Women's Work

A Few of My Favorite Things

I had a neighbor growing up, who lived on something like 20 acres, all of it having been citrus groves, and some of it left in citrus. We used to climb up in the orange trees, all dirty and sandy, and pick the oranges, the juice gumming up our fingers as we ate them, and spit the seeds down to the ground. There's no polite way to eat an orange, really, unless you're one of those who cut them up and turn them into juice (and if you are, you are a Heathen). I have a very clear memory of climbing the trees – orange trees aren't very tall, but they're tall if you're 3 or 4 – and sitting up in them, feeling quite Queen of the World. That's favorite food memory number 1.

I just remembered, this evening, for no good reason, only perhaps it reminded me because I was eating peas, eating shepherd's pie when I was in England, at a tavern built in the 1500s. English food was not entirely to my liking (especially the coffee, weak and milky), but I liked feeling as British as eating shepherd's pie in a tavern from the 1500s could make me feel. Especially since we were in Lacock, where they had filmed the BBC version of Pride & Prejudice (the one with Colin Firth).* I was Elizabeth Bennett, only, unfortunately, in jeans, and Mr Darcy was a very, very good-looking Brazilian tourist on the same tour, only in an unfortunate yellow slicker.

A recent delicious food memory was eating Greek mezze (I would call these little dishes tapas) in Washington D.C. at Zaytinya. The culture that gave us tzatziki is tops in my book – yogurt, plus cucumber, garlic, and lemon! I would never have thought of it, but it's brilliant (sorry, a bit of the Brit coming out). They served excellent fresh-baked pita – I didn't know fresh-baked pita has that "poof" to it, making it look as contented and fat as Santa's stomach. And we got broccoli rabe, which is one of my favorites. I like things that are bitter, for whatever reason – any kind of greens, Guinness, coffee. We also ate at a very chichi restaurant in Georgetown (this one I won't name, since I didn't like it), where our dinner cost about what my plane ticket had cost, but I dubbed it Food for the Bored. There was no other reason behind cauliflower mousse served in an egg shell, quail egg, duck served rare (so vile I couldn't eat it all, even at the exorbitant price), and other stuff that I don't like to mention.

I wish I could say I am an excellent chef, but, alas, I am not. I make things that are edible, don't get me wrong, and I'm always trying new things, I'm just not very good at it. I'm not fast, is what I've decided, so that meals that are supposed to take, say, 30 minutes, for me take an hour and a half. It's the chopping that gets me. Chopping an onion on the Food network takes approximately 15 seconds. In this Paula's kitchen, it takes 5 minutes. My favorite cookbooks are from Deborah Madison – Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone & Vegetarian Suppers are the two that I have, and everything I make out of them is delicious.

I've debated which recipe to share with you , and I think I'll go with our recipe for Christmas pie. The pie is not for teetotalers, as the name will tell you. My mother makes it every year at Christmas, because if you ate it any more often you would be a fat lush. A word to the wise: if you cut the recipe in half, it will be a little soupy. Enjoy!

 

BLACK RUSSIAN PIE

(filling for two 9" pie crusts, plus 6 tarts)

**** does not cut in half well ****

6 egg yolks

1 scant C sugar

1 tbsp gelatin

½ C vodka

2 C heavy cream

½ C Kahlua

Chocolate crumb crusts

Whipped cream for garnish

Shaved chocolate for garnish

1. Beat the egg yolks with the scant cup of sugar until thick and lemon-colored.
2. Soak the gelatin in the vodka. First heat a small pan, then add vodka, then gelatin. Stir over hot water until thoroughly dissolved. Make sure the vodka does not become too hot or boil. Gradually add to the egg mixture, stirring.
3. Whip the cream until stiff and fold into the egg mixture. Put the bowl with the mixture into a large container filled with cracked ice. Flavor with Kahlua – gradually add the Kahlua, stirring (folding) thoroughly after each addition. Continue folding the mixture over the cracked ice until it begins to set (20-30 minutes; may not take that long). Turn into pie shells and chill until firm.
4. Garnish with whipped cream and shaved chocolate.

