tomatoes on hand, I’ll blanch, peel, and use those. I don’t use olive oil because I think the beef provides all the oil necessary, and I’m not a fan of olive oil anyway.
As we all know, this is a heavy dish. When I’m low-carbing, I can have a bowl of it for breakfast (yes, I said breakfast) without the pasta (with parmesan) and I won’t have to think about eating again until bedtime. No matter how much I love it, though, I will never get over thinking it’s weird to eat it without the pasta.
It freezes well, and one of these days, if I ever get around to learning how to can, this is the first thing I’m going to can.
Comfort food: Christmas punch
I grew up with this being served only on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. It was a magnificent treat. For the most part, I still keep that because, well, it’s loaded with sugar and, wow, I could drink a quart of it every day.
Anyway, I had it for my wedding reception and Dragon Lady told me later it was the best punch she’d ever had with another sweet (cake, etc.) because it didn’t clash and/or leave an aftertaste. Now, I don’t know how much that had to do with the punch as much as it had to do with the fact that I wanted vanilla and almond flavoring in my cake icing, but she loved it so much she got her niece to serve it at her wedding reception, where, apparently, it went just as well.
The secret is in the vanilla-and-almond combination.
1 tsp almond flavoring
1 tsp vanilla flavoring
1 cup ReaLemon juice
2 cups sugar
6 oz orange juice, thawed
Mix well.
Comfort food: Meatloaf
I have an “official” recipe that I kinda sorta follow sometimes if I feel like it, but usually I have way more hamburger than the amount called for in the official recipe (we buy one cow a year and have most of it, minus the excellent cuts [about which I am very specific] ground into hamburger). This is how I made it last night:
- 2-1/2 lb hamburger
- 1-1/2 c bread crumbs (combined my own dried/crumbled with boughten seasoned)
- 1 c milk
- 1/2 c yellow onion, chopped
- 2 eggs
- 2 T Worcestershire sauce (this is the key to a good meatloaf, IMO)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp dry mustard
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp ground sage
- Mix all ingredients (knead it with your hands as you would bread dough) and put into a springform pan. Put on an aluminum-foil-lined cookie sheet. Cook at 350F for 1 hour.
- Add ketchup as needed.
- NOTE: For low-carb version, substitute bread crumbs with chopped mushrooms (not the kind from the can).
If you’re easily squicked about meat and the eating thereof, you may stop reading right here.
I love steak tartare. If you don’t know what that is, it’s raw ground sirloin with egg and capons and a bunch of spices in it. I eat this meatloaf raw once I get all the spices worked in and settled. Sometimes I’ll add a little extra Worcestershire sauce. Poor woman’s tartare.
Comfort food: Cheese and onion enchiladas
Continuing with the theme of what Mojo cooks because she hates to, and this is what her mother cooked and so she likes it enough to cook it:
This should probably fall under the heading “no brainer,” but these are the best enchiladas I’ve ever had, bar none.
I got 27 enchiladas out of this today:
3 Tb shortening (probably really should use lard, but I didn’t have any)
3 c water
12 oz taco seasoning1
32-oz bag of finely grated cheese (I like sharp cheddar)
3 medium yellow onions, finely chopped2
corn tortillas
Oven to 350F.
Melt flour and shortening/lard together in a huge skillet and/or wok-like pan, and stir until smooth and bubbly. Add water and taco seasoning, then cook until thick. Turn burner to low or off.
Coat the tortillas in the sauce, then roll up with cheese and onions. Pack them in a jelly roll pan or something equally large. You may have to add some water to the sauce to thin it out, as it will get thicker as it sits. Save enough sauce to coat a full pan of enchiladas, then do so. Sprinkle the extra cheese and onions over all.
Put in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
This isn’t hard, but the prep time (especially if you hand grate the cheese and dice the onions by hand instead of the handy-dandy chopper I adore) is a killer.
Obviously, you can substitute any meat you like, but I prefer plain cheese and onions.
