"Barbara Cartland - The Romance of Food" & "Made With Love - The Meals On Wheels Family Cookbook" - Sirloin Steak w/Beaujolais Sauce and Potatoes au Gratin - Valentine's Day!

Date I made these recipes:  Valentine's Day 2017!

Barbara Cartland – The Romance of Food by [famous romance writer] Barbara Cartland

Published by Doubleday & Company, Inc.

© 1984

Purchased at Kona Bay Books, Kona, Hawaii

Recipe:  Sirloin Steak in Beaujolais Sauce – p. 60

Made With Love – the Meals On Wheels Family Cookbook, Edited by Enid Borden [with recipes from over 100 celebrities]

Published by BenBella Books, Inc.

ISBN: 978-193666198-5; © 2012

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

Recipe:  Potatoes au Gratin from Chris Frantz, music producer, musician, and former drummer for the bands Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club – p. 206

Well, Valentine's Day has come and gone and as sometimes happen, I am now many blog posts behind schedule.  But when it came to having a book at the ready, I'll have you know I found Barbara Cartland - The Romance of Food back in May 2016 while on a 25^th anniversary trip to Hawaii. Awwww....  It was meant to be.

Some of you might be too young to be familiar with Barbara Cartland, the Grand Dame of romance writers everywhere, but not me. When I was in high school in the 70's, I worked as a student librarian and I had to re-shelve her books every day on the little spiral rack that held our paperback selections.  Although these books today are viewed as being pretty tame, (nay, even silly) back then the plot of the swashbuckling man seducing the shy timid woman (usually in a "historical" setting) were so "racy" that Cartland became known for writing the "bodice ripper." Well hardly, but you know, it only enhanced Cartland's reputation as the leading romance writer of her time.

In 1991, Cartland became a Dame ("There is nothin' like a dame/nothin' in the world" – South Pacific) when QEII awarded her an OBE [medal].  An OBE is awarded to a Knight or Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, quite, quite, quite! Why, that's practically royalty which is why you will likely find the following interesting:  Barbara Cartland's daughter, Raine [Spencer], was the late Princess Diana's stepmother.  I know, right?  Alas, Diana did not like her stepmother, calling her "Acid Raine (ouch!)" which I have to say is rather un-princess of her, right? But whereas there was no love lost for her stepmother, Diana apparently spent a lot of time reading Step-Grandmama's "bodice rippers," which might account for some of Diana's naïveté when it came to love, the subject of which we shall have to say for another day.

At any rate, whereas Barbara had a lock and load on all things bodice and ripping, I just didn't find a lot of the food in this cookbook appealing. There were plenty of lovely photos but the recipes themselves were rather underwhelming.  I mean, she means well, even throwing in the word "love"  in the recipe's title here and there to keep us on track, such as "Love in a Shell" – p. 33, a dish of scallops in a cream and wine sauce, and "Lover's Delight" – p. 41, mushrooms in olive oil and lemon juice, but these were just "meh" to me.

And then there's the other extreme of recipes that sound so bloody awful that I wouldn't make them even if you held a gun to my head, such as "Jugged Hare."  I swear to you, no British cookbook would be complete without a recipe for "Jugged Hare" which appears to be some gawd-awful concoction of rabbit (hare), wine, currant jelly and blackberry jelly.  This is supposed to be the food of love?  More like the food of divorce which is to say "Oh hell no!"

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I found a spectacularly good potatoes au gratin recipe in the Made with Love Cookbook and so hmm, what does Ms. Cartland have that would pair well with those potatotes?

In the end, steak.  Nothing pairs better with potatoes au gratin that good old beef and happily, Ms. Cartland had plenty of recipes for that – whew!  And after considering several options (but not "Steak and Kidney Pie" – p. 60), I settled on Sirloin Steak in Beaujolais Sauce because it contained two favorite ingredients in one dish – steak and wine!

In this case though, I made two substitutions:  instead of Sirloin, I used Rib Eye because it was on sale, and instead of Beaujolais, I used Merlot since I already had a bottle of that open.  I passed on using bone marrow for garnish, not because I don't like bone marrow, I do (I know, I know—I can pretty much hear many of you saying "ew"), but because I would have had to cook said bone marrow and I didn't have time.

This dish turned out to be very tasty and easily made although it called for the addition of butter and flour to make a roux and that made the sauce just a tad too thick.  The real winner though, was the Potatoes au Gratin recipe from the Made with Love – The Meals On Wheels Family Cookbook.  Let's explore!

I've got nothing but love for this cookbook and for this organization.  Meals On Wheels ensures that no senior goes hungry by delivering meals to those seniors who are unable to cook for themselves.  Many years ago, some friends and I delivered meals to seniors on Christmas Eve through a similar organization, Little Brothers of the Elderly, and it was heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.

Several celebrities contributed to this cookbook to held end senior hunger and I have to tell you, most of the recipes were absolutely mouth-watering.  The challenge though, was what dish to pair with something from Barbara Cartland's book.  For a while, I considered making actress Dawn Wells' (Gilligan's Island) "Weenie Linguine" recipe (p. 140) and thought maybe I could pair it with a Cartland salad or dessert but no.  Then I thought long and hard about Adam West's (TV's Batman) "Sawtooth Mountain Pot Roast" (p. 60) (also pictured on the cover), but that didn't work either.  And sure, I could have skipped the Cartland book and just gone with a recipe from the other cookbook but I wanted to be done with "Bab's" book sooner than later.

