"Cucina Rustica" & "Patsy's [NYC Restaurant] Cookbook" - Pasta with Sausage and Fennel Sauce and Pasta Bolognese - Christmas Eve 2017

Date I made these recipes:  December 24, 2017 - Christmas Eve

Cucina Rustica by Viana La Place & Evan Kleiman

Published by William Morrow & Company, Inc.

ISBN: 0-688-16063-8; copyright 1990

Recipe: “Little Ears” Pasta with Sausage and Fennel (Orecchiette con Salsicce e Finnocchio) – p. 188-189

Patsy’s Cookbook – Classic Recipes From a New York City Landmark Restaurant by Sal J. Scognamillo; Foreword by Nancy Sinatra

Published by Clarkson Potter Publishers

ISBN: 0-609-60954-8; copyright 2002

Recipe:  Penne Bolognese – p. 109

As is usual and customary, I made once again a pasta dish for our Christmas Eve repast.  Normally, I make spaghetti and meatballs but from time to time, I’ve made a pasta sauce just to mix things up a little.  Either way, pasta and sauce of some kind is a family custom, so I set to work to find some recipes.

Reader, I found two.  When I presented these two options to my husband, and asked him to choose one, he said “Why don’t we make both?  We can always freeze the leftovers.”

For the record, we do not “freeze” in this house unless by “freeze” you mean how we are feeling right now after coming in from outside where the current temperature is -5.  This is “up” from our starting temperature of -15 below.  My feet feel like blocks of ice.  (It’s also New Year’s Eve and this is just a great way to ring in the new year, is it not?)

Anyway, as usual, and especially when I’m looking at Italian cookbooks, I got sidetracked as so many dishes sounded fantastic.  Here’s a look at Cucina Rustica’s Table of Contents: 

• Menus
• The Italian Kitchen
• Antipasti
• Insalate (Salads)
• Zuppe e Minestre (Soups)
• Pasta
• Risotto
• Polenta
• Contorni (Vegetables)
• Pesce e Frutti di Mare (Fish and Shellfish)
• Pollame e Carne (Poultry and Meat)
• Dolci (Desserts)

 For many Italian-American families, Christmas Eve is the “Feast of the Seven Fishes.”  My family never observed this, and I don’t either, so I didn’t spend much time with that chapter.  The same cannot be said though, for the soup section as I do enjoy soup, especially when the weather is cold.  I toyed briefly, with making my own recipe for Italian Wedding Soup but that recipe wasn’t in this cookbook.

Many of the poultry, meat, vegetable and dessert selections would have been fabulous on any other day but this one and so I soldiered on to the pasta section. Let me be clear that the “pasta on Christmas Eve” edict wasn’t really a family rule per se, it’s just that we started having spaghetti on Christmas Eve when I was very young and I saw no reason to deviate.

Although the pasta section covered all the bases from “Fast Spaghetti” [Sauce] on p. 152, to “Sardinian Clam Sauce” on p. 171, I settled on the sausage and fennel sauce because I like sausage, I like fennel, and I like them together!

Some of you though, may not like fennel because it tastes – slightly - of anise which is to say, licorice. Do not be fooled into thinking you’re going to be eating black candy licorice though, because fennel licorice is no where near the tangy, yet sweet candy confection.  It’s a subtle taste and it marries well with sausage.  This recipe gives you the option to add cream to the broth-based sauce and what the heck, it’s a holiday, right?  We indulged.

By the way, this book’s authors, Viana La Place and Evan Kleiman wrote also Cucina Fresca and Pasta Fresca just in case you’re in a mood to get your pasta on!

Then there’s Pasty’s Cookbook which is a “commemorative” cookbook from the famous NYC restaurant, a place so small that it is always booked, and those bookings are for the beautiful people, i.e. celebrities. In fact, the back cover is filled with quotes from some of Patsy’s most famous patrons:  Nancy Sinatra (who ate there with her dad, Frank), Tony Bennett, Rush Limbaugh, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, and Michael Feinstein.  (I have an awful feeling that many of you reading this are saying “Who?” but Google them and educate yourselves because these people were big deals “back in the day.”)

Given that all of us little people have a snowball’s chance in hell of eating at Patsy’s, it was nice of them to publish this cookbook, so we can all sample what might have been.

Patsy’s Table of Contents is similar to but smaller than Cucina Rustica:

• Appetizers
• Salads and Vegetables
• Soups
• Pasta, Risotto, and Sauces
• Chicken
• Meats
• Fish and Shellfish
• Desserts

 There’s also a small section for Frank Sinatra’s Favorites which I thought was hilarious, but the guy ate there a lot, so why not, right?  The book contains several stories about family and friends and also many photos.  I love cookbooks like this as I feel like I’m looking at a family album.

Once again, I focused my search on pasta dishes and the one that caught my eye was yet another meat sauce, this time Bolognese.  Bolognese is a hearty meat sauce which is why I was hesitant to make both it and the sausage and fennel sauce, but protein is a good thing, so we went for it.  Whereas the sausage and fennel sauce had cream (optional, but we added it anyway), this one called for 2 tablespoons of butter and of course I obliged.  It would be rude not to, plus, butter is often a key ingredient in the Bolognese sauce and I was not about to leave out a key ingredient. (Patsy’s noted that cream is traditional also, but they opted for butter.)

