"The Best of the Best from New York" - Italian Sausage-Pepper Pasta

Date I made this recipe:  August 13, 2017

Best of the Best from New York Cookbook – Selected Recipes from New York's Favorite Cookbooks

Published by Quail Ride Press*

ISBN:  1-893062-27-9; © 2001

Recipe:  Italian Sausage-Pepper Pasta – p. 110, from the Great Taste of Parkminster cookbook

And I'm back!  Miss me?

My husband and I just came back from a grand tour of New York state and also New York City, and I just had to pull out this cookbook to make something in remembrance of our trip.

Our 18-day adventure was made principally so that Andy could participate in FANY Ride 2017.  FANY stands for Five Hundred Miles Across New York, and was a weeklong leisurely bicycle ride/tour that started in Niagara Falls and ended in Saratoga Springs.  Andy heard about it a few years back and wanted to give it a whirl.  This plan worked for us because we were able to stay for a bit with my brother and sister-in-law who live outside of Rochester, NY and use that as our home base for a good portion of the ride. 

For the curious, this was the route: 

Day 1 – Niagara Falls, NY to Batavia, NY

Day 2 – Batavia, NY to Canandaigua, NY

Day 3 – Canandaigua, NY to Auburn, NY

Day 4 – Auburn, NY to Hamilton, NY (home of Colgate University)

Day 5 – Hamilton, NY to Little Falls, NY (except we played hokey and went to Cooperstown)

Day 6 – Little Falls, NY to Gloversville/Johnstown, NY

Day 7 – Gloversville, NY to Saratoga Springs (home of Skidmore College)

Ta da! 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, on days where Andy was riding his bicycle, I explored nearby towns and points of interest such as "It's A Wonderful Life" Museum in Seneca Falls, All Things Oz Museum in Chittenango, NY (where I purchased a new cookbook – The Wonderful Cookbook of Oz – in the museum store), the Syracuse Zoo and also Syracuse's [university] campus, all of which I recommend. 

While in Little Falls, NY, I checked out some fun antique stores where I acquired three cookbook for my collection (nothing noteworthy, just ones I didn't have) and I also purchased another new cookbook – Saratoga Grazing Cookbook – at Northshire Bookstore in Saratoga Springs, NY where the ride ended.  Saratoga Springs is known for their horse racing (horses "graze," don't you know) and I think we were there on opening weekend because we hoped to go to the track only to find it packed with people and I mean "packed!"  Next time.

After we got done with the ride, we stopped in the Lake Huntington, NY area, to visit Andy's brother who has a weekend home there, and on one of our side trips, I found this fabulous and unique bookstore, One Grand Books (www.onegrandbooks.com) in Narrowsburg, NY.  This store stocks books of every genre that have been recommended by famous people whom the owner knows and whom he refers to as "curators."  I love this idea, and especially loved that many of the books are "classics" that I read in high school and college.

The book I purchased was a cookbook (!) called New Orleans Cookbook by Leah Richard, that was recommended by Marcus Samuelsson who I met when he visited Minneapolis last year.  Some of the other "curators" were actress Kathy Najimy, actress Michelle Dockery, The Daily Show host, Trevor Noah, and CNN reporter, Christiane Amanpour.  The shop is small but I still could have spent a few more hours there.  Or maybe work there, I don't know!

After that stop, we went on a "cannonball run" to NYC for three action-packed days before heading out to Ypsilanti, MI to see my Aunt Mary, then on to Chicago to see some friends, then home.  We were gone 18 days and while it was great to be gone, it was also great to be back in our own home.

No trip to NYC is complete without a stop at my favorite [used] cookbook bookstore in town – Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks – and I also had time  to go to Kitchen Arts & Letters on the Upper East Side.  Sadly,  I ran out of time to go visit the Strand ("18 miles of books") which was probably a good thing for my blown budget.  Let's just say that I consider these road trips, and particularly the stop in NYC, to be buying trips and buy I did, no problemo!  ( think I scored about 20 books between the two stores.)

And then when we got to Michigan to visit my  aunt, she gave me her cookbooks, one of which was a vintage Hawaiian cookbook/booklet that I saw last year and had it on my "look for" list – score!  The title is Hawaiian Party Book – How to Entertain the Hawaiian Way.  It's a booklet rather than a book but I don't care.  Although the book does not contain a copyright date, it sold for a big whopping dollar back in the day.  My price? Free!

These books are still sitting on my floor just waiting for me to add them to my "database" which will involve a lot of time and a bit of work, neither of which I have right now but soon, folks, soon, because as soon as I add them to my list, they become "eligible" for the blog!   

Meanwhile though, I thought this cookbook – The Best of the Best from New York Cookbook,  a compilation of recipes from 67 New York regional cookbooks, was a way to get back into the [blogging] game.

I must confess though, that this is not the type of cookbook I usually purchase.  This book is similar to a church cookbook in that it contains contributions from several sources and while I have nothing against church cookbooks, if I collected them, I would have to buy another house because there are a ton of them.  The other reason I usually refrain is that they are often spiral-bound (this one is) and spiral-bound books are boring on a shelf because you can't read the title.  The whole point of having any type of book collection is so that people can see easily what you have and spiral-bound books just don't have that "wow" factor.

