A record Mother’s Day !!! 835 served in one day inside The Pines!!! WOW!!! This is the second time in the history of The Pines we have broken 800; a few weeks ago, Easter, was the first. I think everyone agrees it is great news to have a privately owned, independent restaurant GAINING instead of losing ground to the restaurant chains.

There are so few of us independent family restaurants left.

I can’t say enough about our crew. As hard as everyone works, no one is reluctant to give 110%. Everyone complains a bit about being tired, but no one complains about the work. I think everyone feels like they are part of something special working here at The Pines…we know they are part of something special.

Our customers…
How many of you can honestly say your customers are all nice and love you at your place of work??? Well, that’s the way it is at The Pines. I can honestly say that we worked Mother’s Day at The Pines without a single customer complaint. Oh, a few things get “brought to our attention” on a day like Mother’s Day, but we rarely ever get a real complaint…just lots of love and compliments.

I think our customers feel like they are also part of something special … and they are.

There are so many customers…

I could write for days about the wonderful interactions and conversations I had this Mother’s Day but this entry could go on forever.

Thanks everyone for another memorable day at The Pines.

Recently I made our boys and two of their friends home made pancakes for breakfast. Well, to be honest, after the boys played computer games half the night, breakfast was more like lunch. Anyway, Katie and I decided to make breakfast of sausage patties and pancakes. Katie had already started the sausage and yelled. “Mike, it’s your turn, make the pancakes.”

I enjoy making pancakes for the boys. I went to the cupboard to get the pancake mix for an easy “add water only” pancake experience…guess what,??? no mix!!! I did what I should have done in the first place and pulled out my scratch recipe for pancake batter. Pancakes from scratch are easy to make and taste much better than the dry, store bought mix.

In this Web Log entry I will show how easy it is to make home made pancakes.

Remember that skillet I told you to buy in the entry “How About Some Sausage Gravy” a couple of weeks ago? Well, if you didn’t go get one of those skillets, stop reading and go get yourself one right now. Part of the name “pancake” is “pan” and you need a decent one… I’ll wait for you to get back before I go any further….

NOW IS’NT THAT A PURDY SKILLET ???

Now that you have your skillet, you have the main tool needed for the pancakes. We will get back to that skillet in a minute, first let’s make the batter. The “wet” ingredients are as follows:

1 cup milk
1 egg
2 TBSP melted butter (or margarine)

Whip the wet ingredients together then add the dry ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
2 TBSP sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Whip this together in a mixing bowl until a batter is made.
Although this will be about enough batter for two people eating pancakes, I usually make a double batch. It is easy to make “mistakes” and “have” to feed reject pancakes to the two Labs patiently watching you make breakfast.

Now about that skillet,

Let’s put that skillet on about medium heat and rub a very little oil into the cooking surface. Pancakes do best with a slightly lubricated surface that is nice and hot. I do not add any more oil after I start cooking.

(A special note: if your skillet is “dry” and had that natural oil stripped from its surface, your pancakes are going to stick like gum on the bottom of your shoe. You will have to vigorously rub the skillet down to bring the glaze surface back if your skillet has suffered from this kind of abuse)
Now the skillet has to get nice and hot. Leave it for about ten minutes. You need this time for your batter to set up.

The size of your pancakes is a matter of choice. You can make two or three smaller ones like pictured or make one large one at a time. I have done everything from mega cakes to silver dollar pancakes. Start off with medium size and you will quickly get the “feel” for it.

As soon as the batter starts to form bubbles it is time to turn. I like to use one of those plastic spatulas. Flip them, let them cook for another minute and you are done. Put a big blob of butter on top of a stack and smother them with syrup and dig in!!!

Have you ever seen grass grow so fast ???

We mow a lot of grass. So much grass in fact, if you would jump on our Skag 61 inch zero turn industrial mower and run flat out fast with no breaks, everything would be mowed in about six hours. That is a lot of grass to try and manage in our spare time.

After mowing these grounds for four decades, I tried something “new” four years ago…

It was simple, I decided to set the mower deck at 4 1/2 inches high.

Now, at first the grass didn’t have that “carpet” quality, but after weeks the grass got “accustomed” to the height. I found at 4 1/2 inches the lawn is naturally more healthy, with less maintenance.

There are many advantages to a slightly “shaggy” lawn; less clippings, the turf retains more moisture in the dry season, weeds are naturally “choked” out, and less wear and tear on the equipment.

One of my neighbors was so impressed with the lack of dandelions on our property last spring he started cutting at 4″. A year has gone by and he now swears by the technique.

Set your deck at 4 or 41/2 inches and give it a season, you will love it !!!