In the end, I settled on Potatoes au Gratin (p. 206) submitted by music producer and musician, Chris Frantz and were we ever glad we did because folks, it was delicious.  Not just a little delicious, "magically delicious" just like Lucky Charms (cereal), such that Andy kept exclaiming every five minutes "These potatoes are really good!"

I think it's a good sign that my honey was groovin' on his Valentine's Day dinner!

In conclusion, while the steak was good and the sauce was yummy, the potato recipe is the one you want to keep on hand and make, especially if you are having company as they will ooh and aah and love you to pieces, Valentine's Day or no Valentine's Day!

Sirloin Steak in Beaujolais Sauce – Serves 4 – Barbara Cartland – The Romance of Food

4 thick boneless sirloin steaks

Salt and freshly ground pepper

¼ cup softened butter

1 shallot, finely chopped

½ teaspoon chopped parsley

Pinch of dried thyme

1 bay leaf

1 ¼ cups Beaujolais wine

1 heaping tablespoon flour

1 clove garlic, crushed

A dash of brandy

Bone marrow for garnish (optional)

Ann's Notes:  I substituted rib-eye for sirloin, and Merlot for Beaujolais.  Also, I wasn't satisfied with the "roux" – the flour + 1 tablespoon softened butter.  I think you can get buy without it or maybe just add the butter to the wine mix and see what happens.  In this case, the flour made the sauce a tad thick.  Also?  See my note below about the steak.

Season the steaks and seal in 1 tablespoons hot butter in a skillet, then remove and keep hot and try on one side.  To the cooking juices in the pan, add the shallot, parsley thyme, bay leaf and ground pepper then add the Beaujolais.  Reduce the sauce by two-thirds by boiling down over a high heat then thicken at the last moment with a half-and-half paste of flour and 1 tablespoon softened butter.  Add the crushed garlic, the rest of the butter and brandy.  Do not allow the sauce to boil.  Pass the sauce through a fine sieve.  Garnish the steak with slices of poached bone marrow before coating with the sauce.

Ann's Note regarding the steak:  Unless you want it raw, you will need to cook it a bit longer than directed above.  Ms. Cartland wants you to "seal" the steaks in a hot skillet then remove, and by this she likely means "sear," which means you are to cook the steaks on each side until each side is brown and somewhat caramelized.  This doesn't necessarily mean your steak is cooked to your liking so if you want your meat to be more done, keep it in the skillet for longer and/or do what we did which was to add it back into the pan so as to soak in the wine sauce!

Potatoes au Gratin – serves 6 – Made with Love-The Meals on Wheels Family Cookbook

2 T. butter

1 tsp. minced garlic

2 lb Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

Salt and ground black pepper

1 sweet yellow onion, finely chopped

2 ½ c grated Gruyere cheese, divided

1 c cooked and coarsely chopped bacon (about ½ pound)

2 T. chopped parsley

Cream, as needed (Ann's Note:  at least 1 cup for a half recipe, more for a full)

Preheat oven to 350F.  Rub a 9- by 12-inch gratin dish with butter and crushed garlic.  Ann's Note:  Ever the rogue, I opted to add my crushed garlic to the dish itself instead of "wasting it" on the pan.  Good call, that!

Make one layer of sliced potatoes overlapping like shingles on a roof in the bottom of the dish.  Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Then, add a layer of finely chopped yellow onions and 1 cup of cheese atop the potatoes.  Sprinkle with bacon and parsley. 

Add a second layer of sliced potatoes.  Season with salt and pepper, and add a top layer of remaining 1 cup Gruyere.  Gently pour light cream over the dish until the top layer of potatoes is almost covered.  Ann's Note:  I purchased one small carton of heavy cream (not "light" cream) and that almost made it to the top of the potatoes.  I made a half recipe so if you make this full recipe, buy a large carton.)

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, and flatten the top layer with a metal spatula to keep the gratin moist.  Cook until the gratin is a golden brown and the potatoes are cooked (insert a knife in the gratin to check them), about 30 more minutes. Sprinkle the top with another layer of Gruyere for the last 15 minutes of baking.  Remove from the oven and serve.  Ann's Note and it's a big one:  I missed the part about adding another layer of cheese in the final 15 minutes of baking – oops – and so baked what I had the extra 15 minutes, oh well. The result was that the cheese crisped up instead of being all gooey and man, did we love that, or what? 

This dish rocked our world.  Make it.  Make it now.  Eat it.  Eat it now!

"(Sunset Magazine) Cooking for Two..." (Pork Chops with Rhubarb Dressing) & "The Savory Way" (Winter Vegetable Puree) by Deborah Madison & "Leo Buscaglia's Love Cookbook with Biba Caggiano" (Honey Bread Pudding) - Valentine's Day 2016

Date I made these recipes:  February 14, 2016 – Valentine's Day

Sunset Cooking for Two...or Just for You

Published by: Lane Publishing Co.

