Like Socks in a Dryer

On the left are the two measuring spoons I have been using for the past several years. The tablespoon and the 1/2 teaspoon. They were once part of a beautiful set, but alas, over the years, the rest of the set has wandered to parts unknown. For my birthday, I have a brand-new set, which I refuse to liberate from their ring, lest they, like their predecessors drift off. You may find the recipes to be just a smidge more accurate going forward as estimating is no longer required.

Birthday Cake

Truth: I have had the same birthday cake every year since my very first birthday.
I have never made this cake myself. My mother does it, with love, as she always has.

It is delicious.

Just as a great birthday cake should be, it is moist. It is not so chocolatey as to coat your mouth (just the cheeks of a one year old). It can be iced with chocolate or as I request now, mocha. It's simple, basic, tasty - what storebought cake mixes are trying so desperately to replicate.
Also, it's incredibly easy.

I'm simply going to pass along my mother's recipe and her comments, unedited, because really, mother knows best.

BIRTHDAY CAKE AND FROSTING
Ultimate Chocolate Cake -
This came from one of those hippie parenting books. It is made in one pan, with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of taste. It was a great book with all sorts of crafts and activities for having fun with kids.

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 C evaporated milk (no, it is not the whole can; you are just going to have to make two cakes!)
1 t vinegar
4 squares chocolate (1 square = 1 oz) I use a combo of semi-sweetened and unsweetened or whatever I have on had. Who knows what it was meant to be?
1/2 C butter, cut into pieces
1 C boiling water
2 C flour
2 C sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 t baking SODA
1/2 t vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

In a bowl, combine 1/2 C evaporated milk, 1 t vinegar. In a sauce pan, combine 4 squares chocolate, 1/2 C butter, 1 C boiling water. Stir until melted. Add the canned milk/vinegar. Stir again. Add 2 C flour, 2 eggs, 1 1/2 t baking SODA, 1/2 t vanilla. Beat well with a wooden spoon. Pour into two greased and floured cake pans. Bake 35-40 min at 375 degrees.

Mocha Icing

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 C sweet butter (I use regular butter; sweet butter is w/out salt)
2 1/2 C confectioner's sugar
2 T cocoa
2 T hot coffee
1/2 t vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Cream butter. Add sugar gradually, beating well between additions. As it becomes thick, add cocoa. Add hot coffee and vanilla. Continue to beat until light and fluffy and thick enough to spread. Use for filling and to frost top and sides of cold cake.

Do not eat it or there will not be enough to cover the cake.

Butter Frosting (CHOCOLATE!)
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 C butter
3 C confectioner's sugar
4 T evaporated milk
3 T cocoa
1 T vanilla

DIRECTIONS: Cream butter. Add remaining ingredients and beat til fluffy.

These (frosting recipes) are from The Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedia Cookbook- the new revised deluxe edition. I think you already have a picture of it on your blog. My mother's was bound neatly.Published 1950. Apparently, as in the case of Nana, it was available earlier in segmented sections, including Your Leftovers; Your Canning, Freezing and Preserving; Your Lunch Box; Your Quick Dinners for the Woman in a Hurry. I think the segments were in the supermarket and you could buy one a week or month or whatever and then they sold a wire apparatus so you could clip them into a neat little binder. It was my mother's bible, but then again, she didn't really like to cook!

Christmas in June

One of my absolute favorite Christmas movies is the hard to find Remember the Night. It's rarely shown due to the lack of a pure Hollywood ending and the embarrassing presence of a butler character, Rufus, that by today's standards is pretty offensive.

But still, how can I resist Barbara Stanwyck playing a bad girl to Fred MacMurray's wholesome Indiana farm boy who made good as a big city lawyer? So every single year (I'm not using hyberbole, I'm sorry to say) on Christmas Eve I make my family watch this movie with me.

The movie has two major food moments, one involving sandwiches made by the aforementioned Rufus and the other where Barbara Stanwyck learns to make popovers. I cannot tell you the cravings induced by watching, year after year, as she pops them out of the pan and onto a plate.

At some point, I insisted on getting a popover pan of my own. It's not Christmas, and I'm not trying to win a man's heart by way of his stomach, but I am well prepared should either occaision arise.

popovers shown with baked eggs

POPOVERS
(ingredients courtesy of Epicurious)

INGREDIENTS:
2 large eggs
3/4 C milk
1/4 C water
1 T unsalted butter, melted
1 C minus 2 T flour
1/2 t salt

DIRECTIONS:
Put your EMPTY popover pan in your oven. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees (with the pan in it). Mix together the flour and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and water. Melt the butter and allow to cool slightly. Add to the liquid ingredients while whisking. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix. There will be small lumps, this is okay. Take the HOT pan out of the oven and butter the the pan. I do this by unwrapping a stick of butter, holding it by the wrapper at one end and just wiping inside each popover holder place. After buttering, divide the mixture evenly between the six popover wells. Return to oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove and poke a sharp knife once in each popover's center. They will deflate slightly and some steam with escape. Return to the oven for 10 more minutes. They will reinflate and have a nice crust. You should be able to turn them out of the pan easily with a knife when they're done. Popovers are a bit like a souffle in that they will deflate if you open and close that oven door, so NO peeking.

