Chicken with Lemon and Herbs

Honestly, if I were stranded on a desert island with only one cookbook, The Silver Palate Cookbook (1979) would be it. Well, that is assuming there’s plenty of food around for me to cook, right? So I guess I mean a luxury desert island of sorts… you get the idea. This book was a big hit in the early 80s, and I ALWAYS find copies at thrift stores, and they are universally oil-splattered and well-loved like mine is! I grew up cooking from this cook book, and this is where many of my all-time favorite recipes come from, and this chicken dish would be at the very top of that list.

This was my first experience with cooking in foil pouches (or, as the French like to say, en papillote, though that is often done in parchment paper rather than foil) but in a pinch, this also works in a small casserole with a tight-fitting lid. I’ve even made these packets up for cooking over a fire! The herbs, fat, even the citrus can all be adjusted to your taste (prefer orange and ginger to lemon and garlic? Fine! Substitute olive oil for butter? Fine!), and it just never fails. Kids will eat it (I mark my daughter’s pouch with a Sharpie and use no garlic in hers), and you can even make up the pouches in the morning, put them in the fridge till you get home, and just bake them in time for dinner: quick and fabulous.

The mind literally boggles when I try to estimate how many times I have made this dish. If I estimate about twice a month since I began cooking at age 13, that would be 24 times a year for – oh, several years. Shoot, my calculator hasn’t got enough space in its memory to figure that! Let’s just say, I’ve made this a lot, and you will too after you try it!

Chicken with Lemon and Herbs

1 cup chopped fresh mint, dill and parsley in about equal proportions, or to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 boned chicken breasts, skinned and halved, about 4 ½ pounds altogether
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 lemons
4 Tbsp sweet butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Mix herbs and garlic together in small bowl. Flatten chicken breasts by pressing them against the work surface with the palm of your hand. Arrange breast pieces on foil and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle herb and garlic mixture over chicken breasts. Slice lemons and arrange 2 or 3 slices over each breast. Dot with butter and seal the packets. Set on a baking sheet. Set packets in the middle of the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Transfer to serving plates and allow guests to open packets at table. 6 portions

Fondue au Crème

Have I mentioned that I love fondue (witness: partial fondue collection!) and that I recently had the pleasure of judging a food competition at a fondue party? What an honor, and what a delicious and delightful evening! Every entry was special, and there were all sorts: from a traditional Swiss-style cheese fondue, to meatballs, to sweet dessert fondues. (Mmmmm…..) It was so hard to pick a winner, but ultimately I did, and it was a chocolate concoction of melted Toblerone and Grand Marnier, with fruit to dip. O earthly delight! O sticky mess!

I also brought a dessert fondue, and though it was not judged, I was able to participate in covering poor Jennye’s house with soot and goey residue. Residue that, even with the aid of oven cleaner, I was not able to fully remove from the fondue set till a whole week later! OK, I’ll admit that the real problem was that while I was sampling all the food entries, I went off and ignored my own for two hours… and, lest we forget, fondue is cooking with fire. So the sauce at first caramelized (yum!), and then scorched (what’s that smell?) and then literally burnt, with huge bubbles of blackening frosting forming in the little Corning Ware dish I had set over a teeny votive candle (yuk and double yuk!).

Despite becoming inedible after the melt-down, this desert fondue is actually quite tasty; something akin to dipping cake into warm, molten frosting. I whipped up a quick brownie mix and cubed that, as well as a frozen Sara Lee pound cake, and set that all out with fresh strawberries and little forks. (If cooking in luke-warm sauce, you can experiment with forks other than the long metal kind that must be used with hot oil.) I did add a drop of vanilla, but I think the idea of lemon would be nice as well. You could add more sugar to firm up the mixture if you like, but the key is to watch the flame and NOT let it scorch. And of course, enjoy!

Fondue au Crème

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup heavy cream

Combine sugar and cream in saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. Boil about half a minute. Pour into fondue pot or chafing dish. Keep heat as low as possible to prevent scorching. Flavorings such as vanilla, almond or lemon may be added. Serve by spearing pieces of cake or fruit on forks and dipping into mixture. Makes 4 servings.

Bloody Mary

When I felt the need for a Bloody Mary, I knew right where to turn: the 1956 “Esquire Drink Book”, which comes to me highly recommended as the definitive book on the subject. I actually flipped through a few other cocktail guides, but even the esteemed Trader Vic had a much less exciting version, leaving out any spices, and thus, all the fun. This book actually includes two Bloody Mary recipes, one of which is a blender drink, but my blender recently died (insert sad face here), so I used the more traditional recipe below. How can you go wrong with a shaker of ice – you get a workout AND a drink!

