"The Recipe Project Cookbook" (recipe by Mario Batali) & "The Hip-Hop Cookbook" (recipe by Hip Hop artist, Pexter) - more Minnesota State Fair

Date I made these recipes:  September 1, 2016 – a homage to the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand acts and my (coveted) Golden Decibel Award

The Hip Hop Cookbook - Four Elements Cooking by Cutmaster GB

Published by From Here to Fame Publishing

ISBN: 978-2-927946-38-2; © 2012

Purchased at Magers and Quinn Independent Booksellers (used) – Minneapolis, MN

Recipe:  Pexter's Angel Hair Parmesan Chicken – p. 60  (Pexter is Hip Hop artist Powerful Pex)

The Recipe Project– A Delectable Extravaganza of Food and Music – Songs by One Ring Zero, Words by Mario Batali; Tom Colicchio; David Chang; Isa Chandra Moskowitz; Michael Symon, Chris Cosentino and more (includes a CD of songs)

Published by Black Balloon Publishing

ISBN: 13: 978-1-936787-00-5; © 2011

Purchased at Powell's Chicago

Recipe:  Spaghetti with Sweet 100 Tomatoes courtesy of Mario Batali – p. 10

As mentioned in my last post, it's State Fair time here in Minnesota and in addition to all the things you'd expect to find at a state fair (animals, creative arts, lots of food, tractors, etc.), in these parts you also get The Grandstand.  The venerable Grandstand, only a few miles away from our house, books out many great bands during its 12-day run and given how sound travels, we practically have front-row seats to each and every concert!  For 12 nights, we hear each and every guitar lick, and each and every bass note, and each and every drum beat.   

So several years ago, after being "treated" to concert after concert, I created the (coveted) Golden Decibel Award for the person or group who blasts us out of house and home during the fair.  And by "blast," I mean that we cannot hear ourselves think and any TV show we are watching is drowned out by the music.  It's fun for the whole family!

Although I reserve the final vote (my contest, my vote—but with consultation from Andy), I always ask my Facebook friends to play along and vote for who they think will take the award. Then the Wednesday before opening day (always on a Thursday), I post the schedule with a link to The Grandstand acts and then people reply with their (initial) choices.  Here were this year's contenders:

• Don Henley (formerly of the Eagles)
• Charlie Wilson with special guest, Fantasia
• Dixie Chicks (two nights)
• Happy Together (music from the 60's and 70's)
• G-Eazy
• Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas
• Alabama
• Garrison Keillor (from A Prairie Home Companion)
• Weezer
• Bonnie Raitt

I always find it interesting that people tend to vote for the larger groups, like Dixie Chicks, or Alabama, thinking they have the firepower to be heard from a couple of miles away.  They are not wrong but I always caution voters that anything can happen and that weather plays an important part in determining the winner.  If it is hot and humid (as it usually is at this time of year), no amount of sound gets through Nature's "Wall of Water," and we've had some years where we wondered if anybody would prevail.  Such was not the case this year but more on that later.  Let's talk cookbooks!

Since the Golden Decibel Award is theoretically about music (but more like "Quien es mas macho?" when it comes to making noise), I thought it would be fun to make something from these two band and music-related cookbooks and to make it easiest on myself, I tried out two different pasta dishes rather than do different and more complicated courses.

And so from the shelf, I pulled The Recipe Project Cookbook, a book with 12 (and only 12) recipes, a CD of songs by One Ring Zero as well as musical and cooking discussions, and The Hip Hop Cookbook, filled with 40 recipes from 40 Hip Hop artists but alas, no music CD.  Let's review!

I must say that The Recipe Project Cookbook, while intriguing, was sadly lacking in what I consider to be edible fare.  One recipe was for "Raw Peach."  Now I ask you, how does a "raw" peach "recipe" end up in a cookbook?  File that under "Nothing to see here, folks."

Also eliminated:  "Creamless Creamed Corn," "Pickled Pumpkin," "Octopus with Black Eyed Peas," and my favorite (not really) "Brains and Eggs." Ugh. 

So just like the Golden Decibel Award, this left me with few contenders out of the 12 and so I went with the one that seemed easiest: Spaghetti with Sweet 100 Tomatoes courtesy Mario Batali.

Mario's recipe would have been a home run save for the trouble I had finding these two very important ingredients:  lemon basil and garlic chives.  I checked three of the more upscale grocery stores in town and struck out, and the Seward Co-Op near my house had only garlic chives (by the pound!) and not the lemon basil.  I must say that I was surprised as I can usually source almost anything I want in the Twin Cities.  Except for today, of course.

So I tweaked this dish as follows:  I added a bit more garlic to the recipe and then grated some lemon zest into the sauté pan and it worked out fine.  It was only after I "ta-da'ed" the dish to Andy that he reminded me that he wasn't that fond of tomatoes.  Oops.

In addition to the recipes, you'll also get nine "Musings" by various writers and five "Interviews" with "celebrity" chefs and other foodies. My favorite "musing" is "The Beatles' White Album: I'm Just Here For the Food," by cookbook author and food columnist, Melissa Clark.  And in the "Interview" category, I like Andrea Reusing expounding on "Bruce Springsteen, Egg Haters, and Giant Clams."  You've got to love an interview with that mash-up in the title!

Then from The Hip Hop Cookbook, you get 40 bios and 40 recipes from various Hip Hop artists. I have to confess that the only artist I recognize from this list is Kurtis Blow and the only song I know is his "The Breaks:" "Clap your hands everybody/If you got what it takes/'Cause I'm Kurtis Blow and I want you to know/That these are the breaks." (And how cosmic was this:  our local radio station, The Current, played this song yesterday afternoon.  Awesome!)

Other hip hop artists featured in this book (random sampling here) are:  Katmando; Blade TC5; Funkmaster Ozone; Cutmaster GB and Pyestar.  Today's recipe was from the previously-mentioned Powerful Pexter, a/k/a Tony Lopez.  When I Googled this guy, he came up under "Old-School Hip Hop."  I love it—"Old School" – as if I know who the "New School" hip hop artists are (I don't). 

Happily, this cookbook contained more recipes than The Recipe Project and while there were several pasta dishes that sounded interesting, I decided to make it as easy as possible and cook for chicken with parmesan.

You should know though folks, that this chicken parmesan is not the chicken parm you may be used to or expecting.  The chicken is not coated, there's no red sauce and no mozzarella cheese.  Instead, it's pretty much as labeled:  Parmesan + chicken to which you add garlic, ½ fresh chili and parsley.  That's it. 