Obsession

"I could cry salty tears;
Where have I been all these years?
Little wow, tell me now:
How long has this been going on?...

Oh I feel I could melt;
Into Heaven I'm hurled!
I know how Columbus felt,
finding another world."
-George Gershwin

If you've spoken to me anytime in the past month, it's probable that you've heard me waxing rhapsodic about the monte cristo sandwich. Maybe I haven't actually quoted Gershwin to you, but yes, I am enraptured.

I think about this monte cristo all the time. How is it possible, that I have never before had one? I was practically raised on grilled cheese. I have more than a passing fancy for croque monsieur (even croque madame, which seriously, if you're ever in New York, you must go to Pastis and order because it is completely sensational.) So why has the monte cristo eluded me so? I do not know, but I will not allow others to suffer. Behold:

MONTE CRISTO SANDWICH
makes 2, from epicurious
traditionally monte cristos involve either turkey or ham deli meat. This has neither and does not suffer a bit for the loss.

INGREDIENTS:
4 slices good crusty bread (slightly stale is okay)
Swiss cheese (regular swiss, or emmentaler, or gruyere would all be delightful)
approximately 2 large eggs or equivalent in eggbeaters (depending on how thick and stale your bread, you may need more)
1 T water
1.5 t mustard PER Sandwich
1 large tomato - sliced
salt and pepper
2-4 T butter

DIRECTIONS:
Whisk together your egg with the water and some salt and pepper. Carefully dip each slice of bread in the egg mixture until it absorbs the egg. Place on a plate. Smear mustard on one side of each sandwich. Layer on the swiss cheese and tomato and top with other slice of bread. In a large pan, melt the butter on medium high heat. When you flip a drop of water in the pan and it sizzles, it's ready. Place the sandwiches in the pan, and weight the top down with a flat lid, plate or bottom of another pan. Cook for 4 minutes, reduce heat if it starts to smoke. Flip carefully, and cook for more minutes (weight the top of the sandwiches again) then remove, cut in half and serve.

Inheritance

When I was about 13, my parents took me to France. We spent much time driving in order to see the sights, which in my teenaged opinion included far too many walled cities. We saw St. Malo, Avignon, Aigue Mortes, Eze, so many more, from the impressive Carcassonne to tiny little towns; it seemed that every where we went was enclosed in medieval fortifications. I complained (possibly loudly and bitterly) about how incredibly sick I was of walled cities. But there was something I did not complain about. Not at all. That inside each walled city, there was inenvitably a patisserie. And my father had a personal mission, which required my personal expertise: to try every available tarte citron (lemon tart) in the search for the very best, most lemony tart in all of France. You see, I come by my love of lemon completely honestly. I live a relatively tart deprived existance these days, but for a real lemon fix, I turn to the source, where my father probably developed his taste for lemon in the first place, my nana's lemon bars.

Nana's Lemon Bars

Ingredients:
Base -
1/3 C powdered sugar
1 1/2 C flour
3/4 C butter (although my nana uses margarine, and I had a slight problem with the base being too crumbly and she does not)

Lemony Top -
3 eggs
1 C sugar
1/2 C lemon juice
3 T flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Mix together the powdered sugar, flour and butter as though you were making a pie crust. It will be very crumbly, sort of like sand. Take a 9x13 pan and line it well with tin foil. Grease it well. Do not skim. Make sure your foil comes up high on the sides, because later, if you get any of the lemon mixture between the foil and pan, it will act as glue, and you will not be happy. Press the crust down into the pan, trying to make sure it is level. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 F.

Beat together the 3 eggs until lemony. Mix the sugar and flour together and add to the eggs. Add the lemon juice. Mix well and when the crust is done, pour on top. Return to the oven for 25 minutes. Cool. Sprinkle with more confectioner's sugar.

Product Placement: Minute Maid Lemonade

If your part of the country is anything like mine, it's gray, humid and vaguely chilly. So perhaps this isn't the most timely recommendation I've ever made, but you know, this weekend it seemed like a great idea, and I'm hopeful that maybe next weekend things will return to their previously warm and sunny state. Warm and sunny enough that you'll find yourself craving a nice, cool pitcher of lemonade...
If this does happen, I suggest reaching in your freezer and pulling out a little can. I know, I know, it's not homemade. Other than the stirring in water part. But homemade lemonade is a commitment I just can't handle. I've always been partial to minute maid's lemonade. I like the flexibility. You get to choose to add slightly more or less water depending on your personal tartness preferences. Also, extra cans take up minimal space in the freezer, which means you never need to be without one. Who doesn't like backup?

