"Beyond Burlap" - (Earth Day) Idaho-Iowa Corn and Potato Chowder

Date I made this recipe:  April 21, 2012 (Earth Day)

Beyond Burlap – Idaho’s Famous Potato Recipes by Junior League of Boise

Published by:  Favorite Recipes© Press

ISBN:  0-913743-97-6

Recipe:  Idaho-Iowa Corn and Potato Chowder – p. 83

Well Happy Earth Day, everyone!  Although I stand firmly by my life motto that “Nature is not your friend,” I am not so heartless that I can’t participate in “ED” nor wish you a happy one at that.

As to recipes, my first thought was something vegetarian since we were celebrating Mother Earth (not that meat isn’t important, it is) but I don’t have that many vegetarian cookbooks and the ones I do have didn’t send me flying with the recipe selection.  Besides, many vegetarian cookbooks use meat substitutes whereas I was looking for something from the earth. If one is going to participate in Earth Day, one must do it right!

So hooray for my Idaho potato recipe book because nothing says “earth” to me like a lovely potato.  Out of all the things my father grew in my garden growing up, naturally I loved potatoes, if only because going to the barrel (used as a root cellar) in the middle of winter to get one was so much fun.  Call it the culinary version of “dumpster diving!”

Now, I could have taken the easy way out of all of this by making something like a stuffed baked potato but come on, bacon bits do not exist in nature, am I right, and so that felt wrong to me.  And while there was a recipe for Cinnamon Rolls made with mashed potatoes, the guilt of making something so sinful on Earth Day would have kept me up at night.

In the end, it came down to a toss-up between potato leek soup and this recipe for corn and potato chowder, with the chowder winning out because it had chicken and bacon in it, something my husband would like.  (Well me too, now that you asked!).  Since whatever meal I make for the blog normally constitutes our Sunday dinner, I wanted it to be a little heartier than normal.

The other tipping point to making this chowder instead of the soup was that this recipe celebrates the best of Idaho and Iowa- potatoes and corn - and what could be wrong about that?!  Sure, it’s a little early in the season for fresh corn but fear not, shoppers!  My local Rainbow Foods had canned corn on sale for $.58 cents per can – score!!  Okay, it’s not as fresh but it’s not like it didn’t come originally from the ground so it works.

So before I provide you with the recipe for this yummy concoction, let me leave you with one of the potato tips that were scattered throughout the book, this one a Beauty Tip:  “To darken your hair; comb warm or cooled potato water from boiled potatoes through your hair.”  And here I was laying into bottles and bottles of Clairol….

Idaho-Iowa Corn and Potato Chowder – yield:  6 to 8 servings

3 slices bacon, diced

1 pound chicken (diced)

¾ cup chopped onion

¾ cup chopped celery

4 cups whole kernel corn

4 cups chicken broth

2 cups cubed potatoes

Salt to taste

1 cup whipping cream

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Pepper to taste

Brown the bacon in a heavy saucepan.  Remove the bacon to a paper towel and drain the saucepan, reserving 2 tablespoons drippings.  (Ann’s Note; is it me, or do others find it hard to come up with the required amount of drippings for many recipes these days due to lack of fat on meat?  Even this bacon failed to yield 2 tablespoons so I added butter!)

Cut the chicken into cubs.  Add the chicken, onion and celery to the drippings in the saucepan.  Cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until the chicken and vegetables are tender, stirring constantly.

Combine 2 cups of the corn and 1 cup of the chicken broth in a blender container; process until smooth.

Add the pureed corn, the remaining broth, the remaining corn, potatoes and salt to the chicken mixture.  Bring to a boil and reduce the heat.  Simmer for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Stir in the cream and parsley.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  Add the bacon, salt and pepper.  Ladle into soup bowls.

"Egg Cookery" - (Easter) Meatballs with Lemon Sauce & Spinach and Feta Pie

Date I made these recipes: April 8, 2012 (Easter Sunday)

Egg Cookery by Lou Seibert Pappas
Published by: 101 Productions
ISBN: 0-912238-80-1; © 1976
Recipes: Meatballs with Lemon Sauce, p-114 and Spinach and Feta Pie, p-90

Well, by the time I got around to writing this, Easter came and went. But in what I consider a fluke, these recipes will get you primed for the Greek Orthodox Easter which is this coming Sunday, April 15. You’re welcome!

Given that I made ham and potatoes two weeks ago for the Mad Men premier, I was not inclined to make ham again. Well, this posed a problem because I don’t like lamb and that was the only alternative meat for Easter if ham was not on the table. Hahaha…get it? “On the table?”

At any rate, I was watching an episode of The Chew, a cooking/talk show and they were all coloring Easter eggs. Well duh, people. Eggs! That was it! I could make an egg dish for Easter!

So I pulled out my handy-dandy Egg Cookery book and found the recipe for Spinach and Feta Pie. And if it was just me who was eating it, that’s all I would have made but being somewhat of a typical guy, my husband wanted something else and so he selected the Meatballs with Lemon Sauce recipe. This came about because the suggested accompaniment for the pie was “kefthethes,” a vinegar-glazed Greek meatball. Since we didn’t have that recipe, we went for the meatballs with lemon sauce.

As between the pie and the meatballs, the spinach pie was the hands down winner. It was rich without being too overpowering and it was loaded with good-for-you ingredients like spinach and feta (goat cheese is a good thing!) and eggs (naturally—thus the name of the book).

The pie was easy to prepare and once I got it in the oven, all I had to do was set the timer and file my fingernails.

