"The Macy's Culinary Council Thanksgiving & Holiday Cookbook" - Blue Cheese Potatoes au Gratin - Christmas Day

Date I made this recipe:  Christmas Day, 2017

The Macy’s Culinary Council Thanksgiving & Holiday Cookbook

Published by Macy’s in commemoration of the 85^th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

ISBN:  978-0-9779890-5-8; copyright 2011

Recipe:  Blue Cheese Potatoes au Gratin – p. 23

Let me just cut to the chase:  These are some of the best potatoes I have ever eaten! 

There.  Now that I have your attention, let me just say that it took me long enough (six years) to cook from this cookbook, but it was well worth the wait. 

The recipes in this book were all contributed by chefs who were members of Macy’s Culinary Council:  Rick Bayless; Michelle Bernstein; Cat Cora; Tom Douglas; Todd English; Marc Forgione; Emeril Lagasse; Wolfgang Puck; Marcus Samuelsson; Tim Scott; Nancy Silverton; Ming Tsai and Takashi Yagihashi. 

If you are into cookbooks and cooking like me, you probably know most of these names.  Maybe you have their cookbooks.  I have met personally Cat Cora and Marcus Samuelsson, and have eaten also at Marcu’s Red Rooster restaurant in Harlem.  If you’re like me, you gush a little.  These people are all kick-ass chefs who know their way around a kitchen, but yet were happy to share their skills and expert observations with Macy’s shoppers.  I like that.

My husband and I didn’t really observe Thanksgiving Day this year because we still had leftovers from the pre-Thanksgiving family dinner we had the week before.  Initially, I was thinking of making a belated T-Day dinner and earmarked several T-Day recipes in the book, but then as I am wont to do, I changed things up and went in another direction.  The other direction was a beef brisket (not in this cookbook) accompanied by these Blue Cheese Potatoes au Gratin and a Roasted Beet Salad (also from this cookbook, page 111).

I have to say that the brisket was okay, the beet salad was very good, but these ‘taters were just amazing.  As these things go though, they almost didn’t happen.  When we went grocery shopping on Christmas Eve, I was pretty convinced that I had enough blue cheese for the recipe.  Turned out I didn’t, and then it turned out that Andy inadvertently munched his way through some of what I had on hand during his daily “cheese and crackers hour.”

You know how people look when they’re caught eating let’s say ice cream straight out of the container?  This is what Andy looked like when I “caught” him eating the cheese!

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?  I told you that I was using that in the potatoes!”  He claims that the cheese stock was already depleted before he touched it, but I don’t know about that.  I do know that I wish I had taken a photo of him stuffing a cheese-laden cracker into this mouth because it was pretty funny and also evidence of his near-crime!

This left me then low on cheese and low on choices.  We had other cheese in our refrigerator, but some were too hard, some were the wrong flavor profile, and some were similarly textured, like feta, but just not right.  This left me with goat cheese and you know what folks, when I used it in this recipe, I discovered I inadvertently (and out of necessity) hit the jackpot.  The texture of blue cheese is not exactly the same as goat cheese, but they blended well together, and the dish was delicious. 

What I really loved though, was that you simmer the potatoes in the cream before baking them in the oven.  This lets the flavor infuse, and also pre-cooks the potatoes so your potatoes come out soft and creamy.

This recipe was submitted by Eugene Flynn, owner of Amanda’s restaurant in Hoboken, NJ, who caters a pre-parade event for parade staffers and their families.  I just looked at his restaurant menu and he serves these potatoes with a sixteen-ounce grilled Angus Sirloin and I am so going there and getting that when we return to NJ this summer.  Road trip!

This cookbook is divided into holidays – Thanksgiving and “Holiday”– and each chef contributes a menu as follows:

Thanksgiving

• Parade Party:  Emeril Lagasse
• Left Coast Thanksgiving: Tom Douglas
• New Classic Thanksgiving:  Marc Forgione
• A Southern Thanksgiving:  Cat Cora
• Leftovers for Lunch:  Nancy Silverton

Holiday

• Friends and Family Cookie Exchange
• Holiday Brunch:  Wolfgang Puck
• Holiday Open House: Tim Scott
• Christmas at Home:  Rick Bayless
• Feast of the Seven Fishes:  Todd English
• An American Julbord:  Marcus Samuelsson
• Dumpling Party: Ming Tsai
• Hanukkah Dinner:  Michelle Bernstein
• New Year’s Eve Party:  Takashi Yagihashi

 Almost every recipe is accompanied by mouth-watering photos which I always love and some chef commentary to boot.  Honestly, there were few recipes from this book I didn’t want to make and had to work hard to limit it to two and only two.

Even though I made these potatoes (and beet salad) for Christmas, they are the perfect accompaniment for any meal, especially a roast or a meatloaf, so knock yourself out.  Just keep your eye on both your husband and your cheese supply!

Blue Cheese Potatoes au Gratin – Serves 8 to 10

2 tablespoons butter

1 quart heavy cream

3 pounds Idaho russet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick (preferably on a mandoline)

2 teaspoons kosher salt

5 ounces Maytag blue cheese, crumbled

Kosher salt

Ground white pepper

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Butter a 9- by 12-inch baking dish.

Pour the cream into a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat and slowly bring to a boil, watching carefully so the cream does not boil over.  As soon as the cream reaches a boil, add the sliced potatoes and salt and stir to combine.  Bring the mixture back to a simmer (stirring often so the potatoes don’t stick to the bottom) and cook until the mixture has thickened, and the potatoes are almost fully cooked, about 10 minutes.  Remove from the heat.

Layer one-third of the potatoes in the bottom of the prepared baking dish.  Sprinkle one-third of the blue cheese evenly over the potatoes and season with a little salt and white pepper.  Repeat the layers twice, ending with the blue cheese.  Pour any cream left in the pan over the potatoes, and cover the dish loosely with foil.

Bake until the potatoes are cooked through, about 45 minutes.  Remove the foil and continue to bake until the top is browned and lightly crusted, about 15 minutes more.  Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Ann’s Note:  As noted above, I ran out of blue cheese and so added goat cheese and loved the results.  I think you too can play with the cheeses you use so long as you get something similar in texture and taste. 

