"Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Vol. 1 &2)" - Beef Bourguignon and Celery Soup with Potatoes, Leeks and Rice

Date I made these recipes: May 18, 2008

Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Simone Beck, Louisette Berthole and Julia Child
Published by: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
© 1961
Recipe: Boeuf Bourguignon (Beef Stew in Red Wine, with Bacon, Onions and Mushrooms) – p. 315-317, plus Oignons Glaces A Brun (Brown-braised onions) – p. 483 and Champignons Sautes Au Beurre (Sauteed Mushrooms) – p. 513

Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume Two by Julia Child and Simone Beck
Published by: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
© 1970
Recipe: Potage Celestine (Celery Soup with Potatoes, Leeks, and Rice) – p. 15

My husband and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary today and in honor of our honeymoon trip to France, I whipped out Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. I hate to say this but I almost wished I hadn’t. More on that in a minute.

Lest you think that my husband and I must have been loaded with money in order to take a trip to France for our honeymoon, you should know that we ended up doing it for so darned cheap that we couldn’t afford not to. Here’s why: in 1991, the US was engaged in the first Gulf War and nobody wanted to fly. In need of revenue and passengers (in that order), Northwest Airline offered fares to France for something like $300 each. I happened to have enough miles for one-half off a companion fare and all total we went to France (and later Switzerland and Italy) for $500. I don’t even think I could get to Poughkeepsie for that!

Now I had been to France before but my husband hadn’t. In 1988, I went with my friend, Susan, and I must say that it turned into a 90’s version of Lucy and Ethel Go to Paris. But we had a great time, stayed in a great place on the Left Bank, went out one evening to a place now long forgotten, had ourselves some Boeuf Bourguignon and thought we died and went to heaven.

My husband and I also visited the same restaurant and loved it but as to hotel, we ended up staying on the Right Bank in a hotel that most certainly did not meet my standards, not then, not now, not ever. To this day, Andy loves to tell the story of how I took one look at the dog-eared room and started crying whereas he started laughing. And yet we’re still together so….

Okay, as to the recipes, I had forgotten (at least until I was three quarters of the way through making these dishes) how determined Julia was that the average American housewife be able to make true-blue French food. She was so determined that in order to complete the Boeuf Bourguignon, one also needed to braise some onions (45 minutes in the making on that alone) and sautee mushrooms (another 20 minutes, give or take a minute). The recipe also required straining the liquid through a sieve and all kinds of other things that were almost my undoing. And in order to complete the soup, one needed to run the potatoes through a potato ricer, then add heated milk, and then puree the leek and celery mixture into the potatoes. Was it worth it? Sure. But was I also cursing her during the preparation of these dishes? Oh, absolutely.

Now I didn’t acquire these two cookbooks until just a few years ago and of course, there’s a backstory on that.

I was in New York and finally got around to visiting Joan Hendricks Cookbooks and she had two copies of Volume 1. The one I ultimately purchased was a first edition but the other one I didn’t purchase was not. What it was, however, was signed (but not personalized) by both Julia and Paul Child. It also cost $250 dollars.

Well, what to do, what to do? I hemmed, I hawed and finally, to Joan’s amazement I might add, I purchased the unsigned first addition along with some other books instead of the one that was signed. I just didn’t feel right only buying one book when the others in my stack were so interesting, plus there was that small matter of the $250 dollars.

So it would just figure that the venerable Julia up and died two weeks later and I’m sure the price of the book I left behind skyrocketed. Live and learn.

When I was growing up, we didn’t get Julia’s show on WGBH in Boston but in the mid-70’s I was watching The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder the night he had Julia Child and Jacques Pepin on—the night of the infamous finger cut that was parodied by Dan Ackroyd on Saturday Night Live. I might add that Tom Snyder was a major chain-smoker but back then, it was perfectly acceptable to smoke on TV.

On this particular show, Tom, Julia and Jacques were preparing a meal (likely beef but I can’t remember) and were imbibing oh…a little wine (just like cigarettes, drinking was no big deal on TV back then), when Julia accidentally cut her hand. It was a teeny cut but Julia soldiered on, fortified by the wine that went into the dish. (Let’s just say they were “in their cups” by the time the meal finished cooking.) But when Dan got a hold of the story, he blew it up into this hilarious sketch where Julia passed out after losing so much blood from a very big cut. I think he glossed right over the “drinking on the set” issue. If it were me, I think I would have taken that ball and run with it.

Now, whether it be the real version of a parody, Julia was just a presence on TV and she just made her audience feel so comfortable about cooking that it forgot how complicated some of her French recipes could be. But a woman named Julie Powell soon found out.

Those of you in the know have probably read Julie & Julia by Julie Powell (soon to be a movie staring Meryl Streep as Julia) in which she chronicles her attempt to cook all the recipes in Julia’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Madam, I salute you! I almost threw in the towel after two recipes, never mind an entire book. Rather, I’m cooking my way through my entire cookbook collection of almost 1000 books (3 more to go until I hit the magic number) and I between you and me, I think that’s the easier route to go.

For all their work, these recipes are tres, tres bon (very, very good) and they brought back fond memories of my times in France when a French franc (precursor to the Euro) bought a fine meal and a glass of wine. Ahhhhhh…..

Note: Julia’s recipes are a little challenging to make because she never gives you an exact shopping list. Instead, she lists ingredients and then the pan or utensil needed to make that portion of the recipe and continues that way until the entire recipe is done. Call me modern but I usually don’t pick up an enameled skillet in the produce section!

Boeuf Bourguignon (Beef Stew in Red Wine, with Bacon, Onions and Mushrooms) – Serves 6
6-ounce chunk of bacon (or a package of bacon as lean as you can find it.)
1 T olive or cooking oil
3 lbs. lean stewing beef cut into 2-inch cubes
1 sliced carrot
1 sliced onion
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
2 T flour
3 cups of a full-bodied, young red wine or a Chianti
2 to 3 cups brown beef stock or canned beef bouillon
1 T tomato paste
2 cloves mashed garlic
½ tsp thyme
1 crumbled bay leaf
18-24 small white onions, brown-braised in stock (see separate recipe to follow)
1 lb. quartered fresh mushrooms sautéed in butter (see separate recipe to follow)

I made this recipe in a Dutch oven. You should probably use something similar.

To make the beef:
Remove rind on bacon, cut into lardoons (sticks, ¼ inch thick and 1 ½ inches long). Simmer rind and bacon for 10 minutes in 1 ½ quarts of water. Drain and dry.

Sautee the bacon in the oil over moderate heat for 2 to 3 minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon. Set casserole aside. Reheat until fat is almost smoking before you sauté the beef.

Dry the beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp. Saute it, a few pieces at a time, in the hot oil and bacon fat until nicely browned on all sides. Add it to the bacon.

In the same fat, brown the sliced vegetables. Pour out the sautéing fat.