While I liked both recipes, Andy was a little underwhelmed. I thought both were tasty even if they were a bit on the boring side.  But again, as between brains and eggs, and pasta with tomatoes, I know which one he wouldn't have chosen and so that made that choice easy. 

So I made these dishes and then on Labor Day, the 2016 Golden Decibel Award contest wrapped up and our winner was...drum roll...Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas! (Applause!  Applause!)  Not one single person on Facebook, picked them! I didn't pick them!  Seems like nobody but nobody excepted them to prevail.  But let me tell you folks, they earned it by blasting us out of our house for almost 3 solid hours.  By the time they finished, it took me and Andy another hour just to realize that the show was over.  That is some kind of fire power!

So.  That concludes the (coveted) Golden Decibel Award and the Minnesota State Fair and this recipe blog!  These recipes, while not award-winning, are easy to make, leaving you plenty of time to relax and listen to your own favorite musical selections, and hopefully not because they were "beamed" into your living room from a couple miles away!

Mario Batali's Spaghetti with Sweet 100 Tomatoes – serves 4 – from The Recipe Project Cookbook

Kosher salt

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 pint sweet 100 tomatoes, or other tiny tomatoes

½ bunch garlic chives, cut into 1-inch lengths*

12 fresh lemon basil leaves, finely shredded*

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 pound spaghetti

Lemon zest*

*If you can't find garlic chives, substitute regular chives.  Same with the lemon basil but then add some lemon zest to the dish to approximate the lemon basil flavor.

Bring 6 quarts of water to a boil and add 2 tablespoons of salt.

In a 12- to 14-inch sauté pan, heat the olive oil over high heat until almost smoking.  Lower the heat to medium-high and add garlic cloves.  Cook for 2 minutes, or until softened and slightly browned.  Add the tomatoes, chives, and basil, and cook over high heat until the tomatoes are just beginning to burst.  Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in the boiling water according to package directions until it is tender, yet al dente.  Drain the pasta and add it to the pan with the tomatoes.  Toss over high heat for 1 minute, then divide evenly among four warmed pasta bowls and serve immediately.

Pexter's Angel Hair Parmesan Chicken – serving size not given (4?)- from The Hip Hop Cookbook

14 oz angel hair or other pasta

6 Tbsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves

½ fresh chili*

2 stalks of fresh, flat-leaf parsley, chopped

9 oz chicken breast

2/3 cup Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper

 *I used red pepper flakes instead of chili

Finely chop the garlic and chili, then cut the chicken into small pieces. Heat a bit of oil in a pan, add the garlic and chili and sauté on low heat for several minutes.  Add the chicken and sauté until thoroughly cooked.  Remove from the stove and add the parsley.

Cook the pasta in a large pot with salted water until al dente, drain and mix with the chicken/garlic/chili mixture.  Immediately add Parmesan and serve.

"I Like Food, Food Tastes Good - In the Kitchen with Your Favorite Bands" - Pasta Bolognese for Grammy Award Night!

Date I made this recipe:  February 8, 2015 – Grammy night!

I Like Food, Food Tastes Good – In the Kitchen with Your Favorite Bands by Kara Zuaro

Published by:  Hyperion

ISBN:  1-4013-0847-0

Recipe: Pasta Bolognese submitted by John Navin – The Aluminum Group – p. 75-76

So for once I was ahead of the 8-ball and found this recipe a good week before the Grammy's.  And I even made it up in advance, finishing it off Sunday night.  But people, I must confess that I did not watch this year's awards program.  I know, right?

Here's the deal:  Although I like many of the songs that are nominated and I know many of the bands that were featured, both as presenters and performers and winners, I'm at the point where I just feel like I'm watching a circus sideshow. 

First, let's talk (or not) about the outfits.  My gawd in heaven, when Madonna can come in looking like I don't know what wearing a "butt bra" (yup, check out the pictures), then the civilized world as we know it has come to an end.  For whatever reason, the Grammy's bring out the worst fashions in people and I am not limiting my meow moments to just the women because I'm talking to you, Joe Jonas!  WHITE shoes?  Are we kidding??

And then, let me just say it, there was Kanye West, who apparently repeated his "Let me just interrupt your acceptance speech, Taylor Swift," this time going after Beck who beat out Beyonce for Album of the Year.  What IS it with Kanye and Beyonce anyway?  News reports differ – he was kidding/not kidding - but regardless, you don't see Oscar contenders doing that, now do you?  No, you do not!  And speaking of which, to compare and contrast, Sunday night was also the night for the BAFTA Awards (British version of the Oscars) and let me tell you, when a real Prince (William) shows up, albeit via video broadcast, you do not wear a dress resembling a crocheted toilet paper cover, circa 1950, do you Rhianna!  (Goggle crotched toilet paper cover Barbie.)

And seeing as how I can read and reread and watch and re-watch and judge and judge some more all the celebrity photos on the internet the next day, why tune in for real?  Exactly.

Secondary reason for not watching?  Because the movie,  Marvel (comics) The Avengers, was on at the same time.  I am not a Marvel comic gal (Superman was a DC Comic) but I have seen all the Iron Man movies (Marvel) and am quite enamored with a new ABC show, Marvel's Agent Carter which can be seen on  Tuesday nights at 9, 8 Central Time.  I LOVE Peggy Carter.  I especially love seeing her kick the crap out of the evil men she encounters because she is just a super, super agent!  But.  I do feel like I'm missing something by not knowing my Marvel characters and back stories so when the opportunity came up to tune in to The Avengers, it was a no-brainer choice.

Okay, then, so now that we've established why I played hokey, let's talk about this book.  I am quite chuffed to say that I've heard of/listened to several of the bands listed here which is quite the accomplishment because these groups are not exactly getting a ton of playing time on pop radio stations.  But where they are being played is on Minnesota Public Radio's alternative station, the one, the only, 89.3 The Current.  The Current just celebrated 10 years on the air.  The Current also experienced a little kerfuffle a couple weeks ago when they laid off one of my (and others) favorite DJ's and I'm still trying to get over it but in the meantime, this is the station I listen to all day, every day.

The Current format is pretty fun—a few top 40 hits (although not many), a lot of alternative, garage and indie bands, and then there are moments where the DJ's just play whatever the hell they want and so one minute you can hear Frank Sinatra, the next, Curt Cobain, and one fine afternoon, The Osmond Brothers.  When the Osmonds came on, I was so psyched to hear a band from my middle-youth years that I almost drove my car off the road.  Now THAT is fine radio programming, people!