I hate to admit this, as into food as I am, but until quite recently, I wasn’t aware that cocktails could actually taste good – that careful thought goes into the pairing of flavors, the ratio of sweet to sour, even the choice of garnish. I’ve since come to enjoy a good drink made by talented friends and bartenders, but am nowhere near an expert myself. This was my first attempt at making a Bloody Mary, and I have to say, it worked quite well. Now I just need to get the girls over for brunch!

You’ll note that the recipe below doesn’t mention the celery I so carefully garnished mine with, but having seen Bloody Marys served thus at fancy dining establishments, I added that. Also, I used Spicy V8 rather than tomato juice, which eliminates (and boy, does it!) the need for pepper. Finally, I don’t keep vodka on hand as I don’t love it, so the brand I grabbed at the cheap corner liquor store was so embarrassing that I had to hide the label. You folks at home, please use something classy and expensive, and don’t tell any of my cocktail expert friends or bar owners what you’ve witnessed here...


Bloody Mary

1 jigger vodka
2 jiggers tomato juice
1/3 jigger lemon juice
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste

Shake well with ice and strain into glass.

Low Calorie Fondue

I love fondue! I have had so much fun with it over the years, despite the mess and time. I have served entire fondue meals, with each course a different item dipped into a different liquid. I have experimented with sauces, oils, cheeses, chocolates, you name it. I have several lovely vintage fondue sets, forks beyond counting, and maybe 10 books on the subject, but I hadn’t yet ventured into fondue for kids (hello, hot oil burns!) until I found this recipe. Straight out of Concord, CA: 1968’s Nitty Gritty Productions “The Fondue Cookbook”.

Let me point out that by the time I was born, fondue’s heyday had come and gone. I clearly recall my parents making fun of fondue, even while my friend’s older sister worked in a Berkeley fondue restaurant that, apparently, was still popular. It was a fad of their immediate past - I think my mom and every single one of her contemporaries was given a fondue set as a wedding gift, which they probably used once, if at all. I know, I understand: It is a fairly elaborate set up, takes ages, and leaves a big mess. Lots of people don’t even like the taste of the traditional Swiss fondue, with sherry and Emmenthaler and Gruyere cheeses. But come on, the real fun of fondue is the party element! After all, fondue is “the happiest entertaining idea since cheese first melted”, and such a great way to get to know your neighbors. Oops, who’s fork is that?

My dinner guests this time included a friend and two 6 year old girls, and there was much hilarity but not much patience, so half-way through, we abandoned the forks and turned the hot broth into soup. This worked just fine - why not, after all, it’s a party! In the interest of reducing burns, I also used not a vintage aluminum set, but my fancy new All-Clad fondue set (which also comes with ceramic insert for chocolate, allowing for those entire fondue meals!) which has the benefit of a proper-fitting splash-guard and secure Sterno holder. Expensive, but worth it if you plan on actually using it more than once. Also, all my work creating several sauces was for naught, as the kids wanted nothing but (surprise!) catsup. Still, it is amazing the number of sauces you’ll find in any given fondue cookbook, or even in the prepared foods aisle of your supermarket. Get out your Sterno, folks, and enjoy the Magic of Fondue!



Low Calorie Fondue

This version of fondue is very popular with calorie watchers. Meats and vegetables are cooked in this delicious broth instead of being deep fried. After the meat has all been cooked, the flavorful broth can be served as a tasty bonus.

2 ½ cups beef or chicken broth
1 ¼ cups water
½ cup dry white wine
½ bunch green onions, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
Few sprigs parsley
Salt and pepper
1 tsp fine herbs

Simmer ingredients in saucepan 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 2 hours. Strain into fondue pot and bring to boiling. Use as directed.

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies for St. Patrick’s Day

“Irish food,” so my 1979 book on Irish Cooking tells me, “tends to be high in caloric content and is intended to satisfy even the heartiest working man.” Indeed, I love to eat their traditional offerings at one of our many Irish pubs in San Francisco, but I just don’t cook like that at home. Oh sure, I can make a nice soda bread, and I do eat oatmeal every day for breakfast. But this year for St. Patrick’s Day, I’m off the hook anyhow: I’m going to a friend’s house – and he really knows how to make the stew, the corned beef, and the cabbage dishes that everyone expects. So my contribution will be some green sugar cookies. Green, see? Irish. There.