The other night I was pointing out a task that did not get accomplished. My younger son, Mitchell, snapped back,

“It wasn’t me that didn’t do it!”

I had to stop and laugh.

A dozen or so years ago I decided that I was going to learn how to use a computer. I knew it was the way of the future, and didn’t want to be left behind. I took one of the extra computers we had networked in The Pines office and sat it down on the counter at our house. I looked at it squarely in the screen and said “OK buddy, it’s me and you, and I am going to win!”

Through the early days of learning my computer, I was told about these “other” computer users; these distant, weird, people that belonged to some sort of computer cult. I use the word “cult” since these people all seemed brainwashed, talking about their devotion to their “Mac”, their love of their “Mac”, wanting nothing but a “Mac”, blaa, blaa, blaa.

Of course, I always felt comfortable since I was part of the majority. We PC users dominate the world!!!

…that was until recently…

“Hi, I’m a Mac”
“Hello, I’m a PC”
One of my favorite commercials of all time got me thinking about this “Mac” thing…
Hummm, how about all those brainwashed cult members that worship their “Mac”? Could they be right?

When I got discouraged with my PC, I started shooting my mouth off around the house about getting a Mac. I came to terms with the idea that some day I may join this new brotherhood and become some sort of computer rebel. Could I become one of “those” people?

One night it happened… Lightening hit my old PC and left it nothing short of a babbling idiot. All was gone, but all was not lost, my mother had given me a Dell Laptop months earlier and everything was backed up on it…whew!!! (I didn’t want to have to start completely over again!!!) I now had good reason to look seriously at the Mac desktop as my next computer.

A few months went by working from my laptop as my only computer to create corporate quotes, flyers, mail outs, coupons, newspaper ads, and misc print advertisements. We started getting serious about The Pines Web Site and paid Shelley, our web master a visit (or in the case of a girl, is that a web mistress???..heh, heh,..Shelley will love that one !!!)

Shelly had this big screen, futuristic, computer on her desk called an iMac. Three pieces; a large “flat” hi definition screen, a sleek keypad, and a wireless mouse…how cool???

The deal was sealed. I not only wanted an iMac but after talking to Shelley, I needed an iMac. Shelley and her co-worker Perry had a “heart to heart” with me about joining their “cult” and become one of “those” Mac users.

Well, a few weeks later, and an approved application for a “90 days same as cash” credit card, I ordered an iMac. I have been using it for a couple of weeks now. The transition has been slow, but enlightening. This thing is so easy to use and sooo friendly. When I use my iMac, I no longer get the “me against you” feeling like when using a PC. So far, I have had no “pop ups” for trial software or solicitation for subscription software. I HATE that about PC’s. You buy the thing and no sooner than you get it plugged in, it threatens you that you need to “subscribe” or you will suffer pop ups, viruses, junk email, and a compromised firewall.

I have to say the Mac has fit into our family. We explore the iMac together, but at separate times. I hear our two boys laughing out loud to find they are taking pictures in one of the applications called “photo booth”. There is so much this computer will do, I know we have only scratched the surface in the two weeks we have had it.

I look into squarely into the screen of my iMac and see instead of an adversary, a friend ready to help me explore.

Below you will see a few pictures my boys have taken with the built-in camera. These pictures were taken at the click of a mouse with no further image manipulation. These effects are totally stock…amazing!!!

As I wrote in an earlier post, our younger Lab, Abby loves to dig in the pond behind The Pines. What I didn’t mention in the article was the items she digs up.

Back in the early days of The Pines we disposed of our trash like everyone else in the “country”, we burned the stuff that would burn and dumped the garbage back in the wild. Of course, by todays standards this practice would be unacceptable, but back in the 50’s and early 60’s there was no such thing as rural garbage pick up. Us country folk were left to do what we could with our garbage.

Anyway, we had a dump site that was actively used until probably ‘65 or ‘66. This site is now the south west corner of the pond. When the pond was excavated the old garbage site was buried under several inches of soil and now is in the shallows. For the last few years Abby has been digging and pulling up broken plates and glassware. This past week she brought up an intact coffee cup that somehow had ended up in the garbage all those years ago. The cup looked brand new !!! This cup had been under the mud and water for 45 or 50 years. We put the cup in our dishwasher at home and keep the cup in the cabinet as memorabilia.

Kinda makes one wonder what else lies under the mud. Who knows what Abby will bring up next…

If you have ever eaten at one of those “China Buffets” you have most likely eaten a version of General Tso’s Chicken. The versions of this dish vary considerably from one restaurant to another. Katie and I came up with a version that we like very much. Although the techniques are simple in preparation, there is a little effort involved. I will go through the recipe step by step with pictures.

