Corn Relish

10 cups corn off the cob (15-20 ears)

2 cups red pepper, diced

2 cups onion, diced

2 cups green peppers

1 cup finely chopped celery

2 Chile peppers finely chopped

3 cups cider vinegar

4 tsp celery seed

1 tsp curry powder

2 tsp turmeric

3 tsp English Mustard (Colman’s Mustard)

2 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp Tabasco or Texas Pete

Husk corn and cook in boiling water for 10 minutes.  Put in cold water to cool before cutting corn off the cob.  (Do not scrape the cobs — the milky juice will make the relish cloudy).

Combine peppers, onions celery, vinegar, celery seed, curry powder, turmeric and mustard in preserving pot.  Bring to a boil over medium heat and simmer for ten minutes.  Add corn and return to boil, simmer another five minutes, stirring often.

Combine cornstarch and ¼ cup of water, hot sauce, and add to mixture stirring constantly to desired thickness.  Spoon into hot, sterilized jars leaving ½ inch head space.  Wipe rims clean, seal and process in hot boiling water bath for 15 minutes.  Yield 8 pints.

© Crackerberries 2012

Hot Dog Pie

1- 9 inch pie crust

4 hot dogs cut into ½ inch pieces

4 small red potatoes, boiled and diced

6 eggs

1 tsp hot sauce

¼ cup parmesan cheese

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 Tbsp ketchup

Salt & pepper to taste

Beat eggs well and add hot sauce and parmesan cheese.  Layer with potatoes, hot dogs; squirt one tablespoon or so over top of mixture and cheese; pour egg mixture over top.  Bake 375º for 45-50 minutes.  Let cool slightly before serving.  Cherry tomato chow-chow is a wonderful compliment to this pie.

© Crackerberries 2012

Egg Salad Clubhouse Sandwich

The classic club or clubhouse sandwich is typically turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise on toasted bread cut into quarters.  It is typically served with cole slaw and a sour pickle.  Everyone has their own version of the club and this one is mine.  I did borrow the picture from on-line because my club was just so tasty that we ate it all before I realized I didn't take a picture. 

3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
4 green olives, diced
1 tbsp. sour pickle relish
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp paprika
2-3 tbsp. Dukes mayonnaise (just enough to combine egg mixture)

6 slices bacon, cooked
6 slices whole wheat bread lightly buttered and grilled on both sides
sliced tomato and lettuce
Dukes mayonnaise
Salt and pepper to taste

Divide egg salad mixture between two slices of toasted (or grilled) bread, top with another slice of the toasted or grilled bread.  Lather with Duke's mayonnaise, layer with lettuce, tomato, salt and pepper if desired, then bacon and a final slice of toasted bread.  Cut in quarters and serve with your favorite sides.

© Crackerberries 2012

Best Biscuits + Chicken Salad

Seems like it's always about the biscuits and the chicken in the south...as they say, "when in Rome..."

Best Biscuits & Chicken Salad

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup self-rising buttermilk corn meal

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 Tbsp sugar

½ tsp onion powder

½ tsp salt

¾ tsp cream of tartar

1 cup butter flavored Crisco (+ 1 Tbsp water)

1 cup milk

Combine dry ingredients in medium bowl and cut in Crisco and water until crumbly.  Pour milk over top and stir just to moisten.  Pat out dough on lightly floured surface to ½ inch thickness.  Cut in two inch circles and place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Cover with dishcloth for 30 minutes.  Pre-heat oven 450º; place dab of butter on each biscuit. Bake 15-18 minutes until golden brown.  Remove from cookie sheet immediately.

Chicken Salad

1 cup cooked and chopped chicken

1 Tbsp sour pickle relish

1 tsp paprika

½ tsp fresh ground black pepper

¼ cup of mayonnaise

Mix all ingredients together and spread.  Slice biscuits and spread with salad.  Serve with corn chips and Silly Dilly Beans.