Not that I wasn’t tempted by plenty of the recipes in the book: “craibechan of the sea”, for example. (?) “Balnamoon skink” (??), or rabbit in stout (well, OK I do love stout, and rabbit can be tasty, but there is no WAY I am getting away with cooking that around my 6 year old!). I’ve also tried some of the baked items in the past, but plain old sugar cookies just seemed like a fun (and more familiar) thing for my daughter to help with, and BOY did she get a kick out of watching the dough turn green with each mighty little drop of food coloring.

The idea was to make lovely green shamrock cookies, but when I looked for the shamrock cookie cutter, alas: it was nowhere to be found. I have tons of cutters, though, so we selected the medium sized Adias symbol (thank you: that is the Adidas-symbol-as-cookie-cutter, a gift-with-purchase from trainers I paid way too much for at their boutique in Georgetown, not a pot leaf!) and it suited us just fine. (Note to self: the more detailed the cutter, the more of a pain in the neck it is to cut out the shapes! I must get rid of the “cute” shapes that are more trouble than worth, such as the tea pot, the high-heeled shoe, and the guitar. NOT WORTH IT!) We also made some plain sugar cookies, because there came a time in the evening when mommy had had JUST ABOUT ENOUGH of the rolling and cutting and rolling and cutting and rolling and cutting, and I made the executive decision to do the final third of the dough in balls rolled in green sugar. Aren’t cookie cutters cute? Isn’t it a pain to cut out 6 dozen cookies? This is exactly why I make so many recipes for drop cookies. Still, when I have the energy, these are just about the best. Not too sweet, with a hint of almond – perfect with tea or coffee. Or Guiness!




Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

1 cup sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 (3 oz) package cream cheese, softened
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. almond extract
½ tsp. vanilla
1 egg yolk
2 cups flour
3 Tbsp colored sugar, if desired

In large bowl, combine sugar, butter, cream cheese, salt, almond extract, vanilla and egg yolk; blend well. Lightly spoon flour into measuring up; level off. Stir in flour until well blended. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate 2 hours for easier handling.
Heat oven to 375F. On lightly floured surface, roll out dough 1/3 at a time to 1/8” thickness. (Keep remaining dough refrigerated.) Cut into desired shapes with lightly floured 2 ½” cookie cutters. Place 1” apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Leave cookies plain or, if desired, sprinkle with colored sugar.
Bake at 375F for 7 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets; cool completely. If desired, frost and decorate plain cookies.
Yield: 6 dozen (2-inch) cookies

Jell-O!!!!!

OK seriously: WHO DOESN'T LOVE JELL-O?

My family, for staters. It has been brought to my attention that I am NO LONGER welcome to grace family events with Jell-O mold creations. (Yes, this was my contribution for YEARS, and I took great pride in the variety of shapes, colors and ingredients, even if I WAS the only one ever to eat them.)

HOWEVER, some people GET IT! My dear friend Karen, for one: She is offering up a fabulous brand-new Tupperware Jell-O ring as the prize for her latest contest, and YOU can enter! See details on her blog, below:

http://97thingstodobeforeiturn97.blogspot.com/2011/02/contest-time.html

In addition to also liking Jell-O, Karen and I have many (possibly 97? Possibly more?) things in common: we both like Doritos, Starbucks, vintage clothes, The Beatles, crock pot cookery; we were born in the Same hospital (!), and we have both been asked: DO YOU WORK FOR LONELY PLANET?

So enter Karen's contest, get that Jell-O mixed up, and report back here for my second Jell-O installment, where I describe some of those Jell-O experiments in detail!

Wild Rice Casserole

How could anyone resist a book called The Total Woman Cookbook? Actually, at first I just wasn’t sure what to make of it until I read all about Ms. Marabel Morgan, who, it turns out, became a women’s motivational speaker in 1970 after sorting out troubles in her marriage, and wrote a best seller called “The Total Woman”. Well, she can cook, too, so next came a cookbook, (in 1980) which is subtitled the “Handbook for Kitchen Survival”. Instead of being organized by ingredient, the recipes are set out as to what purpose they serve: The Boss is Coming for Dinner, Ho-Hum Tuesdays, Unexpected Dinner Guests, and one for kids called Rainy Day Projects (sounds messy to me, get out the wipes!).

Marbel Morgan is a crack up, quoting from the Bible as well as discussing sex between recipes. (I guess that makes her the Total Woman!) I actually have added her first book, The Total Woman, to my “to read” list (especially if I come by it for a quarter at a garage sale, the way I source most of my books.) but in the mean time, I am happy to work through her quite excellent recipes, whether or not I use them as she has intended. For instance, I made this wild rice casserole from “International Flair” (which I guess means side dishes that don’t convey any particular message) along with her marinated flank steak from the chapter entitled “Time for Romance”, but I served them to my daughter, simply because I was in the mood for steak and there had been a sale on flank steak! I guess what I’m saying is, I don’t always need to “say it with steak” – sometimes it’s just dinner.