This is the recipe as I have written it:

_____________________________________________

General Tso’s Chicken

Cut chicken in bite sized pieces and put in ice water
Prepare tempura batter; this recipe should be good for two or three pounds of chicken

6 eggs
3 cups ice water
3 cups flour
1TBSP cornstarch

Keep batter and chicken very cold
Dip chicken in batter and deep fry, drain and keep warm

Sauce:
Cornstarch ¼ cup
White wine vinegar ½ cup
Water 1 cup
White sugar 1 ½ cup
Pineapple juice 2 cup
Ground ginger 2 tsp
Hot pepper flakes 2 TBSP
Green onion 1 cup

Make paste with cornstarch and white wine vinegar. Add rest of ingredients and heat slowly. When thickened pour over chicken and serve.

_________________________________________________________

First we start with the chicken.

We use boneless chicken breasts. I believe the restaurants traditionally use dark meat, we use the white. I used five of these breasts. I pictured and cut four then got out one more and cut it up so I knew I would have enough. Really, for our family of four adults four breasts would have been enough.

You then put the chicken pieces in ice water to keep them ice cold. You can see the chicken in the background of the next picture.

These are the ingredients assembled for the tempura batter. You want to mix the dry ingredients together first, then add the wet ingredients and whip until everything is dissolved and a batter is made. For the ice water I use crushed ice from the front dispenser of my refrigerator. You want to keep this batter real cold.

Here is the finished batter and chicken pieces together. Now we need to set up our fryer.

I used to have one of those “fry daddies”, I hate those things. They are dirty and greasy, and I don’t like the way they cook. I use a sizable kettle on the stove with a thermometer. I broke my cheap Walmart thermometer so I am using Katie’s fancy digital candy thermometer. I will probably get another on of those cheapies from Walmart soon. When I am done cooking I let the pot cool and shortening settle. I then pour off the shortening into a plastic container that I store in the pantry. The kettle is easy clean up and I never “strain” my shortening, I just let it settle and it works fine.

This is the fryer set up. The work flows from left to right.

I drop the pieces in one by one and stir with a spatula. I am conservative with the load on my fryer. Many people make the mistake of overloading the fryer and come out with a limp, greasy product. Watch your temperature. I start about 340 or 350 and don’t like it to take much more than a 25 degree drop after dropping in the food and stirring. What we are making is a tempura. You could use this tempura recipe and process to make other types of tempura and accompany it with different sauces if you so desire.

The chicken pieces cook about three minutes. I don’t time them, myself. I look for them to float and have a golden brown color, then give them another minute or so and pull them out. These small pieces of chicken cook relatively fast if you keep the temperature up. You will need to stir the chicken pieces a little while cooking to prevent them from forming “marriages”; that’s when two or more pieces are cooking and stick together, kind of like Siamese twins. Also, you will have some batter crumbs float to the surface. You will want to skim these off and discard as you go. You can see from the picture I have a handy-dandy rack and biscuit pan that I liberated from The Pines. If you don’t have a rack a pan with paper towel will do fine.

These are the ingredients assembled for the sauce. This sauce is to our tastes. If you find you like less heat, back down the peppers, less sweet, back down the sugar, less tart, back down the vinegar,… you get the idea.

First mix the cornstarch and the vinegar together until the cornstarch is completely dissolved then add the rest of the ingredients except for the green onions.

Heat on the stove with a medium heat. Keep stirring the sauce.

Chop the green onions and have them ready for the finished sauce.

The sauce will thicken and will start to look less milky and more clear. This is when the sauce is done. Add the green onions and stir them in. Put all the battered chicken pieces in a large serving bowl and pour the sauce over.

This is what the finished dish will look like.

I usually cook some white rice and put the General Tso’s Chicken over a bed of rice.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial!!!

Every time I unpack a shipment of “99-X” chicken seasoning that comes into our office for The Pines, my mind goes back to a surprise visit a man paid me back in the early 80’s…

I was very young, about 23. It was unusual for me to be working in the office but Mom and Dad were gone and I was answering the phone. A phone call came in for “Joe” my father. The phone call went something like this;

“Hello, Thank You for calling The Pines, may I help you?”

(”Yes, is Joe Hall in?”)

“No, sir, Mr. Hall is not here but this is Mike, his son, can I help you?”

(”Well, that’s fine Mike, really you are the one I want to talk to. My name is Bill Summers. I have the spice company over here in Brownstown and I would like to come over and talk to you. Do you have some time to spend with me?”)

Now, I had no idea who was on the other end of the line but he knew Dad, seemed nice, and he wanted to see ME !!!