Not so the meatballs and the lemon sauce. The meatballs were rather messy to make (“roll in flour” – what?) and didn’t bind together well. I had tons of “escaped” rice all over my pan such that it looked like I was making rice soup. For the record, I was not.

The lemon sauce was a nightmare to make. In the blink of an eye, it went from a runny, non-thickened sauce to a scrambled egg paste. My husband, “Iron Stomach Andy,” was game for eating it but I promptly threw it out and started over.

Alas, the second batch fared no better as the cornstarch started to form lumps too early on in the process. Lumps are fine for gravy, but not for a lemon sauce. The taste was fine, although a little light on the lemon but I used it sparingly. And that’s too bad because the meatballs were a little bland. I think a bit more oregano is in order.

I will say that this cookbook ran the gamut of recipes – from appetizers to soups to sweets so finding something to make from it wasn’t the problem. These recipes did not take too much time and that is critical to me on a Sunday afternoon (Easter or no Easter) when I need to get things ready to roll by the time the Good Wife and Mad Men come on. This Sunday, the Masters (golf tournament) wrapped up late throwing the entire CBS Sunday lineup a good hour behind schedule so it was a good thing that the Good Wife wasn’t on this week. (By the way, CBS, so far we Good Wife fans have had to endure late-running football games, basketball games and now golf tournaments. Can Greco-Roman wrestling be far behind?).

So enjoy the toggle between Easter and Greek Easter everyone!

Meatballs with Lemon Sauce – Makes 6 servings
1 pound lean ground beef
½ pound lean ground veal
2 tablespoons each chopped onion and parsley
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon crumbled dried oregano
Freshly ground pepper
¼ cup long-grain rice
2 cups rich beef stock
Flour
2 eggs
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Mix together the beef, veal, onion, parsley, garlic, salt, oregano, pepper and rice and ¼ cup of the beef stock. Shape mixture into 1-1/4-inch balls and roll in flour. Heat remaining broth to boiling, add meatballs, cover and simmer 35 minutes or until rice is tender. Beat eggs until blended, then beat in cornstarch and lemon juice. Pour some of the broth from the meat into the egg-lemon mixture, return to the pan and cook and stir until thickened. Serve accompanied with hot pita bread if desired.

Spinach and Feta Pie – makes 6 servings
Vinegar-Egg Pastry, page 85, or your favorite pastry (Note: I used a frozen pie shell)
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
½ cup plain yogurt
½ cup milk
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
½ teaspoon each salt and crumbled dried tarragon
Dash ground nutmeg
2 pounds spinach, chopped, cooked and drained
½ cup crumbled feta cheese
1 tablespoon butter, melted
Dijon-style mustard (to spread on pastry)

First prepare pastry-lined pan and spread with a thin coating of mustard.

Beat together eggs and egg yolks until blended and mix in yogurt, milk, parsley, salt, tarragon, nutmeg, spinach and feta. Spoon into the pastry-lined pan and drizzle top with melted butter. Bake in 400 degree oven for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 350 and bake 25 minutes longer or until set. Let pie cool 5 minutes before cutting.

"The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook" - Pineapple Glazed Ham & Potatoes Au Gratin

Date I made these recipes: March 25, 2012 (Mad Men Season 5 premier)

The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook by Judy Gelman and Peter Zheutlin
Published by: Smart Pop
ISBN: 978-193666141-1
Recipes: Pineapple-Glazed Ham in honor of Season 4, Episode 1 “Public Relations” and Julie Child’s Potatoes Au Gratin in honor of Season 1, Episode 2 “Ladies’ Room”

Finally, after 17 months off, Mad Men is back. It’s back! Oh how I have missed it. I mean, weren’t we all on the edge of our seats wondering about Joan’s baby and Don and Megan’s engagement and all kinds of various and sundry revolving stories? I know I was. Aside from a TV show here and there, I can’t think of any other show I have wanted to watch more than Mad Men.

This hero worship is probably due to the fact that I grew up in the 60’s. I was in Kindergarten when President Kennedy was shot (I called him President “Keninney”) and held on for the ride in 1968 when everything seemed to be going to hell in a handbasket. In between, I managed to somehow survive Catholic grade school and Vatican II, secondhand smoke, loud cocktail parties thrown by my parents (where I got to sip from my dad’s martini and please, spare me the lecture) and the gamut of 60’s fashion. In fact, one of the more hilarious scenes from Mad Men has Betty chastising Sally for running around with a dry-cleaning bag on her head because Betty didn’t want the clothing in them wrinkled. While I’m pretty sure my mother would have been more concerned than Betty about my potential death by asphyxiation, I also know my mom’s desire for smartly pressed clothes and so who’s to say I, too, wouldn’t have heard “Ann Marie Verme, you’re ruining the clothes!”

The thing I, and others, love about this show is the attention to detail. When I watch this production, I feel as if I was right back in the 60’s, girdles and all! Many women were horrified that pregnant women smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol but as my friend, Mary, said on many occasions “Oh my God, my mother smoked like a chimney and drank like a fish with all of us kids!” And that was absolutely true; the fact that you were pregnant was immaterial.

Smoking was allowed everywhere, and I mean everywhere, even hospitals (can you imagine?!) In fact, my favorite “toy” growing up was the huge ashtray in our local bank. It was filled with sand and my brother and I used to move the cigarette butts through the sand like we were driving a truck—at least until my mother said “Stop that!” Spoilsport.

