musings

No recipe, just thoughts

~ nancyruth ~ Leave a comment

Good morning! I am thrilled that you read my blog and am grateful for each and every one of you. Please bear with me while I think about other things than just food. I am sitting in the kitchen drinking my morning coffee and musing.

Today it is snowing and I had thought winter had been on its way out! Son has returned from his travels in Vietnam. He is now watching those Vietnam War movies that were top hits back when. I have never watched any of those movies. You may remember Apocalypse Now, Deerhunter, Platoon. It was a troubling time and heartbreaking in a lot of ways. That was the era when I turned “Peacenik”. Just listening to the horrors is disturbing. My kitchen is wired with speakers so that we can have music throughout the house, but today it is the sounds of war!

My Dad served in the 101st Airborne in World War 2. He did not talk about his war years very much when we were young. After the fall of Saigon in 1975 he opened our home to a family of refugees from Vietnam. He told me at one time that this was to atone for the actions he had to take in the war, as well as to serve God by helping others since he survived the war intact. He found that people, especially young men, of my generation seemed fascinated by War. He thought this was because those men did not serve and did not experience War, just “Hollywood war”. My son’s father was one of those. And it looks like he passed that on to our son.

(I did not even know what Army division my father served in until my first husband got to talking with Dad and was totally impressed!)

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So son got up early this morning as his body clock is out of whack from the 12 hour time difference. He made muffins using the Bittman How to Cook Everything Cookbook. He added dried apricots, almonds, and used vanilla almond milk. He thought they were a little dry. I think they have a nice flavor.

 

 

For dinner I am making a shepherd pie. Son had to excavate through the downstairs freezer to find the ground turkey I will use. I cook that up with onion and garlic and add a bunch of frozen mixed vegetables (one could cut up carrots and celery) and top it all with the leftover mashed potatoes from the steak dinner earlier this week. Maybe grate a little cheese on the top.

This week I have cooked and baked. I just did not take pictures or notes. I made a no-knead banana bread that is keeping very nicely and is wonderful toasted. This was from my Fleischmann’s Bread Book. I used this book most of my adult life for bread baking. I hadn’t thought about it for awhile. And I think they have a website! (put smiley face here)

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I also made chicken and dumplings almost exactly like the recipe in the Soulard Market cookbook. I stewed the chicken, drained the broth, thickened the broth. Made the herbed dumplings. The only addition was a half bag of frozen vegetables to the broth. I usually don’t follow a recipe exactly!

It is still snowing. I think I’ll send the boy out to shovel after he finishes with his war!

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Happy Friday and have a glorious weekend.

 

 

 

Musings from my Kitchen Table

~ nancyruth ~ 3 Comments

For the past 8 or so weeks I have started my day sitting at my kitchen table contemplating the day at home, out of work due to my broken ankle. If hubby had coffee before leaving for work there is a thermos of coffee waiting for me. If not, that is the first thing I’ll make. I have a journal that I write down what I would like to accomplish on that day or that week. My “to do” lists rarely have been checked off completely. From my kitchen table I can see the stove, the pile of dishes in the sink, the cats eating their food, and my cabinets full of cookbooks.

In the weeks before Christmas the list was full of sewing projects, cookies to bake, and gifts needed. I wheeled around the house in my sewing desk chair preparing for the holiday. Then the holidays came and family was around and it was great fun. The ankle pain had died down mostly by then but for occasional twinges and achiness. After the Christmas holiday my son was home and we talked some, he played piano a lot, and I trusted him to drive my car. It is a standard shift and he learned and mostly drives automatic. We cooked a little bit together, watched Jeopardy and football, and he cooked some meals for us.

So after the New Year I expected to be healed and well on my way back to work. Did not happen! Another 4 weeks for healing the bone was needed. So here I am, sitting at my kitchen table in the mornings planning out my day. There is no holiday to prepare for. It is only bleak winter.

The son left for vacation. He decided to see Vietnam. I went to High School and college in the 1970s. My brother had a low draft number the year they stopped the draft. Saigon fell in 1975. There was a flooding of refugees. Do you know the oddness of feelings when there is the thought “my son left for Vietnam this morning”? (Mothers of my parents’ generation dealt with that for the many years of the war. I am ever grateful that my family was saved from the ravages of that war. Many were not spared.)