Each of these sauces takes little time to make which was great and you can save yourself a whole lot of time with the pasta by choosing one kind (I used ziti) and running with it instead of making both orecchiette and penne.  In fact, the two pastas remind me of a hilarious moment in Venice while on my honeymoon 26 years ago.  We stayed in a small pensione run by two older sisters who were almost dead-ringers for my twin great-aunts, Angelina and Catherine who hailed from Sicily. At any rate, these sisters also ran a small restaurant and when we went downstairs for dinner one night, I ordered spaghetti and Andy ordered rigatoni.

The sister who took our order then shuffled back to the kitchen and moments later, we heard them both yelling (in Italian).  Our order-taking sister came back out, looked at us and said “Due (pronounced “do-ay” spaghetti or due rigatoni,” which translated means “Two [orders of] spaghetti or two of rigatoni,” and not one of each!

We cracked up laughing because reader, we were the only people in the restaurant at that moment!  Those sisters were not going to mess around by cooking two different pastas, and I didn’t either:  I split the difference by making ziti and that was the end of that!

This concludes our Italian-centric Christmas Eve dinner discussion.  You can make these recipes at any time, but I think they are best appreciated on a holiday in the cold, bleak midwinter.

Little Ears [Pasta] with Sausage and Fennel (Orecchiette con Salsicce e Finocchio) – serves 4 to 6

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

½ medium onion, peeled and minced

2 fennel bulbs, trimmed and thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

10 ounces sweet Italian sausage, casings removed, crumbled

10 fresh basil leaves, cut into julienne

5 sprigs fresh oregano, leaves only

½ cup chicken broth

½ cup young red wine

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

½ cup cream (optional)

1 pound imported orecchiette

Grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese for the table

Heat the olive oil in a medium-sized skillet.  Add the onion and gently sauté over low heat until it wilts.  Add the fennel and continue cooking until both fennel and onion are soft.  Turn up the heat and add the garlic to the skillet.

Sauté garlic briefly just until it turns opaque and releases its characteristic aroma.  Add the sausage and brown over high heat.  When no trace of pink remains in the sausage, add the basil, oregano, chicken broth, red wine, and salt and pepper to taste.  Turn down the heat to medium and cook sauce until the liquids reduce and the flavors are well blended.  Add the cream, if desired, and cook just until it reduces slightly, about 5 minutes.

Cook the orecchiette in abundant boiling salted water until al dente.  Drain the pasta thoroughly and transfer to the skillet with the sauce.  Cook briefly over moderate heat, stirring well.  Serve immediately in a large shallow serving bowl topped with plenty of grated cheese of your choice.

Pasta Bolognese – Serves 4 to 6

6 medium white mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

¼ cup olive oil

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

½ pound finely ground lean beef

1 16-ounce can plum tomatoes, with juice

2 bay leaves

¼ cup Cabernet Sauvignon

¼ cup beef broth

Pinch of oregano

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1 pound penne (or spiral pasta), cooked al dente

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the mushrooms, and blanch for 2 minutes.  Drain, chop fine, and reserve.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high flame and sauté the onions for 3 to 4 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Add the blanched mushrooms, garlic, and ground beef, and continue to cook and stir for 7 to 8 minutes, until the meat is browned.  Coarsely chop the tomatoes and add with their juice, the bay leaves, wine, broth, and oregano.  Bring to a boil, reduce the hat to low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove the bay leaves.  Add the butter and parsley and season with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle and stir in the Parmigiano-Reggiano and serve over the cooked pasta.

"Breakfast at Brennan's and Dinner, Too" by Pip, Jimmy and Ted Brennan, Proprietors of Brennan's, New Orleans - Shrimp Creole - Mardi Gras!

Date I made this recipe:  February 28, 2017 – Fat Tuesday and the start of Mardi Gras!

Breakfast at Brennan's® and Dinner, Too by Pip, Jimmy and Ted Brennan, Proprietors

Published by Brennan's Inc.

ISBN: 0-9639819-0-0; © 1994

Purchased at Barnes and Noble (Used), Roseville, MN

Recipe:  Shrimp Creole – p. 159

Ah, Mardi Gras!  Every year, it arrives before we know it, kicking off the Lenten season with one big party in the Big Easy (and your "Little Easy's," i.e. other southern cities that celebrate Mardi Gras).  After using this cookbook, I realized that I am going to have to beef up my "Mardi Gras" cookbook collection as supplies are getting low.

This cookbook, Breakfast at Brennan's – and Dinner, Too!, is from one of the leading restaurant families in New Orleans, the Brennan family.  Starting in 1946, various Brennan family members started creating some of New Orleans's most beloved restaurants (and food) and are still going strong today.  The first of these restaurants – Brennan's – kicked off the restaurant boom, but they are also known for the restaurant, Commander's Palace, from which notable chefs Emeril Lagasse and Paul Prudhomme got their starts.

Like many restaurant families, the Brennan's have had their share of controversies, starting with the contentious 1974 departure of (aunt) Ella Brennan from her family's restaurant group.  She left Brennan's to manage Commander's Palace and never looked back until 2014 when she returned Brennan's for a visit.   Wow—that was a long-lasting family feud although I do believe it ended with that visit. Ella made a name for herself at Commander's Palace and is the subject of a 2016 documentary about her life and her loves – New Orleans and food.

