Much to do about chicken

 

Grandma's Chicken

We eat a lot of chicken casseroles at our house. The resident grandchild is not all that fond of beef, although his father is. I’ve discovered there are almost as many theories on how to cook chicken for use in a casserole as there are chicken casserole recipes. Since I’ve been in the cottage without an oven or a microwave, I’ve been poaching chicken and been unhappy about it—the meat was tough.

On the internet I discovered that perhaps I was letting the chicken boil too hard. I found directions that called for bringing the water just to a soft boil, turning off the heat and covering the pan and leaving the chicken for I think it was three minutes. Result? Underdone chicken.

So we went to rotisserie chicken. Jordan would bring it warm from the store, and I’d stick it in the fridge. Eventually, when forced to it, I’d de-bone it, struggling to get the as much meat as possible in usable chunks. Well, that was the second thing I’d done wrong. Jordan told me the meat slides right off the bone of you do it when it’s still hot. So from now on, she debones the chickens. Still, the rotisserie meat has a flavor and texture all its own—it isn’t like freshly cooked chicken.

But recently my friend Ann Kane suggested she has found a way better than poaching. It sort of resembles what I used to do when I had an oven—I put chicken breasts in a roasting pan, covered them liberally with salt and pepper, and laid a few onion rings over them. Covered the pan with foil and baked the meat for about half an hour.

Ann’s method is to skin the breasts and lay them in the pan. Then make a mixture of 1 Tbsp. lemon juice and ½ tsp. salt. Brush this on the meat, cover with foil, and bake 30 minutes at 400^o. I have not tried this yet—we had rotisserie chicken in the freezer, but it sounds good to me. When I told Christian about it, he asked if the cooked meat would taste of lemon, pointing out you might not want lemon-flavored chicken in every recipe. Somehow, I’m sure that’s not a problem. To me, lemon is good on almost anything.

Here’s a recipe we had the other night. Absolutely delicious—I ate two helpings, thank you very much.

Grandma’s Chicken

3 c. cooked chicken, cubed

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

2 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese

3 c. finely crushed Ritz crackers

           Preheat over to 350^o

           Lightly grease a 9x13 pan. Arrange chicken in the bottom. Spoon soup evenly over the chicken and top with shredded cheese. Sprinkle cracker crumbs evenly over the cheese.

Bake 20-30 minutes until mixture is bubbly and cracker crumbs are lightly browned.

Leftovers are a problem. If you store them in an icebox dish, the crumbs get mixed in and become soggy. If stored in the original pan and baked again in the oven so crumbs would crisp up again, it might make good leftovers.

It would be easy to halve this in a smaller baking dish.

               

 

Cauliflower, scallops, and my neighbor

Learning to tie shoes is hard work, made better by a good friend.
I intended to  post a serious cooking blog tonight about all the good cooking I'd done today--but things didn't quite work out that way. I did begin the day with good spontaneous cooking. Early this morning, I loaded the crockpot with chicken broth, canned tomatoes, a bouillon cube, veggies out of the freezer--carrots, green beans and peas--plus some new potatoes that needed to be used and some spinach I'd bought for the soup. Added salt, pepper, and thyme. Let it simmer while I went to church, and served it for lunch to Elizabeth and Weldon. The carrots, having been frozen, were still a bit crunchy, and the potatoes really weren't soft, but the flavor was great and we each ate two bowls. It was a sendoff luncheon for Elizabeth who is going on a two-week intensive yoga trip to India--and is so excited! Weldon will stay home and experiment with recipes for their gluten-free, dairy-free lifestyle. I have pretty much decided that when I find an odd  recipe I send or save it for them. Today is was kale and macaroni and something.
Tonight's menu was scallop cakes (omigosh, do you know how much a pound of sea scallops costs? On sale, it was $20) and cauliflower. I tossed the cauliflower flowerets with olive oil, salt and thyme and roasted them while makng the soup this morning. Delicious just that way!
Well, tonight, things went awry. My neighor Jay came for a drink (at my invitation) and stayed for supper (at my invitation).  In fact, he cooked--or tried to--the scallop cakes, but something was off. We analyzed it later and decided I needed more flour and I needed to use the elecric skillet instead of the cast iron one which doesn't cook as evenly. But the flavor was great. And I made a vinaigrette dressing for the cauliflower--good stuff.
While we were eating it began to snow, and nothing would do but that Jay, a Vermont native, took Jacob outside to catch snowflakes--big,  wet,sloppy ones on his tongue. Jay kep having to tell him not to close his eyes.
I had every intention of making some chocolate mini cupcakes tonight, but the hilarity of the evening--and the snow--meant it was 9:30 before I got dinner put away. Guess that's a project for tomorrow, The cupcakes take a chocolate cake mix, a can of pumpkin, and a cup of chocolate chip morsels. A Weight Watchers recipe and so delicious!
I may not have been a great cook tonight but I sure had a good time.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

What do you feed the granchildren?

Not sure about this, but I think all seven of my grandchildren will be here at some point this weekend. One is twelve, and then they range from eight to four, with two five-year-olds. One is a vegetarian and the rest are picky as only young children can be, some worse than others, some hungrier than others. Menu planning is a challenge--especially having enough on hand for breakfast and lunch without worrying about Saturday night dinner. My battle plan for that is Mexican food--at Joe T.'s. Edie, who doesn't want meat, can eat beans, rice, guac, cheese enchiladas, and cheese nachos. The dinner comes with beef tacos but I always give them to Christian anyway, so Edie--and her mom--can share them with others.
For breakfast, after an inventory, I decided I have plenty of dry cereal--Fiber One. Okay, it's not Fruit Loops, but it's what I have and it's better for them. I have honey and sugar and milk and maybe blueberries for the bold child. I also have chocolate chip Eggo waffles in the freezer and maple syrup. I'll buy eggs, bacon, and breakfast sausages--Jacob loves the sausages but because I've given them to him for supper, he can't get the concept of eating them for breakfast.

