For Boston

Today I read an article somewhere in the great internets about how the current generation is so self-absorbed that they tend to co-opt tragedy as their own.  They regale people with stories of how they could have been there at the site of the tragedy du jour.  There but for the grace of God...

This Boston tragedy was not mine.  It belonged to others, some near and dear to me who were at the scene of the bombings.  Others I've known and cared about over the years.  But it could not have happened to me.  I have been a long time gone from that city.  But in a time when the Yankees are playing Sweet Caroline to honor Boston, certainly I can say that in my heart of hearts, Boston you're my home.

And that my heart is breaking for all of those who have no need to co-opt tragedy, because it is their own.  Because it came right up to their doors and into their homes. Should you want to help, rather than retell your own plans to someday maybe run the marathon, check out charity navigator's advice on ways to donate.

And since you came here for food (you did come here for food, right?) rather than lectures on how to properly handle your reactions to crisis, how about a recipe from The New England Clam Shack Cookbook for some delicious scallops?  It's a much better way to feel like an honorary New Englander.

Verdict:  If I have any common sense, I'll get this in regular rotation in time for the summer.  Curing homesickness through cooking is something I definitely sign on for.




PAN-SEARED SCALLOPS
modified slightly from The New England Clam Shack Cookbook

INGREDIENTS:
1 lb sea scallops - select scallops that aren't sitting in a lot of liquid, scallops are better when dry.  Also pick ones that haven't started to separate
1/4  t salt
1/4 t sugar
1/2 t thyme
1/8 t garlic powder
1/8 t onion powder
olive oil
lemon wedges

DIRECTIONS:
Mix together the salt, sugar, thyme, garlic powder and onion powder.  Heat a cast-iron pan to medium high and add a bit of olive oil, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan (I used a paper towel to help smear it around and make sure I didn't have too much oil).  Pat your scallops dry and then sprinkle them top and bottom with the seasoning mix.  When the pan is hot, place the scallops in the pan, not touching.  Cook for 2-3 minutes on the first side, then if they are golden brown, flip and cook for 2-4 minutes on the other side.  Cooked scallops should be more opaque than when they started, firm to the touch and have those nice golden edges.  Garnish with lemon wedges (you know, so you can squeeze lemon on them).

Hamburger Hybrid

When I went to high school in the early nineties, it was enormously on trend to be vegetarian.  Always one for half-measures, I did not join my friends in this, but went for the far more conservative "no red meat" stance.  Of course, when I went away to college, land of the inedible food, this was something of a liability.  For the first few months of school I subsisted entirely on a diet of hot buttered rice and apple jacks.  The food offerings of the few dining halls that served Freshman were as far from my mother's gourmet kitchen as you could possibly conceive.  At one point a group of boys in my dorm even got me a pizza from the outside because they were so concerned I might starve.  Slowly, slowly I began to introduce more foods:  chicken nuggets from the kosher kitchen downstairs, baked ziti from the mostly vegetarian cafe, salads from (urban legend has it) the longest salad bar in the state, and my dear dear friend the grilled cheese on white bread.  But midway through freshman year there was an exciting announcement! We were getting turkey burgers!  I cannot even begin to explain to you how revolutionary this was.  They were these little brown lumps on soft soft buns and you would have to wait to get a nice fresh one that a) didn't have time to get condensation on the plate, because you don't want a soggy bun and b) came with melted cheese. With that mouth-watering description I'm sure you'll have a hard time understanding why, during my sophomore year, I started eating red meat again.  As bleak as Freshman food options may have been, those available to the rest of the school were bountiful.  My friends and I favored a place that sold chicken wings (entirely too messy for any college girl to risk eating in public), grilled chicken sandwiches and beautiful, juicy burgers.  I remember staring at the menu full of pathos and longing when a friend said "Seriously, just GET one."  I was nothing if not a pushover, so I ordered a bacon cheese burger.  It quickly became a staple of my sophomore year diet.  These days I don't get much red meat anymore, but there's no reason for my turkey burgers to be sad specimens like the ones offered by my freshman dining hall.  Now they're juicy, flavorful and topped with bacon and cheddar.  I kept the nice soft roll though.  It is just a turkey burger after all.


BACON CHEDDAR TURKEY BURGER

INGREDIENTS:
1 lb ground turkey
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1/2 t salt
more than 1 t black pepper
2 t ketchup
2 T shredded onion
1 strip of (turkey) bacon per burger
cheddar cheese (or whatever you like!)
butter

DIRECTIONS:
In a non-stick pan, melt a tablespoon of butter.  Cook the bacon until crispy.  I used medium-high heat and did 3 minutes on one side, and 1 minute on the other side.  Then set aside the bacon.  Ideally, I'd do the burgers in a cast iron pan, but mine was dirty, so I used the non-stick but I didn't wipe out the bacon grease.  Because the burgers are tastier that way.

So you need to mix up the burger mixture.  Turkey burgers require extra things in order to be tasty, so don't skip the add ins.  Add the Worcesterhire, the salt, the pepper (be generous, especially if you like pepper), the ketchup and the shredded onion.  You should shred the onion on a regular grater. A microplane results in just mush. Shredding is better than chopping because it adds flavor and moisture with no weird chunks in the burgers.  Gently mix the meat, don't handle too much.  Form into 4 patties. Heat the pan to medium high and cook for 4 minutes on the first side.  Flip the burgers and cook for 2 minutes on the second side.  Then top with the cheese and cover (I used a standard metal bowl - the steaming is perfect) so that the cheese melts.  Cook for 2 more minutes.  Serve on toasted buns.

