Sick/Well Day

My kids can smell a mental health day from a mile off. I’ve been really busy lately and thought, “I don’t have anything that HAS to be done tomorrow; think I’ll give myself a break and take it off, maybe take the dog for a long walk around the lake, practice my dancing, do something creative…” These are the kind of thoughts that arc through the air like lightening and bring on instant illness in my children. So yesterday afternoon was spent at the Dr.’s office instead, followed by the required trip to the pharmacy for antibiotics. At least this time didn’t involve vomiting. I guess it's not much fun for the sick-ee either to be schlepped around when all you want is to be home on the couch snuggled up with your cat and endless episodes of Mythbusters.

At least I had the time to be all nurturing and junk, too bad this was the child that will not eat anything. Otherwise, I might have made her this Italian Wedding Soup, which I had at a restaurant many many years ago, loved, and scribbled down notes on what was in there so I could copy it at home. It's good for a cold in body or spirit, and a nice variation from the usual chicken soup.

My original scribble in the restaurant.

Brown a pound of sweet Italian sausage (or spicy if you want it hot!).

Brown a chopped onion in the above fat.

Add chicken stock, and when boiling, chopped carrot and barley. Cook until tender.

Add chopped spinach.

If I want something hearty, I’ll add biscuit dumplings or cheese raviolis to this.

Sounds perfect for the night of our first hard fall freeze. I may have decided what’s for dinner tonight.

Dangerous Bread

I laughed out loud the first time I read this in the 1918 Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 1, imagining the debate about the fatal characteristics of muffins.

“HOT BREADS IN THE DIET

The popular opinion of most persons is that hot [quick] breads are injurious. It is perhaps true that they may be injurious to individuals afflicted with some digestive disturbance, but, at any rate, the harmful effect may be reduced to a minimum by the correct preparation and baking of these foods.

As baking powders vary in price, so do they vary in their keeping qualities, their effectiveness, and their tendency toward being injurious. Most phosphate and alum powders do not keep so well as the cream-of-tartar powders, and the longer they are kept, the less effective do they become. The powders that contain phosphate yield more gas for each teaspoonful used than do the other varieties. Much controversy has taken place with regard to the different kinds of baking powder and their effects on the digestive tract, but authorities have not yet agreed on this matter. However, if foods made with the aid of baking powders are not used excessively, no concern need be felt as to their injurious effect. The housewife in her choice of baking powder should be guided by the price she can afford to pay and the results she is able to get after she has become well informed as to the effect of the different varieties. She may easily become familiar with the composition of baking powder, for a statement of what substances each kind contains is generally found on the label of every variety. This information is invaluable to the housewife, as it will assist her considerably in making a selection.”

However, on further investigation, and with the knowledge that sometimes my scones or biscuits taste slightly bitter which I suspected was too much baking powder, I have found there is a whole lot to baking powder that I never had considered before. Baking powder is a combination of an alkaline (baking soda) and an acid (cream of tartar or, quite often, some form of aluminum sulfate or aluminum phosphate).  While I don’t worry about its impact on my digestion, the idea of ingesting aluminum which has been linked to Alzheimer’s among other things is not exactly appealing. I rarely even wear antiperspirant for the same reason. Why would I avoid smearing it on my skin and then wash some aluminum down with my morning tea? Turns out that aluminum explains that “off” taste sometimes: it’s metallic.

Finding a “no aluminum” baking powder proved harder than I imagined. I went to 3 grocery stores before I found any, and by then I had already bought cream of tartar and simply been making my own for a week. Basically it’s one part baking soda to 2 parts cream of tartar. Lemon juice or vinegar can also be used to supply the necessary acidity to get things bubbling but it’s much less easy to get accurate results. Since I’ve made the switch, I haven’t had funny tasting biscuits since, and my memory has improved 100%! Okay, my memory still sucks, but avoiding aluminum can’t hurt.

I guess the moral of the story is not to dismiss these old health concerns as silly until you’ve checked your ingredients!