C is for Cookie

Lent has been over for more than a month, and yet I have barely restocked my cupboard with sweets. I've been busy with other things, like rehabing my still very messed up ankle, traveling to see relatives, throwing bridal showers and avoiding swine flu. You know, the basics. But after a week of pathetic wallowing where my poor husband made dinner, took care of my dog and was basically wonderful in every way, I thought I should finally get off my sorry self-pitying backside and do something for him. So I made cookies. Yummy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. And in the interest of mending fences (or abandoned blogs as the case may be) I will share some cookies with you.

PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
from The Best of the Best

Ingredients:
1.5 C flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 C butter
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C smooth peanut butter
1 egg (or equivalent in egg beaters)
1/2 C broken salted peanuts (not dry-roasted)
*so - I've never seen these so-called salted not dry-roasted peanuts, perhaps my grocer is lacking in the peanut department or they are a figment of the original recipe writers imagination. I've been using UN-salted dry-roasted peanuts because that's what I can find. I add a healthy pinch of salt to the recipe to make up for it. The cookies are still very tasty.
1/2 C chocolate chips

Directions:
Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda (and salt if needed) in a medium bowl and set aside. Cream together the butter, brown sugar, regular sugar and peanut butter (seriously easier with a mixer). Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Add the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated. Add the peanuts and chocolate chips and mix well.

Chill the dough in the fridge for one hour. I do this even though I'm not convinced that the dough is sticky enough to warrant it. At some point in the chilling process go preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Once chilled flour your hands and roll 1" balls of cookie. Place them on a silpat mat on your cookie sheet (if you have no silpat mat, try foil sprayed with cooking spray). Leave the cookies about 2 inches apart. Use the bottom of a flat glass to flatten your cookies (mine still end up starting at a little less than a 1/2" thick.) Bake 12 minutes and cool on a rack. Don't try to transfer these to a rack immediately wait a few minutes or they'll fall apart.

Why Buy? Pancakes

With all that we have going on in our busy lives, it's no wonder people turn to pre-made, pre-packed, already prepared foods. But pancake mix baffles me. I've been in well-stocked kitchens and had the chef announce that they were out of pancake mix and sadly there would be no pancakes for breakfast. I know it may take awhile for this to sink in for some people, but you don't need the mix. Pancakes are easy to make, even from scratch. And still tasty! Just think, you'll be able to impress that impromptu overnight guest without excusing yourself to run out to the mini-mart or wrecking the inimate mood by heading to the nearest diner.

These pancakes come to you via Jane, who I believe is the ex (girlfriend? wife?) of an old friend of my parents (Tom?) that I'm pretty sure I've never met. Jane may not have made it for the long haul, but her pancakes certainly did.

JANE'S PANCAKES
serves 2 (makes 4 small-medium pancakes) go ahead and double (triple? quadruple?) if you're cooking for a crowd.
recipe by Jane, via my mother


INGREDIENTS:
3/4 C milk
1 egg
2 T melted butter (plus an extra couple T for the pan)
1 C flour
2 T sugar
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt

DIRECTIONS:
Melt the butter in the microwave and set aside to cool a bit. In a bowl mix your dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt). In another bowl (I just use my Pyrex measuring cup) mix the milk, egg and now cool butter. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients all at once. Stir just enough that the dry mixture is throughly incorporated. It won't be lump free by any means, but there shouldn't be any nasty floury pockets either. Use a large pan or skillet. On my gas stove, medium low is quite hot enough, but yours may vary. Melt a tablespoon of butter in the pan, making sure the whole surface is covered. Once the surface is hot and buttered, use a measuring cup to pour in some pancake batter. I used 1/2 C measurer for medium pancakes, I think the 1 C would make pan sized ones. Watch the pancakes closely. Little bubbles will form and pop on the top side of the pancakes. This took about 3 minutes for me. When the very first few start to form, this is when you would normally add any chocolate chips, blueberries or other tasty morsels. When there are lots of little bubbles, it's time to flip (like I said, this was 3 minutes for me). Flip (TIP: the larger the spatula the better). The second side needs much less time, maybe 1-2 minutes. Remove and place on a plate. You can keep these in an oven set to warm until everyone's are ready. Repeat until they're all cooked. See? Most of that was the cooking part, and you'd have to do that with the mix anyway. Top with syrup, fresh berries, preserves, whipped cream, butter, whatever you want!!

Behind the Curtain

Given that I go through phases of infrequent posting I've often wondered what you all think I'm doing about food during those times. Do you picture me huddled over a bucket of KFC or microwaving my Lean Cuisine? Slathering two slices of bread with peanut butter and jelly ready to smack together a sandwich? Dining out at top restaurants?