Worthy of the Barley Neck Inn, circa 1983

When I was a very little girl, Cape Cod was a lot less built up than it is today.  In particular, nice restaurants (as opposed to tiny fried fish and clam shacks) were often quite far from my grandmother's home in quiet Falmouth. But the Barley Neck Inn* wasn't just a "nice" restaurant.  It was truly fine dining, in a quintessential New England setting, a sea captain's house built in the late 1800s.  Back in those days, you used to dress up for this sort of thing, and the Barley Neck was formal.  I can still hear my grandfather complaining bitterly about wearing a tie, while my Nana would tell him to stop fussing with it.  We would drive a solid hour out to Orleans; it was an occasion and I loved it.  Going out to a fancy dinner was just about one of my favorite things.  In truth, I was a precocious brat who would have been insulted if a place had a kid's menu, much less invited me to select from one. I don't remember too much about the specifics of the menu probably because when I was little I was a creature of habit, more even than I am now and I likely ordered the same thing every time.  My favorite appetizer was artichoke hearts au gratin which came in its own little casserole dish and was completely heavenly.  I'm fairly sure that the piece de resistance was Beef Wellington (sweet heavens how I love Beef Wellington).  It was that kind of restaurant.  Classic dishes, New England dishes, but never banal, the chef clearly knew how to innovate. (e.g. my grandfather's favorite was a cauliflower and clam chowder).  While I could never tell you if they featured a shrimp (more likely lobster, considering New England's seafood supply) pot pie, it's certainly the kind of dish that would have fit in perfectly: elegant, rich, well-executed and with a classic Cape Cod spirit.

*Don't bother looking it up, the horror show currently bearing the name has no resemblance to the fine old institution.

SHRIMP POT PIE
This makes two hearty main dish portions.

INGREDIENTS:
puff pastry (I needed 1/3 of a sheet) - thawed
1 lb shrimp, cleaned, deveined and chopped into bite-sized pieces
3 T butter
3 T flour
1/2 C white or yellow onion chopped fine
1/2 C mushrooms (I used baby bella) chopped
2 t Old Bay Seasoning
2 T vermouth or dry white wine
1/3 C milk
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 400 F.
Prepare a baking sheet by covering it with foil and placing the two oven safe dishes you plan on using on top of it.  It will be much easier to pull a pan out of the oven instead of two smallish dishes.  I used these Pyrex baking dishes of my Nana's that are marked 12 oz.  They're smaller than a bowl, but bigger than a ramekin.

In a large skillet, melt your butter over low heat.  Add the flour and whisk to make a thick paste.  Allow this (the roux) to cook for 3-4 minutes until a nice warm goldeny-brown color.  Add the onions and mushrooms and stir to incorporate them with the roux.  Cook for 5-7 minutes over medium heat until they are soft. Add the shrimp and toss with the Old Bay Seasoning. Increase the heat for medium high.  Cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently.  When the shrimp have lost their translucence (honestly, you're going to bake them later, they'll be cooked, don't worry about it) add the vermouth and continue to stir or whisk until the liquid is sort of absorbed to make a sauce.  Then add the milk and continue stirring a bit.  Give it a few minutes to thicken.  Taste the sauce and add salt and pepper accordingly (mine needed quite a bit of salt).

On a well floured surface, roll out the puff pastry and cut two pieces that will fit the top of your baking dishes. Spoon your thickened pot pie mixture into the bowls, top with the puff pastry and place in the oven.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.  You want the top to be golden brown and puffed up.  Serve immediately.

Tasting Fall

I can't help it.  When the weather finally starts to turn and there's a chill in the air, I immediately think of  New England.  In my mind they are almost synonymous, so that when I think of fall, I picture the warm  coppers and fiery oranges of the foliage in Connecticut. I can practically smell the leaves burning in Massachusetts yards.  I can taste the crisp apples from Lyman Orchards*, the tart freshness of cranberries from the Cape Cod bogs.  But if there's one flavor that New England has exclusive rights to, it might be maple walnut.  No where else in the country does the maple have so much depth and richness.  It's not the cloying bland impostor known as "pancake syrup", it's not a faint background sugary-ness.  And the walnuts are never sad little bland bits of crunch.  They are substantial with an earthy smoothness behind the chew.  Now usually the combination is the star in cool, velvety ice cream, but these cookies will deliver all of the deliciousness in a form compatible with brisk evenings and warm cups of tea.

*More on Lyman Orchards in upcoming posts!

MAPLE WALNUT COOKIES
adapted from Cooking Light
Makes between 2-3 dozen small cookies

NB: If you're interested in baking with maple syrup you might want to invest in some Grade B syrup which is darker in color and deeper in flavor.  It will stand up better in recipes than it's lighter pancake loving Grade A counterpart.

INGREDIENTS:

COOKIES
1 1/2 C all purpose flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t ground ginger
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t salt
1/8 t ground nutmeg
3/4 C packed brown sugar
1/4 C softened butter
3 T maple syrup (if you use Grade B, you might get away with 2 T)
1 large egg

FROSTING
1 C powdered sugar
3 T maple syrup
1 T milk
2 T butter, softened

TOPPING
1/2 C chopped walnuts, toasted (toast by popping them on a sheet pan in a toaster oven or oven set to 350 for about 5 minute)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 350 F.  In a stand mixer, combine the butter and brown sugar and beat until light and fluffy.  Add the maple syrup and the egg and mix until combined.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, salt and (which you can skip if you use salted butter), nutmeg. Stir well to combine thoroughly.  Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and set the mixer on low until it comes together.