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1. Pimp moment of the day: My mother always used to use Lil Guy taco seasoning (not the enchilada one). It came in a 12-ounce glass jar glass jar that said “12 oz” on it. [2025-07-24: Someone asked me if that was by weight or volume, but I honestly don’t know.] Their website says it’s discontinued. Now, I haven’t looked to see if they still carry it in the grocery stores the way I remember it, but I don’t use this because now I go to Planter’s in River Market (downtown Kansas City) and get their mix. The seasonings you use make all the difference, so experiment. By the way, Planter’s is one of the businesses I mentioned in The Proviso [2025-07-24: First Edition]. I mention a lot of local businesses in my book(s).
2. If you don’t have one of these, get one. Right now. I believe we got ours at Walgreen’s for like, $5. Best kitchen tool buy ever.
Comfort food: Beef stroganoff
Got a request for my recipe for beef stroganoff, so I’m going to add a new category of comfort food. These are adapted from recipes my mother used, the food I grew up on and while some of it’s expensive to make, some of it’s not. It’s not fancy. The reason I don’t cook is that my mother made everything from scratch (even egg noodles) and so it wouldn’t occur to me to go get, say, a jar of Ragu for spaghetti sauce (and the one time I did I gagged). However, when I do cook, I cook from scratch.
I very rarely measure anything unless I’m baking, so you’ll have to adjust for your own tastes. I have tried this stroganoff with stew meat or cutting up a cheap steak (say, chuck), but I don’t like it that way, as the flavors don’t blend as well. Liberal use of pepper is the key to a good batch of stroganoff.
The measurements for this beef stroganoff are written per 1 pound of hamburger.
1 diced medium yellow onion (Get one of these gizmos.)
minced garlic (I buy it in the jars, usually in produce section by the onions.)
salt to taste
coarse-ground black pepper to taste, maybe 2 tsp
parsley to taste, maybe 1 Tb of dried
1 to 2 4-ounce cans of mushroom stems and pieces, drained
Cook up the hamburger with all the above ingredients on medium high heat, enough to barely cook the meat and make the onions translucent. Stir well, and let it simmer for about 10 minutes to let the flavors settle in. Drain, put it back in the pan, and put it back on the stove.
Into the drained meat, stir in (very well):
Let that simmer on low for about 15 minutes. While that’s cooking, cook up:
Remove the stroganoff from the heat. Add:
Stir it in well and let the whole thing sit for about 10 minutes.
Drain your egg noodles and put them on a plate.
Then top with the stroganoff mixture.
That’s it. Only takes me about 1/2 hour, no matter how much I make, and I make it in batches of about 5 pounds of hamburger. It never lasts long enough to be able to freeze any of it, but it is freezable.
Road. Hell. Intentions.
So for the last 2 years I’ve been collecting recipes for plain cleaners and wanting to go “green” and cheap, and have done nothing. Nothing! I tell you. I am ashamed.
At least we have our 72-hour kits and a good supply of food laid in (but what WE have depends on electricity, yipes). I also have Amy Dacyczyn’s book, The Tightwad Gazette, and there are all sorts of resources online to help pare down.
It’s time for the Mojo-Dude Family to turn Yank: Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.
First thing to go: Water cooler and associated water delivery service.
Second thing: Homemade cleaners, coming right up! No more Scrubbing Bubbles or Simple Green, no matter how much I love thee.
Third thing: Homemade bribes for the Tax Deductions. No more “if you eat your dinner, I’ll let you have a [insert store-bought treat here].” This means I will have to, uhm, bake. I’m not a bad cook, nor a bad baker. I don’t loathe and despise and spit upon the act of baking, either. I just don’t care for it much. Today’s bribery stock-up baking: goodie cookies also known as Russian tea cakes.
Kansas City: Comfort food
Yeah, I’m on a KC kick lately. This post is prompted by the search phrase “kielbasa kansas city.” Heh. Do I know where to point you.
Peter May’s House of Kielbasa, on the east side, just west of I-435, a few blocks south of the Truman Road Viaduct. (In the Sheffield neighborhood—click the pic.)
Peter May’s House of Kielbasa
1654 Bristol Avenue
Kansas City, MO 64126
(816) 231-9850
I pimped a bunch of businesses in The Proviso, amongst them:
(Mind, this does not mean I don’t like Gates, because I do, but I had to cut the scene in Gates, ’cause, damn, this book is huge.)
So. Peter May has precious little web presence. I’ve suggested they get a website and set up mail order because they are genius, but alas. Go there. Have much gastronomical orgasming.