Lunch - sandwich makings will be available, lunch meat and cheese. Most of them don't want lettuce and tomato.

Some variations we might consider for kids:

Instead of a sandwich, layer ham or turkey and cheese (cheddar slice or provolone--I like the latter) and a little mayo. Roll up and serve. KIds will go through a stack of these. You can also use cream cheese in the roll-up. Note: I don't like processed cheese, and I rarely endorse a brand name here, but I think Sargento cheese slices are superior.

Spread crescent rolls with mustard and roll around half a hot dog. Consider adding a half strip of cooked bacon to each.

Depending how open-minded the child is, add pimiento cheese to a hot dog in a bun.

Spark up a meat and cheese sandwich with a slice of bacon.

Vary the pbj by making it with mayo and adding that slice of bacon.  Or make it with banana,  peanut butter and honey (a Jacob favorite).

Desserts: yes, I'll have individual ice cream cups but no chocolate sauce. I gave some to Jacob the other day but I'll explain it was the last of it. How about fruit rollups? Nestle fruit bars? No Twinkies. No junk food.

Here's a recipe I can't vouch for but plan to make tomorrow. It comes from the Febraury issue of Southern Living, and I recommend you buy the whole magazine--for the recipes. They're great, as they always are.

1 c. creamy peanut butter
3/4 c. sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup chocolate bits
Parchment paper

Stir all ingredients together, adding chocolate bits last. Put parchment paper on cookie sheets, and coat a tablespoon with cooking spray. Drop tablespoons of dough onto prepared pans. Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes (they should get puffy) and cool.
My cookies never make the amount the recipe says, but this should make around 2 dozen--enough for seven kids for one weekend. The only part that alarms me is working with peanut butter--it's so sticky it's hard to deal with, but these sound good enough to try. I love flourless chocolate cake, so I figure flourless cookies ought to be as moist and good. Jacob will help me make these--I think. If not, he'll hinder me.

Oh, and I might have some "kid wine" (sparkling cider) on hand. I can even serve it in flutes, I think.

Food Trivia

Since I bought a sentimental pack of Twinkies lately, I was interested in an "Eat this, not this" episode on the TODAY show this morning. Eating two bags of potato chips is equivalent to eating nine Twinkies. I doubt we should eat either.
On an episode of "Restaurant Impossible," Robert Irvine made an easy fast appetizer: in a cake pan (that's what it looked like) layer shreadded cheese of your choice, seasoned ground meat, lettuce and tomato, and top with crisp potato chips. Put another cake pan on top and invert; broil and serve hot. The combination that would come to most people's minds is cheddar and taco seasoning for the meat (at least in Texas), but I think perhaps a good Gruyere and some basil and thyme for the meat, plus salt and pepper of course. Plan to try it sometime. On the other hand, using pimiento cheese might be good (see below).
This weekend I tried some recipes that had caught my eye in recent magazines. One was a different pimiento cheese--not much mayonnaise but Worcestershire, dry mustard, vinegar, celery seeds,salt and pepper, hot sauce, pimientos and shredded cheddar of course. Full bodied and good. Find it in the February issue of Southern Living. My neighbors came for a drink and to try it last night, and Susan said, "Pimiento cheese is your lateest crush, isn't it?"
Finaly I made a curry/mango chicken salad with mayonnaise, yogurt, apple chutney, water chestnuts (I left them out) green onions and chicken. Find it also in the new Southern Living. The recipe calls for serving the salad in fluted cups made by molding prepared pie crusts over brioche molds--you have a lot of those on hand, don't you? I don't, and I didn't do it. The chicken was good but so different from the chicken salad I usually eat that I'm not sure I'll do it again.
I'm always a bit unsure what to do with chutney, but here's an appetizer I really like:

Soften six ounces of cream cheese (I use low fat)
add 1 cup grated cheddar
1 Tbsp. dry sherry
1/2 t. curry
Pinch salt
2 green onions

Chill thoroughly. When ready to serve, spread 8 oz. chutney on top and offer crackers. Really good.

The most unusual holiday dish

My impartial panel of judges--who are admittedly kind of skittish eaters--have chosen Bebe Bahnsen's chittlin's stuffed with sour cream. Not sure what chittlin's are? Properly, they're called chitterlings, and they are the intestines of a pig, cleaned and stuffed. In this country, they are both a southern and African American tradition, part of "soul food" cooking. They must be thoroughly cleaned and rinsed several times before they are boiled or stewed for several hours. Some cooks put a half an onion in the pot to soften the possible unpleasant odor. Sometimes chittlin's are battered and fried after stewing, served with vinegar and hot sauce.

Bebe sends the following recipe:

Thaw 10 lbs. cleaned chitterlings; examine each for foreign matter and discard; run under cold water. Soak in to cold water baths. If the second doesn't  yield clear water, soak again.

Place in a six quart pot and fill with cold water. Bring to a boil, then add 1 roughly chopped onion, 2 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. minced garlic, and 1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes. Simmer 3-4 hours. Serve with spaghetti or turnip greens, and pass the vinegar or hot sauce.

Bebe's mom said that sutffed with sour cream these outdo the best turkey.

Bebe, email me your address (j.alter@tcu.edu) and I'll send a copy of Skeleton in a Dead Space. But also, could you clarify how you can stuff chittlin's?

Other interesting entries I got include apple pudding and dried corn from Norma Huss. The corn is Copes dried corn, not available everywhere. It involves soaking in cold water and then cooking. Norma, I'd love to know why dried is better than fresh and what Copes corn is.

And turkey with apple/sourcream dressing, German red cabbage, butternut squash casserole, giblet gravy and a pear almond tart. Here's the recipe for German red cabbage:

Deutsches Rotkohl (Weight Watchers version)

1 small red cabbage finely shredded

1 medium red onion, thinly slices

1/4 c. wine vinegar

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

3 Tbsp. brown sugar

handful of dried cranberries

Pre-heat oven to 450. In a covered pan, mix vinegar, brown sugar and ground cloves. Add shredded cabbage, onions, and dried cranberries Cover and bake 10 minutes. Remove from oven and toss cabbage to mix. Return to oven and bake for 40 minutes. Remove and check seasonings--add a little salt if needed. If more liquid is needed, add a little red wine and stir again. It should be a dark red, slightly caramelized, and flavorful.  Thanks to Suzanne Barrett for this one.