Use a spoon to help form small balls.  I found that these are rather puffy if left in ball shape which makes them harder to glaze and top with walnuts.  I sort of gently pressed down the tops once I placed them on the baking sheet to encourage a flatter shape.  Arrange balls on the baking sheet, leaving space between (as I mentioned, mine didn't spread a ton, but you know, better safe than sorry).  Bake at 350 until lightly browned.  I started checking mine around 10 minutes.  It averaged 10-12 minutes although the original recipe said 14, so know your oven.  I was able to transfer them to a cooling rack pretty quickly.

Mix together the frosting by combining the maple syrup, milk and butter and then adding the powdered sugar.  You can whisk or stir until smooth.  Mine was a bit liquidy which resulted in the sort of rustic poured look you see above.  The magazine had sort of perfectly round frosting spread on each cookie.  That was not happening in my world.  One you've frosted, press the walnuts on top quickly so they stick.

Enjoy autumn!

Can't Stop

My Fourth of July post was really just the beginning.  Because when I go to New England, I can't help myself, I just can't stop eating seafood.  I had grilled shrimp, fried clams (twice), fried haddock, clam chowder, steamers, a lobster and shrimp cake, haddock and clam bouillabaisse, an a hot lobster roll (butter, not mayonnaise). Then when we got home, my parents invited us over for some crab salad.  It has been heaven. I cannot compete with how fresh and delicious the seafood is up there, but on the other hand, I just can't stop eating it!! These fried shrimp will assist me in my serious efforts to completely block my arteries with butter and oil, because they are so delicious, you can't stop eating them either. Go ahead, make them and let me know!

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 C flour

1 T Emeril's "Essence"

9 oz of good beer

vegetable oil for frying

INGREDIENTS FOR ESSENCE:
2 1/2 T paprika
2 T salt
2 T garlic powder
1 T black pepper
1 T onion powder
1 T cayenne pepper
1 T dried oregano
1 T dried thyme

DIRECTIONS:
Pat the shrimp dry.  In a large, heavy pot or pan (I use a dutch oven usually), pour in enough oil to deep fry your shrimp. This should be a couple of inches deep.  You'll want a thermometer for the oil, so that you can tell when it's ready.  I fry between 350 F and 375 F.  Put your oven on low (200 F?) and line a cookie sheet with a few layers of paper towel.  This way when your shrimp are cooked, you'll be able to lay them on the sheet and pop them in the oven to keep warm.  In a large bowl, combine the flour and essence. Quickly dredge the shrimp so that they have a thin layer of flour on them.  Then pour the beer into the rest of the flour/essence mixture while whisking so that there are no lumps.  Dip about 5-6 shrimp in the beer batter and sort of hold them up so the excess drips off a bit.  It's a pretty light batter, so if you notice the shrimp aren't really getting covered, don't worry about letting the excess drip, just coat them.  When the oil is warm enough, gently place the group of shrimp in the oil.  Wear long sleeves, oil hurts like heck when it spatters.  Flip them using metal tongs after about 2 minutes. They'll only need about 2-6 total minutes, how long depends on if you little shrimp or HUGE ones.  If yours are really big, put fewer in the pot at once.  I use a spider to fish them out and drop them on the tray I've prepared.  Let the oil come back up to temperature before starting your next batch.  When they're done, you are allowed to eat them.  But don't blame me if you can't stop.  I warned you!!

Grill Mooch

I have never owned a grill.  My parents have always had one, first a avocado green charcoal beast, most likely squatting over our gravel driveway, later a shiny gas number, lovingly ensconced on a new back porch.  The house where I lived  senior year in college had one.  I can't even remember what it looked like, I only remember the luxury of padding out onto the back porch and being handed a burger.  There is nothing more magical in college than food that appears before you, already cooked, particularly if it didn't come from a dining hall.  After college, my best friend set up house in Brookline, where her grandparents had lived.  In the same backyard she grew up playing in, she'd throw the perfect summer party:  tons of friends, floating around the pool and dragging yourself up to the deck for dinner off the grill.  I tended to ignore the ubiquitous burgers and dogs for her steak tips.  To this day, they are on my short list of ultimate summer grill foods and I beg for them each time I visit.  The fact of the matter is, I am a grill mooch.  I have not owned one, I cannot operate one, but sweet merciful heavens do I love what can come off one.  This Fourth of July, my father-in-law manned the grill.  I did  the prep, but in the end, there was more than a little mooching.  I'm also afraid that at least one recipe was largely improvisational.  Sorry!

GARLIC BREAD:

Take a loaf of day old bread, drizzle olive oil over it.  Peel a garlic clove and rub it against the surface of the bread.  Grill until it looks delicious (just like above.)  Unsurprisingly, the garlic bread portion of this post is NOT gluten-free.  The rest of the stuff is.

SHRIMP:

Have you made Mark Bittman's Spicy Shrimp? You really should.  They are dead easy, really delicious and can be made inside if you don't have a grill.  I made them in the oven just a few weeks ago, but they were even better on the grill. Oh, and did  I mention fast?  They're fast.  Just 2-3 minutes a side.  

AVOCADO, TOMATO AND CORN SALAD:

This was seriously delicious.  But I didn't measure anything.  I feel terrible. I promise to try it again with actual proportions because it was wonderful.  If you want to attempt it yourself, here's what I did...