Return the beef and bacon to the casserole and toss with the salt and pepper. Then sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly with the flour. Set the casserole uncovered in the middle position of preheated oven for 4 minutes. Toss the meat and return to oven for 4 minutes more. (This browns the flour and covers the meat with a light crust.). Remove casserole, and turn oven down to 325 degrees.

Stir in the wine, and enough stock our bouillon so that the meat is barely covered. Add the tomato paste, garlic, herbs, and bacon rind. Bring to simmer on top of the stove. Then cover the casserole and set in lower third of preheated oven. Regulate heat so liquid simmers very slowly for 3 to 4 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.

While the beef is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms. Set them aside until needed.

When the meat is tender, pour the contents of the casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan. Wash out the casserole and return the beef and bacon to it. Distribute the cooked onions and mushrooms over the meat.

Skim the fat off the sauce. Simmer sauce for a minute or two, skimming off additional fat as it rises. You should have about 2 ½ cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly. If too thin, boil it down rapidly. If too thick, mix in a few tablespoons of stock or canned bouillon. Taste carefully for seasoning. Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables.

Note: Recipe may be completed in advance to this point.

For immediate serving, cover the casserole and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce several times. For later serving, bring the mixture to a simmer, cover and simmer very slowly for 10 minutes.

To make the brown-braised onions (oignons glaces a brun):
18 to 24 peeled white onions, about 1 inch in diameter
1 ½ T butter
1 ½ T oil
½ cup of brown stock, canned beef bouillon, dry white wine, red wine or water
A medium herb bouquet: 4 parsley sprigs, ½ bay leaf, and ¼ tsp thyme tied in cheesecloth

When the butter and oil are bubbling in the skillet, add the onions and sauté over moderate heat for about 10 minutes, rolling the onions about so they will brown as evenly as possible. Be careful not to break their skins. You cannot expect to brown them uniformly.

Pour in the liquid, season to taste, and add the herb bouquet. Cover and simmer slowly for 40 to 50 minutes until the onions are perfectly tender but retain their shape, and the liquid has evaporated. Remove herb bouquet.

To bake the onions, transfer the onions and their sautéing fat to a shallow baking dish or casserole just large enough to hold them in one layer. Set uncovered in upper third of a preheated 350-degree oven for 40 to 50 minutes, turning them over once or twice. They should be very tender, retain their shape, and be a nice golden brown. Remove herb bouquet.

Add onions to recipe as directed above.

To sautee the mushrooms:
2 T butter
1 T oil
1 pound fresh mushrooms, quartered

Place a 10-inch skillet over high heat with the butter and oil. As soon as you see that the butter foam has begun to subside, indicating it is hot enough, add the mushrooms. Toss and shake the pan for 4 to 5 minutes. During their sauté the mushrooms will at first absorb the fat. In 2 to 3 minutes the fat will reappear on their surface, and the mushrooms will begin to brown. As soon as they have browned slightly, remove from the heat.

Add mushrooms to recipe as directed above.

Potage Celestine (Celery Soup with Potatoes, Leeks, and Rice) – makes about 8 cups, serving 6 people
2 medium leeks or 1 ¼ cup sliced onions
3 cups sliced celery stalks
¼ tsp salt
3 T butter
4 cups light chicken stock, or canned chicken broth and water
1/3 cup plain white rice
3 or 4 medium baking potatoes, peeled and chopped (about 3 cups)
2 cups water
½ tsp salt
2 cups milk heated in a small pan
1/8 teaspoon sugar to bring out the flavor
Salt and white pepper

Cook the leeks and celery slowly with the salt and butter in a covered saucepan until tender but not browned – about 10 minutes. Add the liquid, bring to a boil, stir in the rice, and simmer uncovered for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, boil the potatoes with the water and salt. When tender, drain their cooking water into the leeks and celery. If you are using a food mill or ricer, puree the potatoes, return to the saucepan and beat in the milk to make a smooth, white cream. If you are using a blender, puree the potatoes with a cup of milk, pour into saucepan and beat in the rest of the milk.

Puree the leek and celery mixture with its liquid into the potato cream. Blend well with wire whip and bring to a simmer; beat in sugar and seasonings to taste.

Note: at this point, Julia instructs the chef to heat a soup tureen or a bowl and soup cups, then mash butter and herbs (fresh chervil or tarragon; or minced fresh parsley and ¼ tsp crumbled diced tarragon) in the soup tureen, blend the hot soup into the herb butter, sprinkle with croutons (instructions for this follow) and serve. People, at this point I was exhausted and really did not have the stamina to heat a tureen (oh, wait, I don’t have a tureen), nor the stamina to mince herbs and especially not the stamina to make my own frickin’ croutons (using clarified butters no less). Julia Child I am not, Martha Stewart I am not and French-chef wannabe I am not! But if you have it in you, go for it! Bon appetit, everybody!

"Minnesota Centennial Cook Book" & "Minnesota Heritage Cookbook" - Chicken Loaf, Rutabaga Casserole and Minneaple Torte

Date I made these recipes: May 11th

Minnesota Centennial Cook Book – 100 years of Good Cooking - Edited by Virginia Huck and Ann H. Andersen
Published by: the Women’s Division Minnesota Statehood Centennial Commission
© 1958
Recipe: Chicken Loaf – p. 33 – submitted by representatives of Cass County, Minnesota

Minnesota Heritage Cookbook – hand-me-down recipes for the benefit of the American Cancer Society, Minnesota Division, Inc. – Volumes I and II – Edited by Sue Zelickson
Published by: The American Cancer Society, Minnesota Division, Inc.
© 1979 (volume 1) – ISBN: 0-87197-375-8 and © 1985 (volume 2) – ISBN: 0-87197-374-X
Recipes: Volume 1 – Rutabaga Casserole – p. 95
Volume 2 – The Minneaple Torte – p. 132

Happy Birthday, Minnesota!

Today, May 11th, is Minnesota’s Sesquicentennial (150th birthday) but in true Minnesota fashion, any celebrations (if indeed there were any) were subdued. We don’t make a fuss in this state. It might have been low-key because today is also Mother’s Day; no Minnesotan wants to mess with Mother’s Day. Other sacred holidays, just so you know, are the fishing opener and the first day of deer hunting season.

Now I have to tell you that there are still things about Minnesota that I still find, after almost 28 years of living here, to be quirky, endearing and/or frustrating. And so before I get to the recipes, below is just a sampling of fun and frolic in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

Minnesotans cherish their cabins more than anywhere else in the world (in Michigan, we called them camps and/or cottages). And ALL Minnesota cabins are “Up North.” At least that’s what everyone says. When I first heard people say their cabins were “Up North” I honestly thought they were talking about Canada. Silly me. When people say “Up North” it could mean anywhere from an hour outside the city to someplace is western Wisconsin. It took me a while to figure that one out!

Minnesotans love their land of 10,000 lakes and yet I cannot tell you how amazed I was when I first moved here to learn what qualified as a lake. A lake to Minnesotans is basically any body of water, no mater how large or how small. I grew up on the shores of Lake Superior. Now that’s a lake!