As to the cookbook, here's a sample of bands you might know along with their recipes:

• Calexico (Tofu Scramble – p. 6)
• Death Cab for Cutie (Veggie Sausage and Peanut Butter Sandwich – p. 64)
• Franz Ferdinand (Lemon Ginger Flapjacks – p. 209)
• My Morning Jacket (The "You Can Care if You Wanna" Sandwich – p. 71)
• Pelican (Oatmeal Cake – p. 224)
• The Decemberists (Oh, how I love this group) (Pork Loin with Poblano Chilies – p. 77)
• The Hold Steady (Midwestern-Style Bratwurst – p. 81)
• The Violent Femmes (Wild Boar Ragu – p. 95)
• They Might Be Giants (Countrypolitan (drink) – p. 193)

And so on and so on.  If nothing else, I have the makings for my next playlist!  But alas, I could not possibly make all 105 recipes from this book or I'd be here all day and then some.  So after careful perusal, and the sad elimination of Nick Query's (from The Decemberists) recipe because it involved peppers (see my last blog for a word about hot peppers), the votes were in and the Grammy Award Recipe of the Night went to...Pasta Bolognese from John Navin of The Aluminum Group.  Congratulations! (Winners, let's get some photos. Losers, there are no losers, only those who did not win.  And see also Kayne.  But I digress...)

All right then:  The Aluminum Group...discuss!  Per my friend, and yours, Wikipeida, The Aluminum Group is an "American pop group from Chicago, Illinois, centered on brothers John and Frank Navin."  Their sound is sort of reminiscent of 80's songs in that it's got that lounge sound to it yet it's not.  This cookbook probably said it best though, in that they "make shimmering synth-pop."  So there you go – rather hard to describe but fun to listen to.   Sadly, The Current does not list them in their playlists.  This must be rectified.

Apparently, these brothers really enjoy cooking and it shows in this classic Bolognese sauce that I selected for the Grammy Awards repast.  This was yummy! 

Unlike a regular  tomato-based pasta sauce, Bolognese differs in several regards:  it is meat-heavy, often involving several cuts of meat; it can, as this recipe did, involve cream and butter, and spices are non-existent.  You want basil or oregano, go find yourself another sauce. 

Another thing that is important to know about Bolognese sauce is that not only is it meat-heavy, it is heavy, period and so don't plan to serve this up with a "petite" pasta like Angel hair or you will be crying and likely wiping sauce stains off your pants. A light pasta will "crumble" under the weight of this sauce.  The brothers suggested spaghetti but for whatever reason, I am just not a huge spaghetti fan as I find it to be rather dull compared to other pastas and so I opted for rigatoni, those very large tubes that pair well with a heavy sauce. 

Now, in order to do justice to a Bolognese sauce, you must plan to simmer this for a few hours – in this case, three.  And I tell you what, I'm waiting for the day when an invention is created where I can put my sauce on the stove, leave my house to run errands, and still come home to find the structure still standing (i.e. not burned down!).  Until that happens, I carved out three hours and did other things around the house.

In closing ("I'd like to thank Grammy voters for this award..."), here's what The Aluminum Group's John Navin had to say about this recipe:

"okay, so this is one of the finest and most classic pasta sauces in the world!!!  you go buy a couple of bottles of a good red Tuscan wine, a baguette of crusty Italian bread, whip up this sauce – and man, man-oh-man, you can't lose, in fact, you'll instantly charm the pants (or skirt) off the one you're with, seriously!"

We are charmed, for sure.

Pasta Bolognese – Serves 4

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons of finely minced onion

2 tablespoons of finely minced celery

2 tablespoons of finely minced carrots

¾ pound ground veal

1 cup of organic whole milk

1 cup of dry white wine

One (28-ounce) can of diced tomatoes

1 pound spaghetti

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Kosher salt

Heat the butter in a sauce pan and add the onion, celery, and carrots, and

cook for approximately 6 minutes. Add the ground veal and sauté for another 3 minutes.  Add milk and bring to a simmer, continuing until the milk evaporates and only the clear fat remains.  Add white wine and repeat simmering process, until the wine has evaporated.  Ann's Note:  The milk evaporated pretty quickly but I can't recall how long it took.  Ten minutes?  The wine was harder to judge because it is clear to begin with and so who knows how long to simmer?  Maybe 10-15?

Add the tomatoes and their juices and simmer at very, very low heat, covered for 3 hours.

When cooking your pasta, reserve about half a cup of the pasta water to add back when you're mixing the Bolognese sauce with the pasta – a little water helps to distribute the sauce evenly.  Sprinkle freshly grated Parmesan and kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.  Do not pepper the sauce while cooking, 3 hours of simmering turns pepper bitter!

Buon appetito!  Con amor.  Il Aluminum Gruppo!  Ciao!  Baci!  (Good eating – or eat well – with love, The Aluminum Group.  Bye!  Kisses!

"1980 Olympic Games in Moscow - Cookbook and Schedule of Events" - Stir-Fried Chicken

Date I made this recipe:  July 29, 2012 (for the Olympics)

1980 Olympic Games in Moscow – Cookbook and Schedule of Events – Favorite Recipes of Prospective U.S. Participants

Published by:  Wm. C. Brown Company Publishers

© 1979

Recipe:  (Cheeseman’s) Stir-Fried Chicken – p. 62

*Note:  This is one of my longer blog posts but just like the Olympics, it will (likely) only come around every four years so hang in there!

Right then.  So the 2012 Olympics got underway in London on Friday, July 27, with a right smashing Opening Ceremony that included a hilarious James Bond spoof featuring none other than HM, The Queen of England.  That’s right, the Queen of England.  Like most viewers, I must have played that scene back 3 times utterly stunned that it was the Queen, the real Queen and nothing but the Queen.  Who knew that HM had such a sense of humor?  Oh, and Daniel Craig (as James Bond) wasn’t too bad, either. (By the way, in an uncanny coincidence, my community band played music from the James Bond movies as well as John William’s Olympic Spirit this summer.)

So OBVIOUSLY with the Olympics at hand, I needed to find myself an Olympic cookbook, right?  Quite.  Well find it I did in of all places, the charming café/bookstore in my hometown in Michigan – Falling Rock Café – last April and yes, I’ve been holding on to it ever since.  I am nothing if not prepared for the global events!