© Crackerberries 2012

Turkey Bean Enchiladas

½ lb ground turkey

1 cup red kidney beans, drained, reserve juice

½ cup bean juice

1 cup tomato sauce

2 tsp cumin

4-5 jalapeno or hot peppers, chopped (save one for garnish)

3 large flour tortillas

1½ cup shredded Colby Monterey cheese

Preheat oven 350º.  

Cook turkey in skillet until brown, stir in beans and peppers and mix well.  Put equal portions in each tortilla and sprinkle each with ¼ cup of cheese.  Wrap and place seam side down in greased baking dish. 

Combine bean juice and tomato sauce together with cumin.  Pour over tortilla wraps and sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Slice jalapeno for the top and bake for 25-30 minutes until cheese is bubbly.  Let stand 10-15 minutes before serving with your favorite sides.

© Crackerberries 2012

Customer Service

What qualifies as good customer service?  Have we become so slack that we tend to settle for mediocrity because that is the world we live in now?

Life is a leaf of paper white

Whereon each one of us may write

His word or two, and then comes night.

Great begin! though thou have time

But for a line, be that sublime—

Not failure, but low aim, is crime.

~ James Russell Lowell     

I am not settling for less than best anymore, and to prove my point I just refused a shipment from JCPenney that included merchandise I really wanted.  Another shipment was scheduled today, and refused that one also.

Do you know it takes ten good comments to offset one bad comment made from a customer?  Too many people that experience bad customer service brush it off and don’t say anything about it.  They settle for whatever service they get, and accept it as “that’s the way things are now, and we can’t do anything about it”.  Yes, we can.  Don’t settle for it.  Do something about it.  It’s the way things are because you let them become that way.

Customer Service is the provision of service to customers before, during, and after a purchase.  A series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction.  Depending on the service provided, a customer service experience can greatly change the customer’s perception (in a good way or a bad way) of the organization.

Before purchasing my items, JCPenney promised me free shipping on my order, if I included a promo code.  Great!  Free shipping is always nice.  This is an excellent promotion to enhance my level of customer satisfaction.  I didn’t ask for it, and I didn’t expect it, so it was an added pleasure to my experience.

After I placed my order, I received a confirmation email stating that all of my items I ordered were in stock, and they would be delivered at my home in 4-7 business days.  Great!  Free shipping and my items would arrive no later than a week out, another endorsement that I did not ask for or expect to boost my experience.

Five days later I received an email that included shipping information and a tracking number.  I tracked packages.  My merchandise was schedule to arrive no later than end of business day July 30^th and July 31^st respectively.  I was confused because the confirmation email indicated 4-7 business days not 9-10 business days.

My first email, the day after my shipment should have arrived, I pointed out the tracking information that I researched, and I expressed my dissatisfaction in the delivery time.  I also indicated that I would be refusing the order, and I expected reimbursement on my credit card immediately.

The response came more than eight hours later from Kendra, a customer care team member.  She informed me that my order was placed on July 21^st which was a non-business day  (do keep in mind that if you go into a JCPenney retail store on a Saturday, it is business as usual, just don’t make the mistake thinking it’s the same on-line).  She gave me tracking numbers, and told me the delivery dates — information which I indicated I had.

My second email in response to Kendra included a copy of the original confirmation as well as my dissatisfaction of service being amplified because she had not addressed the delivery issue and she had my order date incorrect.

The response, again, was more than eight hours later, this time from Ellen, another customer care team member.  Ellen was very kind in apologizing for the incorrect information being submitted.  However, Ellen addressed me as Mr. Johnson, and at the end of offering me a 15% discount off my order for my inconvenience, there was part of an email that had been copied and pasted from someone named Savannah.  Imagine my annoyance!

My third email in response to Ellen expressed my gratitude for getting back to me.  I asked what good she thought it was trying to make amends with someone who had previously experienced an error, and they didn’t have the correct name of the customer.  I conveyed that 15% was hardly worth the time I had put in researching the incident, and emailing back and forth, but I would consider 50%.  I also expressed that anything less I would refuse the order, and share my experience with everyone I knew.