“Sure,” I said, “I would be glad to talk with you, Mr. Summers!”

Mr. Summers said he would leave right away and would arrive in less than half an hour. Now, from Brownstown that meant he would have to hang up the phone, jump in his car, and drive straight over here. “What in the world could be so important that he needed to get here so quickly..to see ME?” I asked myself.

Just as he promised the man arrived in half an hour. An average looking medium height man shook my hand and introduced himself as Bill Summers the owner of Marion Kay Spice Company. Mr. Summers asked if we could sit down and talk he had some things he wanted to tell me.

I felt awkward. Here is a man that is older than my father by several years and wanted to see me because he had some important things to tell me. I didn’t know what to do but escort Mr. Summers into my father’s office and let him sit down in one of the brown stuffed leather chairs that faced my father’s large walnut desk. I sat behind the desk, still feeling uncomfortable. It didn’t seem right that a man of his age and stature should be sitting on the “presentation” side of a desk. I felt that it should be the other way around and Mr. Summers should be sitting behind a big desk with me on the “hot seat”.

The Pines and our family have had a long affiliation with Colonel Sanders and Kentucky Fried Chicken. My father bought a franchise on a handshake deal back in 1964 and personally knew the Colonel. Mr. Summers asked about my father and our KFC restaurant. He then turned his conversation to Colonel Sanders and the friendship Mr. Summers and the Colonel developed.

Colonel Sanders continued mixing seasonings after he had sold Kentucky Fried Chicken. The Colonel was mixing different blends of spices and having some difficulties blending in volume amounts. A friend told the Colonel to visit this guy that has that Marion Kay Spice Company over in Brownstown Indiana. The Colonel was told that not only did this guy have some of the best spices in the world, he had the equipment to blend in volume.

So began the relationship of Marion Kay (Bill) Summers with Colonel Harland Sanders. The Colonel would make frequent trips to Brownstown to visit Mr. Summers. They blended spices together and developed some blends that Marion Kay still sells today.

One day the Colonel came to visit Mr. Summers and brought some of the Kentucky Fried Chicken seasoning with him. Colonel Sanders was not happy with the way the seasoning was tasting. The Colonel had sold the business a few years back and the Colonel suspected the present owners had changed something about the seasoning mix. The Colonel left a package of the present day blend of the famous 11 herbs and spices and gave Mr. Summers a challenge; try and figure out what is in the famous blend of herbs and spices.

Mr. Summers told me how he spread the seasoning out on a piece of paper and started taking inventory of the ingredients by eye sight, smell, and taste. Mr. Summers not only figured out the “secret” recipe but figured out what inferior spices had been substituted for spices that were probably of better quality back in the day when the Colonel himself was doing the blending. Mr. Summers blended an “improved” batch of the secret recipe and waited for the Colonel to return.

Colonel Sanders came back to visit Mr. Summers the next week. That day the Colonel and Mr. Summers were going to cook and compare chicken. The Colonel brought “Bertha”, his favorite pressure cooker. It was the Colonel’s famous pressure cooker; a big aluminum pressure pot that the Colonel had used in developing Kentucky Fried Chicken years earlier and now sits in the Colonel Sanders Museum in Louisville Ky.

The two men breaded some pieces of chicken. Toothpicks were used to distinguish which chicken was Mr. Summers and which was the Colonels. The chicken was browned, “capped”, and cooked for the standard 11 minutes the original process called for. At the end of the cook time the pressure was relieved and the chicken was placed on wire rack to drain and cool. Now it was time to try the pieces of chicken…

For those that knew Colonel Harland Sanders, the Colonel was an outspoken, colorful, emotional man. He spoke his mind and didn’t hold back any details or colorful expletives that he felt needed expressing. When the Colonel took a bite out of Mr. Summers chicken, the Colonel slammed his fist down on the breading table. Breading flour and utensils went flying as the Colonel let loose with some of his famous expletives. “This is the way it used to taste!!!” said the Colonel.

Mr.Summers had not only “cracked” the secret of the 11 herbs and spices but had improved it back to the original version. Colonel Sanders was so impressed and, therefore, left Mr. Summers with the new formula for use in the Marion Kay Company.

Mr. Summers explained to me when spreading out the spice mixture the Colonel had given him several spices immediately stood out for identification. A few others he had to give some thought and study. The one ingredient that Mr. Summers felt won the Colonel over was the superior black pepper that was available to Mr. Summers. Mr. Summers called the pepper the “Tellicherry Pepper”. He told me the pepper was probably what the Colonel had used originally. Mr. Summers said the ingredients had slightly changed probably due to availability. He said there wasn’t enough Tella Cherry Pepper in the whole world to supply a major chain like Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Mr. Summers had the Colonels Original Recipe seasoning; or something very close. Actually, Mr. Summers had, what he felt, was a superior version. Mr. Summers thought that 99% of the recipe was the Colonels and a Mr. Summers secret change was the remaining 1% of the new blend. So he named his new commercial blend of chicken seasoning “99-X”.