The wild rice casserole was a surprise hit with my daughter, who even pointed out that she liked the difference in texture between the rice, mushrooms and the almonds, and I’ve made it several times since, along-side chicken, fish, and yes, steak. I left out the canned water chestnuts, though, and used fresh mushrooms rather than canned. I also used a bizarre but delicious black/purple specialty rice I found called “Forbidden Rice”, and spent the entire time cooking cracking myself up comparing it to that other forbidden: The Lambada, the 80s phenomenon, called The Forbidden Dance.

Wild Rice Casserole

4 Tbsp butter
1 cup wild rice
½ cup slivered almonds
2 Tbsp green onions or chives
1 tsp soy sauce
1 5-ounce can water chestnuts, sliced
3 4-ounce cans mushrooms, drained
3 cups hot chicken broth

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put all ingredients except broth in heavy frying pan. Cook over medium-high heat 20 minutes, or until almonds are slightly brown. Stir often.
2. Add hot chicken broth; stir. Pour into 2-quart baking dish. Cover tightly with foil. Bake 2 hours.

Pink Party Pop Corn

From the iconic book, “Popcorn Potpourri”, (1977) by Larry Kusche (check out his snazzy trousers!) comes this bizarre and yet addictive food product: pink party popcorn. I’m not suggesting you make any of this, or if you do make it, stick to using it for modeling crafts, not consumption…

Still! Pop Corn is always fun, and having found a whole book on it (and one that features the very Hot Air Pop Corn Popper that I had growing up on the cover), I offered to make any recipe in it for Ivy. And naturally, she picked THE grossest one. No, she couldn’t pick something mellow like a nice cheddar cheese coating, or herb butter pop corn. Nor did she pick any of the somewhat creepy sounding ones like Pop Corn with Mushroom Butter, or Pop Corn with Chicken Flavored Butter. This book is filled with literally hundreds of pop corn recipes: The variety! The possibilities! And so, the one pop corn experiment thus became the Great Pop Corn Taste Test, where we tested plain pop corn with salt, the dreaded concoction below, and one that I came up with myself, where I melted a Toblerone bar and drizzled that over plain pop corn. That, strangely, was not bad! Hello, Pop Corn Party! (Later: Hello, Tums…)

To make the Pink Party Pop Corn, I was reminded of something I used to do about once a week in Junior High: make Rice Krispies Treats. The unmistakable scent of melting butter and marshmallows: mmmm… but then adding Jell-O in powder form to it… makes it a veritable sugar bomb, and also disturbingly bright. I was horrified by the stuff as I mixed it up, but then something happened, and I… HAD TO EAT IT ALL! We could barely even do a taste test, because I was so busy gobbling it up. And it turned out that Ivy, who selected that recipe, preferred the chocolate version. Either way, I still say pop corn is fun, but I know to step away from the marshmallows, lest I become a Pink Party Pop Corn addict!



Pink Party Popcorn

(actual note from the book: you can match the color of the popcorn to your decorating scheme.)

3 Tbsp butter
1 ½ cups miniature marshmallows
4 Tbsp strawberry-flavored gelatin
2 qts. popped popcorn

In a medium saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Stir marshmallows into the melting bitter. Let them soften but not melt completely. Add the gelatin. Stir until butter-marshmallow mixture is evenly colored. Gelatin does not have to be dissolved. Drizzle over popcorn and mix well. Makes 2 quarts.

Tanya Tucker’s Chicken Chili

Chili is one of my favorite foods in the Universe, so I know I’m gonna like a cookbook that features more than one recipe for it - and this book has no less than 7. I already have a few variations that I love, but I won’t hesitate to try a new chili recipe, especially one from Country Music Sweet Heart, Tanya Tucker. She says it: “Cleans your teeth, curls your hair, and makes you feel like a millionaire,” and I must agree!

There was no way I could pass up this book, being a huge fan of country music and vintage cookery. From the down-home recipes, to the bio snippets, to the very, very 80s portrait photography, it is a hoot and a holler. I found several recipes to try, and I even found a few I’d seen before under different names! (I will certainly need to try Dolly Parton's Apple Stack Cake, Kenny Rogers' Country Chicken Salad, The Oak Ridge Boys' Lasagne, and Tom T. Hall's Watermellon Wine!) Oh, the joy that 99 cents can still bring.