For those of you who were around in 1980, you might recall that this cookbook is a bit of a head-fake as the Olympic team did not participate in the 1980 Olympics that year.  U.S. tension against the former Soviet Union was already on red-alert when Russia invaded Afghanistan and in response, President Carter decided to cancel our appearance at the games.  (Naturally, the Soviet Union followed suit and canceled its appearance at the 1984 games in Los Angeles and so tit for tat and phooey on all that!)  Let me just say that to this day, I believe this was the wrong decision. Aspiring Olympic athletes devote their whole lives and their bank accounts to make the team and punishing them on behalf of a nation is just wrong – on both sides.

Harrumph.  Any who…so here we are at the 2012 Olympics already and some of the 1980 athletes are now providing commentary on various events, like former swimmer Rowdy Gaines and gymnast Bart Conner.  And since I was a high school swimmer I was all set to make one of Rowdy’s recipes but changed it up at the last minute.  And here’s why:  about the same time that I pulled this cookbook off my shelf as a “must use,” the U.S. observed the 40^th anniversary of Title IX, allowing for equality for women in sports. And again, I can only shake my head and marvel how time flies.  And so I decided that this blog would be better served by a recipe from a female athlete and with that, let’s go “off-road” for a bit to talk about Title IX.

Title IX, enacted in 1972 (I was in 8^th grade) is a portion of the Education Amendment that established, in part, No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.  This applied to about every level of education including, thank goodness, sports.

And to my absolute amazement, my tiny junior high/high school, jumped on the bandwagon and started women’s sports.  I mean, we are talking about class sizes of just over 100 people per class; by contrast, my husband’s high school class was over 600. We probably barely qualified for Class C sports designation but there we were, in it to win it.  So bravo, William G. Mather High School, bravo!  (And yes, I know that the law said we must comply, but there’s “compliance” and then there’s “compliance!).

Well, this prompted me to go back to my yearbooks to track our women’s sports progress.  In 1972, there weren’t any women’s teams but in 1973 (freshman year), a Girls’ Tennis Team started.  A friend of mine joined the team that year and I joined a year later.  By 1974, we added the Girls’ Swim Team although unfortunately, I was sick the day the photo was taken and so you’d never know I was on it.

So a mere year after Title IX, we had ourselves two bona-fide girls’ teams.  By 1975, we added basketball and by 1976, we had a track team.  Not too shabby!  (For the record though, there is no word that sends me flying faster than someone calling me a “girl.” But that’s another story for another day.).

Now, before you pull out your pom-poms, let me just stress to you that equal opportunity to participate in sports did not equal an equal opportunity to get funding or support.  Oh no – in fact, quite the opposite.

The first year I was on the tennis team, we carpooled to our meets.  Yes, carpooled.  We didn’t have uniforms, we didn’t have managers, we barely had a locker room and you should have seen our city tennis courts – two of them, both with blacktop surfaces and set down by Lake Superior so flyaway tennis balls soon became swim-away tennis balls.  Our second team coach (the first coach was a woman), was also the boys’ wrestling coach and never, ever ceased to compare us weakling “girlz” to his he-man boys team.  He let us borrow his team’s warm-up jackets for meets but otherwise we were on our own.  The coach who followed him was a nice guy but I don’t know: is it a good thing to advise high school athletes that if you’re going to drink, drink Scotch?!!  Mind you, I was all for that but it did crack me up. 

As to the swim team, hahahahaha….well, we tried.  The good news was that our school had one of the very first school pools in the Upper Peninsula.  The bad news was that our school’s pool was not regulation and there were always weird drain problems that caused the pool water to turn various shades of green.  And I am not exaggerating at all.  In fact, when I think about swimming in that pool back then for gym class and swim team and lifesaving classes, I about turn green myself.

So anyway, for every one lap we did at a meet in a regulation pool, we had to do double or triple the laps in our pool.  We could not do a flip turn in our pool because the shallow end was truly shallow but we were allowed at meets to do kind of a half turn above water.  (So dorky and embarrassing but there it is!).  Although we got team swimsuits, for some inexplicable reason, we chose green and gold suits (Go Pack Go) even though our school colors were orange and black.  We did not get to use the wrestler’s warm-up jackets and so had a collection of various and sundry sweat shirts at our disposal.

We did not lift weights or do anything that modern athletes do to build strength and endurance and didn’t care.  In fact, and I say this with fondness, our attitude was pretty much cavalier then entire time we were swimming because we always knew we were outnumbered:  all the other schools had bigger pools, bigger staffs, and bigger athletes.  So we swam for fun and in some ways that made the experience all the more enjoyable.

As to funding, well, my first response is “What funding?” All the boys’ sports (football, basketball, etc.) got $10 a day for food; we got $5.  All the boys were properly attired, we were not.  All the boys went to meets by bus – the big kid’s kind – while we were eventually allowed to use a smaller half-bus to go to meets.  There was no booster club, no parental support (seeing as how our meets were during the day so parents could not attend) and very little interest.  I will however, give props to most of the male athletes in our school as they ended up embracing us in their own way and found many of our antics and experiences hilarious.  In fact, and it’s a long story, but my swim team nicknamed me “French Fries” and when the guys found out about that, they called me that as well.  I was never as popular in high school as I was that year.

And so, back we go to the budget-busting Olympics and my, my how times have changed.  While today’s athletes have their own financial struggles, I think they are nothing compared to what we went through.  Olympic teams nowadays have sponsors and endorsements and even, in many cases, professional athletes.  Can you imagine telling any female swimmer today that she gets $5 bucks for food?  No. 

And so I must confess that the times that I’ve heard women whining about being treated as second-class citizens compared to the men’s team, my blood boils.  In fact, I still recall the whining done by several high school girls’ hockey teams a few years back when they weren’t allowed to use the Xcel Energy Center where our professional hockey team plays for their games like the boys’ teams were.  WHAT?!!!  This is where my age is showing:  “In my day young lady, girls weren’t even allowed to play hockey.  We had to drive to our meets in the SNOW and then walk five miles to the arena….” (Actually true story:  my swim team was on its way to a regional meet in a nearby town that required us to drive along Lake Superior in blizzard conditions.  The famous “lake effect” was such that everything was just a sea of white including the white semi that was jackknifed across the highway.  Our bus driver swerved to avoid hitting it at the last second and we ended up in the ditch and had to wait for a bus tow-truck.  So much for that swim meet.  You want to talk about hardship, I’ll talk about hardship!)

So all this brings me back to why I decided to make a recipe from this book for this blog submitted by a female athlete instead of a male athlete, not only to kill two stones (the Olympics and Title IX) at the same time but also to talk about a subject that is near and dear to me.  And so today’s recipe is all about Gwen W. Cheeseman, a 1980 Olympic field hockey player, and her recipe for (Cheeseman’s) Stir-Fried Chicken.  And to really tie it to this year’s London events, the former Kate Middleton, now the Duchess of Cambridge was a field hockey player back in the day AND the last Olympics were held in Beijing, China and so it’s all good.  Women then, women now – hooray! (I am also happy to report that Gwen made the 1984 Olympic team and her field hockey crew won the bronze that year.  Well done!)