For many women of the 60’s, the “available” positions were teachers, nurses, secretaries or stay-at-home housewives. My mother stayed at home (because my dad wanted her to) and hosted coffee klatches with her female friends, grocery shopped, cleaned the house, took care of me and my brother and countless other things and was still expected to have dinner ready and on the table by 6. And it wasn’t that my dad was a hard-ass, far from it. It’s just that more women stayed home because it was expected of them and that was that. Dinner was, of course, preceded with my dad’s wind-down-from-a-tough-day martini.

So speaking of cocktails, this cookbook has a ton of popular 60’s cocktail recipes, many of which I have sampled in bars and restaurants over the past few decades, but I decided to pay homage by making a couple of food recipes instead. Besides, at precisely 8 bells Central Standard Time, I had my own cocktail of choice, a martini, at hand, ready for the start of our two-hour adventure. (By the way, the authors suggest adding 1/8 ounce of vermouth to the gin. Nonsense! That’s overkill.)

As to the food, the recipes all sounded delicious but I just had to make the ham recipe in honor of the hilarious episode from last season, Season 4, where Pete and Peggy have to come up with an advertisement for the fictitious Sugarberry canned ham. (That said the recipe for “Trudy’s Flying Roast Chicken with Stuffing” recipe came in a close second—talk about another hilarious moment in Mad Men history when Peter sent his wife Trudy’s roast chicken over the balcony in a fit of pique!)

Okay, back to the ham, in this episode, Pete and Peggy struggle to make their ham client happy. After much consideration, they come up with a “sure-fired” way to get their female grocery-buying public’s attention and that is to stage an in-store fight where two women argue over who is going home with a Sugarberry ham. The idea was, of course, to make Sugarberry ham the only ham that women would want to make. But naturally, the two “housewives” hired for the promotion get into a major fight, all hell breaks loose and that pretty much put the kibosh on that! Tell you what though I can’t look at a canned ham anymore without cracking up laughing. (And for the record, of course the ham I made today is a canned ham. If Matthew Weiner can pay attention to details, so can I!).

As to the potatoes, well, ham and potatoes just go together, right, so I broke my own little rule of only making one recipe per cookbook and made the au gratin potatoes as well. This was the first time I’ve ever seen them made with Swiss cheese but then again, this is an adaptation of a Julie Child recipe so that made sense. The texture of this is more like an omelet due to the addition of eggs, but I found myself really liking it. Still, Julia Child aside, I’m really more of a cheddar cheese gal myself when it comes to au gratin potatoes.

So there we were – martinis in hand, ham on the plate, potatoes nearby, and Mad Men commenced. Ah, life is good!

Pineapple-Glazed Ham (adapted from The New Good Housekeeping Cookbook (Hearst 1963)) – Yield: 1 ham
1 ham (in keeping with the episode, canned ham is best!)
1 cup pineapple juice, or reserved juice from pineapple can
¾ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 15-ounce can pineapple slices
Maraschino cherries, optional

Cook ham according to instructions on the package. Remove ham from oven 45 minutes before it is done cooking and remove rind. Score ham, if you wish, by cutting it in long diagonal slashes in one direction and then crossing those cuts with diagonal slashes in the opposite direction to create a diamond pattern. Increase oven temperature to 400F.

Combine pineapple juice, brown sugar, and mustard in a small saucepan. Cook over low heat until thickened and clear. Spread on ham. Use toothpicks to fasten pineapple slices to ham and place maraschino cherries inside the pineapple rings. Return to oven for 20 minutes or until pineapple is glazed.

Place fully cooked ham on a serving platter and let rest for 15 minutes before carving into thin slices.

Ann’s Notes: My canned ham only took an hour to cook but I was still in a burning hurry to get done in time for Mad Men’s 8:00 (CST) start so….I didn’t wait until the pineapple juice, brown sugar and mustard became a paste but instead just poured it over the ham and shoved it in the oven. But I did take a moment to arrange the pineapple slices on top of my perfectly flat canned ham! Needless to say, I didn’t bother to score the ham since there was nothing to score—no rind, no fuss, no muss, no bother!

Potatoes au Gratin (adapted from Gratin De Pommes De Terre Aux Anchois – Gratin of Potatoes, Onions and Anchovies), Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child (Knopf, 1961))

2 tablespoons butter; plus 1 tablespoon for top
1 cup minced onions
½ pound raw potatoes (about 2-3 large potatoes) (Ann’s note: today’s baking potatoes are HUGE so weigh them in the grocery store if at all possible lest you end up with more potatoes than needed like I did.). Peel and dice the potatoes into 1/2-inch cubes
3 eggs
1 ½ cups whipping cream, half-and-half, cream or milk
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ cup grated Swiss cheese

Place butter in a skillet and melt over low heat. Cook onions slowly in butter for 5 minutes or so, until tender but not browned.

Preheat oven to 375F. Drop potatoes in boiling salted water and cook for 6-8 minutes, or until barely cooked. Drain thoroughly.

Butter a 3-4 cup baking dish. Spread half of the potatoes in the bottom and then the cooked onion and, finally, the remaining potatoes.

Beat eggs with whipping cream, and add salt and pepper. Stir. Pour eggs and cream over the potatoes and shake the dish to send the liquid to the bottom.

*May be cook in individual serving crocks if desired.

