Spice Dish

Oh Julia...

    Everyone is having their Julia moment lately. I guess it's not unusual that I am too, but mine did occur a little more cosmically than commercially. You see, we have a VERY large lazy susan in our pantry. I mean the thing is quadruple towered, filling the whole broom closet, sort of large. It was also hand rigged by the previous tenant, meaning, while cool... not professional, or sturdy. It pooped out on me last week. All four tiers collapsed onto each other landing, not so gently, on whatever pantry items happened to be in it's path. This then became my weekend project. Not only to fix the darn thing, but to clean out and organize the pantry as well. A much needed task might I add.

    So after playing Schnieder, fixing the susan and cleaning out the 4 year old baking powder, I set to cleaning the top, non-susan, half of the pantry. Now up there, lives about 25 of my favorite cookbooks. I have over 200 at this point, most being piled high on the buffet. If I decide to use one of those, there is a good chance of a book-alanche. As I threw away a bag of "when did we buy shrimp skin chips?" I straightened up my favorite books. My go to's. My teacher's pets. I realized then that I don't play fair. I have 175+ other cookbooks that sit there, sad, un-utilized, and collecting kitchen grease, dust and must.

    I started, very methodically, on the right top shelf of the buffet, moved my back noting which books I had and had not cooked out of. Then came Julia. Now I've cooked many, many, many of Julia's recipes don't get me wrong. But this was The French Chef Cookbook, and I had been partial to Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I then realized, that while I had seen all the shows, I had never cooked from it, or the book. I took it down of the top shelf and flipped through to Poulet en Cocotte (Chicken Roasted in a Casserole). It was a rainy, thundery Sunday. Football was on. Long, slow, unattended chicken was perfect.

I took out the wishbone as she suggests

I won't repeat the recipe as it reads in The French Chef Cookbook because the recipe, given Julia's desire to make all her recipes fool proof, starts on page 282 and finishes up at the bottom of 284. Just know that for it's length... it's actually very simple.

One yummy carcass

    Now the pictures are a little sad (finished product wise) because once I took a bite, there was no "honey get me the camera would you?" there was only moaning. With sheer delight. This was the most moist, flavorful, delicious chicken either of us had had in quite some time, if ever, that we could remember. It's beyond good. It was way better than the outcome of the football game, I can tell you that much.

Give it a shot yourself. You won't be sorry.

Enjoy!
EB

Amen to Basil!

I know I haven't posted on a Perfect Scoop recipe lately. I haven't been slacking, I promise. Many, many flavors have been made. Most were delicious, chock full of summer fruit and trotted out for backyard bbq's. Then the other night.... there wasn't just a good flavor, or even a great flavor, but a revelation. Not kidding, no joke, nobody believed me how amazing it was until they tasted, then fought over, it.

So where was this revelation revealed to me? In basil. Yup Basil.

Basil. I don't love it. I like it alright, but I'm not gaga over it, which made this flavor even more of a happy surprise. The flavor is light,crisp and floral. This was unexpectedly and immediately proclaimed one of the best flavors of all that I've made from David's collection, by those who have tasted them all. For those of you doubting... Basil is everywhere right now. Grab yourself a handful and get to it! ASAP! Basil most certainly is a dessert flavor. An amazing one at that.

Basil Ice Cream
Adapted From David Lebovitz' The Perfect Scoop

1 cup basil leaves
3/4 cup sugar
3 cups 1/2 & 1/2
Pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks
Zest of 1 organic lemon

Put the basil, sugar and 1 cup of the 1/2 & 1/2 in the blender and blitz until the leaves are in very tiny pieces. Pour half the mixture into a large bowl and place a mesh strainer on top. In a medium saucepan heat the other half of the mixture with the rest of the 1/2 & 1/2 and the salt. In another bowl whisk the eggs. Whisking constantly, slowly add the warmed mixture into the whipped yolks. Return mixture to the saucepan. Stir the mixture over medium heat until the mixture coats the spatula or spoon. Pour the custard mixture into the cream mixture through the strainer. Add the zest and stir to mix. Cool mixture completely then churn in your ice cream maker.

Enjoy!

EB

Share Your Table

My new favorite thing? The print by artist Nikki McClure titled "Share Your Table" that I picked up at Little Otsu on Valencia. It really embodies everything I believe about food.

Enjoy

EB

Spring Is In The Air

 

Spring is in the air…

And in my freezer. The world is thawing, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping and new fresh flavors are everywhere. I was gifted with a large stash of lemons so perfect, they looked like plastic. Their fragrant, oil packed skin called out to be blended with rich cream an a little something special. I found the perfect something special at Bi-Rite the other day. Candied rose petals! This recipe would work fantastically with candied violets too.