Halloween eats

I’m still flipping through The Casserole Cookbook from the Culinary Arts Institute, 1954, looking for comfort, and I think it should be renamed The Innards Cookbook. (Has there ever been such a book?) First there’s beef and kidney pie, but there’s also Sweetbreads and Dried Beef casserole for those of you who think you aren’t getting enough pancreas in your diet, there’s Tongue and Greens, Smothered Liver and Onions, Liver and Rice Piquant, and Heart with Apple Raisin Stuffing. If we were being really honest about the composition of food, we could add the Frankfurter and Beans or Frankfurter and Potato Salad concoctions to the mix.  ("Hot dogs. You know what they're made of, Chet? Lips and assholes.") I really am not comforted. Queasy perhaps. On the other hand, Halloween is coming up and if I needed some kind of appropriate fare for that, I know just what book to turn to. Let's rename this The Culinary Arts Institute Zombie Cookbook.

This isn’t from any cookbook but I based it off of several ideas I found online browsing. I took the things I liked best and threw them together. Here is my Halloween offering at the staff potluck this morning.

Start with a bed of spring greens. Followed by:

Cooked lentils with a dressing of olive oil, garlic, no salt Greek seasoning, and red wine vinegar. (Chilled overnight.)

Butternut squash, baked with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, and red pepper flakes. (Chilled overnight.)

Feta cheese and lime juice sprinkled over the top.

You know what this needed? Some very thinly sliced red onion on top. But still not bad at all.

Cookie Casserole

I’ve got the blues. I’ve got the blues cuz I don’t have the blues anymore; my favorite, and really, only blues club anywhere around here, went out of business this weekend. I’ve been moping around all this gloomy weekend like my best friend passed away. I suppose I could drown my sorrows in booze, but that’s not my style, or chocolate, which is more my style, actually ice cream cures most ills. But what really sounds good is comfort food: mashed potatoes and gravy or a deep gooey casserole. If I had the umph to leave the computer and go make some. Comfort food works best when someone else is doing the comforting.

Oh well, good enough reason to pull out the Culinary Institutes’ Casserole Cook Book, 1954 and see if I can find some motivation in it.

Good golly. The first recipe in the book is for steak and kidney pie. My great grandmother came from Liverpool. She was a World War I bride and she left a legacy of steak and kidney pie as the ultimate treat at family gatherings—at least through my mother’s generation. There’s a tiny British food store in town and I’ve sometimes picked up some frozen individual serving ones for my mom for Christmas. By my generation, however, the expat fervor was running weak.

All it takes is to smell that stuff cooking…I remember scooping more than my fair share of biscuits off the top and slathering them with butter to smother the taste of the filling, then cautiously picking thru the rest of my portion with a magnifying glass to remove all kidney particles from my plate before eating it. I still have ongoing issues with eating anything that has to have the pee boiled out of it first. But for you brave souls, or maybe my mother, should I be in a particularly dutiful mood someday, here’s the recipe. It uses pie crust on top instead of biscuits and it doesn’t involve any pre-boiling of urine so try at your own risk.

Beef and Kidney Pie

Set out a 2 qt top-of-range casserole having a tight fitting cover. Remove membranes and split horizontally through the center of 1 beef kidney. Remove cores and tubes. Rinse clean in cold water. Cut into 1 inch cubes. Put into a bowl and pour in ½ c French dressing. Turn each piece of kidney to coat well. Cover bowl and let kidney marinate at least 1 hour. Turn pieces occasionally; drain.

Wipe 1 lb. beef for stewing (chuck, brisket, or rump); cut into 1 inch pieces.

Coat kidney and beef with mixture of:

2/3 c flour

1 ½ t salt

1 t MSG

¼ t paprika

¼ t pepper

Heat in casserole over medium heat: 3 T bacon drippings. Add meat and ¼ c chopped onion. Brown meat, stirring occasionally.

Combine and pour slowly into casserole:

2 ½ cups condensed tomato soup (2 cans)

1 cup hot water (or more if needed to cover meat)

1 T Worcestershire sauce

1 bay leaf

¼ t basil

Cover tightly; simmer 1 to 1 ½ hours or until meat is tender.

Heat and cook in a saucepan 5 minutes:

3 T butter

1 cup mushrooms

Remove bay leaf and add mushrooms to casserole.

If necessary to thicken liquid, shake ¾ c water and 6 T flour in a jar until well blended and slowly pour as much as needed into casserole, stirring constantly, to reach desired consistently. Bring to a boil. Cook 2-3 minutes longer.

Make pie crust and arrange rolled out pastry on top of casserole. Press edges to seal and flute. Make slits in top top vent and bake at 425 for 15 to 20 minutes or till brown.

