50years50recipes

February 29, 2012 · 9:02 am

Craving Snail Mail & Recipe Card Give-a-Way

Recently three things happened that made me decide to offer another giveaway. The first was I received a wonderful hand-made card from my friend Carol. The only other people who send me snail mail are my Mom, and that is somewhat by default since she doesn’t use a computer (my Dad has to print out these blog posts for her to see which is beyond sweet of him-thanks Dad) and my friend Alexis who lives in France. I fully accept that a big part of the problem is me – you have to send mail to receive mail. The irony is that I used to be a wonderful letter writer. In the past I wrote reams of letters. When I look at the boxes of letters I received in return (yes, I keep all my personal correspondence) it is like piecing together a map of my friends and my lives. Truly something I miss and which can’t be replaced by any number of emails or postings on my facebook wall. The second thing that happened was I read this blog post. Over the last year and a bit as I have been writing posts for this blog and scampering all over the house to unearth the various recipes I want to share (full disclosure here my “filing system” is a bit like a squirrel who hides nuts–things are stored all over the place-the difference being that unlike most squirrels I can usually remember where I’ve put something) I have become acutely aware of how important these beloved recipes are and the myriad of forms they take. Some of the recipes I’ve shared are from books whose spines are cracked open to that particular page with notes scribbled into the margins, others are hand written onto cards, dashed onto the back of an envelope or a sheet of torn out notebook paper, several are xeroxed and dog-eared after being scrunched in the back of the silverware drawer. I know where each and every one of them resides but that doesn’t mean that another person could ever find them. After reading Elissa Altman’s post her words resonated with me for the next several days about the importance of history and the stories behind each of each recipes/cookbooks we use.

“Cookbooks [and recipes] tell us who we are, what we’ve done, and how we’ve lived. We’d do well to remember that, to hang on to them like family bibles, and to pass them on to others who’ll cherish them.”

The third thing which led down the path to another give-a-way was I realized was how utterly unsearchable this blog was. Unless you were looking for a recent post or you’d had the foresight to print out a copy there was no way you could find any of the recipes. I’ve electronically fixed the problem (if your computer is on) by adding a recipe index. There you’ll find links to all of the recipes in this blog, which will be update as I add more. It doesn’t however solve the problem of what to do if your computer isn’t on.

So to that end I decided to hold another give-a-way which will be a set of hand written recipe cards of all the recipes found on this blog (to date) for two readers. Yup, I’m going to copy out each recipe twice and send it off via snail mail to two randomly selected people who make a comment below about where they keep their favorite recipes. All you have to do to qualify is leave a comment below so I know you want to be entered into the giveaway. You have until midnight on Wednesday, March 7th to enter. I will then randomly choose the two winners and contact them by email to get their snail mail addresses. Good luck!

*For those of you with long memories you may remember that I intend to turn the recipes gathered in this blog into a book someday. I’m still planning on doing that, but it may not be soon so this give-a-way is for the meantime.

15 Comments

Filed under In between

Tagged as Elissa Altman, recipe card give-a-way, recipe cards

February 26, 2012 · 9:05 pm

Perfect Nooks and Crannies

Pre Ash Wednesday there was a flurry of postings on my church’s facebook page. People were excited about the youth group’s Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper but I posted wondering why it couldn’t be Shrove Tuesday Waffle Supper? Cause if someone threatened to upend a bowl of batter over my head I’d have to tell the truth and say honestly that I prefer a plate of waffles to a stack of pancakes any day. In my opinion waffles rule (though I make an exception for cottage cheese pancakes).

Shrove Tuesday is intended to use up all the butter and eggs in your pantry so you’re ready for a lean and light forty days of Lent but what I don’t understand is who chose pancakes over waffles? Both batters use many of the same ingredients, while waffles have the added bonus of all those wonderful squares that you can pour maple syrup into or plunk in some fruit. The one pancake-y exception I hope to make someday is entering a pancake race. Can’t you just see me running down the street, saute pan in hand, flipping as I go? I’m sure my altar guild would sponsor me.

Despite the wonderful pancakes served up by our youth group (yes, we went traditional) by the time the weekend rolled around I was hankering for a plateful of waffles. I made a double batch of buttermilk waffles because (please don’t tell the Lenten police) I hadn’t use up all the butter and eggs in my kitchen pre Ash Wednesday.

