"The New American Sampler Cookbook" - Beef Stew and Apple Crisp from two former members of Congress - Election Day 2016

Date I made these recipes – November 8, 2016 – Election Day, USA!

The NEW American Sampler Cookbook, edited by Linda Bauer (recipes submitted by members of Congress)

Published by The Kent State University Press

ISBN: 0-87338-435-0; © 1991

Purchased at Kona Bay Books, Kona (Big Island) Hawaii – May 2016

Recipes:  Beef Stew submitted by Representative Beryl Anthony (D), Arkansas – p. 59 ; and Apple Crisp submitted by actor-turned-Representative Fred Grandy (R), Iowa – p. 248.  Fred played "Gopher" in the popular TV series, The Love Boat.

So tonight, after months and months and well, years really, of political ads and primaries and debates and whatnot, We, The People, will have voted for the 45^th President of the United States (POTUS).  I know I am not alone in wanting this whole thing to be over.  O.V.E.R., over.

But I'm not here to talk politics per se because this isn't a political blog, it's a cookbook blog.  And of course I have a cookbook that fits the bill – The New (what happened to the "old?") American Sampler Cookbook.

This book, published in 1991, provides a bipartisan sample of recipes from then members of Congress as well as then President and Vice President of the United States, George H.W. Bush and Dan Quayle.  Even Guam, a U.S. territory, joined in.  All proceeds went to a charity that fights worldwide hunger.

This is one of those cookbooks that is just a straight-up book of recipes - no chit chat, no stories or anecdotes, just lots and lots of good things to eat.  The usual suspects in the Table of Contents are, of course, "Appetizers," "Salads," "Soups," "Stews," etc. all the way down to "Potpourri (Snacks, Sauces, Drinks)."  And heck, just for something completely different, there is a recipe for "Moose Swiss Steak" on page 125.  Take a guess at which state submitted that recipe?

So in terms of cookbooks, this one is pretty complete save for one thing that I desired that perhaps you don't:  party affiliations.  And the reason I wanted this was because I wanted to be fair and make a dish from each major party—Republican and Democrat (though there were a few Independents listed here as well).

Thank goodness for smart phones.  And so over the course of two evenings there I sat, watching TV shows and surfing the internet (multitasking!), looking up all the contributors to this cookbook to see who they were and what party they were with so I could cull the herd down to two.  This was no easy task but I'm no quitter!

To make my life easier though, I must confess that I defaced my own cookbook*.  Yup.  For the first time ever, I sat there with a pencil, noting a "D," "R," or "I," next to all the names listed in the back of the book.   And honestly, I think I can make a case that this is helpful information because if I didn't know a good portion of these names (25 years after publication), then it's likely the next cook book owner won't either.

I am nothing but fair.  And you are all more than welcome!

The most important thing to me about this cookbook though, is that it's a rare glimpse back in time when parties on both sides of the aisle worked together to achieve a common good.  "Those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end..." (They did.)

I must say, in looking through all the recipes, some members of Congress outdid themselves by submitting not one, not two, but several recipes for our dining enjoyment.  Although it's still early in our voting day (!), I'm going to go out on a limb and declare a winner:  [former] Senator Christopher Bond, Republican, Missouri, gave up 30 recipes and that is outstanding.  I didn't cook any of them, but that is an outstanding effort, especially for a charitable endeavor.

Hot on his heels was Senator Charles Grassley, Republican from Iowa with 15 recipes, the late Senator Spark Matsunaga, Democrat from Hawaii with 10, former Senator Steve Symms from Idaho with 7, and  former Representative Beverly Byron, Democrat from Maryland with 6.

Did you notice how even-handed I was with the runners up?  Two from each side!  Again, I am so fair!

But still folks, the challenge was to try to pair one dish from each party so that the flavors didn't clash, but as with politics and life, some did and thus were eliminated from the race. It took me a while, but I think that I hit the jackpot with these two dishes:  "Beef Stew," from Representative Beryl Anthony, D, Arkansas and "Apple Crisp," from Representative Fred Grandy, R, Iowa.

Now unless you live in Arkansas (and even then...), you may not know who Beryl Albert is but I know – I. Know. – that bells will ring for many of you when you see the name Fred Grandy because in addition to serving in the House of Representatives from 1993-1995, Fred played the beloved character "Gopher" on ABC's hit TV series, The Love Boat, which aired from 1977-1987.

Yes folks, just like actor/governor/President Ronald Reagan, our "Gopher" went to Washington.

I think we need to take a moment to talk about this, don't you?

First, let's talk about the TV show. When The Love Boat premiered (1977), I was a sophomore in college and had no time to watch TV, and yet, now that I have watched a number of reruns on cable, I'm amazed at how many seem familiar.  Perhaps I caught them in reruns even back then?  Highly possible.