For some reason, I still don’t feel comforted. But I do remember sitting on a play ground in Riyadh while my siblings played and my mother talked to a British lady about recipes. When they got to beef and kidney pie, the other lady was horrified at my mother’s description of how she made it. It took a little for them to realize that the American-to-British translation meant she was picturing a thick stew with cookies floating on it.

Bacon fat

I’ve got the following marinating, continuing the French-Italian cook-off from the Culinary Art Institute’s 1954 cook books for each cuisine. It calls for frying up bacon and reserving the fat to brown the meat in. I imagine some would balk at this, but it didn’t used to be unusual. When I was young, everyone had a fat can in the fridge, or by the stove, to pour the drippings into. Often it was a recycled coffee can.

I don’t actually remember my mom using this reserved fat to cook. I think it was more of a system to keep from pouring the fat down the sink and stopping up the drains. When the can was full, it could easily be tossed and a new one begun. Maybe it’s just the folks I hand around with, but I don’t think people do this much anymore. I haven’t seen the kind of “official” grease jar with a  strainer in years. And folks certainly don’t think of this fat as semi-liquid gold for cooking with. It’s not a matter of misplaced WW II frugality; a couple tablespoons for your cornbread works wonders. Fry up some cabbage in it, or green beans. It doesn’t take a lot. Nor do you have to eat a lot. Moderation in all things, including moderation. It won’t kill you, I promise.

Perhaps thanks to the rise of foodie culture,  Emeril Lagasse’s catch phrase, “Pork fat rules”, and the recession, the grease jar will make a comeback.

Daube de Boeuf à la Provençale (Marinated Beef, Provençal Style)

Set out a large, heavy skillet having a tight fitting cover.

Cut into 2 ½ lbs beef, round or chuck, into 2 inch pieces.

Put into deep bowl with:

1 ½ cups thinly sliced onions

1 cup red wine

4 small carrots, sliced

¼ t thyme

2 cloves garlic, cut in halves

6 peppercorns

3 whole cloves

1 sprig parsley

Marinate 2 to 3 hours, turning the pieces from time to time in the marinade. Remove beef from marinade and set aside to drain thoroughly.

Cook 8 slices bacon, diced in the skillet, turning frequently. Pour off and set aside fat. When bacon is evenly crisp and browned, set aside.

Return to skillet and heat over medium heat:

¼ c bacon drippings

1 T olive oil

1 T lard

Brown meat on all sides in the hot fats. Add the carrots and onions from the marinade, the bacon pieces and 2 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped. Heat the marinade, strain, and pour oven the meat. Add 1 cup red wine. Cover and simmer about 2 hours or until meat is tender. Serve meat and sauce over cooked macaroni.

Despite how good this sounded, I'd only give it 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. I have a recipe for Corsican beef that's very similar and I guess I expected it to taste like that. That has mushrooms, which I don't usually even like, but had a much deeper richer flavor. 


So I've decided: Italy wins! Sorry France.

Cabbage paste

In our last round of Italian cooking versus French cooking from the Culinary Institutes' two 1954 books of the same, Italy had definitely pulled ahead with a simple crusty bread recipe and hearty polenta. Last night, France came back hard with the versatile and, at least in this neck of the woods, beloved cream puff filled with Chantilly cream and topped with a smear of chocolate ganache. Cream puffs are more than just those little addictive bites that come in a tub from the freezer at Sam's Club. The pastry can be used for almost anything and is so easy to make. Pipe it into long blobs and fill them to make eclairs, or slit them and make a strawberry shortcake. Pipe them in big rounds and fill them with chicken salad for lunch. Or add some herbs and a little hard cheese to the mix and make savory appetitzers for your next horse diverse tray. There is no actual cabbage in it unless you choose to put it there. I think the name comes from the roughly cabbage head shape that it puffs up into while it cooks. But hey, fill it with cole slaw? Sounds like another idea.

Pate a choux (direct translation: cabbage paste)
Bring to a rolling boil:
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup butter
1 T sugar
1/2 t salt

Add, all at once: 1 c flour

Beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a smooth ball. Remove from heat.

Quickly beat in, one at a time, beating until smooth after each one:
4 eggs.

Continue beating until mixture is thick and smooth. Dough may be shaped and baked at once or wrapped in waxed paper and store in refrigerator overnight.