"The Playboy [Magazine] Gourmet" - Minute Steak, Beer Gravy and Baked Potatoes Stuffed with Spinach - RIP, Hugh Hefner

Date I made this recipe:  October 8, 2017 – in memory of Hugh Hefner

The Playboy Gourmet by Thomas Mario

Publisher:  A Playboy Press Book

© 1972

Purchased at: Kitchen Arts & Letters, NYC

Recipes: Minute Steaks, Beer Gravy – p. 126; Baked Potatoes Stuffed with Spinach – p. 370

Hugh Hefner passed away last week at the age of 91.  For those of you who don't know, Hugh founded Playboy magazine, a rather tame "girlie" magazine that men jokingly said they read "for the articles," (said "articles" were rather well-written), as well as several Playboy [men's] Clubs, and the Playboy Mansion.  "Hef," as he was known, was a pretty savvy businessman who made a lot of money publishing a magazine full of naughty pictures.  At the time of his death, his net worth was somewhere between $50 and $110 million dollars.  (By the way, the Playboy Club in NYC was featured in an episode of Man Men.) 

Because I like to be thorough, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that while many men obviously loved the magazine, many women thought Hefner was the next best thing to a pimp and/or a pervert, "taking advantage" of women by featuring them in all their naked glory in the centerfold.  I particularly remember the outrage ramping up during the 60's and 70's during the women's movement when  independent women everywhere made it clear they had no time for anything or anybody that kept women in their place or cast women in a particular mode.

You might find it interesting that the late actress, Marilyn Monroe, graced Playboy's first cover in 1953.  Marilyn went on to have a movie career (Some Like It Hot is one of my favorites) before dying at age 36 from a drug overdose. 

At any rate, so that's the Cliff Notes version of Playboy magazine.

As I mentioned, "Hef" also created several Playboy Clubs in various cities like New York and Vegas.  These wining and dining establishment were devoted almost exclusively to men and required membership to enter.  Servers at these clubs were usually well-endowed and were dressed in a form-fitting rabbit costume earning them the nickname, "Playboy Bunny."  It is interesting to note that author and feminist, Gloria Steinem, went undercover as a "bunny" in order to write an expose on life as a bunny.  The article was published in 1963 in Show Magazine.  One of these days, I need to read that as it is no doubt enlightening. 

As to the cookbook, once again, timing was everything.  I found this book on Etsy years ago and marked it as a "Favorite," and kept it as a "Favorite" even though the book was sold before I could get my hands on it.  This summer, while at Kitchen Arts & Letters (a cookbook store), in NYC, I saw it on the vintage shelf and purchased it along with some other books.  As always, I shipped it back home which was a smart thing to do given that this book is quite the hefty tome.

As I suspected, the recipes in this cookbook were originally targeted toward men (this book was likely revised many times over if the copyrights [plural] are anything to go by), and so I wanted to find something "manly" to cook this past weekend.  This was not a hard task at all and so let's look at their extensive Table of Contents:

• Hors d'Oeuvres
• Soups
• Seafood
• Meat
• Poultry
• Game
• Carving
• Outdoor Cookery
• Sauces
• Casseroles
• Cheese
• Eggs
• Sandwiches
• Pasta, Pizza and Pancakes
• Vegetables, Potatoes and Rice
• Salads and Cold Plates
• Desserts
• Coffee

 All told, there are 456 pages of recipes in 18 categories from which to choose which is quite a lot.  That said, there are a few categories I eliminated right off the bat, not because they sounded awful, but because I was looking for a "man's man" type of dish. 

And by a "man's man" dish, I mean your basic steak and potatoes.  Sure, these days men enjoy a wide variety of dishes, but this cookbook was published originally in 1954 (my version is 1972) and that was what men wanted on the dinner table, period. 

This then meant eliminating several chapters that didn't quite fit with the "man's man" image and dear reader, I overlooked the "Soups" chapter, "Game" chapter (yes, it's "manly" but no, I was not about to go hunting), "Outdoor Cookery" just because our weather was really rainy at the time, "Casseroles" (my late father was not fond of casseroles), "Sandwiches," and "Pasta, Pizza and Pancakes."  I remain puzzled that "Pancakes" were added to "Pasta and Pizza" chapter, first because "pancakes do not go with either of those two items, and second, it seems as if they were added to appeal to women; this woman was not amused.

I also scratched "Salads and Cold Plates," "Desserts" and "Coffee," leaving me with "Hors d'Oeuvres," "Meat," "Poultry," "Sauces (only because the recipe I selected might have called for a sauce)," "Cheese (my husband loves cheese)," "Eggs (only if I found a "dinner" egg dish)," and "Vegetables, Potatoes, and Rice."  I must confess I was not thinking about vegetables, potatoes or rice at all until my husband said "So you're going to serve [the steak I selected] with a potato or salad, right?"

"Oh, right.  Totally."

This is why you are getting two recipes from this cookbook instead of my usual and customary one per cookbook.

These were the finalists from those chapters:

• "Brandied Cheddar Spread"- p. 9 – Hors d'Oeuvres
• "Minute Steaks, Beer Gravy" – p. 127 – Meat/Beef
• "Steaks with Onions and Capers" – p. 129 – Meat/Beef
• "Cheese Soufflé with Brandy" – p. 289 – Cheese
• "Omelet with Mushrooms in Sour Cream" – p. 307 – Eggs
• "Baked Potatoes Stuffed with Mushrooms and Ham" – p. 369 – Vegetables, Potatoes and Rice
• "Baked Potatoes Stuffed with Spinach" – p. 370 – Vegetables, Potatoes and Rice
• "Pistachio Rice Pilaf" – p. 375 – Vegetables, Potatoes and Rice

And the winners were:  Minute Steaks, Beer Gravy and Baked Potatoes Stuffed with Spinach.  I could have easily gone with "Baked Potatoes Stuffed with Mushrooms and Ham" but felt that our meal was getting a little heavy and so, spinach!

Faithful readers know that the last two at bats with steak have not gone as well as I hoped as I overcooked the meat (the flavors were fine), but this time around, I nailed it and it was all because I asked a butcher a few questions.  I wish I had taken a video because it was pretty funny as follows:

Me:  (Reading from my photocopy of the recipe) "Hi, I need two boneless steaks, 8 to 10 ounces each, cut from the shell.  Do you know what the "shell" means?"