A personal opinion: with German blood in my veins, I'm sure I much prefer the red cabbage to the chittlin's.! Sorry, Bebe. I can eat a lot of offal--liver in several forms, kidneys--but I think chittlin's may be beyond me. But they are the most unusual and thus the winner of this admittedly small contest.

Happy eating in 2012!

Food for good luck in 2012

On New Year's Day I'll be serving Hoppin' John to family and friends. In case you don't know, Hoppin John is a stew-like dish of black-eyed peas and ham and Cajun spices served over rice. (My kids called it Hoppin Uncle John after a favorite uncle.) It combines ham and black-eyed peas, those two foods said to bring good luck and wealth in the coming year. Coming from the North, I'd never heard of this tradition until I'd been in Texas several years. That's because it originated, in this country, in the American South. But now I feel uneasy if I don't have my ham and black-eyed peas. Today I read a blog about New Year celebrtions in Italy--it involves red underwear, but let's not go there. Italians eat sausage and lentils--the lentils are supposed to bring wealth because they're shaped like coins.
That got me to thinking about cross-cultural foods. My kids were discussing weinerschnitzel the other day, and I pointed out that almost every culture has a form of breaded meat. Weinerschnitzel is of course Austrain and made of veal, pounded flat, dipped in bread and egg.. But in Central and South America, they serve various versions of milanesa--the name indicates an Italian origin or at least European. Throughout much of Europe the dish is known as schnitzel and may be of chicken, veal or beef. In Denmark it is served topped with a "boy" (dreng in Danish)--lemon slices, horseradish, capers, and anchovy slices. In Oriental countries particularly Japan it is breaded with panko crumbs.
But wait, I've strayed from my topic, which is Hoppin John. Here's the recipe I'll be using Sunday:

1 lb. dried black-eyed peas
2 small ham hocks or a meaty ham bone
2 onions, divided use
3 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
1 cup white rice
1 can Rotel tomatoes
3 ribs celery, chopped
2 tsp. Creole or Cajun seasoning
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
3/4 tsp. cumin
3/4 tsp. salt
4 green onions sliced

Put the peas, ham in a Dutch oven with 6 cups water (I might add chicken bouillon cubes). Quarter one of the onions and add with bay leaf and garlic. Bring to boil then simmer for two to three hours--don't let the peas become mushy. Remove the ham hocks, cut off the meat, dice and set aside. Drain the peas and set aside. Discard the bay leaf, onion, and garlic.
Add 2-1/2 cups water to pot and bring to boil. Add rice and simmer until almost tender, 10-12 minutes.

Dice the second onion and add to rice along with other ingredients except green onions. Cook until rice is tender--ten minutes. Spoon into bowls and top with sliced green onions for garnish. Tradition calls for accompanying this with turnip greens and cornbread. I'll be serving the cornbread but not the greens--I'm not yet after forty-some years that much of a southerner.

Eat your peas and ham, and may 2012 bring you health, wealth, and happiness.

Pomododri al Riso (Tomatoes Baked with Rice)

Please welcome my guest, Patricia Winton. Patricia writes about two of Italy's great works of art: food and crime. Her story "Feeding Frenzy" features protagonist Caroline Woodlock, an American journalist covering the culinary scene in Italy, and Nino Nardo, professor of Italian culinary history and traditions at Rome's 750-year-old university. It appears in Fish Tales, The Guppy Anthology. Patricia has lived in Italy for twelve years, the past nine in Rome. She's a former newspaper food columnist and cooking teacher. She blogs every Wednesday at http://ItalianIntrigues.blogspot.com

 ****

When I first came to live in Rome, a woman in my English class had burned her hand taking the dish from the oven the previous night when she was preparing it for a function at her child’s school. I didn’t know the dish, and she wrote it out for me. It a perfect pot luck dish because it’s easy to prepare, travels well, and is best at room temperature.

The recipe given to me was very imprecise, as many Italian recipes are, and I’ve tried to standardize it. The original recipe called for a “fist full of rice” for each tomato.

Serves 6-8

12 round, firm medium sized tomatoes
1 ½ cups long grained rice
1 small onion, grated
3 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil for the basic preparation, plus more for drizzling
3 large potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
salt to taste
12 basil leaves

Cut the tops off of each tomato and set aside. Using a small grapefruit spoon or melon scooper, carefully scoop the flesh out of each tomato into a large bowl. Try not to break through the outer skin.

Set the tomatoes and lids aside, upside down, on paper towels to drain.

Add raw rice to the tomato flesh and juice. Add the 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and chopped onion. Stir to mix well and let sit for about an hour or so to let the rice absorb some of the liquid.

Sprinkle a bit of salt into each tomato, and place one basil leaf at the bottom of each one. Spoon the rice mixture into each tomato and replace the stemmed cap on each one.  

Oil a baking dish just large enough to hold the tomatoes without falling over. Fit the tomatoes in the dish. Put the potato wedges here and there around the tomatoes to help keep them upright.

Drizzle with more oil and sprinkle with salt.

Bake in a preheated 350F oven for about 40 minutes. Check the tomatoes from time to time to make sure they do not overcook. If desired, baste the tomatoes with the liquid that collects in the bottom of the pan.

When done, allow the tomatoes to cool to room temperature before serving. The dish can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. Allow to come to room temperature before serving.

The Good Old Days?