INGREDIENTS(ISH):

2 ears of corn

2 very small avocados

2 tomatoes

freshly squeezed lemon juice

red wine vinegar

olive oil

less than a teaspoon of cumin

salt  and pepper

butter

DIRECTIONS(ISH):

Sprinkle the ears of corn with salt and pepper.  Rub them with a bit of butter.  Wrap them in foil and grill (I think he did them for 20 minutes, but don't hold me to that).  Remove and scrape the kernels off the corn into a large bowl.  They will be hot as all get out, so you can let them cool a bit, or handle them using an oven mitt, whatever works for you.  Also, if you don't have a grill, you could cook the corn however you usually do it (I usually bring a huge pot of water to a boil and toss them in for 5 minutes).  Chop the tomato and avocado into nice little bite sized bits.  Toss the tomato, avocado and corn together.  In a separate bowl, mix together the lemon juice (I know I didn't use more than half a lemon), the red wine vinegar (no idea how much) and some olive oil.  Add the cumin and some salt and pepper, then mix again.  Pour this all over the salad.  Taste and add more salt, lemon or cumin to taste. I added more salt (I didn't have access to Kosher, only table salt and had no idea how much I needed).  While the lemon may save the avocado from browning for a little while, I probably wouldn't really make this ahead, because I can't promise it would keep the avocado pretty for long.  Don't worry about leftovers, there were none.

Saving a Favorite

As we sat newly stuffed in front of our Thanksgiving dinner plates, I was already cataloging the leftovers. And when I mentioned ragout my father's face fell. He hadn't thought about ragout. It's not one of the big, obvious in your face things that he can't eat like pasta or pizza. It's just one of his childhood favorites that happens to have homemade dumplings. I reassured him without even being sure of what I could accomplish. I promised that I would come over and make him ragout and that it would be okay. And of course I went over and made it and much to my great relief (and I'll admit, amazement) it really was okay. More than okay. It was completely saved. So just in case someone else out there is longing for some chicken and dumplings that are safely gluten-free, here's my nana's ragout:


NANA GRENON'S CHICKEN RAGOUT

Ingredients:
For the soup -
1 C onion, chopped
1 C celery chopped (I mince mine because Ryan does not like celery)
2 C carrots (cut into disks, coins, whatever you call them)
5-6 C chicken stock (or turkey stock) preferably homemade
salt and pepper
2-3 T olive oil
1 T sage
1 T thyme
approximately 2 C of chopped leftover chicken or turkey. Use what you have. The dumplings will make up for it if you don't have enough. You can use chopped white meat or all the little bits you have, it's up to you.

For the dumplings -1 C stock - cooled
2.5 C gluten-free flour - I used Annalise Robert's mix, which you can either find in her cookbook Gluten-Free Baking Classics or purchase it ready mixed from Authentic Foods.
salt and pepper
thyme

DIRECTIONS:
Pour the oil in a large stockpot. Add the onion and celery and cook on low for about 5 minutes. Add the stock, carrots and whatever chicken or turkey bits you're add. Add salt and pepper for taste. This recipe takes a lot of salt, so taste carefully. Bring the stock almost to a boil. While you're waiting for it to boil, make the dumplings. Use a cup of cool stock (I usually set it aside before I start cooking) and mix it together with the gluten-free flour and about a teaspoon of salt and a pinch of pepper. Add about 2 t fresh thyme to the dumplings if you like. The thyme is completely inauthentic, but it is tasty. The dough will be sticky and hard to work with. Roll out the dough between two pieces of Saran Wrap, you can use cheaper rice flour to assist in the de-sticking of the dough. If you don't get it thin you will have yucky gloppy dumplings. When it's thin (maybe less than a 1/4 inch thick?) slice in 1" squares. These can and will be very irregular, some will sort of stick as you pick them up, I sort of use the knife to scrape them up and then drop them in the soup as described below. Don't worry about the irregularity, it gives the soup character. When the stock is very hot but not boiling, Add the thyme and sage and throw in the squares of dough and cook for 3-5 more minutes until the dough is cooked.

The soup is better on the second or third day because the flavors will meld.

Bed & Breakfast

You know what a bed and breakfast is right? Quaint little inn, where the tasty morning offerings are supposed to make up for the lack of modern amenities enhance the historical charm? Now I want you to imagine just how good the muffins would have to be in order for you to forgive being trapped in your room. Honest to goodness, pulling on the doorknob with both hands, calling any phone number for the main desk you can find from your cell phone (no real phones in an inn mind you), eyeballing the drop from your window to the ground, pounding on your door and shouting for help until the elderly gentleman who was staying across the hall came and liberated you, trapped in your room. Those would have to be some seriously good muffins right?

In the interest of honesty, it took more than just the muffins to placate me. They had to plane down the damn door too, so that we could come and go as we pleased. Muffins alone will not make me okay with room confinement. I require action.

This is not the recipe for the actual pear and ginger muffins provided by the inn, but they are delicious, and will go along way towards soothing any disgruntled houseguests or erm, spouses, that you may need to bribe.

PEAR AND GINGER MUFFINS
adapted from Nigella Express inspired by a Rhode Island inn that shall remain nameless since I disparaged their door situation

INGREDIENTS:
1 3/4 C flour
3/4 C sugar
1/2 C packed light brown sugar
2 t baking powder
1t ground ginger
2/3 C sour cream
1/2 C vegetable oil
1 T honey
2 eggs
1 1/2 C peeled and chopped pears - about a 1/4 in" dice - I used 2 bartlett pears for this
2-3 T minced crystalized ginger


DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 400 F. Prepare a 12-cup muffin tin with muffin cups (paper or silicon will work).