This time the response came in less than two hours.  Debbie, another customer care team member, used my correct name, apologized for the delay, the error in the name and indicated that she understood my frustration.  Unfortunately a 25% discount was all she could offer.

My final email was to say thanks, but no thanks and to inform them that I will not ever do business with JCP again.  How much is a customer worth?  What does a bad customer experience do for your business? 

Some people might think I’m being unreasonable, and I should have accepted the 25% discount.  JC Penney promoted the free shipping.  JCPenney endorsed the in-home delivery of 4-7 business days.  They should not promote activities they cannot adhere to.  I did not ask for these services, and from my experience, they set the customer up to be disappointed.

I know that it is not the fault of the customer care team members who make $8.50 an hour to read a Customer Service Manual to find out how to respond to customers.  I don’t blame them.  

However, my experience would have been better if 1) JCP didn’t promise something they couldn’t control (why they ship from Starks, NV by way of San Pablo, CA to Lexington, SC is beyond me, 2) one customer care team member should have handled the issue from beginning to end, and, finally 3) a customer care team member manager should have followed up in the end to make one final attempt at making amends.

© Crackerberries 2012

Pickled Dilly Beans

Silly Dilly Beans

Burst my bubble

I’m in trouble

My garden’s growing

My lawn needs mowing

My writing I reckon

Will have to come second

Vegetables need gathering

Inadequate for lathering

The harvest is calling

And I’m here just stalling

So with you let me share

Try them out if you dare

My Mimi’s recipe for dilly beans

They are not hard to make by any means

Pickled Dilly Beans

4 lbs whole green/string beans

¼ tsp hot red pepper flakes (per pint)

½ tsp whole mustard seed (per pint)

½ tsp dill seed (per pint) I use fresh dill

1 clove garlic per pint

1 Chile pepper per pint (my addition to the recipe)

5 cups white vinegar

5 cups water

½ cup pickling/canning salt

Wash and trim beans.  Pack lengthwise into hot, clean pint jars.  Add pepper, mustard, dill and garlic to each jar in the amount indicated.  Combine water, salt and vinegar and bring to a boil.  Pour boiling liquid over beans, leaving ½ inch head space.  Adjust the lids and process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.  Remove the jars from canner, cool, wipe, label and store in cool dry place.

© Crackerberries 2012

Pizza Steak Subs

Pizza Steak Subs

Pizza Sub Dough

¾ cup warm water

1 Tbsp olive oil

½ tsp kosher salt

1¼ cups all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp yeast

Combine all ingredients in bread machine in order given and select ‘dough’ mode.  When done turn out on lightly floured surface (if not using immediately, place in bowl greased with olive oil, turn dough over to coat it, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use).

Pat out dough into rectangle about ½ inch thick and cut into 4 portions.  Place on a heated pizza stone and brush with olive oil (sprinkle with Kosher salt or fresh/dried herbs if desired).  Place dough portions in preheated 400º oven for 13-15 minutes or just until puffy and starting to brown.

Meanwhile prepare filling.

Steak Sub Filling

8 oz sirloin beef, cut into bite size portions

1 medium onion, halved and sliced

1 green or red pepper, julienned

½ cup shredded Colby/Monterey cheese

1 Tbsp mayonnaise

1 Tbsp BBQ sauce

½ Tbsp olive oil

Fresh ground black pepper and kosher salt

Sauté beef in olive oil in cast iron skillet just until it looses it’s pinkness.  Sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and kosher salt and add onion and green pepper and cook slightly longer (about 2 minutes).

Spread each cooked dough portion with mayonnaise or BBQ sauce (your choice).  Fill one side of the portions with the steak, onion, pepper filling.  Sprinkle with cheese and fresh ground pepper.  Cover with top and return to oven for an additional 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

© Crackerberries 2012

Crunchy Cole Slaw

Crunchy

Cole Slaw

¹/₃ cup vegetable oil

1 3 oz package Ramen noodles

½ tsp garlic salt

4 cups shredded cabbage

1-2 finely diced carrots

½ cup chopped pecans

In small sauce pan heat oil and whisk in flavor packet from noodles and garlic salt; heat 2-3 minutes until well blended.