"Barbecuing the Weber Covered Way" & "The Book of Salads" - California Burgers & Hearts of Palm and Avocado Salad

Date I made these recipes: March 14, 2012

Barbecuing the Weber® Covered Way, edited by Carol D. Brent and Betty A. Huges
Published for the Weber-Stephen Products Company by trp (Tested Recipes Publishers, Inc.)
© 1972
Recipe: California Burgers – p. 33

The Book of Salads by Sonia Uvezian
Published by: 101 Productions
© 1977 – ISBN: 0-89286-126-6 495
Recipe: Hearts of Palm and Avocado Salad – p. 39 with Garlic French Dressing – p. 138

Kids, we are living in an alternate weather universe. At this time of year, the general weather “MO” is snow (and more snow), or snow and slush, or snow and ice but most certainly not sun and 68 degree temperatures! Not that I’m complaining but this blast of weather good fortune means that I had to put away my usual and customary soup, stew and crockpot cookbooks and start digging for springtime and summertime fun recipes.

Enter Barbecuing the Weber® Covered Way and the succinctly named The Book of Salads, because if anything signals the arrival of warm weather it is barbecuing and fresh vegetables. (That said, just because it’s “Springtime in the Rockies” doesn’t mean that truly fresh vegetables are forthcoming but you get my drift).

Now, truth be told, we don’t have a Weber® Kettle grill, covered or otherwise, but the book is nice enough to tell us how to grill with gas. Of course, the intention was that we would use a Webe®r Kettle gas grill but details, details. (By the way, the current equivalent of a gas round-top Weber® Kettle – the Q 300 Series – kind of resembles Rosie the robot from the TV show, The Jetsons. Just put an apron on that puppy and….)

Since my man is the grill-master in this house, I handed him the cookbook and told him to have at it with the recipe selection. He wisely chose the California Burgers, topped with fresh guacamole. Both recipes were easy to make and fun to eat! Note that we could have made an entire roast suckling pig, but oh darn, our grill isn’t big enough to hold such a thing and so we downgraded to burgers.

As to the salad selection, this book is pretty comprehensive with recipes for green salads, vegetable salads (including potato salad and cole slaw), fruit salads, meat salads and even – be still my heart – molded salads. But I was stuck on making a green salad and the one that I liked the best used avocados and so why not kill two birds with one stone?

So burgers and salad it was and we enjoyed munching on both on a spectacular sunny and warm day in March. This gives new meaning to the term “March Madness,” no?

By the way, both of today’s cookbooks were purchased from one of my favorite stores in the Twin Cities – Arc’s Value Village (in four locations!). Arc Greater Twin Cities is an organization that provides advocacy and support for individuals with developmental disabilities and the Value Village thrift stores generate much-needed revenue to support programs and services for these individuals. And woo-hoo for me, their stores consistently stock cool and inexpensive cookbooks to add to my collection. The last time I went to a store, it was a 50% off day and yours truly walked about with 12 cookbooks. Score!

California burgers – Yield: 6 to 8 burgers
2 pounds ground sirloin or ground beef (I bought just over a pound and it made 4 burgers)
1 avocado
¼ cup finely diced fresh tomato
2 tablespoons finely chopped green onion
2 teaspoons lemon juice (I used a little less)
Salt and pepper to taste

Prepare burgers. The authors suggested using their basic recipe for either Steak Burgers or Budget Burgers (p. 32). The Steak Burger recipe calls for 2 pounds ground chuck, round or sirloin tip, 3 tablespoons finely chopped onion, 2 teaspoons salt and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. The Budget burgers recipe calls for all of the above plus ¾ cup uncooked rolled oats and ½ cup tomato juice or milk. We decided to keep it simple and just season our burgers with salt and pepper.

Cook burgers to desire doneness; suggested times are 3 minutes per side for rare, 4 minutes per side for medium and 5 minutes per side for well done.

In the meantime, peel and mash ½ avocado; fold in ¼ cup finely diced fresh tomato, 2 tablespoons finely chopped green onion, 2 teaspoons lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. (Ann’s note: I recommend adding the lemon juice to taste as well.). Slice remaining avocado crosswise. Place patties on bottoms of toasted buns; top with avocado mixture. Garnish each burger with an avocado slice; cover with bun top.

Hearts of Palm and Avocado Salad with Garlic French Dressing – serves 6
½ head romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
½ head escarole, torn into bite-size pieces
1 16-ounce can hearts of palm, drained and cut crosswise into thin slices
2 avocados, peeled, pitted and sliced
3 scallions, thinly sliced, including 2 inches of the green tops
¼ cup pimiento-stuffed olives
Pimiento strips
Hard-cooked egg slices (optional)
½ cup Garlic French Dressing, page 138
¼ teaspoon crushed dried tarragon

Garlic French Dressing (Vinaigrette) – makes about ½ cup
2 tablespoons wine vinegar
¼ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
6 to 8 tablespoons olive oil
1 small clove garlic, crushed

For the salad:
Place the greens in a salad bowl and toss together. Arrange all the remaining ingredients except the dressing and tarragon in a decorative pattern over the greens. (Ann’s note: Yeah, right.) Combine the dressing and tarragon and pour over the salad. Toss at table.

To make the dressing:
Place all the ingredients in a covered jar and shake vigorously until blended. Or combine the vinegar, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Stir well to dissolve the salt, then gradually beat in the oil. Add the crushed garlic clove (if desired – I didn’t).

"Chicken and Egg" - Chicken Udon Noodle Soup

Date I made this recipe: March 4, 2012

Chicken and Egg by Janice Cole
Published by: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 978-0-8118-7045-0
Recipe: Chicken Udon Noodle Soup – p. 227

My husband has often amused me by saying he can always tell the very second he catches a cold. He said it just “hits him” and then he is off and running toward the drug store. Just call me “Doubting Thomas” (check your Bible) because I always replied that he was being ridiculous. Clearly then, I am a supportive wife.

