"Rachael Ray Top 30 30-Minute Meals - Guy Food" - Triple-A Pasta: Spinach Pasta with Asparagus, Artichoke, and Arugula - Father's Day 2017

Date I made this recipe:  June 18, 2017 – Father's Day

Rachael Ray Top 30 30-Minute Meals – Guy Food by Rachael Ray

Published by Lake Isle Press, Inc.

© 2005

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Stores, Richfield, MN

Recipe:  Triple-A Pasta:  Spinach Pasta with Asparagus, Artichoke, and Arugula – p. 30-31

So today is Father's Day and I thought I was all set and ready to go with a recipe from this Rachael Ray cookbook, Guy Food, when I changed my mind and made something else instead.

Note to self:  Should have stuck with the original plan, Stan!

When I bought this cookbook, I flagged the recipe for "Outside-In Bacon Cheeseburgers with Green Onion Mayo."  My dad loved rare burgers and steaks and this was not a rare burger.  Still, I though this was something he would have enjoyed so I put the book aside and then was all set to prepare a shopping list when I hesitated and as the saying goes "(S)He who hesitates is lost."

Translation:  I made a boo-boo. 

Andy and I have inadvertently been consuming a lot of meat lately and I thought I should perhaps lighten things up just this once, particularly since I made a beef stew the day before.  And so I veered instead toward the pasta recipe, especially since it contained asparagus; my dad loved asparagus.

And it was "fine" as in "nothing to write home to father about" and this bummed me out.  Further, this is not what I am used to with a Rachael Ray recipe.  Yes, the gal's perkiness drives me up the wall, but her recipes have usually been spot on.  This one leaned toward being bland. I don't "do" bland.  Worse, the lemon zest took over the dish and so all we tasted was lemon which was not a bad flavor but not what I expected.   Frankly, the entire time I was making it, I wanted to kick it up a notch with something but as always, made the recipe as written and then pondered options thereafter.

Options 1:  some red pepper flakes.  Options 2: other Italian spices that would go well with asparagus, arugula and artichokes.  Option 3:  I briefly contemplated using fresh artichokes but didn't because I've never made them before and they take some time to prep.  Frankly, I don't think the [canned] artichokes did much for the recipe.  Option 4: add some poached chicken breasts.  Option 5: load it up with some shredded Parmesan cheese?

That day, I went with Option 5 plus I added more salt and pepper and that brought the flavor up a bit (as did overnight refrigeration of the leftovers) but harrumph, I still want more from this dish like maybe an Alfredo sauce.  Or maybe more white wine?  Couldn't hurt, might help!

Now the burger (which I stupidly passed up) was not the only item of interest as there were recipes for "Manly Manny's Chili," "Blackened Chicken Pizza," "Grilled Mahi-Mahi Fillets," and "Tenderloin Steaks with Gorgonzola," all of which sounded good but since I had decided to reroute with the pasta, pasta it was.  Like I said, it wasn't bad but I think there's some tweaking to be done to turn this from just "meh" into "mah-ve-lous!"

As to next year's Father's Day, I'm going back to meat, final answer!

Triple-A Pasta:  Spinach Pasta with Asparagus, Artichoke, and Arugula – serves 4

12 ounces spinach fettuccine, dried or fresh, cooked until al dente

Extra-virgin olive oil, a drizzle

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 large or 2 medium shallots, finely chopped

½ cup white wine

1 pound thin fresh asparagus spears, trimmed and cut on angle into bite-size pieces

1 cup broth, chicken or vegetable

1 can (14 ounces) artichoke hearts in water, drained and chopped

24 leaves fresh arugula, torn or coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons zest from 1 large lemon (grate skin, not the white part)

Coarse salt and black pepper, to taste

A handful chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, to garnish

Drain pasta well and drizzle with oil to keep from sticking.  Set aside.

Heat a large, deep skillet over medium heat.  Add butter and olive oil to pan and heat until butter is melted.  Add shallots and sauté, 3 minutes.  Add wine and reduce liquid by half, about 2 minutes more.  Add asparagus bits, cover, and cook, 3 or 4 minutes.  Then uncover, adding broth and artichokes to pan.  Heat artichokes through and add cooked pasta.  Sprinkle with arugula.  Toss ingredients until arugula wilts.  Season with lemon zest, salt and pepper, and parsley, to taste.

Serve immediately with crusty bread.  Fresh sliced melon makes a simple and wonderful accompaniment to this meal.

"A Man's Whirled - Every Guy's Guide to Cooking with a Blender" - Uncle Gino's Chicken Cacciatore - for Father's Day!

Date I made this recipe:  June 19, 2016 – Father's Day

A Man's Whirled – Every Guy's Guide to Cooking with a Blender by Chris Peterson

Published by:  Simon & Schuster Paperbacks

ISBN:  13: 978-0-7432-7023-6; © 2005

Purchased at Powell's Chicago

Recipe: Uncle Gino's Chicken Cacciatore – P. 78

How timely.  My dad was a great cook and chicken cacciatore was one of his favorite recipes to make and so I present to you, this year's Father Day dinner selection!  ("And the crowd goes wild...")