This book though, is about the restaurant run by Ella's nephews, Pip, Jimmy and Ted Brennan.  Their father, and Ella's brother, Owen, gave the family its start in the business and after Ella's departure, they took over running Brennan's. 

Although I've been to New Orleans twice in my life, I have never been inside either restaurant although I would love to some day, particularly Brennan's.  Brennan's interior has been much discussed and is much-photographed as it is classic south:  soothing green and pink abound and I love it. Even the exterior is pink! Although the interior has been redone from time to time, the private party room remains the same and you can't beat classic design like that.  Locally, Murray's steak house was known for their pale pink interior but then was redesigned and painted yellow a few years back.  I have not seen the new interior and I get why the Murray family wanted to upgrade, but still.  At any rate, some of you may consider Brennan's interior downright gaudy in which case, please leave the reservation lines open for someone like me who would appreciate, nay, bask in it!  (I am an old soul.)

At any rate, when it came time to find my Mardis Gras meal, I didn't have to look too far and honestly, could have probably cooked my way through the entire book (save for the frog leg's) but time was of the essence (hmm...Emeril's "Essence?") and so I selected a New Orleans's classic, "Shrimp Creole."   And you can't go wrong with Shrimp Creole but I tell you, you can also "go right" by this dish and make it up the day before you are going to eat it to let the flavors really settle in.  I enjoyed the dish "fresh," but I really enjoyed it the next day.

Another reason to make it up and let it settle in is that it calls for 2 tablespoons paprika which is an awful lot, but it brings unique flavor to this dish that I liked.  If you are around my age (late 50's), you grew up during an era when paprika was something you sprinkled on a plate of lettuce that was topped with a canned peach half and cottage cheese to make a fancy salad.  Back then, paprika was used to add color to a dish rather than as a flavor-enhancing spice.  To be honest with you, I wasn't quite sure how I felt about that much paprika but finally ended on the side of "She likes it, hey 'Mikey!'"  (1972 Life Cereal commercial). 

In addition to the paprika, the recipe's other spices include cayenne pepper (naturally—this is New Orleans we are talking about), white pepper and Italian seasoning which again, only added to the flavor profile...and now I'm sounding like the judges on Chopped!

And as always, no god-fearing New Orleans' [Creole] cook would ever consider making a dish like this without the "Holy Trinity" i.e. you green pepper, onion, and celery, which is why they are pretty much the first ingredients on the list right after butter – ha! 

Now should you for some reason (allergy, dislike – other) decide shrimp is not your thing, you should be able to find something equally delicious in this cookbook as it supplies you with a wide-range of options.  Here are the Table of Contents categories:

• Appetizers
• Soups
• Sauces
• Salads
• Salad Dressings
• Breakfast
• Entrees
• Side Dishes
• Desserts
• Drinks

Note though, that many dishes in this cookbook are heavy on seafood, especially shrimp and oysters, even some of the breakfast dishes.  And unlike other parts of the country, salad dressings are almost as important as the salad itself; this holds true for sauces as well. Then there's the drink menu and you should know that Brennan's drink menu is almost as famous as the restaurant itself.  My personal preference though, for making a meal is to make an entree and that's why I went with the Shrimp Creole but feel free to roam about the cabin.

All right then, so Mardi Gras is underway, Lent is underway and the whole thing will come full circle on Easter Sunday, April 16^th when it's time for ham.  Meanwhile, this dish makes a great and tasty entree for those of you observing a Lenten meatless Friday so have at it and enjoy!

Shrimp Creole – 8 servings

½ cup (1 stick) butter

1 ½ cups chopped green bell pepper

1 ½ cups chopped onion

1 ½ cups chopped celery

1 tablespoon garlic, finely chopped

¼ cup tomato paste

2 tablespoons paprika

1 ½ teaspoons Italian seasoning

1 ½ cups chicken stock or water

1 cup tomato juice (Ann's Note:  I cheated.  I did not want to stock up on tomato juice just for this dish so I pureed some of the tomatoes this recipe uses and added that juice to the mixture.)

1 cup peeled and chopped tomatoes

1 ½ teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 ½ teaspoons salt

Pinch of black pepper

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Pinch of white pepper

1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch

4 tablespoons water

3 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

4 cups white rice (Ann's Note:  cooked white rice, made however you want to.)

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and cook the bell pepper, onion, celery, and garlic until tender, 5 to 8 minutes.  Stir in the tomato paste, paprika, and Italian seasoning and cook an additional 3 minutes.  Add 1 ½ cups chicken stock or water, tomato juice, tomatoes, Worcestershire, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and white pepper.  Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

In a small bowl, blend the cornstarch with 4 tablespoons water until smooth.  Gradually add the cornstarch to the shrimp sauce, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens.  Add the shrimp and parsley to the sauce and bring mixture to a boil.  Lower the heat and simmer for 5 to 8 minutes until the shrimp are cooked through; do not overcook.

Serve the Shrimp Creole over cooked rice.  Pasta can be substituted for rice.