From “Cooking with Country Music Stars” (1986) comes this yummy chicken chili, which I have made exactly as described here, and also another time using pre-cooked rotisserie chicken leftovers; both were divine. And although shops in California don’t often carry Ro-Tel, you can always find some type of canned tomato and chili mixture if you poke around. Note that Ms. Tucker kindly includes the amount of Sweet-n-Low you’d need to use, if you so desired. I guess that means she likes both kinds of music: Country AND Western!



Tanya Tucker’s Chicken Chili

1-2 onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 Tbsp vegetable shortening
1 10-ounce can Ro-Tel tomatoes (canned tomatoes and chilies)
1 ½ cups stewed tomatoes
3-4 cups kidney beans (better with homemade beans)
1 teaspoon salt
1 bay leaf
1 tsp sugar (or 1 packet Sweet-n-low)
¼ cup dry red wine
3 Tbsp chili powder (add more if you like)
4 chicken breast halves
1 Tbsp sherry
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 cups chicken broth (if chili is too hot)
Salt and Pepper to taste

In a large pot, sauté onions and garlic in shortening until tender. Add Ro-Tel and stewed tomatoes, kidney beans, salt, bay leaf, sugar, wine and chili powder. Simmer together for 1 hour.

Boil chicken breasts for 1 hour in water seasoned with salt and pepper to taste. Drain and reserve broth. Remove skin from cooked chicken and shred by hand or in a food processor. Add to tomato and bean mixture. Simmer to 1 hour. Add sherry and Worcestershire sauce. Add chicken broth if desired for consistency and taste.

Serves “a bunch.”

Champagne Cocktail

In celebration of my first year of blogging, I decided to make a Champagne cocktail. Easy enough to just pour out, and delight in, a glass of Champagne, but that hardly requires a recipe, and therefore doesn’t qualify for a blog entry, and we just can’t have that, now can we? Nope. So I pulled out a little bottle of bubbly, and had a look through my recipe books.

This “Bar Guide”, listed as “Authentic and Hilarious” was published by True, The Men’s Magazine, in 1950. (I love the oh-so-50s sayings and bizarre illustrations by Vip!) I picked this recipe for the Champagne Cocktail not because it is any different from those in any of my other drinks books, but because there is a truly “authentic and hilarious” introduction to the entire section on making cocktails with Champagne:

The Champagne cocktail, often known as Chorus Lady Milk, is the aristocrat of wine cocktails. However, those who don’t like chorus ladies consider it a waste of good Champagne. There is only one way to drink Champagne, they insist – neat, from a lady’s slipper. They urge that rather than ruin a bottle of good vintage Piper-Heidsieck in a mix, use any grade of domestic Champagne, say Old Rainspout, 1951.

They, of course, are the spoilsports. To be able to step up and say stiffly, “Two Champagne cocktails, please, Louis Rodier ’26, brut! Throw the rest of the bottle away!” is something to have lived for. To be able to pay for it is even more worth while.


Champagne Cocktail

1 cube Sugar
1 dash Angostura Bitters
Champagne

Place sugar in glass and saturate with bitters. Pour chilled Champagne over and serve without stirring.


“Here’s Champagne to our real friends, and real pain to our sham friends.”

Spekulatius or Speculaus

The Christmas Cookie Book, by Virginia Pasley, 1949

Yay, Christmas! One of my favorite holidays, thanks to the food! Cookies, eggnog, pies and cakes, hot toddies, chocolates… oooooh I’m drooling in preparation for tonight!

Since everything else tends to the rich side this time of year, I decided to do some lighter, yet still quite yummy, cookies. I actually had these cookies last year in a gift basket from a client – and this is one of the only times I have ever had something packaged that I was able, later, to find a printed recipe for! And this simple recipe is quite possibly even better than the ones I had from the package.

This book caught my eye originally because the author is a (excurse the expression!) dead ringer for my late grandmother. So much so, that looking at the photos actually disturbs me, and on top of the physical similarity (see photo!), they share the same name: Virginia. Naturally, I had to have it. What I like best about it is that, despite the age, she calls for things I can generally procure, which I think comes from the fact that she has included many “old world” or traditional European recipes that used basic ingredients. I did have to add corn starch to the regular flour to make cake flour, but everything else was quite standard. And tasty, give them a try – they are plain, almost biscuit-like. Perfect with coffee!