Bleak winter calls for soup. This is a barley soup from the back of the barley package. I use my regular substitutes: potatoes for parsnips, spinach for kale, northern white beans for the cannellini, Italian seasoning for the basil. With soup, the exact ingredients are not essential for successful outcome. Throw whatever you have around the house in a pot of broth!

Sitting in my kitchen I like to plan supper. I don’t want to wait until the end of the day to decide. Sometimes I do, though very seldom. I brought my computer in here so I could take care of household business. But I also peruse all sorts of wonderful recipes from you fellow bloggers as well as the King Arthur Flour website and blogs. I have gotten used to baking something or trying a recipe each day.

The other day I was contemplating brownies. Today I am contemplating chocolate cake. I was even thinking I could make a cake and send my sister a picture of it for her birthday at the end of this week. “Give” her a birthday cake!? Hubby does not have a sweet tooth like mine. I would eat 80% of the cake when and if I make one. What to do? I revisit the desserts for two website: www.dessertfortwo.com . Here I can find small batches of chocolate desserts. Brownies or cakes, which will it be?

And I have been thinking about frozen raspberries as well. And here is where other bloggers become my inspiration. I rarely make one of the recipes exactly but I will give credit to the inspirers! http://bitesize-bakes.com/2016/01/26/raspberry-buttercream-layer-cake/ and http://www.dessertfortwo.com/2011/09/one-bowl-chocolate-cake/ and http://sugarbcupcakes.com/2016/01/21/chocolate-raspberry-ganache-cake/

MusingsChocCake 008I get out the closest thing to a six inch cake pan that I can find. This is a 7-inch cast iron skillet to make the one-bowl-chocolate-cake:

  • 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (I am using Hershey’s Special Dark since the only other chips I have are bittersweet chocolate)
  • ½ cup seedless raspberry jam
  • ¼ cup plus 1 Tablespoon sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • ¼ cup plus 2 Tablespoons flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt

Grease and flour the pan. Melt butter; stir in chocolate until melted; add the jam and sugar and stir well; add the egg and stir until well blended. Sprinkle on the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Bake 43 to 45 minutes at 350 F. My cake took only 40 minutes. The directions say to let cool completely before trying to slice. I turn it out on a plate. Tasting the crumbs from the bottom of the pan finds that there is definitely a raspberry taste to this chocolate cake.

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Meanwhile plan the frosting! With the Raspberries! Should it be pink or chocolate? When getting the raspberries from my freezer I find that I have a container of chocolate frosting leftover from the birthday cake made in early December. (I hate throwing food of any kind away.) So I take some raspberries for decoration and put the rest with this frosting, thawed of course. I whip that up to blend and then chill it a bit for spreading consistency. Now to wait for the cake to cool completely. Otherwise the frosting will melt and become more of a glaze. That’s not a bad idea, but, no, I’ll wait.

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Looks very rich and yummy! I could whip up some cream to serve with it. This small cake should make dessert for two for two nights.

(While finishing this up the KAF shopping magazine came in the mail, with a chocolate sheet cake recipe in it! Another cake next week?)

Potato Soup

~ nancyruth ~ 3 Comments

In trying to think of what to write about to share with you all Hubby suggested comfort foods. I cannot truly recall what these were in my childhood but in hindsight I think about Chicken Dumplings and Potato Soup. Hubby thinks about grilled cheese sandwiches cut into “soldiers” and served with tomato soup. Grilled cheese and tomato soup is a combination my sister served her children. I did not like tomato soup as a child so I never made it or served it to my children. Mind you, this would be the condensed version diluted with water; I don’t think my Mom used milk to “heat and serve”. Nowadays there are the non-condensed soups with added tasty ingredients and I find that I enjoy tomato soup with spinach every once and awhile. I read somewhere a long time ago that foods served with a spoon are comfort foods, perhaps adding cream or milk as well. Sounds reminiscent of children’s foods.

I have a bunch of potatoes recently bought and in the bottom of my pantry. I have a hankering for potato soup. My Mom’s potato soup was made with milk, potatoes, onions, and butter. I remember the butter floating on top. She would not have necessarily used evaporated milk or cream so it was probably plain milk and water. It was a thin soup with the potatoes being the primary solids.