There is nothing like the Minnesota 4-way stop sign standoff. People, you have never seen such polite behavior in all your life. At least a half an hour is spent by various and sundry people waving the other one on. “You go first” (wave, wave) to which the other person responds “No, you go first (wave, wave) until we are all dead or have fallen asleep. True Minnesotans do not like horns as in “HONK, HONK--The light has been green for an hour, go already! Honking one’s horn (see also “tooting one’s horn”) is considered mighty rude behavior. But I’m not a native and so I engage in it on a regular basis (“Yes, it was me!!”)

And speaking of behavior, I’ll never forget an incident at one of the companies I worked for shortly after I moved here. Picture this: I (the half-Sicilian in the room) am seated across the table from three mighty white, mighty blonde, mighty Scandinavian and mighty Lutheran programmers. (Unlike the wild Catholics, Lutherans take their religion seriously – no fuss, no muss, and most certainly no drunken bingo stories). I am telling them of a problem with a client had with a computer program and as usual, I’m talking with my hands.

About halfway through, all three of the men started to turn beat red and finally one of them said words I’ve come to hate: “Ann, calm down.”

People, I must admit to being a little taken aback. I replied “I am calm!” and the three of them looked at each other and then back at me with a “yeah right” look on all of their faces.

At that point in time, the Twin Cities were pretty much populated by people of Swedish and Norwegian descent and an “outburst” like mine was frowned upon as being over the top. Lucky for me, other nationalities moved here and now I’m not the odd gal out but it was touch and go for awhile. At first I imagined these guys going home and telling their wives about their day with me but then I caught myself. It would be most impolite to gossip and so I’m sure they never said a word. How very Minnesotan of them!

And yet, with all of its faults, I love living here and love that the state is celebrating a big birthday (even though saying “Sesquicentennial” is a tongue-twister!). I even made a cake of sorts for the occasion.

As to the recipes, I must admit to being darned challenged in finding something that seemed unique and seemed to fit Minnesota without being too fancy. I was really disappointed at the lack of casserole (or “hot dish” as it is known here) recipes featuring wild rice (and cream of mushroom soup) but I guess much depends on when these cookbooks were written and the recipes that I did find without soup seemed a bit boring. But then, Minnesota is famous for its white food (lutefisk, lefse and potatoes). As we say in the northland – Uff dah!

And as we also say in the northland--Happy Sesquecentennial, Minnesota!

Chicken Loaf
2 cups cooked chicken
2 cups soft bread crumbs
1 cup diced, cooked carrots
1 cup cooked green peas
1 medium-sized onion
1 tablespoon shortening
2 eggs
1 teaspoon sage
Salt
Pepper

To the bread crumbs add peas, carrots, onion (browned in the shortening), and seasonings; add egg yolks, beaten. Mix thoroughly but lightly, then add chicken and lastly add the 2 egg whites beaten stiff. Fold into mixture carefully. Grease a shallow pan generously and put in the mixture. Bake about 1 ½ hours in 350 oven. NOTE: bake this dish for 1 ½ hours at your own risk! My loaf was just a little on the crispy critter side when I pulled it out. I added chicken broth to it after the fact but you might want to consider adding it as you cook it to keep it moist. The author also suggests making a medium thick gravy of chicken broth and serving it hot with the chicken loaf but at that point, it was a little late!


Rutabaga Casserole (Finnish) - Serves 6-8
2 medium rutabagas, peeled and diced (about 6 c.)
¼ fine dry bread crumbs
¼ c. half and half cream
½ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons butter

Cover and cook the rutabagas in salted water until soft, about 20 minutes. Drain and mash. Soak the bread crumbs in the cream and stir in nutmeg, salt and beaten eggs. Combine with the mashed rutabagas.

Turn into a buttered 2 ½ quart casserole, dot top with butter and bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour or until lightly browned.

The Minneaple™ Torte – Serves 6-8
(Note: Minneapolis used to be referred to – and marketed—as the Minneaple, thus the name.)
Crust:
½ cup butter or margarine, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour

Filling:
1 (8-oz) package cream cheese, softened
¼ cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Top layer:
1/3 cup sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
4 cups sliced, peeled apples
¼ cup sliced almonds

Grease a 9” springform pan. Heat over to 450 degrees. For crust, cream butter, sugar and vanilla; blend in flour. Spread dough on bottom and 1 ½ inches up side of springform pan.

For filling, combine cheese and sugar; mix well. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Pour into pastry-lined pan.

For top layer, combine sugar and cinnamon; toss with apples. Spoon apples over cream cheese layer; sprinkle with almonds. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees and bake for about 25 minutes longer. Loosen torte from rim of pan; cool before removing rim.

"Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book" & "The Take Good Care of My Son Cookbook for Brides" - Swiss Steak and Parsleyed Potatoes

Date I made these recipes: May 4, 2008

Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book
Published by Meredith Corporation
© 1941, 1951
Recipe: Swiss Steak – Chapter 14, page 7

The Take Good Care of My Son Cookbook for Brides by June Roth
Published by: An Essandess Special Edition
© 1969
Parsleyed Potatoes – p. 106

Had my mom been alive, today would have been my parent’s 51st wedding anniversary and trying to find a recipe or two to acknowledge that just eluded me until the last minute. I pulled several off the shelf before I hit on my selection criteria: What Would Mom Make? (WWMM?) This helped eliminate wonderful-sounding dishes that would have never seen the light of day in our household—chicken breasts with wild mushrooms, fancy pastas, shrimp dishes—the list goes on and on. And that’s how I came to settle upon Swiss Steak and Parsleyed Potatoes.

I have two copies of Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, this one, published in 1941 and then reprinted again in 1951 and the other was one I blogged about a few weeks ago. The older version is a little worse for the wear but the recipes are pretty similar to the ones in my mom’s copy that she received when she got married on May 4, 1957. The Swiss Steak recipe that I selected is pretty similar to my mother’s so that was an easy choice.

While contemplating my next move, I noticed The Take Good Care of My Son Cookbook for Brides on my shelf and in it, the accompaniment to the Swiss Steak—Parsleyed Potatoes. My mother made these potatoes for so many dinners I lost count but particularly with liver and onions. (If you must, please take a moment to go “ew.”)

This recipe didn’t quite hit the mark as it called for 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, something I don’t think my mother ever added and I didn’t like the flavor at all. If memory serves, mom boiled some potatoes, added sautéed onion and then the parsley although I could be wrong. You would think that something as simple as this recipe would be easily remembered but you would be wrong and now I lost my opportunity to ask her. The moral of this story is to never take the easiest recipes for granted—get it in writing!

Both of these dishes are really easy to make, something my mother appreciated. She cooked great meals for us that primarily consisted of meat, potatoes and a vegetable and utilized her pressure cooker to the nth degree. She almost never made a casserole, even at the height of that craze, and canned vegetables weren’t too prevalent, either, given the fact that we had a huge garden. Sometimes folks, simple pleasures are the best.