When I acquired this book last year, I made a note in my calendar to use it on Father's Day.  And then a few weeks ago, when I was looking through it to select a recipe, there it was:  Uncle Gino's Lou Verme's (my dad's) Chicken Cacciatore.  How cosmic!

Except for a few minor differences, this was almost an exact duplicate of my dad's recipe.  My dad used celery, onions, green pepper and canned tomatoes, just like this recipe, but also added peeled potatoes and carrots.  And it seems to me he par-boiled all the vegetables for a bit before adding them to the roaster.  And he added also a few (secret) spices to his canned tomatoes although I don't think thyme was one of them before putting in the chicken and tomatoes.  Although he passed on adding Marsala or similar liquid ingredient to the dish, he sometimes enjoyed a glass of red wine with dinner so I think that counts.

This recipe was one of many in my dad's "go-to" repertoire of culinary delights.  Every weekend, we looked forward to his scrambled eggs and bacon and his doctored-up pancakes.  He was a master of the grill and the broiler and his barbecued chicken (grilled on a tiny Hibachi grill) and his steaks under the broiler (for mere seconds or he considered them ruined) were fabulous. 

In early years, he made a fantastic pasta fagioli (pasta "fa-jewel-eh") (beans and pasta) and in later years, linguine and clam sauce.  He was always – always – in charge of draining the pasta and serving it up to our family of four.  There was never a time when the plate wasn't heaping with too much pasta and yet he always encouraged us to "finish it [the food] up."

That said, he, like most men of his time, left the heavy lifting to the women and so didn't really operate any of the appliances or do the dishes (this is what dishwashers are for!) and so I cannot recall a time he used our blender although maybe he got sneaky and did so after I left home?

Luckily, this cookbook author, Chris Peterson, has it going on.  This book is subtitled "Every Guy's Guide to Cooking with a Blender" which suggests to me that this guy knows a thing or two about kitchen appliances.  The title alone though, is what sold me:  A Man's Whirled, a play on the song "It's a Mans Man's Man's World" by the late, great James Brown.  I often buy cookbooks based on the title and this one had me at "hello."

The recipes in this book range from soup to nuts and all of them are made in whole or in part in the blender.  The cacciatore recipe requires you to blend the vegetables before adding them to the pan but since I don't have a blender, I used my Cuisinart to the same effect.

The only downside of this recipe, and it is not a downside of the recipe itself, is that the temperature rose to a mighty hefty 92 degrees on Father's Day and I was not about to pre-bake the chicken at 350F for forty five minutes as directed.  Nope.  Not even for a minute, never mind 44 more of them, and not even in the memory of my beloved papa.  So I made recipe the day after Father's Day and made it during the day when it was not yet hot out and it worked out great.

As to other incredible edibles in this book, here are some of the chapter headings:  "Game Day Grub;" "Date Food;" "Mom's Best;" "Party Favors;" "Feel-Better Food" and "Sweet Treats."  Most of the recipes sounded really good and I actually had a couple others in mind before settling on the cacciatore.  And because my dad was a hunter, we often had other types of birds in the cacciatore, mostly notably, Ruffed Grouse (which tastes like chicken...well, chicken minus  a stray buckshot or two) so if you need to or want to adapt this, go ahead.  After all, "Chicken Cacciatore" translates from Italian to "Hunter's Stew" so you'd be right on point.  (By the way, I've mentioned in other blogs that my dad was 1^st generation Sicilian-American so it was fitting that this was one of his specialties.)

So Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there.  As my dad would say, as he called us to the table, "A mangia" (which our family pronounced "Ah mahn-jaa") – Let's eat!

Uncle Gino's Chicken Cacciatore – makes 2 full-meal servings

What You Need

2 large chicken breasts, bone in (about 2 pounds)

½ cup olive oil (divided)

1 teaspoon salt

6 cloves garlic

1 medium yellow onion

1 small green bell pepper

1 small red bell pepper

1 stalk celery

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon thyme

¼ cup Marsala (Ann's Note:  you can also substitute sherry or port or brandy)

1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes

What You Do -- (Ann's Note:  This is not only a directive on how to cook it but also my Sicilian grandmother's question when she wanted to know what we were up do/doing at the moment:  "What you do?"  Makes me chuckle to think about it—so cute!)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Saturate the breasts with ¼ cup olive oil (Ann's Note:  reserve the remaining ¼ cup for later).  Sprinkle with salt and fresh-ground pepper, and rub into the breasts.  Put the breasts into a baking pan and bake for 45 minutes.  (Ann's Note:  I put the breasts in breast side down.)

Peel garlic and onion.  Chop coarsely and combine in blender with remaining olive oil.  Blend on medium for five 3-second bursts, or until well chopped.  Empty blender into large saucepan.

Seed bell peppers and cut off ends of celery stalk.  Chop into coarse pieces.  Blend each color pepper and celery on their own.  Blend for two to three 2-second bursts, or until the vegetables are coarsely chopped.