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I have a potato soup in a cookbook that I bought as an adult. It is one of those Better Homes and Gardens collections. The pictures in this book are very appealing. Here is the one for potato soup. It looks wonderful. Makes me hungry just looking at it! I think I may have made this once before but it doesn’t seem to me that my children ate it so I am not sure. Hubby doesn’t particularly like soups unless they are very chunky and stew-like. That may be a difficult call for a potato soup. But since I am home days with this tiresome broken ankle, I could make soup for my lunches. That is the plan!

This particular soup calls for chicken or vegetable broth. Well, I believe I have some frozen homemade turkey broth in the basement freezer. But I do not go down the basement steps on crutches. No, no, no, no! So I look into my newer The Settlement Cook Book (newly revised and enlarged, 1965, 1976, original publication 1901). Other than caraway seed which I entirely doubt that my mother used here is a recipe that sounds like hers: potatoes, butter, salt and pepper, onion, and milk.potato soup 003

Now I never leave well enough alone so I want to add colorful red peppers, maybe some orange and yellow as well, and bacon or ham. I might even add the tops of green onions.

potato soup 004So I gather my ingredients: I am using canned milk for a creamier base and could add regular milk to make two cups. Or I could just add the can, undiluted, to the liquid after it cooks. This will depend on how much liquid is in the pot when the time comes. The recipe calls for 3 cups diced potatoes. The other calls for 3 medium potatoes (2 ¼ cups) so I will use 4-5 potatoes. I like onion so I will use two small onions instead of ½ of a small onion. I have also learned that to sauté the aromatics prior to putting them in the soup liquid make a more flavorful soup. Therefore I cut the onion, peppers, ham, and cook those gently in the 2 Tablespoons of butter. I cook these for about 5-7 minutes until there is quite an onion aroma in my kitchen!

Meanwhile peel and dice the potatoes. I peel 5 potatoes which makes 4 ½ cups. I suppose I could have done with 4 potatoes! Oh well! While I am dicing these it occurs to me that my Mom sliced her potatoes so I do that, sort of. These are about 1/8-1/4 inch thick. I wonder why I peel these. Most of my potato dishes have the peels intact. In fact, a second look at the Better Homes and Gardens photo shows unpeeled potatoes. Too late now. Add these potatoes to the pot with the aromatics and add water to cover.

This amount of ingredients took almost 5 cups of water. Now this is to be cooked until the potatoes are tender, 10-20 minutes. The milk will be added then and heated through but not brought to a boil.

I found a package of not too stale saltines which is what my Mom would have served this with or with white bread toast. I prefer the saltines.

potato soup 009
A very tasty lunch!

The ingredients for this soup turned out to be:

  • 4 ½ cups diced/sliced potatoes
  • ¼ cup chopped green onion tops
  • 1 each small red, orange, and yellow peppers, sliced
  • 4 ounces of boneless ham steak, diced
  • 2 small onions, diced
  • 2 Tablespoons butter
  • 5 cups water
  • 1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
  • Salt and pepper to taste

One could add a can of clams, drained, and turn this into New England Clam Chowder. Or add fresh or canned or frozen corn and turn it into Corn Chowder. One could put a bunch of vegetables in there and have a creamy vegetable soup. I bet broccoli and carrots would be nice and one could stir in some grated cheese. This could quickly be prepared with pre-prepped ingredients found in the freezer and produce sections of general grocery stores. All kinds of possibilities when talking about soup!

And soup is so nice to have on cold, bleak winter days;my thermometer says it is 21 degrees (F) outside today!

Kitchen Gadgets

~ nancyruth ~ 3 Comments

I like kitchen gadgets. Most of them are not multi-purpose so I try not to get things that are so specific. It is like having that one exotic ingredient in the pantry that gets used once and then is forgotten about. That reminds me, I should go through my spice cabinet and inventory what I have so I can use the ones I have forgotten about.

gadgets2 003My newest gadget is a bread keeper. I have a wonderful old-fashioned bread box with a cutting board in the door similar to the one my mother had and the green one she gave me when I moved away from home. The green one did not have the cutting board in it. My aluminum bread box is supposed to work like this plastic one. There are vents in the sides so crusts stay crisp. The problem is in keeping the cut side from drying out.  I saw this bread keeper in a magazine and have seen it in catalogs over the years. I wondered if it would be good for keeping home made bread fresh.

But what is the definition of “fresh”? no mold? soft and fluffy? not hard as a rock?