In large bowl crush Ramen noodles, add cabbage and carrot and mix well.  Pour hot oil over top and toss to combine.  Sprinkle with pecans and serve immediately or cover and store in fridge until ready to serve.


© Crackerberries 2012

Answers to Why and How

A commentary of thoughts and ideas about the why and how certain things come to be.

I’m dumbfounded at how stupid our world has become. Not that I didn’t see it coming, because the signs have been here for a very long time.  I saw two clips on the news this morning that really made me think we could make a million dollars being consultants teaching people common sense.  “Wash your fruit that you buy before cutting into it.”  Seriously, people don’t know this?  What about this one: “How to know when it’s time to put air in your tires?”  They pay people to tell you these things. 

The massacre in Colorado has been taking up most of the news.  All interesting, and facts that are newsworthy of reporting and my heart goes out to the victims.  Sometimes the things the media dwells on is just flabbergasting to me.  Was he faking his actions in court?  Who cares?  Why spend all this money trying to psycho-analyze why he did what he did?  Call me cruel and insensitive, but give him a shot, put him to sleep, and be done with it.  Stop wasting the tax-payers money trying to figure out why something like this happened.  It’s not going to change anything, ever.

Why didn’t someone say anything about the warning signs?  Hello?  We see warning signs in people every day.  Think about it.  That strange man sitting all by himself in the back at McDonalds sipping on his coffee, the kid that takes all the toys off the shelf at Wal-Mart and throws them on the floor, the little girl pulling the head off her Barbie doll, the mother that slaps her toddler because he wants a candy bar.  How many times do you walk up to this person/child and say, “I really think you have a problem and might need some psychiatric help”?  That would go over really well, I’m sure.

Everyone asks why things have gone so wrong and why people are the way they are.  The warning signs have been there for a long time and no one wants to buck up and accept the truth.  Judges 21:25 “…everyone did what was right in his own eyes” and they are still doing it.  Read the book…everything you need to know is there. 

Psychoanalysts will tell you it’s the parents’ fault of how they raised their kids, yet in the next breath they will tell you not to hit your child because that will hurt their self esteem.  To me, it’s all just a whole bunch of academic bullshit and people are trying to make a buck or 20 million. Spare the rod, spoil the child — the first time he talks back a good slap right upside the head will cure it — he who loves him disciplines him promptly.

Once they reach the golden age of 18 the parent is no long accountable for the actions of their child.  It is the child’s responsibility to be held accountable for all they do.  Leave James Holmes’ mother alone.  He is responsible not her.

Lessons learned in childhood will last a lifetime.  Unfortunately in this day and age, the lessons a child learns are few and far between.  People somehow came to the belief that having a child was like fast food.  Have a baby, drop it off at daycare, take it to Disneyworld, buy it stuff, send it to college, watch it get married, and start the cycle all over again.  What did the kid learn?  To get stuff, do things, and it learned nothing about values or morals.

Most elementary school students have their own laptop, cell phone, I-pod, I-pad and whatever other “in” electronic gadget there is.  What do they have to look forward to?  What is their long term goal? 

People ask how something like this could happen.  People want to know why something like this happened.  Young people today are spoiled.  They have everything at their finger tips and they don’t have to work for anything.  Give a hungry young person a cow on the hoof and he would starve before taking action with that cow.  Boredom and nothing to look forward to… those are the answers to the why and how.  The real question is what can we do about it?

© Crackerberries 2012

Grilled BBQ Chicken

Too many times I’ve tried to grill chicken.  I hate having to par-boil and if I don’t par-boil the chicken usually ends up burnt or not done on the inside.  I have found a way to enjoy BBQ chicken without par-boiling and without blackened burnt to a crisp.