Force dough through a pastry bag or drop by tablespoonfuls 2 in apart onto a lightly greased baking sheet. bake large puffs at 450 15 minutes. Lower heat to 350 and bake 20-25 minutes longer or until golden in color. bake small puffs at 450 ten minutes. Lower heat to 350 and bake 5 minutes longer. Remove to rack and cool.

Cut off tops and fill shells with chantilly cream, custard, any hot creamed mixture, or salad mixture.

As for the cream filling in this case: I whipped up heavy cream and added just a hint of sugar and real vanilla bean paste. Good vanilla is everything. And the ganache? That's melted dark chocolate with even more cream in it. I didn't have one left after band rehearsal.

Iron Love

I’m in a hotel away from my kitchen so I’ll take the time to write about cast iron. My first piece of cast iron cookware was a skillet that I used about three times and then threw away when it turned into a heavy mound of rust. I had no idea what I was doing and I decided that cast iron was one of those quaint old fashioned things people talk up but in reality it’s about as much old fashioned fun as an outhouse with a catalog for wiping. I know now that I had no idea how to season it properly or take care of it.

However, my partner has his mother’s cast iron cookware. Cooking at his house means you have little choice but to expand your horizons. I watched him wash out and grease up that skillet with ease. Maybe cast iron wasn’t so hard after all, and it did cook nice. I used to have a giant copper-bottom stainless skillet. It was big enough to cook pancakes in and was my ex-husband’s peace offering when he threw away my favorite griddle for fear the fumes from the nonstick coating on it would kill his parrot. I lost custody of that skillet during my divorce--I figured he should take it with the bird--and I had yet to replace it, so when asked by my boyfriend what I wanted for Christmas our first year together, the answer was obvious.

He claims there’s a Southern tradition that only a good man would buy his woman a cast iron skillet, cause a bad one would end up on the business end of one all too quick. He reminded me of this when I unwrapped this black beast. It’s 15 inches across and a zillion pounds. Either he’s certain he’s a damn good man or he made sure it was impossible to pick up and swing. I fell in love with it at once. It never leaves the stove top. I’m really a throw-whatever-ingredients-are-at hand-together-in-one-pan kinda cook anyway and this completely suits my style. He told me he would give me his grandmother’s cornbread pan which is easily a hundred years old. I told him I would acquire it rightfully thru marriage or not at all.

I still have a small light weight stainless steel pan that I use for making crepes since I can swirl the batter around effortlessly in the bottom, but I have since acquired a used smaller cast iron one as well. I want to collect more so I fondle them when I’m out junking, wishing I had the money to switch out all my old cookware. I spotted a deal too good to pass up and grabbed this pot for $10.

There’s no maker’s mark and I have no idea how old it is, but it’s certainly seen plenty of service sitting directly on hot coals. There’s the tiniest bit of rust at the bottom but a little massage with some steel wool, salt, and cooking oil and it will be good as new. And I don’t care how old it is, you can darn well bet I’m going to cook with it. I found this pot for sale on ebay, listed as a #3 Wagner Ware Fireplace Pot. It looks like the same thing but I don’t have any other information.

I’ve also got this old thing which I have used as a decoration for years and now am thinking it might be worth reclaiming for use in the kitchen.

Also this turn of the century waffle iron that has never been anything but a decoration in my kitchen, a birthday gift from a coworker. It’s sealed shut with baked on grease; I’ve tried to pry it open without success. But I was never highly motivated either.

A new obsession is born.

Polenta, Pane, and Perfection

Here's my competing bread recipes. First from Italy, the basic pane, which I made for dinner tonight, followed by the French entry: brioche, which doesn't look too hard but I would have had to start it yesterday and I didn't think about it then.

Pane (Italian Bread)

Soften 1 pkg active dry yeast in 1/4 cup warm water. Let stand 5-10 minutes.
Meanwhile put 1 3/4 cups warm water and 1 T salt in a large bowl.
Blend in 3 cups flour. Stir softened yeast and add to flour-water mixture, mixing well.
Measure 2-2 1/2 cups flour. Add half to the yeast mixture and beat until very smooth. Mix in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Turn mixture onto a lightly floured surface. Allow to rest 5-10 minutes. Knead.