Swiss Steak – Serves 6
2 pounds round or chuck steak
½ cup flour
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons fat
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup canned tomatoes

Have steak cut 1 ½ to 2 inches thick. Mix flour, salt and pepper; thoroughly pound into steak. (Note: how does one “thoroughly pound” flour into steak? I coated the steak…then pounded the steak…but don’t believe I thoroughly pounded the steak!)

Brown the meat and onion in hot fat; add tomatoes. Cover; cook over low heat or bake in a moderate oven (350) until tender, about 1 ½ hours.

Parsleyed Potatoes – Serves either 2 or 3 or 4 to 6
To serve 2 or 3
¾ pound tiny new potatoes
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1 teaspoon lemon juice

To serve 4 to 6
1 ½ pounds tiny new potatoes
¼ cup butter
¼ cup minced parsley
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Wash potatoes, leaving them whole with skins intact. Place them in a saucepan, cover with salted water, and boil for about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

In a small saucepan, melt butter; remove from heat and stir in parsley and lemon juice. Pour into a small deep serving dish. Peel potatoes quickly and place in lemon-butter sauce. Roll potatoes in sauce with a spoon until well coated. Serve at once.

Note: If I were to make this again, I’d peel the potatoes before boiling as it is much easier and saves you from burning your hands!

"The Swiss Cookbook" - Veal Cutlets from Ouchy

Date I made this recipe: April 27, 2008

The Swiss Cookbook by Nika Standen Hazelton
Published by: Atheneum
© 1967

Recipe: Veal Cutlets from Ouchy – p. 236


If you’re like me, spring doesn’t exactly equate with the heartier foods I tend to associate with Switzerland such as fondue or Rosti potatoes but people, when it’s the end of April and it is STILL snowing outside, then making a Swiss dish doesn’t seem like a bad idea.

Despite the weather, I still don’t know if I would have gone through with making a dish from this cookbook (it’s on a shelf on the way upstairs and happened to catch my eye) if I hadn’t opened another cookbook in my collection, Life is Meals. (Life is Meals – A Food Lover’s Book of Days by James and Kay Salter)

Now, I plan to actually make a recipe from Life is Meals at some other point in time, but Life is Meals is a chronicle of 365 food facts, food stories and/or recipes, one for each day of the month and each month of the year. And it was the entry in this book for April 24 that made me make the recipe I did from a Swiss cookbook in the middle of spring (a term we use loosely in this state).

You see, on April 24, one of my best friends, Carol, celebrated her 50th birthday. Carol has cancer. Actually Carol has ovarian cancer but it manifested self, in of all places, in the duodenum, a small sack that is part of the stomach and intestinal system. Carol has been unable to eat real food for over two months now and is frighteningly thin. And yet even in the hospital, she talked of food. In fact, she was oddly comforted by, of all things, programs on The Food Network. And even between rounds of chemotherapy, she still expresses in interest in the one activity she loves – eating. (In fact, she “approved” this recipe!)

Carol and I may share a long-term friendship but our view of food is vastly different. Whereas I am all about the process and following directions (especially for purposes of this blog), she is all about eating and experimenting. I can’t think of one recipe that she hasn’t tweaked since I’ve known her and she frequently substitutes things that I would never dream of adding. To her, the finished product is everything. To me, the finished product is just the result of the process and if the end result is good, it’s good and if it’s not, well then it’s not. Oftentimes, I lose interest in the entire dish once it is done (and leftovers really tend to bore me) but not her. She relishes every bite and loves having leftovers to freeze. My leftovers, if I keep them at all, reside in my refrigerator lest they fall victim to the dreaded freezer burn!

And so to her, Life is [indeed] Meals and there is nothing sadder than the fact that she cannot eat or even prepare any food at this point in time. Ensure, that hideous but necessary liquid vitamin drink is what is driving the bus and keeping her going and the route it takes is via feeding tube to the stomach. In this instance, life is no longer about meals, it is all about nutrients and there’s nothing fun, exciting or even remotely interesting in that. Nothing is savored at the end of the meal and there's most certainly nothing to freeze for a rainy day...or even a spring day that isn't!

So—how does this all relate back to a Swiss meal? Well, the entry for April 24th in Life Is Meals is a little story about Fritz Karl Vatel, a Swiss (key word here!) immigrant who worked as a steward for Louis XIV’s finance minister and who one day, ran short of food during a party honoring the king due to an unavoidable rush of last-minute guests (nothing seems to have changed much over the centuries—people, always remember to RSVP!), Feeling that his reputation was ruined, he fell on his sword while awaiting a late shipment of food and that was the end of that.

Now I must admit that it didn’t occur to me until just now that this suicide story might not go over well with a friend who is so ill but then again, Carol “gets it.” She understands in ways I do not that life really is about meals…and meals really are about life. And Vatel failed to appreciate that. Here is what one critic wrote of Vatel and the unfortunate incident: “An authoritative appeal to the goodwill of his team temporarily at a loss, some brief and clear orders called out over the tumult of the upset pots and pans, and the problem is resolved. The service continues.”

My friend, Carol, is nothing if not a problem-solver. If at all possible, she will solve this problem, get off the food rollercoaster she’s been on and once again savor a good steak with a dry martini or an excellent Veal Cutlet from Ouchy and life will go back to being all about meals. And that is how it should be.

Veal Cutlets from Ouchy (this made 3 servings using slightly under a pound of veal)

Note: I doubt very much if Ouchy is pronounced like we think it is—as in “I have a boo-boo.” But it reminds me of how many words I mispronounced as a kid, particularly chocolate mousse. It was always “mousey” to me!

4 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon anchovy paste
1 ½ pounds veal scaloppini
Thin slices of boiled ham
Thin slices of Gruyere cheese
1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Flour
Butter for sautéing

NOTE: Let me just say that it’s clear I don’t reside in a state populated by Italian-Americans because finding veal cutlets took some doing. I found veal shanks and veal roasts and in one place, veal chops but it wasn’t looking too good for the scaloppini home team until I visited a couple of Italian delis. Even then, the cutlets were frozen rather than fresh. I have to admit it was a headscratcher. One of the butchers at one of the regular grocery stores I visit said that they don’t stock them because there’s not much demand for them. Well, I demanded them—so there!

To make the recipe, mix the butter with the anchovy paste. Trim the meat so that the slices are all of the same size. The meat for this dish must be very thin so pound the cutlets down if you have to. Spread the anchovy butter on half of the meat slices. Top each with a slice of boiled ham and cheese. Cover with the remaining veal as if making sandwiches. Secure each meat sandwich with a toothpick or tie with a string. Take care that the cheese is well covered by the meat, or it will ooze out during the cooking. Dip the meat sandwiches in the beaten egg and then in the flour. Saute in hot butter for about 3 to 5 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Serve very hot with any green vegetable.

