"The Saturday Evening Post All American Cookbook" & "Blueberry Hill Cookbook" & "Food in Good Season" - shrimp, salad & dessert

Date I made these recipes: Saturday and Sunday, July 12th and 13th 2008

The Saturday Evening Post All American Cookbook by Charlotte Turgeon and Frederick A. Birmingham
Published by: Thomas Nelson Inc. & Curtis Publishing Company
© 1976
Recipe: Blueberry Buckle – p. 222

Blueberry Hill Cookbook by Elsie Masterton
Published by: Thomas Y. Crowell Company
© 1959
Recipe: Shrimps Steamed in Beer – p. 84-85

Food in Good Season – A Month-by-Month Harvest of Country Recipes for Cooks Everywhere by Betty Fussell
Published by: Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN 0-394-57117-7
© 1988
Recipe: Italian Corn Salad – p. 153

So here’s how this went down: I mentioned in my last blog that I didn’t have time to make one of the recipes from one of my “All-American” cookbooks so I scheduled it for this weekend. And since I was making Blueberry Buckle, I thought I should see if I could find something from the Blueberry Hill Cookbook. And then, for whatever reason, after I found the shrimp recipe, I started to salivate for some sweet corn and that lead me to Betty Fussell who wrote The Story of Corn as well as Crazy for Corn (sad to say, neither are in my collection right now). And sure enough, Betty had this nice recipe for Italian Corn Salad to bring the menu full circle.

Now some of you might be a little young to remember artist Norman Rockwell, but he became famous for his wonderful drawings of everyday people and everyday life in The Saturday Evening Post. This cookbook is fun because it contains reprints of many of his culinary-related drawings. The recipe is fun as well and I was lucky enough to find some enormous blueberries for the buckle. They sure didn’t resemble anything I picked as a child!

Even though the Blueberry Hill Cookbook had blueberry recipes, I was really after something more main dish and the steamed shrimp seemed perfect. This cookbook was one of the first in my collection, purchased at The Strand in New York and I remember that it seemed to be in every used bookstore I went to on that trip. Blueberry Hill is an inn in Vermont and although I’ve never been, I certainly could make reservations and visit: http://www.blueberryhillinn.com/index.htm Sounds like ski season might be the perfect time.

Last, but not least, is the Italian Corn Salad. It was the perfect accompaniment to the shrimp and the blueberry buckle. If that menu didn’t scream “summer” I don’t know what did! Eat, enjoy and stock up on the napkins because you’ll need them for the shrimp!


Blueberry Buckle
¼ pound soft margarine (I used butter)\
½ cup sugar
1 egg, well beaten
2 cups sifted all-purpose unbleached flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ cup milk
1 pint fresh blueberries

Topping
4 tablespoons white sugar
4 tablespoons light brown sugar
½ cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
4 tablespoons butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease well an 8-by-8-inch baking/serving dish.

Beat the margarine (butter) together until light and fluffy. Add the beaten egg and when well mixed, add the flour sifted with the baking powder alternately with the milk. Place in the dish and cover with the blueberries.

Note: the sentence above “flour sifted with the baking powder” really threw me. The recipe called for “2 cups sifted flour” but didn’t say to sift in the baking powder until further down. Now I’m no baker but I’ve certainly read that sifting or not sifting properly can make a difference; luckily things worked out fine. But oh how I longed for clearer instructions!

Put all the ingredients for the topping in a bowl and work them together with your fingertips until crumbly. Sprinkle over the top. Bake 1 hour.

Shrimps Steamed in Beer – Serves 4

To be honest with you, the beer/spice combination that the shrimps were boiled in was okay but the butter sauce? Now that’s another story! Just be sure to have extra napkins ready!

1 can beer
1 ½ pounds shrimps in their shells
½ teaspoon thyme
½ teaspoon dry mustard
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic, chopped
½ tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon chopped chives or onions

Dunk Sauce for Shrimps in Beer
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped chives
1 teaspoon salt

To make the shrimp, in a large saucepan, combine and bring to a boil the beer, unshelled shrimps, thyme, dry mustard, bay leaf, chopped garlic, salt, chopped parsley, pepper and chopped chives or onion. As soon as the liquid comes to a boil, reduce heat and start timing. Let shrimp simmer 3 minutes. They should get pink, no more.

Serve at once, with the following sauce, prepared while you are preparing the shrimps.