Put baked chicken breasts into saucepan and cook on high.  Sauté for 5 minutes, or until garlic begins to brown.  Add vegetables and oregano and thyme.

Add Marsala and bring to a boil.  Reduce to simmer and add tomatoes.

Simmer for 1 ½ to 2 hours, adding water if sauce becomes too thick.  Turn chicken after 45 minutes.  Serve with small side of spaghetti covered with some of the cacciatore sauce. Ann's Note:  In NJ and NY Italian restaurants, it is usual and customary to see [a small side of] pasta listed along with your potato choices that accompany meat and poultry entrees.  If I don't see it, I always ask for one and it is provided, no questions asked.  Gotta have my pasta with my meat, don't you know!

Good Guy Advice [from the author]:  If you have to blend a lot of vegetables to a coarse consistency, take this shortcut.  Put the vegetables in the blender canister and fill to just above their level with cold water.  Blend as necessary to chop the vegetables, then drain the water.

"Flavors of Italy - Sicily" and "Made In Sicily" - "deconstructed" Lasagna and Blood Orange Jelly (Jell-O) for Father's Day

Date I made these recipes:  Sunday, June 28, 2015 – a belated Father's Day repast

Flavors of Italy – Sicily by Mariapaola Dettore

Published by: Time Life Books

ISBN:  0-7370-0012-0

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Stores

Recipe:  Lasagni a Palermitana – Pappardelle Palermo-Style – p. 30

Made in Sicily by Giorgio Locatelli with Sheila Keating

Published by:  Ecco – An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

ISBN:  978-0-06-213037-2

Recipe:  Gelatina di arance sang-sang – Blood Orange Jelly – p. 377

As often happens, Father's Day and other holidays, fall on days when I have something planned that prevents me from making dinner on that exact day.  This year, the first day of summer fell on Father's Day as well making for a double angst moment.  Luckily, cookbooks and their recipes, keep for a long time without spoiling!

This Father's Day, my husband and I spent the afternoon watching bicycle races in the nearby town of Stillwater.  This pro racing series comes to town at this time every year and we often take in several events over the course of the weekend.  But the one in Stillwater, the last day of the North Star Bike Festival (formerly Nature Valley), is very cool because all the bikers – pro women, elite amateurs and pro men (and this year one pro woman raced with the men – woot!), have to ride up this killer hill in Stillwater – Chilkoot Hill (18% grade) 22 times over the course of the course.  Every year we go, we walk up that hill maybe 4 times max, never mind riding up it = whataminuts?

Well that was all very exciting and I could not help but think of my dad that day because one of our family's favorite movies is Breaking Away, about a young man who is obsessed with Italian bike racing and so talks his friends into forming a team – The Cutters – so they can compete against the Italians when a bike race comes to town.  This movie is just so cute and so funny and we just hooted when we watched it.  The best thing about this movie though, is seeing Dave, the leader of the Cutters, and the one who is obsessed with the Italians, pretend to be and speak Italian so he can impress people.  When he rides through the town on his bike and yells "Ciao Papa!" to his dad, played by the late Paul Dooley (Sixteen Candles), my dad really laughed because in our later years, I called my dad Papa or Pop, in the same way my Sicilian-American father addressed his dad, my grandfather, Arcangelo. 

So in memory of Pop and (Grand) Pop, I made some Sicilian dishes from two of my Sicilian cookbooks and took yet another walk down memory lane because as I read through these books, laden with all kinds of fish recipes (Sicily is an island after all), I thought about how much I hate fish and how this pained my dad.  In fact, much about my attitude about Nature and Nature's bounty (my motto: Nature is NOT your friend) pained my dad.  My dad loved nature was a noted wildlife research biologist, specializing in white tailed deer.  Although fishing wasn't exactly his deal, that didn't mean he didn't appreciate fish and seafood; visits to my grandmother in dad's home state of NJ, were not complete without a major raw clam feast.  But me?  Nah.  Most fish is either too bony (go figure) or tastes like fish (go figure, part 2).  I particularly hate smelt which is fun to catch but just inedible if you ask me and you didn't!  I'll eat shrimp and scallops and lobster (kind of boring) or crab but it takes a lot to convince me to go with fish.  My dad would just sigh every single time we ate out and worse, would rail against my delicate (?) palate to these rest of the family thusly:  "Daughter of a wildlife biologist and you hate [insert item here]?  I can't believe it."

Disclaimer:  Although I am not fond of anchovies, my grandmother would put them on half a pizza, cut into tiny pieces, and I would eat one slice of it to satisfy her and my dad.  Many recipes in this book called for anchovies and while tempted, I didn't want to buy a can just to have the rest of it sit for...decades?...before I got around to using them.