 

Here I have several bread types in the gadget: home made bread (6 days old), biscuits (5 days old; from Popeye’s; I still have not mastered the fabulous biscuit!), and home made rolls (3 days old). I have examined them and there is no mold. They are not rock hard, but do not appear soft and fluffy. The exterior is beginning to feel stale. This means that they are edible and will need toasting to perk them up. So…what to do with them?

I planned on making chili for supper and cornbread, but why make more bread when there is this perfectly useful bread here? My son suggested that we put these on top of the chili to steam them. I used to make a Hungry Boy Casserole for him when he was growing up. This consisted of browned ground beef, onions, peppers, and a can of tomatoes baked with biscuits on top. Since these biscuits and rolls are already baked they may get a bit soggy but they will soften. Perhaps they will be like dumplings in the chili. Let’s see what happens!

Do you like kitchen gadgets? I have a number or them. I like the old-fashioned types: ricers, butter cutters, juicers. I even have a shredder. This is like a mechanical food processor. I picked this up for $3 at a tag sale. I used it a couple of times but it is a bit awkward.

I think there are basic kitchen gadgets/appliances one needs. I went years without a food processor or a blender. I absolutely love my KitchenAid stand mixer, especially the bread hook! The meat grinder attachment came with my hubby and we have used that to make breakfast sausage. Before the stand mixer I had a portable mixer, hand held. We have an immersion blender which is nice for making whipped cream and blending protein shakes. You can also make your own tomato juice by sticking it in a can of tomatoes! My Mom had one of those “old-fashioned” hand cranked mixers. It could blend eggs but not dough of any kind. I could ramble on and on about kitchen gadgets but I’ll stop now.

Go forth and cook!

 

Missouri Mix

~ nancyruth ~ 6 Comments

MoMix 001

Mom would send for a variety of information from the Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Missouri. This later became the Extension Division. I think she was a farmer at heart. Missouri Mix is “an all-purpose baking mix that you can make up to be ready for easy baking. It can be used to bake many good foods.” The table of contents includes cookies, fried pies, muffins, pancakes and waffles, cakes, coffee cake, swirls, gingerbread,and pizza. Mom would make a batch of Missouri Mix and it would be in a large tub along side the other baking supplies in the kitchen cabinet. She made this up with vegetable shortening although it can be made with lard. The storage instruction for lard is that the mix must then be refrigerated.

Mom also has a “Basic Receipt For…”a mix developed at Purdue University. These mixes were substitutes for the expensive Bisquick in the grocery stores. Both cost out the ingredients. The cost of 5 pounds of flour at the time was 53 cents! Apparently in 1967 2 ½ pounds of Bisquick cost 55 cents and 4 ½  pounds of Missouri Mix cost about 70 cents.

MissouriMix 002I have two booklets for Missouri Mix. The one with Mom’s notations is from April 1960. This is the one she gave me when I moved away from home. The newer one that I found in her recipe clippings notebook is from July 1976 but is the revision from 1971. My sister raised her family on Missouri Mix. I would make half a recipe since I did not make biscuits and muffins and the like often for my children when they were growing up. What I remember most and did make for my young family was the Fudge Pudding. This was a dessert that baked a cake on top and its own pudding underneath. Very yummy!

At one point in my family life I found “The New Missouri Mix” on line. I printed this out in 1997. This booklet has a “large batch”

  • 5 pound bag of flour or 20 cups
  • 3/4 cup baking powder
  • 2 Tablespoons salt
  • 2 1/2 cups nonfat dry milk powder
  • 3 3/4 cups shortening

and a “smaller batch” recipe.

  • 8 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 cup dry milk powder
  • 1 1/2 cups shortening

It still calls for shortening! There is a hint for using whole wheat flour and that would require storage in the refrigerator. This booklet does not have the “Fudge Pudding” recipe. But what to do about the shortening? You know, trans fats and all that!

But first let’s cost it out. I am using Walmart prices since I tend to shop at discount grocery stores. When I first calculated this formula I used the entire can of shortening and there was no cost savings at 2016 prices. Both the homemade and the store bought baking mix cost about $0.45 per cup. So why bother? But when I redid the calculation it came out with a cost savings. The home made mix cost about $0.36 per cup.

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Several years ago while waiting for an appointment of some kind I was browsing through a magazine and happened upon a recipe for a homemade Bisquick using butter! This was intriguing because that would answer the trans fats and partially hydrogenated oils problem found in shortenings. I have made a half batch of this and here are the ingredients:

  • 3 Tablespoons sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt
  • 6 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 sticks frozen butter, unsalted, grated

This would make about a third of a recipe of Missouri Mix. The cost of butter would be more than the equivalent of shortening, but not that much more. Hmmm?