© 1978

Purchased at Hennepin County Library Used Book Sale

Recipe:  Pork Chops with Rhubarb Dressing – p. 45

The Savory Way by Deborah Madison

Published by:  Bantam Books

© 1990; ISBN 0-553-05780-4

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Stores

Recipe: Winter Vegetable Puree – p. 197

Leo Buscaglia's Love Cookbook with Biba Caggiano

Published by:  SLACK Incorporated

ISBN: 0-8050-3725-X

Purchased at: Barnes and Noble Used Books, Roseville, MN

Recipe:  Honey Bread Pudding – p. 139

Well Valentine's Day has come and gone and although I barely had my act together when it came to selecting a menu, I managed to pull this meal out for the win!  Valentine's Day was saved, be still my heart! (Pun intended.)

Occasions like this often require a consultation with my better half as to which recipe(s) to select.  Normally, I'd go through a couple of cookbooks, earmarking recipes for him to consider, but this year I didn't and he was not at all happy: "What?  You don't have anything marked for me to look at?"  [Insert look of horror here.]  "No, I don't and that's because you often look through the entire book anyway and select something that I didn't mark."

Like tonight's entree, Pork Chops with Rhubarb Dressing.  I saw the recipe but ignored it; he saw it and thought it had potential.  And this is why we work so well together.

So he selected that recipe and I filled in the rest of the dinner with the winter vegetable puree and also the bread pudding from Leo Buscaglia and Biba Caggiano's "Love" Cookbook.   I toyed with making something chocolate but that is just so expected and I hate doing the expected so I switched it up and made honey bread pudding out of a "Love" cookbook; honey + "love" = perfect for Valentine's Day.  And so with that, our menu was all set and all that was left to do was to go shopping for the few ingredients I needed to make our day complete.

One and a half days later...

...Okay, this dinner almost didn't get off the ground because I couldn't find rhubarb.  Actually, I found it, I just didn't buy it when I found it (frozen) at the Lunds & Byerlys grocery store nearest our house because that would have been too easy.  Instead, I intended to purchase it at another Lunds & Byerlys in the city of Edina, where Andy and I were running some errands on Valentine's Day.

Except, of course, that Lunds & Byerlys was out of the frozen rhubarb.  What?  Let's review:  it's winter in Minnesota and a grocery store is out of frozen rhubarb?  Because....why?

Well this was puzzling and irritating at the same time because that meant we had to go all the way back to the other Lunds & Byerlys just to get rhubarb.  I was most certainly not feeling the love at that point, "L&B."  Not feeling the love.  But we made the trip because once we had our minds set on the dish, we had to have it which meant we had to have the rhubarb which meant that we had to waste gas going right back to the original source.  I could have screamed.

Luckily, the dish turned out and was very tasty even though I was skeptical that the spices – cinnamon and allspice - would overpower the dish.  They did not.  And as crazy as this sounds, I like the fact that a Cooking for Two cookbook delivered just the right amount of food.  I know, right?  Because folks, I've made a few other dishes from alleged "two person" cookbooks and either we both starved or we had way too many leftovers.  This amount was perfect plus, there were many other tasty-sounded recipes that will likely appeal if this one doesn't float your heart-shaped boat. 

Next up:  the side dish!  And now it's true confession time because I have to admit to you that I spent all of ten seconds leafing through The Savory Way  before finding what I wanted – potatoes – and calling it a day.  Some cookbooks are like that and I mean absolutely no disrespect to the author, Deborah Madison, because she writes excellent cookbooks.  I just needed to get on with my meal planning already, and that meant time was of the essence.  For those with plenty of time, this is a great cookbook and you'll be hard pressed not to find several recipes to suit your fancy.

For tonight's dinner, I made her dish pretty much to order although I barely added any butter (you can add butter or cream as optional ingredients) and I could have used a bit more salt because without it, the vegetables were not as flavorful.  I think that any type of root vegetables will do in this dish but I chose to go with potatoes, celery root, rutabaga and leeks. 

Although the flavors were slightly more savory than the pork chop dish, they worked pretty well together and we enjoyed eating them.  I wish we could say the same about the bread pudding which was not at all bad, it just wasn't the bread pudding we were used to.

For one thing, this recipe called for Italian bread and I don't know—I think it was the wrong flavor and consistency for the dish.  And instead of breaking the bread into cubes and baking it in a round casserole dish or soufflé dish, the bread was layered like a lasagna.  And....no.  And then there was the rum and I want it noted that while I am always a fan of using liquor in cooking, the recipe called for 1/3 a cup and that's a lot of rum.  A lot of rum.  We could smell it in the living room, that's how much rum there was.  So if we made this recipe again and it's unlikely, we would not layer the dish, use different bread and – I cannot believe I am saying this – cut way down on the dark rum. 

The nice thing about Leo and Biba's cookbook is that they've created menus to help you with your menu planning -  Loving Dinners for Two; Loving Dinners for Friends; Loving Dinners for Family which can be a great thing if you're trying to design a special dinner for Valentine's Day. 

So I was just sitting here contemplating the bread pudding recipe and Valentine's Day and how disappointing this dish was when it sounded so promising, when out of the blue, this scene from the movie, The Godfather, played in my head:  "I know it was you, Fredo.  You broke my heart.  You broke my heart."  This recipe broke my heart but if you tweak it just a little, I think you could have a winner (and then Fredo won't die and then Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) won't be mad and it'll all be good).

Until next Valentine's Day....