 

*In case you wanted to know, the latest Harry Potter film, Half-Blood Prince, was filmed in Lacock also.

Is your refrigerator running?

Better catch it.

I know, I know, I have sucked at posting for the last two months and I apologize sincerely to our moderators and my fellow bloggers.

This post will be no great shakes either, but I do have a handy tip:

If, two days before a Thanksgiving at which you will be serving 16 people a sit down dinner, you decide to give your refrigerator a much needed cleaning, DO NOT leave the refrigerator door open for the entire hour and 45 minutes it takes to do this.

Not only does it waste energy, it causes said refrigerator to QUIT.

When this happened to me, I immediately called my brother, the appliance guru. I could HEAR his eyes rolling in his head at my stupidity. He told me I need to unplug the offending box, leave it unplugged for 10 minutes then plug it back in. I whined, "UNPLUG it? That means I'll have to MOVE it out of it's little cubbyhole."

Jason had little sympathy. "Well if you know what breaker it is, go flip it off, wait 10 minutes and flip it back on."

I only whined in my head this time, "Breaker! Then I have to go in the basement - spider central. In the dark (it has an outside entrance only). In the cold and rain."

I said, "OK. Thanks! Bye."

He immediately called back. "Actually, your fridge should have an on/off switch inside."

The only "off" switch was for the the thermostat, so I turned it off. Waited 10 minutes and turned it back on. Nothing but the leave swirling outside.

Meanwhile, refrigerated items had been sitting on the counters for over two hours now. Alton Brown would be cussing me, even though it's very cold in my house because I am cheap and don't turn the heat up very high. Still, it's not as cold as the fridge, but then neither was the fridge at this point.

Freaking out, I managed to move the fridge out of it's hole. It was nasty under there. I unplugged the thing, set the timer for 10 minutes and cleaned the floor.

At the DING, I plugged it back in. If it hadn't been so damned cold, I think you could have heard the crickets chirping.

I started hyperventilating at this stage. Yes, I have Darth Fridge in the back bar/secondary kitchen area, but he was already full, too. I was cleaning this main fridge out to make room for stuff I had yet to buy. I forced myself to breathe and start loading the dishwasher with all the science experiments containers  that I had emptied of their mystery foods.

About 15 minutes in, the fridge started up again.

I am not a religious person, but I was thanking every deity I could think of.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

Uncle Murray's Garden

The end of an era has come for my family. Every year we spend many weekends in Canada on Lake Erie. We pack the weekends with swimming, skiing, biking, tubing, swimming, skiing….you get the idea. The town where our cottage sits is fairly busy with revelers, but only in the summer and mostly on the weekends. So there is little need for a full service grocery there. “Nelly’s” has mostly canned goods and other non-perishables, plus liquor, beer and anything you might need with that (limes, ice and chips). Milk we can get, but there’s not a vegetable or fruit in sight.

Lucky for us, we’ve had Uncle Murray. Not only could you always count on Murray (my husband’s uncle) to stop by one of many local farmer’s stands for whatever was in season, but you could also rest easy that Uncle Murray had planted the biggest, most overgrown of garden that you’ve (or at least I’ve) ever seen. There is something about the soil in Turkey Point I guess and definitely something in the crazy way that Murray planted (I know he’d been known to bury dead fish in the soil from time to time) because each year his garden was truly bursting with goodies from early summer on. Rhubarb and lettuce, then radishes, cucumbers and beans. And zucchini and tomatoes. And raspberries and grapes. And herbs, lots of herbs. His garden has always been a bit of a tangle because he packs everything in so close with no real path between rows. This year he had some trouble with rabbits so he enclosed it with a short fence but never put in a gate so you’d have to climb over straight into the tomato plants.

We didn’t always appreciate the garden. It seemed like Murray had a way of over doing the planting and under doing the picking, cleaning and cooking that the produce required. When he did bring something into the house, it would be a zucchini as big as your thigh and he’d remark on how it should probably be eaten within the next day or so, no matter that you already had dinner ½ way done, only 3 people to feed and were leaving the next day. “Murray!” we’d mutter under our breath and then set another plate at the table.