"CookFight" by NYTimes writers Kim Severson and Julia Moskin and "Second Helpings from the Union Square Cafe" - Pork Braised in Milk and Cream and Mustard Mashed Potatoes

Date I made these recipes:  January 1, 2016 – New Year's Day

CookFight – 2 Cooks, 12 Challenges, 125 Recipes and Epic Battle for Kitchen Dominance by New York Times Food Writers Kim Severson and Julia Moskin; Foreword by Frank Bruni

Published by:  Ecco

ISBN:  978-0-06-198838-7

Purchased at Barnes and Noble Used Books, Roseville, MN

Recipe:  Pork Braised In Milk and Cream – p. 89

Second Helpings from the Union Square Cafe – 140 New Favorites from New York's Acclaimed Restaurant by Danny Meyer and Michael Romano

Published by: HarperCollins Publishers

ISBN:  0-06-0196647-5

Recipe:  Mustard-Mashed Potatoes – p. 251; Mashed Potatoes "base" recipe – p. 321-322

Happy New Year!

It's been a long time since I've planned the main dish around a side dish but my husband was set on this mashed potato recipe and so there it is.  Oh sure, we could have just eaten a big bowl of mashed potatoes on New Years but that seemed a pretty inauspicious way to start the new year.

Originally, I asked him to look through the Second Helpings cookbook to check out some other main dish recipes I tagged, intending to make one of them on Christmas Day.  He liked them, but as he is wont to do, he checked out the entire book and said "I want these mashed potatoes.  I'll settle for the horseradish ones but these are the ones I really want."

Well, who am I to play the Grinch during the holidays?  Wish granted!

The problem though, was that the potatoes didn't really go with the entree I selected for Christmas Day – Martha Stewart's Pork Stew with Fennel and Olives.  In fact, the pasta dish I made for Christmas Eve was a much better fit for the pork stew and so we combined the two and ate those together. 

Still, the mashed potato recipe was hanging out there mocking me.  I kept promising to make them "any day" now and did make them "any day now" after I found something to go with the potatoes.  According to Second Helpings, chicken, rabbit, pork chops, and salmon pair well with these mashed potatoes.

And so enter the Pork Braised in Milk and Cream recipe.  Now I know some of you are probably already turning up your nose at the thought but many moons ago, I saw a recipe for this dish in a magazine and thought it sounded good so I clipped it.  Finding it though, was another story and so luckily, CookFight included it for me.  Archeological dig avoided!

Still, this recipe calls for milk and cream and then lemon and at this point, my nose starting turning up but I trusted the recipe and was not disappointed.  Plus, I trusted the authors, Kim Severson and Julia Moskin, who write for the New York Times and whose columns I've read off and on over the years.

Rounding off our heavy-hitting food writers is restaurant owner, Danny Meyer, whose book – Setting the Table – The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business  (2006) -was a monster hit when it was released.  Danny, who owns several restaurant, led the way in creating a true service environment in restaurants, one where staff (from dishwasher to dining room captain) was as valued, if not more valued, than patrons because if they were happy, customers were happy.  (But "If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!").  Exemplary service was not a nouvelle idea, but placing value on the staff was and by gosh, this concept caught on and is seen in practice in almost every successful restaurant.

One of Danny's early and most successful restaurant enterprises was Gramercy Tavern in NYC (Union Square Cafe, the topic of this cookbook was his first one).  After reading about Gramercy Tavern in his book, I made a mental note to go there some day and one fine day in August 2004, I did.  I go to NYC regularly and that year, planned a trip to the city the week after I took the Minnesota Bar Exam to decompress.  Yes, probably only me goes to one of the world's largest city to center herself but that's the way I'm wired.

At any rate, when my friend, Susan, who lives in NYC, asked where I wanted to go to "celebrate" finishing that torture test, I said Gramercy Tavern and so we went.  And It. Was. Spectacular.  The service was, as you might imagine, off the charts and the food was sublime.  At least what I remember of it.  Let's just say that between the pre-dinner cocktails, dinner cocktails and post-dinner cocktails and my total exhaustion from that hideous exam, I don't have a full memory of what we ate except that it was good and it likely involved steak on my part.  You gotta live large sometimes, folks.  Gotta live large.

So anyway, the place blew my mind and I would love to go back sometime with my husband, this time in a more locked and upright position.

A little side story about the service:  Susan and I had walked all over town that day and just when we got off the subway and were walking to the restaurant, a blister on my foot broke.  No problem, we thought, we'll just find a Duane Reed (drugstore).  There's pretty much a Duane Reed on every other corner in Manhattan.  Except, of course, this particular corner.

So I limped into the restaurant and asked the hostesses if by chance they had a Band Aid and after giving me one of those "you must be joking" looks, they pulled themselves together, re-read their "playbook," Setting the Table  ("Chapter Two:  When the patron wants a Band Aid...") and got me a Band Aid.  And then checked up on me – twice.  God Bless these angels!  After we dined, I scribbled out our impressions on a survey they provided (good lord, what my handwriting must have looked like) and after that, I got a thank you note.  "No, no—thank YOU!"  Again – impressive!

Coincidentally, these two books – CookFight and Second Helpings – are similar in their approach.  They are both conversational, with photos in each.  The photos in CookFight are of the two writers in their kitchens and their conversation is around their recipe battle.  The photos in Second Helpings are of some of the diners in Union Square Cafe, such as Jacques Pepin, and the narrative in the front of the book centers around how the two authors travel to France and Italy each year (and who knows where in between) to get inspiration for recipes for their restaurant.  Both books have a ton of recipes that are sure to please.

