My last post, Mud Season in VT, didn't have much to do with food and I wasn't sure how to integrate food into the story. My mind was obviously not on eating or cooking at the time. As luck should have it, I have a very witty friend, Betsy, a blogger herself. (Check out her blogs at
http://blogs.babycenter.com/momformation or numbmum.blogspot.com. Good stuff.) Upon reading my last installment, Betsy text-blurted out, "What! No recipe for Mud Pie?!" So here it is. It's an easy one, 'cause if it's nice out, you won't want to be hanging around in the kitchen.
In and Out of the Kitchen Mud Pie
1 store bought chocolate cookie crust
1 pint of Hagen Dazs Coffee Ice Cream
1 pint of Starbuck's Mocha Latte Ice Cream
1 jar of Mrs. Richardson's Hot Fudge
Whipped cream
Let the pints of ice cream sit on the counter for about 15 minutes. Put them individually into a mixer to temper them until they are spreadable. Spread one layer of ice cream, then the next. It will be sort of messy. Who cares? Lick your fingers, the spoon, the counter. Freeze the pie for at least 4 hours. When it is time to serve it, heat up the hot fudge, pour it over the pie and top it with a huge dollop of freshly whipped cream. Don't skimp on real whipped cream. You will ruin the pie. And for the record, Betsy...this will be better than the Sirloin's!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
It's Mudseason in VeeTee!
We have just come down from the best week of weather that we have seen since November. Temps in the 60's, lots of snow on the mountains, steam pouring from every sugar house, and now, tulip and hyacinth bulbs popping up. I even saw a bluebird this morning! What do Vermonters do when hit by the Spring bug (besides wash their cars every other day)? We all go directly outside. This Vermonter prefers her out of doors time on a deck at the base of Bromley Mountain with the music of the Grateful Dead vibrating through the head of her beer.
Music is an essential part of my spring. It brings me back to my roots. Each year, on the first gorgeous day of spring, I automatically feel like I am back in my senior year of high school. I open all of my car windows and drive fast. I play the music loudly. I giggle a lot. I deeply inhale the air every two minutes. Oh, the mud! The scent of the spring earth is powerful! The lyrics to this song that my son, Duncan, came home with from pre-school a few years ago might put my joy into perspective. It's still a house favorite.
Mud, mud, I love mud.
I'm absolutely, positively wild about mud.
I can't go around it, I have to go through it.
Mud, mud, glorious mud!
Now is the time when most of us start planning our gardens, contemplating how we are going to serve the Easter lamb, and consider changing our closets from winter to summer. I think about music. What shows can I see on this summer's tours? What festivals will I be able to sneak away for? Music is a huge part of what keeps me smiling every day. Mud season, albeit messy, is what reminds me that sunshine and daydreams are just a month and a half away!
Music is an essential part of my spring. It brings me back to my roots. Each year, on the first gorgeous day of spring, I automatically feel like I am back in my senior year of high school. I open all of my car windows and drive fast. I play the music loudly. I giggle a lot. I deeply inhale the air every two minutes. Oh, the mud! The scent of the spring earth is powerful! The lyrics to this song that my son, Duncan, came home with from pre-school a few years ago might put my joy into perspective. It's still a house favorite.
Mud, mud, I love mud.
I'm absolutely, positively wild about mud.
I can't go around it, I have to go through it.
Mud, mud, glorious mud!
Now is the time when most of us start planning our gardens, contemplating how we are going to serve the Easter lamb, and consider changing our closets from winter to summer. I think about music. What shows can I see on this summer's tours? What festivals will I be able to sneak away for? Music is a huge part of what keeps me smiling every day. Mud season, albeit messy, is what reminds me that sunshine and daydreams are just a month and a half away!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Vermont Turkeys in the Pot
The first weekend of March my friends, Amanda and Kelly, and I threw a Jam Cruise reunion party. Our amazing friends came from Atlanta, Philly, Rochester, Boston and Northern Vermont. These, our new best friends forever, are friends that we made in January on Jam Cruise (the funkiest vacation and music festival ever!). Just like Jam Cruise, this weekend was jam packed with dancing, laughing, crying (because we were laughing so hard), and eating. Our first meal was at The Perfect Wife, a large and civilized (I use that term loosely) sit down (again- loose) dinner for thirteen. This was followed by some dancing in the tavern to the incredibly groovy sounds of Otis Grove. It was a big night out for us and dinner the next night was a "sit around the woodstove and relax" type of meal. Hello Vermont raised turkey.