Select a deep bowl just large enough to allow dough to double. Shape dough into a ball and place in greased bowl. Turn dough to bring greased surface to the top. Cover bowl with wzxed paper and towel and let stand in a warm place until doubled, (1 1/2-2 hours).
Punch down. Knead on a lightly floured surface 2 minutes. Divide into 2 balls. Let stand covered 10 minutes.

Roll each ball into a  14x8 inch rectangle. Roll up tightly in a long slender loaf, pinch ends to seal.
Place loaves on lightly greased baking sheet. Cover loosely with a towel ans set aside until doubled. Bake at 450 10 minutes, reduce temerature to 350 and bake 1 hour or until golden brown. To increase crustiness, place a flat pan on bottom of oven and fill with boiling water at beginning of baking period.

This turned out to be one of the best yeast breads I've ever made. The crust was wonderfully crunchy. Definitely a keeper. Definitely. Can you say bread overdose?


Petites Brioches

Soften 1 pkg active dry yeast in 1/4 cup warm water. Let stand 5-10 minutes.
Scald 1/4 cup milk.
Meanwhile put into a large bowl:
3/4 cup soft butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 t salt
Pour scalded milk over and allow to stand until lukewarm.
Mix in 1/2 cup flour thoroughly. Stir softened yeast and add, mixing well.
Beat 1 1/2 cups flour.
Add 3 eggs and 4 egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add about 2 cups flour, beating in, to form soft dough. Beat thoroughly at least 5 minutes. Turn into a deep buttered bowl just large enough to allow dough to double. Brush top surface with melted butter. Cover with waxed paper and a towel. Set aside in a warm place to rise. When doubled, punch down, butter surface, and let rise again. Set in refrigerator 12 hours or overnight. Punch down occasionally as it rises.
Remove from fridge, place dough on lightly floured surface. Shape two thirds into 2 inch balls. Place in buttered muffin pan wells. Form an equal number of small balls from remaining dough. Gently roll into cone shape. Make an impression in center of larger balls, insert tips of cones. These form the "hats". Cover loosely with towel and set aside in warm place until doubled.
Brush lightly with mixture of 1 egg yolk and 1 T milk. Bake 425 for 15-20 minutes.


Since we need something appropriate to mop up with the bread, I flipped thru the book for something to go with and found this recipe. I'm not huge on mushrooms and didn't have any on hand, so I subbed some celery, onion, and red pepper, and added some garlic, pepper, and oregano. I've never made homemade polenta, nor have I ever had any besides those tubes you buy at the store and slice, so I have no idea if this turned out "right." But it did turn out so tasty as a base for this sauce that I have a completely different opinion of polenta now. And a belly so stuffed I need a nap. Four thumbs up for tonight's dinner--France, you have a big challenge ahead of you to match this.

Polenta con Salsiccia
Set out a large, heavy sauce pan.
Prepare 1 lb. Italian sausage. (Cut casing, remove, and crumble sausage with a fork)
Clean and slice 1 lb mushrooms.
Heat 2 T olive oil in skillet and add mushrooms and sausage. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally until mushrooms and sausage are lightly browned. Slowly stir in 2 1/2 cups canned tomatoes, 1 t salt, 1/4 t pepper. Simmer 30 minutes. Meanwhile make polenta.

Polenta
Bring 3 cups water and 1 1/2 t salt to a boil in a saucepan.
Gradually stir in a mixture of 1 cup yellow corn meal and 1 cup cold water.
Boil, stirring constantly, until thickened. Cover, lower heat, and cook slowly 10 minutes or longer. Transfer to a warm platter and top with tomato mixture. Sprinkle with parmesan or romano cheese.

Soupe or zuppa?

I’m trying to remember how old I was when my Dad made his now infamous potato soup. I think my next two siblings were toddlers but the others hadn’t been born. That means it was just me alone with his cooking skills—which might have extended as far as Arabian cooking but certainly had not made the cultural leap yet—actually, based on the matazeez incident in which he tried to poison my grandparents while he was dating my mother, I don’t think they extended that far—when my mom left him in charge of making dinner. Surely she meant to simplify things by suggesting he make potato soup. Maybe she even gave him instructions. I don’t know.