Out of the two, CookFight, is perhaps a tad more interesting because of its format.  Each month, the authors faced off in a cooking  battle, selecting a menu of goodies to make, and writing about their experiences.  Their stories are hilarious, for example, Julia writes of the January "Budget Battle": "Her (Kim's) fifth appetizer was like a knife in my heart." Kim's thoughts about her dish – the milk-braised pork – echoed my own:  "On the surface, this dish might sound horrible, but if you are confident enough and patient enough, the reward is a sauce that is so good it nearly made [Julia] Moskin's husband leave her for me."  Ha!  The contest was suggested by fellow New York Times writer, Frank Bruni, who refereed the face-offs before deciding, wisely, that it was a tie. 

Patience is indeed required when making the pork dish because you must allow a few hours (or overnight) to coat the pork roast with garlic and sage and then you need 3-3.5 hours to slowly simmer the roast in the milk bath.  On the other hand, the potatoes are pretty easy to make so I timed them to finish just about when my pork did.  You'll need to make the "base" mashed potatoes first then add the ingredients to make them mustard potatoes.

All in all, both recipes were a big hit and I would love to cook more of them from these books but if didn't limit myself to one per book, I would never make it through the rest of my collection.  Not that I am making it through my collection, I just like to think I am.

Before I go, I have to say that I was just a tiny bit concerned about not making a bean/pea dish to bring good luck for the New Year as I have the past several years.  (Hoppin' John, a dish made with black-eyed peas, is the traditional American favorite).  Well, I am happy to report that I worried for nothing because when I Googled "foods that will bring luck for the New Year," "pork" came up as a lucky food.  Whew, dodged that bullet!  According to Epicurious.com, thanks to "its rich fat content, signifies wealth and prosperity."  Works for me.

Happy cooking everyone but no cook fighting!

Pork Braised in Milk and Cream – makes six servings

One 2 ½-3-pound pork loin roast

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon chopped garlic (for the rub)

5 large garlic cloves, slightly crushed and peeled (Ann's Note:  You will add these after you start cooking the roast)

1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage (for the rub), plus leaves from 2 or 3 fresh sage sprigs (Ann's Note:  you will add these after you start cooking the roast)

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cups milk

3 cups heavy cream

2 lemons

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Season the pork well with salt and pepper.  Rub with the chopped garlic and chopped sage and refrigerate; overnight is best, but a few hours will do.

Bring the meat to room temperature and brush off as much of the sage and garlic as you can.  Heat the oil in a heavy pot with a lid, preferably enameled cast-iron.  Sear the meat well on all sides – this will take about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the milk and cream in a saucepan and bring it to a boil, then turn down the heat to keep it warm.

Peel several long strips of zest from the lemons.  Squeeze the juice from one of them (you'll use this when you finish the sauce).

Transfer the pork to a platter and wipe the fat from the pot.  Add the butter to the pot and set the heat to medium.  Add the garlic cloves and allow to get a touch golden.  Add the sage leaves, reserving a few for garnish, and stir, then set the roast back in the pot, along with any juices from the platter.  Bring to a simmer, add the lemon zest, reserving a few for garnish, and season to taste with salt.

Pour the milk and cream into the pot, partly cover, and simmer gently for 3 hours or more, turning the roast once in a while and stirring to prevent excessive sticking; the sauce should look slightly golden and clumpy.  Ann's Note:  I turned the roast every 30 minutes and this worked out quite well.  Turn off the heat and allow the meat to rest fr at least a half an hour, or until you are ready to make the sauce, up to an hour.

When you are ready to serve, remove the roast and slice it ¼-inch thick or so.  Place on a platter.

Pour the sauce through a sieve into a saucepan, using a wooden spoon to help it along.  Gently reheat the sauce (no boiling!), then stir in the lemon juice and pour it over the meat.  Garnish with the reserved sage leaves and ½ lemon slice.

Mustard-Mashed Potatoes – serves 4

For this recipe, you'll make the mashed potato recipe first, then add the ingredients for the Mustard-Mashed Potatoes

2 pounds Idaho potatoes, scrubbed and peeled

2 teaspoons kosher salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

½ cup heavy cream

½ cup milk

¼ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

Then add:

2 tablespoons dried mustard

1 tablespoon warm water

1 tablespoon honey

¼ teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon ground turmeric

Place the potatoes in a 2-quart saucepan with 1 teaspoon of the salt and cold water to cover.  Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, covered, until completely tender, about 30 minutes.  Test the potatoes by piercing them with a paring knife—there should be no resistance.  Place in a colander and allow to drain well for several minutes.

Combine the butter, heavy cream, and milk in another saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted.  Keep warm.

Working over the saucepan used to cook the potatoes, pass the potatoes through a food mill or a potato ricer.  If you have any difficulty, add a little of the hot milk and butter to the potatoes.

Place the potatoes over a low flame and begin adding the warm milk mixture, whipping the potatoes with a wooden spoon or spatula at the same time.  When all the liquid is absorbed, season with the remaining 1 teaspoon of salt and the white pepper.

Stir together the mustard, water, honey, salt, pepper and turmeric in a small bowl.  Fold the mustard mixture into the warm mashed potatoes and stir over low heat until piping hot.  

"The Four Seasons Cookbook" - Cheddar Cheese Soup for the Winter Solstice (December 21, 2015)

Date I made this recipe:  December 21, 2015 – Winter Solstice!