'Jewish Cooking in America" (Nathan) & "The 2nd Ave Deli Cookbook" & "The Book of Jewish Food" (Roden)

Date I made these recipes: April 20, 2008 (Passover)

Jewish Cooking in America by Joan Nathan
Published by: Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN: 0-394-58405-8 © 1994
Recipe: My Favorite Brisket – p. 175

The 2nd Ave Deli Cookbook – Recipes and Memories from Abe Lebewohl’s Legendary Kitchen by Sharon Lebewohl and Rena Bulkin
Published by: Villard
ISBN: 0-375-50267-X © 1999
Recipe: Potato Kugel – p. 150-151

The Book of Jewish Food – An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York by Claudia Roden
Published by: Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN: 0-394-53258-9 © 1996
Recipe – Carrot Tzimmes (Honeyed Carrots) – p. 164

Being a gentile and all, I don’t know if one wishes the Jewish community a happy Passover or not, but I will pass on a hearty “thank you” to today’s cookbook authors. Every dish was a winner.

Let’s start with the brisket. I’ve never met cookbook author, Joan Nathan, but I want to. I’ve heard her several times on Public Radio’s The Splendid Table and she always has great stories to tell. Her book is the same—a story for every recipe and when I got to “My Favorite Brisket,” I knew that’s what I had to make. And so off I went to find one!

Knowing that one of the Byerly’s stores in St. Louis Park, Minnesota caters to a large Jewish population, I drove over to that store and found plenty of kosher brisket. But at a price of $28.00 on up, I decided that I didn’t need kosher and that chuck roast, as noted in the recipe, would make a fine substitute. And it was indeed delicious. There’s nothing like a piece of meat that is slow-cooked.

And then to accompany my brisket, I pulled another cookbook off the shelf, this time The 2nd Ave Deli Cookbook. (I have several Jewish cookbooks but since I wasn’t feeding an army of people or catering at a Passover party, they’ll have to wait until another time.). But before we get to the recipe discussion, you need a brief history of this deli.

Once upon a time, a man named Abe Lebewohl opened up a deli on 2nd Ave and 10th Street (hence the name) in New York City’s East Village. And they did booming business. And then somebody murdered Abe (to this day, the killer has not been found) and all of New York was in shock. The 2nd Ave Deli didn’t just serve food it served FOOD, lots and lots of good food and with a lot of heart thrown in for good measure.

Despite everything, Abe’s family carried on and last year, Abe’s nephew moved the restaurant to Murray Hill. Frankly, I don’t care where it is, I’d walk across Manhattan to get there. Its’ just that tasty.

Several years ago, a friend and I ate at the deli and I’m not kidding when I tell you everything was piled a mile high. I had a pastrami sandwich (a mile high) and a bowl of potato salad (a mile high) and whatever Susan had was a mile high as well. And I was quickly stuffed to the gills and was planning to abandon ship when our server came by and suggested a doggie bag.

Now, silly me, I said I didn’t think that was best because I was soon heading for the airport to come home to Minneapolis. The look she gave me was one of horror but she recovered and said “Honey. Take it with you. You can eat it on the plane.”

And so I took it with me and I ate it on the plane (back in the day before most of us are forced to feed ourselves in the air or die trying) and it was just as tasty on bite number 22 (or so) as it was on bite number one. I have to admit I was rather surprised that nobody attacked me to wrestle the food out of my hands but maybe by then the smell had diminished such that nobody knew the treasure I had in my lap!

The same could not be said for a flight out of New York a couple of years ago when I brought back two pounds of Zabars coffee, one pound of Italian cookies (always the ribbon cookies, always) and a dozen H&H bagels. (My girlfriend is kind enough to live in the Upper West Side where all these shops exist). When I got up to the airline counter, the agent, who had been reading something on the screen, suddenly snapped his head up, sniffed the air and said “I smell bagels!”

People, I am not ashamed to say that I tried my best to bribe my way into first class with my bagels, alas to no avail. Well, he has only himself to blame for the near-revolt that happened when I got on the plane with my culinary delights. I was suddenly everyone’s best friend. (Next time around I’ll way my leftover sandwich and see what that does – can’t hurt!)

This potato kugel recipe will be your new best friend as well. It does not disappoint and although I had my misgivings about it at first (it sounded rather bland), it was a perfect accompaniment to the brisket a/k/a chuck roast. In fact, I’m thinking it will be a perfect accompaniment to eggs in the morning. And don’t even get me started on the shredder disk for my Cuisinart. I love that thing and could have sat there all day shredding everything I could get my hands on. It’s the littlest things that mean so much.

As to the vegetable portion of our program, the carrot tzimmes I made to balance out the heaviness of the meat and potatoes was just the thing. The cookbook says that they are typically eaten at Rosh Hashanah (the New Year) and are a symbol of prosperity and good fortune. I guess I missed that holiday by just a few months but hey, life is too short to stress about when to serve carrots. I’m in need of some prosperity now and so hope I’m forgiven for either being late to the party or getting a jump on next year!

Finally, let me leave you with a cute little anecdote from The Book of Jewish Food:
Mrs. Cohen, who is having lunch with Mrs. Marks, says, “Do you know Debra Joseph is having an affair?” Mrs. Marks asks, “Who’s doing the catering?”

My Favorite Brisket – Serves 8 to 10
2 teaspoons salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 5-pound brisket of beef, shoulder roast of beef, chuck roast, or end of steak
1 garlic clove, peeled
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 onions, peeled and diced
1 10-ounce can tomatoes
2 cups red wine
2 stalks celery with the leaves, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh rosemary
¼ cup chopped parsley
6 to 8 carrots, peeled and sliced on the diagonal
Optional: jar of sun-dried tomatoes

Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the brisket and rub with the garlic. Sear the brisket in the oil and then place, fat side up, on top of the onions in a large casserole. Cover with the tomatoes, red wine, celery, bay leaf, thyme, and rosemary.

Cover and bake in a preheated 325-degree oven for about 3 hours, basting often with pan juices.

Add the parsley and carrots and bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes or more or until the carrots are cooked. To test for doneness, stick a fork in the flat (thinner or leaner end of the brisket). When there is a light pull on the fork as it is removed from the meat, it is “fork tender.”

This dish is best prepared in advance and refrigerated so that the fat can be easily skimmed from the surface of the gravy. Trim off all the visible fat from the cold brisket. Then place the brisket, on what was the fat side down, on a cutting board. Look for the grain – that is, the muscle lines of the brisket-and with a sharp knife, cut across the grain.

When ready to serve, reheat the gravy.

Put the sliced brisket in a roasting pan. Pour the hot gravy on the meat, cover, and reheat in a preheated 350-degree oven for 45 minutes. Some people like to strain the gravy, but I prefer to keep the onions because they are so delicious.

Joan’s final note on this recipe was to add a jar of sun-dried tomatoes to the canned tomatoes as they add a more intense flavor to the brisket.

Potato Kugel – Serves 8

Check out this hilarious introduction to the recipe: “Like all Jewish kugels, this makes for heavy eating (starches like mashed potatoes or rice go down like celery sticks by comparison). So what’s the problem? You were planning to go dancing after the Seder, maybe?”