Despite my rants about the early years, I was quite “chuffed,” as the Brits would say to be a part of those high school teams and am glued to the set this year as I am every Olympics (save for the 1980 Olympics), reliving my almost-glory days!  I swam the backstroke for my team (first one in the water at every meet) both in the individual event and the 400 Individual Medley Relay (back, breast, butterfly, freestyle) and also swam the 400 Freestyle Relay, my absolute favorite event and sometimes anchored it.  They were fun times and the thrill of that competition never goes away even though the younger generation is now having all the fun in the pool.  And seeing all these young ladies on the podium?  Well…pass the Kleenex.

  

(Cheeseman’s) Stir-Fried Chicken – serves 4

2 large, whole broiler-fryer chicken breasts, skinned, halved, boned and sliced diagnolly into ¼-inch thick strips

2 tablespoons peanut oil

1 cup thinly sliced celery

1 medium green pepper, cut into think strips

¼ teaspoon ginger

1 pound fresh bean sprouts

1 5-ounce can water chestnuts, drained and sliced

½ pound fresh mushrooms, sliced

1/3 cup raw cashews, halved

1 chicken bouillon cube, or 1 teaspoon instant chicken bouillon

½ cup water

2 teaspoons cornstarch

¼ cup soy sauce

3 cups hot cooked rice

In a wok over high heat, heat peanut oil.  Stir-fry celery, pepper, onion and ginger in oil until tender-crisp, about three minutes.  With slotted spoon, slide vegetables up onto side of wok to keep warm.  To remaining oil, add chicken and stir-fry until meat turns white, about three to five minutes.  Slide vegetables back down and add bean sprouts, water, chestnuts, mushrooms, cashews, bouillon and water.  Blend cornstarch with soy sauce; gradually stir into wok and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is heated through and thickened.  Serve over hot rice.  Serves 4.

Ann’s Note:  for some inexplicable reason, my grocery store was out of bean sprouts and so I used canned.  Do not do this at home!  I might as well have opened a can of La Choy Chop Suey, the taste was that bland.  Live and learn, people, live and learn.

"The How-Not-To-Miss-The-Cocktail-Hour-Cookbook" & "Cooking with Music (Boston Symphony Ochestra" - Shrimp and Artichoke Casserole & New Orleans Rice

Date I made these recipes: December 19, 2011

The How-Not-to-Miss-the-Cocktail Hour Cookbook by Edward W. Lowman with Robert O’Donnell
Published by: David McKay Company, Inc.
© 1964, 1971
Recipe: Shrimp and Artichoke Casserole – p. 194-195

Cooking with Music – Celebrating the tastes and traditions of the Boston Symphony Orchestra by The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc.
Published by: The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc.; printed by Wimmer
© 1999
Recipe: New Orleans Sunday Brunch Rice – p. 106

People, as an attorney, I cannot help but examine the title of The How-Not-to-Miss-the-Cocktail-Hour Cookbook and want to poke holes in it. The issue in this case is not “how not to miss the cocktail hour,” the issue in this case is WHY would you miss the cocktail hour? Stupid title, stupid question!

That being said, I do have my own “rules” about cocktails—during the week, 5 (p.m.) is pushing it, 6:00 is about right. On weekends, I still hesitate to do brunch cocktails because then I’m shot for the rest of the day. And that takes all the fun out of evening cocktails.

But the reason I selected this book is not because I didn’t want to miss a cocktail hour but because I didn’t want to miss some holiday musical performances that I was scheduled to participate in. It doesn’t do me much good to be cooking at the time I’m supposed to be performing, now does it? (Although I do joke about imbibing a martini during some of the pieces I play as it sure couldn’t hurt my playing and might in fact help!)

So I was all set to make this shrimp casserole but then in between things, I bought the Cooking with Music book by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and since all my events were musical in nature, thought I should use both cookbooks for the blog.

But herein was the problem: I didn’t want to make two entrees and the soups didn’t really float my boat and lord knows, I do NOT need one more bite of sugar during this holiday season or I will go into a diabetic coma. So at the last minute, I decided to make the New Orleans Sunday Brunch rice to accompany the shrimp even though the two taste flavors did not necessarily blend together. I had a craving for rice and this recipe called for rice and (sage) sausage and so there it is! Problem solved.

And so that settled that. But still, the problem of finding time not to miss the cocktail hour and finding the time to attend my musical events and finding time to actually cook this stuff became a problem. And so I decided to wait until all events were over so I could cocktail and cook while singing along to the radio. I’m nothing if not a multi-tasker!

So my first musical event of the season was a joint holiday concert with my concert band, The Calhoun-Isles Community Band, and the Plymouth Community Band. That event took place on a Sunday but luckily, I prepared for dinner in advance by plopping a roast in the crock pot. (And I tell you what, that roast was good until the last drop! Check out last week’s blog posting for the recipe.)

Then on Tuesday, the 13th, my community band, The Calhoun-Isles Community Band (CICB), celebrated its 30th anniversary by playing selections from the very first concert as well as some holiday pieces. We invited the band’s original conductor to lead us in Stars and Stripes Forever and we also honored one of our former band members (and our group’s announcer) who passed away this year. And in between all that (with a couple of bad band jokes thrown in by various band members), we played what I think was a spectacular concert. We have 84 active members (several are on leave until after New Year’s making us a 100-member band in total), a 26 member clarinet section (of which I am the section leader) and 4 tubas. How could we go wrong?! (In fact, at times like these, I can’t help but quote Bill Murray from the movie, Ghostbusters – “We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!”)

And then on Sunday, the 18th, a friend invited me to her church in St. Paul as her church was performing Handel’s Messiah as a sing-along. And who doesn’t like a sing-along? So my friend and her daughter and a friend and I went and warbled with about 200 other people and had a blast.

Now this was not my first rodeo as a sing-along artist (Just so we’re clear, under no circumstances is a sing-along the same as karaoke!). In the early 90’s, the SPCO (Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra) used to invite the public to a sing-along performance. I will never forget the first couple of years as we (my friend, Carol, who goes to these with me) were clearly the newcomers to the “chorus.” Charging up the aisle, proudly clutching their musical scores to their bosoms and extremely dangerous in their “We Sang The Messiah with the SPCO” green sweatshirts, were the ladies who had been there, done that. They even had stripes on their sweatshirts, like cheerleaders and high school sports athletes, indicating the numbers of years they participated in the event. They didn’t scare us: we came, we sang, we eventually got our own damned sweatshirt!