Today's college students will likely be surprised to learn that back in the 70's, you'd be hard pressed to find a dorm room with a TV.  Monster stereos, sure, TV's no.  TV's were expensive.  And those who had one (black and white only, and absolutely no cable) were revered, such that many of us gathered (around the campfire, after leaving our covered wagons and horses....) around the TV set in said owner's dorm room to watch our favorite shows or at least try to.

And that's because, sad to say, reception in most dorm rooms was horrible causing us to the do the following (you would call them "hacks") in order to get a picture:  1) putting tin foil on the antennas (yes, antennas—look it up) to pick up a decent picture; 2) creating rabbit ears antennas out of bent clothing hangers to do the same, or 3) creating complicated furniture set-ups resembling cat trees so we could put the TV as close as possible to the window to get a better feed.  Nothing worked though, and if it worked, we more often got sound than we got a picture.  And sure, you can "listen" to something like the movie Gone with the Wind without a picture if need be, but did you want to?  No.  (This happened to us, I kid you not!)

Sound ridiculous?  You young'uns have no idea...

At any rate, here's the basic premise of The Love Boat:  a cruise ship, dubbed The Love Boat, sets sail ("set a course for adventure, your mind on a new romance" = big hint) each week, usually to Mexico, and is manned by Captain Merrill Stubbing (played by The Mary Tyler Moore Show alum, Gavin MacLeod) and his crew.  His crew – and I know you know this – consisted of Doc, the ship's doctor; Julie McCoy, your cruise director; Isaac, the bartender; (eventually) Captain Stubbing's daughter, Vicki, and of course, the Ship's Purser, Berle "Gopher" Smith, played by Fred Grandy of the "Apple Crisp Recipe" Grandys.  As I hope you can imagine by the title, love on the ship was in the air, all day, every day, for passengers and crew alike.  Let's just say Doc took a special interest in the female human body.  Ew.  Even as I write that, it seems creepy but I didn't create the character – a total ladies' man - I just report about it. 

According to Wikipedia, "Gopher's" job, that of a ship's purser, is to handle the ship's finances or, if you will "purse" strings.  Get it?!  And he (or she) does other administrative stuff as well.  But if you ask me – and you didn't – I think "Gopher" (and the rest of the crew) spent more time on misadventures on and off the ship than on handling the money, honey.  Every single week without fail, the crew of The Love Boat got themselves into situations only rivaled by the crew of the S. S. Minnow from the TV show, Gilligan's Island, and yet people loved it.  The plots (of both shows) were ridiculous but The Love Boat lasted 10 seasons and Gilligan's Island, three so they had staying power.

As an aside, were you like me, yelling suggestions at the TV about how to get off Gilligan's Island?  Thought so.

At any rate, according to Wikipedia, Fred had an interest in politics that preceded his time as an actor so it was perhaps a natural path for him once he took a break from acting.  He has since returned to TV, appearing on The Mindy Project.

And now that we got all that out of the way – the history of TV, life in college, The Love Boat, ridiculous plots, and actor, representative, and recipe contributor, Fred Grandy – we can turn our attention to the other side of the aisle – the Democrats and the "Beef Stew" recipe submitted by Representative Beryl Anthony of Arkansas.  Sadly, this recap does not involve a look through the TV years but I will try to make this as interesting as possible.

First though, let me point out the irony of featuring a dish from someone from Arkansas given that Hillary Clinton, a former resident and First Lady of Arkansas (and The White House) is now running for President. I did not plan this.

So, a brief history of Representative Beryl Anthony:  Beryl Anthony was born and raised in – I love this – El Dorado, Arkansas, before going on to get an undergraduate and graduate (law) degree from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.  Just after law school, he was Arkansas' Assistant Attorney General, then a local prosecuting attorney, and then went into private practice before running for Congress in 1979.  He served from 1979-1993 and thereafter, returned to private practice in Washington, D.C.  While in Congress though – and how ironic is this – he was a member of the Ways and Means Committee which deals with money in the form of taxation and revenue-raising measures. In other words, he was just like our purser friend, "Gopher!"

Coincidence?  I think not.

Now I would not be doing my due diligence here if I didn't warn you that while Fred's recipe for "Apple Crisp" takes a mere hour to make, you had best plan ahead (vote early and often!) when you make this beef stew as it requires 5 hours of cooking time in a slow oven (250F).  Happily, I made another recipe (fruitcake), which I will post about next month, that required the same cooking time and temp.  I am nothing if not good at multitasking!  And as soon as the stew and fruitcake were done, I popped in the apple crisp and we had ourselves a hearty election night dinner. The stew was delicious but warning – it produced mass quantities and I only made half a recipe.  The apple crisp is perhaps now one of my new favorites because the "crisp" ingredients are only used as toppings and not crust and toppings. Why, it's practically diet food!

This now concludes Election Night 2016.  Hilariously, and prophetically perhaps, we switched between election coverage and several episodes of Food Network's Chopped.

Only in America....

Beef Stew – makes 6 servings (Ann's Note:  requires 5 hours cooking time at 250.)