Spekulatius or Speculaus

½ cup butter
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 egg
Grated rind of half a lemon
1 tsp cinnaomon
½ tsp salt
2 ½ cups cake flour
½ tsp baking powder

Cream butter and sugar, add egg and continue beating. Then mix in grated rind and sifter dry ingredients. Chill for several hours before rolling out and cutting into fancy shapes. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Notes: The old German recipe for this cookie (which is believed to be of Dutch origin) called for an ounce of cinnamon for this much dough, typical of the heavy hand with spices of the old recipes. It also specified that the butter, sugar, flour and eggs be stirred all together at once, the dough stored overnight and the baking powder sprinkled over it and kneaded into the mixture the next day before rolling out.

Elegant Apricot Sweet Potatoes

“The Gourmet Foods Cookbook” by Chicago’s Culinary Arts Institute, 1955

Most of the recipes in this adorably illustrated little pamphlet call for things I don’t use, (and when I say “I don’t use”, that is a euphemism for, “they make me gag”) like lard and MSG, and call for nothing but canned fruits and vegetables, so I thought for the most part I would just enjoy it for the delightful drawings. But I came across this recipe that looked almost like a modern side-dish, and decided to try it out for Thanksgiving.

The recipe called for pre-baking the yams, and boiling dried apricots to re-constitute them, and then to slice them all up and lay them in beautiful strie, to be covered with orange-zested melted butter and sprinkled with brown sugar before baking the whole thing. However, both my yams and apricots ended up looking ugly and a bit too broken up when sliced. I decided to remedy the situation by turning the whole mess into a puree, which I then topped with crisped bacon bits and walnuts (instead of pecans, which are too sweet). The overt saltiness of the bacon (which was perfect in such a teeny amount) cut the sweetness of the apricot/yam puree, and it ended up a delicious dish! I fully intend to make this again beyond the holidays. (Actually I made so much I put some in a seperate container to freeze for later!) Note to self: Yams can be yum!

I should also point out that this recipe is written in a style once quite popular: paragraph form, (but with random punctuation). Here, ingredients are introduced as needed, rather than all in a top section, and steps are listed out as if a story were being told. Good luck with that – see if you don’t find it as maddening as I do!



Elegant Apricot Sweet Potatoes

A shallow 1-qt. baking dish will be needed.

Wash thoroughly and put into a saucepan ½ lb (1 ½ cups) dried apricots

Add 2 cups hot water

Allow apricots to soak in covered pan for 1 hour. Cook in water in which they were soaked, simmering, 40 min., or until fruit is plump and tender when pierced with a fork. Remove from heat. Cool and drain all, reserving the liquid.

Meanwhile, wash and scrub with a vegetable brush 6 medium sized (about 2 lbs.) sweet potatoes or yams
Cook 30 to 35 min., or until potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork. Drain potatoes and peel; cut into lengthwise slices about ½ in. thick.

Lightly grease the baking dish.

Set out 1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar. Arrange a layer of the sweet potatoes in the baking dish. Cover with a layer of apricots. Sprinkle with one-half of the brown sugar. Repeat layers of sweet potatoes and apricots and sprinkle with remaining sugar.

Blend thoroughly ¼ cup of the reserved apricot liquid and 3 Tbsp melted butter, 2 tsp orange juice, 1 tsp grated orange peel; Pour mixture over the layers.

Bake at 375 F about 45 min., basting occasionally with liquid in bottom of baking dish.

About 5 min. before sweet potatoes are done, top with ¼ cup (about 1 oz.) pecan halves.

(6 to 8 servings)

Italian Egg Nog

Galliano advertising recipe pamphlet, undated (early 70s)

Do you ever find yourself in the position of having purchased a vast quantity of something to use in just one recipe, and then wonder what to do with the rest of it? Having recently purchased a bottle of Galliano for use in my FAVORITE, the Harvey Wallbanger Cake, I perused a 1970s pamphlet from the makers of said elixir and saw “Italian Egg Nog”. It being “the season” and all, I thought: PERFECT!

Also, this is an EASY egg nog to make. There is no separating of eggs, no aging for weeks in the fridge, and no 2-stage pouring/mixing. Plus, it features shaved chocolate on top – how could I go wrong when combing these important food groups: Dairy, Booze, Chocolate!

Hah! The thing is, it was delightfully easy to prepare, but tasted nasty! And I am a fan of egg nog, but I think… different egg nog. This is not sweet at all, nor can you even enjoy the milky goodness or the daring of consuming a raw egg. First of all, the chocolate shavings were awkward and wanted to be inhaled, so I could not savor the drink’s aroma. Second, they were a textural impediment to my sipping the beverage! Finally, once I had chewed up each mouth-full and could actually taste the concoction, it was not so good. Think: licorice in milk, with chewy bits. An acquired taste, perhaps? I wondered what I could do to “doctor it up” to make it drinkable, but was struck dumb. So, I inhaled it. And THEN, suddenly, I thought it was Grand!