Through the years, the SPCO performed The Messiah as a sing-along and then didn’t and then the Minnesota Orchestra did and then didn’t and various other community orchestras did and then didn’t. Word on the street (and even in print) is that most professional orchestras loathe having all of us rank amateurs singing along to this piece. Well sue me! I may be rank but I’m no amateur! The other beef, this time from management, is that if the performance goes over two hours, the musicians (all union members) get paid time and a half.

And so time was of the essence for most performances with conductors under the gun to get everyone the hell off the stage in 1 hour 59 “don’t think I’m kidding” minutes. Sadly, much is often lost in the translation, such that a beautifully slow piece like “Surely, He Hath Borne Our Griefs” became “Shirley, Shirely, Shirely!! Other pieces started sounding like Carol Burnett’s “Tarzan yell” because we are too rushed to enunciate the words. Tick tock people, we have a stage to vacate.

So lucky for us, for Sunday’s performance, the church’s musical director slowed everything down so that we didn’t die an early death from hyperventilation. (And may I just note he graduated from the Eastman School of Music? In musical circles, that is quite the pedigree.) He cued us when appropriate and gave us kudos for hanging in there. The pianist helped out by playing the soprano’s top note on the Hallelujah Chorus (“Give me a ‘C,’ a bouncing ‘C!’”) so that they wouldn’t train wreck. (The sopranos have to hit a high G and that is no easy task. That is way out of the comfort range for this mezzo soprano!) All in all, it was a total team effort.

So we sang together and ended together (always a good thing) and patted ourselves on the back and then we left. As of Sunday’s performance, I am now officially done with playing/participating in holiday concerts and can now concentrate on unearthing my Christmas CD with Alvin and the Chipmunks on it (singing “The Chipmunks Song” a/k/a “Christmas Don’t Be Late”) and get into the real spirit of things! (“Me? I want a hula hoop…”).

Actually, in addition to Alvin (a classic, I assure you), I have several Boston Pops CDs, most of them under the baton of the late, great Arthur Fiedler. And one of my absolute favorite holiday pieces is A Christmas Festival Overture by another late, great, individual, composer Leroy Anderson. My band has played that piece several times over the course of my tenure with them and it never disappoints. It’s a medley of several Christmas tunes, ending with a rousing mix of Jingle Bells and Oh Come, All Ye Faithful. Every time I get done playing that “barn-burner,” I always say to myself “I can’t believe I just played that.” It’s an awesome piece – listen to it on YouTube some time and be amazed.

So anyway, I was really happy that I found the Boston Symphony Orchestra cookbook when I did. The book is fun and it breaks up into sections: the symphony, the pops orchestra, small chamber groups, the chorus and so on, and tells you a little about each. (Little known fact to some of you may be that John Williams, famous for his movie scores, conducted the Boston Pops prior to Keith Lockhart taking over. Oh yeah, I’m up on this stuff!)

So on to the food, batting first is the shrimp artichoke casserole and batting second is the New Orleans rice. The “cocktail” book warned us that this was a rich recipe and indeed it was. So why then, did the author then go on to suggest serving this over a biscuit? Wow. My stomach is full just thinking about that! Not that the rice wasn’t rich but it seemed like a better choice than a biscuit.

I thought the casserole recipe was tasty but the sherry taste was almost overpowering…not that this is a bad thing…but I think a little bit less than the quarter cup it called for might have been good. Besides, you can just imbibe the sherry you didn’t use while you’re making the casserole and all your problems will be solved (including not missing the cocktail hour).

The rice also called for a quarter cup of white wine but that amount was fine. And although I am a red wine drinker, I had plenty of white wine on hand – four bottles to be exact. Every time I have a party and serve white wine, I have leftovers and I guess I lost track of how many bottles I was storing in my refrigerator. Must rectify that problem ASAP! I would combine them into one, full bottle but they are all different varietals and I’m not sure how that would go over. On the other hand, it’s for cooking and so who cares?

The rice recipe also called for ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper but since we are not big fans and I didn’t want a taste sensation that really didn’t work with the shrimp casserole, I left it out. I also did not put the shrimp casserole on top of the rice since I didn’t know if I’d have an ingredient fight on my hands or not. I thought each recipe was good and stood on its own but you can decide if you want to marry the two together on the same plate or not.

And so that concludes our cocktail hour (which was not missed) and my holiday concert music lineup and all kinds of fun and favorite things. Happy Holidays!

Shrimp and Artichoke Casserole – serves 4
1 15-ounce can artichoke bottoms (I used artichoke hearts)
1 pound cooked, cleaned shrimp
½ pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons butter
¼ pound butter
½ cup flour
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon MSG (Note: since MSG is now the evil ingredient, you can leave it out or substitute other seasoning mixes for flavoring. The author uses Accent and I did as well.)
2 cups milk
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup dry sherry
Salt and pepper t taste
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Arrange artichoke bottoms and shrimp in a greased casserole. Saute mushrooms in 2 tablespoons butter until brown (about 5 minutes) and add to casserole. Melt ¼ pound butter in double boiler, stirring in flour, salt, and MSG. Gradually add milk while serving constantly. When sauce is thick and smooth, add Worcestershire and sherry. Pour into casserole and sprinkle cheese on top.

Bake for 20 minutes in preheated 375 oven. (I went a little longer to make sure the casserole was heated through.)

Ann’s Notes: every single recipe in this book uses MSG but the author notes that you can use Accent (seasoning); if you have problems with MSG, leave it out. Also, the author developed a set of abbreviations used throughout the book to let you know what you should be doing: SA means Set Aside; R means refrigerate; RO means refrigerate overnight and F means to freeze. He also uses (and I love this) “TAG” – Time Away From Guests. For this recipe, after you sprinkle the cheese on top, you can “SA” (Set Aside) the casserole before baking it. And just so you know, your TAG time is 2 minutes – not bad!

New Orleans Sunday Brunch Rice – Yields 4 servings (recipe submitted by Wendy Putnam, BSO violinist)
1 ½ cups jasmine rice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 (14 ½-ounce) can chicken broth, with water added to equal 2 ½ cups
1 pound bulk sage sausage
6 minced scallions or green onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon cayenne
Salt and pepper
¼ cup dry white wine

Saute the jasmine rice in olive oil over high heat for 1 to 2 minutes while constantly stirring, until the rice is golden in color. Add chicken broth and water, and reduce the heat to simmer. Cover and cook the rice for 15 minutes. (Note: I had my heat on too low and so had to cook it for another 15 minutes to ensure that it was done. I’d recommend medium heat versus low to maintain a good simmer.).