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder and ground ginger. In a smaller bowl, mix together the sour cream, vegetable oil, honey and eggs. Use a fork or whisk to combine well. Then add the wet ingredients to the dry. Finally, add in the pears and ginger bits. Fold in with a spatula and then fill your muffin cups. They will be quite full. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the pan to a cooling rack. These will last a few days if stored in an air-tight container, but are best right away!

Monkeying With Tradition

Those of you who know me well know that I don't like to mess with tradition, particularly around Christmastime, but desperate times call for desperate measures. You see, Christmas has always meant a pork pie. My nana has always had a pork pie. Like any good French-Canadian, her mother used to make them for Christmas Eve. Of course, Nana Grenon wasn't much for a recipe, so she showed my grandmother what to do. I tried to write that recipe up last year, but there were too many variables. You see, in my family, a pork pie recipe works a bit like this: grind up some leftover pork with some onions, mix some salt and pepper and poultry seasoning with mashed potatoes, toss it all together with leftover pork gravy and tuck between two pie crusts. How much? How wet? How fluffy? The answer to all three is enough, which isn't exactly helpful for recipe writing.

But this year Nana had a bit of a challenge for me. She needs a pork pie recipe without pork so that her holiday guests can share in her favorite holiday meal. I'd needed to improvise one some time ago since Ryan doesn't eat pork. And so here I am, the ultimate traditionalist, monkeying with tradition.

You'll have to bear with me a bit for this recipe. It's really for my Nana, but I'm sharing it with you. I know that there are parts where she'll be thinking "I know that!" or "That's not how I'd do it!" So Nana, you're probably right, do what you think is best! And there are parts where you'll be wishing I gave better instructions, but I'm afraid it can't be helped. I did my best.

PORKLESS PORK PIE
This amount of filling makes a slightly scant 9" pie. I don't want to be guessing at proportions which is what I'd be doing if I wanted to make it more stuffed.

Using up Thanksgiving leftovers? No problem. Get 12 oz of cooked turkey instead of the raw. You'll need to grind it up using your meat grinder.

INGREDIENTS:
1 recipe dough
12 oz ground turkey - preferably a high ratio of fat, so 93% fat free if you can get it. 99% fat free will taste like cardboard. Also as this is not a whole package of ground turkey, you can use the rest for something else, white turkey chili would be great.
2 C mashed potatoes
1/2 a large onion chopped - this was about a cup for me
2 garlic cloves chopped
2-3 tablespoons butter
approximately a 1/4 C of homemade turkey gravy
salt and pepper
6 leaves fresh sage (Nana - I have these in the house, you can use poultry seasoning to taste if you prefer!)

DIRECTIONS:
Make the dough and put it in the fridge. In a large pan, melt a tablespoon of butter and add the garlic and onions and a small pinch of salt. Saute for 3-5 minutes until softened. Add the ground turkey and brown over medium heat, using your spoon to break apart the meat until crumbly. Add salt and pepper to taste, plus the well minced sage leaves. Thanksgiving leftover version - still cook those garlic and onions, but mix it in with your meat grinder turkey. Then mix it with the potatoes by hand, skip the food processing step below.

Now Nana usually combines the ground meat and the potatoes by hand, but I did it in my food processor. Don't over process because you don't want a paste, but make sure the mashed potatoes and turkey don't have any big chunks left. Working with warm or room temperature potatoes helps matters. The resulting mixture should be sort of fluffy and crumbly but should smoosh together if you press it. See below:


Moisten with a 1/4 C of turkey gravy. You don't want this too wet, just moist and flavorful. If it's too dry (a real problem especially if you started with dry mashed potatoes) use more gravy or some chicken stock in a pinch. Taste this. You have to. Add more salt and pepper as needed, clearly how much you add depends on how seasoned your potatoes, gravy and turkey were to begin with. Don't worry if it feels like you're adding a lot of salt. Anything that's made primarily from a mild flavored meat and potatoes needs salt.

Preheat the oven to 325 F (Nana cook this however you would normally, if you don't use 325/45 minutes tell me and I'll fix it in this recipe!).

Roll out the bottom crust and place in your pie plate. Fill with the turkey and potato mixture. Top with another tablespoon or so of butter, pinched off.


Then roll out the top crust, add the top, pinch the sides closed, cut slits in the top and bake for 45 minutes or until the crust is golden and the pie is warm.

Merry Christmas!

Cheddar Apple Scones

If we're talking literally here, I am a Jersey girl. I was born in Jersey and raised in Jersey. But my heart, and often my tastebuds, belong to New England. I love the spicy taste of ginger ice cream which is so hard to find outside of New England. I made pilgrimages to Herrell's. I was fed bites from my father's Jordan's blueberry muffins (although not often, my father's pretty stingy with those muffins). I would give almost anything for the recipe to Ma Glockner's Sticky Buns (well, not anything, but if you have the recipe, contact me immediately. I will send cookies. Or Sticky Buns). And although I've never really done it myself, I get the old New England tradition of cheddar cheese on apple pie. My grandmother loved it.

And yes, I will sadly acknowledge that there are many people who are now living in New England who don't know about Jordan's, or Ma Glockner's, or think the cheddar/apple pie thing is hogwash, but they're probably the same people who don't know what Dirty Water is, and can't tell you where they were in 1986 when their hearts broke (a farm house in Antietam), or where they were 18 years later when Foulke threw to first to end an 86 year drought (Cleveland Circle). And I'll tell you this. I'm not sharing my cheddar cheese and apple scones with them. Not if they get to live up there while I'm down here in exile.