What I do know is that he winged it. Potato soup has to have potatoes so he cut some up in small pieces and boiled them. And boiled them. And boiled them until they jelled. The starch in a potato is a funny thing. It can suck up a lot of water like a sponge and form long sticky ropey molecule chains. This is why it’s good to let your potatoes drain awhile, or even reheat them in the pan a little to dry them off when you are making mashed potatoes. The starch cells can also collapse if handled with any force, like mashing or whipping them really hard in hopes of creating some kind of “creamy” base for the soup. I don’t believe it crossed his mind to use milk, or if it did, it was too late. The casein in milk (and butter) interacts with the potato starch to keep the starch from swelling and forming those long chains. Just try making mashed potatoes without either and see what you get.

As my mother tells the story, when she walked in the door she found us all sitting in silence around the kitchen table. I looked up at her and said, “I hope you’re hungry!” with all the contempt for her neglectful parenting that my preadolescent body could conjure. “What’s for dinner?” she chirruped. I held out my bowl, picked up my spoon, plunged it into the center of the white shimmering mass, and let go. It stood straight upright.

But let’s go back to Italy and France for our cuisine comparison. I love soup, including potato, regardless of any past trauma. Thank goodness my mom didn't tell my dad he should make some little hat soup for dinner. 

.

Cappelletti in Brodo (Little Hat Soup)

Prepare and set aside 2 quarts chicken broth

Combine and set aside:

 ½ cup (about ¼ lb) ricotta or cottage cheese

½ cup finely chopped cooked chicken

2 T grated Parmesan cheese

1 egg, slightly beaten

1/8 t salt

Few grains nutmeg

Few grains pepper

Prepare half recipe of basic noodle dough. Roll about 1/16 inch thick. Cut into rounds with 2 ½ round cookie cutter. Place ½ t cheese-chicken mixture in center of each round of dough. Fold each round in half, covering the mounds of filling. Dampen edges of pasta with water and press together to seal. Bring two extreme ends together. Dampen and press together to seal.

Bring broth to a boil and add pasta. Cook about 20-25 minutes or until pasta is tender. Test by pressing a piece against side of pan with fork or spoon. Serve with broth.

Pasta (Basic Noodle Dough)

Sift into a large bowl:

4 cups flour

¼ t salt

Make a well in the center of flour.

Add 4 eggs, one at a time, mixing slightly after each addition. Gradually add 6 T cold water.

Mix well to make a stiff dough. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead (page 6). Proceed as directed in recipes.

Potage Saint-Germain (Green Pea Soup)

Put into a heavy saucepan:

1 small head lettuce, shredded

2 cups shelled fresh green peas

1 cup water

½ cup chopped green leeks (green part only)

2 T fat

2 t chopped chervil

1 t sugar

1 t salt

¼ t pepper

Bring quickly to boiling and cook until peas are tender. Reserve 3T peas for garnish. Put remaining mixture thru sieve. Return sieved mixture to the pan. Reheat with 2 cups bouillon. Just before serving, blend in 2 cups cream and heat thoroughly. Garnish with reserved peas.

Can't have soup without some great bread, I'll have to do that comparison next time.

French vs. Italian

The Culinary Arts Institute put out both a French and an Italian cookbook in 1954, let's compare:

The French woman certainly is more young and buxom than the Italian one, who even appears a little weary. The interior illustrations only continue the artist's image of young French women full of joie de vivre and Italian matrons full of...well...babies apparently. No wonder she looks sick of rolling out her millionth damn ravioli. What about the recipes, surely the French ones must be easier and less time consuming so our belle femme can get out and enjoy the lights of Paris. Or maybe the Italian ones are easier because this perservering madonna has too many diapers to wash to spend the day over a stove. You decide.

We'll start with hors d'oeuveres versus antipasto.

Bouchees a la Reine (Mouthfuls for the Queen)
Prepare Vol-au-vent shells. (This is puff pastry and while I could write out a recipe here, really, just go get some prepared shells from your grocer's freezer. The book does give a recipe but notes that it takes 9 hours to prepare.)
Prepare and set aside Bechamel sauce
Wipe with a clean damp cloth and cut tips of stems from 3 or 4 medium sized mushrooms. Chop and saute in 1 T butter. Mix with 3-4 T of Bechamel sauce and:
3/4 c finely minced cooked chicken
2 T chopped salted almonds
1 t capers
1/4 t salt
few grains pepper
Reheat baked shells and fill each with about 1 T of the mixture. Top with reserved covers.