Saute the sausage until browned, then add the scallions. Mix well, remove from the heat and let rest until the rice is cooked. Combine the rice and sausage mixture in the pan over medium-high heat until the ingredients are heated through.

Add the garlic, cayenne, and salt and pepper to taste shortly before serving. At that point, add the white wine, mix thoroughly, and let entire mixture sit over low heat for a few minutes before serving.

And then (and this is Ann’s note) take a fork and proceed to eat this scrumptious mixture from the pan. And then abandon the fork and just use your fingers. If you’re alone in the kitchen at this time, you can do these things without anyone being the wiser.

"Culinary Concertos" by the Long Beach Symphony Association" - O'Henry Bars

Date I made this recipe: July 15, 2007

Culinary Concertos by the Long Beach Symphony Association
Published by: The Long Beach Symphony Association
© 1977

Recipe: O’Henry Bars – p. 119 (submitted by Maxine Foster)

Like everyone, I’ve been busy running around like a madwoman this summer. For some reason, I thought I made something in between my last posting at the end of June and no, but sadly, no.

Part of the reason I’ve been so busy is because my community band, The Calhoun-Isles Community Band, plays several outdoor concerts in the summer and last week, I had concerts on Monday, Tuesday and then Sunday. Whew!

Our band has always thrown a pot-luck picnic on one of the nights that we have a concert, and this year, it was on Sunday, July 15th, right before we played a concert at Centennial Lakes in Edina, MN. This year’s picnic actually morphed into a baby shower; one of our members adopted a baby boy named Henry from Ethiopia. Henry shows great musical promise already and we hope that when he grows up, he’ll become a full-fledged member!

So anyway…I wanted to find something from a “musical” cookbook to bring to the party but alas, there are no community band cookbooks in my collection. I did have, however, this Long Beach Symphony Association cookbook that was given to me by a CICB member so I think that counts.

And wouldn’t you know, as I was leafing through the book, I came across this recipe for O’Henry Bars. Well, people, I just had to make these in honor of little Henry (who is absolutely adorable, by the way). It's like the recipe was just calling to me....

Many of you might remember the O’Henry candy bar. I knew that the bar contained peanuts and chocolate but I remember the peanuts being rather chunky. But this recipe calls for peanut butter, not whole peanuts, and the peanut butter gets mixed in with the chocolate making it much easier to assemble.

I thought that the base of the bar might be kind of sweet given that the recipe calls for ½ cup light syrup and 3 teaspoons vanilla, but the bar was just right—and the hit of the picnic. I think even (O) Henry enjoyed them. Hope you will, too.

O’Henry Bars (no yield given but I’d say it made about 3 dozen small squares)
4 cups oatmeal
½ cup light syrup
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup melted butter
3 teaspoons vanilla

Topping
1 6 oz. package chocolate chips, melted
2/3 cup peanut butter (I used smooth)

Mix together the oatmeal, syrup, brown sugar, melted butter and vanilla. Pat down flat on cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. Bake 12 minutes at 350.

Combine the chocolate chips and peanut butter and spread on top of baked cookie dough after bars are slightly cool (just until firm). Cut into bars after chilled. Store in the refrigerator.

"Dine In Route 66 Cookbook" - Scenic Salisbury Steak

Date I made this recipe: April 25, 2007

Dine In Route 66 Cookbook distributed by Smith-Southwestern Inc.
Published by Terrell Publishing Co.
© 1996

Recipe: Scenic Salisbury Steak – p. 24

If you’re been reading my blog so far (which you’ve all been doing, right?), you’ll know that I tend to have a story for everything and they tend to be a little long in the telling, but hopefully always interesting. So let’s get to “How I chose a Route 66 recipe.”

I don’t think I’ve mentioned that I’ve been a proud member of the Calhoun-Isles Community Band for 14 years now (http://www.calhounislesband.org/) but I have. I play the clarinet (or so some say…I didn’t learn how to play the instrument until 16 years ago), have sometimes played my alto saxophone (which I learned how to play 14 years ago) and most recently have been a vocalist for a small off-shoot group, the Calhoun-Isles Dixieland Jazz Combo. The Dixieland group performs at what would be the intermission portion of our band concerts (the whole band is 60 members strong and growing) to give a break to the rest of our players. Of course, we don’t get a break but that’s beside the point.

So anyway…I started out singing old Dixieland tunes such as Basin Street Blues, Tin Roof Blues, When My Sugar Walks Down the Street, and then we added some Gershwin favorites such as Summertime, The Man I Love and The Lady is A Tramp. And we had, and continue to have, a great time doing this.

This year, though, our conductor wanted to find some pieces for me to do with the entire ensemble, not just the eight people in the Dixieland Combo, and so he found a couple of pieces to try out. One song, But Not For Me, was written for the entire band with either solo voice or solo clarinet and so that worked out just great. But the other piece is more of a challenge. We’re playing musical selections from the movie, Cars, and are trying to figure out if vocals will even work with it because it’s not written for vocal accompaniment.

One of the tunes featured on the Cars soundtrack is Route 66. Just a hint, but this is where you should have had an “Ah ha” moment as to why I cooked out of a Route 66 cookbook.

But before we get to the book, let me tell you about the song. Route 66 was written by Bobby Troup who, with his wife, Julie London, a fabulous torch singer from the 50’s and 60’s, both starred in the TV show Emergency which ran from 1972 to 1978. Bobby played Dr. Joe Early, his wife played Nurse Dixie McCall (I just loved that name!) and who could forget hunky Randolph Mantooth as Firefighter John Gage? At any rate, I was addicted to this show and even toyed with becoming Dixie McCall (the nurse, not the actress) when I grew up, a hilarious thought given I just don’t have any aptitude for science, which is why I became any attorney, but that’s another story.

So the fact that I watched the TV show and later learned that Bobby wrote the song made me want to make a Route 66 dish shortly after our Tuesday night band rehearsal where we tried out the medley for the first time. Singing along to Route 66 would probably be okay, singing along to Our Town by James Taylor (from the soundtrack) is possible but somehow I can’t see myself, nor could my band, singing Life Is A Highway, (also from the soundtrack) by the band Rascal Flatts. When our conductor mentioned it, everybody, including me, started howling. It’s a hip piece for a traditional concert band to play and I’m thinking that at the very least, I’d need a wardrobe change to something more rock oriented, but we’ll see how it goes.