Anyway, clearly my dad thought that because he was in love with Nature and Nature's bounty, I should be too.  Silly dad.  Also on the list of "Not touching it" was Swiss chard (so bitter and yet so ingrained in the Italian/Sicilian culture); lamb (gah!  That smell!!); tripe (I mean what?! Ew!); any other part of an animal that offended me and my stomach like offal.  Being a farm boy, my dad ate the fruits of that farm and that meant using up all parts of the animal.  Plus, he grew up during the Depression so there you go.  But I didn't and so no need to go down these roads, right?

Still, dad's voice was prominent the day I started perusing these books, making it damned hard to find something both he (in absentia) and I would like.  Page after page, I mouthed "No, no, oh hell no," until finally, I decided on the recipe for basically deconstructed lasagna and the blood orange jelly.  And let me tell you, I think I deserve the "Make Papa happy" merit badges that the Girl Scouts hand out.  Wait...what?  They don't.  Oh.  My bad.

Whatever you want to call the pasta dish, it was delicious.  It's basically pappardelle noodles or other fat noodles with ricotta cheese and a meat sauce.  Easy, peasy.  Shopping though, was a challenge.  I've only found one grocery store in town, Kowalski's, that sells ground veal (a travesty that I likely will never be able to remedy), but they sold it prepackaged in a one pound container and I only needed 5 ounces (1 ½ cups).  And so I substituted the veal for grass fed ground beef and it was fine. 

Then there's the pappardelle noodles and those can be hard to find as well.  Trader Joe's carries them so that worked out, but if you can't find them, I suggest cooking lasagna noodles and cutting/breaking them in half.

Then there's the "salted ricotta cheese" which I know to mean "Ricotta Salata" but if you can't find it, use feta or queso fresco instead.  As it is, while I didn't have any trouble finding it, I sadly found more than I needed in each package and at a price I didn't want to pay.  Same thing with the Pecorino Romano.  You only need a bit of it for the topping and yet everybody sold it in big blocks.  If I had a larger family, we would polish this off easily in one sitting but I don't but Whole Foods once again saved the day.  You should know that you can get your cheese sliced to order at Broder's Cucina Italiana in south Minneapolis where I used to work, but that was out of our way this particular Sunday.

Okay, once I got over those hurdles, I had to shop for the Blood Orange Jelly and you should know folks, that timing is everything as it is now nearing the end of the blood orange season and nobody had them.  Nobody.  Nobody even had frozen blood orange juice –oh wait, someone did and it was something like $13.00.  I don't think so!

Once again, Whole Foods – amazingly – saved the day.  Mr. I Know My Oranges at Whole Foods told us that if we were looking for flavor and a brighter color (not blood orange but oh well), then Valencia oranges would do the trick and he had one bag left of organic Valencia oranges at $5.99 a pop.  I tell you what, I regret that we didn't just stay in Spain when we last visited and for a split second thought it might just be easier to fly there, get the damned oranges (blood oranges as well) and leave!  But no.  But we checked out the juice section and they had a jug of freshly squeezed Valencia orange juice at a decent price so we bought it and used that instead.  Okay then, we're off and running.

So I set out to make this jelly and folks, once again, instructions stymied.  For this recipe, you need two envelopes of gelatin.  The instructions then say "Soak the gelatin in a bowl of cold water and ice for about 10 minutes, then squeeze."  Lacking here is any indication of how much water to use, plus it seemed that they wanted me to use gelatin sheets even though the instruction said "2 envelopes gelatin."  So I used about a cup of water and added ice cubes and what a mess.  There was no way I could "squeeze" the gelatin as it was just too liquidy.  So I tried again, this time using two new envelopes and about a half cup of water and it was better – still not perfect – so I used that.  When it set up, it was still rather springy which is perhaps how it should have been but I wasn't sure.

As to the rum - wow!  This recipe calls for 2 ounces plus two teaspoons and that was a lot of rum.  My first taste after it sat overnight just about knocked me back.  Besides, I was somewhat surprised that this Sicilian recipe called for rum, seeing as how that is not something I suspect many Sicilians or Italians enjoy on a regular basis but what do I know?  We ate it anyway because "When in Rome Palermo..."

So that's my Father's Day story and I'm sticking to it.  By the time I got around to writing this, the 4^th of July is looming.  What can I say, summers are busy!  Enjoy.

Pappardelle Palermo-Style – Serves 4

In a fairly large, heavy-bottomed saucepan, sauté the meat in the oil over a moderate heat, using a fork to break up any lumps.  When the meat is lightly browned, add the tomato paste mixed with the wine.  Cook for 4-5 minutes, then add the tomatoes with salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer of a  low heat for 40 minutes. 

Bring plenty of salted water to a boil and add the pappardelle.  While the pasta is cooking, use a fork to break up the salted ricotta into fairly small, crumbly pieces.  When the pasta is nearly done mix the fresh ricotta with 2 tablespoons of the cooking water in a large heated serving dish.

Drain the pasta and toss with the fresh ricotta and meat sauce.  Sprinkle with the salted ricotta and pecorino cheese and serve.