That said, I recall at the time that this was the only cookbook I could find that covered all of New York state rather than focusing  just New York City or one of the other boroughs. 

Turns out, I really like this book.

I like this book because it seems pretty comprehensive:  recipes from 67 regional books were included in this "best of the best" edition. (On the other hand, I'm drying to know which books didn't make the cut and why!)  All 67 books are listed, along with a cover photo, in the back of the book and it should not surprise you that I have my eye on a few. And if New York is not to your liking, you can go to the publisher's website and find a state's "best of the best" that will work for you:  Quail Ridge Press – www.quailridge.com (or Amazon or Barnes & Noble).

Lest you think that only community or church cookbooks made the cut for this book, note that The Ellis Island Immigrant Cookbook, a book I own, is included as are two Moosewood cookbooks.  The Moosewood Restaurant is located in Ithaca, NY.  I do not have the two cookbooks listed but they are on my "find now!" list, as is the very popular La Cocina de la Familia cookbook.

Other things that I loved about this book were the photos and bits of trivia placed scattered throughout. And I also liked the wide range of recipes by region although let me comment that one of the things I love most about visiting NY state and city is the plethora of Italian restaurants and food stores.  Alas, as much as I like living here, Minneapolis-St. Paul just does not have the bustling Italian communities like New York and other east-coast cities have.  This is why then, I ate Italian food almost the entire time on our trip, no apologies! 

I also noticed that there are a lot of Polish recipes in this book and in fact, we ate at a fantastic placed called the Polish Nook, in Niagara Falls, NY where Andy's FANY Ride started.  Of course, once we hit Manhattan, the sky was the limit for cuisine, but as our time there was limited, we only ate non-Italian food twice, once at an Indian buffet, and the other at a French restaurant we like.

At any rate, it should come as no surprise then that I considered making many a pasta dish for this blog and the one I made was great.  It was simple and easy and tasty and you can't ask for much more than that.  These recipes were also in the running for a bit:

• Italian Vegetable Soup – p. 58 – from Great Taste of Parkminster
• Tomato-Basil-Onion Frittata – p. 94 – from Tasting the Hamptons
• Reuben Lasagna (I know, right?) – p. 106 – from The Cookbook AAUW
• 100% Vegetarian Lasagna – p. 107 – from Famous Woodstock Cooks
• Pasta e Fagioli (Pasta and Beans) – p. 111 – Wild Game Cookbook & Other Recipes

 As you can see, I pretty much got hung up on the first couple of chapters but I have no doubt you'll find something in the remaining ones.  To aid you in this endeavor, here is the Table of Contents:

• Beverages and Appetizers
• Bread and Breakfast
• Soups
• Salads
• Vegetables
• Pasta, Rice, Etc.
• Meats
• Poultry
• Seafood
• Cakes
• Cookies and Candies
• Pies and Other Desserts

After much hemming and hawing, I still came back to the "Italian Sausage Pepper Pasta" recipe listed above and folks, I think this was meant to be because this recipe came from the Great Taste of Parkminster cookbook.  Parkminster is a church and school located in Rochester, NY.  My brother and sister-in-law live just outside of Rochester and since we had just visited them, this was perfect nay, even cosmic!

Also interesting (and hilarious)?  This church is located on Chili Avenue which everybody on the planet except for people who live in the area pronounce "Chilly."  Not so the good people of the Rochester area!  If you say "chilly," as in a dish with meat and sometimes beans, they will correct you with "It's Chi-lie."  (There's also a town in the area with the same name, pronounced the same way.)

These same people will also have you know that the Jell-O Museum which I have visited, is not in Le Roy (as in "Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown" Le-Roy) but Luh-Roy, which is how the French pronounce the word for "king."  Since there is no arguing that Jell-O is the king of gelatin desserts, I think I think I can live with that.  I'm not sure about "Chili" though.  Not sure.

And so this brings us now to the conclusion of my travelogue and adventures with cookbooks.  Our trip was great, the towns we saw were beautiful, we had fun times visiting friends and family, and we ate like kings (!) while we were on the road. 

I was very happy with this pasta dish and hope you are as well.  Enjoy!

Italian Sausage Pepper Pasta – Makes 8-10 servings

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 medium zucchini, sliced

1 green pepper

1 red pepper

6 medium spicy Italian sausage, sliced*

½ cup fresh basil, chopped, or 2 tablespoons dried

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil

16 ounces corkscrew pasta ("Fusilli"), cooked and drained

2 cups shredded mozzarella

½ cup grated Parmesan

2 tomatoes, sliced

*Ann's Note:  This ingredient was interesting because how do we interpret "6 medium spicy Italian sausage?"  Is it 6 medium-sized Italian sausage or 6 medium-spice (i.e. somewhere between mild and hot) sausage?  My whole life, there were two options only:  mild a/k/a "sweet" or hot a/k/a "spicy," so this confused.  Since I always opt to use "sweet" sausage, I avoided potential disaster but I'd still like to know what they meant  Clarity, folks, I need clarity!