 

Lemon-Rose Petal Ice Cream

3 Large lemons (zested & juiced)

½ cup sugar

1 ½ cups ½ & ½

Pinch of salt

3 egg yolks

4 tbs candied rose petals

 

Warm the ½ & ½, sugar, salt, and lemon zest in a saucepan until just simmering. Remove from heat and let sit for1 hour. Re-warm mixture. While it warms, whisk the egg yolks and lemon juice together in a large bowl. Add several tablespoons of the cream mixture into the yolk mixture and whisk. Repeat procedure until the two mixtures are completely blended together. Return mixture to the saucepan and heat on medium, stirring constantly. The custard is cooked when it thickens and coats the spoon.

Pour the mixture through a strainer back into your mixing bowl. Chill the mixture in the freezer for 20 minutes. Stir thoroughly and put into mixer. While the ice cream churns, crush 2 tbs of the rose petals (or lavender, or violet). 5 minutes before the mixture is finished churning add both the crushed and whole candied rose petals.

 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

EB

Dime Store Pulp

The James Beard Cookbook how do I love thee? Let me count the ways….  Seriously I could wax poetic about this little paper-bound piece of fabulousness for pages. First off, it is a 95c paperback edition that has a whiff of cheap, dime-store, trashy, pulp novel about it. It has green painted page edges, which nobody does anymore. My edition is from 1966 and features a plump, latter day Beard on the cover stirring up a sauce to place, delicately I’m sure, on the rotund oysters laid out before him.

There are no glossy ‘food-porn’ shots, just skillfully drawn, 60’s-mod sketches of “Cold Dunk Sauces,” appetizers on sticks, and assorted vegetables along with illustrations of sour faced pigs partitioned off into “Fat Back,” “Picnic Ham,” and “Head Cheese” portions and a diagram of lettuces to be used in “Vegetable Salads.”

The book starts off with a list of “Practical Don’ts” which really are practical and still relevant today. Beard starts off this list with “Buy good food, and buy often” noting that you shouldn’t “buy food you don’t need just because it’s cheap.” Here Here!

 

This 518 page jem has recipes for everything from “Anchovy Butter” to “Wine Merchant’s Sauce” and “Aspic” to “Yorkshire Pudding” but have I made a single recipe? Not a chance. And why not? Because this fantastic piece of culinaria has taken up residence in my purse. If I’ve got a few minutes before class or a long line at the bank, a few minutes with a mug of coffee or a tardy friend, out pops Mr. Beard and I’m off in my head whipping up “Braised Beef, Bordeaux Fashion” or reading up on the origin of the hors d’ouvre.

Thank you Mr. Beard.

EB

Loyal "Natives"

I have the distinct feeling that like me, many of you received cookbooks as gifts for the holiday season. My project for the next few weeks is going to be sharing with you the tomes I ripped open with glee. 

 

The first installment was a gift from my aunt Dana. She knows how much I love ‘vintage’ cookbooks so she dug through the family archives and gifted me with the “Loyalty CookBook of the Native Daughters of the Golden West” Huh? What the?

 I had no idea either. A quick Google and apparently The Native Daughters of the Golden West, was and still is, a “fraternal organization dedicated to preserving California's history, improving its present, and ensuring a brighter future for all its residents.” 

 

This smallish, brown leather bound “Loyalty” cookbook looks like it could have been used for fundraising. My aunt didn’t know too much about it except that one of my relatives (a great aunt I think) had a recipe in it. On pg 108 you can find Mary E. Wright’s (of the Bahia Vista Parlor) recipe for Scrambled Eggs with Cheese. Creative? Original? Not necessarily. But with a ½ pound of cheese and cream… I’m sure they are pretty darn tasty.

Scrambled Eggs with Cheese

½ lb American cheese, rub through grater

½ cup cream

8 eggs

1 tbs minced parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

Beat eggs slightly and add ingredients given. Pour into a well-buttered skillet, cook slowly, stirring constantly so the cheese will melt by the time the eggs are cooked. Serve on toast.

 

I love this little book. There are recipes like “Ethel’s Candy Suggestion” and “Goop.” This being a California cookbook there are also Chinese, Portuguese and Mexican recipes. (Hardly authentic, but at least they gave it a shot eh?) And there is an entire chapter devoted to Tamale Pie. An entire chapter. Apparently in 1948 Tamale Pie was where it was at!

Did you get any fascinating reads for the holidays?