Blood Orange Jelly (Jell-O) – serves 4-6

2 envelopes (2 scant tablespoons) gelatin (Ann's Note:  you might want to try two sheets of gelatin)

2 2/3 cups blood orange juice (Ann's Note:  we are nearing the end of blood orange season so substitute Valencia oranges instead)

Juice of 2 lemons

1 cup plus 2 teaspoons superfine sugar

3 ounces plus 2 teaspoons rum

Pistachios (to decorate – optional)

Orange slices (to decorate – optional)

Ann's Note:  the author does not tell you how much water to use.  After starting with 1 cup – to no avail – I threw that out and used ½ cup instead and that seemed to work better.

Preheat oven to 350F.  Lay the pistachios you are going to use for decorating in a single layer on a baking sheet and put into the oven for about 8 minutes.  As long as they are in a single layer, you don't need to turn them.  Keep an eye on them to make sure they don't burn.

Soak the gelatin in a bowl of cold water and ice for about 10 minutes, then squeeze.  (Ann's Note:  good luck with that!  I did not squeeze.)  (The ice helps retain the properties of the gelatin.)  Mix the orange and lemon juice together, then measure ¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon of this and put into a pan with the sugar.  Heat (to 176 degrees F if you have a thermometer) until the sugar dissolves and remove from the heat.  Then add the squeezed gelatin, stirring until it melts, and mix in the rest of the juice and the rum.

Pour into a mold and put into the fridge until set, then turn out onto a plate and garnish with orange slices, if using, and the toasted pistachios.

"The Walton Family Cookbook" (from the 70's TV show, The Waltons) - Ralph Waite's Old-Fashioned Pot Roast with Potatoes (Father's Day)

Date I made this recipe:  June 15, 2014 (Father's Day)

The Walton Family Cookbook – Inspired by the Top-Rated Television Series created by Earl Hamner, Jr. by Sylvia Resnick

Published by Bantam Books

© 1975

Recipe:  Ralph Waite's Old-Fashioned Pot Roast Favorite with Potatoes – p. 71-72

Folks, timing is everything.  When actor Ralph Waite, who played John Walton, Sr. on the hit TV show The Waltons passed away earlier this year, I pulled out this cookbook intending to make his pot roast recipe but then one thing led to another and I never got it done.  But then Father's Day was upon us and I thought "How perfect!"  My dad was a pot roast kind of guy, he would have been 90 this year, five years younger than Ralph and in many ways, my relationship with my dad mirrored that of John-Boy Walton with his dad – oldest child, aiming to please yet following a path all our own.

I grew up watching The Waltons which ran from 1971 to 1981 and like John-Boy Walton, I wanted to be a writer.  Actually, I used to go around the house mimicking John-Boy's Virginia drawl:  "I want to be ay (as in the later "a") rye-tur [writer], daaaaadi [daddy]!"  I want to be a writer, daddy!

With this in mind, I moved to Minneapolis after college to hopefully begin my writing career (that never happened) and when I told people I wanted to write, thought I wanted to be more like fictional character Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) from The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  I guess it was that move to the Twin Cities that prompted that remark.  (Truth be told, Mary was okay but Rhoda was my favorite.  That said, I did not aspire to be a window dresser.) Now, I loved this show as well but even though it premiered the year before The Waltons, I was fixated on John-Boy.  There was just something about him and that show that attracted my attention although I have to say that his character often irritated the heck out of me.  So thank goodness for the rest of the Walton children and Grandma and Grandpa and those hilarious Baldwin Sisters, god-fearing women who never drank except to partake of their late father's "recipe," also known as moonshine!  Well bless their hearts....

But although the supporting characters, especially grandma and grandpa, were great and fun, the glue that held everything together was "Mama," Olivia Walton, played by actress Michael Learned, and "Daddy," John Walton, Sr., as played by Ralph Waite.  In the series, John Walton, Sr., runs the family lumber mill and manages to keep his wife, all seven kids and two grandparents clothed, fed and secure from the ravages of the Great Depression and WWII.  My dad, born just before the Depression, was the same type of guy, the one who just kept it all together, worked hard but definitely enjoyed family time.  (By the way, my grandmother went to live with my dad's sister after my grandfather died, much like the Walton's grandparents).

Although my dad was a wildlife research biologist by trade, he was also a good writer.  In addition to endless research journal articles, he also penned a memoir of his time on Iwo Jima during WWII and also wrote a published a book, Hiawatha's Brothers, about the flora and fauna of Michigan's Upper Peninsula where we lived.  He also wrote a history of the wildlife research station where he worked and a couple other small articles.

Like John Walton, Sr., my dad could be kind of hard on me.  The first paper I ever wrote in college for a Composition 101 class was singled out by the instructor as being one of the best (and yet, she tore into it later on) and so I was quite chuffed until my dad read it and said "Well, it's written at about a 5^th grade level...but it's good.  Not a bad start."  Well, of course I was crushed but I was a good writer.  Did I write scientific research papers, demanding a higher level of writing?  No.  Did my work qualify for inclusion in The New York Times? It did not.  Did I care?  Nope—not as long as I kept racking up those "A's!"  In the end, writing at a 5^th grade level is pretty much the industry standard for business – not too low-brow, not too lofty...just right (or is that "write?")