In the years to come the Colonel was not happy with the new owners of Kentucky Fried Chicken. It is alleged the Colonel even told some KFC franchisees if they wanted their chicken to taste good again they need to buy 99-X from Marion Kay.

Enough franchisees started buying Mr. Summers version that the present owners of KFC back then, Heublein Inc., filed a lawsuit against Mr. Summers. In retaliation Mr. Summer filed a lawsuit back. Mr. Summers told me how much contempt he had for these corporate “idiots” and how little character they possessed. Mr. Summers said after several years of the lawsuit KFC Corp made some concessions. Mr. Summers told me they “Threw the dog a bone in hopes it would go away”, “but I didn’t” he said, “I’m still here.”

Mr. Summers asked me all about our business and our family relationships. We talked a bit more and Mr. Summers thanked me for my time and left. He thanked ME for my time!!!

The aging man bid me farewell and politely left our office. I had never seen this man before that day or did I ever meet him again. Being a naive 23 year old, I did not really understand the real reason Mr. Summers had made the visit that day.

A few years later Mr. Summers passed away. It took me a few years to understand the depth of what had happened that day.

Mr. Summers knew our family as independent restaurant operators, our years of affiliation with Kentucky Fried Chicken, and our personal relationship with Colonel Sanders. Mr. Summers had a story to share and he wanted to share his story with someone from the new generation. In a way, Mr. Summers was “passing the torch’ that day. He knew he was an aging man and wanted to give his story to someone young so the story would live on.

So, every time that special delivery of fragrant spices comes to our office door, I remember the day a special man paid me a visit and gave me a gift I will remember for the rest of my life. Looking back, I wish I could somehow do him honor and thank him,..

But then again, maybe I just did…

Wow, another whirl-wind NTN catering marathon. After doing these for nine or ten years, I feel we get better every time we serve NTN.

The people here at NTN host a managers cookout twice a year. It is an appreciation to the employees of the plant…all 1,700 of them !!! We are cooking three shifts in a row, in three separate locations; a big undertaking for any experienced caterer. The managers “finish” grill cook then serve the meal on the food lines. This spring we had the 2″ thick, one pound smoked pork chops!!! They are HUGE and everyone loved them!!!

NTN makes something called a CVJ. I have been told that stands for “constant velocity joint”. It is something that is in the drive train of vehicles. These guys have tried to explain it to me on several occasions but, alas, I am just a food-slinger and have little understanding for the inner workings of the drive train of my truck.

A few years back I saw NTN do something I have never seen in my thirty years of catering; within a period of about three years they almost doubled their staffing, their size, and production to making NTN one of the largest employers in the area.

The folks at NTN stuck it out during this rapid expansion and went through a lot of growing pains to get to where they are today. They have a good attitude and are a great bunch to work with. As a matter of fact, the whole plant seems happy. The rank and file workers all seem to have a great attitude about working at NTN. The management must be doing something right to have morale up so high. (probably doing things like hiring a special event caterer like The Pines, huh?)

My mother is now 75 and she was the “camp photographer” for the day. Now, I wanted to get pictures of all three shifts, but she insists on a “9 to 5″ schedule so I could only get Mom to take pictures of the first shift meal. Next time I will try and get a “replacement” photographer for the third and second shifts. Mom tried to get everyone she could but I know missed a few. (where were you, Preston? are you camera shy???) I included these pictures in this Web Log entry and I hope the good folks at NTN enjoy looking at them. For the rest of our readers you can get a close-up view of serving 1,700 factory workers out doors.

Thanks NTN, as always, we appreciate your business!!!
We will see you in the fall…

This is the first time I have included a photo gallery in a post. I found if you click on a picture it will give you a bigger view another click and an even bigger view. You hit the back button to go back to the gallery.

Today was Seafood Sunday at The Pines. Lots of regulars saw a few new dishes to our Sunday Buffet; Blackened Redfish and Parmesan Crusted Talapia. In the pictures below you can see the Redfish going in the searing-hot skillet after a generous coating of Paul Prudhomme’s Blackened Seasoning.

Here you can see a fresh pan of Parmesan Crusted Talapia and some Redfish seasoned and ready for the skillet.

Some of our customers this Sunday.

Don’t forget next Sunday is another Backyard Barbecue !!!