Start Your Ovens contest winner

I got some help from my youngest son this afternoon to draw for the winner in the cookbook giveaway. Shelia Bates won a copy of Start Your Ovens, Cooking the Way it Ought’a Be. It’s the official cookbook of Bristol Motor Speedway, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. A disclaimer on the winner: I worked with Shelia for many years when I was a reporter and editor at The Coalfield Progress in Norton, Va. When I read the slip of paper my son pulled, my husband asked if it was a fix. Ha! You can’t argue with a 10-year-old who pulled the entries blind from a cereal bowl. Shelia will receive a copy of the cookbook (which is dynamite, by the way.) Many thanks to Shelia and to all who entered the contest. I appreciate you reading the food blog and offering your ideas. Anyone who wants to order their own copy of the cookbook should contact the Junior League of Bristol TN/VA by e-mail at info@jlbristol.org or by mail at Junior League of Bristol, Tn/Va, P.O. Box 1599, Bristol, VA 24203-1599 If purchased from the Junior League of Bristol, one dollar from the sale of each book goes to Speedway Children’s Charities, a non-profit group that funds all kinds of important needs in the region. For a full list of the recipes I featured, click here.

Supreme Ham Sandwiches

If you love to grill out and want a new twist on an old favorite, this is a fun recipe from "Start Your Ovens: Cooking the Way it Ought'a Be," the official cookbook of the Bristol Motor Speedway.

The book suggests packing these sandwiches in a cooler and warming them over hot coals on race day. What a fun way to grill a meal at the track or in the backyard! I love the addition of poppyseeds to the sauce. My mom would toss poppyseeds in with buttered noodles -- yum!

Supreme Ham Sandwiches

Mustard poppy seed sauce
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons prepared mustard
1 ½ teaspoons poppy seeds
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

For the sauce: Combine butter, onion, prepared mustard, poppy seeds and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl and mix well.

Sandwiches

8 large hamburger buns, split
12 ounces shaved or sliced cooked ham
8 slices Swiss cheese

For the sandwiches: Spread the sauce on the cut sides of the buns. Layer the bun bottoms with the ham and cheese. Top with the bun tops. Wrap each sandwich individually in foil. Heat at 400 degrees foe 10 minutes. Serve hot.

May prepare the sandwiches several hours in advance and store in the refrigerator. Heat just before serving. Yield: 8 sandwiches.

It's Bristol, baby!

Things are a bit crazy here in Bristol, in anticpation of the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway and in celebration of the track's 50th anniversary. You tend to notice an extra 100,000 people milling around.

We recently went to the track for a monster truck rally and I wanted to share this photo:

I may post other photos of the trucks, crowd, etc., but I thought this pic epitomized the monster truck rally -- excitement, earplugs and all. Happy Friday!

Easy peasy: Favorite pea salad

I made pea salad for my husband’s family reunion earlier this month. I’ll not tell you that the children line up for it, but the adults sure do. This recipe is modified from one that my former mother-in-law has made for years at Christmas. She uses the tiny Le Seur brand peas (which are much better than any other canned pea). I started using frozen peas, thawed, more recently and I love the fresh taste it gives this recipe.

I used turkey bacon in this recipe because it’s what I had on hand. Whenever I make this dish, I always think it should be called “breakfast salad” since it has both bacon and eggs. The creaminess of the mayonnaise and tang from the vinegar make it delicious.

Here’s what you need:

1 pound green peas, thawed
¼ cup diced onion
4 ounce jar diced pimento
6-8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (I used turkey bacon)
3 hardboiled eggs, chopped
½ cup mayonnaise or plain yogurt
2 tablespoons sugar
2-3 tablespoons white vinegar
Salt and black pepper

Thaw the peas in a large bowl, then drain off any excess liquid. Add the onion, pimento, cooked bacon, chopped eggs, then the dressing ingredients: mayonnaise or yogurt, sugar, vinegar and salt and pepper. Blend all to combine, but be gentle so you don’t smash the peas. Refrigerate until serving. This recipe will make about 10-12 servings.

Cake and candles

Our family will gather in Wise, Va., later today to enjoy some fun and fellowship for two birthdays; mine is today, my father-in-law's is this week. As much as I love to cook, I don't expect to do any today. My wonderful mother-in-law is making lasagna and salad for the feast. What a great gift -- time spent with family and someone else plans and makes the meal!

Happy Sunday, all. And for the record, my cake would need 39 more candles! Talk about a fire hazard...

Best ever: London broil you will love

Nearly a year ago I posted a recipe for this delectable marinade – the ultimate go-to marinade recipe my family has used for more than 40 years. It is named for my brother’s godfather and a longtime friend of my parents. Don Farris came up with this marinade after years of dining out with my parents and having a similar beef dish in a Norfolk restaurant. He would order the dish then experiment at home.

I love to use this marinade on chicken, but it was designed for a London broil cut of beef. That is a tougher, muscular cut that benefits from a prolonged bath in the marinade; three days is ideal. My youngest son claimed he didn’t like beef or steak (what?) until he tried this version.

The original recipe is:

Don Farris marinade

1/3 cup corn oil
1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons brown sugar

Blend all ingredients and use it to marinate a London broil beef roast for about three days. Grill the meat over direct heat. Cook about 7 minutes per side, for medium rare. Slice thinly on the bias.

Blue crabs in Bristol?

Greene’s Seafood in Bristol
is advertising live blue crabs for sale, $35 a dozen. Many years ago, I bought a half-bushel of crabs in Norfolk and drove them back to Wise County for a crab feast in the mountains. It was a fun event and memorable for everyone – many folks had never eaten blue crabs or seen the process to cook and pick them.

The Greene’s Seafood offer is intriguing enough that I will stop in soon, at least to check out the crabs. The thought of a crab cookin’ for Labor Day makes me happy.

I have had local friends ask me how my dad cooks crabs. He is as much of an expert as you will find, with about 45 years of experience. For about 15 years, he and my mother have lived on the Lafayette River in Norfolk, where they can put about a dozen pots off their dock.

My dad always puts the caught crabs in a large bucket, then covers them with fresh water. Crabs are muddy scavengers and it helps to get them as clean as possible before cooking.

He steams them with cider vinegar, salt, black pepper, a tiny bit of red pepper and a liberal sprinkling of Old Bay. Taste it once, love it forever is the Old Bay slogan -- and anyone who has tried this delicious spice blends knows that is true!

When I was a child, my dad would cook the crabs on the stovetop indoors. Today he cooks them outdoors, using a gas-powered trivet. Less mess and less heat indoors.

The more I write and think on this, the more eager I am to get down to Greene’s and take a look. Happy cooking, friends!