To make the sauce, melt the butter, add all other ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Italian Corn Salad – Serves 4
2 cups fresh corn kernels
3 large tomatoes, sliced thin
¼ pound mozzarella, cut in strips
1 small bunch basil
1/3 cup olive oil
1 ½ tablespoons vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Heap uncooked corn kernels in center of a salad platter. Encircle with overlapping slices of tomato. Arrange mozzarella strips like spokes of a wheel radiating from the corn. Make an outside border of basil leaves. (Or just dump all the ingredients in a bowl like I did and call it a day!). Beat oil, vinegar, and seasoning together, and pour over the whole.

"It's All American Food" & "The American Regional Cookbook" & "The Best in American Cooking" (Paddleford) - 4th of July dishes

Date I made these recipes: 4th of July weekend 2008

It’s All American Food by David Rosengarten
Published by: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 0-316-05315-5 © 2003
Recipe: New York City Pushcart Onions for Hot Dogs – p. 265

The American Regional Cookbook – Recipes from Yesterday and Today for the Modern Cook by Nancy & Arthur Hawkins
Published by: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
© 1976
Recipe: Hamburgers – p. 58

I Hear America Cooking by Betty Fussell
Published by: Elisabeth Sifton Books VIKING
ISBN: 0-670-81241-2 © 1986
Recipe: Bean Town Beans – p. 287-288

The Best In American Cooking – recipes collected by Clementine Paddleford
Published by: Charles Scribner’s Sons
© 1970; originally published as part of How America Eats © 1960
Recipe: Donna’s Potato Salad – p. 190


People, I had a very relaxing 4th of July weekend, the first in years, and had plenty of time to make all these recipes celebrating American cooking but finding time this week to write up my review was a challenge. So here it is, a week after the fact, and I’m just now getting going.

Now I’m sure many of you are like me and grew up in a very “traditional” family when it came to holiday picnic food. Mine was a mustard and ketchup (hot dogs and burgers) and Miracle Whip family (never Hellmann’s—that was what the east-coast cousins used) and potato salad was made with potatoes and celery (never relish) and Miracle Whip with sliced eggs as garnish.

Picnics were held down at the lake (as in Lake Superior, back in the day when beach bonfires were still allowed) and all the food was brought down in a newspaper-lined wooden bushel basket that my parents got at the local farmer’s market (yes, my small town had a small farmer’s market when I was growing up). To this day, there’s something about the smell of the newspaper and wood that brings me right back to the beach. Dad usually brought our little hibachi grill (we never had a big kettle grill in our family, likely because dad got used to using a hibachi during WWII). We grilled our hot dogs until the skins popped open (or roasted them in a bonfire), slathered them with mustard and ketchup and washed it all down with lemonade from the thermos. After waiting a suitable time after eating (an old-wife’s tale but we usually adhered to it, we took a plunge into the frosty waters – even in July – of Lake Superior and stayed in until our lips were blue and our teeth chattered. Those were the days.

On the 4th of July, my home town had a big parade followed by a pet parade for the kids and then around 4:30 or so, the fire department staged a water fight on the main street of down, dousing all of us excited children who deliberately came in bathing suits, hoping to get wet. Down at the boat docks, the Lions club had pie-eating contests and other assorted kiddie fun events going on and then at dusk, the fire works exploded over Munising Bay.

So in sticking with the 4th of July theme, I pulled several “American” cookbooks off my shelf just for the occasion. One recipe, for blueberry buckle, didn’t get made that weekend (darn that whole butter-softening process) but I’ll be making it shortly and posting those results separately. I must say, given all the cookbooks I have, it was challenging to find something that reminded me of my childhood—nothing too fancy yet something that sounded like it would be good when I made it, and (as you’ll see) one that didn’t take days to make. After all, there was a long, holiday weekend to enjoy!

Now, the entire menu almost unraveled due to lack of a potato salad recipe, something I neglected to select during the initial selection round. Talk about a gross oversight on my part because what’s a 4th of July picnic without potato salad??! But people, finding a recipe that wasn’t too weird turned out to be a huge challenge. (Can you believe some cookbooks that include “American” in the title, didn’t even include a potato salad recipe?! That’s just wrong, wrong, wrong on so many levels!).