Yes, well. So there I was, running errands on Saturday when all of a sudden, I just felt a chill come on and within seconds, my throat was scratchy and I was miserable for the rest of the day. I just couldn’t get warm and by the time I went to bed, I had gargled several times with Listerine. You should know that I almost never (knock wood) get sick so this was especially irritating, particularly since it hit me just like it always hits him. I hate it when that happens.

On Sunday, I was feeling slightly better but was in the mood for chicken soup and so went looking for recipes; that turned out to be easier said than done. Why is it every time I get a craving for something like tuna casserole or tater tot casserole is takes me days to find something?

I finally found a few recipes but none that floated my boat and was almost going to hang it up when I saw my recently-purchased Chicken and Egg book and there was much rejoicing.

Author Janice Cole, is a local gal who writes about raising chickens in her backyard in St. Paul, MN. I quite enjoyed reading about the adventures of her three favorite chickens, Lulu, Cleo, and Roxanne, and just had to set aside the images of those little darlings while reading her delicious-sounding recipes.

Cole’s book comes at a time when urban chicken-raising is gaining in popularity. A neighbor of ours, three houses down, has a couple of hens in the backyard. We’ve heard them exactly once in all the time they’ve been there while we were out in the alley and that’s a good thing. Another friend writes about her adventures in chicken-raising on Facebook. By the way, in case you didn’t know, most cities have ordinances disallowing the keeping of roosters for good reason – they crow. A friend of mine who lives in St. Paul complained one year about hearing a rooster crowing at dawn-o-clock in the morning. Turns out a neighbor kept a rooster in a dog crate in their back yard; Animal Control removed said rooster from the premises and the neighborhood finally got a good night’s sleep.

When my dad was three years old his family moved from lower Manhattan to a chicken farm in rural New Jersey. We often talked about how my grandmother rued the day that she told my grandfather about this property since all her family lived in the city and she was stuck cleaning chicken coops on a daily basis. I agree that this was not a fair trade.

I don’t have many memories of the farm since it was sold just after my grandpa died when I was pretty young, but I do remember going into the chicken coops with my grandma to get the eggs. Oddly enough, I managed to do okay with the smell although how I would have fared when I was older was anyone’s guess. Let’s just say I’m a city gal at heart. But I am intrigued by the desire to return to simpler times when people grew their own food and raised their own meat and dairy.

Although I thought it would be hard to select a recipe from Cole’s cookbook as they all looked good, my overwhelming need for chicken noodle soup or some sort made it quite simple – it was Udon noodle soup or bust!

I love all types of Asian noodles, especially the thicker Udon noodles, and so we hightailed it to Asian Noodles in South Minneapolis to pick up what we needed for the recipe. They remodeled since we were last there and so dumb me was walking around the Chinese noodle aisle forever until a clerk showed me that the Japanese noodles were moved to a different section. There had to be eight different kinds of Udon noodles alone and so I selected the package size closest to what I needed for the recipe (6 ounces). Most of the package directions were in Japanese and so it was great that Cole gave a cooking time. (I accessed the website address written on the package (in English) only to find the website was “Japanese only.” This was not helpful. A friend suggested I should have tried a translation program as who knows what I would have come up with for instructions: “Take wheelbarrow and put on top of iron. Add one ton of grass seed….”)

And so I set about making this soup and had to chuckle because what seemed so easy to make turned out to take way more time than I intended. First I had to poach the chicken and that took a while (she said 8-10 minutes but it was more like 20), then I had to heat the broth and then add ingredients to it in increments. Then I had to cook the noodles. And just as I got the thing all set and ready to go, my brother and sister-in-law called and the next thing you know, “old Jed’s a millionaire” and I missed the entire episode of The Amazing Race and half of The Good Wife. (NOTE: DVR’s are a good thing.)

But folks, trust me when I tell you that when I finally got around to eating this soup, it was delicious and felt instantly restorative. That “cold” may have hit me within seconds but it went out just as fast. And the best benefit is that I have yummy leftovers! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure during cold and flu season and maybe that’s what the author had in mind when she included this recipe in the “Late Winter” section of her book.

Chicken Udon Noodle Soup - serves 4

4 eggs (hardboiled, for garnish)
6 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons mirin (Mirin is similar to a rice wine and can be found in Asian markets and in some grocery stores)
½ cup finely diced carrot
1 ¾ cups shredded poached chicken
1 cup sliced napa cabbage (1/2 inch thick)
8 shiitake mushroom caps, sliced
½ cup diagonally sliced green onions (green part only)
6 ounces udon noodles (The author notes that this recipe is based on dried noodles although fresh noodles can be substituted. Udon noodles are thick noodles made from wheat.)

Notes: I didn’t use the hardboiled eggs as my husband doesn’t like them. And in the interest of full disclosure, rather than buy the huge napa cabbage found in my grocery stores, I pulled a few leaves off until I had enough from the recipe. And I couldn’t find shitake mushrooms at a price I was comfortable with so I went with canned instead and that worked for us.

To make the eggs, put the eggs in a small saucepan and add enough hot water to just cover. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and gently boil for 6 minutes, reducing the heat if necessary to maintain a very gentle boil. Put the eggs in a bowl of ice water until cool enough to handle. Peel under running water and quarter the eggs.