CHEDDAR APPLE SCONES
adapted from SmittenKitchen

Ingredients:
2 apples (I used MacIntosh, but I'd love to try Northern Spies)
1 1/2 C flour (plus at least 1/4 C for the board, this is a seriously sticky dough)
1/4 C sugar
1/2 T baking powder (I know, awkward to measure)
6 T cold butter, cut into small cubes
1/2 t salt (omit this if you use salted butter)
3/4 C cheddar
1/4 C heavy cream
1 egg

Directions:
Peel and core the apples and cut them into 16 pieces each. Seriously. Have fun counting with that. Then put them on a lined baking sheet (I used my silpat, you could use parchment) and bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes. Allow them time to cool.

In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter, apples, cheese, cream and egg. Mix on low to combine. Then sift together the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder. Add to the mixer slowly, in batches. Once combine, remove dough from the mixer to a well floured surface.

Gently roll or pat your dough into a 6 inch circle. I just patted mine, no need to dirty the rolling pin. Then cut your dough into 6 equal wedges. It will now be a very delicate operation getting those scones off your counter, use a spatula if you need to, and transfer the scones to a baking sheet lined with a silpat mat or parchment paper.

Bake for 20-30 minutes (come on, you know my oven is running hot these days) until golden and firm. If you can, cool them on a rack before eating.

SmittenKitchen strongly recommends not saving them for more than 2 days. So I just froze my whole batch. They did take about 30 minutes from frozen, but if they were fresh I'd certainly want to check before that.

Happy Father's Day!

Stereotyping of men never is at a more fevered pitch than on Father's Day. This is the day when, according to just about anyone who sells something, you should recognize Dad's deep abiding love of golf, fishing, power tools, using the TV remote or, of course, wearing and owning ties. These people have not met my father, because that's practically a short list of things he doesn't like (in fact, more than a few of those items he actively detests). Which is not to say my father is without interests. He is in fact, incredibly passionate about many things: travel, baseball, wine, music, movies and food. Oh yes food. Because when my father is passionate about food, it becomes an obsession. We've hunted all through France for the best tart citron. He calls orchards to hunt down his favorite Northern Spy apples. But there are few things that he is as passionate about as is he about blueberries. In fact, he's tried blueberries from just about everywhere until he's found the best. Because all blueberries are not created equal. Some are delicious and full of berry flavor while others are mealy and slightly bitter. It's not your imagination. So my dad knows exactly which type are the best, and where they are grown and actually has a contact so that he knows when he can get the best kind. And some of the luckier blueberries get to be baked into Jordan's Blueberry Muffins.

Jordan's Blueberry Muffins are somewhat of a New England institution. Or they were until the famed Jordan Marsh department store closed, leaving millions of people full of longing. Recreating the muffin, or finding someone else who can has become something of a quest for New Englanders ever since they stopped being readily available. Over the years, many recipes have surfaced, which surprisingly, are actually all very similar (which lends them some credibility). Here's the one my family has been using to showcase the very best blueberries my father can find.

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

JORDAN'S BLUEBERRY MUFFINS
or something pretty darn close

INGREDIENTS:
1 stick butter
1 C sugar (plus 1/4 C for topping)
2 eggs
2C flour
1/2 t salt
2 (1/2) t baking powder - the recipe we use calls for 2 1/2 t baking powder but many call for only 2 t.
1/2 C milk
2 C blueberries - you can use fresh or frozen
(1 t vanilla - we've never used this, but many recipes for Jordan's muffins call for it)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 375 F.
In a stand mixer (or large bowl) cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and mix until well incorporated. If you were going to use vanilla, I'd use it now. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients - the flour, salt and baking powder. Then add it to the creamed butter/sugar mixture in stages, alternating with the milk. Mix well. Then if you're adding fresh berries, add 1/2 C of them and mix with the mixer, then remove and fold in the remaining berries by hand. If you're using frozen, you can just put them all in at the same time.

There doesn't appear to be any consensus, but I'm all for greasing the muffin tin, including the top so that the muffin tops don't stick. You want to fill each cup to the top and then sprinkle with the remaining sugar.

We've always baked at 375 for the whole 25-30 minutes, but many recipes seem to have the temperature at 450 to start for 5 minutes then lowered to 375 for the remaining 20-25 minutes.

Fried Haddock

After that incredibly awful, embarrassing performance by the Patriots, Ryan and I felt that it was very important to remind ourselves of the good things about New England (since it sure as heck isn't their football team). Fried fish went a long way towards repairing the damage. In fact, when the first few pieces came out all golden and crispy, Ryan may have started to drool a bit. And when it became clear that we had an excess of beer batter, he became a bit overeager, searching the kitchen for anything else we could possibly fry. His suggestions ranged from the possibly delicious (the shrimp I need for tonight's pasta) to the ridiculous and possibly awful (dates, wheat bread, the batter by itself). Anyway. That first bite of sweet, flaky fish and it was like being back on the Cape in summer. Baseball season's gotta be better, right?

CRISPY BEER BATTERED HADDOCK
an oil thermometer is highly recommended for this recipe
from Epicurious adjusted to have the right amount of batter for 1lb of fish


1 lb fresh fish - I love haddock because it's thick and sweet and flaky. Cod will work well too, but it's a much thinner fish. Cod is best for those of you who like batter better than you like the fish.
1.5 C flour
9 oz beer (preferably ale) and yeah that's not a whole bottle, so go ahead and drink some while you cook.
salt and pepper
oil (veggie, canola) I use about 2" worth in my Dutch oven, I don't measure by cups, I measure by depth.