Ann's Note:  When I saw how much a half recipe made, I envisioned us eating this stew until the next election cycle but I am happy to report that we have just enough for two hearty (and I mean "hearty) servings as leftovers.

3-4 pounds lean stew meat (chuck roast is great) (Ann's Note:  I used chuck roast country ribs – no bone – and cut them into small pieces.  Delicious!)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 to 3 ribs of celery, cut in 1-inch lengths

5 carrots, cut in 1-inch lengths

2 or 3 onions, diced

5 potatoes, diced

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons minute tapioca

2 bay leaves

3 cups tomato juice

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup red wine

2 cups frozen green peas

1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced

Preheat oven to 250.  Sauté meat lightly in olive oil.  Place all ingredients in pot except frozen peas and mushrooms.  Seal pot with foil and put lid on.  Bake for 4 ½ hours at 250F.  Add peas and mushrooms and cook 30 minutes longer.

Apple Crisp – fills a 9-inch cake pan

4 cups apples

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon lemon juice

½ cup water

1 cup sugar

¾ cup flour

½ cup margarine; softened (Ann's Note:  I used butter)

Peel and slice apples.  Coat a square, 9-inch cake pan with spray shortening.  Place apple slices in it and sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg.  Add lemon juice and water.  Mix sugar, flour, and margarine/butter until the combination crumbles.  Spread this over the fruit.  Bake uncovered for 1 hour at 350.  Serve with vanilla ice cream.

"Autograph Celebrity Cookbook" - Jerry Orbach's (Law & Order) Pan-Fried Steak and "Love in the Afternoon" (recipes from ABC Soaps) Heiress Asparagus Soups - 2016 Emmy Awards

Date I made these recipes – Sunday, September 18, 2016 – Emmy Award Night!

Autograph® Celebrity Cookbook – introduced and compiled by Professor Richard Brown, New York University; foreword by Michael Lomonaco, Chef/Director, Windows on the World until it was destroyed in the 9/11 attacks

Published by DuPont, maker of Autograph® non-stick coating

© 1992

Purchased at BCPA Sale (Bloomington Crime Prevention Association), June 2016

Recipe: Pan-Fried Steak with Balsamic Sauce from the late actor, Jerry Orbach, who played Detective Lennie Briscoe on the TV show, Law & Order – p. 88

Love in the Afternoon Cookbook – Recipes from Your Favorite ABC-TV Soap Operas:  Ryan's Hope; All My Children; One Life to Live; General Hospital by Jeanne Jones and Donna Swajeski

Published by M. Evans and Company, Inc.

ISBN: 0-87131-426-6

Purchased at BCPA Sale (Bloomington Crime Prevention Association), June 2012

Recipe:  Heiress Asparagus Soup from One Life to Live's character Dorian Lord Callison, played by Robin Strasser – p. 85

So the Emmy Awards were on last night and this turned out to be a good thing as it distracted me from another competition that aired on another network:  the Packers v. Vikings game.  In Minnesota.  It did not go well for my Packers. 

Things went much better on the Emmy Awards unless, of course, you lost in your category, in which case you might as well have been playing for the Pack who lost the game.

And so it came to pass that I watched much more (like 90% more) of the Emmys than the game which was not at all what I intended.  I taped both shows, but intended to spend more time watching the game than the Emmys but that didn't happen.

Normally, I might have also "split" my Sunday night menu between an "Emmy" meal and a Packers football meal but it just got too hard to fit everything in.  And so it came to pass that a few days before the game, I decided on an Emmy-meal-or-bust approach and to heck with the football stuff for now. 

Focus is a good thing, amirite Packers?

The first book I used is the Autograph® Celebrity Cookbook.  You should know that this book does not contain any celebrity "autographs," as that refers to a non-stick coating created by DuPont, "sponsor" of this cookbook.  But it does contain celebrity photos and recipes, and all proceeds from the sale of this cookbook were given to Citymeals-on-Wheels in NYC, an organization that provides meals to homebound elderly New Yorkers.  That makes me happy.  But here's what makes me sad:  The foreword to this book, published in 1992, was written by chef Michael Lomonaco who was then in charge of the famous restaurant at the top of the North Tower of the World Trade Centers Twin Towers.  Windows on the World operated from 1976 until 9/11/2011.

On 9/11/2001, everyone on Lomonaco's staff was in that restaurant serving patrons, many of them people who had "always wanted to eat there."  My friend, Bob, knew of one such person who was there that day.  Given the spectacular view from the 106^th/107^th floor, it is no wonder it was popular.  I might have eaten there except for my fear of heights.  

On 9/11, American Airlines Flight 11 plowed into that building; you know what happened after that.  Chef Lomonaco was in the lobby at that time and was evacuated.  He was the only survivor of the restaurant staff.