Pork Chops with Rhubarb Dressing – serves 2- From Sunset Cooking for Two...or Just for You

1/8 teaspoon dry rosemary, crumbled

½ teaspoon salt

Dash pepper

2 pork loin or shoulder chops, cut ¾ inch thick

1 tablespoon salad oil

2 slices firm-textured bread, cut into ½-inch cubes (about 1 ¾ cups)

1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

1 pound rhubarb, cut into 1/2 –inch pieces (about 3 cups)

1 ½ tablespoons all-purpose flour

Mix together rosemary, salt, and pepper.  Sprinkle evenly over chops.  Heat oil in a wide frying pan over medium-high heat; add chops and brown on both sides; set aside with drippings.

Stir together bread cubes, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, rhubarb, and flour; spread half the mixture in a greased shallow 1 ½ to 2-quart baking dish.  Arrange chops on top; spoon over 2 tablespoons drippings (add water if necessary, to make this amount); top with remaining rhubarb mixture.  (Cover and refrigerate if made ahead.)

Bake, covered, in a 350 oven for 45 minutes; then uncover and bake for 15 minutes longer or until pork is fork tender.

Winter Vegetable Puree – makes about 2 ½ cups, serving 4 to 6 – From The Savory  Way

2 cups White Rose or red potatoes, scrubbed and diced into ½-inch pieces

3 cups mixed winter vegetables such as turnips, rutabagas, leeks, celery root, and fennel, diced into ½-inch pieces

3 sprigs chopped parsley

1 pinch of dried thyme

3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

Salt

Butter or cream (optional)

Champagne vinegar

Freshly ground white pepper

Put the vegetables in a saucepan with the parsley, thyme, garlic, salt, and enough water to cover.  (Ann's Note:  just saying the word "salt" is not a good indication of how much.  I did not use enough.  You've been warned.)  Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer until the vegetables are completely soft, about 20 minutes.  Pour them into a colander set over a bowl; reserve the liquid.

Pass the vegetables through a food mill or mash by hand.  (The food processor will tend to make them too gummy and glutinous.)  Use the cooking water to thin the puree to the proper consistency.  Stir in additional butter or cream to taste and season with salt, a dash of vinegar and pepper.

Ann's Note:  I didn't use the vinegar and used just a scant amount of butter.  The resulting flavor was okay but a little bland so I added more salt.  If I made this again, I might use some chicken broth in place of some of the vegetable liquid; vegetarians, ignore that note!

Honey Bread Pudding – makes 6 servings – From Leo Buscalia's Love Cookbook with Biba Caggiano

Ann's Note:  As stated above, I think I would have liked this recipe a lot better had I used different bread, torn it into cubes instead of slicing and layering it, baked it in a round casserole and used less rum.  "But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln..."

8 to 10 (1/2-inch thick slices crusty Italian bread, preferably one to two days old, with crust removed

¼ pound (1 stick) unsalted butter

½ cup honey

1/3 cup dark rum

½ cup golden raisins, soaked in lukewarm water for 20 minutes, then drained

4 large eggs

½ cup sugar

1 cup heavy cream

3 cups milk

Preheat the oven to 375F.  Generously butter a 9 x 12-inch baking dish.  Arrange the bread slices in a single layer in the dish, slightly overlapping each other.  Set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.  Add the honey and rum, and raise the heat to high.  Cook, stirring, until sauce begins to thicken and is foamy and bubbling, 3 to 4 minutes.  Stir in the raisins, remove from heat, and pour over the bread evenly.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with 1/3 cup of the sugar.  Add the cream and milk, and beat well to combine.  Pour over the bread and sprinkle with remaining sugar.

Bake 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325F and bake an additional 20 to 25 minutes, or until pudding is set and the bread has a nice golden color.  Remove pudding from oven, and let it stand.  Cool to room temperature and serve.

Prepare ahead:  Complete steps one through four a day or two ahead.  Cover and refrigerate.  If pudding is refrigerated, allow it to come to room temperature before serving.

"Cooking with Love by Carla Hall (Top Chef/The Chew) and "The Big Chocolate Book" - Valentine's Day 2015

Date I made these recipes:  February 14, 2015 – Valentine's Day!

Cooking with Love – Comfort Food that Hugs You by Carla Hall with Genevieve Ko

Published by:  Free Press

ISBN:  978-1-4516-6220-7

Recipe:  Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Root Vegetable Ragout – p. 196-170 for the pork and 99 for the ragout

The Big Chocolate Cookbook by Gertrude Parke

Published by:  Funk & Wagnalls

© 1968

Purchased at Talk Story Book Store, Hanapepe, (Kauai) Hawaii  (Talk Story is "The Western-Most Bookstore in the United States)

Recipe:  Cocoa Cream Cake – p. 56-57

And now time for a quiz:  When I say "Hootie Hoo!" you say:

a)     Did you just swear at me?

b)     Is this a new secret ingredient on Chopped?

c)      Carla Hall

If you chose c) Carla Hall, give yourself a pat on the back.

Those of you who are fans of Top Chef should remember Season 5 when Carla Hall competed as a cheftestant on that show.  She won me over with her sunny personality and southern-based comfort foods and came "this close" to winning Season 5 only to be beat out by that year's Top Chef, Hosea Rosenberg.  Poor Carla—had she stuck to cooking what she knew instead of going off in a different direction, she would have nailed it.

