Date I made this recipe:
New Year's Day, 2017 – Breakfast and Dinner
Beat This! Cookbook –
Absolutely Unbeatable Knock-'em-Dead Recipes for the Very Best Dishes by
Ann Hodgman
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
ISBN: 978-0-547-43700-2;
© 2011
Purchased at Powell's
Chicago
Recipe: Savory Bread
Pudding – p. 44-45
Italian Family
Cooking by Edward Giobbi, with an Introduction by Craig Caliborne
Published by Vintage Books, a division of Random House
© 1971
Purchased at Arc's Value Village
Thrift Stores – Richfield ,
MN
Recipe: Lentil Soup ("Minestrone Di
Lenticchie") – p. 21
Oh my gosh, if you have to start a day and a new year with a
dish, the Savory Bread Pudding is the
way to go. It was easy to make and
delicious! And to think it was sort of a
last minute "Oh what the heck, let me look at this cookbook" decision. I love it when I get it right like this.
And the Lentil Soup
was a great way to close the day, a day filled with football, but most
importantly, Green Bay Packers playoff
football. My boys in green and gold
prevailed and I was a happy, if not tired, camper. And I would have said both recipes were
"home runs" but as we are not in baseball season, I have to go with
the flow and instead dub them "touchdowns." I love [Packers]
touchdowns!
Now I've mentioned before that the great thing about having
so many cookbooks is also the worst thing about having so many cookbooks: indecision.
And when it comes to major holidays, especially Thanksgiving and
Christmas, there are so many avenues I could take, so many holiday-themed
cookbooks to peruse, that I am often paralyzed just by staring at my
shelves. "Where should I go? What shall I do" is just not for
Scarlett O'Hara anymore!
But then this year, I nailed my cookbooks and recipe
selections pretty much in one fell swoop and well – how did that happen? Answer:
somewhat easily for once!
Most of you probably know that on New Year's Day, there are
"lucky foods" – foods that will bring you luck in the coming year -
and "unlucky" foods, and even though I was pretty sure I was on track
for good luck, it didn't hurt to double-check via the internet.
Lucky foods to start off the new year are pork (for eating
"high on the hog"), cornbread, legumes including black eyed peas or
lentils, and, if you are Spanish, grapes.
Apparently, if a Spaniard can eat 12 grapes every time the clock strikes
at midnight (i.e. 12 times), good luck will come to that person. But as you might imagine, this is hard to do,
and since I didn't want to start the new year off by choking to death at my own
hand, that custom went out the window.
As did eating black-eyed peas
because try as I might (and I have tried), they do not float my Midwest boat.
So those are some of the lucky foods. Unlucky foods, and this may crack you up, are
lobsters and chicken. Why? Because chickens can fly away and with it
apparently, your luck! Also, they
scratch backwards and New Year's Day is all about going forward so have those
buffalo wings on New Year's Eve and then forget about it! And since lobsters can also "walk"
backwards, they too, are out for New Year's day so best to stuff yourselves on
lobster tails the night before.
Also out?
"White" food. This is
an Asian belief as white signifies death in that culture. So does it count that
my breakfast dish had "white" bread and "white cheese," and
eggs containing egg whites? Am I okay by
adding greens (sign of money???) and sun dried tomatoes? It's unclear.
Also unclear is whether or not the egg from the verboten chicken started
my day off on the wrong foot. I'm going
with "no."
But even if the answer was "yes," I offset the
whole curse by ending the day with my lucky lentils in the form of [Lucky] Lentil Soup. And since I knew lentils to be lucky, all I
had to do was consult one of my many Italian cookbooks for a recipe and "ecco"
(Italian for "There you go!"), there was Edward Giobbi's recipe just
waiting for me to make it and so I did and it was good. And as mentioned, my breakfast dish was also
good which was nice seeing as how I decided on a breakfast recipe at the very
last minute.
So let's break down these cookbooks and recipes, starting
with Ann Hodgman's Beat This! You should know she also wrote Beat That! and I have that book as well
but didn't find anything to make this time around. And I have to confess that I found her Savory Bread Pudding recipe right off
the bat and so didn't spend much time looking at the rest of the book, but if
you do, here's what you'll find:
"Drinks;" "Hors D' Oeuvres;" "Soups;"
"Salads and Dressings;" "Main Dishes;" "Sauces and
Accompaniments;" Side Dishes;" "Show-Off Staples;"
"Breads and Breakfasts," and "Desserts."
A few observations:
There is only one "Beverage" listed and it's for a Coquito – a Coconut Eggnog. Well yumm-y! And it has rum in it? Sign me up!
The next category is "Hors D' Oeuvres," and look, I know its
much more fancy to use the French word for "appetizers," but for the
love of "Michel" (Mike) folks, I never, ever spell it right and so
can we just all agree to use the word "appetizers" for cookbooks and
"hors d' oeuvres" while out at cocktail parties when we want to sound
all lofty and impressive? We can? Good!
Also, I think I absolutely need to to try the
"Slow-Cooker Caramelized Onion recipe (p. 59) under "Show-Off
Staples" as that sounds delicious plus you can freeze them which is good
otherwise. I'd be tempted to eat the entire quart all by myself. Like ice cream. Only not.
Finally, the author must have a sweet tooth because there
are more desserts in this book than there are other dishes and although
tempting, I was in a breakfast kind of mood.