To poach the chicken (p. 33), fill a medium skillet with water. Add a couple of onion slices, 1 bay leaf, ¼ teaspoon of dried thyme, and 5 dill stems, if available. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, add 1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast half (about 10 ounces), reduce the heat, and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes until no longer pink in the center. Remove from the liquid and cool completely. Shred into bite-sized pieces. If you’re poaching chicken breast for another recipe, omit the dill. (Ann’s note, I wasn’t sure how the spices would work in the recipe so I omitted them all and just poached the chicken all by itself.)

Pour the broth into a large saucepan, add the ginger, soy sauce, and mirin and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 3 minutes. Add the carrot and simmer for 3 minutes. Add the chicken, cabbage and mushrooms. Return to a simmer and gently simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the green onions.

Meanwhile, cook the noodles in a large pot of boiling salted water for 8 minutes or until al dente and drain.

To serve, pile the noodles in a mound in the center of each bowl. Pour the soup over the noodles and arrange the eggs around the noodles.

"Piggly Wiggly Daily Health Menu" - American Chop Suey

Date I made this recipe: February 26, 2012

Piggly Wiggly Daily Health Menus by Arthur Leslie Wyman, M.C.A.
Published by: Wyman Food Service
© 1927
Recipe: American Chop Suey – p. 373

The last few weeks have been all about competitions, from movies to singing to grocery bagging - yup, grocery bagging.

I was all set to torture myself trying to find something to make for the Academy Awards when James Lileks, columnist for the StarTribune, (Minneapolis newspaper) found it for me. What a guy!

Lileks, also the author of The Gallery of Regrettable Food, writes a hilarious column in the “Strib,” and on February 17, he reported that we have a new national (grocery) bagging champion, one Stephanie Teteak from a Piggly Wiggly in Appleton, WI. (Congratulations, Stephanie!)

Before I go any further, let me say this about that: my husband remains proud of his teen-year’s service as a grocery bagger at a local grocery store. Late-night host,David Letterman, also a proud grocery bagger, annually features the winner of this prestigious contest. This honor is not to be scoffed at; bagging is hard work! (And not to brag but meet me sometime at the Rainbow Grocery store at Midway where I will impress you with my own bagging skills – self taught!)

Sure, in this year’s Oscar race, you had Meryl Streep v. Viola Davis and George Clooney v. Jean Dujardin (The Artist) but these are rank amateurs compared to grocery baggers, am I right, or am I right?

So when James did me the favor of talking about grocery baggers, I promptly threw all other Oscar night recipe hopefuls aside and went straight for my Piggly Wiggly cookbook. I am nothing if not prepared for these occasions.

You wouldn’t think it by looking at this book but it is huge in terms of the number of recipes listed. The author provides a breakfast, lunch and dinner menu for each day of the year and on average lists seven recipes for each day. That’s a lot of cooking, folks!

As you might imagine, it took me a while to go through this book to find something to serve. And to my surprise, I found that while many recipes seemed sorely lacking in spices, there was almost an overload of recipes featuring curry. Maybe it’s just me but I didn’t think curry was used much in 1927 cooking. I learn something new every day.

Speaking of learning, and before I get to more about the Piggly Wiggly cookbook, this past Saturday, a friend and I went to a Show Choir Competition – my first one ever – and boy did I learn a lot! (Why we went to a show choir competition is neither here nor there and is a story best told over cocktails!) This thing was nothing like the glee club competitions I was in while in high school; we were sorely lacking in costumes, dancing (and prancing), elaborate sets and men! I realize that times have changed but even the TV show, Glee, did not prepare me for what I observed, and that is that costumes have gotten pretty skimpy over the years. In fact, I almost had a retina-burning moment when some Catholic school girls dressed in an outfit that I can only describe as “Project Runway – Street Walker’s Edition.” I mean, Holy Mother of God – bright red, plastic (made to look like leather), skimpy and form-fitting? Across America, nuns are turning over in their graves!

At any rate, the competition was…enlightening…and I want to shout out to my favorite school group of the day – Southside Sensation – from South St. Paul High School in South St. Paul, MN. Although they didn’t place in the competition, they were the first group that made me sit up and take notice. And as an aside, ladies of Southside Sensation, may I just thank you profusely for NOT curling your hair? I’d had quite enough of the “Irish” hair experience by the end of the day, thank you very much.

Okay, back to Piggly Wiggly and James Lileks and grocery bagging competitions and recipes…after hours of serious review and contemplation, I selected the American Chop Suey recipe featured today. I warned my husband that this may be a letdown because the ingredients were skimpy and hardly anything to write home to mother about—pork, onion, celery, soy sauce and molasses. But you know what? This turned out to be pretty tasty and provided me with a nostalgic moment of ordering something similar to this dish when I first started getting Chinese take-out. Maybe Grauman’s Chinese Theatre-style take out (to tie it in with the Oscars, don’t you know)?

By the way, to bring the entire theme full circle, I just read an article in a local business magazine about Minnesota’s own, Jeno Paulucci, who made a fortune from selling brand-name foods such as Jeno’s Pizza Rolls and, wait for it, Chun King Chinese food. Coincidence? I think not! (Okay, one other factoid and then I’m done – one of the teams competing in the show choir competition was Totino-Grace High School. This school was named, in part, after Jim and Rose Tortino who owned Totino’s frozen pizza, a favorite in these parts.)

Okay, who wants some grocery-bagging American Chop Suey?!