Bechamel sauce:
Melt 3 T butter over low heat, stire in 3 T flour, 1/4 t salt, 1/8 t white pepper. Heat until it bubbles, then remove from hear and stir in 3/4 cup cream and 1 T minced onion. Return to heat and bring rapidly to boiling, cook 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly.


Carciofi con Limone (Artichokes in Lemon)
Drain and place in refrigerator to chill 1 jar (13 oz.) artichoke hearts
Meanwhile combine 3 T lemon juice, 2 T olive oil, 1 clove garlic finely chopped, 1/4 t salt, 1/8 t pepper. Chill. When ready to serve, stir lemon-olive oil mixture and pour over artichoke hearts.

Pomodori all' Olio (Tomatoes in Oil)
Wash and remove the stem ends and slit lengthwise 6 plum tomatoes. Set aside.
Combine 3 T olive oil, 1 clove garlic, sliced thin, 1/4 t salt, 1/4 t oregano, 1/8 t pepper.
Pour olive oil mnixture over tomatoes and serve.


Next up: Soup!

Cookie Redo

If you don’t think the order of things matters, just try working at McDonald’s and not following the prescribed pattern of mustard, ketchup, then pickles, and onions on a simple hamburger. It’s not just branding. The mustard doesn’t soak into the bun as readily as the ketchup so it’s less squashy and more juicy in terms of mouth-feel if the condiments are applied in that order, especially if they sit for any period of time. So I feel perfectly justified in saying there is a difference in taste between a frosted cookie and a sandwich cookie made out of the same frosting. There’s the cookie to frosting ratio, but there’s also a difference in what hits your palate first.

I only point this out so I can say I tried 3 ways to save the Jamboree cookies I wrote about previously from sitting around growing stale and slowly being fed to the dog. Frosting them (cream cheese, in case you’re wondering) made for a too sweet yet still bland Not Worth The Calories cookie.

Spreading that same frosting on top and smooshing another cookie upside down on top of it made for a better level of sweetness but still nothing to write home about. I just don’t like the texture. I think it’s the egg in it.

However, frosting them and adding some walnuts on top (also known as Menu Magic!) made the experience of the texture different enough and added an overtone to the taste that rendered them not so bad after all. Okay, that’s not stunning praise. But I could feed them to people without apologizing and I feel smug about my ability to salvage rather than throw away. WW II rationing: bring it on!

My partner was my guinea pig, and completely concurred with my verdict!

Shrimp WTC

Some people see WTC and think World Trade Center. 

I see it and think Worth The Calories, which is kinda how I rank food. Worth the Calories or Not Worth the Calories. Last Friday I went out on an actual date which was a lovely treat, however I made the mistake of not choosing my usual item off the restaurant menu. Isn’t that choice always followed by regret?

In the spirit of adventure, I branched out and tried the Shrimp Diablo, a spicy combination of grilled veggies and shrimp in a tomato-based sauce on angel hair pasta. Or so it said. I can’t say they lied, because there were strips of pepper and zucchini with black marks indicative of some exposure to flame or at least high heat. There were five pieces of shrimp on top of it, and there were tomatoes for sure. I don’t think I’d call it a sauce because that implies doing something to it. This seemed to be a can of diced tomatoes, warmed a little in a microwave and dumped over the top. I’ll even admit to some heat: there was a good amount of cayenne sprinkled around. “Good” in that it made the plate pretty, and that it warmed your mouth plenty without causing searing pain. And yet…and yet this dish had no depth of flavor. The chef managed to achieve spicy and bland at the same time. Perhaps I should applaud that as an achievement itself but I won’t. Sure, I was hungry and I ate it, but ultimately it was Shrimp Placido and NWTC.

The solution? More calories of course! Chocolate cheesecake that was like dense fudge. Thank goodness we split it or I would have needed a trip to the emergency room for insulin, but I would have been happy all the way. Next time I want to be adventurous, I should try something original, like these ideas from Lea and Perrins.

Tempura Shrimp with Hot Sauce

2 lbs jumbo shrimp

Flour

2 eggs, well beaten

¾ c water

Deep fat

Shell shrimp but don’t remove the tails. Slit them down the back. Open out the shrimp and flatten them. Remove the veins. Dip the shrimp in flour. Combine 1 cup flour, eggs, sauce,and water. Beat til smooth. Dip flour-coated shrimp into the batter. Fry in deep fat at 370° for 3-4 minutes until shrimp are firm and crisp. Dip into cocktail sauce and serve with lima bean salad and thinly sliced white radishes.