Lard has no trans fats. The mix could be stored in the refrigerator. But butter adds such nice flavor to baked goods. What to do?

I like home made. It is about making a home, making a meal, and living the legacy of my mother and grandmother. If I were to make this mix, I could make the Fudge Pudding at the drop of a hat! I could use half whole wheat flour and it would be “healthier”. I would also give in to the urge to make biscuits or muffins or other goodies more often.

 

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So much for reducing carbs in my diet!

Georgian Stew: Chanakhi

~ nancyruth ~ 2 Comments

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For New Year’s Day my son cooked a Georgian Stew: Chanakhi. I am not talking about the Southern state in the United States but of the country in the Caucasus. This had several inspirations and is an adaptation of the recipe in the book he gave me for Christmas which I read in just a few days. He then read it in a few days and decided this was something he would make for us.

But the book is not the only inspiration. My son served in the Peace Corps in Armenia (southern neighbor of Georgia) from 2010-2012. My sister and I visited him there in 2011. We spent the first few days of our visit in Tbilisi Georgia before traveling into Armenia and staying in Ijevan and then Yerevan.

So I have a bit of nostalgia around my visit to these countries in the region. I get a thrill when there is a reference to the Caucasus in books or shows or the news.

The book is The Art of Soviet Cooking: a memoir of food and longing by Anya Von Bremzen.Chanakhi 013

 

This is a fabulous readable history of the Soviet Union and the way that family experienced the times and food with a few recipes given in the back of the book.

Here in the U.S.A. I grew up in the era of “Better Dead than Red” and fears of Communism and Communists, a bit later than the McCarthy Era, but close enough. In this day and age the fear is of Terrorists and how hidden they can be. Anyway back to the Soviets…they were supposedly “the Evil Empire”. But when you meet everyday people and hear from them, they are just people living their lives the best they can, just like us.

Chanakhi 001While in Georgia that year I bought a cookbook of Georgian Cuisine. The translations of the recipes are not easy to follow in that the exact ingredients and amounts are not always given. Chanakhi is in this book and can be cooked in individual clay pots or “the boiler”. I am not sure what “the boiler” is but it sounds like a large Dutch oven or stock pot. “Sheep fat tail” is not something I can find in my local grocery store. Chanakhi is basically a lamb stew with onions, eggplant, tomatoes, and potatoes. Pork is more affordable than lamb so we use a Boston Butt.

The recipe we try to follow is from the Soviet book and not the Georgian. It is more “American kitchen friendly” than the book I bought in Georgia although it is a very complex recipe. This takes all afternoon to make and we fear having to eat late at night but this does not turn out to be the case. Recipe begun at 2:00 PM and we eat by 6:30 PM.

  • 3-3 ½ pounds Boston Butt Bone-in Roast (my son felt that a bone-in cut would make a tender stew; it should fall off the bone on its own at the end of cooking time)
  • 1 large red onion and 1 medium yellow onion, cut in wedges
  • 1 large eggplant (could not find Asian eggplants in the produce section)
  • 3 potatoes (russet, because that is what is in the pantry), cut in wedges
  • 1 28 ounce can of whole peeled plum tomatoes and its juice; we blend a few of the remaining tomatoes into juice for the second addition);about 1 ½ cups juice needed
  • Olive oil; a few tablespoons
  • ½ teaspoon salt; kosher salt, several grinds of pepper; several shakes of red pepper flakes
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 12 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
  • 1 cup each of freshly chopped parsley, basil, and cilantro (we used home dried basil of about 2-3 Tablespoons, the other herbs were the fresh bunches from the produce section of the grocery store)
  • One crushed bay leaf (son’s addition, just because)

Now get ready for the preparation, assembly, and cooking! To start there is a toast with vodka chased by a pickle.

Preheat the oven to 325 F. This stew will be cooked on top of the stove and then in the oven. I have a 12 inch Cast Iron Dutch oven that will be the cooking vessel.This thing weighs about 20 pounds! But the son can handle it just fine.

Mince the garlic; chop the herbs; mix together in a bowl with salt, gratings of black pepper, paprika, and red pepper flakes. Cut the onions into large wedges or quarters.