The Four Seasons Cookbook by Charlotte Adams; Special Consultant:   James Beard.

Published by Crescent Books

© 1971

Purchased at Barnes and Noble Used Books

Recipe:  Cheddar Cheese Soup – p. 95

Reader, I was almost stumped on what to make, if anything, for the Winter Solstice when I read an article in New York Magazine that the venerable Four Seasons Restaurant would be closing soon and relocating to another site, as yet to be determined.  Well this news will likely cause a cosmic shift in the world, if not the local NYC restaurant industry because the Four Seasons is so well know and I cannot recall a time it didn't exist.  Not that I've eaten there, but just always knew of it.  Well, seasons change and time marches on, does it not?

The article though, prompted me to search out this cookbook and what a great cookbook this was for today's Winter Solstice.  I do not enjoy winter, not one little bit and I really loathe the darkness, especially this year when we've had at least four solid weeks of nothing but cloud cover, but the solstice marks the end of our shortened days and this "seasonal" event should be celebrated.  And may I just say that the brightness, if you will, of the cheddar cheese used in the soup made me think of the sun and the coming of more daylight and so it was just the perfect storm of cookbook and recipe.

As you might imagine, this cookbook is divided into recipes fitting the four seasons and really, aside from a few recipes, you could probably enjoy any of these at any time of year.  It was really just a happy accident that the cheese soup ended up in the "winter" selections, especially since the remaining recipes were not ones that I would generally make including "Sturgeon and Caviar," or even "Caviar Blinis" for that matter.  It's not that I am opposed to caviar but I'm sure not going to send you on a goose chase to find it!

Also off the list was "Filet of Smoked Eel, Sauce Verte" (p. 87) because...no.  Need I say more?  There were also plenty of recipes for lobster and one for "Marrow Soufflé in Crust" which honestly, didn't sound too bad but I would have likely sounded very pretentious if I posted it here so I didn't.

In fact, a good majority of dishes in this book were rather lofty and ambitious but happily, each season is balanced out with dishes you and I would make.  That said, this is The Four Seasons Cookbook so if you were expecting to find your basic Tater Tot Casserole or Mac and Cheese, this is not the cookbook for you.

Now I must confess that I altered this very easy dish just a bit and that was by adding some boiled potatoes to it.  On its own, this is more of a thin broth soup than it is something hale and hearty and besides, I love potatoes in cheese soup and so I added them after cooking them in a little bit of broth.  Perfect!

And so we had our solstice dinner and all was well with the world although given the cloud cover, we have yet to see any evidence of our creeping daylight hours.  Oh well—we're in it to win it and so we can wait.  And wait.  And wait and wait and wait.  Until spring.

Happy Winter Solstice.

Cheddar Cheese Soup – serves 6

3 tablespoon minced onion

3 tablespoons grated carrot

3 tablespoons butter

4 cups chicken stock

½ teaspoon dry mustard

½ teaspoon paprika

¼ cup milk

2 tablespoons cornstarch

¼ pound sharp cheddar cheese (grated) 1 cup

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons chopped parsley (garnish)

Ann's Note:  To make your life a little easier, you can "mince" and "grate" your onion and carrots in a mini food processor. 

Sauté the onion and carrot in butter over low heat for 10 minutes.  Add the chicken stock, mustard, and paprika, and simmer for 15 minutes.  Combine the milk and cornstarch.  Stir into the first mixture and cook for 5 minutes.  Add the cheese and stir until it is melted.  Season and serve with chopped parsley on top.

"Sharon O'Connor's Menus and Music Dining and the Opera In Manhattan" - Carrot Soup - Minnesota Opera's opening night!

Date I made this recipe:  September 26, 2015 – Opening Night at the Minnesota Opera

Sharon O'Connor's Menus and Music:  Dining and the Opera In Manhattan – Recipes from Manhattan Restaurants; Opera Arias Selected by the Metropolitan Opera Guild

Published by:  Menus and Music Productions

ISBN:  1-883914-03-5

Purchased at Bloomington Crime Prevention Association (BCPA) annual sale

Recipe:  Carrot Soup from Cafe des Artistes – p. 33

This past Saturday, September 26^th, a friend invited me to attend the opening night of the Minnesota Opera, an event of high elegance to be sure.  Opera buffs take an opera opening very seriously and although the crowd was not as decked out as the Met Opera would be in NYC, we are no slouches when it comes to fashion.

And so, what to wear, what to wear?  I have a couple of evening gowns in my closet but alas, they were last worn circa 2008 and I'm pretty sure that one of them, if not both, would not fit.  So that left me with a "party dress/no party dress" conundrum because while the weather outside was spectacular, the inside temperature with air conditioning was sure to be freezing (it always is) and so hmm...did I want to sit through a 2 hour, 36 minute production freezing or did I want to be warm?

Warm won out.  My compromise was a sequined top over black pants and a jacket with sparkly earrings and a divine little evening bag.  And I was feeling just fine about that until I spotted the veritable fashion week parade going on in front of me:  evening gown, more evening gowns, tuxes, more tuxes, rinse and repeat.  Well if that wasn't discouraging, I don't know what was.