As these things go, I did land a writing job of sorts as my first job in Minneapolis as a Savings Correspondent for a local Savings & Loan Association.  My job was to rewrite their standard letters to make them better (i.e. "Thank you for opening an account with us!") as well as pen the difficult ones such as "Dear Mr. Jones, We are very sorry that we have temporarily misplaced your $10,000 deposit but rest assured...."  It was actually a fun job and I got to be a little creative.  I do believe this counts as a writing gig so that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

And so while I did not follow John-Boy Walton's path of becoming a newspaper writer, I am not too shabby when it comes to writing about cookbooks.  It ain't Pulitzer-worthy but who cares?

With that, let's explore this pretty easy and delicious recipe for pot roast, made in honor of my late father and the late actor, Ralph Waite, better know as John Walton, Sr.

"Goodnight, Daddy...."

Ralph Waite's Old-Fashioned Pot Roast Favorite with Potatoes – serves 6-8

For the pot roast

1 clove garlic, peeled

3- to 4-pound boneless chuck or rump roast of beef

Flour

Salad oil

2 T seasoned salt

¾ cup water (more, if needed)

1 bay leaf (optional)

6-8 new potatoes, peeled and halved

paprika 

For the gravy

2-4 T. flour

½ cup cold water

1 ½ cups liquid from roast (after skimming off fat) – add water if necessary

1 T onion soup mix

Rub garlic over meat.  Coast well with flour and brown slowly in a heavy pan or Dutch oven using small amount of salad oil.  Sprinkle with seasoned salt, turn and do the same on other side.  Lower flame to simmer and add water and a bay leaf.  Cover with a close fitting lid.  Cook for 2-2 ½ hours.  (Ann's Note:  I cooked it for 3 hours until it was absolutely tender).  During the final 45 minutes of cooking add potatoes that have been lightly salted.  Sprinkle roast and potatoes with paprika and add more water if necessary at this time.

To make the gravy, in a small pan blend 1-2 tablespoons flour with cold water, stirring carefully to dissolve any lumps.  Stir in pan juices, add the remaining flour and continue stirring until the flour and liquid are completely blended.  Add onion soup mix and cook over a low flame until gravy thickens.  (Ann's Note:  This was way too thick for my tastes so I tried to dilute it with more water and it didn't make much different.  But it is tasty if you like gravy with your beef.  My dad would have eschewed the gravy in flavor of horseradish!)

"The Steak Book" & "Burpee's American Harvest Cookbooks" - Steak, Butter-Gin Flambe and Fricassee of Asparagus, Peas & Ham for Father's Day

Date I made these recipes:  June 16, 2013 (Father’s  Day)

The Steak Book by Arthur Hawkins

Published by:  Doubleday & Company, Inc.

© 1966

Recipe:  Steak, Butter-Gin Flambe – p. 88

Burpee’s American Harvest Cookbooks – the Spring Garden by Perla Meyers

Published by:  A Fireside Book Published by Simon & Schuster

© 1988

Recipe:  Fricassee of Asparagus, Peas and Ham – p. 14

It’s felt to me that much of this year has gone by in slow motion, so imagine my surprise when Father’s Day came, I cooked and it went!  Talk about your “blink and miss” moments!

Although my dad is no longer alive, I found two perfect cookbooks to use on Father’s Day, all thanks to the St. Paul Public Library.  One of the branches I use, St. Anthony, closed for renovations in early June but before they closed, they held their annual used book sale.  And kids, for a whole buck and a half, I purchased these two books along with a third, Duncan Hines Desserts.  I do believe that aside from books that I’ve been given for free, that is the best deal ever!  So thank you, St. Anthony Library.

Given how much my dad adored steak, it was almost cosmic that this book was included in the sale.  And one of my father’s other passions, gardening, made the purchase of the Burpee’s cookbook (from the famous Burpee Seeds Catalog) a no-brainer. 

So to start:  in my house, there was STEAK and there was steak.  We had STEAK – a huge cut of sirloin about 3-4 inches thick that my dad broiled to perfection.  His perfect steak was practically blue – in other words, almost raw.  My mother, on the other hand, thought she would surely die of cooties if she had any red showing and so my father very reluctantly broiled hers to medium.  If he overdid his steak, he fumed the entire meal and if he was asked to redo my mom’s steak, he fumed even more.  STEAK was serious business.

This book has lots of “steak” recipes such as Swiss Steak, steak with a cream sauce, steak with other sauces and the worst, chopped steak. We had one steak in our household and that was sirloin and that was that!  My mother watched the local newspaper adverts like a hawk and when the price went down, we got a treat.

This recipe also includes one of my dad’s favorite ingredients – gin.  A good steak and a great martini is the elixir of life, trust me on this.  But a word of caution:  the recipe calls for you to add four tablespoons of gin and then flame the pan.  Well, reader, I got as far as two tablespoons and that pan went up in flames.  Luckily, my husband was right there and so he took the pan off the stove and called for me to get a lid.  By the time I got the lid, the flames had gone out but sheesh, we could have been incinerated and what a waste of good meat and booze that would have been.  Don’t try that at home!