I found recipes using horseradish (too modern), recipes using cream (??) and a couple recipes using, of all things, beef broth. Um….no. I was all set to throw in the towel when I read through the original baked bean recipe I selected and discovered that it needed to cook for 10-12 hours and that was just too long on a hot summer day. So after mixing and matching and reselecting some recipes, the 10-12 hour baked bean was substituted for one taking 4-6 hours and a potato salad recipe was in! Whew.

All the recipes were good, all were easy to make and hit the spot on a very lovely 4th of July. The hamburgers didn’t quite stay together as I expected (and so I really ended up with a loose-meat sandwich) but the flavor was there.

Speaking of flavor, one of my favorites of the weekend was the New York Pushcart Onions for Hot Dogs. If you’ve ever been to Gray’s Papaya in New York, you’ll know the joy of using this condiment. I could have eaten the entire pot of this stuff…but I didn’t! So much for traditional mustard and ketchup!

I hope you all had a Happy 4th of July!

New York City Pushcart Onions for Hot Dogs – yields enough for 12-16 hot dogs (yeah, right!)
1 T. vegetable oil
4 firmly packed cups of thinly sliced onion (about 2 large or 4 medium onions)
2 tsp. mined garlic (about 2 medium cloves)
1 T. flour
8 ounces canned, smooth tomato sauce
1 cup water
2 T. light corn syrup
2 tsp. white vinegar
2 bay leaves
½ tsp. dry mustard
Pinch of cayenne
Pinch of ground cloves

Place the vegetable oil in a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the onion and the garlic. Cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. After 20 minutes the onion should be softened but not browned.

Add the flour and stir well to distribute evenly among the onion slices. Cook for 1 minute, stirring to make sure the flour doesn’t burn. Add the tomato sauce, water, corn syrup, vinegar, bay leaves, mustard, cayenne, and cloves. Stir well to blend. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and cook very slowly over low heat for 45 minutes. If the mixture has become too thick, add a little water.

Hamburgers – 4 servings
1 ½ pounds chopped round steak
1 onion, chopped
1 T. chopped shallots
4 T. butter
Dash Worcestershire sauce
Dash Tabasco sauce
1 tsp. dry mustard
2 tsp. salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 T. sour cream
4 large hard rolls, buttered

Saute the onion and shallots in 2 tablespoons of the butter, add the seasonings. Mix with the chopped steak and the beaten egg, suing your hands, not a fork.

Roll loosely into 4 balls the size of tennis balls and drop onto the kitchen table to flatten. Pan-broil on both sides in a heavy skillet with 2 tablespoons butter. Transfer to a heated platter.

Heat buttered rolls. Place a hamburger on each. To the pan juices, add the sour cream, simmer a minute or two, and pour a spoonful over each hamburger.

Bean Town Beans – serves 6 to 8
2 cups dried beans (pea, navy, or soldier)
½ pound smoked slab bacon, with rind on
1 large onion, chopped
¼ cup blackstrap molasses
1 tablespoon dry mustard
2 bay leaves, crushed
½ teaspoon each salt and black pepper
Pinch of cayenne pepper, or dash Tabasco
Boiling water to cover the beans before baking

Pick over beans to remove grit or stones. Cover beans with cold water, bring to a boil, and boil one minute. Remove from the heat, cover pot, and let the beans sit 1 hour. Drain.

Score the bacon in squares without cutting through the rind. Put half the beans in the pot in which you will bake them and add onion, molasses, and seasonings. Add remaining beans and bury the bacon, rind up, in the top layer. Add just enough boiling water to cover. Cover the pot tightly and bake at 300 for 4 to 6 hours or more to melt the pork fat and melt the flavors. Add boiling water from time to time if needed. Remove lid for the last 30 minutes to make a brown crust.

Note: a big shout-out to Clancy’s Meat Market in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis for being the only place to carry a slab of bacon. A slab is just what it sounds like – a slab of bacon that has not been cut into strips. The slab of bacon is usually the very top piece to appear when you open a can of pork and beans. Several people asked me if salt pork would work but I had no idea. And the best thing was that the pork slab (I only got a quarter of a pound) only cost me $1.71. Of course, the cost of the gas it took to get there from my house was another story….