But no matter because besides gawking, we were there to enjoy the opera and I have to say that despite misgivings, the production was fabulous and who would have thunk it?  Ariadne auf Naxos (Ariadne on Naxos) was written by Richard Strauss and his stuff can be kind of odd.  Plus it's in German and I am sorry, but German is not a pretty language.  One could say something like "Your mother is a toad and your dad is a goat" in Italian or French and it would sound pretty but in German?  Not so much.  But we overlooked all that because the story of an opera within an opera was told so well and sung so beautifully and was so funny that we were surprisingly entertained. 

Now this was not my first rodeo at the opera, a musical form I do enjoy although I go sporadically.  The most memorable opera experience I ever had was in Vienna when my husband and I thought we had tickets to the famous and beautiful Vienna State Opera only to find out at the very last minute that our tickets to the Marriage of Figaro were at the Volksoper Wein (Folk Opera House) all the way across town.  Hilarity ensued, such that we could have written a comedic opera about our dash to a different theater, but we didn't.   Anyway, we made it to the opera and were seated after the first act was underway, doing the whole "excuse us, pardon us" drill as we had to climb over several people to take our seats.  And that was just the start of the evening!

Locally, for many, many years, a friend of mine (now deceased) and I used to sit in the audience of the Metropolitan Opera's regional and district auditions in St. Paul where opera hopefuls vied for the chance to go to NYC to compete further to try to win a spot in the Met.  This competition is both intense and incredibly fun to watch and listen to as each year, my friend and I tried to figure out who would win the local series.  We often ran into friends who also liked opera and would compare notes.  Although my notes were often musically-related, I also created my own version of "What NOT to Wear to the Opera," as several hopefuls came out in just disastrous outfits that made us cringe.  Happily, the winners each year seemed to have figured out that to be a diva, one must dress like one. These are words to live by.

Once all the district winners get to NYC, they compete in the semi-finals and then as my dad would say, "Many are called, few are chosen," as the pack is reduced to about 20 of which up to 10 will become grand prize winners.  This process was documented in The Audition (which I have on DVD) and wouldn't you know that one of the 10 winners from that documentary, Amber Wagner, was our star diva in Ariadne auf Naxos.  So now I have to re-watch that DVD to see her go through the process.  I'll tell you this much, if you are one of the winners of that competition, you have survived the equivalent of Marine book camp meaning you can sing and I mean SING and that you are Met-worthy to take your place on the big stage.  Carol and I always said that we'd love to go to NYC to see the final competition but alas, she passed away before we could make plans.

Now I have never been to the Met in NYC but I have visited their gift store several times over because believe it or not, in addition to every type of opera CD you could ever want, they used to carry a series of show-tune CDs that I think they produced and I have almost the entire set starting from the 1920's and ending in 60's; the series also includes the 70's and possibly the 80's but I didn't buy those.  These CDs are no longer produced and it's a darned shame because they contained many great numbers, previously unknown to me and I imagine, to many others.  At any rate, a trip to the actual Met is on my to-do list (for which I will need to lay down some serious jing, but in the meantime, the Minnesota Opera is top-notch and so they will continue to feed my opera-fix for the time being.  (By the way, in NYC, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is also referred to as "The Met" but somehow the natives know of what you speak when you refer to one or the other.  I have been to that "Met" several times and was even a member for a while but have yet to get to the "opera" Met.)

And so speaking of feed, this book – Dining and the Opera in Manhattan – is a hoot because people, almost every recipe either contained expensive ingredients (lots of lobster and caviar to be sure) or was cumbersome to make.  And I was almost ready to throw in the towel on this book and relegate to the "Never going to cook from it list," when I went through it for a fourth time and decided on the very easy, very yummy and very inexpensive carrot soup from the restaurant, Cafe des Artistes which operated in NYC from 1917 until 2011 when a new restaurant took its place.  Like almost all the restaurants listed in this book, Cafe des Artistes catered to what my parents called the "hoi polli" i.e. wealthy folks.  Other restaurants of interest (from 1994, the year this was published) are Felidia Ristorante, The Four Seasons, Le Bernardin and Le Cirque.  All four of these restaurants are currently in operation.  All the restaurants provided a menu but I decided to just make the soup and in fact, put it on the stove Saturday night so I had time to eat it before leaving for the opera's 8:00 performance.  Also included in the book are "Music Notes," suggestions on what to listen to along with a brief description of the opera so you can follow along at home.  Suggestions included here range from Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte and Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute, a production I've seen several times over); another Richard Strauss production, Der Rosenkavalier; Charles Gounod's Faust; Handel's Giulio Caesar (Julius Caesar) and Turandot by Giacomo Puccini, a Minnesota Opera production that I went to a few years ago with another friend.   If I had more time, I would have listened to more of the music recommendations but alas, there are more cookbooks to be cooked from and very few available hours to do so and so we march on (just like the opera, Aida – I reference the Triumphal March - complete with elephants!).

Carrot Soup (Potage Crecy) – Makes 6 servings

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 ½ pounds carrots, peeled and coarsely grated

2 large boiling potatoes, peeled and diced

2 shallots, or 1 small white onion, coarsely chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Pinch of sugar, or to taste

4 cups veal stock, chicken stock, or canned low-salt chicken broth

Minced fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley for garnish

Fresh chervil leaves for garnish

In a heavy 6-quart saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.  Add the carrots, potatoes, and shallots or onion and season with salt, pepper, and sugar.  Reduce the heat to very low, cover and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring often, or until the carrots are very soft, almost a puree.  Stir in the stock or broth and simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes more, stirring occasionally.