The truth is neither damning nor glamorous. Most of the time, I'm making something I've already posted on the blog, dashing back and forth between the computer and the kitchen. Sometimes I'm trying to be patient and focused enough to write you a recipe for something I make and haven't told you about. Once a week I am eating out, although rarely glamorously.

And sometimes, I'm making this -

It's technically called Spaghetti alla Ceci, but around here we refer to it as Chickpea Pasta. It's not fancy or all that pretty to look at, but it is seriously fast to make and tasty.

CHICKPEA PASTA
from Rachael Ray's Expresslane Meals. Okay so a little damning.

INGREDIENTS:
1 lb pasta (I use spaghetti)
salt
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 can chickpeas drained and rinsed
3 to 4 cloves garlic
1/2 t dried thyme
1/2 C dry white wine (or vermouth) or chicken stock
red pepper flakes (1/2 t to 1 t depending on how spicy you like things)
black pepper
1 14oz can crushed tomatoes

DIRECTIONS:
Boil the water for pasta. When the water boils, cook your spaghetti according to the directions on the box. Meanwhile, mince your garlic. In a large saucepan, add the olive oil and over low heat saute the garlic until golden. Add the red pepper flakes. Pulse your chickpeas in a food processor until they're finely chopped, but not pure mush. Add the chickpeas to the garlic and red pepper. Add thyme, salt and pepper and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the wine and cook for 30 seconds to let the alcohol burn off. Add the tomatoes. Heat through. Serve over the pasta.

Lazy, Lazy, Stir Crazy

I am B-O-R-E-D. I have spent today at home courtesy of the lovely March snow, and I have barely budged from my sofa and now I'm BORED. So just in case you are housebound like me and have spent hours clicking on everything you ever bookmarked online or hitting refresh on your browser while hoping desperately that someone has e-mailed you, here's a little something to perk you up. If you haven't started making dinner you can even use it as an excuse to get off your lazy butt. Not that you're lazy. That's probably just me.


In the interest of fighting boredom I present you with my mother's list of ingredients recipe for enchiladas, with some slight modifications (including directions, which she did not include). These are not restaurant quality enchiladas. I made those once from a Cook's Illustrated recipe and it took a few hours and about half the dishes I own and a strainer. We still have them occasionally, but Ryan makes them, because I refused. So yeah, not best-restaurant-I've-eaten-in quality. They are however easy, tasty and good home cooking.

CHICKEN ENCHILADAS:

INGREDIENTS:

FOR SAUCE:
1 C broth (use whatever broth matches your main ingredient if possible - beef broth for beef chicken broth for chicken)
1.5 C chopped canned tomatoes
1/2 t garlic powder
4 T chili powder (feel free to up this if you like more spice, I was running out)
1 t cumin
2 T cornstarch (I have never in my life cooked with cornstarch. I usually make a slurry, but I could not even begin to tell anyone how to make a slurry so buy some cornstarch and make things easy on yourself.)

FOR FILLING:
1/2 C chopped yellow onion
3 garlic cloves minced
1 lb chicken sliced thin
1/3 C chopped black olives
1 C sauce (see above)
1 C cheddar cheese

TOPPING/ENCHILADAS
1 package flour torillas
1 C cheddar cheese (additional to what's in the filling)
sauce (whatever's left after you've used the 1 C for the filling)
sour cream

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Combine the broth, tomatoes, garlic powder, chili powder, cumin and cornstarch in a small saucepan. Cook on medium high heat until it thickens and reduces. I'm not sure how long this will take as I used a different thickening method, but it should reduce by about a third and the sauce should be thick enough that it leaves a coating on a spoon. Lower or turn off heat and set aside.

In a nonstick pan, saute the garlic and onion in a tablespoon of olive oil, until golden, about 3 minutes. Add the chicken and cook for about 6 minutes, turning once, so that it is mostly white, not pink. Add 1 C of the sauce you made and the olives. Cook the chicken in the sauce for about another 4 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Using leftover cooked poultry? Just add the cooked meat to the garlic and onion and toss with sauce, only heat up until the meat is warm again.

Find a large baking dish, my 9 1/2 x 11 was too small. Along the bottom, smear some of the remaining sauce. Lay down a tortilla. Scoop 1/3 C of enchilada filling into the tortilla and give it a good sprinkling of cheddar.



Fold up the right edge like so:


Then fold it over one more time so the seam side is facing down. Continue until you've filled your whole pan with enchiladas. Take whatever sauce you have left and combine it with any of the saucy bits left from your filling and pour this all over the enchiladas in the pan. It is very important that the tortillas have sauce over all of them or they will become hard and yucky in the oven. After the sauce, sprinkle the remaining cup of cheddar over the top like this.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Top with a dollop of sour cream.