Butcher 1:  "What?  Never heard of that."  [Yells to coworker] "Do you know what steak cut from the shell means?"

Butcher 2: "What?  Never heard of that."

I then showed them the photocopy and I tell you, they kept looking at it and looking at it as if the answer would just magically appear for them; it didn't. Finally, I Googled it and showed the guy the results:  "Ah, it's the loin area. [Calls over to Butcher 2 "Hey, it's the loin area."]

I told him he now had me to thank for this important piece of steak information.

Anyway, he showed me where the loin cuts were and I selected one that Andy and I could split and then I said "The recipe calls for me to cook this in an electric skillet and I don't have one.  I plan to broil it so how long should I broil it for medium rare" and he said "About 5 minutes on each side, then let it rest until it hits 130."  He also suggested that I keep the steak out for a half hour so that the temperature read would be accurate.

It worked like a charm.  Mind you, Andy and I like rare beef but this was perfect.  I'm glad I asked.

The sauce, made up of stout, red wine, stock, shallots, butter and bouillon was very tasty, but I wish I would have left out the bouillon as it made the sauce just a tad salty.  Not overpowering salty, just a little.  I was also supposed to make the sauce in the electric skillet so that I could scrape up the drippings but I didn't and yet I don't think the sauce suffered for it.

As to the potatoes, the recipe served 8 and wow, we would have been eating potatoes for weeks so as per usual, I cut the recipe down, this time into 4ths instead of halves.  This meant that I then had to do cooking math on some of the ingredients and I could have done it but my husband was home and he's very good at math so he did it for me.  It was a total win-win:  He did the math, I did the cooking. 

As a reminder/word of warning, today's potatoes are the size of men's shoes and so the cooking time suggested was just that – a suggestion.  I ended up cooking the potatoes in both the oven and the microwave so speed up the process so we could get on with dinner, already.

All in all, this was a great meal and an easy one to pull together.  I'm glad that I had this book on hand as once again, it was a most timely purchase.  RIP Hugh Hefner.

Minute Steaks, Beer Gravy – Serves 4

4 boneless steaks, 8 to 10 ounces each, cut from the shell (Ann's Note:  look for a piece of loin like strip loin.)

Salt, pepper

¼ cup stout

¼ cup dry red wine

1/3 cup stock

1 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon finely minced shallots or scallions

1 packet instant bouillon (Ann's Note:  I don't know if this is necessary as it added a bit more salt to the sauce than I wanted.)

Preheat electric skillet to 390°.  (Ann's Note:  I don't have an electric skillet so I used my broiler.) Slash fat edge of each steak in two or three places to prevent curling.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Pan-broil steaks without added fat until brown on both sides or to degree of rareness desired.  (Ann's Note: I broiled them for 5 minutes per side and then let them rest.)  Remove steaks from pan.

Add all other ingredients to the pan.  (Ann's Note:  I made the sauce in a separate pan.)  Bring to a boil.  Scrape pan bottom to loosen drippings.  Simmer 2 to 3 minutes.  Pour over steaks on platter.

Bakes Potatoes Stuffed with Spinach – serves 8

8 large Idaho baking potatoes

½ cup butter

2 medium-size onions, minced extremely fine

Salt, pepper

11 oz. bag fresh spinach, washed and trimmed

1/3 cup heavy cream

Grated parmesan cheese

Salad oil

Preheat oven to 400°.  Bake potatoes about 1 hour or until soft. 

Wash spinach several times in clear cold water.  Drain.  Place in saucepan with ½ cup water.  Cook, covered, until spinach is tender.  Drain spinach, press to eliminated excess water, then chop spinach fine.

Slice a cap about ¼ inches thick off the top of each potato.  Remove insides of potatoes carefully with a tablespoon, keeping shells intact; a thin layer of potato should be left in each shell to keep skins from tearing.  Put potatoes through potato ricer.

Sauté onion in butter only until onion is barely tender.  Add onion and butter to potatoes.  Add spinach, cream and salt and pepper to taste.  Stuff potato mixture back into shells, forming a neat, smooth, flat mound on top each potato.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.  Sprinkle lightly with oil.  Chill.  Preheat oven to 375°.  Bake 25-30 minutes.

Ann's Note:   Since I was running late getting this on the table, I didn't chill the potatoes as directed.  Even if I did though, it didn't say for how long. I imagine long enough for the filling to set, maybe 15-20 minutes? Or not!

"American Heirloom Pork Cook Book From Checkerboard Kitchens" - Easy Ham and Potatoes in Foil - Easter 2017

Date I made this recipe – April 16, 2017 – Easter

American Heirloom Pork Cook Book From Checkerboard Kitchens by Gertrude Kable, Manger Checkerboard Kitchens, Consumer Services

Published by McGraw-Hill Book Company

© 1971

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Stores, White Bear Ave, St. Paul

Recipe:  Easy Ham and Potatoes in Foil – p. 72

I have to tell you that recipes for Passover and then for Easter (and Thanksgiving and Christmas) often give me pause because every single cut of meat anticipates consumption by at least 22 people, give or take a few.

We are a household of two.  T.W.O.  Two people cannot possibly consume all that meat and don't even bother suggesting that we freeze it because we tend to forget it is there and then one year later, we are removing ice-encrusted packets (contents unknown and undiscoverable) from the freezer and I hate that.

And so usually, dear reader, I often look for alternatives to a whole ham such as ham loaves or scrambled eggs and ham or – one year – lasagna which I made just to be subversive.

This year though, I thought that I might like to make a ham recipe and had in mind scalloped potatoes and ham which I love, and then ta-da, this recipe appeared and all was well with the world.  Well, all was well except I had to find a small-sized piece of ham. 

If you read my last blog about my Passover brisket, then you'll know of the challenge of finding a small cut of meat and the ham search took the same route, which is to say that most grocery stores featured hams the size of boulders and that was too much.  Even the "smaller" cuts of ham were too big for two people and sheesh, I was not in the mood to pay $22.00 for those cuts either.  (In case you didn't know, the price of pork has been inching up over the years.)

Thankfully, a hot tip from the woman sampling ham at a local grocery store led me to a different section of the meat department where I discovered ham slices.  Said slices were the same ham as was being sampled but were only a couple of pounds instead of mega pounds and the price was very reasonable so...sold! 

And with that, my Easter/Passover menu was complete:  Tuna Noodle Casserole for Good Friday, Beef Brisket for Passover on Saturday, and these ham packets for Easter Sunday.  I was so chuffed with myself!

Now I cannot say I ever associated Ralston Purina Company, owners of "Checkerboard Kitchens," with anything but dog food but here I am, proven wrong by a cookbook that is most decidedly NOT filled with dog food recipes.  As an aside, when I graduated from college (with an English degree), I really wanted to work in food marketing and so applied to everybody and anybody including Ralston Purina.  So it's dog food, big deal?  As you might imagine, I was denied by every single company to which I applied, go figure.  Believe it or not, it wasn't necessarily because I didn't have a marketing degree, but rather because I didn't have much business experience and as an English major, I wouldn't would I?  Oh well, that was then, this is now. 

At any rate, Ralston Purina is still in the dog food business but they deal also in animal feed products which I suppose is the tie-in to our pork cookbook and that is fine by me.

I think you'll be happy with the wide variety of pork recipes in this book as they cover a decent range of incredible edibles in these categories:

• Fresh Pork Roasts (complete with diagrams – nice!)
• Chops and Steaks
• Ribs and Back Bones
• Foreign Recipes (Chinese; Spanish; French; Mexican; Irish; Latvian (was not expecting that); Hungarian; Hawaiian; Danish; Phillipine; English)
• Barbecuing
• Variety Meats (Ugh:  Liver; Feet; Hocks; Knuckles; Cutlets)
• Smoked Pork
• Bacon
• Sausage

Hopefully, one of these categories, and recipes within these categories will float your boat and your selection is once again vast, ranging from "Crown Roast of Pork," to "Sausage Potato Soup," to "Colorful Coleslaw with Tangy Bacon Dressing," to Bacon Chop Suey (hmm...interesting, that one)to your basic Ham-Yam Casserole.  Several other recipes looked really good but just like with the brisket, I was on ham and potato lock and load.

This recipe will take you all of two seconds to put together and it only bakes for 30 minutes.  What I loved about it was that you get your potatoes, ham, and cheese all in one packet and so it sure beats dirtying up several baking dishes.

For those of you who like mustard with your ham, go ahead and splash a little on top.  My preferred mustard is Gulden's which brings a tiny amount of spice to the dish.

Enjoy!

Easy Ham and Potatoes in Foil – Yield:  4 servings

4 medium baking potatoes

2 cups cubed cooked ham

3 tablespoons butter or margarine

Salt and pepper

½ cup chopped parsley

½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

½ cup light cream (Ann's Note:  light cream's fat content is slightly higher than whole milk, and slightly lower than heavy cream.  Since I had heavy cream on hand, I used it but just added some water to it to lighten it up.  I have no idea if that is the correct way to lighten up cream but that's all I could think of.  Did it matter?  No!  The recipe was delicious.)

Pare potatoes and cut lengthwise in strips as for French fries.  Place potatoes and ham in the center of a large piece of heavy aluminum foil.  Shape foil to form baking dish.  Dot potatoes with butter.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, ¼ cup parsley and cheese.  Pour cream over.  Bring edges of foil up to cover potatoes.  Seal all edges to make a tightly closed package but don't press.  Place on cookie sheet or shallow pan.  Bake in a 425F oven for 40 to 50 minutes until potatoes are tender.  Sprinkle with extra parsley just before serving.  Note:  French fries can be used in this recipe.

Ann's Notes:  Just for fun, I cut the ham in long strips, same as I did with the potatoes.  I cooked my packets for 60 minutes to be sure the potatoes were done and I turned the packets on the baking sheets halfway through cooking to ensure they were cooked evenly.  These were damned nummy packets and so I was glad to have leftovers!

"Barbara Cartland - The Romance of Food" & "Made With Love - The Meals On Wheels Family Cookbook" - Sirloin Steak w/Beaujolais Sauce and Potatoes au Gratin - Valentine's Day!

Date I made these recipes:  Valentine's Day 2017!

Barbara Cartland – The Romance of Food by [famous romance writer] Barbara Cartland

Published by Doubleday & Company, Inc.

© 1984

Purchased at Kona Bay Books, Kona, Hawaii

Recipe:  Sirloin Steak in Beaujolais Sauce – p. 60

Made With Love – the Meals On Wheels Family Cookbook, Edited by Enid Borden [with recipes from over 100 celebrities]

Published by BenBella Books, Inc.

ISBN: 978-193666198-5; © 2012

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Stores, Richfield, MN

Recipe:  Potatoes au Gratin from Chris Frantz, music producer, musician, and former drummer for the bands Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club – p. 206

Well, Valentine's Day has come and gone and as sometimes happen, I am now many blog posts behind schedule.  But when it came to having a book at the ready, I'll have you know I found Barbara Cartland - The Romance of Food back in May 2016 while on a 25^th anniversary trip to Hawaii. Awwww....  It was meant to be.

Some of you might be too young to be familiar with Barbara Cartland, the Grand Dame of romance writers everywhere, but not me. When I was in high school in the 70's, I worked as a student librarian and I had to re-shelve her books every day on the little spiral rack that held our paperback selections.  Although these books today are viewed as being pretty tame, (nay, even silly) back then the plot of the swashbuckling man seducing the shy timid woman (usually in a "historical" setting) were so "racy" that Cartland became known for writing the "bodice ripper." Well hardly, but you know, it only enhanced Cartland's reputation as the leading romance writer of her time.

In 1991, Cartland became a Dame ("There is nothin' like a dame/nothin' in the world" – South Pacific) when QEII awarded her an OBE [medal].  An OBE is awarded to a Knight or Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, quite, quite, quite! Why, that's practically royalty which is why you will likely find the following interesting:  Barbara Cartland's daughter, Raine [Spencer], was the late Princess Diana's stepmother.  I know, right?  Alas, Diana did not like her stepmother, calling her "Acid Raine (ouch!)" which I have to say is rather un-princess of her, right? But whereas there was no love lost for her stepmother, Diana apparently spent a lot of time reading Step-Grandmama's "bodice rippers," which might account for some of Diana's naïveté when it came to love, the subject of which we shall have to say for another day.