In 2010, TCU Press published Grace & Gumption: The Cookbook, a follow-up to Grace & Gumption: Stories of Fort Worth Women, the first attempt to chronicle the contributions of women to our city. So when we decided on a cookbook some asked, "Now that we've gotten women out of the kitchen, why put them back in?" M answer? Because all the time they made their contributions to the city and its culture, most of them were feeding their families. And there may have been another factor--I love cookbooks and food writing, and I got to edit the recipes.
Contributors unearthed some fascinating old recipes. Joyce Williams, who wrote about frontier women, discovered directions for fixing squirrel. First you have to skin and clean it (as Joyce says, you couldn't just go to the market and buy it): remove the entrails and skin. To skin, cut off the legs at the first joint, raise the skin on the back and draw it over the hind legs. Then slip it over the fore legs and cut it away from the head and neck. Wash well and dry. Cut in pieces as  you would a chicken. Dust with salt or seasoning. Cook or bake in a Dutch oven, adding vegetables and a small amount of water. Bake uintil done. Sorry, no oven temperature--in those days it was baked over coals on a fire with coals placed on the lid.
For my chapter on ranch women, cowgirls and wildcatters, I found a wonderful recipe for syllabub, a traditional drink associated with eggnog but usually made with wine rather than stronger liquor. Often thought of as a ladies' drink, it was considered mild enough to serve to children.
One old recipe went as follows:
Sweeten a quart of cider with refined sugar and a grating of nutmeg, then milk the cow into it until you have the amount  you consider proper. Top if off with about half a pint of sweet, thick cream.
A recipe for those of us who don't have a cow in the barn:

Whipt Syllabub
2 c. white wine
Grated peel of one lemon
1 c. sugar
3 c. milk
2 c. heavy cream
3 egg whites
Combine wine, lemon peel and sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar and add milk and cream. Beat (with a rotary beater, of course) until frothy. Beat egg whites separately until stiff and gradually add 6 Tbsp. of sugar, beating constantly util the mixture forms stiff peaks Pour mixed wine into chilled bowl. Top with spoonfuls of the egg whites. Serve in chilled glasses.
To me the recipe is a strange mix of past and present--the rotary beater indicates times gone by--but where did the chilled glasses come from? The block of ice in the icebox?
The yeast rolls at the Fort Worth Woman's Club Tea Room are legendary in this city, although I believe a cateror now provides the food and the rolls are gone. But Ruth Karbach unearthed a 1928 version of the recipe in The Woman's Club of Fort Worth Cook Book:

1 quart milk
2 yeast cakes
1 Tbsp. butter
1/2 c. sugar
1 Tbsp. salt
1 Tbsp. lard
3 quarts sifted flour
Let milk come to a boil and cool; when lukewarm add two yeast cakes, the sugar and enough flour to make a soft dough. Let rise one hour. Melt shortening and stir into soft dough; add balance of flour. Roll to about one-half inch thickness, cut with small round cutter, dip in melted butter and fold in pocketbook shape. Let rise about one-half hour and bake in a moderate oven until brown
Sounds like my mother's recipe, except for the lard. In later years, she substituted corn oil for the Crisco she had used for years. Mom always told me that you must scald milk and cool it or it will kill the yeast. And this recipe doesn't say anything abut kneading, but I was taught to knead lightly until flour was thoroughly mixed in; if you knead too much, your dough becomes heavy and the resulting rolls are tough.
I'm not about to cook a squirrel--or skin it--but the syllabub sounds sort of interesting, and I've done a version of the rolls most of my life. Comforting to know some things never change, and, yes, in some ways they were the good old days.

Two food blogs, cod with potatoes, and vodka bread

The Web is alive with food blogs, way too many for any one person to follow. But I follow a couple regularly and have gotten lots of recipes from them. One is Mystery Lovers Kitchen, to which mystery writers Krista Davis, Cleo Coyle, Riley Adams, Mary Jane Maffini, Sheila Connolly, Wendy Lyn Watson, and Ellery Adams each contribute one day a week. They also have guest bloggers, and I've been privileged to post a blog a couple of times. But I've used recipes for a scrumptious if very rich beef/noodle casserole from Riley and also a recipe for what I call chicken bundles--cooked chicken, cream cheese and some seasonings wrapped in crescent rolls and baked. Riley says the recipe serves four or--sigh--one teenager. From Krista I've gotten a wonderful spiced chicken--she rolled legs in seasoning, but I prefer thighs.
Sunday night I cooked one of Krista's recipes for my Austin family. We fixed three portions, thinking my grandsons wouldn't eat fish--wrong! They wolfed it down. Of course, I'll fiddle with it next time I do it, but it's basically oven fried potatoes topped with cod fillets. Krista used russet potatoes--3 large, sliced 1//4 " thick. Next time I'll use small red potatoes, sliced much thinner. But basically you put a generous Tbsp. of olive oil in your 9x13 pan with a lip. Season potato slices with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika--we didn't have paprika, but I should have gone out and picked some fresh rosemary. Toss potatoes to coat thoroughly with seasonings, then toss with enough olive oil to coat all potato slices. Arrange slices in overlapping groups in the pan. Roast the potatoes at 425 for 30 minutes--I think they need a bit more. Place cod fillets (one per person) on the potato cakes or squares, top with a pat of butter and a lemon slice and bake, still at 425, for another 15 minutes. Serve with lemon wedges--and don't count out a five-year-old and a seven-year-old.
The other blog is called "The meaning of pie" and is maintained by a friend of Megan, my oldest daughter. One recipe that caught my eye was creamed chipped beef which this cook turns into a gourmet dish. I know many people call it SOS (shit on a shingle--a hangover fromWWII days), but I love it. High in calories, however.
But the dish that most amazed me--and I've made it--is alevropita, a flat, crispy, Greek, feta bread. For this one, you have to keep your head about you and your hot pads handy because it involves a 500 degree oven. Assemble all the ingredients, then beat together while you heat your 12-inch iron skillet in that hot oven.