Getting back to Julie, Bobby and Randolph, I should mention that I do not have a Julie London CD nor did Julie London ever record her husband’s hit (go figure), but I do have a version of Route 66 sung by the late Rosemary Clooney who many of us will remember, not for her singing (which was great) but because she was George Clooney’s aunt. And how fitting is it that George went on to star in the TV show ER, another doctor/emergency team TV show? Too bad the hospital wasn’t located on Route 66. But anyway….

The second reason I wanted to make this dish was because Route 66, as you learn in the lyrics, goes through Gallup, New Mexico and my brother and sister-in-law, both physicians, worked in Gallup for several years. (“You see Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico…”) I’m pretty sure I bought this cookbook when I visited them one Christmas. (And by the by, somebody could have warned me in advance that Gallup is in the mountains and therefore was NOT the balmy 60ish degree weather I was hoping for. I know my cook books but geography is another story).

And so, between Bobby Troup and Gallup, New Mexico, I was all pumped up to make this recipe and I’m glad I did. It gave me the comfort food component of days gone by and made me think of all the family vacations we made along Route 66 when I was a kid, in an un-air conditioned car (too expensive back then) checking out all the mom and pop places along the way. I did indeed, “get my kicks on Route 66.”

Scenic Salisbury Steak

1 ½ pounds ground beef
1 ½ tablespoons finely chopped onion
¼ cup bread crumbs
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 can cream of mushroom soup
¼ cup mayonnaise
½ soup can water
1 small onion, sliced
¼ cup chopped green pepper
10 whole mushrooms, sliced
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 large carrot, shredded

Mix together ground beef, chopped onion, bread crumbs, pepper, egg and milk. Form into patties and brown on both sides in a skillet. Mix together soup, mayonnaise and water until smooth. Pour soup mixture over the patties to coat them well. Place onion, green pepper, mushrooms and tomatoes on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Turn patties over and baste patties; cook 30 minutes more.

Now, if you read through what I just typed, you’ll notice, as did I went making this recipe, that they don’t tell you want to do with the shredded carrot. It was only after careful examination of the accompanying photo that I realized it should have gone on top of the patties along with the sliced onion, green pepper, mushrooms and tomatoes. I left it off and the recipe survived just fine without it.

"Creole Jumbo and All That Jazz - A New Orleans Seafood Cookbook" - Shrimp Creole

Date I made the recipe: September 10, 2006

Creole Jumbo and All That Jazz – A New Orleans Seafood Cookbook by Howard Mitchum
Published by Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.
ISBN: 0-201-04764-0
©1978

Recipe: Shrimp Jambalaya – p. 52

Well finally. After a couple of recipe misfires the previous weeks, I hit the jackpot on this one. It was simple to make and tasty to eat and the best part is we have leftovers that I will actually enjoy reheating.

I spotted this book at a Borders Bookstore years ago but I think I put off buying it because it was a reissue and I always like to find as close to a first edition if I can. A couple of years ago, I spotted this at Bonnie Slotnick’s bookstore in NY (only the best “used” cookbook stores on the planet) and it was mine for the taking. Sadly, it collected dust along with all my other New Orleans cookbooks until this past Sunday.

Originally, I wanted to commemorate the disastrous floods in New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast wrought by Hurricane Katrina as close to the one year anniversary date (9/5/06) as possible by cooking up something from the region but you know how it goes…I was, as always, a day late and a dollar short.

Here’s what I like about this cookbook: if you have a hankering for oysters, there are tons of oyster recipes. Same with shrimp, same with crawfish and same with…you get the picture. Had I a hankering to make oyster jambalaya, it was in there. The recipe required me to buy very little in the way of ingredients (always important) and had just the right spice without being overdone. Note that I cut the recipe in half and that was plenty of food for me and my husband.

The second reason I like this book is that Howard includes tidbits, photos and lyrics of many New Orleans Dixieland/blues songs that make New Orleans the jazz center that it is. In my spare time, I play clarinet with the Calhoun-Isles Community band and am the vocalist for a small sub-group, the Calhoun-Isles Dixieland Jazz Combo. I belted out Basin Street Blues so many times last summer that I thought I would bust a lung. Tin Roof Blues was another one our group did and yes, “Lawd,” I did have “the Tin Roof Blues.” I’ve been to New Orleans and Mississippi before but now have a new appreciation for that genre of music, cemented, in part, by this cookbook.

So, for all you jazz lovers and/or seafood lovers, give this book a whirl and don’t telling me you still have the blues after cooking because I’ll know you’re lying!

Shrimp Jambalaya
4 lb. raw shrimp, peeled
2 c. raw rice
½ stick butter
4 T flour
2 medium white onions, chopped
3 scallions with their green leaves, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small green pepper, chopped
2 T parsley, chopped
1 16-oz can tomatoes, drained and chopped (note: the directions say to “add the tomatoes and their juice.” When I made the recipe, I used the “juice” created when I chopped the tomatoes).
1 16-oz cans beef broth (or 3 c. bouillon)
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground allspice
½ tsp thyme leaves
¼ tsp cayenne (or more. I’m a weenie so I used the exact amount listed)
Salt and ground pepper to taste.

People, have I mentioned yet how enamored I am with my Zyliss® food chopper http://www.zyliss.com/? This thing is the Ronco product (“It slices, it dices”) of the new millennium – http://www.ronco.com/. I don’t know how I lived without it, and trust me, if you do all the chopping required by hand for this recipe, you won’t know how you did, either.

Melt the butter in a thick-bottomed pot or Dutch oven, add the flour and cook over low heat to make a light golden roux. (For those who don’t know, a roux is the staple of Creole cooking and is found in about every other dish that graces a New Orleans table. A roux is simply fat, in this case, butter, and flour that is stirred until it becomes a cross between a gravy and a paste. The key to making a good roux is not to burn it.). A roux is used to thicken your dish.

Add the onion, scallions, green pepper, garlic and parsley and cook until the vegetables are soft and transparent.

Add the tomatoes and their juice and the beef broth, and mix well.

Add the spices (cloves, allspice, thyme, cayenne and black pepper) then season with salt (he recommends a tablespoon to start). Add the shrimp and cook for five minutes. Stir in the rice and make sure it’s well mixed. The mixture in the pot should be just covered with broth so if necessary, add more broth or bouillon.

Bring the mixture to a boil then cut the heat very low, cover the pot and cook until the rice is tender. Adjust the salt and serve it up!