Chanakhi 021Rub a handful of the herb mixture on the meat with a little of the olive oil. Chanakhi 028Pack the meat and the onion into the pot stirring them up to coat with the oil and herbs. Cook on high (on top of the stove) for 3-4 minutes, then cover and cook for 12 minutes. Turn the meat over and cook another 3-4 minutes.

Chanakhi 034Add 2 chopped tomatoes, 1 cup tomato juice, another handful of herbs and 1 Tablespoon of the red wine vinegar. Bring to a good simmer and then put the pot in the oven. Cook until the meat is tender. We checked it at 1 hour and 20 minutes and it was good.

Chanakhi 032Meanwhile char the eggplant over the stove burner for 2-3 minutes. Our big eggplant took about 5 minutes. My son contemplated skinning this but did not.

This was then cut into 4 sections, slit and stuffed with some of the herb mixture. Potatoes were cut into wedges and tossed with the herb mixture. Four of the remaining canned tomatoes were cut into fourths and the two remaining after those were churned into juice with the immersion blender.

The potatoes and the eggplant were added to the pot along with the remaining tomato juice and vinegar, and a handful of herbs after the initial hour and 20 minutes in the oven. Now this cooked in the oven for 30 minutes. Then add the quartered tomatoes and the remaining herb mixture. Cover this and bake for 20 minutes. Raise the oven temperature to 400, uncover the pot and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes before serving straight from the pot.

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enjoying the fruits of his labor

 

This took us all afternoon because we were not sure of the steps and had to double check the next step over and over. It took us just under 4 hours. For the future after the prepping of all the ingredients, this would take about 2 ½ to 3 hours. Also, for the future, we would use the small eggplant, peel and scrape out the seeds and then just slice it so that it can mix with the other vegetables and not stand out quite so much with all its seeds and skin. I think cooking it all in the Dutch oven on top of the stove would be my preference as well.

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I made a batch of popovers to go with this and the meal was a hit with all who partook.

Suffering Succotash!

~ nancyruth ~ Leave a comment

Lima beans and corn. My Mom was a good baker. She could make candy, cookies, cakes and pies, even biscuits! Dinner food, not so much. She burned canned green beans once. She made regular food in her regular kitchen. I think she enjoyed the advent of convenience foods. She gardened but also bought lots of canned vegetables. She used to can her own vegetables. And she made pickles and jelly. I did not learn how to make pickles and jelly nor to can. Even now the canning process seems overwhelming to me. Then came the chest freezer. This was put in the basement with an adapter for the plug to a non-grounded outlet! This was just the way things were done: (Think about the overplugged electrical outlet featured in the movie A Christmas Story from 1983). With the freezer Mom could now “preserve” fruits and vegetables much more conveniently. She even got recipes for Freezer Jelly. A fond memory I have is that she used to put chocolate chips in a mayonnaise jar in the freezer to keep longer and/or to keep away from us kids. We kids, well me, would sneak handfuls of chocolate. When finally we confessed this Mom confessed that she thought it had something to do with the deep freeze. This new technology of home food storage was new to her!

For dinner she would always serve a vegetable or two. These would either be from the farm stand, her garden, out of the freezer, or from cans in the pantry. For succotash she would open a can of corn and a can of lima beans, pour them in a pot, and heat them.

I have always thought of succotash as a southern dish. I grew up in Missouri and my Dad’s family is from Arkansas/Oklahoma. So when I opened up my  Better Homes and Gardens Heritage of America Cookbook, I was surprised to find it in the New England section, from Maine! Then I looked up succotash on the internet and this makes sense, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succotash, since the word is Narragansett in origin. The dish apparently became popular during the Great Depression here in the United States and that was the era of my Mom’s growing up years. Some recipes call for creaming the dish with butter and milk. I don’t remember ever having it that way.

A few years ago I decided to resurrect succotash and serve it to my family. My hubby taught me that any frozen vegetable tastes better dry roasted in a skillet with a bit of sautéed onion. I figured this would make succotash taste better too. And it did. I have since begun adding a bit of fried bacon and a few red pepper flakes. And this is what I made for a side dish for dinner after the Christmas holiday.