Nooks and crannies for syrup and fruit

Look at the picture above to see how perfectly one raspberry fits in a single waffle square (at least in the squares formed by our waffle machine). After I’ve fruitified I fill the other squares with maple syrupy goodness. Of course the extra bonus is that if you double your batter you can always make extra waffles to freeze and have later for a quick breakfast (think homemade eggos). If you don’t have any extra freezer space simply cut the batter recipe below in half and make enough to eat in one sitting.

Double batch of waffle batter

Buttermilk Waffles (double batch)

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 stick butter (1/4 pound), melted

6 eggs

3 cups buttermilk (plus a little more if necessary)

Preheat your waffle iron. I make the ones for eating right then a little darker and crispier than the ones I intend to freeze and toast later.

Waffles ready to freeze

Separately mix together the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients, then and combine together and whisk until almost all the lumps are gone. Waffle batter tends to be a little thicker than pancake batter, but if the batter seems too thick to pour you can thin it down with a little more buttermilk. Spray the waffle iron with vegetable oil before the first waffle, then pour into preheated waffle iron and bake until crisp. You shouldn’t need to respray after the first waffle. Yield will vary depending on the size of your waffle iron. Serve with maple syrup and fruit.

If you’re making extra to save for later cool them on racks before bagging them to freeze.

Waffle-y goodness with fresh raspberries and maple syrup

8 Comments

Filed under 50 Recipes

Tagged as buttermilk waffles, shrove tuesday

February 6, 2012 · 6:23 am

Can she make a Crêpe?

I loved the movie Julie & Julia, well I loved the half of it featuring Meryl Streep as Julia Child. The other half grated, as did the book the movie was named after. One of the things that really tweaked the cook in me was Julie Powell’s inability to consistently make a crêpe. She’s right, the first one can sometimes be a bit wonky, but after that they should sail along. Batter in, tilt the pan, cook till brown and speckled then flip. Next. In and out of the pan, being eaten by the hungry hoards in your kitchen who line up at the first sizzle of the crêpe pan. However, Powell is hopeless with crêpes, and not only is she hopeless she whines about it. It made me want to slap her and inquire about her cooking IQ. Julia Child is a good teacher, I remember learning to make Chicken Kiev from watching Julia demo it on tv. When I was 13! We’re talking boning a chicken breast, making the herbed butter, the whole 9 yards. So don’t tell me crêpes are too hard because they’re not. Sorry for the rant, just had to get that off my chest.

Basic crepe

My earliest memory of eating crêpes was I first visited Paris. You could buy crêpes on the streets of Paris much the same way you can buy hot dogs and pretzels on the streets of New York. The vendors always made their crêpes with little paddles that smoothed the batter into a giant crêpe. Filled with Apricot jam, Nutella, Sugar and Lemon it was hard to choose what to have them put inside before they folded it up and wrapped it so you could stroll and munch. I don’t make my crêpes as large so I figure I don’t have to decide on one single filling I can have one small crêpe of each flavor!

Three at a time

Crêpes

1 cup milk

1/2 cup water (warm seems to work best)

4 eggs

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or you can use all white)

pinch salt

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 Tablespoons sugar (optional)

Whisk together milk, water, and eggs. I like to do this in a pitcher so later I can just pour the batter into the pan. Whisk in flours, salt and sugar if using. Then whisk in melted butter. The batter then needs to rest for a few hours.

I experimented with several different pans to see if one worked better than another and found that the plain metal ones browned better than the non-stick pan, however all worked. The trick is to have your pan medium hot before you pour your first crêpe and swirl a small pat of butter in to get things going. Then it is simply pour, tilt the pan to swirl the batter evenly along the bottom, wait till the first side is browned and flip. I like to flip with my fingers, though that is too hot for some people. A flexible spatula works well if your fingers aren’t singe-proof. I find that after the first crêpe is cooked I don’t need to keep re-buttering the pan because I never let it cool down. If you were to shut off the burner to eat a crêpe or two you might want to add a dab more after you reheated the pan before making more crêpes.

Once your crêpe is cooked it’s time to decide what to put inside. Jam is always a good choice. As is the classic French combination of sugar with a squeeze of lemon juice. A smear of Nutella and sliced bananas is divine because the warm crêpe melts the Nutella slightly into a chocolate-hazelnut ooze. Likewise honey spreads itself when drizzled over a warm crêpe. Fresh fruit thinly sliced is good. I’ll occasionally saute some apples with a little cinnamon sugar. The choices are only limited by what’s in your kitchen. Once you’ve chosen a filling it’s simply a matter of rolling up your crêpe and eating.