My favorite vegetable accompaniment to most meals is asparagus and the Fricassee of Asparagus, Peas & Ham was absolutely perfect for this steak.  I do not remember much of my grandparent’s farm in New Jersey but I do remember asparagus.  (New Jersey is the Garden State, don’t you know.)  My dad also grew asparagus in his vast garden along with peas, beans, all kinds of lettuces, potatoes, corn and the like.  And I often think of dad when reading the comic strip, Crankshaft, as that loveable curmudgeon, Ed Crankshaft has a love affair with seed catalogs that rivals my dad’s.  When that seed catalog came in the mail, it was like Christmas for Men in our house. (My favorite, of course, was Sear’s Christmas catalog.)

According to the internet, Burpee Seeds was founded in 1876 in Philadelphia and started its mail order business in 1915.  That’s pretty darned impressive considering that home gardening endeavors took a bit of a hit for a few decades before roaring back to popularity in recent years.  Of course, Lou Verme never let up on the throttle and continued to plant and tend to his garden almost up to the day he died.  I cannot say I shared his enthusiasm for gardening (dirt is Nature and Nature is not your friend) but I loved looking through the catalog as the illustrations were pretty.

Like the steak recipe, this one is very easy to make and very yummy.  I thought the sugar (2 teaspoons) might make the dish too sweet but it was perfect.  The recipe calls for fresh peas but ha! - good luck with that this year, probably the wettest growing season we’ve had for years.

So there you go dad:  we feasted on your favorites and tipped a martini glass to you in your honor.  And almost burned down our house but details, details – the important thing is that we saved the rest of the gin from further destruction! 

Steak, Butter-Gin Flambé – serves 4

*2 ½ pounds steak, 1 inch thick

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

3 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons gin

*the author lists the preferred cuts of meat for each recipe.  In this case, sirloin, porterhouse (our choice as it was on sale), club, Delmonico or file mignon are the best cuts for this recipe.

Trim excess fat from steak and pan-broil in heavy skillet to desired doneness.

Season with salt and freshly ground pepper and remove to heated platter. 

In the same pan, melt butter, stir well, add gin, and warm gently.

Ignite (watch yourself!), pour over steak, and serve while sauce is still blazing.

Fricassee of Asparagus, Peas & Ham – serves 6

*The author notes that this dish is a delicious accompaniment to poached eggs.

2 pounds fresh peas (about 2 cups shelled) (or use frozen)

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

Salt

1 ½ pounds thin asparagus, trimmed to 5 inches and stalks peeled

4-6 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup cubed smoked ham

Freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons finely mined fresh chives

Place peas in a medium saucepan with water to cover.  Add a teaspoon of sugar and a pinch of salt.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until barely tender.  Drain and set aside.

Bring lightly salted water to a boil in a vegetable steamer.  Add asparagus spears, cover, and steam until barely tender.  Remove and reserve.

In a large nonstick skillet, melt the butter, add the ham, and cook for 1-2 minutes without browning.

Add the cooked peas and asparagus, sprinkle with the remaining sugar, and toss lightly for 2-3 minutes or until nicely glazed.  You may need to add more butter.

Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with chives and serve hot.

"The Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant Seafood Cookbook" and "Zabar's Deli Book" - Pan-Fried Oysters and Macaroni Salad

Date I made this recipe: June 18, 2011

The Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant Seafood Cookbook – Introduction by Jerome Brody
Published by: Crown Publishers, Inc.
ISBN: 0-517-54907-7; © 1977
Recipe: Pan-Fried Oysters – p. 17

Zabar’s Deli Book by Susan Katz, with Murray Klein, Saul Zabar and Stanley Zabar
Published by: Hawthorne Books
© 1979
Recipe: Macaroni Salad – p. 82

So today is Father’s Day and it’s the first one without my dad who passed away in March.

That said, it didn’t seem odd to me that he wasn’t here for the occasion. Maybe it was because he lived in Michigan and I live in Minneapolis, or maybe it’s because (sadly) Father’s Day isn’t celebrated to the extent that Mother’s Day is. (I mean, we’re talking, what, maybe one rack of FD cards to every 4 for mom???).

Earlier in the day, my husband and I went to nearby Stillwater, MN, to watch a pro-am bike race (as in bicycles) where there were tons of dads with their young kids, trying to make their way through the sizable crowd that gathered. As to the bicyclists, well, hats off to every single one of them who roared up one of Stillwater’s hills that is 20% grade. And they did it 20 times. Just recently I stood in some killer (as in cute) heels for two hours at my dad’s memorial service and had rubber legs the minute I sat down. Clearly some conditioning is in order.

At any rate, I think my dad would have liked watching the race with us. That man was a regular Charles Atlas; he hunted until he was 85 (he died at age 87), cross country skied, swam in Lake Superior every summer (something I won’t even do anymore) and went on an African safari with my brother and sister-in-law for his 87th birthday. You know what? This wears me out evening writing it.