  • frozen corn
  • frozen lima beans
  • bits of bacon
  • bits of chopped onion
  • a shake of red pepper flakes
  • bit of broth, or water

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The amount of corn and lima beans is subjective. Use whatever is on hand or what seems like the amount to feed whomever you are feeding at the meal. I usually use a half bag of corn and 1/4 bag of lima beans. This time I had more beans than corn and it worked out just fine. A few strips of bacon and half an onion, even a quarter onion, should be adequate. I used about 1/4 cup of the bits and ends of the uncured bacon I store in my freezer. (It is almost time to traipse up to Trader Joe’s to get some more.) Oh and then there is the cube of frozen broth. This particular cube is 1/4 cup of chicken broth. You can just add a bit of water if you don’t have broth.

First fry up the bacon until brown and then add the onion for a few minutes. Sprinkle on a few red pepper flakes. Then add the rest of the ingredients.

The water in the frozen vegetables and the broth will steam the beans so they become tender. Mix that around in the pan and then cover with a lid and let steam on low-medium heat for about 8-10 minutes. Stir this occasionally and add a bit more liquid as needed. When done it will be moist but not have much liquid remaining in the pan.

lateDec2015 034

This made a nice side dish for three to four people.

Making Fudge

~ nancyruth ~ 1 Comment

In planning for all my holiday baking and candy making I went through my Mom’s recipe clipping notebooks over and over again. And I found her fudge recipe.

fudge 002

Before finding this I had gone through my own recipe clipping notebooks and found the Never Fail Fudge Recipe by Eagle Brand Condensed Milk. So which should I make this fine day? I have a meat thermometer but not a candy one. My digital one is not working properly because it needs a new battery and I am very poor at replacing those itty-bitty round batteries.To my recollection Mom did not have a candy thermometer but would test the heat of the candy mixture by putting it in a cup of cold water. She successfully made fudge, divinity, fondant, and other candies with this tried and true method.

fudge 004I choose to go with the Never Fail Fudge adding my own touches:

  • 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 cup espresso flavored chips
  • 1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 teaspoon espresso powder (I am not sure if this will enhance the chocolate flavor or add to the coffee flavor of the espresso chips)
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/2 cups walnuts
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I always wonder why vanilla extract is added to chocolate recipes.)

Melt chips with milk and salt over low heat. When melted remove from heat and stir in walnuts and vanilla.

Have your pan prepared as this “fudges” up quite quickly. You want to line your pan with foil so you can pull the set fudge out easily to cut.

My daughter has the “fudge pot” that my Mom used. I used that pot making Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (yes, from the box with the powdered cheese!) when bringing up my kids. The best part of my Mom making fudge was that we kids (there were four of us) got to scrape the pan and lick the spoon! Ahh, I did not have any little ones here so I had to refrain from scraping the pan spotless and nibbling too much!

Chill in the fridge for two hours and then there is fudge in the house!

I will leave you with one of the inspirational clippings Mom put in her notebooks. See, she speaks and teaches us even now!

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Pecan Tarts: possibly utter failure!

~ nancyruth ~ 2 Comments

In the past I have made a Pecan Pie Bar found in a magazine ad recipe. They are very well received when I make them. They have more of a traditional pecan pie topping made with corn syrup. This recipe for Pecan Tarts I have found among my mother’s recipe cards. It appealed to me because it does not use corn syrup in the filling. These are the cute little pecan pie-looking cookies. They are also known as Pecan Tassies and there are all kinds of recipes all over the internet. The newspaper clipping that my mom saved adds a note at the end: “By all means spray the tins with Pam for easy removal.”

A year or so ago I purchased a set of mini muffin tins to replace the ones I had that were beginning to rust. These cost me all of a $1 at a tag sale, (Garage Sale for those of us from the Midwest.) This will be the first time use of these pans.

This is a cream cheese short-crust filled with a pecan butterscotch/caramel filling. A short crust is made without a leavening agent. For the crust:

  • 1 cup soft butter
  • 6 ounces of cream cheese at room temperature
  • 2 cups flour

Blend butter and cream cheese and add in flour. Work with hands to bring together as a dough, then chill. The recipe clipping does not say how long to chill so I will put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

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I think I have come up with a nifty way to shape these into the muffin tins: the small end of my mortar, or is it the pestle. Be right back while I “google” it. ….(a few seconds passing)… It’s the pestle!

I also decide to divide the dough into exactly 36 pieces. The recipe said it made 3-4 dozen.