For the last few months my friend, Tom Biggs, has been bringing me two turkeys every couple of weeks, his Thankgiving culinary overstock, if you will. I use the breast meat for our Turkey Schnitzel and have made soups, pastas, and stews with the legs. When I found out that we needed dinner for our Saturday night of the weekend, I became very excited to make Turkey Pot Pie. It is very simple to make and so delicious and hearty. Here's what I did:
After I had taken the breast meat out of the carcass for the schnitzel, I pulled the legs and the wings off of it. I put the carcass and the legs and wings, minus as much fat and skin as I could pull off of it, in a pot with roughly chopped celery, onions, and carrots, a couple of bay leaves, a few peppercorns, and some fresh thyme sprigs. I covered it with cold water and simmered this for about two and a half hours. (There's another amazing smell for your home.) I then strained the stock, saving the broth and pulling all of the meat from the bones of the turkey. For the body of the pot pie I diced carrots, celery, and onions and sweat them in a large, heavy bottomed pot.* Once the veggies became soft (in about 15 minutes) I added some stock, the pulled turkey meat and frozen corn and peas. I brought this to a boil and thickened it with a roux.** Once I achieved the velvety thickness that I wanted, I seasoned the pot pie with fresh chopped sage and salt and pepper. You could finish it with a dash of heavy cream, top it with mashed potatoes and bake it or serve it as is with a nice loaf of fresh bread and the best tossed salad ever.*** That's what we did. That Saturday evening supper warmed our bellies and our hearts. Cooking with love will do that every time.
* Sweating is a term that means to saute slowly, covered, so that you get no color on the veggies and the steamed essence of them falls back into the pot.
** A 1:1 combination of butter and flour cooked together over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Count on a stick of butter and a 1/2 cup of flour per quart of liquid. Make sure that the roux is not piping hot when adding it to the boiling stock, slowly while whisking. Once the stock has come back up to a boil, you can assume that it won't get any thicker. Don't boil anything thickened with a roux for more than a couple of minutes .
*** Look for Amanda's salad in a future blog post!
For the last few months my friend, Tom Biggs, has been bringing me two turkeys every couple of weeks, his Thankgiving culinary overstock, if you will. I use the breast meat for our Turkey Schnitzel and have made soups, pastas, and stews with the legs. When I found out that we needed dinner for our Saturday night of the weekend, I became very excited to make Turkey Pot Pie. It is very simple to make and so delicious and hearty. Here's what I did:
After I had taken the breast meat out of the carcass for the schnitzel, I pulled the legs and the wings off of it. I put the carcass and the legs and wings, minus as much fat and skin as I could pull off of it, in a pot with roughly chopped celery, onions, and carrots, a couple of bay leaves, a few peppercorns, and some fresh thyme sprigs. I covered it with cold water and simmered this for about two and a half hours. (There's another amazing smell for your home.) I then strained the stock, saving the broth and pulling all of the meat from the bones of the turkey. For the body of the pot pie I diced carrots, celery, and onions and sweat them in a large, heavy bottomed pot.* Once the veggies became soft (in about 15 minutes) I added some stock, the pulled turkey meat and frozen corn and peas. I brought this to a boil and thickened it with a roux.** Once I achieved the velvety thickness that I wanted, I seasoned the pot pie with fresh chopped sage and salt and pepper. You could finish it with a dash of heavy cream, top it with mashed potatoes and bake it or serve it as is with a nice loaf of fresh bread and the best tossed salad ever.*** That's what we did. That Saturday evening supper warmed our bellies and our hearts. Cooking with love will do that every time.
* Sweating is a term that means to saute slowly, covered, so that you get no color on the veggies and the steamed essence of them falls back into the pot.
** A 1:1 combination of butter and flour cooked together over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Count on a stick of butter and a 1/2 cup of flour per quart of liquid. Make sure that the roux is not piping hot when adding it to the boiling stock, slowly while whisking. Once the stock has come back up to a boil, you can assume that it won't get any thicker. Don't boil anything thickened with a roux for more than a couple of minutes .
*** Look for Amanda's salad in a future blog post!
Monday, March 1, 2010
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Remember when there were only two kinds of pasta- spaghetti and macaroni? These days farfalle and orchiette are household names and the novice cook tosses his/her pasta with broccoli rabe, artichoke hearts, roasted garlic, and pancetta! It may be progress, but still nothing says dinner like a big heaping plate of good, old fashioned spaghetti and meatballs.