DIRECTIONS
Clean your fish, remove the skin if you prefer and remove any pin bones (run your hands down the center of the fish, anything poky-uppy is probably a pin bone, they are easiest to remove with a strong set of tweezers).
Get your oil set up in your deep heavy pot. Put the thermometer in, and you want the oil temp to be 375 F. Turn on your oven to low (maybe around 200? F). Prepare a plate with paper towels for draining your fish on, and a raised rack on a cookie sheet for keeping the fish warm in the oven.
Salt and pepper your fish, then dredge in 1/2 C flour, shaking off the excess.
Put the rest of the flour in a large bowl then add the beer slowly, while whisking. It can be a bit tricky, but make sure it's all the same consistency.
When your oil is ready, use a pair of tongs. Dip your fish in the beer batter (you may want to sort of drop it in and pick up again to get it coated and then gently place in the (HOT 375 F) oil. Work in batches, depending on the size of your pan - mine fit about 2 pieces of fish at a time. You want to fry it for 4-5 minutes total. I would do about 2 minutes on one side, then turn. It should be nice and golden brown. After 5 minutes, use the tongs to remove the fish and set it on the paper towels. Get the next two pieces in the oil, then you can transfer the fish to the rack on the pan in the oven to keep warm. Keep working until all your fish is fried. Serve with tartar sauce or cocktail sauce.

Notes on working with oil - Oil is freaking hot. Wear long sleeves. Use tongs. Monitor the temperature, it will drop when you add the fish, so try to keep it as steady as you can, as close to 375 as you can. No it won't ruin the fish if it goes all the way down to 330 or up to 380, just watch it, okay? When you're done with the oil, let it cool completely, pour it off into a container and put it in the trash. Oil does NOT go down the sink.

Thanksgiving Leftovers: Nana Grenon's Ragout

My nana's mother was by all accounts a lovely woman and very talented at cooking in the old fashioned "a pinch of this, enough of that, cook until it's done" style. My nana was the baby of the family, and for a time after she had my father, she and my grampy lived with her parents. The result of this is that my father was completely beloved and spoiled by his grandparents. Grampy Grenon would wake my father up early and take him everywhere with him. His nana (Nana Grenon) would always cook up my father's favorites. One of his absolute all time favorites is Nana's Chicken Ragout. It also happens to be an ideal use of Thanksgiving leftovers. Nana Grenon is French Canadian, and like many French Canadian dishes this is meant to stretch a meal, with the dumplings being a substantial part of the soup. It's the French Canadian version of chicken noodle soup, and it's perfect comfort food. Feel free to adjust or adapt the ingredients. Think like a grandmother.

NANA GRENON'S CHICKEN RAGOUT

Ingredients:
For the soup -
1 C onion, chopped
1 C celery chopped (I mince mine because Ryan does not like celery)
2 C carrots (cut into disks, coins, whatever you call them)
5-6 C chicken stock (or turkey stock) preferably homemade
salt and pepper
2-3 T olive oil
1 T sage
1 T thyme
approximately 2 C of chopped leftover chicken or turkey. Use what you have. The dumplings will make up for it if you don't have enough. You can use chopped white meat or all the little bits you have, it's up to you.

For the dumplings -
1 C stock - cooled
2.5 C flour
salt and pepper
thyme

DIRECTIONS:
Pour the oil in a large stockpot. Add the onion and celery and cook on low for about 5 minutes. Add the stock, carrots and whatever chicken or turkey bits you're add. Add salt and pepper for taste. This recipe takes a lot of salt, so taste carefully. Bring the stock almost to a boil. While you're waiting for it to boil, make the dumplings. Use a cup of cool stock (I usually set it aside before I start cooking) and mix it together with the flour and about a teaspoon of salt and a pinch of pepper. Add about 2 t fresh thyme to the dumplings if you like. The thyme is completely inauthentic, but it is tasty. The dough will be incredibly sticky and hard to work with. With very well floured hands, roll out the dough very thin. If you don't get it thin you will have yucky gloppy dumplings. Make sure you move the dough a lot while rolling and keep it well floured. When it's thin (maybe less than a 1/4 inch thick?) slice in 1" squares. These can be very irregular, it gives the soup character. When the stock is very hot but not boiling, Add the thyme and sage and throw in the squares of dough and cook for 3-5 more minutes until the dough is cooked.

Americana

Lately, the United States haven't seemed very United. In fifteen days, we will have an election, where we will either elect the first black president or the first woman vice president. And yet, instead all of the hope and joy that should come with having these historic candidates, there is hatred and fear.

For tonight, focus on easier times, simple pleasures. Think of America, the country of apple pie and baseball. Because tonight the Boston Red Sox will play the Tampa Bay Rays for the American League Championship. And I will be eating apple turnovers to celebrate. If you don't have time to make them tonight, it's okay. The World Series starts Wednesday. Plenty of time to rekindle a warm and fuzzy feeling towards your country before you get out and vote.