2 ½ pound potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 large onions (use 1 ½ cups grated; don’t tamp down)
3 eggs beaten
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ corn oil
1 cup flour
2 ½ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 cup matzo meal
Corn oil for drizzling and greasing pan

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a food processor, fine-grate potatoes (don’t liquefy, leave some texture), and strain to eliminate excess liquid. Don’t overdo it; just let the water drain out. Fine-grate onions, and mix in a large bowl with potatoes. (If you don’t have a food processor, you can grind the potatoes and onions in a meat grinder.)

Add eggs, baking powder, ¾ cup corn oil (most of it cooks out), flour, salt and pepper; mix well. Fold in matzo meal, making sure that everything is very well blended.

Pour batter into a greased baking pan (your kugel should be about 2 inches high) and drizzle top with corn oil from a flatware tablespoon. Bake for 55 minutes, or until top is golden brown (check occasionally to see). Serve hot.

Carrot Tzimmes (Honeyed Carrots ) – Serves 6
1 ½ pounds carrots, sliced
3 tablespoons goose fat, butter, or light vegetable oil
Salt
Juice of 1 orange
¼ teaspoon powdered ginger
2 tablespoons honey

In a large wide pan, saute the carrots in the fat, stirring and turning them over. Add the rest of the ingredients and water to cover. Simmer gently, covered, for ½ hour, or until the carrots are tender. Remove the lid towards the end to reduce the liquid to a shiny glaze.

"Favorite Torte and Cake Recipes" - Chocolate Malt Cake with Fluffy Marshmallow Frosting

Date I made this recipe: April 15, 2008

Favorite Torte and Cake Recipes by Rose Oller Harbaugh and Mary Adams
Published by: Simon and Schuster
© 1951
Recipe: Chocolate Malt Cake – p. 73 and Fluffy Marshmallow Frosting – p. 141

Well folks, it has been a while since I made a recipe that I thought was somewhat of a clunker but I guess I was overdue.

Today’s recipe was disappointing on many levels. Let’s start with the cake.

Now, it could be me, but I thought a chocolate malt cake would be moist and flavorful but instead it was rather dry. The ingredients all seemed spot on—butter, melted chocolate, sugar, eggs, milk and chocolate malt but the end result didn’t reflect the richness of these items.

Then there was the Great Frosting Debacle of 2008. Perhaps if I had used the suggested frosting (Creole Frosting, comprised of brown sugar, eggs whites and cream of tartar), the results might have been better but no. I just had to go and try the Fluffy Marshmallow Frosting because honestly, doesn’t it sound like it should automatically go with Chocolate Malt Cake? Is there anything better than marshmallows and chocolate (other than Smores?!)

So I made the fluffy frosting and it was fluffy all right but it, too, lacked a certain je ne c’est quoi. Perhaps the word I’m looking for is “flavor?”

The other problem with the fluffy marshmallow frosting was, quite frankly, the marshmallows. The recipe said to chop marshmallows into small pieces. Hellooo? Ever tried doing that? It’s like herding cats. Marshmallows don’t chop well as they stick to the knife and so the whole exercise became one, big train wreck. As I was trying to chop said marshmallows, I kept thinking this would be so much easier with miniature marshmallows but then again, this cookbook was published in 1951 and marshmallows, according to Wikipedia, were not developed until the 60’s. So there it is.

Any who…after much ado about chopping, I got this recipe off the ground but the end result still wasn’t very pretty and let me just say that it did not do wonders when put on the cake, either. It was pretty gloppy, almost rude-looking and there was no way I could (or dared) spread it on the side of the cake because it was too heavy to be anywhere except on top and in the middle. The other thing you need to know is that this frosting is fluffy in exactly the same way that meringue is fluffy and that was most disappointing to me as I was expecting fluffy as in Marshmallow Cream fluffy! Although I didn’t fall into a deep depression over this, neither was I a happy camper after all was said and done.

So it’s a good thing that my husband, for whom I made this cake, doesn’t have the same high expectations that I do. Although he too, thinks that the cake is on the dry side, he has chowed down at least half of the cake so far whereas I can hardly look at the poor, pathetic thing. It sits on the counter just mocking me and so I hope he polishes off the other half soon so that I can select my next recipe and prepare to recover from the Great Frosting Debacle of 2008!

Chocolate Malt Cake
2 cups flour
¼ teaspoon soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 square unsweetened chocolate
½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
¼ cup chocolate malt

Sift dry ingredients 3 times. Melt chocolate over hot water. Cream butter, sugar, and eggs thoroughly until light and fluffy; add melted chocolate.

Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk and malt; blend well.

Bake in 2 9-inch well-buttered layer-cake pans, 20 to 25 minutes in a 350 oven.

Fluffy Marshmallow Frosting
½ pounds fresh marshmallows (use Miniature Marshmallows—you will thank me later)
1 square unsweetened chocolate
2 cups sugar
¼ cup hot water
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla

Chop marshmallows in small pieces. Melt chocolate with a few drops of water. (I’m not sure if this was a misprint or not. I melted the chocolate over a double boiler and I don’t think it made much of a difference but then again, I could be wrong!)

Boil sugar and hot water until it spins a thread, about 238 on the sugar thermometer. Then pour slowly in a thin stream on stiffly beaten egg whites, beating constantly. Add melted chocolate and continue beating.

When almost cool, add chopped marshmallows and vanilla. Beat well. (Note: I am no home economist or even a baker of any sort, but what I wanted was for the marshmallows to melt and get all gooey and obviously, adding the marshmallows to the mixture when it was almost cool did not allow for that to happen. Please let me know if any of you try adding them while the mixture is still somewhat hot. I’m hoping for the next best thing to Marshmallow Whip!)

"The African Cook Book - Menus from the Tree Houses Restaurant of the Pavilion of Africa, New York World's Fair 1964-65" - Chicken Moamba

Date I made this recipe: April 13, 2008

The African Cook Book – Menus from the Tree Houses Restaurant of the Pavilion of Africa, New York World’s Fair 1964-1965
Published by: Harvest House
© 1964
Recipe: Chicken Moamba – p. 28

What are the odds that at various points in time in the years 1964 and 1965, both my husband and I, as well as my friend, Susan, who introduced us and her husband, Bob, all attended the New York World’s Fair? It’s one of the things we still chuckle about and took it as a sign that we were all meant to be together both in marriage and in friendship.

My parents and I, as well as my parents and my aunt and uncle went to the fair, no doubt timed with a visit to see my grandmother who lived in New Jersey. My husband’s mom is from Queens and so he, too, went to visit the grandparents and the fair, and Susan and Bob grew up in New Jersey, practically on the doorstep of the event. Although the fair didn’t fare well in terms of finances (pardon the pun), all of us cherish the family photos we have in front of the Unisphere, the giant globe marking the spot where the fair took place. It still “resides” in Queens and is always my beacon signaling an imminent arrival at La Guardia.