Not to be deterred, Carla came back for more kitchen fun and frolic on Season 8 – All Stars – but was eliminated in episode 13 of 16.  Dammit!  Seems to me though that she won "Fan Favorite" somewhere along the line and although it's not the same as winning the big show, it will do. She was certainly one of my favorites from both seasons.

It was on Season 5 that we learned that Carla's catchphrase, Hootie Hoo!, was created as a way that Carla and her husband could locate each other more easily when out in public.  It probably beats the heck out of yelling "Matthew!  Hey Matthew" (her husband's name) in a store filled most likely with several other Matthews.  I may have to try that with my husband, Andy.

And perhaps capitalizing on her newfound popularity, she became one of five co-hosts on ABC's TV show, The Chew, that premiered in 2011.  Carla, along with fellow chefs Mario Batali and Michael Symon, natural food foodist and author Daphne Oz and host Clinton Kelly (he of What Not To Wear Fame), chat about food and entertaining and decorating and everything in between, Monday through Friday, much to the delight of their collective fans. 

No doubt these same fans – like me – were giddy when Carla published her first cookbook, Cooking with Love (how appropriate for our theme, right?) and then her follow up, Carla's Comfort Foods:  Favorite Dishes from Around the World.  I must confess that I do not yet own the comfort food book, but no worries, I will undoubtedly acquire it soon.  Maybe as early as this afternoon? 

So many of Carla's recipes sounded so good that it was hard to settle but ultimately, I decided on Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Root Vegetable Ragout.  What Andy and I both loved about this dish is that it tasted great plus made us feel somewhat heart-healthy.  The pork was marinated in orange juice and you can't go wrong with roasted root vegetables tossed with healthy herbs.  The fact that I also made a chocolate cake for dessert from another cookbook is beside the point.  It's Valentine's Day people.  Time to indulge!

Compared to selecting Carla's pork and vegetable ragout, selecting just the right chocolate dessert for Valentine's Day was an exercise in torture.  I have several chocolate books and went through each of them very carefully but my eyes started to glaze over and I was in danger of becoming overwhelmed.  I mean, one recipe was for a Sachertorte and damn, while this is one good dessert (made famous in Austria), the assembly made this a no go.  Same with a few other recipes.

At then at long last, I came across this easy but delicious recipe for Cocoa Cream Cake from the cookbook The Big Chocolate Cookbook, published in 1968.  Baked in a loaf pan, this cake is similar to a pound cake except it contains cream instead of butter making it much lighter and therefore healthier, right?  Exactly.

And so after slicing and dicing and sifting and folding, Andy and I ended up with one lovely dinner for our Valentine's Day repast.  And the bonus is that we have leftovers.  Yum!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Root Vegetable Ragout – Serves 6

Note:  You will need to marinate the pork for at least 2 hours.

For the pork:

*2 whole pork tenderloins (each about ¾ pound)

½ cup fresh orange juice

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard

1 tablespoon honey

Dash of Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons canola or other neutral oil

For the ragout:

2 medium carrots

2 medium parsnips

1 small rutabaga

1 medium turnip

1 medium Yukon gold potato

2 ½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Kosher salt

1 small yellow onion cut into ¼-inch dice

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

½ cup Chicken Stock (page 54) or store-bought unsalted chicken broth

Freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped

2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped

Freshly grated zest of 1 lemon

*And now a word from Ann about the pork tenderloins:  I am not a fan of pre-wrapped tenderloins that are injected with up to 12% saline solution.  Sure, it makes the pork last longer but in my opinion, it screws with the flavor.  Unfortunately, the number of grocery stores that carry non-treated pork products (even chops) is shrinking.  Luckily, Target carries "au naturel" pork and I used that and you should too, if you have the chance.

Back to our directions, start by marinating the pork for at least two hours.  If the pork still has silverskin (the thin silvery white membrane on the meat), trim it off.  Rinse the pork well, then pat dry with paper towels.  Cut each tenderloin crosswise into 2-inch-thick medallions.

In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the juice, garlic, mustard, honey and Worcestershire. Add the pork, seal the bag, and turn to coat well.  Seal and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Remove the pork from the marinade and wipe off any excess; discard the marinade.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Heat half of the oil.  Add half the pork and cook, turning once, until well browned, about 2 minutes per side.  Transfer to a half sheet pan.  Repeat with the remaining oil and pork.

Transfer the pan to the oven and bake until the pork is medium in the center, 140F, about 13 minutes.  Serve over the Root Vegetable Ragout and drizzle with the pan juices.

Ann's Notes:  I could have sworn that we had a jar of Gulden's (spicy mustard) in the fridge but we did not.  Gulden's was my dad's favorite mustard but when I was growing up, we could only get it when we visited my grandma in New Jersey.  Naturally, we stocked up on that and everything else my hometown grocery stores didn't carry.  I tell you what, I still chuckle every time I think about how low to the ground the back of that car was on the way home!  Anyway, without Gulden's, I was forced to use Grey Poupon which was fine even if it wasn't quite correct.