APPLE TURNOVERS
adapted from Ina Garten's recipe and Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything
makes 6 turnovers

Ingredients:
1 package frozen puff pastry (only one sheet of puff pastry needed)
1 T lemon juice
2 cooking apples - I used Jonagold and Stayman Winesap.
1.5 T sugar (plus extra for sprinkling)
2 t flour
1 t ground cinnamon
1/8 t nutmeg
1/8 t ground cloves
1 egg (for egg wash)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Allow puff pastry to defrost according to package directions.
Prepare the apples. Peel, core and cut apples into a small dice. Mark Bittman who has considerably more free time than I do says to grate the apples, Ina favors a large dice. I split the difference. As you dice, toss the apples in a bowl where the lemon juice is already waiting. This will slow the process of the apples turning brown. Then add the sugar, flour and spices. When you've mixed it all well, check out the puff pastry. When it's thawed, cut into three pieces (if you buy Pepperidge Farm, it will likely be in three sections anyway). Then roll out each piece until it is about 3 or 4 inches wide, and cut in half to make squares. You should end up with 6 squares. Fill each square with between a 1/4 C and 1/3 C of the apple mixture. Fold each square into a triangle and use your finger, wet with water to seal by dampening the edge of the triangle before pressing the top layer of dough down. Then use a fork to crimp the edges. Mix the egg with a bit of water and then use a basting brush to apply the egg wash to the turnovers. The sprinkle each with sugar. Place on a baking sheet, and bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees F.

Quick Caprese

Unsurprisingly, one of my best friends happens to be an amazing cook and an even more impressive baker. One year she typed of this fabulous cookbook as a gift for her cousin, and as a result, I got a copy. What is surprising, is that I don't think I've given you a single one of her recipes. This is her caprese salad, absolute heaven in summer, but with my measurements, since she is very much a "you know, do it to taste" kind of person. It wasn't until I had an audience that I worried about measurements much myself. So on this, please feel free to experiement with the dressing. If you find a tastier way to mix the dressing, post it in the comments.

QUICK CAPRESE
INGREDIENTS:
2 avocados
a little less than a pint of grape or cherry tomatoes
8 oz fresh mozzarella
1T plus 1 t balsamic vinegar
1 t salt
1 t sugar
1 t dijon mustard (check label to ensure gf)
1T extra virgin olive oil
pepper

DIRECTIONS:
Cut the avocados, mozzarella and tomatoes into bite size chunks, maybe 1/2 inch blocks? I halve the tomatoes, unless they are really big. Put into a large bowl and mix very gently, so as not to mush up the avocado. In a separate small bowl mix the balsamic, salt, pepper, sugar and dijon. Slowly whisk in the olive oil. Taste the dressing. Adjust as needed, write down your adaptations to tell me later! Add to the other ingredients and again mix gently, to coat with dressing. The salad becomes less pretty, but more tasty as time passes.
In other news, my camera has died. While my computer has a camera, it is not exactly user friendly to aim the top of your laptop at a bowl of food. Please bear with me until things return to normal.

Boston Baked Scrod

Boston Baked Scrod is an old-school Boston favorite, like Parker House Rolls or Jordan's Blueberry Muffins. There are many recipes, but this one is my Nana's and is one of my family's top requested dishes when we go to visit her.

Scrod itself is a bit of a mystery. Google it, and you'll find all sorts of dissenting opinions on what kind of fish it really is. If you're willing to take my word for it, it's probably young cod, but might be young haddock. You can ask your fishmonger. But if you're outside of New England, he might look at you like you have two heads for even suggesting that scrod be something other than cod.
As far as this recipe goes, it doesn't matter what the devil scrod is. And yes, you can use haddock.

BOSTON BAKED SCROD

Ingredients:
1 lb scrod or haddock
2-3 T butter
1 T dried thyme
1 T dried oregano
2 t garlic powder
1 T lemon juice
1/2 sleeve of Ritz crackers.

Directions:

Crush Ritz crackers in a bowl to create crumbs. Combine cracker crumbs, with thyme, oregano and garlic powder. Line a baking dish with foil. Butter the bottom a bit so the fish doesn't stick. Add the fish. Drizzle the fish with the lemon juice and the melted butter. Press the crumb mixture down on top of the fish. Preheat the toaster oven to 400F. Cook for 10-15 minutes depending on the thickness of the fish.

Eileen's Irish Soda Bread

There's nothing that makes me homesick for Boston like St. Patrick's Day. Okay, that's not entirely true, there's also the Red Sox, snow, and anyone speaking without using the letter R, but St. Patrick's Day is easily top 5. I mean, how can the rest of the country compete with a city that made up a holiday in order to get St. Patrick's Day off. I'm not kidding. It's called Evacuation Day and it is a recognized government holiday, schools are closed, all that. Now, while I honestly believe that the best way to honor the holiday, particularly if homesick for Boston, is to get as drunk as possible (preferably off Guinness), I can acknowledge that for those of us who a)could not start drinking at 9am today or b)have to work tomorrow, this may not be a practical choice. I suggest instead that you drown your sorrows in Eileen's Irish Soda Bread. It's just about the best soda bread I've ever tasted and so easy you could probably manage it even if you were lucky enough to start drinking this morning.

EILEEN'S IRISH SODA BREAD
courtesy of Eileen (who I'm guessing is considerably more Irish than I am, and has no end of talent when it comes to the soda bread)

INGREDIENTS:
3 C unsifted flour
1/3 C sugar
3 tsp baking soda
1/4 C butter
1 1/4 C milk
1 C raisins (optional if you are anti-raisin)

DIRECTIONS:
Mix dry ingredients well. Cut in the butter. Mix in the raisins and add milk. With a fork, mix into a ball shape. With well floured hands knead 8-10 times. I often find the dough wet, so feel free to sprinkle a bit more flour while you're kneading. Put on a well greased cookie sheet, cut an x in the top, and bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes.