"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. 

"Good Food Ideas - Kraft Cheese Cookbook" & "Cooking in Door County [Wisconsin]" - Cheddar Meatloaf and Mushrooms and Macaroni a la Creme - Packer/Viking football

Date I made this recipe: Saturday, October 15, 2017 – The eve of the annual Packers v. Vikings game, game 1 of 2

Good Food Ideas – Kraft Cheese Cookbook by Kraft Kitchens

Published by A Benjamin Company Book

© 1977

Purchased at Arc’s Value Village Richfield

Recipe: Cheddar Meatloaf – p. 45

Cooking in Door County (Wisconsin) by Pauli Wanderer

Published by Voyageur Press

© 1985

Purchased at BCPA (Bloomington Crime Prevention Association) Annual Sale

Recipe:  Morels (or another mushroom) a la Crème – p. 51

All right then, so yesterday (Sunday) was the annual [Green Bay] Packers (my team) v. [Minnesota] Vikings game.  It is a game that is always fraught with peril and this year it was a disaster as the Packers quarterback broke his collarbone halfway through the first quarter and the backup quarterback had to finish the game.  “We” as in my Packers lost 23-10.

This was not supposed to happen.  Nope.  You cannot believe the anti-jinxing rituals I go through just to make sure we win each one our games, and as faithful readers know, these rituals extend to my cookbooks and the game day recipes I select to spur my team to victory.

This time around, I found two cookbooks, one, a cheese cookbook from Kraft kitchens, and the other, a cookbook from Door County, Wisconsin.  (Door County is a “resort” area in northeastern Wisconsin, just north of Green Bay.) Since food is love and I love my team, I felt sure that the two recipes I selected would bring good luck their way.  I even made them the night before for an extra good luck push and to free me up on game day. Both recipes even had cheese for crying out loud which is the food of the gods in Wisconsin.  It is not for nothing that Packers fans are called “Cheeseheads!”

All sign then pointed to “yes.”  Unfortunately, the recipes were good but not great and that should have been my first clue to the upcoming Football Apocalypse (2017).  More on that in a minute.

So that was Saturday night, and on Sunday morning, my birthday twin and fellow Packer fan, Deb, and I went to breakfast for a late birthday celebration.  We agreed originally to meet at 11:00 and that was fine by me.  Then Deb texted me asking if we could change that to 10:00 (yes) and switch venues so she could watch the game. 

Ten o’clock was fine but watching the game was a problem for me and so stay with me while I explain it. 

In addition to trying to make food befitting a football game (not all Packers games, just some of the more important ones), I have come to believe that sometimes it is more helpful to the team if I don’t watch the live broadcast.  I always record it and will run it back no matter what, but I have found they win if I’m not watching them.  It’s crazy thinking to be sure, but it seems to work. There are also times, like this past Sunday, when my schedule doesn’t always allow for me to be at home when the game is on.  This week’s exciting task that took me away from the game grouting our new tile for our upstairs bathroom remodel. Three hours and a lot of grout dust later, we finally finished but alas, at that point, it was all over but the crying (and the last 45 seconds of the game).

Anyway, Deb said that if she watches them, they win.  I suggested to her that we just canceled each other out which was not good!  This is also foreshadowing of the debacle that followed.

Okay, so to recap, I made a Packer-related dinner, Deb and I canceled each other out on watching live/not watching live, and this brings us to the third and final nail in the coffin:  team apparel/team colors.

My unwritten rule of “game” apparel is this:  Thou shalt not wear “enemy” (i.e. opposing team) colors three days before game time.  By “apparel” I mean everything from underwear to eye wear.  I say this because for years now, I have had a pair of purple glasses and a pair that is not purple.  I do not wear the purple frames games at all three days before a game, regardless of whether it is the Packers v. Vikings game, because purple is a Viking team color and I don’t want to send any good juju their way, only bad!

You can call me crazy if you like, but all this is mild compared to some fans I know.  It’s all about not jinxing our team so that all they do is “win, win, win, no matter what!” (Thanks, DJ Khaled!)

Okay, so now that you know this, here’s what happened at breakfast:  Deb inadvertently wore a sweatshirt containing lettering in purple and yellow and yellow, the other Vikings color. Vikings colors are enemy colors and sheesh, talk about picking the wrong day to wear that outfit! I learned that Deb does not take things as far as I do but she should because look.what.happened.

In conclusion, and as I mentioned earlier, we were now up to three signs of the upcoming Football Apocalypse (2017):  Bad Juju Moment #1 – Saturday dinner; Bad Juju Moment #2 – Watch/don’t watch, and Bad Juju Moment #3 – Enemy apparel.  We inadvertently doomed our team before they even took to the field.

Our sincere apologies to Packer Nation for these actions.

Let’s backtrack then to the recipes that I made and how they fared.  First up:  Good Food Ideas – Kraft Cheese Cookbook.

This cookbook contains recipes for every type of cheese dish imaginable.  Naturally, Kraft wants us all to use Kraft cheese products, but I cheated and purchased a Wisconsin cheddar at Trader Joe’s. Now for all I know, this private label product was made by Kraft but I didn’t really care because the label said “Wisconsin” cheddar and that’s all I needed to know. 

Okay then, so let’s take a look at the Table of Contents:

• ·       Social Snacks
• ·       Hot and Hearty Soups and Stews
• ·       Feature Attractions
• ·       Zesty Vegetables
• ·       Special Salads and Salad Dressings
• ·       Savory Sweets
• ·       Wonderful Happenings
• ·       From Oven to Table – Homemade Bread
• ·       Sandwiches to Remember
• ·       Sauce Sorcery
• ·       Eye Openers – Breakfast and Brunch
• ·       Microwave Magic
• ·       Enough for a Crowd
• ·       Perfect Partners – Cheese and Wine (no recipes)
• ·       Through the Ages with Cheeses (no recipes)

 I must say that the only chapter that gave me slight pause was the “Savory Sweets,” but I shouldn’t have been alarmed because most of the recipes used other Kraft products such as cream cheese or Parkay Margarine (yuck) and only a few used cheese.  Even then, those that did, such as an apple pie crust made with cheddar cheese in the crust, made sense. 

I finally decided on the Cheddar Meatloaf from the “Feature Attractions” chapter because it had cheddar cheese in the mixture.  I pictured it as a great big cheeseburger with cheese molten like lava flowing out of the middle. Naturally, that is not at all what I got.

You can tell I’ve been watching too many episodes of Food Network’s “Chopped,” because I told Andy “I like it, but the tomato soup flavor overpowers all the other basket ingredients.” 

I am totally qualified to be a judge on that show.

Not only did the tomato soup overpower the other ingredients, but the cheese seemed to disappear in its entirety.  I’m not sure it was supposed to but it did.  This was not a good sign.

Still, we ate it because it was tasty even if it was a tad on the tomato-y side.

And then there’s the second book, Cooking in Door County (Wisconsin) which looked cute and all, but I must tell you that I was hard-pressed to find a recipe in this book to my liking.  Why?  Well, because of a smattering of recipes such as these: “Smelts” (a tiny bony fish, more fun to catch than eat); “Brussels's Belgian Tripe;” “Pickled Pig’s Feet,” and “Head Cheese.”  Now if I was on Chopped, cooking with these ingredients would be one thing but I’m not on Chopped so I was free to ditch those ingredients, thank goodness, and continue my search. 

Sadly, it only seemed to get worse.  Take for instance, this chapter - Water and Shore- and some of the offerings: “Whitefish Liver Pate,” “Mud Lake Mallards,” “Wild Goose and Red Cabbage,” and “Venison Pot Roast.”

Eesh!  I suppose I could be persuaded to eat whitefish but not a whitefish liver pate, nope. As to the duck and the goose, my dad used to hunt and so I’ve eaten both but cannot get past the gamey taste and smell.  Same goes with venison.  No matter how my mom prepared it or what she added to it, I just didn’t like it which of course did not make my dad very happy.

The rest of the recipes in this cookbook was a complete mishmash.  Woods and Byways contains lots of wild mushroom recipes and it’s a shame that morel season is over because I love morels.  My dad used to go and pick them and sauté them in butter and they were delicious.  The rest of that chapter though, is dicey except for a few recipes for wild jams that sounded interesting.

Overall, Orchards and Fields yielded the most edible recipes such as “Door County Cherry Pie,” “Swedish Apple Cake,” and “Zucchini Stew.”  Alas, I just wasn’t struck by any of these enough to go ahead and make them.

Roots is the chapter that yielded some of the god-awful dishes mentioned above although thankfully, other recipes balanced that horror such as “Vivian’s Pea Soup, “and “Swedish Meatballs.”

Since I was in a cheese sort of mood, I decided on Morels and Macaroni a la Crème from the Woods and Byways chapter, only I substituted shiitake mushrooms for morels.

Just like the Cheddar Meatloaf, this recipe had potential to be blockbuster but wasn’t.  Turns out there was an unspecified amount of time to keep this on the stove top so it would stay rich and creamy and I went over that limit (apparently) by just enough to cause the cheese to coagulate.  Damn and blast!  The result was totally edible but the appearance suffered.  We’re talking minutes here people, minutes if not seconds.  Moral of the Morel and Macaroni Mixture? Keep your eye on the prize!

As with the meatloaf, the mushroom flavors got buried under the cheese and macaroni and that irked.  If I made this again, I would cut down on the macaroni, amp up the mushrooms, and definitely add a lot more salt and pepper. Oh well, live and learn.

In conclusion, all my attempts to will my Packers on to victory failed and so now Packer Nation must pick up the pieces and move on. My husband always says “It is so hard to be a Packers fan” and he is not kidding! As I said, the recipes were good, but keep your eye on both the oven and the stove and perhaps adjust your ingredients to bring out other flavors.

Cheddar Meatloaf – 6 servings – from Good Food Ideas Cheese Cookbook by Kraft

1 ½ pounds ground beef

1 ¼ pounds dry bread crumbs

1 4-ounce package Kraft shredded sharp natural cheddar cheese

1 10 ¾-ounce can condensed tomato soup

1 egg

¼ chopped onion

2 tablespoons chopped, fresh parsley

½ teaspoon salt

Dash of pepper

Combine all ingredients; mix lightly.  Shape into loaf in 11 ¾ x 7 ½-inch baking dish.  Bake at 350° F, 1 hour.

Ann’s Note:  I made a half recipe and so used half the can of soup and I still thought the tomato flavor overpowered the cheese so you might want to hold off on using the entire can if making the full recipe.

Morels (Shitake) and Macaroni a la Crème – serves 8 to 12, depending on appetites

1 pound macaroni

6 tablespoons butter

1 pound Swiss cheese, grated

4 egg yolks, gently beaten

2 cups cream

1 cup morels, chopped fine (Ann’s Note:  or substitute shitake or chanterelle)

Pinch nutmeg

Salt and pepper

Boil the macaroni and drain.  Melt the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed pan.  Frizzle the morels for a minute.  Add the macaroni, the egg yolks mixed with the cream, and the cheese.  Mix the cheese in gradually as you stir and life over a low heat.

When all the ingredients have reached a creamy consistency (this will be in a matter of minutes), stir in the nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.*  Heap this delicious mess on a large, deep platter and garnish with tomato slices.

*Ann’s Note:  One minute, the mac and cheese was all creamy and dreamy, but I left it on the stovetop just a hair too long and that made the cheese coagulate.  What the author failed to mention is “Remove from the heat immediately and then serve.”

"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!

"The Weekend Cookbook" - Baked Bean Casserole - Memorial Day

Date I made this recipe:  May 29, 2017 – Memorial Day

The Weekend Cookbook by Jeanne Adams

Published by Hewitt House

© 1970

Purchased at Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks - NYC

Recipe:  Baked Bean Casserole – p. 37

Is there a better time than a long weekend to pull out The Weekend Cookbook?  Nope, don't think so! 

Is there a better excuse to make yet another baked bean casserole than Memorial Day?  Nope, don't think so either!

Although Andy isn't as fond of baked beans as I am, I feel compelled to make them for one of the summer holidays and he eats them without complaint.  That said, I try not to push the envelope too far and so typically substitute my favorite accompaniment, potato salad, with something else.

These baked beans were super easy and were not doctored up like most baked bean recipes I've made (including my mom's) but I liked that it was no fuss, no muss.  You simply open two cans of baked beans/pork and beans, add some sliced onion and sliced tomato and bake.  What I like is that this then leaves you open to engaging in other Memorial Day activities, assuming it doesn't rain.

Although the author doesn't list specifically recipes for various holidays, she does break out her table of contents by seasons as follows:

• Summer Weekends:  Friday Dinners; Saturday Breakfasts; Saturday Lunches; Saturday Dinners; Sunday Breakfasts; Sunday Lunches.  (Apparently nobody eats Sunday dinner?)
• Summer Picnic
• Three-Day Summer Weekend
• Four-Day Summer Weekend
• Providing for a Working Husband (Well, this is rather sexist but we can given the woman a break because she wrote this in 1970 when women were generally either absent or invisible in the workplace.)
• Fall Weekends: Friday Dinners; Saturday Breakfasts; Saturday Lunches; Saturday Dinners; Sunday Brunch; Sunday Lunches.  (Again, cooking on Sunday nights is apparently out of the question. Also notice that one has brunch on fall Sunday's, not "breakfast")
• Winter Weekends: Friday Dinners; Saturday Breakfasts; Saturday Lunches; Saturday Dinners; Saturday Night Smorgasbord; Sunday Breakfasts; Sunday Lunches.  (Saturday Night Smorgasbords?  No.  Where I grew up, smorgasbords went mostly hand in hand with a Friday Fish Fry.  Some places served them on Saturday but these would be your rogue restaurateurs.)
• Three-Day Winter Weekend
• Spring Weekends: Friday Dinners; Saturday Breakfast; Saturday Lunches; Saturday Dinners; Sunday Breakfasts; Sunday Lunches
• Hors d'Oeuvres

 I was hoping to find a recipe in the "Summer Picnic" or "Three-Day Summer Weekend" category (even though summer doesn't arrive until June 21^st, but that didn't happen but the baked beans recipe came from the "Summer Weekend" chapter so that was close enough.  I pondered a few other recipes like Ratatouille but that just didn't seem right for Memorial Day. 

For those of you who are menu-challenged, the book provides you with countless menus so you have an idea of what other items make good accompaniments to your main dishes.  The menu containing the "Baked Bean Casserole," for example, suggested you serve it with "Cold sliced Baked Ham," "Sliced Cucumbers," "Rye Bread," and Frozen Éclairs.   Of course, you are not beholden to using frozen éclairs if fresh ones are available.

My menu was very different than the one suggested in the book as I made bleu cheese hamburgers (see my National Hamburger Day post), the beans, a macaroni salad (see my post from the L&L Hawaiian Cook Book) as is usual and customary.  I even threw in a shrimp cocktail from the Martha's Got Nuthin' On Me cookbook to round out our Memorial Day observance.

One final note:  This cookbook does not list any yields but based on the ingredients, I'd say you have plenty of baked beans to serve 6-8 people

Baked Bean Casserole – serving size unknown

2 jars New England-style baked beans

1 large onion, sliced

2 large tomatoes, sliced ½ inch thick

Salt, pepper

Empty one jar of beans into a casserole.  Separate the onion slices into rings and arrange on top of the beans.  Add the other jar of beans to the casserole and cover with sliced tomatoes, overlapping if necessary.  Salt and pepper, then bake uncovered in a 375° oven for 20 minutes, or until thoroughly heated.

Ann's Notes:  The author likely intended that you use B&M Baked Beans but I was shopping at Trade Joe's and they had their own brand of baked beans and so I used theirs.  And not that I've shopped regularly for these things, but Trader Joe's price was very reasonable – about $1.30 a can – and you can't beat that!

"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!