2 Tbsp. olive oil for the batter
2 Tbsp. olive oil for the skillet
2 teaspons vodka - don't leave it out; it makes all the difference
1/2 cup water
Half an egg--scramble it and guess at how much is half
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. flour
1/8 tsp. kosher salt--a dash
1/8 tsp. baking powder--another dash
5 oz. feta cheese, crumbled -do not mix into batter
1 Tbsp. unsalted butter, soften

Mix water vodka, olive oil and half egg. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Pour wet ingredients into dry and whisk together. Take the hot pan from the oven--do not grab blindly for the handle without using the hotpad. Pour second 2 Tbsp. olive oil into hot pan and spread with paper towel or spatula. Immediately pour batter into pan and spread to the edges of the pan,as much as possible, using a wooden spoon. Sprinkile feta on top of batter and dot with butter.
Return to oven for 15-20 minutes but watch carefully--you want it browned, but at 500 degrees, things go from browned to burned way too fast.
Take pan out of oven, put it someplace safe for extra hot dish--wooden cutting board, stove top, whatever. Use spatula to remove the bread to a cutting board and cut into pieces.
The meaning of pie says this goes great with a Greek salad. I think you can also use it as an appetizer. Only problem I have with it is I don't usualy keep vodka on hand, but this is worth getting it.
I wish I could find the name of the cook behind this blog, but I can't. Anyway, a tip of the toque to her.

Cookbooks

What's your favorite cookbook? That's hard to answer. The one I rely on is an old Good Housekeeping cookbook that my mom had. It's lost it's front cover and spine and apparently the front matter, so I can't tell you the copyright date. But it's got all the basics--white sauce, roast a turkey, cuts of beef and how to cook them, tuna casserole--okay, nobody likes that any more except me. I also like my old edition of Joy of Cooking--my oldest son tried to convince me to let him buy me a new one so he could have the old one, but I refused. I like most of the Southern Living cookbooks, especially one on entertaining--yes, it too was Mom's. And there are others I go to for specific recipes: Calf Fries to Caviar for fruit salads, an old one I can't remember the title of for German potato salad, and so on.
But the one I treasure most is a book my brother brought me a while back: Tasty Treasures, compiled by The Women's Auxiliaries to the Chicago Osteopathic Hospital. There's no copyright or year given but I bet it was when I was about twelve or so, for it's my break into print: there's a recipe for "hot party dip" and there it is, in writing, my signature--Judy MacBain. Mom pretty much put this book together, and she's everywhere in it, though she thought it would look bad if she was there too often, so she called herself Penelope Jones. Penelope contributed such recipes as mushroom cheese caps--I fix those to this day and Jordan loves them. Penelope also suggested avocado mayonnaise: 1/2 of an avocado with 1 cup mayonnaise, salt and sugar to taste and 2 Tbsp. lemon juice. I'm pretty sure I'd cut out the sugar and at least use the whole avocado, if not two. Several of my aunts names appear, and I'll never know if Mom used their recipes or just their names. She also assumed the pen name of Gourmet Grace to give little cooking hints, such as: A zippy sauce for corned beef hash casserole: 2 Tbsp. chili sauce spices with a dash of Coleman's mustard. But nowhere could I find a recipe for corned beef hash casserole--even if I had wanted to. Gourmet Grace also suggests sprinkling sage on pork chops before baking them or "about 2 Tbsp. chopped anchovies spreaad over tomato filling for pizza is delectable." Now, I love anchovies--but is this my mother talking?
Mom included a few recipes under her own name and here's the best: Everlasting Rolls. It's great for those who think they can't make dinner rolls.

Mom's basic roll dough

2 pkg. granular yeast
1/2 c. warm water
Pinch of sugar
1 12-oz. can evaporated milk, plus enough water to make 4 cups (nowadays I use “light” milk)
1 scant c. vegetable oil
1 c. sugar
Dissolve yeast in water (add just a pinch of sugar to help the yeast work) and let it rise about five minutes. Mix milk and water, oil, and sugar. Add dissolved yeast. Stir in enough flour to make a thin batter, the consistency of cake batter. Let this rise in a warm place until bubbles appear on the surface (probably 1 hour—check it at 30 minutes).
Separately, mix
1 c. flour
1 tsp. salt (or less)
1 heaping tsp. baking powder
1 level tsp. baking soda
 Sift seasoned flour into first mixture. Keep adding flour until it is too stiff to stir with a spoon. Knead well. Don't let the dough get stiff with too much flour, or your rolls will be heavy. This dough will keep a week or so in the refrigerator but watch out--it grows and spreads.
This can be used for dinner rolls, either cloverleaf or rolled out, or coffee cakes. Mom's most popular use was for Christmas coffee cakes--more about that as the season nears.
And those cheese-stuffed mushrooms? Mix grated sharp cheddar, a bit of dry mustard, a dash of Worcestershire, chopped green onions, and enough mayonnaise to bind. Bake in a moderate overn until mushrooms are soft and cheese begins to brown. Enjoy!

How hungry are you?

Today is Blog Action Day. Bloggers all over the world are asked to take on a social issue. This year's topic is right up my interest alley--food.
Tonight my neighbors came for dinner. I fixed pasta with a subtle anchovy/lemon zest sauce. At the last minute you add 1 cup pasta cooking water and two egg yolks to make a "silky" sauce (it really was). I accompanied it with "slightly exotic roasted cauliflower salad" and pimiento cheese for an appetizer. We ate well and had wine to go with our meal. I eat well most days--often whatever strikes my fancy, from smoked salmon to creamed tuna, really rare hamburger patties to chicken salad. I'm spoiled. I can go to the freezer or fridge and decide on a whim what I want. Got a desperate craving? OK, I'll go to Central Market and pick up whatever delicacy I'm craving--maybe a lamb chop or Dover sole (do you know how much it costs in a restaurant vs. what you can cook it for at home?).
In spite of all this luxury at my disposal, in America in 2010 48.8 million Americans lived in "food insecure" homes--32.6 million adults and 16.2 million children, which means the latter weren't getting the nutrition they need to build healthy bodies and strong minds as they grow. I live in Texas, which second only to Misissippi, has the highest rate of food insecure homes. Don't think food insecurity--let's call a spade a spade, hunger--doesn't exist in your county, your city, even your neighbborhood. It's everywhere.
What can we do? I don't know, but I was raised to believe I am my brother's keeper. That means I support government programs that aid the poor--not welfare, because it's so badly administered--but health care, Head Start (which is now gone I think), school lunch programs, whatever it takes to feed the hungry. We worry about the millions starving in Africa and well we should, but we have to look out for those at home. Sometimes our charity gets such an international vision that we forget to look under our noses.
What can we as individuals do? Support the local food bank, look online at the food programs available and after checking them out, donate cautiously, support any program at the religious affiliation of your choice.
Just because you're well fed, don't assume everyone is.
No, I'm not going to eat bread and water in penance. In fact, I may have a little chocolate. But I want to and will do my part. How about you?