And now Murray is gone. He died two weeks ago, suddenly. And as we push our way through the thick tomato vines, we realize what a gift we had all along. With every bean and every bite of tomato we feel it. Murray wasn’t a demonstrative man by any means but this was the way he loved you. Turns out it was how he connected with most of the neighbors too – numerous people have stopped by in the last 2 weeks to give us their sympathies and almost every one has specifically mentioned his garden and the veggies he would bring to them over the years.

So as one last tribute to Uncle Murray, I am giving you one of the recipes that made the most of everything the garden had to offer. Gazpacho, summer at its best. And for us, Murray’s Garden through and through.

• 4 cups tomato juice
• 1 onion, minced
• 1 green bell pepper, minced
• 1 cucumber, chopped
• 2 cups chopped tomatoes
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste

I like to roughly chop the veggies and add it to a big bowl with the juice and other ingredients. And then I pour about half into a blender and puree it. Add it back in with the rest and see how you like the texture. Some people like a smooth soup, but I like mine to have some chunks. To make it the yummiest, serve with sour cream and homemade croutons (dried bread hunks, swirled around in butter that you melted in a skillet along with several cloves of garlic).

The favorite cake

I don't remember when I started baking, but for years now I have been in charge of baked goods for all family events: birthdays, anniversaries, holidays... In the beginning I experimented with different cakes, but my family quickly found a favorite, that I have made ever since. I still try new things every now and then, but usually as an addition to the favorite cake.

The favorite cake is called Grillage Torte and is actually a specialty of the region I am from. But I don't remember ever having it growing up -- my mother and my grandmothers never made it. I thought the recipe was interesting and just tried it one day, and especially my father was all over it from the start. It definitely was an instant success!

It is not very complicated to make, it just takes quite a bit of time. But I assure you it's worth it!

The measurements are metric, I've converted them to ounces, maybe once day I'll figure out cups. But for now you'll need a scale.

So here is what you would find my family eat in the afternoon at every get-together:

Grillage Torte

Ingredients

6 egg whites
200g (7oz) sugar
80g (3oz) confectioner's sugar
1 tbsp corn starch
80g (3oz) ground hazelnuts

100g (3.5oz) dark chocolate

750ml (25 fl oz) whipping cream
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp rum (optional)

Whip egg whites and sugar until firm and stiff. Mix confectioner's sugar, corn starch and ground hazelnuts and fold into egg whites. Draw three circles with 10 inches diameter on parchment paper. Distribute egg whites evenly between three circles and bake at 230 degrees for 3 hours. Leave oven door open slightly (I usually prop it open with a wooden spoon) so that the meringues can dry. If you don't have a convection oven, rotate the baking sheets every now and then.

Once the meringues have cooled, melt the chocolate and cover the meringues from all sides. Let the chocolate dry.

Whip cream with sugar (and rum if you like) and use to put the cake together. Also cover the top and the side with cream. Freeze for at least 5 hours or overnight.

Take cake out of the freezer about 30 minutes before serving and decorate as you like.

In the summer I usually use fresh berries, in winter it's mainly chocolate, nuts and more cream. Here are two examples:

I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does!

My Good Pasta Salad with notes about My Best Pasta Salad

*Apologies for missing last month.  I am still not sure how I managed to miss the month about fooooood.  FOOD!  Geeze.  Luckily, I was smart enough not to miss the last day to play in Food Part 2.

Pasta salad can be one of the most boring sides.  I never pick it at bbq's or restaurants when there are other options.  And grocery store pre-packed pasta salad is beyond dull.

I have managed to find a beautiful alternative to this ho-hum dish.   Over the last ten years or so I have been making and tweaking and re-tweaking until I have finally settled upon two versions.

I make Good Pasta Salad for big parties and small gaterings.  It's both tasty and affordable.

If I'm making it just for me or for a very small group, I make My Best Pasta Salad.  It is delicious and about the same price as the Good Pasta Salad, there's just less of it.

I'm going to a BBQ at some friends' house later this afternoon.  So I made the Good Pasta Salad.  I'm going to put the ingredient differences for the Best version (in parenthesis.)

My Good Pasta Salad (My Best Pasta Salad)

2 bags of garden rotini pasta (1 bag of garden rotini pasta)
1 block of cheddar cheese diced (1 block of your favorite gourmet cheese.  Mine is white Irish cheddar.)
1 very large or 2 small to medium bell peppers, any variety, diced (1 medium red or gold bell pepper)
1 red onion diced (Onion of your choice, diced.  I've also added chives and scallions with good success.)
1 package Oscar Meyer bacon pieces (Your very favorite fresh bacon, fried and then chopped into pieces. About six slices. More if you like.)
1 bottle of Kraft Bacon Ranch (Paul Newman's Ranch.  Or Briannas.  Or other gourmet ranch of your choice.  I sometimes will also add a quarter cup of mayo for the extra bit of creamy.)
(1 can of all white meat chicken)
(Thinly sliced radishes)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Boil pasta and rinse until cold.  Refrigerate.
Dice veggies and cheese.
Mix veggies and cheese into cooled pasta.  Season with salt and pepper.  Mix in dressing.  (Mix in chicken, radishes and any other fresh veggies you thought might go well.)  Done.

I have found that this recipe for My Good Pasta Salad makes more than enough to take to a medium-sized party (think 15-20 people.)  So what I do, is take 1/4 of the pasta and put it in a separate bowl from the beginning and make some to keep at home.  I then add a little more of this and little less of that, depending on my mood.

You have to eat a small bowl immediately, of course.  But the rest keeps in the fridge very well for the whole week.

And now I can't wait until it's gone so I can start thinking about making My Best Pasta Salad just for me.

Birthday Cake

I love food and I love to cook.  I like recipes with very detailed instructions, but I hate writing down all those instructuons. This is my recipe for layer cake, the official birthday cake for my daughter, my husband, and me.  I have been using this recipe since I was about ten, and this all I have written down:

Layer Cake

2/3 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 cups self-rising flour

3 eggs

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Bake at 350 degrees

Now for those unwritten directions:  Beat softened (unsalted ) butter and sugar until smooth.  Add eggs one at a time.  Beat in flour.  Add milk ( anything from skim to half evaporated milk and half water ) and vanilla ( pure vanilla extract only ).  Pour batter into 2 greased and floured 9 inch cake pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.  Remove from pans and cool layers on racks.  Ice layers with your favorite icing or try mine.  My mother, who seldom uses recipes, taught me to make this.  There is no written recipe and the measurements are not precise, but I'll try.

Chocolate Icing

1/3 cup softened butter

1 box ( plus some ) powdered sugar

cocoa powder

2 squares unsweetened dark chocolate (melted )  I added this because I don't think cocoa is as rich as it used to be

evaporated milk (not skim)

Beat butter and cocoa together until smooth, adding milk as needed.  Add melted chocolate,  beat til smooth.  Add cocoa until you like the way the icing tastes.  Keep adding milk til the icing is of spreading consistency.  If its gets too thin, add more powdered sugar.  Too thick, more milk.  It really is trial and error, but it is delicious !

Aunt Nettie's Chicken Casserole

Yes, yes, we're all supposed to be healthy and and conscious of nutrition and avoid too much butter and salt and processed foods.  And anything with the word "casserole" in the title isn't a particularly good candidate.  (Go on.  'Fess up.  You love that broccoli casserole with oodles of cheese and buttery breadcrumbs on top.)  But with fall approaching, don't you find your soul craving something warm and substantial and, well, BUTTERY? 

Then try this.  It's my (Great) Aunt Nettie's chicken casserole.  If it looks a little labor intensive, don't worry, I'll give you a couple of short-cuts after the recipe.