Until I read the foreword, I did not connect the dots.  I knew who he was since he has appeared on numerous cooking shows, and I knew what happened to Windows on the World, and I might have even remembered that he was in the lobby, but I didn't pull it all together until the day I got pulled the book from my shelf to cook from it for my blog.  I think it is somewhat fitting, if not ironic that I had just written all about 9/11 the week before and now there I was with another cosmic connection to that day.

It's also fitting that many of the celebrities featured in this book (along with their recipes) found their fame in New York and not LA, performing on the stage or in movies or on TV.  Back in the early days of television, many productions were filmed in New York and if you go to Queens, you can go to the Museum of the Moving Image and take in memorabilia and see the old lots.  (I have been there and it is awesome!  I have also been to London's Museum of the Moving Image, or MOMI as it's referred to over there. http://www.movingimage.us/

One actor who made his claim to fame on both the New York stage and screen was the late Jerry Orcbach who most of you know as Detective Lennie Briscoe from the long-running TV show, Law & Order.  I loved the show, loved "Lennie" and particularly loved how the show was shot in NYC.  My husband and my favorite thing to do when watching episodes is "neighborhood spotting" where we guess (mostly correctly) where a scene took place.

As between Jerry's recipes for "Chicken with Artichokes, Mushrooms, and White Wine," and "Pan-Fried Steak with Balsamic Sauce," tonight's "Emmy" went (narrowly) to the steak.  It was delicious.  It was also shown paired with fresh asparagus which I did not make, but I did make an asparagus soup from another cookbook which sort of tied the whole thing together.

If Jerry's recipes don't float your boat, here's a sampling of some of the other actors and recipes that might:

• Alan Alda (M*A*S*H) – Sauteed Shrimp with Basil and Cherry Tomatoes
• Adam Arkin (guest-starred recently on How to Get Away with Murder) – French Onion Soup
• Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck; Steel Magnolias) – Greek Meatballs
• Tony Goldwyn (Scandal) – Pork Tenderloin Steaks with Spicy Tomato Sauce
• Ben Stiller (Night at the Museum, Zoolander) – Sweet Ricotta Pancakes

 And lots, lots more!

The second cookbook I used – Love in the Afternoon - is also celebrity-themed but this time around, the celebrities are all soap opera actors.  Daytime TV, of which soaps used to be a huge part, have had their own Emmy Awards for years – Daytime Emmys.  Daytime Emmys were held in May of this year and according to the internet, they were the 43^rd Daytime Emmys.  I did not realize they were on for that long.

In the "old" days, of daytime TV, it was difficult for a soap opera actor to cross over to primetime TV or movies but these days, actors and actresses are free to roam about the cabin.  Now, many of the people we see getting a "nighttime" Emmy got their start on soap operas (or, as Tony Award host James Corden hilariously pointed out, Law & Order!).

Most of the famous soaps I grew up with are now long gone, but I tell you what, in their heyday, we were all glued to the set. I was a fan of CBS' The Young and the Restless (still running) as well as All My Children.  My mother was a fan of The Edge of Night, The Guiding Light and The Secret Storm, which she watched while ironing. (You remember ironing, right?)

So I watched as many soaps as I could in high school and then went off to college where I was amazed to find a whole "underworld" of soap addicts.  And by "addicts," I mean students who planned classes around their favorite soap operas.  At the time, most of us did not have TV sets in our dorm rooms (it was the dinosaur era), but the Wildcat Den, a student lounge and restaurant at my undergrad alma mater, Northern Michigan University, solved that problem by broadcasting the shows on the big screen TV. (And by "big screen" I do not mean the ginormous screens gracing many a home these days, but something sufficient to be seen from far away).

If you went into the Wildcat Den you knew better than to try to have a conversation with someone during soap time.  You also knew better than to point out the men who were watching (but claimed they weren't).  When you're addicted, you're addicted.

This cookbook only focuses on four ABC soaps:  Ryan's Hope, All My Children, One Life to Live, and General Hospital. Other popular soaps though were:  Days of Our Lives ("like the sand through an hourglass, these are the Days of Our Lives") and the aforementioned The Young and the Restless but it is loaded with great-sounding recipes.  As always, I often hate my own self-imposed rule of choosing just one to use and then write about.

Looking back at these shows, the thing I find most interesting is how many strong women there were and how many [fictional] families were "ruled" by matriarchs, not patriarchs.  Actress Ruth Warrick, who was in the movie, Citizen Kane, played the always stuffy and uptight Phoebe Tyler Wallingford on All My Children.  Actress Jeanne Cooper played tough-as-nails Katherine Chancellor on The Young and the Restless.  These were women who did not spend time in the kitchen, no sir! They had "people."  People who took care of the sundry things in life so they could focus on stirring up the pot.  (Some day though, I want to have "people.")

Although this is very much a woman-centric cookbook, fear not all you Asa Buchanan (actor Philip Carey) fans because Asa (from One Life to Live) has a few recipes up his sleeve as well.  If you watched the show (I confess I did not), then it should not surprise you that Asa's – head of the Texas Buchanan family – focus on Texas barbecue.