Eating alone and liking it

In spite of friends, family, and eating out a lot, I eat supper alone several nights a week. I manage to avoid some of the obvious pitfalls, such as cereal for dinner or overeating. And I do try to be creative, so that fixing and eating supper is fun. Sometimes I carry my supper for one to the front porch and watch the world go by. But you learn that there are some things you just don’t cook for one—like sheet cake! Even if you froze it in single-serving portions, it would last forever and you’d get very tired of it.
I asked other friends what they do about eating alone. One claims that it’s because she won’t cook for herself and eats out that she can’t lose weight. Another said, “When I want meatloaf, I cook it and portion it out in the freezer.” I was telling still another friend that someone asked me what you did when you wanted a rhubarb pie. (Since I’ve never made a rhubarb pie in my life, it’s a moot point; my mom made them, but I don’t particularly like rhubarb.) Anyway, my friend said when she was divorced and single, she baked a rhubarb pie, ate the whole thing herself, and thought how wonderful it was not to have to share it!
Someone suggested that the freezer is a single person’s best friend, but I countered with: “Or your worst enemy.” If you freeze a lot of leftovers, you end up with stuff that you don’t want to eat but feel you should. Remember that your mom always told you, “Waste not, want not.” Freezing often doesn’t improve the quality of food—just the opposite. I admit that if I get a yen for sloppy Joe or tuna Florentine, I fix it and freeze it—but too often I throw away much of the leftovers.
I have a partial solution for that: buy a vacuum food saver. Remember the Save-a-Meal machines of the ’70s? They sealed food into a plastic bag so that you could freeze it. Trouble is, they left all that air in with the food, and eventually ice crystals formed on it—a sure sign the food is no good. The food saver draws the air out and essentially cryovacs the food. It’s great for saving meat—for instance, if you buy a pack of four chicken breasts and only cook one. Food-save the other three individually (the plastic comes in rolls, so you create the size bag you need). Save leftovers, or use the food saver to preserve that really good piece of cheese you bought for a dinner party but didn’t completely use. (Don’t freeze the cheese—just keeping air from it will keep that white mold from forming on it.) If you’re really smart about using this machine and have the accessories, you can save red wine in the bottle or put things in special jars. (I’m not that smart).
One word, though, about the freezer and food-saving: the airtight seal doesn’t last forever, so don’t leave leftovers too long, and keep an eye on them. I have two serving-size portions of lamb in the freezer as I write; the seal has broken down, and ice crystals are on the meat. I’ll probably pitch them, though right now I just keep eyeing them and choosing something else. (My mother used to think I was far too willing to pitch leftovers.)
Baked goods don’t work well in the machine—bread, for instance, gets squished because the machine draws air out of the bread as well as the bag. Bread freezes nicely in regular baggies, so you can keep a loaf for a long while. (My kids dispute this and want to refrigerate it, but I insist that it gets stale in the fridge.) When Megan bought a food saver, Brandon tried to “save” everything in the refrigerator. She reported that it was an absolute failure with scallions, which subsequently had to be thrown out. Use some common sense here!
But even with a food saver, leftovers can be discouraging. If you bake lasagna, eat your portion—or maybe three portions in a week—that’s still a freezer full of lasagna. So save the lasagna for when the kids come home—or go to the best Italian restaurant you know.
When you cook for yourself, you have to get rid of some long-held notions. One is that “Waste not, want not” dictum that sings like a refrain in our heads. When you cook for one, you’re going to waste some food—just pitch it with a clear conscience. It’s not waste on the scale that you’d waste food if you cooked for a family of six and had unusable leftovers. Reconcile yourself to both discarding some food and eating the same thing two nights in a row. (If it’s good, that shouldn’t be a problem.)
A lot of recipes can be reduced to serve two, but it’s sometimes hard to reduce them to a single serving. So eat salmon burgers or some other delicacy two nights in a row if you don’t want to freeze the other burger.
The other caveat is that you have to learn to shop at a grocery that has a good butcher. I bet you don’t buy meat or fish from the butcher because it’s more expensive. But you’re only cooking for one! It’s not that much more expensive. It’s better to ask the butcher for one chicken breast than to buy four in a package and have those leftovers. Or use chicken cutlets or tenders instead of a package of breasts. I’ve been told that the chicken in those pre-packs of four has already been frozen and defrosted; if you take it home and freeze it, you’re freezing chicken that is already on its way to getting old.
Want salmon? Buy a one-serving piece.
Some random ideas:
■ Toss cooked tiny pasta with Parmesan, pepper, and a little heavy cream. Add a little chopped parsley for color (even the dried kind).
■ Ask the butcher for one or two small lamb chops (if you like lamb) or one pork chop.
■ Make an individual pizza, using a flour tortilla as the crust. Top with whatever you want. One I like: spread pesto over the tortilla and top with roasted veggies and goat cheese. Or try a topping of creamed spinach, artichoke hearts, chopped Roma tomatoes, and Parmesan. Invent your own! Bake at 400º, but watch closely so the tortilla doesn’t burn.
■ Buy those frozen hash browns that can be resealed. Then if you have leftover turkey, for instance, you can make turkey hash. Use bottled or dehydrated turkey gravy to bind together and spice it up with a little garlic powder, Worcestershire, onion, etc.
■ Buy sliced turkey in the deli and put it on toast. Cover with cheese sauce or Alfredo sauce and broil. Top with cooked bacon and a tomato slice.
■ Some things in the produce department—spinach, broccoli, beans, mushrooms—come loose, so you can buy whatever amount you want. Asparagus doesn’t, and that troubled me for a while. It’s so expensive, but it’s so good. Now I buy a pack of very fresh asparagus (did you know it should be standing in water and not lying on a shelf?) and then I eat it all week—with lemon butter, on buttered toast, chunked up in salad, or even plain.