Last night was all about spaghetti and meatballs. At the Perfect Wife we did a fundraiser for our local elementary school. Spaghetti and meatballs, salad, and bread for $5. Yeah, five bucks. This evening obviously wasn't about restaurant profits. But how do I make something good, worthy of my name and not spend the whole day in the kitchen? The way I decided to go was to buy the balls, make the sauce. Admittedly, I should have spent time to make my own meatballs, but this was Sunday and I like my one day to spend with my family. So I bought frozen meatballs. They were decent meatballs, but in my homemade sauce they were awesome! I thought it important to spend time on the sauce at least. I made it in about 2 hours, active time being about 10 minutes. Here's what I did, in a smaller quantity. These amounts have not been tested so use your best judgement when following (and I use that term loosely) this recipe.
Quick and Easy Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 onions, peeled and quartered
1 T. dried basil
1 T. dried oregano
1 small can tomato paste (6 oz.?)
2 cans tomato sauce (28 oz.?)
1 can 1/4" diced tomatoes (28 oz.?)
3 T. sugar
kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper (FGBP)
Heat a heavy bottomed pot with extra virgin olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Chop the garlic in a food processor. Scrape into the pot. Quickly chop the onions in the food processor. Scrape those into the pot. Let the onions and garlic cook over medium heat for a few minutes until the onions look translucent. Add the tomato sauce and cook for another few minutes, stirring frequently. Add the basil and oregano. Cook for another couple of minutes. Add the tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. Stir and turn the heat to low and simmer for 1/2 hour. Add the sugar, salt and pepper. Simmer for another 20 minutes or so. Check seasoning. Add good quality frozen meatballs and simmer for 1 hour. Serve over spaghetti with lots of good grated cheese.
I do make meatballs from scratch at the restaurant every week. Those meatballs are the recipe of an Italian/Puerto Rican friend of mine. The recipe calls for ground pork and beef, lots of fresh chopped parsley, raisins, breadcrumbs (1 c. per pound of meat), eggs( 1 per pound of meat) and s&p. The balls are formed and then baked in the oven at 400 for 10 or so minutes. Finish cooking the meatballs in the sauce, stirring gently every so often. Raisins, you say? The raisins make the meatballs delicious! I highly recommend putting raisins in your meatballs the next time you make them.
So do a little reminiscing next Sunday. Make a salad with iceberg lettuce, heat up some garlic bread and serve it up with your own spaghetti and meatballs. Heck, buy a Pepperidge Farm layer cake for dessert! The quintessential '70's supper...
Last night was all about spaghetti and meatballs. At the Perfect Wife we did a fundraiser for our local elementary school. Spaghetti and meatballs, salad, and bread for $5. Yeah, five bucks. This evening obviously wasn't about restaurant profits. But how do I make something good, worthy of my name and not spend the whole day in the kitchen? The way I decided to go was to buy the balls, make the sauce. Admittedly, I should have spent time to make my own meatballs, but this was Sunday and I like my one day to spend with my family. So I bought frozen meatballs. They were decent meatballs, but in my homemade sauce they were awesome! I thought it important to spend time on the sauce at least. I made it in about 2 hours, active time being about 10 minutes. Here's what I did, in a smaller quantity. These amounts have not been tested so use your best judgement when following (and I use that term loosely) this recipe.
Quick and Easy Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 onions, peeled and quartered
1 T. dried basil
1 T. dried oregano
1 small can tomato paste (6 oz.?)
2 cans tomato sauce (28 oz.?)
1 can 1/4" diced tomatoes (28 oz.?)
3 T. sugar
kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper (FGBP)
Heat a heavy bottomed pot with extra virgin olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Chop the garlic in a food processor. Scrape into the pot. Quickly chop the onions in the food processor. Scrape those into the pot. Let the onions and garlic cook over medium heat for a few minutes until the onions look translucent. Add the tomato sauce and cook for another few minutes, stirring frequently. Add the basil and oregano. Cook for another couple of minutes. Add the tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. Stir and turn the heat to low and simmer for 1/2 hour. Add the sugar, salt and pepper. Simmer for another 20 minutes or so. Check seasoning. Add good quality frozen meatballs and simmer for 1 hour. Serve over spaghetti with lots of good grated cheese.
I do make meatballs from scratch at the restaurant every week. Those meatballs are the recipe of an Italian/Puerto Rican friend of mine. The recipe calls for ground pork and beef, lots of fresh chopped parsley, raisins, breadcrumbs (1 c. per pound of meat), eggs( 1 per pound of meat) and s&p. The balls are formed and then baked in the oven at 400 for 10 or so minutes. Finish cooking the meatballs in the sauce, stirring gently every so often. Raisins, you say? The raisins make the meatballs delicious! I highly recommend putting raisins in your meatballs the next time you make them.
So do a little reminiscing next Sunday. Make a salad with iceberg lettuce, heat up some garlic bread and serve it up with your own spaghetti and meatballs. Heck, buy a Pepperidge Farm layer cake for dessert! The quintessential '70's supper...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