Pan
Non-Stick
Chew toothpick
Savoury worn
Scorched on meals never stick
Skillet spiced with more oil adorned
Whole fried chicken thighs and brown gravy's born
Suppers more tasty from a cast iron fry pan
Cooking on woodstoves their aprons were worn
The pan was kind; no cause to mourn
It's number one top pick
Old wives have sworn
Will not stick
Ferric
Pan

1-2 lbs chicken leg pieces, rinsed

2 Tbsp BBQ Grilling Spice

A cast iron skillet

Cooking Spray

A piece of aluminum foil

Place the chicken pieces in the cast iron skillet, generously sprayed with cooking oil.  Sprinkle with a good amount of BBQ seasoning (1 tsp each of the following spices: cumin, garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, onion powder, thyme and ¼ tsp cayenne pepper).  Cover with aluminum foil and place on hot grill 350º-450º.  Let cook 45 minutes to an hour.  Remove aluminum foil carefully because the steam is H-O-T!  Place chicken pieces on grill just to crisp up the outside (about 5 minutes). 

© Crackerberries 2012

Hot Pepper Sausage Corn Cakes

Hot Pepper-Sausage Corn Cakes w/Honey Lemon Butter

These are great for any meal of the day... even just a snack.

¾ cups Jimmy Dean hot breakfast sausage, cooked; reserving grease
1 cup self-rising buttermilk corn meal

½ cup whole wheat flour

2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp fresh ground pepper

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

1 ¹/₃ cups buttermilk (1½ tbsp lemon juice and top off with whole milk)

3 medium eggs, slightly beaten

1 medium onion, diced

2 Chile or jalapeno peppers, finely chopped

1½ cups frozen corn

Cook sausage in cast iron skillet, crumble as it cooks.  Remove sausage; set aside to cool.  Cook onion, peppers and corn in reserved sausage grease until lightly browned (5-7 minutes).  Remove from skillet and cool.

In medium bowl combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, pepper, baking soda, baking powder and cayenne pepper and mix well. 

Combine eggs and buttermilk and pour over dry ingredients.  Stir just to combine and moisten.    Fold in cooled sausage, corn, onions and peppers. 

Grease large skillet and pour ¼ cup portions onto skillet or grill.  Cook cakes until golden brown on edges (2-3 minutes), flip and cook an additional 1-2 minutes.  Serve warm drizzled with honey lemon butter.

Honey Lemon Butter:

½ cup butter

½ cup honey

1½ lemon zest

Melt butter in small pan, whisk in honey and lemon zest; spoon over corncakes.  Store leftovers in fridge and re-heat in microwave.

© Crackerberries 2012

Shoo Fly Pie

Shoo Fly Pie also known as Molasses Pie originates from the Treacle Tart (a British generic name for any syrup made during the refining of sugar cane).

This is the Crackerberries version of the recipe.  Typically the crumbs serve as the crust, but
Tall Cool  ټne likes pie and loves pie crust, so this the alternate version of the Shoo Fly Pie.

1 Pie Crust

Crumb mixture:

1 cup flour

½ cup crushed saltine crackers, seasoned with pepper

¼ tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 tbsp butter

Combine flour, crackers, cinnamon and brown sugar.  Cut in butter until fine crumbly mixture forms.  Spread 2/3 of crumb mixture into pie crust, pressing gently into sides and bottom of crust; set aside.

Syrup mixture:

½ cup molasses

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

½ cup hot water

½ tsp baking soda

Dissolve baking soda in hot water.  Combine molasses, brown sugar and slightly beaten egg together in bowl and mix well.  Pour hot water over mixture and blend in. 

Pour ½ of syrup over pie crust and swirl around to cover, add remaining syrup.  Sprinkle with remaining crumbs.  Bake at 400º for ten minutes, drizzle with a little molasses and reduce heat to 350º and bake an additional 50 minutes.  Cool completely.

© Crackerberries 2012