EB

A Little Cookie Zen

Every year, and I really do mean every year, I swear up and down that I will make everyone gifts. Does it happen? Hardly. While I have the best intentions...I usually end up begrudgingly buying trinkets and cursing myself. This year... NO MORE! I am actually busier than I've ever been this year, and I honestly believe it's the sole reason cookies got baked and cards got handmade (seriously!). I have been so harried and so stressed that the zen-ness of baking, of cutting and pasting, called to me. The feeling of mixing ingredients, of rolling dough, of cautiously cutting out shapes... made me calm.

Every year, my compunction to bake gifts begins with Gourmet's holiday cookie guide. The gorgeous, perfect cookies are so... well... perfect. While these little gems always call to me, I tend to get the "but I can't bake!" heebie geebies, I psych myself out, and the cookies don't get made. This year, they even put up their best of the best of the last 7 decades!! I was taken. There were 20 I wanted to make but one recipe in particular called to me. These Stained-Glass Teardrops.

They were so gorgeous, so fetching... so this year, I finally sucked it up, went zen and just made the damn things!! And you know what? They came out perfect. Absolutely perfect. I won't copy the recipe here because I didn't change a single thing about it. I used stars instead of teardrops (cuz I just don't have them) and instead of sour balls I used spiced Christmas candies. You know the kind? The old fashioned clove, mint and cinnamon flavored ones that look like ribbon candy?

I actually jumped for joy when these came out of the oven. They were perfect. Heebie Geebies be gone! I've since wrapped them in tissue and given them a select few. The look on people's faces has been classic. These aren't just cookies, they're like little toys. They're fun to look at, to hold up to the light, to spin around. Beyond that... they're absolutely delicious.

Enjoy!

Erin

The One That Started It...

This is the box that started it all. It was this box, dug out of a dollar bin at the flea market, that got me into collecting recipe boxes. It’s a very simple box and it’s different from all my others. It’s wooden, homemade and self painted and decorated with decoupage.Cut out pictures of bell peppers, salad, radishes, pears? Why not?

It was this bright yellow box that got me to thinking about the recipes that might have been in it at one point. Where were they now? How old was the woman who owned this? Did she make it for herself? Did one of her kids make it for her in woodshop? Was it a mother’s day gift? Did she cook for fun, or just for the family? I have no idea.

It’s not necessarily my favorite recipe box. I've since come to cherish the ones stuffed with recipes… but there’s just something so homey about this box. Its DIYness spoke to me that day at the flea market that day and it still does.

Happy Friday!

EB

Recipe Box Chronicles Pt. 3

It’s Friday! I love Friday’s for sooo many reasons, but today I love Friday because it’s the day I get to share this great recipe box with you. I really like this box for it’s fantastic mid century design and the fact that I happen to have the matching tea kettle!

This box is jammed pack with lots and lots of cookie recipes. Many of these fantastically retro recipes are clipped from Better Homes and Gardens magazine, some from June 1948.

 

There are no clues as to the name of the owner of the box, the only card with a name on it is a handwritten recipe for White Cake from an Edith Hanson. This woman definitely was a smoker though… that I can tell. She was apparently a smoker who lived in South Dakota and read The Argus Leader Newspaper, out of Sioux Falls. There are some fun recipes clipped from the paper. One of my favorite clippings has to be for a Tuna Gelatin Salad in the shape of a star!

A few other recipes that caught my eye were Appetizer Ham Logs, PartyTime Sandwich Loaf (which is composed of Egg Salad, Crab Meat, Ham Salad and Blue Cheese) and a typed recipe for Cinnamon Rolls that ends with “Then eat-eat-eat-eat-eat-with gobs of butter.” Can do!

It was a bit of a challenge trying to pick a recipe to share with you so I went for something I’ve never made (no, not the tuna loaf) but a random sweet sauce to put on well… whatever you want!

Hot Butter Sauce

1/2 cup butter

1/8 tsp cinnamon

Dash of Salt

3/4 cup honey

1/2 cup whipping cream

1 tsp grated orange peel

“Combine butter, cinnamon and salt in saucepan; heat until butter melts. Blend in honey. Stir in cream and orange peel. Serve warm over ice cream or fresh fruit.”

 

This had an unexpected richness and surprising flavor. Perfect for the holidays. It would make an amazing pancake topping! Once it cooled I also used it as a spread for an English muffin and had a very happy morning due to it.

Enjoy!

Erin

Rubberized Awesomeness

Why oh why do I love Ichiban Kan? Is it because you can get handmade ramen noodles at Sapporo-Ya down the street? Maybe... but really.... it's these:

These are erasers people. Erasers! To a dorky-ass teacher like me.... nirvana.

Enjoy!

Erin