Hot Cocktail Sauce

1 c chili sauce

Juice of 1 lemon

1 t Worcestershire sauce

1 T horseradish

Combine and chill.

Or maybe:

Scampi with Caper Sauce

1 lb shrimp

¼ c olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1 T Worcestershire sauce

2 T parsley

¼ t oregano

Shell raw shrimp, slit down the back, remove vein, and wash. Drain well. Heat olive oil. Add shrimp and remaining ingredients. Saute over a high flame, stirring constantly until shrimp are golden brown and curled. Serve hot with caper sauce, lemon slices, bread sticks, potato salad, and grilled tomatoes.

Caper Sauce

½ c mayonnaise

1 T lemon juice

2 t Worcestershire sauce

2 T drained capers

Combine all and chill

Cruciferous 'Za

When my mother gave birth to one of my sisters, she shared a hospital room with a very nice woman who also delivered a baby girl the same day. Now it is a fact that a woman’s hormones shift during childbirth in a way that affects her memory, so that she forgets much of the experience. This explains why there are second and third children, etc. Nevertheless, both my mother and her temporary roommate recognized each other years later when two of their other daughters became best friends. Their relationship blossomed and now each holds a place as an honorary gramma to the other’s biological clan. That means an exponential increase at family reunions and holidays along with accompanying recipes. I don’t have the one for her incredible Bok Choy Salad, but here’s the one for summer pizza.

Summer Pizza from Bernie

For 2 jelly roll pans spread 3 to 5 cans of crescent roll dough into the pans. How much you use depends on how thick you want the dough. Create edges up the sides of the pans. Bake 10 to 12 minutes in 350° oven. Put the following mixture on each of the pans. (I usually make two rather than double.)

2 8oz. cream cheese

3/4 cup real mayonnaise

1 T dill weed

1 t garlic salt

Mix and put on cooled crust

Cut up any kind of fresh vegetables you like and put on: green peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, olives, mushrooms, tomatoes, etc, Put grated cheese on top. Refrigerate.

Cookie Fail

Bland-bore--ees

I had higher expectations of the "Jamborees" (above) from 100 Grand National Recipes Collected for You at Pillsbury’s Best 8^th Grand National, 1956, especially since I used a jar of really good homemade peach jam in them. They should be right up my alley, but they came out bland, without the melt in your mouth texture and flavor of shortbread. What I should have made with that jam was these:

Jam Dandy Muffins

Sift together and make a well in the center:

1 2/3 cups flour

2 t baking powder

1 t salt

2/3 cup sugar

Add:

1 egg

½ cup oil

2/3 cup milk

1/3 cup drained crushed pineapple

Mix until all flour is moistened. Drop batter into 12 well-greased large muffin cups. Fill half full. Combine ¼ cup apricot jam and 2 T chopped nuts. Place a teaspoonful on top of each muffin. Bake 400° F for 20-25 minutes until light golden brown. Remove from pans immediately. Serve hot.

Now my quandry is, what do I do with a batch of yucky cookies. I could try filling them with something and turn them into sandwich cookies. I could frost them. I could glue some Menu Magic walnuts to the tops and hope for the best. What seems to be impossible for me is to just throw them away. I hate wasting food and the challenge of salvaging them goes straight to my stubborn streak. Stay tuned.

I’ve still got apples to use up, which means I’m also eyeing this from the same Bake Off:

Apple Skillet Cake

Melt 3 T butter in heavy skillet measuring 10 inches across top. Remove from heat and add 2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar.

Add 3 cups peeled apples, sliced very thin and 1/3 cup raisins.

Sift together:

1 1/3 cup flour

2 t baking powder

½ t salt

Cream:

1/3 cup shortening

¼ sugar

2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

Blend in 2 egg yolks and 1 t vanilla.

Add dry ingredients alternately with 2/3 c undiluted evaporated milk, beginning and ending with dry. Blend thoroughly after each addition.

Beat 2 egg whites until stiff but not dry and fold in.

Pour batter over apples in skillet.

Bake at 350°, 35-40 minutes. Turn out of skillet upside down immediately. Serve warm, plain or with whipped cream.