At any rate, whereas Barbara had a lock and load on all things bodice and ripping, I just didn't find a lot of the food in this cookbook appealing. There were plenty of lovely photos but the recipes themselves were rather underwhelming.  I mean, she means well, even throwing in the word "love"  in the recipe's title here and there to keep us on track, such as "Love in a Shell" – p. 33, a dish of scallops in a cream and wine sauce, and "Lover's Delight" – p. 41, mushrooms in olive oil and lemon juice, but these were just "meh" to me.

And then there's the other extreme of recipes that sound so bloody awful that I wouldn't make them even if you held a gun to my head, such as "Jugged Hare."  I swear to you, no British cookbook would be complete without a recipe for "Jugged Hare" which appears to be some gawd-awful concoction of rabbit (hare), wine, currant jelly and blackberry jelly.  This is supposed to be the food of love?  More like the food of divorce which is to say "Oh hell no!"

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I found a spectacularly good potatoes au gratin recipe in the Made with Love Cookbook and so hmm, what does Ms. Cartland have that would pair well with those potatotes?

In the end, steak.  Nothing pairs better with potatoes au gratin that good old beef and happily, Ms. Cartland had plenty of recipes for that – whew!  And after considering several options (but not "Steak and Kidney Pie" – p. 60), I settled on Sirloin Steak in Beaujolais Sauce because it contained two favorite ingredients in one dish – steak and wine!

In this case though, I made two substitutions:  instead of Sirloin, I used Rib Eye because it was on sale, and instead of Beaujolais, I used Merlot since I already had a bottle of that open.  I passed on using bone marrow for garnish, not because I don't like bone marrow, I do (I know, I know—I can pretty much hear many of you saying "ew"), but because I would have had to cook said bone marrow and I didn't have time.

This dish turned out to be very tasty and easily made although it called for the addition of butter and flour to make a roux and that made the sauce just a tad too thick.  The real winner though, was the Potatoes au Gratin recipe from the Made with Love – The Meals On Wheels Family Cookbook.  Let's explore!

I've got nothing but love for this cookbook and for this organization.  Meals On Wheels ensures that no senior goes hungry by delivering meals to those seniors who are unable to cook for themselves.  Many years ago, some friends and I delivered meals to seniors on Christmas Eve through a similar organization, Little Brothers of the Elderly, and it was heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.

Several celebrities contributed to this cookbook to held end senior hunger and I have to tell you, most of the recipes were absolutely mouth-watering.  The challenge though, was what dish to pair with something from Barbara Cartland's book.  For a while, I considered making actress Dawn Wells' (Gilligan's Island) "Weenie Linguine" recipe (p. 140) and thought maybe I could pair it with a Cartland salad or dessert but no.  Then I thought long and hard about Adam West's (TV's Batman) "Sawtooth Mountain Pot Roast" (p. 60) (also pictured on the cover), but that didn't work either.  And sure, I could have skipped the Cartland book and just gone with a recipe from the other cookbook but I wanted to be done with "Bab's" book sooner than later.

In the end, I settled on Potatoes au Gratin (p. 206) submitted by music producer and musician, Chris Frantz and were we ever glad we did because folks, it was delicious.  Not just a little delicious, "magically delicious" just like Lucky Charms (cereal), such that Andy kept exclaiming every five minutes "These potatoes are really good!"

I think it's a good sign that my honey was groovin' on his Valentine's Day dinner!

In conclusion, while the steak was good and the sauce was yummy, the potato recipe is the one you want to keep on hand and make, especially if you are having company as they will ooh and aah and love you to pieces, Valentine's Day or no Valentine's Day!

Sirloin Steak in Beaujolais Sauce – Serves 4 – Barbara Cartland – The Romance of Food

4 thick boneless sirloin steaks

Salt and freshly ground pepper

¼ cup softened butter

1 shallot, finely chopped

½ teaspoon chopped parsley

Pinch of dried thyme

1 bay leaf

1 ¼ cups Beaujolais wine

1 heaping tablespoon flour

1 clove garlic, crushed

A dash of brandy

Bone marrow for garnish (optional)

Ann's Notes:  I substituted rib-eye for sirloin, and Merlot for Beaujolais.  Also, I wasn't satisfied with the "roux" – the flour + 1 tablespoon softened butter.  I think you can get buy without it or maybe just add the butter to the wine mix and see what happens.  In this case, the flour made the sauce a tad thick.  Also?  See my note below about the steak.

Season the steaks and seal in 1 tablespoons hot butter in a skillet, then remove and keep hot and try on one side.  To the cooking juices in the pan, add the shallot, parsley thyme, bay leaf and ground pepper then add the Beaujolais.  Reduce the sauce by two-thirds by boiling down over a high heat then thicken at the last moment with a half-and-half paste of flour and 1 tablespoon softened butter.  Add the crushed garlic, the rest of the butter and brandy.  Do not allow the sauce to boil.  Pass the sauce through a fine sieve.  Garnish the steak with slices of poached bone marrow before coating with the sauce.

Ann's Note regarding the steak:  Unless you want it raw, you will need to cook it a bit longer than directed above.  Ms. Cartland wants you to "seal" the steaks in a hot skillet then remove, and by this she likely means "sear," which means you are to cook the steaks on each side until each side is brown and somewhat caramelized.  This doesn't necessarily mean your steak is cooked to your liking so if you want your meat to be more done, keep it in the skillet for longer and/or do what we did which was to add it back into the pan so as to soak in the wine sauce!

Potatoes au Gratin – serves 6 – Made with Love-The Meals on Wheels Family Cookbook

2 T. butter

1 tsp. minced garlic

2 lb Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

Salt and ground black pepper

1 sweet yellow onion, finely chopped

2 ½ c grated Gruyere cheese, divided

1 c cooked and coarsely chopped bacon (about ½ pound)

2 T. chopped parsley

Cream, as needed (Ann's Note:  at least 1 cup for a half recipe, more for a full)

Preheat oven to 350F.  Rub a 9- by 12-inch gratin dish with butter and crushed garlic.  Ann's Note:  Ever the rogue, I opted to add my crushed garlic to the dish itself instead of "wasting it" on the pan.  Good call, that!

Make one layer of sliced potatoes overlapping like shingles on a roof in the bottom of the dish.  Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Then, add a layer of finely chopped yellow onions and 1 cup of cheese atop the potatoes.  Sprinkle with bacon and parsley. 

Add a second layer of sliced potatoes.  Season with salt and pepper, and add a top layer of remaining 1 cup Gruyere.  Gently pour light cream over the dish until the top layer of potatoes is almost covered.  Ann's Note:  I purchased one small carton of heavy cream (not "light" cream) and that almost made it to the top of the potatoes.  I made a half recipe so if you make this full recipe, buy a large carton.)

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, and flatten the top layer with a metal spatula to keep the gratin moist.  Cook until the gratin is a golden brown and the potatoes are cooked (insert a knife in the gratin to check them), about 30 more minutes. Sprinkle the top with another layer of Gruyere for the last 15 minutes of baking.  Remove from the oven and serve.  Ann's Note and it's a big one:  I missed the part about adding another layer of cheese in the final 15 minutes of baking – oops – and so baked what I had the extra 15 minutes, oh well. The result was that the cheese crisped up instead of being all gooey and man, did we love that, or what? 

This dish rocked our world.  Make it.  Make it now.  Eat it.  Eat it now!

"A Taste of Switzerland" - Pears and Apples with Potatoes and Bacon - a "neutral" dish for a night filled with competition!

Date I made this recipe:  January 8, 2017 – Double header: Packers v. Giants and the Golden Globes

A Taste of Switzerland by Sue Style

Published by Hearst Books New York

ISBN: 0-688-10900-4; © 1992

Purchased at Bloomington Crime Prevention Association (BCPA) annual sale

Recipe:  Pears and Apples with Potatoes and Bacon (or Ham) (Schnitz Und Drunder) – p. 119

Folks, it's that time of year for football divisional playoffs.  Such pitched battles!  Such edge-of-the-seat moments!  Such "underdog" triumphs!

And then, of course, there are TV and movie award shows like tonight's Golden Globes.  Such pitched battles!  Such edge-of-the-seat moments!  Such "underdog" triumphs!  Such...interesting..."outfits?!" (To quote two of my celebrity fashion bloggers, Tom and Lorenzo –tomandlorenzo.com – "What is that even?")

At least I don't have to ask my Green Bay Packers "who are you wearing" because I know.  They're wearing "victory!"  (Green Bay Packers 38, New York Giants 13)

Like a lot of football fans (and players), I have my superstitions surrounding game time.  One wrong move and I could jinx my team and they will be out of the running.  And so I approached tonight's dinner very carefully.

First, I thought of making something Saturday night from some of my Wisconsin-themed cookbooks or a football cookbooks, but then thought that might screw up things on  Sunday.

Then I contemplated making something on game day itself but the game was scheduled to end around the dinner hour and I was concerned that if we won (and we did), that I would jinx it for the following week. (Yes, I know this makes no sense whatsoever but it's how I roll.)  And if we lost, well then I just wouldn't be hungry.

Hot on the heels of the game though was the Golden Globe award show and so making something international as a salute to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association that hands out these awards seemed like the better way to go (to avoid the jinx) but what country?

And then, light bulb moment:  Switzerland.  The Swiss are neutral!  They are noted for their neutrality!  (And their Swiss bank accounts!  And their chocolate!)  So I could make something Swiss and it would all be okay.  I could avoid anything football related and just concentrate on film and TV.  Perfect.

And so Swiss food it was and so I pulled out my A Taste of Switzerland cookbook and got to work.  And it didn't take me long to figure out the theme to Swiss cooking and it boils down to this:  cheese, sausages, and chocolate.  And while this makes it easy to come up with a recipe, I would have liked more variety but perhaps that is not the Swiss way?

Sadly, I cannot tell you much about Swiss food as I've only been to Switzerland once and then only to Zurich where I am proud to say I ordered our Italian meal for us in our Swiss restaurant in Spanish!  You probably had to be there.  The funniest thing though is that the waiter understood me (and I him) despite the fact that the Swiss generally speak a mix of German, Italian, and French so "'S' is for 'Spanish'" is no where to be seen.  That said, when in Rome, or in this case, Zurich, we order food "by any means we can, in any way we can, for as long as we can."  (With apologies to Methodists everywhere.)

Aside from that one stop in Zurich, the rest of our time in Switzerland was spent on a train bound for Italy where we spent the second half of our honeymoon (25 years ago this past May!).  The scenery was spectacular although I got just a teensy nervous when we went through the Swiss Alps given that I'm afraid of heights and all.  And while the train food was not all that bad (the Europeans have a lock and load on this), we didn't get to sample much in the way of Swiss fare.  Next time.

This cookbook contains the following sections:  "Daily Bread;" "Of Cows and Cheese;" "The Federal Sausage Feast;" "Wild Beasts and Wild Mushrooms;" "Champion Chocolate Consumption;" "Fruits of the Earth and Heavenly Distillations;" "A Taste of Switzerland's Wines," and then a few pages about "The Art of the Swiss Hotelier," and "Food and Wine Museums in Switzerland." 

If there's a downside to this cookbook, is that there are not enough recipes from which to choose.  And hilariously, the first recipe that this book opened to is "Diced Veal with Cream and Mushrooms," and if you read my last blog about National Spaghetti Day, you'll know why I passed on that.

Okay, so I looked through the recipes and settled on two, both involving cheese and potatoes (how can that combination be wrong?), and Andy cast the deciding vote:  "And the Collectible Cooking award goes to....Schnitz Und Drunder, otherwise known as Pears and Apple with Potatoes and Bacon (or ham)."

Congratulations, "Schnitz" – so deserved!  Sympathies to our runner up, Älpler Magrone – Macaroni with Bacon, Cream and Cheese (p. 62). Look, if it was up to me....

I'm glad we decided on the "Schnitz" recipe though because the flavors of the fruit, ham, and potatoes all worked well together.  After simmering the first set of ingredients together, you add a bit of cream to pull it all together and there you go, your winning dish!

So the Packers won, and many people "won" at the Golden Globes and this dish was winning save for one tiny thing:  the time it took to make it.

