Well I hope all of ye had a good holiday weekend and that the little ones brought home lots of Easter booty!  Welcome back and I have a nice drink recipe for ye today that will quench your thirst and was inspired by that most devilish of pirates, BLACKBEARD!

     So I created a recipe that I shall call Blackbeard's Iced Tea, this is an alcoholic drink and it pays homage to his legendary Kill-devil drink.  According to what I can find, his Kill-devil drink was a spiced rum mixed with gunpowder, and according to some legends, then set ablaze before he would drink it down!

     While this is an ice tea, I will not be including gunpowder, but will instead be using lapsang souchong tea as the base.  Lapsang souchong is a chinese smoked black tea, this smokiness will be the part that gives us the "gunpowder" aspect of it.  Instead of warming up the cockles of yer heart, this drink will be a nice cooling drink on a hot day!

Blackbeard's Ice Tea

Ingredients:
   Ice
   Shot of spiced rum
   Splash of fresh squeezed lime juice
   Sweetened lapsang souchong ice tea

Directions:
   1) Make some homemade sweet ice tea with lapsang souchong tea leaves ~*
   2) Fill a tall glass with ice
   3) Pour in a shot of your favorite spiced rum (mine is Code Rum)
   4) Add a splash of fresh squeezed lime juice
   5) Fill with the sweetened ice tea
   6) Enjoy!

~ There are many ways of making homemade ice tea with loose leaf tea or tea bags, look for the way that appeals the most to you, I like to use the slow and cold method but that's me.

* If you are having trouble finding Lapsang Souchong, check out the Spice and Tea Exchange as it is one of their standard carry items.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter this weekend and help the little pirates get lots of loot too!

 

 

     I have no recipes or reviews for the lot of you, but just to wish any of you that celebrate it, a happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope you all enjoy a nice meal of corned beef and cabbage, and a good drink to go with it!

     I hope all of ye scallywags had a great weekend! The Order of Leviathan ball was amazing and I was honored to have met so many great people!

Today, I have a new recipe for ye, one I hope ye all like as well!

Cheesy Chicken Casserole

   by The Pirate Chef 

Ingredients:

1 lb Penne Pasta

2 large Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

1 package of Frozen Chopped Broccoli, not the bag

1 can of Quartered Artichoke Hearts,drained *

1 C of shredded Colby Jack cheese

1 can of Cream of Chicken soup

1/2 C of Milk

1 Tbs of Soy Sauce

Grated Pecorino Romano Cheese  (I like to use Locatelli)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F
2. Cut chicken breasts up into small cubes, about 1 inch
3. Brown chicken in a small pan and set aside
4. Cook penne for 6 minutes in boiling water  (I like to add salt and Extra Virgin Olive Oil to my water when cooking pasta)
5.  Add chopped broccoli, cook for 2 more minutes or until broccoli seperates
6. Strain
7. Mix pasta, chicken, broccoli, artichoke hearts, Colby Jack cheese, Cream of Chicken soup, milk, and soy sauce in a 3-4 quart casserole dish
8. Cook in oven, uncovered for 10 minutes
9. Remove from oven, stir thoroughly and sprinkle Pecorino Romano cheese on top (see pic)

    10. Return to oven and cook for 10 more minutes

    11. Remove from oven, stir thoroughly and sprinkle Pecorino Romano cheese on top

    12. Return to oven and cook for 5 more minutes

    13. Turn oven down to 250° F and cook for 5 more minutes

Let cool and enjoy!

* If you want, you can chop the artichoke hearts up smaller, I like the big pieces myself.

So here's the announcement that I was telling you all about.

     St. Augustine is hosting this year's Order of Leviathan induction ceremony and ball! This is a huge deal for those in the pirate community as the event only takes places every 2 years and only 13 pirates from around the country are inducted.

     For those of you who may not be familiar with this, here's a quick breakdown of what it means.

1. All inductees have to be nominated by a member of the Order, and the public can nominate those they deem worthy.
2. The Steering Committee and the Master Leviathans will narrow a list of 100 (max) nominees down to only 50.
3. The public is allowed to vote for their favorites and the 12 with the most votes will be inducted into the Order.
4. The 13th is a special honor that only the officers of the Order know who will be selected.

     This year, our little town has the honor of being host to such an incredible event. The ball and the induction ceremony are already sold out, but there's a special event Friday night that is open to every pirate that wants to come out and have some fun!

     The St. Augustine Swashbuckler's will be hosting a Pirate Parlay Party this Friday, starting at 6pm, at St. Francis Field. Some of the Order members and inductees will be there at the beginning but there will be lots of people there the entire time.

I may or may not be able to make it but it should be a blast and you should try to make it there!

     So this week, I have something a little different for you. I have both a review and an announcement this week!

First the review, and tomorrow the announcement!

     If you are lucky enough to have a Maple Street Biscuit Company in your neighborhood, and you haven't tried it yet, than what on Neptune's seas is keeping you?!? This has quickly become my favorite place to grab a nice breakfast that not only tastes amazing, but also fills me up for hours.

     Since I am in St. Augustine, I try to visit the Maple Street Biscuit Company St. Augustine location at least once every week or two.

     I have tried several of their biscuit sandwiches, but my favorite is The Five. It's one of their flaky homemade biscuits, with an all natural fried chicken breast, pecan wood smoked bacon, cheddar cheese and sausage gravy inside. Their sausage gravy is unlike any I've had before and I would be okay just diving into a bowl of it.

 

     If you're not a fan of sausage gravy, than go for the Sticky Maple!  You still get their nice flaky biscuit, with a fried chicken breast, and bacon.  There's no cheddar cheese on this one, but it's not needed either.  Instead of the sausage gravy, they give a nice helping of really good Grade A maple syrup, which makes the whole dish really come together.

     Everything on their menu is wonderfully delicious and filling, while the prices may seem high when you look at the menu, you quickly find out that the food is more than you could have expected.

     They have several locations in northern Florida, 4 in Jacksonville, 1 in St. Augustine, 1 in Tallahassee, and one in Chattanooga, TN. So go visit one when you can and enjoy a great breakfast!

     So as promised, here's a recipe straight out of me galley for all of ye! I call them Cannonballs, they have a water chestnut center that gives them a crunch with nice hit of heat from the hot sauce!

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Cannonballs

by The Pirate Chef

Ingredients:

   1 C Bisquick biscuit mix

   1 C shredded sharp cheddar cheese

   8 oz bulk Italian sausage

   1 ½ tsp Snakebite datil pepper sauce

   1 can water chestnuts, quartered

Directions:

   1. Preheat oven to 400° F

   2. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil

   3. Remove sausage from packaging and crumble

   4. In a bowl, combine the biscuit mix, cheese, sausage, and hot sauce

   5. Mix with hands until completely blended

   6. Shape a little of the mixture around a piece of water chestnut, forming a 1 ¼” ball. You can use
        pre-sliced or whole water chestnuts, but slice the whole ones in half before quartering.

   7. Place on the baking sheet, ½” - 1” apart

   8. Place in center of oven and cook for 15 minutes