I don’t remember much about the World’s Fair since I was only 6 at the time, maybe 7 depending on what the year, but a few memories remain: It’s A Small World – the exhibit that ultimately became a feature attraction at Disney Land and later Disney World (for years, relatives sent me the dolls from various countries featured in the exhibit), the Carousel of Progress and Michelangelo’s famous sculpture, The Pieta…and one more important thing: The Rule of Rose Marie.

The Rule of Rose Marie was developed by my mom who was scared to death to bring her young daughter through the subway system, not because of bad people lurking nearby ready to snatch me away, but because it was so crowded and she was afraid we’d get separated. If that happened, her instructions were to go to the next stop, get off and wait. Lucky for us, I didn’t have to do that but each time I rode the subway after that, be it with my parents or with friends, the rule applied.

Later on the rule was expanded to airports, back in the day when the whole damned family could go down to meet a person at the gate. (I miss those days) The rule was the same with a slight variation: if you are being met and picked up by someone, wait at the gate for that person to come and get you. Unfortunately, my Uncle Jack didn’t know the Rule of Rose Marie and so many years ago after I flew into Dulles in D.C., he was waiting for me up by baggage while I was foot-tapping down at the gate. We eventually hooked up by my mother was surprised that he didn’t think to go down to the gate to look for me. But hey, it isn’t his fault he was absent the day my mom went over The Rule!

When it comes to cooking and this blog, I follow the rules of the recipe, tempted as I may be to change a few things here and there. This recipe was pretty easy and the only thing I changed was the quantity since half the recipe still yielded a lot of food. This recipe comes from the country of Gabon, in west Africa, most noted for being the home of Dr. Albert Schweitzer. Dr. Schweitzer won The Noble Peace Prize in 1952. (I didn’t know this until I read it in the cook book and this is why I collect them--you get to learn about food and history all at the same time whilst enjoying the fruits of your labor!).

Chicen Moamba – serves 8
½ cup yellow onions
2 Tbs. peanut oil
2-2 ½ pound chickens (fryers) (I used boneless chicken breasts)
12 oz. peanut butter
4 medium sweet potatoes
1 Tbs. salt
½ tsp black pepper
2 pounds raw spinach
1 pound white rice
8 hard-cooked eggs

Coarsely chop the onions and saute in the peanut oil until soft but not brown. Add the chicken (the recipe says to cut in half and in half again—I cut the chicken breasts into cubes), cover tightly and simmer for 15 minutes. Blend the peanut butter with one quart of water, pour over the chicken when smooth and cook for 10 minutes.

Season the medium sweet potatoes that you have peeled and cut in half (I cut mine in cubes) with the salt and pepper and add to the chicken. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until both are done.

Meanwhile, cook the spinach separately only until the spinach breaks down and is still very green. Also cook the rice separately using package directions. Finally, simmer the eggs gently until hard cooked and then peel.

When ready to serve, pour the chicken mixture over the rice then place one peeled egg and a serving of spinach on the side. If desired, you can also sprinkle chopped peanuts over the chicken mixture and serve with side dishes of chopped avocado, pilli-pilli sauce (an African hot sauce made with tomato sauce, garlic powder and crushed red pepper) and shredded coconut.

"The Yul Brynner Cookbook" - Stuffed Cabbage

Date I made this recipe: April 6, 2008

The Yul Brynner Cookbook – Food Fit for the King and You by Yul Brynner with Susan Reed
Published by: Stein and Day
© 1983
Recipe: Stuffed Cabbage – p. 14-15

My girlfriend, Mary, when describing my blog says “It’s totally Verme. It’s not just a recipe review it’s a recipe review…and a little bit more.” (Sometimes it’s a lot more—like today’s posting-- but why quibble?!)

And so, dear reader, today’s blog posting is going to be a primer on the selected works of composers Rodgers and Hammerstein…and then a little story about Yul Brynner and the recipe I selected from his book, The Yul Brynner Cookbook – Food Fit for the King and You.

My walk down Rodgers and Hammerstein lane began a few weeks ago when my community band started rehearsing music from their musical, State Fair. Now, I’ve never seen the movie State Fair (starring Pat Boone and Ann-Margaret—if that isn’t an interesting pairing, I don’t know what is) but I know the music well having played a lot of it on the piano when I was younger from my Rodgers and Hammerstein music book. And don’t you know, the week before we started rehearsing this music, I bought a used copy of The King and I from a local bookstore. Sometimes it’s just cosmic how one thing leads to another.

The King and I really had me waxing nostalgic because it was one of the few albums my parents purchased back in the day when albums cost a pretty penny. That particular release of the album was from the 1956 film version starring Yul Brynner (now is the time to have that “ah ha!” moment) and Deborah Kerr. It should be noted that as with other musicals, Marni Nixon was the actual singing voice on the album (and dubbed into the movie), not Deborah Kerr. (You get extra credit if you know that Mari also was the voice of Maria in West Side Story instead of Natalie Wood, as well as the voice of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady instead of Audrey Hepburn. You get super dooper extra credit if you know that Richard Rodgers, prior to teaming up with Oscar Hammerstein, was a partner of the famous songwriting team of Rodgers and Hart. No points will be deducted, however, if you are too young to know any of this…and that’s why I’m going to lay it all out for you!)

So anyway, in addition to being a cherished album in my parent’s collection, I also had the opportunity to sing along to a couple of the tunes from the album while in Sacred Heart Catholic School back in the 60’s. We did a lot of performing while I was in school as there was always a feast day to celebrate (for a particular saint) or the priest’s birthday or a new pope…or something that caused the instructors to corral all the kids in my class (and sometimes, the entire school) to put on a show. The two pieces that we did were “I Whistle A Happy Tune” and “Getting to Know You.” To this day, I recall having to enunciate the phrase “My.cup.of.tea” with just the right articulation and spacing. The nuns were nothing if not exacting.

And so I fell in love with the music and when the musical finally made it to TV, I watched it over and over again through the years until I had half of it memorized. It was just that good.

Now I wish I could tell you that the nuns also instilled a love of the most popular Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals ever – The Sound of Music – but such was not the case. You see, when the movie came out in 1965, my parents brought us to see the movie and I can’t tell you how excited I was…until three of the nuns from our school came and sat directly behind us. Directly behind us! An entire theater of empty seats and they had to sit within breathing room of my neck. Those nuns had a lot of nerve! (And rosary beads that were so heavy and long that they could take you down for the count with one lasso in 30 seconds!)

Now for those of you who experienced Catholic Schools and the nuns in the 60’s, you’ll understand the complete terror I experienced with those nuns behind me. I was so fearful that any turn of the head, any sneeze, any laugh would be reported as a serious infraction (actually, back then, everything was a serious infraction) that I dared not breathe. I didn’t move a muscle. And so yes, Sister Rita, and Sister Charlotte and Sister James Charles, you are totally and completely responsible for the fact that I am about the only person on the planet to hate—and I mean hate -- that movie! I don’t own the CD, I don’t own the DVD and although my husband and I saw the home used in the movie shoot while in Austria on vacation, we did not contemplate for even one minute going on The Sound of Music Tour. That being said, of course the nuns ran us through several of the songs for various and sundry performance purposes and so the words are now stuck in my brain. They’re not bad tunes, but you won’t find me humming them around the house. So there it is.