Donna’s Potato Salad, submitted by Donna Hansen, Idaho Falls, Idaho – yields 2 quarts
6 medium potatoes, boiled and diced (2 quarts diced)
6 hard-cooked eggs, sliced
½ cup minced onion
1 T. chopped parsley
¼ cup chopped dill or sweet pickle (I used sweet)
1 T. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
1 T. prepared mustard
1 T. mayonnaise
1 T. French dressing
1 T. dill-pickle juice
¾ milk or light cream (about)
Paprika

Toss together lightly: potatoes, 5 of the sliced eggs, onion, parsley, pickle, salt and pepper. Combine mustard, mayonnaise, French dressing, pickle juice, and enough milk or cream to make 1 cup dressing. Toss with potato mixture. Arrange in a bowl. Place the remaining egg slices around top and sprinkle with paprika.

"Stirring Prose - Cooking with Texas Authors" - Molly Ivins's Composed Salad of Sausage and Orzo with Fresh Peas and MIxed Greens

Date I made this recipe: June 28, 2008
Stirring Prose – Cooking with Texas Authors by Deborah Douglas
Published by: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 0-089096-829-2 © 1998
Recipe: Molly Ivins’s Composed Salad of Sausage and Orzo with Fresh Peas and Mixed Greens – p. 130-131

I miss Molly Ivins.

In case you don't know who she was, she was a political writer, some might say satirist, and nobody wrote about politics, particularly the antics of the Texas Legislature (“The Lege”), like she did. To her, it was almost a sport to report on local doings in Austin, the state capital, and as to the national scene, why she was darned near an Olympian. The only thing funnier than her pen was the droll way she talked about politics on the talk show circuit. She should have been a comedienne. (To see some of Molly's finest, check out this link to her quotes: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/molly_ivins.htm)

I hate to say, but one of my favorite pieces that Molly wrote had to do with a member of “The Lege” who lobbied hard against smokestack cleanup back in the 1980's saying that there was nothing wrong with Texas air. After telling the story, Molly inserted a footnote at the bottom of the page telling us that the gentleman eventually died from lung cancer. I shouldn’t have laughed out loud at that but the way Molly wrote, you couldn’t help but see the irony of life.

It’s not for nothing that the name of one of Molly’s most popular books is Molly Ivins Can’t Say That… Can She? She has The Dallas Times Herald to thank for that one. After Molly said of Texas Representative James M. Collins “If his IQ slips any lower, we’ll have to water him twice a day.,” readers bombarded the newspaper with letters prompting The Dallas Times Herald to start a publicity campaign called “Molly Ivins Can’t Say That…Can She?” that ultimately became the book of the same name. After that, Molly was a national star.

Besides being witty as all get-out, Molly spent some time in Minneapolis as a writer for the then-named Minneapolis Tribune. You’ve got to admire a Texan for wanting to be part of the Chosen Frozen even if it was only for a short period of time.

Sadly, Molly died from breast cancer in January 2007 and it was while I was spending time this week with one of my best friends who is battling ovarian cancer that I thought of her again. I intended to make this recipe after Molly died but given that it was a summer salad, I back-burned it (pun intended) for another day. My friend with cancer has just now started eating again after months of eating through a feeding tube and so I hope she prepares this recipe and thinks of Molly (we both loved her writing) and of the hilarious antics of the Texas “Lege,” particularly as we are gunning for the finish line on this next election. Although most of us are exhausted by the year-long quest for the top job, Molly would have literally and figuratively eaten it up. She is missed.

Molly Ivins’s Composed Salad of Sausage and Orzo with Fresh Peas and Mixed Greens (no serving size noted but I cut this recipe in half)
2 cups orzo (about 12 ounces)
2 cups shelled fresh green peas (about 2 lbs. in the pod) (I used frozen)
1 large garlic clove, mined
½ cup pine nuts
12 sweet Italian sausages (about 2 lobs)
¼ cup dry red wine
½ cup chopped scallions
2 T. Dijon-styled mustard
1 ½ tsp salt
½ cup plus 1 ½ T olive oil
4 bunches of lamb’s lettuce (mache), about ½ lb.
8 small radicchio leaves, torn into pieces
2 T. red wine vinegar
1 T. mayonnaise
¾ tsp. freshly ground pepper
2 Belgian endives, cut into thin strips
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
Note: the author indicates that this is a flexible recipe so if you don’t like sausage, don’t use it, if you want lima beans instead of peas, go for it, and if you can’t find the lettuces listed (and I couldn’t), substitute.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil over high heat. Stir in the orzo and cook until the pasta is tender but still firm, about 10 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold running water; drain well.