Aunt Nettie's Chicken Casserole

• 1 large fryer (that's a chicken, Laura)
• 1 package egg noodles (the short, broad kind)
• 1 8-oz. package sour cream
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 stick melted butter
• 5 or 6 slices bread (white)

Cook chicken till tender and remove from broth. Cook noodles in broth until tender. Remove chicken from bone and cut in small pieces. Mix chicken, noodles, soups and sour cream. Salt and pepper to taste. Put in casserole and crumble bread on top. Pour butter over bread crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees until brown.

NOW.  A rotisserie chicken will save you the work of boiling that fryer.  And a box of organic chicken broth will be lovely for boiling the noodles.  But you don't want to use boxed breadcrumbs or packaged croutons, and you don't want to use whole wheat bread.  (Pepperidge Farm makes a nice white bread that isn't wonder-bread-y.) Trust me, the combination of white bread and butter, cooked till crispy on top, is sublime.  And, needless to say, if I catch you using margerine in this, I'm gonna come over with my frying pan and give you a good framming.

Enjoy!

Food, Glorious Food, Part Deux

So here we go again. I feel like I've been writing about food all month.  I don't really have a favorite food, although shrimp is probably the closest to being the top choice.  What I have is favorite food groups.  I don't think I've ever met a bread that I didn't like.  I am also a confirmed and unashamed carnivore.  Put a nice juicy steak or a slab of venison on my plate and I'm in seventh heaven. In fact I'm so carnivorous that my Thanksgiving turkey is stuffed with a meat stuffing with, I always hope, enough left over to make meat pies.
Pasta is also a favorite, if only for its versatility.  I'm not so impressed with veggies although I seem to like them more the older I get.  Maybe I'm finally growing up?

So, if I'm not giving out favorite food recipes what am I giving?  Well, what I have to offer are two recipes that I've been cooking for years, One because it's not only good but can also be played with and customized so to speak and the other because it's easy and can be done ahead of time.                        

First my tomato sauce recipe:

1 large (28-32oz.) tomatoes   
2 cans (6 oz.) tomato paste                                                                                                                   
12 oz. of water
3 heaping TBSP Parmesan cheese
3 cloves garlic minced   
parsley
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
salt & pepper to taste
Puree tomatoes in blender add all the other ingredients and simmer for 2-3 hours.

I realize everyone has their own favorite sauce recipe but what I like about this one is that it can be played with. Like your sauce chunky? Break up the tomatoes instead of using the blender.  Want a sweeter sauce ?  Toss in a little sugar or some onions. Want to spice it up?  Add fennel,oregano, basil, rosemary or whatever your little heart desires. 

I got the second recipe from, of all places, the little newsletter that came with the diaper service delivery. Since you put it together the night before and stick it in the oven next morning this has been our Christmas breakfast for years. Put it in the oven when you get up and food is ready by the time you've finished tearing into the presents

Breakfast Casserole
1 lb. sausage, crumble cooked and drained
6 eggs beaten
2 cups milk
2 slices white bread, crumbled
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. salt 1 cup sharp cheese
Combine all ingredients and pour into 9x12 Pyrex casserole and refrigerate overnight. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes testing at 30. Casserole is done when knife comes out clean.  Serves 6.   

I know these aren't really exotic or impressive recipes but as I said, they have been part of my food life for years and I hope that if you try them you will enjoy them.  Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go figure out what I'm going to give them for dinner tonight.

Vegan crockpot chili

As Orthodox Christians, my husband and I have to readjust our diet several times a year to accomdate the rather severe fasting restrictions that we have to follow during Lent, the pre-Christmas fast, and just about every Wednesday and Friday. Technically, Orthodox fasting rules prohibit all animal products (meat, eggs, dairy; I think honey is an exception) and oil, but it’s really about eating more simply and refocusing on food as something needed for sustenance rather than an idol to be turned to for comfort, celebration, or any other reason.