And so onto the food. My dad was born in Manhattan and age three, the family moved to a farm in New Jersey, not all that far from the Jersey Shore. And after New Jersey, he moved to Michigan where I was born and raised. My dad had a fabulous garden, fabulous fruit trees and bushes and access to the freshest of lake (Superior) fish, and yet he practically salivated all the way back to New Jersey on family vacations, just waiting to have raw clams and oysters. He and my aunts and uncles and cousins would down these mollusks with lightning speed whereas my brother and I held back for many years before venturing toward the big metal tub to select our appetizers. Just like a martini, raw seafood is an acquired taste!

So I thought it fitting that I make a dish for dad on Father’s Day straight out of The Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant Seafood Cookbook.

Lo, though I have been in and out of Grand Central numerous times in my life, I never once stopped at the Oyster Bar. My bad. This cookbook is pretty comprehensive as to fish recipes and a not-too-shabby selection of sides.

After hemming and hawing for days (weeks?), it came down to oysters or clams and I went with oysters because they are meatier. In fact, some of the oysters we bought (from Coastal Seafoods) were pretty darned big.

I would be remiss (and totally out of character) if I did not take issue with something in the recipe or instructions and today is no exception. The directions were to coat the oysters in the flour and bread crumb mixture, then dip it in the egg wash, and then back into the flour and bread crumb mixture…and then fry! Right. Nooooooo! This was definitely not a Top Chef moment…or even Next Food Network Star moment. I had flour everywhere. Who.knew?!

That aside, the oysters were great and made me want to get in my car, stat, to get to the Jersey Shore for more!

So every oyster has to have an accompaniment, and today’s was out of the Zabar’s Deli Book. For those of you who don’t know, Zabar’s is a fabulous deli on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. I’ve been buying my coffee beans from them for years. Not only does it taste good but it’s far less expensive than buying it locally, even with shipping (which I almost never pay because I buy four pounds at a time and so get the shipping for free).

When I’m actually in NY, as I will be in a few weeks, I love going to Zabar’s to find the latest food items I can’t find anywhere else. They also have one of the most compact but fun housewares departments I’ve ever seen. It’s all good.

Many of you might be familiar with Zabar’s from watching the movie, You’ve Got Mail. There’s a hilarious scene that rings fairly true where Sally finds herself in the Cash Only line and has to be bailed out by Tom Hanks. Let’s just say the people in line as well as the cashier were not amused that she tried to pay with a credit card.

I had my own hilarious moment at Zabar’s years ago when I was buying coffee. I was in a hurry as I had to get to the airport, and this woman tried to line-jump in front of me. So we mixed it up right then and there in the coffee bean section of the store arguing about who was there first. (She said she was and she was SO lying!). At any rate, I finally said “I was here first and I have a plane to catch” and so I won and that was that. As my father always said “First fender in….” (The semi-New Yorker also came out in me years ago at the airport when some little chickie poos in stiletto heels tried to jump the cab line at LaGuardia. Let’s just say that I and a Korean man who was sharing the cab with me prevailed that day as well. It’s a jungle out there….)

Anyway, as to the deli book, this one is fun as it gives a little food history, a little Zabar’s history and some awesome recipes. My dad wasn’t especially fond of macaroni or potato salads but he would have appreciated NY deli food. I mean, what’s seafood without a deli accompaniment??

So eat and enjoy. And Happy Father’s Day dad! You don’t need to be here to be appreciated.

Pan-Fried Oysters – serving size not noted
1 pint (approximately 28 oysters) oysters, shucked and drained (reserve oyster liquor and set aside for another use)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup fine bread crumbs
2 eggs, beaten
2 tbsp. light cream
1 tsp. salt
Generous sprinkling of freshly ground white pepper
8 tbsp. (1 stick) butter

Drain oysters and pat dry with a paper towel. Thoroughly mix flour and bread crumbs in a bowl. Beat eggs with cream and salt and pepper in another bowl.

Roll oysters in crumb and flour mixture, then in egg, and then in crumbs again, coating thoroughly. (As noted above, good luck with that!).

Heat butter in a large heavy skillet over medium heat until just sizzling.

Fry oysters until nicely browned on one side, 3 to 5 minutes.

Turn carefully with tongs, and brown on the other side for 3 to 5 minutes.

Drain on paper towels. Serve with lemon wedges or favorite seafood sauce.

Macaroni Salad – serves 4-6
4 cups cooked, drained, cold elbow macaroni (8 ounces uncooked)
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 teaspoons prepared mustard
½ teaspoon celery seed
1 tablespoon grated onion (or more, to taste)
1 cup celery, chopped
½ cup parsley, minced
¼ cup pimiento, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Mix mayonnaise with vinegar, mustard, celery seed, and onion; pour over macaroni, and toss to coat. Add remaining ingredients and toss again. Chill thoroughly for 2-3 hours.