This cookbook is broken out into chapters by the featured soaps and then by characters from those shows.  There are plenty of recipes from which to choose and I had flagged several, but when I decided on steak from the other book as the main dish, I felt the need to find a suitable accompaniment from this book.  After a brief consideration of "Continental Celery Root," one of Dorian Lord Callison's (actress Robin Strasser) recipes,  I settled on the soup.  Both dishes complimented each other nicely.

And so there you go folks, everything you need to know about TV shows, soap operas, the Emmys and more.  Enjoy!

N.B. I cannot tell you how much I smiled when I saw a recipe called "Ruby Red Franks" (from All My Children character Opal Gardner), not because I wanted to make it but because it reminded me of one of my law professors.  The late Professor David Cobin taught Civil Procedure (Civ Pro) to first year law students and that class required us to purchase also a supplement containing all the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.  That year, the book cover was a dark red and so he often asked us to pull out our "ruby red supplement."  I still have that book on my shelf, all of 15 years after using it because I cannot throw it out. He was such a sweet man and took such pity on all of us confused law students (Civ Pro is no picnic) RIP, Professor Cobin.

Pan-Fried Steak with Balsamic Sauce from Autograph® Celebrity Cookbook and actor Jerry Orbach – serves 4

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

¾ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

4 (1-inch-thick) boneless sirloin steaks (about 2 pounds)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small red onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

In a small bowl, stir together the cumin, coriander, ½ teaspoon of the salt and the pepper.  Rub the mixture over the steaks.

In a 12-inch skillet or sauté pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat.  Add steaks and cook 3 to 4 minutes per side for medium-rare.  Transfer the steaks to a large platter.

Add the onion and garlic to the pan and cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is lightly browned, about 3 minutes.  Add the rosemary; stir to combine.  Add the vinegar, sugar, and the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt and bring to a boil.  Cook until slightly reduced, about 2 minutes.  Remove from the heat and swirl in the butter.  Spoon the sauce over the steaks and serve.

Heiress Asparagus Soup from the Love in the Afternoon Cookbook and (character) Dorian Lord Callison, played by actress Robin Strasser – 6 portions

2 packages (10 ounces each) frozen asparagus, thawed

1 large celery rib without leaves, chopped

¼ teaspoon dried marjoram, crushed, using a mortar and pestle

1/8 teaspoon salt

Pinch of white pepper

3 ¼ cups chicken broth

2 tablespoons butter or corn-oil margarine

1 small onion, chopped

1 cup dairy sour cream

Combine the asparagus, celery and seasonings in a saucepan and cover with 1 ½ cups of the chicken broth.  Simmer until the asparagus is tender.  Ann's Note:  My celery remained a little too crunchy for my taste so if I had to do this over again, I would cook the celery and seasonings until the celery is fairly soft, then add the asparagus.

Melt the butter or margarine in a skillet and sauté the onion until golden.  Ann's Note:  Like the celery, I thought that the onion could have been cooked more but for how long depends on your taste as the recipe does not give cooking time guidelines.

Place the asparagus mixture and the onion in a blender container and blend until smooth.  Ann's Note:  I reserved some of the asparagus so that the soup was half blended, half "whole" asparagus.  We like it that way. 

Add the sour cream and remaining chicken broth and continue to blend then return the mixture to the saucepan and heat to serving temperature, but do not boil.

"The Hollywood Cookbook - Cooking for Causes" - Mediterranean Chicken and Coconut Rice Pudding for the Oscars!

Date I made these recipes:  February 22, 2015 – Oscar Night!

The Hollywood Cookbook – Cooking for Causes by Jackie Zabel and Morgan Most

Published by:  Silverback Books, Inc.

ISBN:  13: 978-1-56937-083-8; © 2006

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Stores

Recipes:  Mediterranean Chicken (Anne Hathaway's) – p. 116 and Coconut Rice Pudding – p. 157

Tonight was the 87^th Academy Awards show and the Oscar went to...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Clocking in at 3.5 hours, this sucker was long and might I say boring?  And predictable.  And boring.  Wait, I said that.

Once upon a time, when I actually went to a movie theater (not since 2003 folks and it seems even longer than that) and watched most if not all the Oscar contenders for Best Picture, that horse race was fun.  Heck, I even snuck in a foreign films along the way just to keep my hand in the game and for bragging rights:  "Why yes, I did see that Icelandic horror story, thank you very much.  Two words:  Total shoe-in!"  Back then though, my movie viewing had a purpose and that was to win, finally, my friend Mike's Oscar pool. You think the actual Oscars are a battle? Ha! Try winning that damned pool. Some years I came so close to winning it all (and my plastic Oscar)  it was ridiculous.  And I had my speech all ready to go, damn it, and of course it was totally original, unlike most "plug and play" speeches we hear today (well, except this year):  "I'd like to thank my [producers] [directors] [the good folks at craft food service]...."

But then.  But then everything got boring and predictable and was there any doubt about who would win anything (in a major category) this year?  No, there was not.  In fact, so slow-moving was this train that toward the end, when I was desperately fighting off sleep (and the accompanying mouth drool), I was momentarily dismayed (confused?) to see that Patricia Arquette wasn't pictured along with the rest of the ladies up for Best Actress.  And that's because she won her award for Best Supporting Actress what – days earlier?  It seemed so. 

And G-Bless Neil Patrick Harris but he did not help matters along at all.  Now, if he would have tap danced, if he would have created a work-out video or if he magically (because he is a magician) made the entire auditorium disappear (save for Oprah who never goes anywhere because she's well...Oprah!), well then maybe I might have sat up straighter and paid better attention.  But he didn't so I didn't and so there you go.

And I can't even blame my drowsiness on the fact that Andy and I ate a heavy pre-Oscar meal because we didn't.  Well okay, the coconut rice pudding wasn't exactly the lightest thing on the planet but it was dessert and we had just a small taste so we would not do what in fact we did anyway – snooze!  Poor Andy bailed 3 hours in, recognizing that he would miss out (not really) on the Best of the Best of the...whatever...categories that remained but the guy has to get up for work in the morning and as excuses go, I don't think the boss would be tickled with "Well, I was up too late watching the never-ending Oscars and then I overslept and...."  Okay, small lie:  that might work with me if I was his boss but not in a machine shop full of guys.  Just sayin'...

Okay, well, I could go on and on (and believe me, post-awards I do go on and on about the fashion), but let's get to this cookbook.

The title, if you will, is somewhat misleading because it's The Hollywood Cookbook and to some – okay me – "Hollywood" still means films.  Films that are celebrated on a night like tonight at the Oscars.  Yet this book is filled with mostly TV actors who, of course, work in Hollywood but yet it's not the same.  This is why TV actors are celebrated with the Emmy's and movie actors are celebrated with the Oscars and the twain never shall meet, or at least didn't until the Golden Globes and the Screen Actor's Guild Awards were created to split the difference.  Or at least that's the answer that I'm going with for today.

Now, the purpose of this book can be found in the subtitle "Cooking for Causes."  And so each actor, actress, or chef, listed here gives us the charity/cause they support and they are all worthy.  In some cases, I was tempted to select a recipe based on the cause and not necessarily the actor.  Then other times, I flipped it and was learning toward the actor instead of the cause.  Well, luckily, I have Mr. Not-All-That-Interested for a spouse and so I handed him the book and let him select the recipe he wanted—which really is the point of this blog, right?  And when he handed it back, it was with the caveat that he didn't care what else I made from the book, he wanted the Coconut Rice Pudding.  He loves rice pudding and he loves it so much that despite the fact that we were grocery shopping for ingredients to make this rice pudding, he was still going to buy some at Trader Joe's.  I reminded him of dinner and he put the package back.  "Another day, dear. You can buy it another day."

As to the main dish, he was leaning toward, Jane Kaczmarek and Bradley Whitford's (once married, now divorced) recipe for slow cooker cassoulet until I pointed out to him that it calls for duck (I don't like duck) and that even if we substituted that item, it called for a lot of meat and a lot of meat means a lot of money.  So I made the Mediterranean Chicken instead.  That's how well roll the week before payday!

Before we get to the recipes, here's a look at a few stars who submitted recipes, the movie they are most likely known for and their charity:

• Thora Birch - "American Beauty."  Charity: Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation).
• Michael J. Fox - "Back to the Future," of course.  Charity: The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.
• Brendan Fraser  - "Blast From the Past." Charity: P.S. Arts.
• Anne Hathaway (Mediterranean Chicken) – "Les Miserables (Best Actress winner, 2013)."  Charity: Lollipop Theater Network.
• Ron Howard – director of too many films to name but my favorite is "Apollo 13"...not to mention the star of TV shows like "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Happy Days."  Charity:  Boys and Girls Club of America.
• Jane Kaczmarek and Bradley Whitford (Coconut Rice Pudding) – Mostly TV roles, she for "Malcolm in the Middle," he for "The West Wing."   Charity is one they founded:  Clothes Off Our Back.
• Esai Morales – "La Bamba."  Charity:  TreePeople.
• Wolfgang Puck – none listed but he donates a lot of time and attention to several worthy causes as well as caters the Oscar's Governor's Ball every year.
• Treat Williams – mostly known for Broadway and TV roles like Stanley Kowalski in a TV remake of "A Streetcar Named Desire" ("Stellaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.....").  Charity:  Save the Children

...and more.

As a PS, actor James Denton – Desperate Housewives – is also included in this book and I nearly went for his southern treats before my husband decided otherwise.  James is married to a woman from MN and has been living in a Twin Cities suburb for the past couple years.  He has also been very active in Twin Cities theater productions.