Also, in the perfect culinary world, I would have either roasted the vegetables first at 425F before turning down the oven to 350F to make the cake and the tenderloins or vice versa.  Note that I said "perfect world."  In reality, I wanted to get the cake out of the way first so I did and then turned the oven up to 425F to roast the veggies since they took a while and then turned down the oven to make the tenderloins.  And this is why Carla Hall is on TV and I am not!

As to the vegetables, leave ample time to slice and dice your way to a ½-inch dice, making them as even as possible to ensure consistent roasting. 

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Peel the carrots, parsnips, rutabaga, turnip, and potato and cut them into ½-inch dice.  Combine them on a half sheet pan, toss with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, and season with salt.  Spread the vegetables in a single layer.

Roast, stirring and rotating the pan occasionally, until tender and golden, about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium heat.  Heat the remaining ½ tablespoon oil.  Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 3 minutes.

Stir in the butter until it melts, then stir in the roasted vegetables.  Add the chicken stock and season with salt and pepper.  Simmer until the stock thickens and coats the vegetables, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the parsley, thyme, and lemon zest.  Serve hot or warm.

Ann's Note:  My grocery store moved a lot of the produce section around (when I wasn't looking) and so I had to work hard to find the rutabagas.  And although I am no expert, I have cooked with this vegetable enough that what I bought didn't look like a rutabaga but it was under the "Rutabaga" sign so I brought it home.  And then I cut it and was definitely puzzled as the texture was nothing like a regular rutabaga.  So I used it sparingly and that was probably best because it tasted kind of crunchy—sort of like jicama only not.  So I don't know what it was but it was actually pretty good!  Meanwhile, Carla says to use one and only one Yukon gold potato and that is one potato too few so I made up for the lack of rutabaga by adding another potato.  So sue me!

Cocoa Cream Cake – makes a 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan)

1 cup heavy cream

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ½ cups sifted flour

1 cup sugar

½ cup cocoa

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

Butter a loaf pan (9 x 5 x 3 inches) and dust with cocoa.

Whip the cream until it is stiff.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and salt together.  Sift gradually over the batter, folding as you sift.  Pour into the prepared pan.

Bake in a 350F over for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the cake is springy to the touch and shrinks from the side of the pan.  Remove to a cake rack, and after 10 minutes turn the cake out to cool. 

Serve this with sherbet or ice cream or use it as a base for any dessert, preferably one topped with chocolate sauce.

"Love and Knishes" & "Cooking with Love" & The Way to a Man's Heart is through His Capricorn" - a Valentine's Day meal

Date I made these recipes:  February 17, 2014 (for Valentine's Day—a bit late!)

Love and Knishes – An Irrepressible Guide to Jewish Cooking by Sara Kasdan

Published by:  The Vanguard Press

© 1956; Fifth Printing 1957

Recipe:  Potato Soup – p. 33-34

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

Cooking with Love – A World-Wide Collection of Recipes for Entertaining from One of Chicago's Favorite Hostesses by Florence Kerr Hirschfeld

Published by:  Houghton Mifflin Company Boston

© 1965

Recipe:  Wonderful Chocolate Cake (with Glossy Chocolate Frosting) – p. 291

Purchased at Bloomington (MN) Crime Prevention Association annual sale

The Way to a Man's Heart is Through His Capricorn – A Whimsical Astrological Cookbook by Peggy Holt

Published by:  Price/Stern/Sloan Publishers, Inc.

© 1970

Recipe:  Parfait Pistache (from the Libra chapter) – p. 67

Purchased on Etsy.com from SALLIEandJUDY

When, a few days before Valentine's Day, I announced to my husband that a few of the dishes I wanted to make contained sour cream and butter, he exclaimed – jokingly – "Are you trying to kill me?"

No honey.  Just trying to feed you something fun for Valentine's Day.

But a few day's later, when I got around to making the dishes, I had to wonder if instead of me killing him, he wasn't in fact trying to hasten my demise.  Because later that night, after he came home from a part-time job, he took the soup I made that afternoon out of the fridge to warm up a bowl for a late-night snack and forgot to put it back in the refrigerator.  And so the soup sat out all night.  Now granted, it is winter and our kitchen is not insulated (making it just a bit brisk back there until I turn on the oven) but no way was I eating that soup.  Nuh uh.  Nope.  Visions of emergency rooms replaced visions of love in quite the burning hurry.

Well of course he felt terrible because he was not trying to kill me off nor is he big on wasting food.  These things happen.  Luckily, I was of the mind to make the soup for a second time and I can promise you we have both be vigilant about storing it properly.  Still, all that butter, all that sour cream, all that milk wasted.....sigh.

Now I imagine, although I don't know for sure, that Sara Kasdan, author of the Love and Knishes cookbook from which this soup recipe came, also would likely have sighed and tut-tutted and oy veyed a couple of times at that waste of these yummy ingredients.  Many recipes in her cookbook contain these precious ingredients, some of which sounded yummy, like our soup recipe, but others that I just need a moment to ponder—like noodle or rice kugel which is basically a casserole of butter, sugar, eggs and...noodles/rice.  Nope.  That does not compute. 

I was really tempted to make a knish but that seemed too heavy (yeah, right—like potato soup isn't?) so I passed.  A knish is basically a mound of filling (potatoes, cheese) wrapped in dough.  Think of it as a Jewish Hot Pocket.  Now, I love these things but again, didn't want the knish weighing me down that day as they can be quite filling (with the filling).