American Chop Suey – serving size not listed
2 pounds lean pork cut in a dice (these days, grocery stores feature “chop suey” meat that is all chopped and ready to go)
1 cup chopped onion
2 cups thinly sliced white celery (I used green seeing as how I’ve never heard of white celery)
2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons soyu (soy) sauce
One cup hot meat stock or water
2 tablespoons molasses
Dried mushrooms soaked in water or one small can mushrooms (optional)

For the chop suey place in a saucepan two pounds of lean pork cut in dice and two tablespoons of butter; stir over a hot fire until the meat is browned; add two cups of thinly sliced white celery and one cup of chopped onions, stir and cook three minutes.

Add four tablespoons soyu sauce and one cup of hot meat stock or water; mix well, stir in two tablespoons of molasses and simmer slowly for one hour.

Just before removing from the fire add two cups of cooked noodles, heat and serve in a border of steamed rice. Dried mushrooms soaked in warm water and added at the time the meat stock is added are a nice addition.

"LEAH CHASE: Listen, I Say Like This" - Chicken (and shrimp) Creole - Mardis Gras 2012

Date I made this recipe: February 21, 2012 – Mardi Gras

LEAH CHASE: Listen, I Say Like This by Carol Allen
Published by: Pelican Publishing Company
ISBN: 1-58980-048-6
Recipe: Chicken Creole – p. 62

Well, today is Fat Tuesday and that means it is Mardi Gras time again – time to let the good times roll! And it wouldn’t be Mardis Gras without a Creole recipe, right? And who better to advise on such matters than Leah Chase?

So who is Leah Chase, you ask? Well this fine New Orleans native, 89 years young, is now synonymous with New Orleans’ dining and Creole food. Leah’s husband’s family ran a small, family restaurant in New Orleans – Dooky Chase Restaurant – and after Leah married Edgar (Dooky) Chase II she started lending a hand (and her family recipes) to the business. Pretty soon, the restaurant earned a reputation as being one of the nation’s (and New Orleans’s) finest and most popular Creole restaurants. “Miss Chase” also had an affinity for African-American artists and their artwork now adorns the walls of her restaurant.

And then in 2005, Hurricane Katrina, roared through the Gulf Coast and life in the infamous 5th Ward where the restaurant is located would never be the same. Leah and her family spent over a year trying to get back into the restaurant and when she finally reopened, there was much rejoicing – seriously. There are sadly places in New Orleans that never recovered but happily Dooky Chase Restaurant is not one of them.

Leah’s book, which is more biography than cookbook, was published in 2002. I bought the book while in New York at Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks (book store) in 2005 and I’m racking my brain to figure out if that was before or after Katrina. Either way, it’s a spooky coincidence. I do know that I keep a notebook filled with the names of older cookbooks that I want to find and purchase and Leah’s book was on my list a long time before Hurricane Katrina hit. It’s an interesting read so don’t be put off by the fact that there are very few recipes. I’d like to believe she culled the best ones just for us!

This Chicken Creole (and shrimp) recipe yields six servings and I’d say that was six generous servings. But it was mighty tasty so what do I care if I’m eating it for a month? Fat Tuesday is only the start of Mardi Gras and I intend to enjoy it and this recipe to the fullest!

Chicken Creole (with shrimp) – serves 6
6 5-oz boneless and skinless chicken breasts
1 tbsp salt
½ tsp white pepper
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 cup onions, chopped
½ cup green peppers, chopped
2 cups whole tomatoes with liquid
2 cups water
2 cloves garlic, mashed and chopped
½ tsp ground thyme (or 2 sprigs fresh)
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
12 small whole okra
1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tbsp parsley, chopped

Season chicken with 1 teaspoon salt and the white pepper. In large skillet or chicken fryer, heat the vegetable oil. Place seasoned chicken in hot oil, turning as it cooks (about 6 minutes). Lower heat. Remove chicken and set aside.

Saute onions in skillet until they are clear. Add the green peppers; stir and cook for 3 or 4 minutes. Add whole tomatoes, mashing them as you stir them into the onion mixture. Add water, garlic, thyme, cayenne pepper and remaining salt. Let sauce cook on high heat for 4 minutes.

Lower heat; return chicken to sauce. Add okra and cook for 10 minutes until okra are just tender. Add shrimp; let cook until shrimp turn pink (about 5 minutes). Add parsley. Serve over buttered rice.

"Cosmo Cookery" & "Fashionable Food" - French Chicken & White Chocolate Brownies - Valentine's Day

Date I made these recipes: February 13, 2012

Cosmo Cookery – Gourmet Meals from the First Drink to the Last Kiss by Helen Gurley Brown
Published by: Cosmopolitan Books
© 1971
Recipe: French Chicken (part of Dinner [Menu] Number 39 – p. 139-141

Fashionable Food – Seven Decades of Food Fads by Sylvia Lovegren
Published by: Macmillan
ISBN: 0-02-57505-9
Recipe: White Chocolate Brownies – p. 396-397 (from the 80’s)

And I thought I was being so smart…

Today, Tuesday, is Valentine’s Day but I am usually busy on Tuesday nights so I made these dishes the night before.

So wouldn’t you know, the very thing I am “busy” with on Tuesday, my community band rehearsal, was called off for tonight. Naturally, I found this out this morning. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my husband usually goes out for dinner with his mother on Tuesday while I am at rehearsal. So I guess this last-minute change of my plans means leftovers in front of the TV while watching Glee? (All by myself). Happy Valentine’s Day!!