The joys of being a Foodie

No, not the "Foodies" who work at Central Market, though that might be fun too. I've considered it and decided my back and feet couldn't stand those concrete floors for eight hours. I mean the kind of foodie I am--someone who loves to cook and eat. One of the joys is anticipation. I've been a planner all my life, and I used to make lists of what I'd serve the kids each night for the coming week--how else did I know what to buy at the grocery? Now, living alone and eating alone a lot but not all the time, I'm still not the kind of person who wanders into the kitchen at six o'clock saying, "Hmmm. Wonder what's for dinner?" At the very least I pull something out of the freezer at noon. Once on Halloween at my oldest daughter's house we made it to the kitchen at 8:30 and I asked, "What's for dinner?" I was appalled when she said, "I have no idea." I scrambled--she had jarred spaghetti sauce, which I sparked up, a meat patty with jalopenos, and spaghetti plus salad greens. We ate late but well.
But today I really had lunch and supper in my mind, and I ate meals most of my family would shun--though a few would love (well, maybe not the eggplant!). For lunch, I knew yesterday I would have lox, cream cheese, red onion and tomato on toast (I don't really like bagels). Jordan had a tuna salad sandwich and Jacob refused the chicken slices smeared with cream cheese and wrapped around cheddar sticks--didn'tlike the chicken.
For dinner, I had pulled an old page out of my Entrees Tried folder. It has two recipes and the one I tried tonight was tuna tonnato with eggplant salad. I adjusted and substituted as I saw fit and here's what I did:

Eggplant salad
Baked a small eggplant at 400 for 30 minutes and let it cool.
Skinned and chopped eggplant. Added chopped garlic (about a large clove), coarsely chopped parsley, lemon zest (I like a lot, so I probably used two tsp), about a tsp red wine vinegar. Put it all in the blender. What I did wrong: blended it too much so it was eggplant dip instead of salad. To give it a little crunch, I added diced cucumber.

Tonnato sauce:
I opened one of my cans of that special Pisces tuna (7.5) oz. and put maybe a quarter of a can in the blender. Added an anchovy filet (two wouldn't have been too much), a small amount of mayonnaise, lemon juice, a tsp of capers, and a generous splash of olive oil. Blend until a paste.

To serve:
Layer eggplant salad, tuna, tonnato sauce, toasted bread cubes  (I left those out), halved cherry tomatoes sprinkled with chopped mint (my front porch herb garden comes in handy). Drizzle it all with olive oil.

No, it wasn't the best thing I've ever eaten, but it was interesting and the flavors blended well. There are some strong flavors there--the eggplant, the tonnato sauce--but no one overshadowed the others. You're supposed to serve this in a wide-mouth jar--for cute effect, I guess--but I just used a plain old bowl. Actually, for company, it would be fun to use jars but that's another day.
The other recipe on that magazine page layers haricots vert, egg salad, arugula and smoked salmon. I love the combination of egg salad and smoked salmon, so I'll do that soon, maybe tomorrow.

Hardly Homemade

My guest blogger today is Polly Hooper, a member of my memoir writing class and a neighbor. From the goodies that Polly has brought to our class meetings, I know she means what she says aboiut delicious but hardly homemade food.

Semi-homemade may be trademarked by a television personality on the food channel but it could be my mantra.  Don’t get me wrong, I am a decent cook and loved cooking all day to prepare a special meal when I was much younger.  I got my own apartment at nineteen after landing my first decent-paying full time job and decided to have my family over for dinner.  I had never cooked an entire meal in my life, but how hard could it be?  I settled on sweet and sour pork.  I had ordered it at a restaurant recently and was sure it was the meal to impress my guests.  My roommate was from Mexia, Texas—a real farm girl who was raised to cook for her many younger siblings.  She found me distraught in our kitchen when she came home late from a date.  I was attempting to carve a raw pork roast into cubes to dredge in flour and fry.  I had a dull knife and a hunk of meat with some fat and gristle that would not budge.  I had carved some interesting pieces—thankfully Mae caught me just in time.  She took over with a different knife and made short work of cutting nearly perfect cubes.  Heading off to bed, she issued a stern warning about making sure the grease wasn’t too hot and said she had better not find flour and grease all over the kitchen in the morning.  Crisis averted!   The meal turned out fine if not a gourmet wonder, but I learned to be better prepared and start my cooking career with some simpler dishes.

These days although I still love good tasting and beautifully prepared food, I have so many other interests I just can’t spare the time.  So, I take shortcuts like most of us do in the twenty-first century.  Rotisserie chicken from the grocery store?  Check.  Deli prepared sides from Central Market? Check.  Restaurant takeout for the main course of a dinner party?  Check! Check!  Give me easy four or five ingredient recipes and carefully selected items to save me time, and I am a genius in the kitchen.  Well, that may overstate it a bit.

My four sisters and I frequently share recipes in our daily emails, and sometimes we include pictures.  One sister copied this idea from a catered event she hosted and now it is my special appetizer too.  Go to Costco and buy marinated mozzarella balls and some cherry tomatoes, getting the red and the yellow if available.  Stop by the grocery store and pick up some fresh basil and the party store for toothpicks with frilly ends. 