Okay, so as to the recipes, both were good and I loved that I could make up the base for each, pop it in the fridge and then proceed to forget about them for a couple of hours.  Actual cooking time was minimal and so for once I was able to time them to get done at the same time – woot!

As to the chicken dish, it was tasty but I must say that the marinade was interesting.  It contained oil and vinegar and that was okay but then you added a bunch of savory items like garlic and capers and oregano and then topped it off with fruit and then topped it off further with brown sugar.  Huh.  The taste was great but you wouldn't have thought so at first blush.

The one little quibble I have is that if you look at the photo included in the book (which never seems to look like my finished product), you'd swear there were onions in this recipe.  And yet I read the instructions and the ingredient list several times and no onions were mentioned.  So there's that mystery.

And the instructions for the rice pudding puzzled as well.  The ingredients call for "1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean (scraped)."  Have we all got that?  But then there's the instruction "Remove vanilla bean pod and refrigerate..."  It almost sounded like I should leave the bean pod whole but I wasn't sure.  So I showed it to Andy who also had no idea. And so I put the entire bean pod in the mixture and removed it before chilling.   This might not have been right but it's my blog and I'll cook like I want to!

And the Oscar for this evening goes to...the food.  Enjoy!

Mediterranean Chicken – Serves 6 – Note:  marinate for 4 hours or overnight

6 boneless, skinless chicken cutlets (3 whole breasts)

¾ cup red wine vinegar

3/34 cup extra virgin olive oil

3 garlic cloves, smashed

2 tablespoons minced fresh oregano leaves (Ann's Note:  Not to sound like an idiot but I've never heard of fresh oregano leaves, only dried.  Still, my Rainbow grocery story carried them, bless their hearts, and so I bought them.)

2 tablespoons capers

1/3 cup dried apricots

1/3 cup pitted prunes

1 handful pitted green or black olives

3 bay leaves

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

¾ cup white wine

½ cup brown sugar

6 cups salad mix or rice

Place chicken in a large baking dish.  In a bowl, combine vinegar, oil, garlic, oregano, capers, apricots, prunes, olives, and bay leaves and season with salt and pepper.  Mix well.  Pour mixture over chicken breasts and place, covered, in refrigerator.  Allow chicken to marinate for 4 hours or overnight.  Ann's Note:  The oil will "set" when refrigerated but no worries, it's fine.  Odd-looking, but fine.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Remove chicken dish from refrigerator and discard bay leaves.  Pour wine over the top of chicken and sprinkle with sugar.

Place dish in oven and bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.

Serve chicken breasts on a bed of rice or salad.

Coconut Rice Pudding – Serves 6 – Note:  allow one hour for milk mixture to cool, 4 hours to overnight for mixture to be refrigerated before finishing the recipe

1 cup cream, whipping

1 ¼ cups unsweetened coconut milk, well shaken

2 cups milk

3 black cardamom pods (Ann's Note:  you can get these at a co-op or Whole Foods but I couldn't find black, only green.)

1 ½ tablespoons grated lemon zest

½ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

2 cups cold cooked rice (preferably medium-grain)

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon vanilla bean (scraped)

Toasted coconut shavings, for sprinkling

Combine the milks, cardamom pods, vanilla bean and lemon zest in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Remove from heat, cool for one hour.  Remove vanilla bean pod and refrigerate for 4 hours (or overnight).

Strain the cardamom mixture into a medium saucepan.  Add the sugar, salt and rice, and bring to a boil over medium-low heat.  Reduce heat and simmer, stirring frequently until thick and creamy, about 40 minutes.  Stir in the vanilla extract and serve warm or chilled.  Garnish with coconut shavings.

"The Sinatra Celebrity Cookbook" - Rova and Ernie Borgnine's Pevronatta a la Borgnine (ragu of sausage and peppers on pasta)

Date I made this recipe:  February 24, 2013 (Academy Award night)

The Sinatra Celebrity Cookbook – Barbara, Frank & Friends by The Affiliates Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center at Eisenhower Medical Center Rancho Mirage, CA

Published by:  The Affiliates Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center at Eisenhower Medical Center Rancho Mirage, CA

© 1996

Recipe:  Tova and Ernie Borgnine’s Pevronatta a la Borgnine (Pasta with Peppers) – p. 166

Tonight is Oscar night and if you’ll forgive me, I just have to sing the “Oscar Song” from TV’s The Odd Couple.  Ready?  “Once there was a man named Oscar.  Oscar, Oscar, Oscar.  And he turned on his best friend. Oscar, Oscar, Oscar. Oscar.  Oscar.  Aw-ah-ah-ah!”  Thanks, folks, I’m here all week….  (For those of you who are TV buffs, this is a song sung by Felix Unger, the biggest neat-freak on the planet, played actor by Tony Randall, to the biggest slob on the planet, Oscar Madison, played by Jack Klugman.  Both actors also stared in many films; Jack is best known for his role as a juror in 12 Angry Men.)