And in another “I thought I was being so smart moment,” I thought I locked and loaded on the perfect cookbook to use for a Valentine’s Day meal - Venus in the Kitchen. So a few weeks ago, I pulled out the book and ye gads, people. Call me crazy but I don’t think “eels” is an especially romantic dish – Valentine’s Day or no Valentine’s Day! It only got worse: "Sturgeon in Anchovy Sauce," Brains (never, never, never),Kidneys and whatnot. Even dessert didn’t impress: Marmalade of Carnations? I’m amazed I didn’t just throw the book out in the trash but what I did do was relegate it to the back of my “must cook from” list! With over 1,300 books in my collection, the odds of it seeing the light of day anytime soon are slim to none. And I plan to keep it that way!

And this is how Cosmo Cookery ended up substituting for Venus in the Kitchen, because if anyone knows about love…and sex (and sex AND sex)…it would be Cosmopolitan magazine! Cosmopolitan (“Cosmo” to those in the know) premiered in the late 60’s and set the “ladies” magazine world on its ear. My mother considered it far too racy for me to read and so I didn’t purchase an issue until I got to college. I mean talk about apples and oranges – my mother’s favorite magazines (Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal) talked about housekeeping and tips for whitening your husband’s dress shirts and ways to save household money. Cosmo, on the other hand, got caught up in the women’s movement and talked about equality (bedroom and boardroom) and women’s careers and how to feel better about your body. Is it any wonder that reading Cosmo was akin to reading porn?

One of the driving forces behind Cosmo’s popularity was editor-in-chief, Helen Gurley Brown. Helen also edited today’s featured cookbook. Although Helen’s husband, David Brown, was a pretty well-known movie producer, (Jaws, Driving Miss Daisy) it was Helen who captured the headlines. Helen got the ball rolling by publishing her first book at age 40 – Sex and the Single Girl - and after that, there was no looking back at Cosmo where she remained at the helm for 32 years. In my next life, I wouldn’t mind being Helen.

So thanks to Helen, I had tonight’s entrée – French Chicken. As to dessert, I didn’t have any concrete plans until I watched The Chew, on ABC. The Chew is a relatively new talk show/cooking show, featuring the following celebrities: host, Clinton Kelly, from TLC’s What Not to Wear, chefs Mario Battali (Food Network), Michael Symon (Food Network) and Carla Hall (Bravo's Top Chef) and health-guru, Daphne Oz, Doctor Oz’ (from the Oprah show) daughter.

All in all, the show is okay, (some days it is interesting, some days it is rather routine) but what really caught my attention was that last week’s homage to the food and fads of the decades, starting on Monday with the 50’s and ending on Friday with the 90’s. Well, I had just the book for that – Fashionable Food!

I bought this cookbook eons ago and it was a fun read. Sylvia Lovegren does a great job of combining food history with recipes (and photos); these types of “cookbooks” are my favorite because I always learn something when reading.

So here’s what I learned: White Chocolate Brownies were popular in the 90’s. I also learned (independent of the book) that white chocolate isn’t really “chocolate” in the truest sense of the word; according to Wikipedia, it’s a chocolate derivative. And when making these brownies, here’s something else I learned: never melt the butter and white chocolate chips in a Teflon pan! The mixture separated and it looked most unappealing. It never occurred to me to use a straight-up saucepan but there it is—live and learn.

I also learned that I don’t really like the taste or smell of white chocolate (and this makes sense because it’s really fake chocolate). But my husband thought the brownies were tasty and on Valentine’s Day, his is the only opinion that counts.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

French Chicken – serves 2 (as part of Dinner Number 39)
Dinner Menu Number 39 (*the French chicken recipe is the only recipe given in its entirety)
Whiskey Sour
Chilled Pate
French Chicken with Buttered Noodles, Cooked Artichoke Hearts, Tomato Salad and Butterflake Rolls
Beaujolais
Lime Sherbet

For the chicken:
1 broiler chicken, split in half
Salt, pepper
½ stick plus 3 tbsp. butter
¼ c. brandy
½ c. heavy cream
3 tbsp. port wine
¼ lb. mushrooms, sliced
Parsley

(NOTE: This dish is meant to be made the day before dinner, refrigerated and reheated. I skipped that step.)

Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Saute chicken, then remove it and hot butter to serving-baking casserole. Pour brandy over, ignite and let flame die down.

Put covered casserole into 350 oven, and bake until almost tender, about ¾ hour.

Remove the chicken from casserole, add cream and port wine, stirring and cooking gently on top of stove over low heat to make a sauce. Replace chicken; allow to cool. Saute sliced mushrooms in 3 tbsp. butter for 5 minutes, then add to casserole. Cover and refrigerate.

The next day, take the chicken casserole out of the refrigerator, and let it come to room temperature. Bake, covered, in preheated 350 oven for 15-20 minutes. While it is heating, cook the noodles and the artichoke hearts.

NOTE: Since I cooked this dish and ate it all in one sitting, I baked the chicken for 75 minutes at 350. Then I removed the chicken, poured the brandy sauce into a separate saucepan along with the cream and the port, and then stirred it on low to make the sauce. I can’t say as this jelled in the way that I wanted it to but such is life. It was still tasty even though it didn’t get an “A” for eye-appealing!


White Chocolate Brownies – makes 16 squares
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
8 ounces white chocolate chips
2 large eggs
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
½ teaspoon salt
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat and add half the white chocolate, stirring until melted. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs until frothy, then gradually add the sugar, beating until thick and pale lemon colored, about 3 minutes. Stir the melted chocolate mixture and vanilla into the eggs.

Sift the flour with the salt and mix into the egg mixture until just combined. Stir in the semisweet chocolate and remaining white chocolate chips. Pour the batter into a buttered and floured 8-inch-square pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.