Raspberry jam and powdered sugar

Sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice

Banana and nutella

Honey

So what’s your favorite filling for a crêpe?

3 Comments

Filed under 50 Recipes

Tagged as crepes, Julia Child, nutella

February 4, 2012 · 8:45 pm

Cool Corks

I’ve been told I have asbestos fingers. Years of cooking will do that to you, however, I still can get burned. With a little pre-planning (which involves drinking a few bottle of wine) lid burns can be avoided.

Corks for coolness

One of Shawn’s friends showed me his trick for not singeing your hand on a pot lid if you didn’t have a pot holder handy–just jam a few leftover wine corks under the handle. Brilliant.

Easy lifting

Since I don’t pop this cover in the dishwasher I never bother taking the corks out. In my opinion it’s worth a Merlot or two…

Update 2/10/12: I just got back from a photo shoot and was regretting that I didn’t have any spare corks with me to add to our pot lids. So when I got home I went to add them and found it was nearly impossible to jam the corks under the handle of the lid due to it’s curved surface. Finally Shawn managed to wedge a few in there but thought I’d point out how much variation there can be in lid handles.

Domed lid with a few corks jammed in

4 Comments

Filed under Favorite Tools

Tagged as cork pot holders, Wine corks

January 31, 2012 · 7:16 pm

Sicilian Meatloaf and Cubic Meatballs

Sicilian Meatloaf

This is a mash-up of a recipe and a concept. The meatloaf recipe came from my friend Nina who morphed her Sicilian mother and grandmother’s recipe for porpetie (Italian meatballs) into an outstanding free form meatloaf. Way back when I was in New York and starting up my career in food styling I knew a photographer, Bernie Handzel, who taught me how to make sure all the sides of a meatball were properly browned by making cubic (cubed) meatballs instead of round ones-brilliant. I’ve brought together Nina’s meatloaf recipe (which I still use as a meatloaf recipe) with Bernie’s cubic meatball concept for a couple of meals that are both delicious and soul satisfying.

Cubic Meatballs

One thing I find fascinating is that some people prefer one version over another, even though meatballs and meatloaf are made from the same ingredients. My son will only grudgingly eat the meatloaf, but he’ll have several bowls of meatballs. He says it’s the crusty goodness of the meatballs. A neighbor will pass on the meatballs but have several slices of meatloaf. As Louis Armstrong would sing–

You say tomato, and I say tomahto

You like the meatballs, and I like the meatloaf

Tomato, tomahto, meatball, meatloaf

Let’s call the whole thing off!

Whether you try meatloaf or meatballs be aware I’ve also added my two cents of tweaking to this recipe. There’s lots more Italian parsley than originally called for and I mixed up the meats adding veal and pork, though you can always use Nina’s original recipe which called for all ground round. When I don’t have dried breadcrumbs I make my own from bread crusts that I blast in a food processor then season with basil, thyme, garlic powder and a pinch of oregano.

Sicilian Meatloaf & Cubic Meatballs

2/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs (or fresh bread crumbs seasoned)

1/4 cup milk

2 eggs

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4-3/4 cup chopped and loosely packed Italian parsley

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground pepper

1 pound ground round (or use three pounds and no veal or pork)

1 pound ground veal

1 pound sweet italian pork sausages (taken out of their casings)

If you are making a meatloaf preheat the oven to 375ºF. If you are making meatballs get out a large cast iron skillet and start gently heating some vegetable oil.

Soften the breadcrumbs with the milk and eggs then add the parmesan cheese, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper, mixing to combine. Add your meats and thoroughly blend together. If you are making a meatloaf shape the mixture into a large oval loaf shape and place on a jelly roll pan. Add 1/4 inch of water and bake 1-1 1/4 hours basting every 15 minutes and refilling water as necessary.

Sicilian meatloaf ready to go in the oven

If you’re making cubic meatballs make sure the oil is hot and then form your meatballs into cubes. Fry them until crispy and brown on all sides. Usually by then they are cooked all the way through. To be sure you can taste test one or three or you can plop them into some read sauce to simmer and cook more as you continue making more meatballs.

"cubic meatballs getting all nice and crusty"