This was supposed to be a 30-minute dish.  Thirty minutes to sauté the mixture "until most of the liquid has evaporated."  Well, it took a lot longer than 30 minutes to accomplish this feat.  My best guestimate is about an hour but that all depends on your definition of "most" and "evaporated."  I wasn't sure how much liquid constituted "most" and so cooked the dish closer to 50 minutes than 30.  And even after I added the cream, I did not "serve immediately" but rather kept it simmering for another 10 minutes, bringing our total closer to 60 minutes..  But you know what, it's best not to rush these things and besides, I was able to toggle my TV viewing between post-game wrap ups and the Golden Globes and that was fine by me.

Finally, I'm surprised that there was not a chapter specifically dedicated to "potatoes," as many Swiss dishes, like this one, contain them.  In fact, a potato dish called Rösti is probably the Swiss national dish and if it isn't, it should be.  Rösti is like a potato pancake and I could have made it (recipe on p. 76), but we decided on the other recipe instead.

This then concludes all things "competition." But PS, and with all due respect Meryl Streep, football is so art, especially when you look at the "ballet" performed by Green Bay Wide Receiver, Randall Cobb, when he reached up to grab a Hail Mary pass for a touchdown lobbed by quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, at the end of the first half.  So there! It was poetry in motion, I tell you, poetry- and art - in motion!

So much for being neutral like our Swiss friends.  Enjoy!

Pears and Apples with Potatoes and Bacon – serves 4-6

1 onion, chopped

25g/1 oz/2 tablespoons butter

1 pear, peeled, cored and sliced

1 apple, peeled, cored and sliced

Optional:  1 tablespoon sugar

Salt and pepper

500g/ 1 pound, 2 ounces potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped

A 300g/ 10 oz piece of bacon or ham (cut into large chunks)

2 tablespoons cream

Soften the onion in the butter without allowing it to brown.  Add the pear and apple and toss them in the sugar (if using).  (Ann's Note:  I didn't!).  Season lightly and add potatoes and enough water to barely cover.  Cut the bacon or ham into large chunks and add to the pan.

Simmer for about 30 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated.  Stir in the cream, check the seasoning and serve immediately.  (Ann's Note:  as stated above, I simmered for about an hour total.  After 30 minutes, it just didn't seem like most of the liquid had evaporated so I cooked it for another 15, then added the cream and cooked it for about another 15 after that.)

And here is what the author said about this dish:  The combination of apples and/or pears with potatoes and smoked pork in a savoury one-pot meal crops up all over German-speaking Switzerland under many different names.  In the old days, the fruit would have been dried, the potatoes from stocks in the cellar and the bacon or ham from the family pig.

"Churchill's Cookbook" - Pommes de Terre Normande (Potatoes w/onions and leeks) - an accidentally early birthday salute to Winston Churchill!

Date I made this recipe:  October 30, 2016 – a very early birthday celebration for Winston Churchill!

Churchill's Cookbook by Georgina Landemare (Churchill family cook); foreword by Lady Churchill

Published by Imperial War Museums (England)

978-1-904897-73-6; © 2015

Recipe:  Pommes de Terre Normande (Potatoes Normande) – p. 101

Okay, this is a fist.  Months ago, I wrote a note to self in my paper day planner (Yes, paper) for Sunday, October 30 to cook from Churchill's Cookbook to celebrate the man's birthday.  What I didn't see though, was my tiny little notation – "(11/30/1874)" which, as it turns out, is the man's birthday, not October 30^th.

So I turned to November 30^th and did I put a follow-up note there?  Of course not.

Well this puzzles. 

As you may have noticed in this blog, I try to keep up with observing food holidays and national holidays and international holidays and current events, but there are so many that I am often behind and sometimes have to pass up the opportunity.  Here though, I was ahead of the game.  That has almost never happened.

Perhaps it was my giddiness at finally finding this book which I saw once at Barnes and Noble downtown and then didn't see again at any other store for eons.  And naturally, I didn't get the title right so my search of Barnes online and in other stores yielded nothing.

I bet you some other collector hid it so I couldn't buy it.  (Only slightly kidding.)

And so today, I took to the internet to double-check the birthday information and...what the heck?  November 30?

Well, whatever.

I suppose we should get this out of the way first thing:  you all know who Winston Churchill is/was, don't you?  I imagine some of you are fuzzy on this detail, especially since his claim to fame was for his role as British Prime Minister during WWII, a war that ended 71 years ago.  (Another historical fact:  On December 7, 2016, we will observe the 75^th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Yowza.)

I think this calls for a walk down history lane, don't you?

Winston Leonard Churchill was born November (not to be confused with October) 30, 1874, in Blenheim Palace, England to the Lord Randolph Churchill (a son of the Duke of Marlborough), and Jeanette ("Jennie"), Lady Randolph Churchill, nee Jerome. (Per Wikipedia, Jennie would have been called "Lady Randolph," and not Lady Randolph Churchill.  Did we not just have a conversation about how funky the Brits are about titles and whatnot? And although I feel pretty comfortable discussing royal titles, I remain supremely confused about what the Brits call "peerage" i.e. [non-royal] titles.  There are hereditary titles that are passed down and then there are what they call "life peers" which are appointed and cannot be inherited.  Dear God....what, what?  Happily, Wikipedia contains more information about this topic so if it is of interest to you, have at it!)

Jennie Churchill was an American, born and raised in Brooklyn but met her future husband at a sailing regatta and was introduced to him by King Edward (who abdicated the throne to Queen Elizabeth's father).  The palace where Winston was born is now a historic home, is billed as a "country" house.  In the U.S., we'd call it a super mansion.  Oh the Brits—always so understated.

Winston became Britain's Prime Minister in 1940, just after the war started, and served until 1945 when it ended, and then again from 1951-1955.  Called "The Last Lion" (the lion is the national animal of the UK and defender of the realm), he rallied the Brits to victory over the Axis countries (Germany, Italy, etc.) and pretty much bloody well saved the day.

When talking to the nation (on radio) about the upcoming Battle of Britain, he uttered one of his most famous lines:  "Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty.  And so bear ourselves that if the British empire and its Commonwealth lasts for a thousand year, men will still say "This was their finest hour."

