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Sunday, September 8, 2013

Good food on a long weekend

This has been a lazy weekend. I've floated through it with almost an other-worldly feeling--maybe chalk that up to two intense naps, but I've enjoyed it. If anything but sleep has filled my weekend, it's good food.
Friday night for supper I entertained a friend--while Elizabeth fed Jacob scrambled eggs in her apartment, and he was thrilled. I fixed a '60s meal--vichyssoise and Caesar salad. For the vichyssoise I refer you to Peg Cochran's post on Mystery Lovers' Kitchen http://www.mysteryloverskitchen.com/search/label/Vichysoisse, and easy recipe. I thought I'd over-peppered it until I added the cream--and then it needed more pepper and salt both. But so good. For the Caesar salad, I used the recipe in the original Joy of Cooking. That page is splattered almost beyond reading, testimony to the fact that I've used it a lot. But not for a while. It tasted so good, and the leftovers from that meal made a great Saturday lunch. One note: start marinating the oil for your home-made croutons twenty-four hours before serving.
Tonight, it was salmon cakes and roasted cabbage. Elizabeth has taught me a new trick about salmon cakes--or croquettes. Several years ago I gave up trying to make the logs my mom used to make and made patties--so much easier to brown. But I still, per Mom's instructions, used finely ground cracker crumbs as filling and coating. Elizabeth doesn't coat them in anything, and they're much easier to brown and stay together better.

Salmon cakes
Drain one 15 oz. can salmon, discard vertebrae and black skin (nothing bad happens if you don't)
Add two eggs
Chopped scallions, probably two
Dash Worcestershire
A good pinch of dry mustard
Stir together and add enough finely ground saltine crackers to make the mixture hold its shape
Shape into patties and brown in skillet
Serve with lemon

Absolutely one of my favorite foods. Elizabeth wants hers gluten free, so she made them with almond flour. Also great--I've eaten them and can't tell the difference.

Roast cabbage wedge--this recipe has been making the rounds on Facebook, so you may have seen it. Still it was so good, I want to recommend it.

Cut on medium size head of cabbage into four wedges.
Put each wedge on a heavy-duty sheet of foil, large enough to fold around it
Spread butter on each cut side of the cabbage wedge
Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder
Drape one half slice of bacon over each wedge
Wrap foil tightly around and bake.
The recipe calls for putting on the grill, but I wasn't about to fire up the grill for two pieces of cabbage (I made these last night). So I put them in a 350 oven for 30 minutes. When I tested them, they were still way too firm. So I let them cook another 30 minutes and cool. Tonight I reheated them, and they were succulent and terrific. Somehow I got a taste of clove--must be something in the cabbage.
We topped the meal off with fresh strawberries. Delightful dinner.
Now I have half a head of cabbage left over. I'll use it plus another head next weekend for vinegar cole slaw for eight or nine people. Jordan, who says she doesn't eat cole slaw, loved it with vinegar last week.

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