Note to self: save that booze for more cake!



Italian Egg Nog

Beat together 1 c. milk and 1 egg. Add 1 oz brandy and 1 oz Galliano. Pour into snifter and chill in fridge. Garnish with chocolate curls or chopped nuts.

Tangerine Walnut Toss for Mid-Century Pot Luck

Better Homes and Gardens “So Good With Fruit”, 1967

The other day, I got out this cook book because I was looking for something fun to take to a pot-luck. Not just any pot-luck, mind you, this was my great friend Karen’s Annual Holiday Mid-Century Pot Luck! This pot-luck, and the divine lady hostess, meant Business – Food entries were supposed to have been created from a mid-century cook book, preferably with color photos. And there were prizes awarded for the entries, based on several criteria, including (but not limited to) tastiness! So I couldn’t just bake some random cookies and call it a day. I wasn’t going to be home all day prior to the party, though, and didn’t want to risk a hot or baked dish. I needed something simple, so I (California-raised once-vegetarian that I am) called in the fruit: Cheerful! Festive! Colorful! Healthy! Oh yeah, and Tasty!

May I point out that, for the first few of these parties, I went to Great Lengths to create something that was not only 100% authentic, complete with serving pieces as shown in the photos, but I also picked the most disgusting recipe I could find, and actually spent the money and time to assemble it. Past entries have included a salad dressed with tequila, another salad served in pineapple rings made of ham and mayonnaise, and the worst, and most memorable: shrimp and onions concealed in lime Jell-O! (Yes, actually! Though I did not even eat One Bite of that one.) And these were all published recipes, that we assume at least One person thought good enough to write, and at least One other though good enough to publish! However, with both time and money being tight this year, I wanted something colorful yet edible, and quick.

Several changes had to be made to the recipe as given (below). First, white onions are just gross raw, so I substituted scallions. Second, I didn’t have time to peel tangerines, so I used canned (and drained) mandarin oranges. (Shhh, don’t tell! I know, I should be celebrating fresh California produce! The City of Berkeley will be disowning me for Sure!) And finally, I didn’t use anywhere near 7 cups of lettuce (really, is that how much is in one head of lettuce? How big were heads of lettuce in 1967?) Instead, I laid a few leaves in the bowl and plopped the other ingredients onto them. Who needs lettuce, anyway, when there are mandarin oranges!?! Otherwise, I did make the “croutons” and used Paul Newman’s Light Italian dressing. On the whole, not bad at all! Worthy of a re-make, possibly to include spinach leaves and crumbled gorgonzola next time.



Tangerine Walnut Toss

7 cups torn lettuce (about 1 head)
2 cups tangerine sections
½ mild white onion, sliced and separated in rings
1/3 cup Italian dressing
Walnut croutons

Toss lettuce, tangerine sections, and onion rings with Italian dressing. Top with walnut croutons: Melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat. Add ¼ teaspoon salt and ½ cup California walnut pieces. Stir till walnuts are crisp and butter-browned. Serves 6 to 8

Glazed Lemon Cake with Grant K Gibson

The second of two posts featuring my first-ever Guest Star, San Francisco Designer and Blogger (http://www.grantkgibson.blogspot.com/) Mr. Grant K Gibson!

Part Two: Dessert

All you have to say to me is Glazed Lemon Cake, and suddenly it’s not the cake but my eyes that are glazed, and I find need of a tissue to mop unsightly drool. Since Grant and I have a history of sharing many slices of cake together, it seemed only natural to bake one from a classic cook book that we both grew up with: The Silver Palate Cookbook (1979). And as we got down to the business of the actual baking (between giggle fits), we noticed that both our copies of the book were seriously well-loved: splattered with food stains AND fell naturally open to the page with this cake recipe on it!

Grant says he isn’t fond of baking, because he prefers not to measure and he likes to work “loosely” from recipes, while I, on the other hand, love the science and the precision of baking. So our team consisted of him winging it while I drank a cocktail and yelled at him to measure more carefully. Fortunately for us we weren’t making a soufflé, because I fear all the commotion and hilarity in the kitchen would have precluded the effective rising required for that project. This cake is way easier to bake than any soufflé, and probably about a million times yummier. If you love lemon, or even just SUGAR, this cake will delight you. I ate no less than THREE slices that very evening!