Historical note: as these things go, this last phrase is oft repeated as "This was England's finest hour" and I have to say, I kind of like this incorrect phrase better than the original but it's a minor detail.  It's the delivery and the subdued passion and fervor that I love.  And is it me, or does anyone else think that Winston sounds an awful lot like fellow Brit, Alfred Hitchcock?

What separated Winston from the rest of the prime minister pack (and Alfred H.) though, was his iron resolve ("We shall never surrender") and his outstanding oratory skills. When he died, he was granted a state funeral, usually reserved for royalty.

The above just scratches the surface but suffice it to say, as a student of history (in high school and college where it was my second minor), I was always fascinated by him.  My husband though, has taken things one step further, has read countless books about the man, and is a font of information.  Biographies are one thing, but this cookbook belongs to my cookbook collection and shall never be surrendered!

As far as I can tell, this cookbook was compiled from the food/recipe diary of Georgina Landemare, the Churchill's long-time personal chef.  The foreword to this book was penned by Winston's wife of 56 years, Lady (Clementine) Churchill, who indicated that Georgina was pretty much indispensable to the family, particularly during his time at 10 Downing Street (or just "Number 10"), home of the British Prime Minister.  She also noted that when Landemare retired in 1954, she was at a loss and I imagine she was; Lady Churchill hailed from a aristocratic family and therefore likely had a [personal] cook her entire life.

In the foreword, Lady Churchill heaps praise on Georgina Landemare, saying her food was "distinguished."  Indeed, almost all the recipes in this book show a French influence, particularly today's dish, "Pommes de Terre Normande," "pommes" being the French word for potatoes.  There are 12 "pommes" recipes in this book, from potatoes with butter to potatoes with rashers (bacon) so have at it.

You probably know that the Brits refer to Dessert as "Puddings" (starting at page 105) and Cookies are "Biscuits" (starting at page 139) and there are plenty of those recipes as well.  Andy loves saying the word "Pudding" (Pink Floyd fans know that it's used in the song "The Wall" – "If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding!"), and was very interested in having pudding until he looked at some of the recipes for actual pudding and saw the word "suet."

"SUET???????"  Yes, darling, suet.  Once upon a time, suet was melted and used as the base of puddings and from what I've read it made for a deliciously rich and creamy dessert.  "Tempting" as it was to try it, we passed.  (When I grew up, suet was something we put out for the birds!)

In the end, I just wanted something simple and so we made the potato recipe and it was great—after a fashion.  You'll see below how I tweaked it a bit, not that it would not have been delicious on its own merits but just because I could.  My blog, my rules!

Most of the recipes in this book are simple to make but do know that many recipes lack cooking temperatures and cooking times.  What I would do without the internet, I do not know.

I must say that I am rather disappointed that the book did not contain a "recipe" for a martini, purportedly one of Churchill's favorite drinks – mine, too!  Instead, I will share the story I have heard about Churchill which showcases my own philosophy about what constitutes a great dry martini:  According to legend, Churchill poured the gin and then looked across the room at the vermouth.

For those folks who have not read their martini primer, most martinis are made with gin and vermouth, the amount of which (vermouth) is subject of great, heated debates.  The more vermouth that is added to the gin, the "sweeter" the martini.  If you're like me and like a very dry martini – which is to say without vermouth – then you'll know what I mean when I say that gin is "just a concept."

At any rate, although the only narrative in this book is at the front, I liked paging through this cookbook and catching a glimpse into the dining life of Winston and Clementine Churchill. 

So Happy Early Heavenly Birthday, Dear Winston!

Pommes de Terre Normande – the cookbook version – serving size not listed but even a half a recipe served two generously

6 medium-size potatoes

2 onions

1 leek, white part only

2 oz butter

½ pint milk (1 cup)*

(Left out:  breadcrumbs that are browned in butter)

Ann's Additions:

¼ chicken broth/vegetable broth/water

¼ heavy cream

*1-2 cups milk.  A full recipe calls for ½ pint which is equal to 1 cup.  I made a half recipe which means I should have used ¼ pint or ½ cup milk but that wasn't enough so I used a full cup.

Peel and slice 6 medium-sized potatoes, 2 onions and the white part of a leek.  Melt 2 oz of butter and cook all together, season well, add about ½ pint of milk and transfer to a fireproof dish to finish cooking in the oven.  Finally sprinkle over some breadcrumbs which have been browned in butter.

Okay, I've got to tell you that this itty bitty simplistic-looking recipe was frustrating as hell.  First, "finish cooking in the oven"... at what temperature?  For how long?  I had to Google similar recipes but still ended up guessing, and so I'm going to recommend 40-60 minutes at 350F or, as I did, 40 minutes in the oven, 10 minutes in the microwave.

Second, what is the serving size (besides "a lot")?  A half recipe made an awful lot of potatoes; good thing we liked them.

Next, and in my (uninformed) opinion, the liquid called for in this in this dish (1/2 pint for a full recipe or 1 cup) was insufficient to cook the potatoes and so I made these adjustments.

• I added about ¼ cup of chicken broth to the mixture while it was cooking in the skillet to keep everything from sticking and to help the potatoes cook faster.  If you don't want to use chicken broth, use vegetable broth or water.  I'm not sure this made a difference, but given that we don't know how long to finish cooking the potatoes in the oven, I wanted to help them along.

• If you have heavy cream on hand like I did, add about ¼ cup (I loved what this did to the flavor.)
• As to the milk, I added half a cup to the mixture while on the stove and then the other half to the mixture before I popped it in the oven.  I believe it kept the potatoes moist but I could be wrong on that.

I should note that I almost never futz with recipes, making them as written, but this time around, I just envisioned a mess on my hands if I didn't add some more liquid to the recipe.  I'm glad I did because the result was great – moist and flavorful potatoes that were perfectly cooked (if not a teensy, tiny bit overdone).  The leeks added a lot of flavor to the onions and potatoes, especially when I sautéed the mixture for quite some time before putting it in the oven.  And the cream also added a bit of punch but I added it only because I had it on hand.  Same with the chicken broth.

As to the bread crumbs, I bought one roll from the grocery store, ground it into crumbs in my mini food processor and then added a little over a tablespoon of butter to a sauté pan.  I think the amount it made was perfect for the size of this dish.

All in all, this dish was a winner and I'd make it again.  Maybe on Churchill's actual birthday? ;)