By the way, years ago, Andy and I were watching TV show – maybe the "Tonight Show" – and a comedienne, who was a southern Jewish woman, just cracked us up. She talked about southern cocktail parties where the going phrase as hors d'oeuvres were passed was "Y'all want a knish?" The way she pronounced "knish" was just so southern i.e. add more syllables than needed.  "Knish" became "kah-ni-ish" and we became fans of that line.  Still, I veered toward the soup because I had other items to make for our Valentine's Day menu and didn't want to get too bogged down.

Cooking with Love by Chicago hostess with the mostest (who knew?) Florence Kerr Hirschfeld, yielded the very yummy "Wonderful" Chocolate Cake recipe, chocolate, of course, being a mandatory – no exceptions – Valentine's Day incredible edible.  The only thing that puzzled about this recipe was that you had to melt chocolate squares and water together – those two ingredients don't often mix well – and so the texture was somewhat odd even though the taste was delicious.  The glossy chocolate frosting also yielded a few "huh" moments when it came to appearance and the only thing I'll say is that the frosting is good but messy.

And last but not least, a book which made me laugh (but made Andy's forehead wrinkle in confusion—as in "why did you buy that?") is The Way to a Man's Heart is Through His Capricorn, featuring a nude woman (cartoon drawing) on the front.  Similar artwork abounds featuring nude woman with various animals like frogs and lions----we won't go there.  As to the recipes, nothing for February (Aquarius) or March (hubby's birthday) (Pisces) tripped my trigger but wouldn't you know, the ice cream dessert for Libra – my birth month – did!  Coincidence?  Yes!  So in addition to the chocolate cake, we had a parfait of – be still my heart – coffee ice cream, chocolate ice cream, pistachios and...drum roll....dark rum.  Woot!   Does that cake/ice cream combo sound like Valentine's Day, or what?

"Or what," people!  Although the culinary combinations might sound a little odd—potato soup, chocolate cake and ice cream, it all worked.  And hubby was happy.  So there you go—happy hubby, Happy Valentine's Day!

Potato Soup (Milchik) – serves 8

3 cups diced potatoes

1 cup diced onions

2 stalks celery, diced

1 quart water

2 teaspoons salt

1 quart milk

1/8 pound butter (or more)

3 sprigs parsley

1 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons minced parsley for garnish

Paprika

Cook potatoes, onions and celery in salted water until tender (about 30 minutes).  Remove from heat.  Mash vegetables with a potato masher.  Add milk, butter, and parsley.  Return to heat and simmer gently for about 15 minutes (do not allow to boil).  Remove parsley.  Stir in sour cream and allow the soup to remain over a low flame just long enough to heat the cream.  Garnish with minced parsley and paprika.

Ann's Notes:  I made half the recipe and had to adjust my cooking time when boiling the potatoes.  Simmer on low for about 15 minutes, then check.  If necessary, add a bit more water.

I cannot say that the addition of the sour cream made for an attractive-looking soup but the taste was great.  Think of this dish as a bowl of mashed potatoes with a bit of liquid in it.  Yum!

Wonderful Chocolate Cake with Glossy Chocolate Frosting – makes a 9" x 13" pan

For the cake

2 1-ounce squares unsweetened chocolate

½ cup water

6 tablespoons butter or margarine

1 ½ cups sugar

2 eggs, well beaten

2 cups sifted flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

For the frosting (You can also skip the frosting and dust with confectioners' sugar if desired)

3 1-ounce squares unsweetened chocolate

¾ cup evaporated milk

¼ cup water

1 cup sugar

Dash salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

To make the cake, place chocolate and water in top of double boiler and heat until chocolate is melted.  Cream butter and sugar together.  If using electric mixer, beat only at low speed, just enough to blend thoroughly; stir in eggs only until mixed.  Sift flour again with baking soda, then add to butter mixture, alternately with sour cream; mix lightly, starting and ending with flour.  Blend in chocolate and vanilla.  Bake in 9" x 13" x 2" pan, well greased, at 350 for 40 to 45 minutes or until cake pulls away from sides of pan.  Dust with confectioners' sugar or frost with Glossy Chocolate Frosting.  Cut into 3-inch squares.

To make the frosting, melt 3 squares of chocolate in top of double boiler; combine milk, water, sugar, salt and stir into chocolate.  Cook over hot water 20 minutes, then beat with rotary beater 1 minute or until smooth.  Stir in vanilla; cool.

This icing may be made in advance.  It will store well in refrigerator, tightly sealed.

Parfait Pistache – serving size not indicated although I'm guessing it's one serving for you, one for your Valentine!

½ pint coffee ice cream

½ pint chocolate ice cream

1/3 cup dark rum

½ cup crushed pistachio nuts

In parfait glasses, alternate layers of coffee ice cream, crushed pistachio nuts, and chocolate ice cream.  Store in freezer two to three hours.  At serving time, trickle rum over each glass.