Remove the pot from the heat.  Force the soup, in batches, through the finest blade of a food mill set over a large bowl, until pureed and smooth.  Alternatively, puree in batches in a blender or food processor.

Return the soup to the saucepan and place over low heat until warmed through.  Adjust the seasoning and garnish with the parsley and chervil.  Ladle the warm soup into bowls and serve.

"The New Orleans Restaurant Cookbook" - Jambalaya

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

The New Orleans Restaurant Cookbook by Deidre Stanforth

Published by:  Doubleday & Company, Inc.

© 1967

Recipe:  Jambalaya (from Dunbar’s restaurant) – p. 171-172

My friend, David, recently went to New Orleans to present a paper at a conference.  When he mentioned this trip on Facebook, he was inundated with well-meaning individuals like me who couldn’t wait to offer up suggestions on where to eat and drink.  I think we scared the guy.

Sure, there are things to see and do in New Orleans but let’s get real here:  there’s eating and there’s drinking and there’s eating and drinking.  And that pretty much summarizes the New Orleans’ experience.  And okay, there’s music but usually there’s eating and/or drinking involved in listening to music.  And this is as it should be.

Although it has been a long time since I’ve visited, many New Orleans restaurants that I visited on my last trip (and first trip many moons ago) survived Hurricane Katrina and/or rehabbed to reopen years later.  I had to chuckle that one of my favorite restaurants on the last trip, Mother’s on Poydras, became an instant hit with celebrities like Beyonce and Martha Stewart during the 2013 Super Bowl played in New Orleans.  Good to know that Beyonce and Martha recognize that I know what’s going on when it comes to food.

This book is fun because it gives the history of New Orleans’ most famous restaurants as well as exterior and interior photos.  The next time I’m in New Orleans, I should bring the book with me to compare and contrast and to see what’s changed.  Luckily for you and me, while interiors may change, food in New Orleans does not and so the restaurant recipes listed in this cookbook are likely what I will get on my next visit:  cooking traditions are sacred in The Big Easy.

Restaurants featured in this book are:  Antoine’s; Arnaud’s; Brennan’s; Galatoire’s; Dunbar’s; Pontchartrain Hotel; Commander’s and Masson’s.  There’s also a photo of the gate outside Pat O’Brien’s and I would be remiss if I didn’t say a few words about Pat O’Briens, namely “Stay away from the Hurricane [drink]!”  I drink martinis and love scotch and brandy and whiskey and whatnot and so felt that I was prepared for another high-test drink but folks, I was wrong, wrong, oh-so-wrong!  A Hurricane is one of the drinks that I usually avoid for what should be obvious reasons – it contains several shots of booze (rum) and a fruity punch so of course it tastes way too good going down and it about knocked me on my ass!  So I was cheered to see that a friend of mine had about the same thing to say about a Mojito she just had in Miami.  I’m going to blame both our debacles on the fact that both drinks contain rum.  Bad rum, bad!!

Anyway, New Orleans is known for its oysters and there were plenty of recipes for oysters in the book but after an oyster incident this summer (that did not go well), I stuck with a favorite, Jambalaya.  Jambalaya combines shrimp, ham, rice, the “holy trinity” of onions, celery and peppers along with tomatoes and a few spices.  You can hardly go wrong with this recipe and I did not, in fact, go wrong and we were happy campers.  Because I was so behind on recognizing events like Mardi Gras, I made half of this recipe and then half of my Oscar night dinner’s pasta recipe on the same night and it was all good, plus we have delicious leftovers.

I have not had a chance to talk to David about his dining excursions in New Orleans except to warn him in advance not to take the easy way out and eat in his hotel.  So I hope he did as some of us suggested and just tiptoe into the cuisine by at least going to Café du Monde and Central Grocery for a few bits of glorious food.  For my money, if you only hit those two places, you will have experienced New Orleans; anything you do after that – food-wise – is just gravy.  (Yes, pun intended.)

Jambalaya – serves 8 (We made half)

2 onions, chopped

4 tablespoons butter

1 can tomatoes

½ can tomato paste

4 cloves garlic

2 pieces celery, chopped

¼ bell (green) pepper, chopped

1 teaspoon chopped parsley

½ teaspoon thyme

3 cloves, chopped (Ann’s Note: you ever try to chop a whole clove?  This instruction puzzled.)

1 pound boiled ham, diced

2 pounds shrimp, peeled and boiled

3 cups cooked rice

Salt, pepper and cayenne

Sauté onions in butter 5 minutes.  Add tomatoes and tomato paste and cook 5 minutes, stirring constantly.  Add garlic, celery, bell pepper, parsley, thyme and closes.  Cook 30 minutes, stirring frequently.  Stir in ham and cook 5 minutes.  Stir in shrimp and cook 5 minutes.  Stir in rice, season to taste, and simmer 30 minutes, stirring often.  Serves 8.

Author’s Note:  Jambalaya makes a good main dish for supper served with salad and corn bread.  It can also be served as a vegetable, decreasing the amount of ham and shrimp.  Although jambalaya is a leftover dish itself (its name is said to mean “clean up the kitchen” – and any odd bits of meat, chicken or seafood can be added), leftover jambalaya makes a good stuffing for peppers.