And the dish was good. And it
called for bacon and not that there is ever anything wrong with bacon, but I
substituted prosciutto for the bacon and man, oh man – winner, winner, chicken
dinner! Plus, the prosciutto + sun dried
tomatoes + cheese made it a tad more Italian in flavor and that fit perfectly
with the Italian lentil soup I made from the Italian Family Cookbook by Edward Giobbi.
I can't recall just when I became aware of author Edward
Giobbi and his daughter, Eugenia Bone, but methinks it was probably in the way,
way back from an article in a cooking magazine, perhaps Gourmet, but more likely, Saveur. At any rate, his stuff is great, his recipes,
simple and tasty, and also familiar to me; his lentil soup recipe is similar to
other Italian concoctions I've made in the past.
This cookbook (introduction by the late Craig Claiborne) is broken out by "Antipasti;"
"Soups;" "Pasta and Rice;" "Salads;"
"Eggs;" "Fish;" "Poultry and Game;"
"Meats;" "Vegetables;" "Sauces;" and
"Breads, Pizzas and Desserts."
And I have to give Edward credit in that he includes a
"Feast of the Seven Fishes" menu for Christmas Eve even though
there's not a chance in hell I would purchase and cook that much fish for just
two people. Plus, one of the dishes
includes "Smelt." If you've
never had smelt, and sadly, I have, the only thing fun about smelt is catching
it when the "smelt are running."
When that happens, you can pretty much dip a net in the river and come
up with a huge haul. But smelt are full of bones and cleaning them is a
nightmare and eating them is as well (to me).
You should also prepare yourself not to be startled by a
recipe for "Baccala with Rape."
The word "rape" here is an Italian green, leafy vegetable and
"baccala" is the word for cod.
I'm not exactly sure how "rape" (the veg) is pronounced, but
it's either "Rah-pay" or "rah-puh". (Similarly, my last
name is "Verme" but the "e" is not pronounced here in America and if
it is, it's more like "Verm-uh," not Verme-"ee" as most
people think. Anyway, it's complicated!)
If you want to make this recipe (p. 104-105) and you can't find Italian "rape"
(or "rapa" or "rabe"), use another green such as Swiss chard,
mustard greens, etc.
In conclusion, the lentil soup was great (I substituted
bacon for salt pork), the breakfast was killer and so does this bode well for
the rest of 2017? I think it does!
Savory Bread Pudding –
Serves 4 to 6 – from Beat This!
(Ann's Note: you need to soak the sun-dried tomatoes for
20 minutes before preparing this dish.)
½ cup chicken stock
½ cup sun-dried tomatoes (not packed in oil), finely sliced
(Ann's Note: Trader
Joe's sells these in a resealable bag)
1 cup milk
½ cup heavy cream
5 large eggs
½ teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
6 slices bacon (Ann's
Note: I substituted prosciutto and
it was fabulous. You'll need to add a
little oil to the pan though, before cooking the shallots.)
4 shallots, chopped
7 ounces arugula or baby spinach
1 1-pound loaf crusty bread – peasant, focaccia, sourdough
or Italian – cut into bite-size cubes
4 ounces Gruyere, coarsely grated
2 ounces Parmesan, freshly grated
Preheat oven to 400F, with a rack in the middle. Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish or a
shallow 2-quart ramekin-type dish.
Bring the chicken stock to a boil and stir in the sun-dried
tomatoes. Remove from heat and let them
sit for 20 minutes, until softened.
In a large bowl, beat the milk, cream, eggs and seasonings.
In a large, heavy skillet, cook the bacon, turning once,
until crisp. Drain it on paper towels,
then crumble it. Pour away all but 2
tablespoons of the bacon grease from the skillet. Add the shallots and cook them, stirring,
until they're beginning to brown, about 6 minutes. Add the arugula or spinach. Cook, stirring frequently, until the greens
wilt. Let the mixture cool
slightly. (Ann's Note: add the bacon to
this mixture. *See below for more notes
about the bacon.)
In a large bow, toss together the bread cubes, the arugula
mixture, the milk mixture, the sun-dried tomatoes and their liquid and the
Gruyere. Pack this mixture into the
baking dish and sprinkle the Parmesan over it.
Cover the dish with foil and bake it for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for about 15 more
minutes, or until golden brown.
Ann's Note: Reader, please scan the above paragraphs
carefully. Do you see her tell you to
add the bacon anywhere once you removed it from the pan and crumbled it? No, you do not. But the way it reads i.e. "crumble
it," suggests that she intends you to put it somewhere in the dish
otherwise, she'd tell you to throw it out.
So I made an executive decision and added it back to the pan after
cooking the shallots and greens. And I
still stand by my other executive decision to substitute prosciutto for bacon!
Lentil Soup
(Minestrone Di Lenticchie) – serves 4 – from Italian Family Cooking
½ cup lentils
½ carrot, chopped
1 whole clove garlic
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons chopped tomato
Pinch of oregano
1 slice salt pork, about 3 inches long and 1 inch wide
(Ann's Note: substituted bacon)
3 cups water (Ann's
Note: nope, more like 5-6)
1 small potato, diced
1 teaspoon chopped parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese
Put all ingredients except potato, parsley and cheese in
soup pot. Cook gently for 1 ½
hours. Add potatoes and when they are
tender, remove salt pork and garlic.
Serve hot, sprinkled with parsley and grated cheese, to 4.
Ann's Note: "Serve hot...to 4" means it serves four people. This is a most awkward way to list the
serving amount but except for the first couple recipes, this is what you'll
find in the rest of the book.
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