Scatter the pine nuts over a small baking sheet and toast in the oven until golden brown, about 10 minutes. (Author’s note: 10 minutes on a heavy sheet; on a think cookie sheet they burn easily).

Steam the peas over boiling water until just tender, about 6 minutes. Rinse under cold running water; drain well.

Prick the sausages all over with a fork. In a large skillet, cook the sausages over moderately high heat (medium), turning, until browned, about 10 minutes. Pour off all of the fat. Add the garlic and wine to the skillet. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. (Ann’s note: although I cut the recipe in half, half the amount of wine would have been too little and would have simmered off too quickly so add just a touch more until your pan is coated.) Remove the sausages. Degrease the juice in the pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard, mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon of the salt, and ½ teaspoon of the pepper. Gradually whisk in 1/3 cup of the olive oil and the reserved pan juices, until well blended. Add to the orzo and stir to coat.

In a large bowl, toss together the lamb’s lettuce, Belgian endives, and radicchio. Drizzle the lemon juice and the remaining 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil over the salad. Season with the remaining ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper and toss.

Place a portion of the greens on each plate, top with a portion of the orzo mixture and arrange 2 sausages, sliced if you like, over the top of the salads.

"Sunset Favorite Recipes for Salads" - Oriental Cabbage Slaw

Date I made this recipe: June 22, 2008
Sunset Favorite Recipes for Salads by the Editors of Sunset Books and Sunset Magazine
Published by: Lane Publishing Company
© 1979
Recipe: Oriental Cabbage Slaw – p. 13

Today is my community band’s annual picnic and rather than do the usual (i.e. go out and buy something to bring), I made a dish, an oriental cabbage slaw. It helps to have a blog as incentive to cook from yet another cookbook.

Although I’m primarily a clarinet player in my band, I also sing with a smaller jazz group made up of 8 other band members and as a singer, I tend to watch what I eat before a performance. Dairy products and chocolate coat the throat and makes it hard to get notes out and coffee and alcohol do the opposite and dry it out.

Up until this year, I always moaned that I couldn’t eat half of what others brought to the picnic so this year I fought back and made something I could eat. Turns out it was tasty as well. The “payback” for my careful eating was that I blew the roof off the dump when I sang “On the Sunny Side of the Street.” So singers, take note! Pass up that chocolate brownie –you’ll thank me later.

My only issue with this recipe is that contrary to instructions you should not coarsely shred your Chinese cabbage as you will have a mess on your hands. None of the grating components of my grater did the job so I resorted to chopping the cabbage with my chef’s knife and that did the trick.

Oriental Cabbage Slaw – makes 6 to 8 servings
For the slaw:
½ pound fresh edible-pod peas, strings removed, or 1 package (10 oz) frozen edible-pod peas, thawed
1 small head (about 1 ¼ lbs) Chinese cabbage (napa), coarsely shredded
1 medium-size bunch radishes, thinly sliced
½ cup thinly sliced green onion
1 can (8 ½ oz) sliced bamboo shoots, drained
2/3 cup slivered almonds

For the dressing:
½ cup salad oil
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
¾ teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
¼ teaspoon sesame oil (optional)

Cut pea pods into 1-inch pieces. Place in a salad bowl with cabbage, radishes, onion and bamboo shoots (I cut these in half as well); cover and refrigerate, if made ahead.

Spread almonds in a shallow pan and toast in a 350 oven until lightly browned (about 8 minutes); set aside.

Combine the ingredients for the sweet soy dressing (salad oil, white wine vinegar, etc); blend well. Add the dressing to the cabbage mixture and toss well. Garnish with toasted almonds.

"Puerto Rican Dishes" - Sour-Sweet Hen (Chicken)

Date I made this recipe: June 20, 2008

Puerto Rican Dishes by Berta Cabanillas and Carmen Ginorio
Published by: Editorial De La Universidad de Puerto Rico
© 1974
Recipe: Sour-Sweet Hen (Chicken) Gallina (Pollo) a lo Agridulce – p. 43

Today’s recipe is in honor of Stephanie Izzard who won Bravo TV’s Top Chef prize a few weeks back on the island of Puerto Rico. ( Let me just say that now that summer is here and it finally quit raining, it’s challenging to get dinner on the table much less do so within a reasonable time after the contest ended.)

Although one of the challenges the semi-finalists had to endure was to cook recipes using an entire pig (in Cuba and in Puerto Rico, pigs rule), I went with an interesting and tasty recipe for sour-sweet hen.

The recipe book I used is the only one I have of Puerto Rican cooking but it comes straight from the island itself, purchased by me five years ago when I was in Puerto Rico for a law school class. That’s right, a law school class.

Almost every law school offers a study abroad program and I was one of fifteen people on the first school trip to the island. Classes are taught by local professors and are geared to giving an overview of that country’s laws. And what better way to escape the January cold front (-20 when we left and -20 when we got back) then to escape to an island where the temperature was a consistent 85 degrees?

But as idyllic as it sounds, the trip was not without its problems. First, we immediately checked in and immediately checked out of the flea-bag hotel (and I mean flea-bag in the truest sense of the word—ask the women from my group who were bitten) that was manned by a drunken desk clerk (but have no fear, we found lovely accommodations at a nearby Best Western where my roommate and I negotiated a group rate for the entire stay. It’s not for nothing we were lawyer wanna-bees). After that, we had public transportation challenges to the law school but solved that by renting a car and then carpooling as well as weather challenges. In fact, it rained on our only day off on the trip. (But might I just say that the roads in Puerto Rico need work. We thought we had pothole problems in Minnesota!)

But for every problem we had, there was also a funny moment or two, the best one coming on a Saturday when we were required to be in class for a half day. Bitch, moan, bitch, moan—you never heard such kvetching—at least, that is, until the instructor for the day walked in. This man was absolutely gorgeous and suddenly every woman in the room (there were only two men on the trip) went from bitching to uttering a very interested “Well, ho-la!!” Jaws dropped open, lipstick was hurriedly applied and eyelashes fluttered. I had to laugh when, after chatting with him on break, my classmates treated me like I had just met a movie star: “Oh my god, you talked to him!! What did he say? Isn’t he gorgeous? Did you find out if he was married?” (For the record the answers are: a) We talked about where to eat b) yes, he was gorgeous and c) I didn’t talk to him long enough to find out!

So suffice it to say, people, we hung on this man’s every word. Never has Puerto Rican history been so interesting. And when he came back on Monday to teach another portion of our program, there was much rejoicing.

Now, before I go on to the recipe, you might be puzzled as to why on earth we went to Puerto Rico to study foreign law and so a brief history lesson: Puerto Rico was initially settled by the Spanish and as a Spanish territory, followed the Spanish Civil Code (also known as the Napoleonic Code since Napoleon Bonaparte took what the Romans initially developed and made it into a more formal system). Most European countries still follow this code today, at least in civil matters. It’s hard to describe the differences but things like real estate, family law and contracts are just handled a bit differently than in the US.

Puerto Rico eventually became a US territory but got to keep the Spanish Civil Code for their civil matters as well. They are finally coming around to using US law in criminal matters and that’s a good thing as the criminal code is rather barbaric, starting with the fact that you’re guilty until proven otherwise, the exact opposite of US law. And for bonus points at your next cocktail party, you can also tell people that Puerto Rico is part of the federal court system’s first district and so matters involving US law are heard in federal courts. (Bankruptcy and trademark law, for example, are governed by federal law/federal courts instead of state law/state courts). It seems a little confusing to me to have two systems but they seem to like it just fine.

The dish I made for this blog would likely fail to meet the standards of the Top Chef “court” (judges Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, Padma Lakshmi, and Ted Allen), particularly since I didn’t create it, but it’s a good dish that’s easy to make. I consider it my own personal winner!

Speaking of which, I would have been happy had Richard “Kewpie Doll” Blais had won because I liked him but it was time for a woman to come out on top so congratulations, Stephanie! Ladies, let Stephanie be your inspiration—get out there and get cooking! We have contests to enter and win!

Sour-Sweet Hen (Gallina a lo Agridulce) – 6-8 servings
1-3 pounds ready to cook hen (I used the same-sized chicken)
1 tablespoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
2 chopped cloves garlic
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons fat
4 ounces chopped ham
2 Spanish sausages (I used chorizo)
4 cups water
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup vinegar

Rub chicken inside out with salt, pepper, garlic, vinegar (1 T) and olive oil and leave over night. (And by “leave over night” I’m sure they meant “in the refrigerator” but you never know).

Put the fat into a kettle (Dutch oven or other pot) and add the chicken, ham and sausages. Mix the water, sugar, vinegar together and pour over the chicken. Cover and cook over low heat turning occasionally until the chicken is tender and the gravy thick.

Notes: I hate when recipes do not get specific on cooking time. How long does it take for a chicken to get tender anyway? I cooked it for 2 hours and the chicken was very tender but the gravy wasn’t what I called thick. Also, I sliced the sausages as well because putting them in whole seemed boring. This added a lot of fat to the dish but once refrigerated, it will easily skim off. The other thing you should know is that when I refrigerated the leftovers, the gravy settled into a Jell-O/aspic consistency but that Jell-O texture will dissolve once you reheat it. Finally, I served this with rice to complete the meal.

"Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book" (2 versions) - Springtime Skillet Dinner and Rhubarb Custard Pie

Date I made these recipes: June 1, 2008

Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book (three-ring binder) by General Mills
Published by: General Mills and McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
© 1950 – First Edition (Second Printing)
Recipe: Springtime Skillet Dinner p. 399

Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book (hard cover) by General Mills
Published by: General Mills and McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
© 1950 – First Edition (Second Printing)
Recipe: Rhubarb Custard Pie – crust p. 299 and filling p. 306


If this weekend’s cooking event was a baseball game, here’s how this went down: a swing and a hit and a swing and a miss.

Not that I want to tell Betty Crocker what to do, but I think she should stick to what I consider to be the cornerstone of the BC kitchens: baked goods. But casseroles? Not so much.

Two things prompted the selection of these recipes. One was that my mother-in-law had rhubarb that needed to be used up and the other was that while going through my mother’s things that she put in the attic, I discovered my Betty Crocker Junior Baking Kit. People, I almost cried. The kit originally contained 12 baking mixes (although I remember buying more) and 20 baking utensils including my favorite little red bowl. Oh how I loved to bake with this kit. Yet missing from the lineup of things we found (including my Bobbsey Twins books—remember those?) was my Easy Bake Oven. To my absolute horror, my mother informed me years ago that she “threw that out.”

Whaaaaat???? She kept the baking kit yet threw out the coolest toy ever? I almost had to be committed to the nearest mental hospital.

Moms can be funny about these things and I’ll never know exactly why she got rid of the Easy Bake but she redeemed herself by Betty’s Junior Baking Kit.

So of course after finding my bake set I had to bake something from my one of my two Big Red Cookbooks (a/k/a/ Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book) using the rhubarb and the pie I made was mighty delicious. But alas, people, the casserole was a real disappointment and for that, I take the blame.

I could have made any number of baked goods from the second BC cookbook but my eye latched on to the casserole and that was that. Besides, I really did want a main dish to round out dessert. But here’s the problem: the rice got too mushy cooking after cooking for 40 minutes (as directed) and the veggies were still too crisp even after I extended the cooking time by an extra 20 minutes.

But the bigger problem, in my humble opinion, is that the dish was bland, bland, oh-so-bland. The only “spice” was 2 teaspoons of soy sauce and that didn’t even make a dent with my taste buds. So…a swing and a miss it was.

By the way, in case you’re wondering why on earth I made a springtime casserole in June it’s because a) summer doesn’t start until June 21st and b) it’s been so cold and rainy here that it might as well be spring. (By the way, “It Might As Well Be Spring” is also the name of a song written by Rogers and Hammerstein for the movie State Fair. I will confess to liking show tunes but honestly, after watching a scene where a farmer serenades his pig with the song “Sweet Sow of Mine” I was outta there!)

Springtime Skillet Dinner – About 6 servings
2T fat
1 cut-up clove garlic
1 cup finely diced onion
½ lb. Ground beef
½ cup uncooked rice
5-6 cups water
1 cup finely diced carrots
1 cup finely diced potatoes
1 to 2 tsp soy sauce
1 T salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Brown the garlic in the fat in a 10” skillet. Remove the garlic then add the onion and ground beef. Cook until browned stirring. Add the rice and water and simmer uncovered over low heat for 40 minutes. Add the carrots and potatoes and continue simmering until tender (20 minutes—although I did 40 and the veggies still weren’t tender). Season with soy sauce, salt and pepper.


Rhubarb Custard Pie – yields 7 to 8 pieces

For the pie crust
2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening
4 T water

For the pie filling
3 eggs
2 2/3 T milk
2 cups sugar
4 T flour
¾ tsp nutmeg
4 cups cut-up pink rhubarb
1 T butter

To make the pie crust:

Mix together 2 cups sifted flour and salt. Cut in the shortening and then sprinkle with the water. Gather dough together and press into a ball. Roll out on a floured surface until your dough is about an inch large than the pie plate. Trim and crimp the pie crust. (Note: the recipe said to make a lattice crust for the pie but I skipped that part).

To make the filling:

Beat slightly the three eggs then add the milk. Mix together then stir in the sugar, flour and nutmeg. Add the rhubarb and mix well. Pour into the pie pan and then dot filling with butter.

Bake until nicely browned, approximately 50 to 60 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

"50 Ways with Chicken" & "Wild Women in the Kitchen" - Chicken in Marsala with Asparagus and Vegetable Gratin

Date I made these recipes: June 1, 2008

50 Ways with Chicken by Rosemary Wadey
Published by: Crescent Books
ISBN: 0-517-12010-0 © 1991
Recipe: Chicken in Marsala with Asparagus

Wild Women in the Kitchen - 101 Rambunctious Recipes & 99 Tasty Tales by Nicole Alper with Lynette Rohrer of Star*s
Published by: MJF Books
ISBN: 1-56731-428-7 © 1996
Recipe: Vegetable Gratin

Today’s recipe selection was all about using up some red potatoes I bought for a previous recipe. The chicken recipe was thrown in as an afterthought since I didn’t think the gratin alone would satisfy two hungry eaters!

I probably could have found a red potato recipe in many of my other cookbooks but I had given Wild Women to my sister-in-law a few years ago and seeing as how I just saw her over Memorial Day weekend, I thought I’d make a recipe from it. She loves the cookbook (and loves the stories even more) and the two of us have had a wild moment or two in the kitchen (I reference this year’s meatball-making extravaganza); I only wish she was here with me making it.

The chicken recipe was selected primarily because it contained Parmesan cheese (also used in the gratin) and didn’t need a lot of prep time. It also seemed like it would go with the gratin—light and flavorful without being too heavy.

I must say, though, that I disagree with the author’s choice to use canned asparagus because canned asparagus is mush no matter how you slice it. But since the point of my blog is to follow the recipe verbatim, I didn’t substitute fresh for canned but believe me, you should. And if I were you, I’d skip the bread crumb and Parmesan cheese mixture and just go for the cheese. The breadcrumbs added absolutely nothing to the recipe. On the other hand, the addition of any type of alcohol, in my humble opinion, can never hurt a recipe so a liberal dose of Marsala or Sherry might be in order—but be careful or you might end up with your own wild moment in the kitchen!


Chicken in Marsala (or Sherry) with Asparagus – serves 4
2 T butter or margarine
1 T vegetable oil
4 boneless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
¼ level teaspoon garlic powder
Small amount of chicken stock
12 oz can asparagus spears
4 tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs
2 level tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the butter and oil in a pan. Season the pieces of chicken with salt, pepper and garlic; fry gently for about 8 to 10 minutes on each side until golden brown and almost cooked through.

Drain the asparagus and make the liquid up to 1 cup with stock. (*I recommend using fresh asparagus). Add to the pan followed by the Marsala and simmer gently for 5 minutes, basting occasionally. Season to taste.

Put three asparagus spears on top of each breast of chicken; chop the remainder and add to the sauce. Continue to simmer for 2 to 3 minutes.

Combine the breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese (*I’d skip the crumbs and just use the cheese) and spoon over the asparagus on the chicken.

Broil (grill) for 3 to 4 minutes until browned.

Vegetable Gratin (by wild woman chef and former Olympian sprinter Diane Clement of the Tomato Fresh Food Café in Vancouver, British Columbia) – serves 6
8 small red or white potatoes, thinly sliced
2 small zucchini, thinly sliced
7 roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
6 T grated Parmesan cheese
Dried basil and oregano, to taste
1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/3 cup chicken stock
Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Line a large, oiled, shallow casserole dish with half the potato, zucchini, and tomato, alternating slices of each to make a red, green, and white pattern. Sprinkle with half the cheese and herbs. Drizzle a little oil over it. Repeat one more layer, ending with the cheese and herbs. Drizzle the chicken stock over the top. Bake for about 40 to 45 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Cover with aluminum foil if top becomes too brown.

"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!