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Now for the filling:

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons melted butter
  • dash of salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

I mix this all together with my KitchenAid. Did I tell you the story of this Mixer? It is one I will always cherish. It was a time when I was going through my divorce, being a single parent with middle school aged children, working per diem, and just trying to adjust. Suddenly there appeared a large box delivered to my door. This was the KitchenAid Mixer. Just there. It wasn’t my birthday or any other special day. It came from my brother-in-law and sister. When I called her she said it was her husband’s idea as he thought I could use something nice. Bless him! So whenever I think of one of the most thoughtful things that someone has done for me, this is the event that comes to mind.

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The recipe clipping said to sprinkle the pecans in the tart shells, add some filling, then sprinkle more pecans on top.  I just put all the pecans in the mixture.

Bake this for 15 minutes at 350, reduce heat to 250 and bake another 10 minutes.

Ugly, ugly, ugly!

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I clearly filled them too full. I use a soup spoon to lift them out of the tins after running a knife around the edges. They are underbaked. The Great British Baking Show judges would be very disappointed and I would not get to be Star Baker! (Possibly the soggy bottom!)

I continue with the third pan after scrubbing it and spraying the entire top with cooking spray. I try not to fill these as full. Meanwhile I rack my brain to figure out how to save the first two pans. I decide to put them back in the oven to continue baking for 5 minutes. This may be salvation.

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the bottoms are now baked

Second batch looks a little prettier, or less ugly, whichever your perspective. I also put them back in the oven for five more minutes on a baking sheet. Here they are, for better or for worse. They taste like pecan pies.

So this was an experience for sure. If using this recipe again I will divide it into 48 pieces, use a teaspoon to fill the tart shells, and leave them in the oven at 350 for the full 25 minutes, if not 30.

I like pecan pie. Maybe my next effort will be a cranberry-pecan pie, or the buttermilk pecan pie. That is a good one as it has the crunch of the pecans with the creaminess of a custard.

Happy Baking to all, and be sure to have fun in the kitchen!

 

Making Do! A lesson in humility

~ nancyruth ~ 3 Comments

I interrupt my next planned blog on birthday cake to write about unplanned, unwanted events. First of all “It could be worse.” I am on the first full day of hobbling around on crutches with an air-boot on my right foot. afterThanksgivingCakeHumility 020This is my driving foot so I am housebound and dependent on others to get out of the house. I am very blessed to have the world’s best hubby to watch over and take care of me. However I am not used to relying on others and this is an ongoing life lesson for me.

I am not feeling sorry for myself. People have much worse events and conditions to live with, some for all their lives. So, I have to harness my Mom’s “make do” spirit and make do!

To explain, I fell. I busted (is that the proper word?) my upper lip and chin and broke my ankle. It happened very quickly and I was not able to catch myself before hitting my face.

So now I have learned what a fat lip looks and feels like. When my coworkers looked at my face they saw what I only saw looking in the mirror, which I don’t do often. Went and got the medical care needed and here I sit. When the pain lessens I hobble around the house on crutches; I go up and down the stairs on my butt like a two year old, and I wheel myself around the house on my sewing machine chair which has wheels. I am grateful that I have hardwood floors as maneuvering in the chair would be much harder on carpet.

I am supposed to be making a birthday cake for granddaughter’s birthday party this weekend. My kitchen is not scaled to chair level but I can stand with the crutches. Maybe I’ll tackle that tomorrow.

Hubby set out chicken thighs to thaw for dinner tonight. I saw a chicken recipe on the Food Network site, http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/roasted-garlic-clove-chicken-recipe.html ,that looked tasty as well as on another blogger’s site. https://cookingforthetimechallenged.wordpress.com/2015/12/03/grilled-chicken-cutlets/

This is my adaptation/combination/inspiration from these two recipes.

I’ve got 6 chicken thighs, mostly without skin. I juice and zest ½ lemon. This is my favorite old time citrus juicer. It is from my Mom. It is a WearEver Aluminum, made in the U.S.A.

I use ¼ cup canola oil, and about a teaspoon of Herbs de Provence. Oh, and a clove of garlic. Swirl that all together with ¼ chopped onion and pour in the Ziploc bag with the chicken. Fiddle around with it to get the marinade all around the chicken.afterThanksgivingCakeHumility 026 Place back in fridge and wait for dinner time. I will cook these in my 10 inch cast iron skillet. The rest of dinner will be baked sweet potatoes, and green beans.

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And dinner is served.

 

I can do all of this from my “wheeled” chair and crutches! That’s called Making Do!