"Venus in the Kitchen" - Chicken and Rice (for Valentine's Day)

Date I made this recipe:  February 14, 2013 (Valentine’s Day)

Venus in the Kitchen or Love’s Cookery Book by Pilaff Bay;  edited by Norman Douglas; Introduction by Graham Greene

Published by:  Bloomsbury

© 1952; Bloomsbury edition © 2002

Recipe:  Chicken and Rice – p. 101

Folks, I had no idea until I looked at the calendar how fun-filled and action-packed the first part of February was.  First we had Groundhog’s Day, a day that came and went without much fanfare from me (because winter will end when winter ends and not because a groundhog said so).  Chinese New Year was on February 10^th but we hosted a party for my mother-in-law’s 85^th birthday that day and I was too tired to cook (although I may observe the day belatedly – we’ll see). Fat Tuesday signaling the start of Lent (and Mardi Gras) came and went because I was busy on Tuesday and so that left Valentine’s Day.  Exhausting, no?

And so to the bookshelves I went to find something to make that day that didn’t need 85 hours of scheduled kitchen time and that turned out to be harder than I imagined.  I couldn’t find a chocolate cookbook (Yes, I know, it renders one speechless), and couldn’t quite find a romantic cookbook either, until I looked up from my computer and saw, several shelves up, this book, Venus in the Kitchen.

So you’re probably thinking what I thought, right:  Ta Da!  How perfect can this be?  Well let’s say less than perfect – final answer.  Because kids, in my entire life I have never seen a cookbook full of what I call “rude food” i.e. stuff that I just can’t imagine eating and will not in fact eat – ever.  And here’s a sampling:  “Eel Soup;” “Hare Soup;” “Puree of Game (What???);” some more eel dishes (what the hell is that all about?); “Sparrows’ Brain (if that doesn’t say “rude food” I don’t know what does) and – I kid you not – “Sucking-Pig with Eel.”  Please explain to me how any of this crap constitutes a romantic dinner because I’m not seeing it. 

So I thought “Well, there’s always dessert, right?” Wrong.  Oh-so-wrong.  “Fritters of Elder-Flower” was ruled out immediately as was “Marmalade of Carnations.”  Let me repeat that:  “Marmalade of Carnations.”  Folks, flowers for Valentine’s Day reside in a vase and not in a dish. Cooks may grow flowers and florists may cook but never the twain should meet. (For whatever reason, I could not get the image of a goat, likely with the name “Daisy” wearing a hat munching her way through a neighbor’s flower garden but perhaps it is because I watch way too much retro TV.)

At any rate, I had almost given up on ever using this book when I found the recipe for Chicken and Rice and heaved a sigh of relief that it didn’t appear to contain any weird ingredients and was not named something I’d expect from the show Little Shop of Horrors.  Well, that relief didn’t last long.

Now, it’s not that the recipe was bad, it just wasn’t that good and I do believe it was because it was just too simple when it came to the ingredients, not that carnations or some cactus flower would have enhanced it but….Seasoning of any type was lacking save for a bit of salt and paprika, vegetables were on the boring side – onions, celery, carrots and mushrooms - and the rice got way too mushy.  And, as is sadly becoming usual and customary, the instructions were somewhat unclear.  Actually, that’s not true:  the directions were simple enough but were written in such a way that I had to read them over several times and in the end still felt like I was missing something, specifically a clear picture of what this dish should look like at the end of the cooking time.  What I got was akin to soup but the recipe sounded like it should have been more of a casserole when all was said and done.  Oh well.  So here’s what I did to “save” it for the left-over circuit:  I shredded the chicken and added it to the mushy rice broth and then will throw in a few spices to kick it up a notch ala Emil Lagasse! 

Luckily, my man was not expecting a gourmet masterpiece and that was good, and I placated him further by buying him a box of really wonderful gourmet chocolates from a local Twin Cities’ business, Chocolate Celeste (www.chocolateceleste.com), as a Valentine’s Day treat. We had a quiet night, watched a bit of TV and that was that.  Studies have shown that married couples tend to stay in and make dinner leaving the hooting and hollering to the youngsters and that is exactly what we did.  You’re welcome.

Chicken and Rice – serving size not given but I used roughly 3 pounds of chicken

1 young chicken, cut in quarters (approximately 3 pounds)

¼ pound bacon or ham, chopped

2 large onions, sliced

2 carrots, sliced

2 stalks celery, diced

Sliced mushrooms (no amount given)

½ pound rice

Salt

1 tsp paprika

Enough broth or water to cover (But note:  the recipe says to cover “everything,” apparently referring to everything but the chicken.  This was confusing – see below)

Grated parmesan cheese

Cut in quarters a young chicken, season with salt and pepper, and leave them apart.  Put on the fire a casserole with a quarter of a pound of chopped ham or bacon.  When this is of a golden color, put on the top two large onions sliced in rings, two sliced carrots, the same amount of celery cut in small pieces, and some sliced mushrooms.  On the top of these put half a pound of rice, season with salt and a teaspoon of paprika, add enough broth or water to cover everything, and place now on the top the chicken.  (Ann’s Note:  This sentence just did not make much sense to me.  It says to layer the veggies and rice then add enough water to cover them and then put the (heavy) chicken on top of that.  Explain to me, then, why covering up all the ingredients with water instead of just the veggies doesn’t make sense given that the chicken sank into the water!!)

Put the cover on the saucepan and let it simmer slowly for about an hour. 

Shake the casserole from time to time, but do not stir.  (Ann’s Note:  Warning - one hour of simmering = ½ pound of mushy rice. Sigh.)

Serve hot with grated Parmesan cheese.