Glazed Lemon Cake

½ pound (2 sticks) sweet butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
3 cups unbleached, all purpose flour, sifted
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 tightly packed Tbsp grated lemon zest
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
Lemon Icing (recipe follows)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 10-inch tube pan.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Bean in eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition.
3. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Stir dry ingredients into egg mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Add lemon zest and juice.
4. Pour batter into prepared tube pan. Set on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 1 hour and 5 minutes, or until cake pulls away from sides of pan and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
5. Cool cake in the pan, set on a rack, for 10 minutes. Remove cake from pan and spread on icing at once, while cake is still hot.

Lemon Icing

1 pound confectioners’ sugar
8 Tbsp (1 stick) sweet butter, softened
3 tightly packed Tbsp grated lemon zest
½ cup fresh lemon juice

Cream sugar and butter thoroughly. Mix in lemon zest and juice; spread on warm cake.

Tarte Saint-Germain - with Grant K Gibson

For my first ever Carried-Away Guest Spot, I turned to a dear friend of mine, (and fellow blogger: http://www.grantkgibson.blogspot.com/), designer Grant K Gibson - because he is always in his kitchen cooking up a storm, AND I knew we both grew up with The Silver Palate Cookbook (1979). Oh, and I knew he’d fix me a cocktail and do most of the cooking himself, so how could I loose?

Part One: Dinner.

I actually suggested we skip dinner entirely and simply have cake and cocktails, but after we tasted, and each ate not one but TWO huge slices of this concoction, I was glad Grant insisted we start with the Tarte Saint-Germain. “The lowly leek is the star in this glamorous tart,” advise the authors, and I am with them in spirit, because the treatment really is a win for leeks, but don’t be fooled: there are FOUR Tablespoons of butter working here, too!

Grant had already made the shell, so really, all I had to do was help stir a bit, leaving the other hand free to photograph our efforts in Grant’s chic black-and-white kitchen. And once the leek mixture was cooked, it just got dumped into the shell and baked – couldn’t be easier. No wonder quiche became such a “thing” in the 80s, though “Real Men” everywhere (like my father) swore they wouldn’t eat it. Neither of us was concerned about that, so Grant and I gobbled it up. We did, however, save room for dessert…



Tarte Saint-Germain

4 Tbsp sweet butter
6 leeks, trimmed, well washed and thinly sliced
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 cup light cream
1 cup heavy cream
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
1 9-inch shell of Pate Brisee, partially baked
½ cup grated Gruyere cheese

1. Melt the butter in a skillet. Add sliced leeks and cook, covered, over low heat for about 30 minutes, or until leeks are tender and lightly colored. Stir frequently or leeks may scorch. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
2. Whisk eggs, yolks, and light and heavy cream together in a bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper. Add a grating of nutmeg, if you like.
3. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
4. Spoon cooled leek mixture into partially baked tart shell. Add cream and egg mixture to fill the tart to within ½ inch of the top. Sprinkle the Gruyere evenly over the tart.
5. Set the tart on the middle level of the preheated oven and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until top is well browned and filling is completely set.
6. Cool for 10 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve warm.

Salmon Timbales

Canned salmon, bread crumbs – it all sounds very mid-century casserole, right? Well NO – even stranger! Hello, Salmon Timbales, courtesy of The Pocket Cookbook, originally from 1942 (this printing, 1966).

Don’t you just love reading recipes and imagining what something is going to taste like? I do, but this one stumped me, so I had to try it. It seemed fairly simple, so I thought to myself: How Bad Could it Be? Well, if a cross between meat-balls and savory muffins sounds good, then you might like them.

Canned salmon is not something I have worked with before, and after this, I think I won’t again any time soon: the skin was left on! It was not de-boned! So before I could create the recipe, I had to pick through piles of canned fish…let’s just say, the compost went out immediately after this went in the oven.

Mixing up the batter, I could tell right away it was not holding together, so I added another egg and a little melted butter. Once it seemed more-or-less dough-like, I scooped it into a muffin tin and baked it as directed. And the result? Odd, though tasty, in a brunch sort of way. I ate one that night for dinner, and it was fine, but tasted better as leftovers the next day, covered in cheese sauce. Perhaps their real place in the world is as an accompaniment to some sort of an egg dish and mimosas. Enough champagne and you can pretty much serve anything for brunch!



Salmon Timbales

2 Tbsp chopped green pepper
¼ cup chopped onion
2 Tbsp fat or salad oil
1 1lb can (2 cups) salmon
2 eggs
2 cups soft bread crumbs
Salt and pepper

Saute green pepper and onion in fat or salad oil; add to salmon. Beat eggs; add with crumbs. Season with salt and pepper. Pack into greased muffin pans; bake in moderate oven (350 degrees F) 30 min.