Also, in the instructions below, you see that you are to sauté the sausage and vegetables for about 6 minutes or until sausage is browned and then apparently, slice it.  ("6 medium spicy Italian sausage, sliced")  Well now, that was fraught with peril!  I thought it probably best to sauté/brown my sausages separately and did that for well over 5 minutes, but yet they weren't cooked through so when I tried to slice them, many of those slices fell apart.  Fine then, see if I care!

I think the better directive would have been to remove the casings and then brown the sausage as you would ground beef but that's not what it said and so that is not what I did!

Directions:  Sauté garlic, zucchini, peppers, sausage, basil, salt and pepper in olive oil about 5 minutes or until sausage is browned.  Drain.  Combine with hot cooked pasta.  Place half of pasta mixture in 9 x 13-inch buttered casserole.  Cover with half of combined cheeses.  Repeat layers and top with sliced tomatoes.  Brush with olive oil and bake covered at 400° for 20 minutes. Uncover, bake 20 minutes longer.  Serve immediately.

"Rosa Mexicano- A Culinary Autobiography With Recipes" - Guacamole for Cinco de Mayo!

Date I made this recipe:  May 5, 2017 – Cinco de Mayo!

Rosa Mexicano – A Culinary Autobiography with 60 Recipes by Josefina Howard

Published by Viking

ISBN: 0-670-87047-9; © 1998

Recipe:  Guacamole En Molcajete –  ("Guacamole made in a molcajete," a Mexican mortar and pestle) – p. 127

Note:  Rosa Mexicano is a Mexican restaurant that originated in NYC.

I absolutely love the movie, When Harry Met Sally.  Love it.  One of the many scenes that cracks me up is – no, not the deli scene –when Harry and Sally are talking about reading books.  "When I die, I always read the last page first. That way, in case I die before I finish, I know how it ends." [Harry to Sally]

I always check out the last page first as well but not because I might die.  No, I read it (skim it actually) so I know if it's worth my time to read it.  Yes, I know, call me crazy, but that is how I roll.

And this is why I'm going to cut to the chase tell you how this recipe ended:  It. Was. Awesome!  Awesome!  I've made a lot of guacamole in my day, including a very good pomegranate "guac," but this one was the best of the bunch.

It was so good that Andy keep exclaiming (with his mouth full) "This is so good!  This is just so good!"  He finally had to stop himself from eating the entire bowl because yes, it was that good.

The best thing about this dish though, was that it was so damned easy and when you see the ingredient list you'll say "Of course," but you know, some guacamole recipes have gotten so out of hand that this recipe is a good reminder to keep it simple.  Here's what it in it:  white onion, serrano chiles, cilantro, salt, avocado, tomato, the end.

And now, dear reader, let's see how we got here.

Although I have not long owned this cookbook, I have been aware of the Rosa Mexicano restaurant for some time.  In fact, as I was writing this blog post, I wondered (and not for the first time), whether this was the same Mexican restaurant I and a friend dined at in NYC many years ago (as in 20 years ago), but after doing my due diligence, I'm going to have to say "no."

Here's the thing:  The friend that I dined with has always lived on the Upper West Side, usually in the "80's" and so we usually crawl around that neighborhood when it comes to dining out.  Of the restaurant's four locations, only one is within spitting distance and that is the one at Lincoln Center but Lincoln Center is in the 60's whereas we definitely dined further uptown. It's important to note that in "NYC-speak," the "60's," means that the address is somewhere between 60^th Street and 69^th Street and not today's high temperature.  Further, when you give an address, you then add things like "between Broadway and Amsterdam," or "at Columbus Circle" so that people know approximately where it is without having to get all the specifics.  And so in conclusion, her restaurant's Lincoln Center address is several  blocks south or where we normally dine and that is why I ruled it out. 

Then there's the decor and while I realize that most restaurants do some kind of redecorating over the course of time, the interior photos on her website look absolutely nothing like the place I remembered so that made me suspicious.

Then there's the menu which I checked out online, and again, even accounting for the time lapse between now and then, nothing rang a bell.  I remember distinctly that wherever it was we dined had pozole on the menu and I ordered it (first time ever – I was intrigued) but didn't like it.  Hominy is like a giant corn kernel only not and it just didn't do anything for me.  This cookbook contains a recipe for Pozole on p. 101, but no way was I going to make recipe because when you see that you are to start making the broth with 1 pig's head and 6 pig's feet, you know you have bigger problems that the size of your corn kernels!

At any rate, based on the above evidence (such as it is), I concluded that I did not in fact dine in a Rosa Mexicano restaurant in NYC some 20 years ago.  Nor did I dine at the one that opened (and then closed) in Minneapolis.  Too many restaurants, not enough time.

Happily, many restaurant owners these days publish cookbooks so that we rank amateur chefs can have at it at home.  I tend to stick to easy recipes with ingredients that I hope we all, wherever we live, can acquire easily, and that don't take up too much prep or cooking time.

This is why I hate to say that while I appreciate good Mexican food, I don't often make it at home because it often requires more work or more ingredients than I a comfortable handling. 

Take for example, the recipe for "Black Mole Xico with Chicken" (p. 262) that called for 30 ingredients including 2 types of chiles and 3 kinds of nuts.  While the recipe looked fantastic, I was fatigued just looking at it and so passed on that.

I considered also both Mexican red rice and green rice but whereas the mole was very involved, these were almost too basic.  I mean anybody and everybody can make these dishes, si?  Si!

For the longest time, "Grits with Pork and Tomatoes" (p. 38) was on deck but then I read through it again and discovered that I was to "reserve the pork for another use."  What?  I love pork and just couldn't see using it elsewhere so that was out.  Also?  What "other use" could there possibly be for cooked pork except to eat it with the recipe in question!  Even funnier?  Once you make the sauce and the grits, you are to serve it with shredded chicken.  Ha!  Hahahahaha, stop it, "you're killing me!"

After considering a few other recipes that look good and that didn't require hours in the kitchen or millions of dollars worth of ingredients, I decided to "Kiss" (Keep It Simple, Stupid), and "make up" with the guacamole recipe and I am glad I did.  I know some people do not like avocado or cilantro but if you do like them, and we do, then this is the recipe for you.

Before I get to the recipe details, let me remind you that this cookbook is really an autobiography that includes some recipes and so rather than review the Table of Contents with you like I often do, I'll just endorse the cookbook as I think you are bound to find something you like even if it isn't the guacamole.

And on that note, and several weeks after Cinco de Mayo, here we go:  Rosa Mexicano's [Holy!] Guacamole En Molcajete!

Guacamole En Molcajete – serves 2

Ann's Note:  a molcajete is a stone mortar and pestle that is used to grind and mix the ingredients.  I do not have one so I skipped that part and the earth did not open to swallow me up so there you go.

3 tablespoons chopped white onion

½ teaspoon chopped serrano chiles (Ann's Note:  I had several frozen jalapeno chiles on hand so used that instead of serrano)

1 ½ teaspoons finely chopped cilantro

½ teaspoon salt

1 ripe Hass avocado

1 small vine-ripened tomato sliced in half, horizontally.  Cut out the stem, scoop out the seeds and center with a spoon, and chop

In a small bowl, thoroughly mash 1 tablespoon chopped onion, the serrano chiles, ½ teaspoon cilantro, and salt with the back of a wooden spoon until it is a juicy paste.  Ann's Note:  I whirled this around in my mini-food processor. Although it didn't quite make a paste as we know it, it diced and mixed the ingredients into tiny pieces and that is what you are aiming for.

Ann's Note:  The next step is to peel then chop the avocado.  You can follow the instructions below, or you can buy yourself an Avocado Slicer made by Trudeau and your life will be so much easier.  This lone tool allows you to slice the avocado open, remove the pit, and remove and slice the avocado "meat" inside.  It's perfect and far less messy than doing it by hand.  But if you are a purist then: Holding the avocado in the palm of your hand, cut the avocado in the palm of your hand, cut the avocado in half lengthwise around the pit with a paring knife.  Twist the top half of the avocado to separate the halves.  Carefully hit the pit with the edge of a sharp knife and twist to remove the see.  Slice it lengthwise into approximately ¼-inch strips and then across to form a grid.  Scoop the avocado out with a spoon next to the skin.  Place in a bowl with the paste.

Stir thoroughly to coat with the paste.  Add the remaining onion, remaining cilantro, and the tomato, and gently fold to incorporate all the ingredients.  Add more chopped serrano chiles and salt to taste.

Serve with freshly made tortilla chips or corn tortillas.

"The Pleasures of Italian Cooking" - Spaghetti with Veal Dumplings + a bonus recipe, Spaghetti with Bacon Sauce - National Spaghetti Day, 2017

Date I made this recipe:  Wednesday, January 5, 2017 – National Spaghetti Day!

The Pleasures of Italian Cooking by Romeo Salta with an Introduction by Myra Waldo

Published by The Macmillan Company

© 1962; Fourth Printing 1968

Purchased at Hilo Bay Books, Hilo, Hawaii

Recipe:  Spaghetti with Veal Dumplings (Spaghetti Piatto Unico) – p. 73; Bonus recipe (untried) – Spaghetti with Bacon Sauce (Spaghetti all' Amatriciana)- p. 78.

So thanks to Facebook, I was alerted to the fact that Wednesday, January 5^th, was National Spaghetti Day and boy was I ever excited.  Mind you, when I was growing up, Wednesday was "Prince Spaghetti Day," as advertised on TV by the Prince Spaghetti Company (go to YouTube and search "Anthony!  Anthony!  Price Spaghetti Commercial." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8ti1hnLiLw)

"Anthony's" family was not alone in making spaghetti on Wednesday.  We often had it on Wednesday as well because Wednesday was typically the day we scheduled our doctor and dentist appointments for late afternoon, and when we came home, my mom wanted to make a quick and easy dinner.  She often made the sauce in advance in large batches and then froze and thawed them, so that all she had to do was cook the spaghetti, made a salad, slice the bread and dinner was served.

I wish I could give my mom credit for starting National Spaghetti Day but alas, I think not although the Prince Spaghetti commercial might have definitely played a role in all this.

Now I am nothing if not prepared for a day like this as I have numerous Italian or Sicilian cookbooks containing recipes for spaghetti.  But let's be real here:  it's the sauce that seals the deal.

Which is not to say that I don't like spaghetti and other forms of pasta because I do.  In  fact, every time I make a pot and drain it, I always grab a piece or two to "taste," don't you know, before putting it in a bowl and adding sauce.  I get that from my father who always tasted tested the pasta in the same way.  When it came to cooking pasta, dad was the man and he could make a mean sauce too, but he usually left that part to mom.

So I looked through my vast collection for spaghetti recipes and let me suggest to you that the easiest way to find one is to look at the Recipes Indexe found in the back of most cookbooks.  Simply cruise your way through "Salads," "Soups," and there you go – "Spaghetti."  And oh sure, sometimes you have to go rogue and look under "Pasta" but not in the books I looked at.

So I looked through two books and then when I got to this one – The Pleasures of Italian Cooking – I found not one but two great-sounding recipes.  The first one was basic – Spaghetti with Bacon Sauce (Spaghetti all' Amatriciana) – p. 78, but the second one was intriguing – Spaghetti with Veal Dumplings (Spaghetti Platto Unico) - p. 73.  Because I don't know about you, but when I hear the word "dumplings,"  I think of either hearty Eastern European food or Chinese dumplings like Shumai which I love.  In reality, these were really meatballs but the author chose to call them "dumplings" and who am I to argue?

Since both of these sounded good (and boy, was I starving when I finished looking through cookbooks), I decided to photocopy both recipes and then make a final decision at the grocery store.  And happily, I didn't need to purchase much as I had all the ingredients for either one save for some chopped tomatoes and, for the veal dumplings, the veal.

It is here I must pause to a) rant and b) tell a hilarious "What are the odds?" story.

The rant is this:  why do I always have so much trouble finding veal, never mind fresh (not frozen) veal in this town?  Yes, I know that some people have issues with the way veal (baby cows) are raised.  And yes I know that the Italian population here in Minnesota is minuscule compared to that of the east coat.  But for the love of Michelangelo folks, it is nearly impossible to source veal of any kind (ground, cutlets, etc.) and it's not like I live in the backwater, I live in the city!  A fairly good-sized city! "Twin" Cities even!  Yet you can just forget about finding it at a regular grocery store or  some of our upscale stores like Lunds & Byerlys, and even Whole Foods informed me that they are very fussy about their veal vendors (well, who isn't), and so they have not secured one for their local area stores.

Seriously?  In the entire state of Minnesota and/or Western Wisconsin and/or Eastern Iowa, you cannot find one – o.n.e. – vendor to provide you with veal?

What is this country coming to?

But folks, all is not lost.  Kowalski's grocery store (also somewhat upscale) carries it, as does the St. Paul Meat Shop on Grand Ave in St. Paul (but theirs is frozen) and so I had those two options but it's not like I had racks and racks of veal products to peruse at either because I did not.  At best, I'd find maybe a few packages.

As a side note, I have to confess that I was stuck with only two grocery options until it dawned on me today that I forgot a store: Cossetta, an Italian grocery store in St. Paul.  But Cossetta is a little further for me to drive, the parking lot is the size of a postage stamp, and it's a veritable "zoo" inside which is to say crammed to the rafters, "all day, all night, Marianne" ("down by the seaside siftin' sand...").

And now we turn to the second pause in our (riveting) story, b) "What are the odds?"   So I elected to shop at Kowalski's meat department where I found one, lone package of ground veal.  Well then, maybe I should make the dumplings after all, no?  Except I thought about the rest of you trying to source veal and thought maybe I should just go with the Spaghetti with Bacon sauce because if you all can't get your hands on some bacon, then I don't know what to tell you.

Still though, I vacillated and it was getting late in the day and I had other groceries to buy and so I left the one, lone package behind.  I did this in part because Andy was not going to be home on National Spaghetti Day and so I felt I had a day to make up my mind on the veal before making our spaghetti meal the next night.  Because seriously, what are the odds that someone else would buy "my veal?"

Turns out:  considerable!  Because I went back the next day and "my" veal was gone.  Gone, Baby, Gone!  I mean, the freaking nerve!  Honestly, I am still obsessing about the person(s) who absconded with my veal because who besides me was on the lookout for the stuff?  I was half tempted to ask to see store footage...

Luckily, even thought the ground veal was Gone, Baby, Gone, there were a few packages of veal for veal scaloppini.  And so I inquired of one of the butchers whether I could just put this in my Cuisinart and he said "sure," and so I brought it home and pulsed it in my Cuisinart for just a few seconds and I tell you what:  I would put up my version of ground veal against a bona fide butcher any day.  It was perfect!

So I added the rest of the ingredients to the veal, made them into little "dumplings" and fried them up as directed, and then all that needed to be done was to add the chopped tomatoes and some pepper and let it all simmer for 30 minutes.  Tack on another 8 minutes or so for the spaghetti (plus another 24 hours since I made this on Thursday) and we had ourselves a very tasty National Spaghetti Day dinner!

But I'm still stuck on how to accommodate the people who want to observe a late-breaking National Spaghetti Day but who can't find veal and so here's a thought:  if you can't source veal you might try using ground chicken or turkey.  The consistency is about the same as the veal and so it might work.  Or you could try ground pork although it might make the meatballs a tad more greasy so perhaps ground beef?

Or, you can try the runner-up recipe for Spaghetti with Bacon Sauce below.  I didn't try it but it sounded tasty and is oh-so-easy.

Finally, I have to mention that as you will see by the photo, this cookbook was likely well used as it is coming apart at the seams and that is sad.  Inexplicably, I found this book in two places, one in NYC and this one in Hawaii.  I passed on the one in NYC because at the time, I felt the cover was kind of tattered plus it was pricey, coming in around $25.00.  But when I found this version in Hawaii, even the falling-apart cover could not persuade me to pass on a book that was priced at $6.00.  I can be such a smart shopper even while being a dumb one with the veal.  And so we come full circle!

As to the book, when I Googled author Romeo Salta's name, I found that he was a pretty important person in Manhattan, enough to merit an obituary in the New York Times on September 6, 1998 ( Romeo died on August 31, 1998).  As the obituary noted, "one of the first Manhattan restaurateurs to introduce fine Italian cuisine" to NYC.  He owned a couple of restaurants, worked at a few hotels including the Waldorf Astoria, and according to the New York Times, even had a line of frozen foods with his name on it for a short period of time.  All that and more from a guy who immigrated here from Italy!  So "Oh Romeo, Romeo," I wish you were still alive so I could tell you how much I enjoyed these veal dumplings which is a damned good thing considering all the hoops I had to jump through to get them!  And they made for a very good accompaniment to spaghetti on National Spaghetti Day 2017.  On to next year!

Spaghetti with Veal Dumplings (Spaghetti Piatto Unico)  – serves 4

½ pound ground veal

1/8 pound prosciutto, or cooked ham, finely chopped

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1 ½ teaspoons salt (Ann's Note: use ½ teaspoon for the dumplings, reserve the rest for the sauce)

1 egg, beaten

½ cup dry bread crumbs

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons dry vermouth (Ann's Note:  You can probably get away with using a dry white wine here)

1 pound tomatoes, chopped (Ann's Note:  I use Pomi brand chopped tomatoes. They come in a carton already chopped and ready to go.  And as I love to say, "Why do for yourself what you can pay others to do for you?")

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 pound spaghetti, cooked and drained

Mix together the veal, ham, cheese, ½ teaspoon salt and the egg.  Shape teaspoons of the mixture into little balls.  Roll in the bread crumbs.

Melt the butter in a saucepan; brown the balls in it.  Add the wine; cook until absorbed, add the tomatoes, pepper and remaining salt; cook over low heat 30 minutes.  Taste for seasoning.  Pour over the hot spaghetti and serve with grated cheese. This dish is served as a main course.

Bonus recipe:  Spaghetti with Bacon Sauce (Spaghetti all' Amatriciana) – serves 4-6

¼ pound bacon, diced

½ cup chopped onion

¼ cup dry white wine

1 pound tomatoes, peeled and chopped

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 pound spaghetti, cooked and drained

1 cup grated Pecorino or Parmesan cheese

In a saucepan, cook the bacon and onion until browned.  Add the wine; cook until almost evaporated.  Mix the tomatoes and pepper; cook over low heat for 20 minutes.  Taste for seasoning.  Pour over the hot spaghetti and sprinkle with the cheese.

 

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

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

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

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

© 1992

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

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

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

Published by M. Evans and Company, Inc.

ISBN: 0-87131-426-6

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

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

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

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

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

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

Focus is a good thing, amirite Packers?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 And lots, lots more!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

¾ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

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

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small red onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

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

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

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

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

2 packages (10 ounces each) frozen asparagus, thawed

1 large celery rib without leaves, chopped

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

1/8 teaspoon salt

Pinch of white pepper

3 ¼ cups chicken broth

2 tablespoons butter or corn-oil margarine

1 small onion, chopped

1 cup dairy sour cream

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

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

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

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

"New York Cookbook" by Molly O'Neill (chicken soup) & "New York In A Dozen Dishes" by Robert Sietsema (Black-and-White Cookie) - in honor of 9/11

Date I made these recipes:  Sunday, September 11, 2016—15 Year Anniversary of 9/11

New York Cookbook (From Pelham Bay to Park Avenue, Firehouses to 4* Restaurants, Neighborhood Gourmets and the Great Chefs) by Molly O'Neill

Published by Workman Publishing, New York

ISBN: 1-56305-337-3; © 1992

Purchased at Aardvark Books, San Francisco, CA

Recipe:  New York Penicillin (a/k/a Chicken Soup) – p. 47-48.  Recipe from Guardian Angel founder, Curtis Sliwa, whose aunt Marie Stacey created this recipe.

New York in a Dozen Dishes by Robert Sietsema

Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

ISBN:  978-0-544-45431-6; © 2015

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

Recipe:  The Black-and-White Cookie – p. 279

Has it been that long?

Has it really been 15 years since 9/11 happened?

Every year since then, I have tried to observe that day in my blog by cooking from my New York cookbook collection.  I try to find foods that represent New York and provide "comfort" at the same time.  I think I nailed it this year with recipes for New York Penicillin i.e. Chicken Soup and Black-and-White Cookies.

I also try, every year, to articulate something about that horrible, horrible day and this year have just been at a loss. I have written and rewritten and rewritten again and only now have I decided that "it" will do. 

This year's anniversary folks, number 15, is significant because it coincides with my first year in law school.  Fifteen years ago on 9/11, I was three weeks into my 1L (first year law) classes when the planes crashed in NYC and Washington D.C. and then later, Pennsylvania.  I was also only a couple of weeks away from my 43^rd birthday.  It's now been fifteen years since I thought that going to law school was a "good idea."  It has not necessarily been a good idea, partly because the world started to collapse that day when those towers fell and the economy went into a freefall as well.  It wasn't a good time to be in any career, much less the new one of law.

It has been fifteen years since the world, and especially all of us in law school, got a look at how law and order (also the name of one of my favorite TV show), became lawlessness and disorder on the grandest of scale.  Fifteen years since those towers, never architecturally interesting to me, fell in a city that I loved.

I have always loved New York and always will. Our family road trips back east to see my grandmother (my dad was born and raised on the east coast) informed my youth.  My first "road trip" into the city was actually to Queens for the New York World's Fair when I was six.  We frequently took trips into the city to sightsee and to visit my dad's aunts, uncles and cousins in the Burroughs.  I gorged on all the Italian/Sicilian food they made for our visits.

This love affair of mine never wavered, not in the 70's when New York wasn't the safest place, and not in the 80's when I came "this close" to moving there.  9/11 changed nothing for me except that it made me love New York and New Yorkers even more.  People tend to think of New Yorkers as harsh, rude, and disconnected people who care nothing about their neighbors and who have no time for other people's "problems."  I'm here to tell you that image is wrong.  I'm here to remind you that we saw otherwise on that day and every day thereafter.  New York is nothing but resilient, always has been, always will be.  New Yorkers cope, and one of the ways they cope is through food.

New Yorkers love food and they should because there is hardly a world cuisine that goes unnoticed or uncooked in NYC.  Some foods, like Vietnamese (versus Chinese) have been slow to trend in NYC (unlike here in MN where you can find Vietnamese foods all over the place) but once New York latches on to a food item, it never gives up and (almost) never looks back. 

Food trends are like that, too.  Once something catches on, it seems to have a toehold on us, like freshly-made pasta or soup stock made from scratch.

Two foods that are now considered "quintessential" New York foods are today's recipes:  New York Penicillin a/k/a Chicken Soup and the Black-And-White Cookie.  Neither are trendy, neither represent previously unknown cuisines, but they are there and they exist because it must be so.  If you know nothing about New York, you need to know about these items as they are staples.  They are the dishes we can always count on, even when the world turns upside down.

Cookbook author, Molly O'Neill tells us all about New York food in her 500 page tome – New York Cookbook -  a book that took her five years to write.   I jest when I say it took me about that long to read it, but only slightly.  Over the years, I've pulled it off then shelf, flagged some recipes, then put it back, rinse and repeat.  I could just never decide as there were so damned many awesome recipes to be sampled.

This time though, I pulled it off the shelf and stuck with it.  This time though, I noticed a photo on the inside cover that I never paid much attention to before:  The Twin Towers. When this book was published in 1992, nobody on this earth could fathom that nearly 20 years later, those towers would no longer exist.

I took this as a sign that I was meant to cook from this book on this anniversary date.   And I also took as a sign the fact that this time around, the book fell open to the chicken soup recipe.  It's not for nothing that chicken soup, in whatever form it takes, is the world's "feel better" soup.  And today, I wanted to feel slightly better.

But if you're not in the mood or if you want more from NYC than just soup, then fear not, for this book has everything else you might need:  "Nibbles, Noshes, and Appetizing [bites];" "Soups for Sipping, Slurping, Supper;" "To Bake an Honest Loaf," or "The Meat of the Matter" – you name it, it's in there.  In fact, the reason it takes a while to "read" is because the author shares so many stories of famous food stores and restaurants and people – not all celebrities of course, but the people of NYC.  I love it.

But if this 500-page work is too much to handle, then consider getting your hands on Robert Sietsema's New York in a Dozen Dishes.  Like a lot of New Yorkers, Sietsema gets right to the point:  there are 12 dishes of merit in this city, so there, deal with it.

While generally, I agreed with the author on a good half of the recipes included in this book (so much smaller than Molly's.  So much), we are going to have to agree to disagree on his inclusion of Cuy, an Ecuadorian favorite.  I shall not tell you what it is as I want you to read the rest of this blog, but let me just say that if curious, Google it...and then be prepared to look away (and quickly!).  And please keep in mind that many countries enjoy foods that we would never consider.  It is not a stretch for me to say that 99.9% of you will not consider this food item at all and would raise an eyebrow on it being in this book.  Count me in on that 99.9% club!

Happily, Sietsema also discusses some favorites like "Pizza," "Egg Foo Young," and Pastrami.  We shall quibble about "Fried Chicken" and "Barbecued Brisket" as in my opinion these have been slow in coming to New York (Jewish brisket though, is another story), and I will tell you for a fact that Minneapolis and St. Paul have a total lock and load on "Pho," a Vietnamese noodle soup (pronounced "Fuh").  In fact, I have to say that I was surprised to see it included here.  Up until a few years ago, my New York friend Susan, who lived in Minneapolis for five years (which is how I got to know her), bemoaned the fact that she couldn't find any place in Manhattan that served Pho, at least not the pho like we have here, and I totally agreed with her as we were pressed to find Vietnamese food at all.  And now it's included in the "Dozen Dishes" category, say what?

I tell you what folks, if you come to Minneapolis or St. Paul, we are hopping on the Green Line, our light rail system, and are taking the train to a section of St. Paul called Little Mekong.  And that is where you will have pho like it's meant to be made.  St. Paul is especially rife with Vietnamese immigrants who came to the Twin Cities as refugees during the Vietnam War, and with a little help, a good number of them have started their own restaurants.  Restaurants that serve awesome pho.  Awesome.  New York may excel at a number of things, but I refuse to believe that pho is one of them!

Side note:  I'm starving but even though I am surrounded by some great Vietnamese restaurants, we are not NY and most don't deliver and of course it's raining out and so how to fix this sudden pho craving? ;)

Although the Black-and-White cookie is not among the "dozen dishes" (gross oversight, that), the author at least made it a baker's dozen by including a recipe in the back of the book.  (All recipes are accompanied by a narrative of how they came to be popular and also where to "buy" them in NYC) It's the least he could do because this cookie,  this basic cookie, dressed up with white and black frosting, is a New York original.  A New York original that is as essential to New Yorkers as a yellow cab or, be still my heart, a subway train that is actually running, never mind running on schedule!  (We can all dream...)

If you have any doubt, then you should go find the full episode or clip from Jerry Seinfeld's show – Seinfeld - where he and Elaine discuss the Black-And-White Cookie:  "If people would just look to the cookie, all our problems would be solved.  Look to the cookie, Elaine, look to the cookie."

So folks take a minute to "look to the cookie," and look at (and make, of course) the chicken soup and your outlook will change and it will be for the better.

I love New York.  Always have, always will.

New York Penicillin (a/k/a Chicken Soup) – Makes 3 quarts (12 cups) broth – Ann's Note:  set aside 2-4 hours to simmer.

4 quarts cold water

1 chicken (4 to 5 pounds), quartered

2 chicken feet, or 4 chicken wings, or 1 turkey wing

1 clove garlic, peeled and bruised (Ann's Note:  to bruise, smack one side of the garlic with a flat side of your knife.)

1 onion, peeled

2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

2 ribs celery, cut into 1-inch pieces

½ bunch fresh parsley, tied together with string and rinsed

1 bay leaf

1 ½ teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon black peppercorns

Pour the cold water into a large pot.  Add the chicken, garlic, onion, carrots, celery, parsley, bay leaf, salt and peppercorns and slowly bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer for 4 hours, skimming frequently. (The soup can be strained at this point to use in the recipes that follow, both in this chapter and throughout the book.)

Strain the soup.  Discard the onion, parsley, bay leaf, and peppercorns but reserve the other vegetables.  Remove the chicken, skin and debone it, and reserve the meat.  Return the chicken stock, chicken meat, carrots, celery, and garlic to the pot and bring back to a simmer; season with additional salt or pepper, to taste.

Serve the soup in big bowls over pastina, rice, or spaghettini.  (Ann's Note:  I used dumpling noodles.)  The soup's curative powers are released only when the vegetables are mashed together in the bowl.  Use a fork for mashing.  Use a big spoon for eating.  You'll feel better soon.

Black-and-White Cookies – makes 8 four-inch cookies

For the cookies:

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup cake flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

½ vanilla bean, slit lengthwise, seeds scraped from the pod, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup milk

For the icing:

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 to 3 tablespoons water

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 375F.  Grease a baking sheet with butter.  Sift the flours, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl; whisk to combine.

In a stand mixer on medium speed, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add in the egg and scraped vanilla seeds or the extract, and mix well to combine.  Reduce the speed to low, add half of the flour mixture, then the milk, then the rest of the flour mixture, mixing to just combine after each addition. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl one last time.

Spoon 1/3-cup mounds of dough onto the greased baking sheet, 1 ½ inches apart (8 should fit on a standard baking sheet, but use a second sheet if necessary).  With wet hands press down gently on each mound to flatten slightly.  Bake until the edges of the cookies are set and light golden brown, 16 to 18 minutes.  Allow the cookies to cool on the sheet slightly before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.

To make the icing, stir together the confectioners' sugar, corn syrup, vanilla extract, and 2 tablespoons water until smooth, adding more water a teaspoon at a time to make a smooth, spreadable icing.  Transfer half the icing to another bowl and whisk in the cocoa, adding more water, ½ teaspoon at a time, to achieve a similar consistency as the white icing.

To frost, spread the vanilla icing over half of the flat surface of each cookie, letting the excess drip off.  Let the vanilla icing set for 15 minutes, then spread chocolate chip icing onto the other half of the cookie.  Let the icing set for an hour before eating.  Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days.