Other musicals from R&H fare a little bit better: I love Oklahoma ("O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A…Oklahommmmmm-a! Yeah!”), particularly “I Cain’t Say No” sung by the character Ado Annie and “Pore Jud Is Daid” sung by actor Gordon MacRae who played Curly, with Rod Steiger who played Jud Fry, chiming in on “and see-rene.” It makes me laugh just thinking about it.

A little less palatable but still kind of fun is South Pacific. My parents loved that movie and when I dared suggest that it was kind of silly, they turned on me and gave me a look that said “You are not our child.” I assured them I was. (But for the record, "Happy Talk" is a stupid song).

Next in the lineup of musicals by R&H that I like is The Flower Drum Song. One of my favorite songs out of all of the ones they wrote for their musicals is “I Enjoy Being a Girl.” Who doesn’t like the way she sings “When I have a brand new hair-do, and my eyelashes all in curl, I float as the clouds on air do, I enjoy being a girl?”

One woman who didn’t exactly enjoy being a girl but loved being a princess is Cinderella. Although Julie Andrews played the lead role on Broadway, Lesley Ann Warren was the Cinderella du jour in the 1965 version of Rodger and Hammerstein’s musical Cinderella. That movie also starred Celeste Holm and Ginger Rogers and Stuart Damon as the prince (I didn’t know who on earth he was, but he was definitely handsome, I loved him, was going to marry him and that was all that mattered. By the way, I was all of seven at the time).

I’ll always remember Cinderella not for its musical numbers (although I still know the first verse of “In My Own Little Corner”), but because the day I was going to watch it, my mother made lamb stew. I took one whiff and decided I couldn’t eat it and wouldn’t eat it and that was that.

The next thing you know (“old Jed’s a millionaire”—sorry—couldn’t help but throw in a sound bite from The Beverly Hillbillies), I’m in my room, banished like Cinderella was banished to her corner, crying for hours and hours and, of course, starving. I eventually got to see it on reruns the following year but it was never the same. To this day, I am not a fan of lamb but I am somewhat a fan of this musical even though it’s been years and years since I’ve seen it. I eventually married my own prince but that’s another story.

But alas, one of the musicals that goes toe-to-toe with The Sound of Music in the “turn that thing off” department is Carousel. There’s not much to like about a musical that features a wife-beater in the form of character Billy Bigelow. Not only is he mean to her but he gets himself killed when she’s pregnant with their daughter and the whole thing just goes downhill from there. And then Jerry Lewis had to go ruin (in my humble opinion) a perfectly decent song, "You’ll Never Walk Alone," by blubbering through that song each and every year during his Muscular Dystrophy Telethons. Just like The Sound of Music, I can’t stomach that musical or that song another minute.

But speaking of stomachs (yes, we’ve arrived at the actual recipe review), once I got on this jag of thinking about The King and I, I knew I had to pull out my Yul Brynner cookbook. Yul, for those of you who don’t know, played the King of Siam in the movie version of the musical and was pretty much remembered only for that role until the day he died even though he was in other great films, including The Magnificent Seven.

Yul had an interesting background that is reflected in his cookbook—there are Russian recipes, Japanese recipes, Swiss recipes, French recipes and Gypsy recipes—and depending on what biography you read, he has bloodlines relating to all those ethnic groups and/or lived in those countries…or he didn’t. I played it safe by sticking to a Russian recipe since everything I’ve read indicates that he was definitely Russian even if all other details are sketchy.

Now, I don’t know why but I had a picture in my head of large bundles of cabbage doused with tomato sauce but that is not what this recipe calls for. The sauce is more along the lines of a sweet and sour mixture and is most definitely not red. I liked the sauce and liked the raisins; I used golden raisins even though the recipe didn’t specify.

One thing I didn’t like was trying to pull apart a cabbage that was sitting in boiling water. The recipe says if the leaves don’t separate easily, put the entire head of cabbage in boiling water and peel as you go. Yeah, right. One set of tongs and a fork later, and I pulled the whole thing out of the water and did the deed on my counter. You’ll thank me for that instruction because otherwise you are bobbing for apples (and giving yourself a facial--but basically bobbing for apples).

I also don’t know if I would use as much butter as called for but that’s your call, not mine. It didn't add to the flavor in any way and just made the whole dish rather greasy.

Otherwise, whistle a happy tune as you tuck in this delicious dinner fit for a king.

Stuffed cabbage – Serves 4
1 medium white cabbage (Note: I only found green or red but not white so I used green. If you ask me, white and green are the same thing)
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 clove garlic
1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon dill
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons tomato puree
3 tablespoons raisins
3 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice
1 cup cooked white rice
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup sour cream (optional)

Fill a large soup pot with water, and place over high heat until water boils. While water is heating, remove outer leaves from cabbage, and cut out the cabbage core. Discard outer leaves and core. Separate the remaining cabbage leaves, taking care not to tear them (riiiight), and cook them for about ten minutes in the boiling water. If the leaves do not separate easily, put the entire head of cabbage into the boiling water. Peel the leaves away carefully as the cabbage cooks. (Please see my note above on how tricky this is). The leaves should be medium-soft and translucent in appearance when you take them out of the water. Set the leaves aside to cool.

In a large skillet, melt two tablespoons butter and sauté the chopped onion and garlic clove in the melted butter. Remove the garlic clove and add 1 pound ground beef, dill, salt and pepper. Brown the meat thoroughly and when it’s cooked, drain off excess fat and remove cooked beef from the heat. Combine stock, tomato puree, raisins, vinegar or lemon juice, and sugar in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat so that sauce simmers. Mix the cooked rice with the cooked beef. Preheat oven to 350.

Stuff individual cabbage leaves with 2-3 tablespoons of rice and meat filling to form cabbage rolls. When stuffing the cabbage leaves, being by placing the filling about two fingers’ width from the thinnest edge of the leaf (top edge). Then cover the filling with that exposed top edge of the leaf, and fold in the sides of the leaf to prevent the filling from escaping. Continue rolling until the leaf from the top edge to the bottom edge. Trim off any excess part of the thick end of the cabbage leaf, once the roll is completed. Rolls should look like oblong cylinders. NOTE: When all else fails, read the instructions. This recipe started out with how to roll the leaves, followed by the ingredients list, followed by the instructions for how to put the dish together. I didn’t realize until I started to write this blog posting, that I should have rolled them differently and thus ended up with quite the mess on my hands when it came time to turn the cabbage rolls (below).

When done rolling the cabbage leaves, place the rolls in a single layer in a large, shallow baking dish. Pour the hot sauce over the cabbage, and bake covered for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, turn cabbage rolls, re-cover dish, and bake another 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, turn rolls once more, dot with 3 tablespoons butter, and bake uncovered for the last 10 minutes. Serve with sour cream to garnish, if desired.