Bite Size Insalata Caprese

Tub of Costco’s marinated mozzarella balls

Fresh basil
Cherry tomatoes
Cut each tomato in half and place one half the toothpick.  Add one mozzarella ball and a folded basil leaf, ending with the other half of the tomato. Be sure to arrange them on your serving dish with all the frilly ends going the same direction.  These should be made right before you plan to serve as they are best served at room temperature and tomatoes don’t fare well when refrigerated.

 So yummy.  Add a bowl of hummus, some pita chips, the adult drink of your choice, and you have a party! 

One of my favorite go-to recipes involves buying prepared Rotisserie Chicken Salad from Costco(again! I wish they would put one on my side of town!).  I also buy a bag of dried cranberries, some celery, and pecans.

Sour Cream Cranberry Chicken Salad with Pecans

Rotisserie Chicken Salad from Costco (1 clear clamshell container)

1 bunch of celery finely chopped
½ cup chopped pecans
1 cup dried cranberries
Sour cream to taste
Mix all ingredients and chill.  Line a platter with lettuce leaves and place the chicken salad on top to serve.

It is a hit every time.  I like to serve it with fruit I buy already cut up and a green salad.  Actually Costco also has a delightful spinach salad kit that gives you no reason to make your own but you should use only use half the dressing they provide.   Voila!  A summertime meal in very little time.  When it is my turn to host Bunco or Pokeno, I am ready!

The Awful Anchovy

When I announced I was starting a food blog I included anchovies in the topics I might write about, and someone wrote and said, "Please don't ruin Caesar salad for me!" I hope I won't ruin anything for anybody but will give you a better understanding of the woefully unappreciated anchovy. I have eaten plates of white anchovies as tapas. I also eat an anchovy fillet out of the can on a cracker, but I can understand not many people want to do that. Anchovies are strong and salty fish, even those small fillets that come in a can, covered with oil, either rolled around a caper or flat (anchovies are often combined with capers in recipes). But mostly anchovies are used sparingly to heighten flavor and you may not have any idea they're there--like Caesar salad. Do you like Green Goddes dressing? Usually has anchovies in it. My youngest daughter wouldn't touch an anchovy, but she loves a pork, chicken, and prosciutto roulade I do--in between the layers is a sauce of green peppercorns, garlic, olive oil, parsley, fresh basil, and a half can (that's a lot!) of anchovy fillets, drained.
Some notes about anchovies: if you soak them in cool water for 30 minutes, drain and pat dry, some of the saltiness goes away. If you make a salad dressing or something similar with them, be aware that it's like serrano chilis in adobe sauce--they just get stronger. Most recipes call for two to four anchovy fillets--and there you are with a whole can; if they're packed in oil, seal them air-tight and refrigerate for up to two months.
My appalling collection of recipes has ideas for including anchovies in a cream cheese/sour cream dip along with capers, choped onion, garlic, and chives. Just use four anchovy fillets if you use an 8 oz. pkg of cream cheese and a cup of sour cream. Or put them between layers when you make scalloped potatoes. Or toss them, rinsed and minced, with cooked broccoli flowerets, minced garlic, olive oil and an optional bit of dried red pepper flakes. Serve that hot or cold.
My former neighbor and still good friend, Sue Boggs, gave me her favorite salad dressing recipe (her own invention, I think):
Juice of 1 lemon
Two Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar (I use chardonnay vinegar a lot--maybe because I drink chardonnay)
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
Dash of Worcestershire
2 anchovies, ground into paste
1/8 c. fresh ground Parmesan cheese
Three turns of fresh groudn peppercorns
Delicious when first served, but I let it sit a few days after that, then served it to Jordan, Christian, and my neighbor Jay. Jay didn't touch his salad, and the others complained it was fishy. "What did you do to it?" Oh, well.
Jay gave me an appetizer recipe that is superb:
Smoked Salmon Tartare
 2 anchovy fillets, chopped
2 tsp. roasted garlic paste (sprinkle olive oil over about four garlic cloves, seal in foil, and roast 45 minutes @ 350; cool, peel, and mash)
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 c. sour cream
2 tsp. fresh lime juice
1/2 lb. smoked salmon. diced
1 small jalopeno, seeded and minced (I probably omitted it when I made this)
1/4 c. finely chopped red onion
1 Tbsp. capers, drained and coarsely chopped if they are large
1 Tbsp. finely chopped cilantro plus leaves for garnish
salt and pepper to taste
Serve with corn chips
Mash anchovies with garlic paste, cumin, and olive oil. Stir in sour cream and lime joice. Fold in smoked salmon, jalopeno, red onion, capers and chopped cilantro. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Keeps 1 day refrigerated. Ideally you lay chips on a platter, top each with a dollop of the tartare and then cilantro leaves to garnish. I just put out a bowl of salmon tartare and a bowl of chips. So much easier.
I have several recipes for pasta with anchovies. Here's one of my favorites. If you want more, write me at j.alter@tcu.edu or leave a comment on this blog:
Spaghetti with fried capers and anchovies
Ever fried capers? They pop, brown, and shrivel, and then they're crispy and delicious. In this dish, I actually tasted the capers more than the anchovies, once again proving that anchovies add accent rather than being the main, dominant flavor.
1/3 c. olive oil
1/2 c. capers, drained and rinsed, dried as much as possible
Fry the capers in pre-heated olive oil at high heat, about four minutes.
6 anchovy fillets
1 garlic clove, mined
1 Tbsp. finely grated lemon zest
1/3 c. olive oil
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon j uice
Crushed red pepper if desired
1 lb. spaghetti or fettucine
Parmesan cheese to taste
Cook spaghetti. While it's cooking, put anchovies, garlic and lemon zest in food processor--it will make a thick paste. In bowl stir together paste, parsley, olive oil, lemon juice, fried capers and red pepper. I like to add the Parmesan but use a light hand so it doesn't overwhem the sauce.
Drain spaghetti, add caper/anchovy mixture and toss.
Hope you still like your Caesar salad and will try some of these ideas.