At any rate, I couldn’t resist an opportunity to sing that “song” and if you want to relive the hilarious moment, you can find it on YouTube under “Oscar Song Odd Couple” or under “Felix the Calypso Singer.”  Priceless.

So this, of course, put me in the mood to pull out a cookbook by another singer, one possibly just a tich more famous than Felix Unger – Frank Sinatra.  (But by the by, actor Tony Randall was also a very good singer.)  Frank and his wife, Barbara, filled this book with recipes from their celebrity friends – actors, singers, songwriters and even politicians.

Many of you may not know that in addition to being one of the most famous and memorable singers in history, “Ol Blue Eyes”/”Chairman of the Board” also acted and won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in the film, From Here to Eternity, starring Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr (The King and I), Donna Reed and countless others.  Set in Hawaii during WWII, this story showcases of all things, boxing and an Army company’s boxing tournament.  Naturally, there has to be some sex and women thrown in for good measure and so enter Deborah Kerr and Donna Reed!  Deborah ends up having an affair with Burt Lancaster and the movie’s sexy scene involving the two of them kissing on a beach in the surf in Hawaii (and yes, there is a real “From Here to Eternity” beach and I’ve been there) set people’s hair on fire when the movie came out (1953) and from that point on, I don’t think people cared a fig about the boxing portion of our program.  Honestly – people were shocked to see Deborah Kerr in that hussy role and weren’t too thrilled about wholesome Donna Reed’s It’s a Wonderful Life’s role as a prostitute, either.  Now of course, everything is far game and a scene like the beach one gets a “yawn” – maybe. (By the by, in the movie, Deborah Kerr was married to Captain Dana Holmes played by actor Phil Ober.  In real life, Phil Ober was married to actress Vivian Vance who played Ethel Mertz opposite Lucille Ball’s Lucy Ricardo on I Love Lucy.)

Frank’s role was that of Angelo Maggio, a company boxer. Frank was nominated for and won Best Supporting Actor for this movie and Donna Reed won Best Supporting Actress for her role as Alma, the prostitute.  Hollywood does indeed love its down-and-out characters.

Frank’s other film roles ran the gamut from tense (Manchurian Candidate) to twinkle toes (Guys and Dolls in which Marlon Brandon co-stared in a singing role.  Yes, singing role).  And between his acting, singing and Viva Los Vegas, Baby lounge acts, he managed to meet just about everybody including fellow actor, Ernest (Ernie) Borgnine, who just passed away this year.  While many of you may remember him from McHale’s Navy, the Poseidon Adventure and yes, he was even in From Here to Eternity, I fell in love with him in the movie, Marty.  Ernie won the Academy Award for that role, beating out his friend, Frank Sinatra, who was nominated for his role in the movie, The Man With the Golden Arm.  It’s kind of scary, isn’t it, how all these roles and actors connect?

When I looked through this book, I was looking for someone who, if they hadn’t won an Oscar, was a movie actor.  Many qualified (some, like politicians, didn’t) but Ernie and his wife Tova, beat out the other contenders because I liked him and because I liked this recipe.

Ernie – born Ermes Effron Borgnino – used a slightly different variation on the Italian word, perperonata for this recipe but the dish’s result is the same:  it’s a dish of sautéed peppers, onions and in this case, sweet Italian sausage and ground sirloin.  It is very rich and hearty and good.  But be warned, the full recipe, serving 4-6, calls for 10 green peppers.  I made half the recipe and used only a little green pepper (not my favorite) and had a lot left over. 

I got this dish done just in time for the Oscars telecast and that was a good thing because I didn’t want to miss out on seeing who took the golden guy home this year.  I am sadly behind on viewing new movies but pride myself on having a decent DVD library of the old classics starting our friends Frank and Ernie and more!

Pevronatta a la Borginine (Pasta with Peppers) – serves 4 to 6 (Note, I made half the recipe)

4 cloves garlic

Olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

10 green bell peppers, diced

1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casing removed

1 to 1 ½ pounds ground sirloin

Chopped parsley or parsley flakes to taste

½ pound mushroom, sliced

1 (16 ounce) jar Italian-seasoned tomato sauce

1 cup red wine

1 (16 ounce) package pasta (Ann’s Note:  choose a pasta like Rigatoni or Penne that can hold up to a heavier sauce)

Sauté garlic in oil in skillet.  Add onion and cook until lightly browned.  Stir in bell pepper and cook, turning frequently, until softened.  In separate skillet, sauté sausage and beef, stirring to crumble, until cooked and no longer red in center. Combine meat mixture with sautéed vegetables.  Add parsley, mushrooms and tomato sauce to meat mixture.  Stir in red wine.  Simmer for 20 minutes.

While sauce is cooking, prepare pasta according to package directions.  Drain well.  Serve sauce over pasta.  Serves 4 to 6.

Chicken wings or drummettes can be substituted for sausage and beef.