But, of course, seven weeks of Lent is a long time to go without anything at all tasty, and we don’t want to devote all our time to cooking or meal-planning, so we came up with a few rather simple recipes that we dish out during that time. One of our favorites is vegan crockpot chili. It is spicy and filling, so that you barely realize that you’re missing anything. It’s nourishing and hot and nutritious. And, importantly, it’s quick and easy to prepare and easily modified to ingredients available to you - a must for an absent-minded cook like me.
 

VEGAN CROCKPOT CHILI:

 Ingredients:

 -2 14oz cans of diced tomatoes

-1 8oz can tomato sauce

-most of a 12oz jar of salsa (Chichi’s hot is what we use)

-1 lb any beans you have on hand, canned or dry

-4 small raw potatoes, peeled, diced

-1 cup water

-4 cloves garlic, minced

-a pinch of garlic salt

-pinch cumin

-pinch cayenne pepper

-pinch black pepper

-pinch cinnamon

-pinch crushed chilis

Peel and dice potatoes. Throw all ingredients into crockpot and cook on low for 12 hrs.

You can use more or less potatoes and beans. You can add frozen or canned corn or peas or greenbeans or broccoli or whatever else you like. You can use tomato or V8 juice instead of water. You can use fresh tomatoes (especially if using V8). Don’t like that much garlic? Add less. Don’t like it spicy? Use mild salsa. Throw everything into the crockpot in the morning, and you’ve got a tasty meal at night, especially if paired with fresh-baked bread.

Travel Food Adventures

This is not the requested post with recipes.  We've just come back from 14 days in the Baltic and I thought people might be interested in heating about some of the food we ran into. If you're not interested, just ignore me.  I promise there will be recipes later in the month.

We started off in Denmark, Copenhagen to be exact, where we found that they serve capers with almost everything.  Every plate of food I had there (except breakfast) was garnished with capers.  And I'm not talking about the little round things you find here.  Those were there too but the capers I'm talking about looked sort of like a cross between a fig and a jalapeno (sp?) pepper.  Very interesting and quite tasty.

We really didn't get to sample much in the way of Russian cooking.  The problem with Russia is that if you want to go anywhere by yourself i.e. other than part of a sanctioned tour group like the ones arranged by the cruise line, you need a visa.  For the two of us this would have cost over $500 so we skipped it.  We were fed lunch on one of our tours but it was really boring, cabbage soup and beef with boiled vegetables.  We did get caviar and wine at one thing we went to so it wasn't a dead loss.

Estonian cooking was very interesting.  It's quite a mixture of influences since Estonia has been under the thumb of so many other nations.  Other than that it is very much what I think off as peasant cooking, with a lot of reliance on root vegetables and meats that would be common in an agricultural setting.  A lot of pork and sausages, including the only time I think I've ever seen blood sausage on a menu.  Estonians seem to be really into garlic. In fact we saw one restaurant called The Garlic Restaurant.  When you get garlic bread there, it's black bread that's been rubbed with garlic then fried and it is served with additional cloves of garlic.  And for those of you who are into mustard, theirs is fantastic, very hot and full-bodied.  The dish I had for lunch was called Old Witch's Casserole (I thought it was a good fit) which was a combination of mashed potatoes, onions, mushrooms and cheese. You can see what I mean about peasant cooking and stretching what you have.  It was delicious and the portion was very large. In fact, for any of you who ever go there, if the menu lists small dishes and large dishes, order the small dishes unless you're absolutely famished.  We had spent the whole morning walking around Tallinn and I still couldn't finish my lunch.

Finnish food was a lot like Estonian, only with more variety.  We had an absolutely delicious buffet lunch at a restaurant called Krapi Hovi, a converted farm house half way between Helsinki and The Jean Sibelius house.  I had a savory carrot pie there that I'm trying to find the recipe for. If I do I'll send it along.

And of course, everywhere we went the local breads (my weakness) were absolutely fantastic.

The food on board ship was very good but to me the food high point of the trip was trying all the local cooking. Now all I have to do is get use to eating my own cooking.  More to the point, get back to doing my own cooking.  Two weeks off kitchen duty can certainly spoil you.