Spice Dish

Tomato Watch 2009

So the good news first... my tomato plant is HUGE. Bad news... the bugs are devouring it! Any non-pesticide suggestions?

Thanks
EB

Creamy Snail Mail.... Mmmmm

Mail is a good thing right? I mean, when it's not a bill? Like when it's a postcard from someone nice? Someone nice who really likes ice cream? Would you like some nice, not bill-related, but ice cream offering mail? The real kind? In your actual, attached to your house mailbox kind? Yes, I thought you would.... 

Join the Ice Cream Recipe Postcard Swap from Scoopalicious!

Have Fun (and send me mail :)

EB

Look Ma I'm A Farmer!

Look Ma I'm a Farmer! Ok not really. Actually every time I try to grow something... I kill it. Black Thumb.... definitely not green. But strangely I always try again. This Spring I've decided to grow my own tomatoes. Now, I live in an apartment. One that most definitely does not have a backyard. There is a slab of concrete where I get to park my car (yes I have a space!) and on that slab my neighbor has set up a makeshift 'garden' comprised of lots o' pots of flowers lined up against the other concrete slab that is the wall. I really wanted to grow something, but since this is the space I have to work with, I got one of these upside down growing things, stuck a tomato seedling in there and hung it from a bamboo pole. But check this out... Voila! It's growing!!

A week of constant watering and check those out. Those are little yellow blossoms! If this whole, me growing another life form thing, works out... I'll keep you updated on the progress. If not... well, those blossoms were nice.

EB

Fifty Two Fridays

San Francisco

I know I've been a little MIA lately but I am around I swear. Just ask Victoria! You can find the both of us over at Fifty-Two Fridays. What goes on over there? Well, you can check out the adventures of two ladies who live 2,913 miles apart (exactly). Every Friday we each post a pic of what's going on on our side of the country.

Manhattan

Come visit us!

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

Peppermint Crack'ed

I don't know where to begin... they always say an addict has to hit rock bottom before they admit they have a problem. Well I'm there. I'm in a deep well of ice cream addiction and this flavor is what done it. Joking aside... this flavor is called Peppermint Crack'ed because it is as addictive as crack and as chock full of peppermint and chocolate as can be. This one starts with a rich, milk chocolate custard and is packed full of holiday treats. For those of you who don't own an ice cream maker, you can still easily make this creamy, delicious, totally addictive frozen goodness.

Peppermint Crack'ed

7 oz milk chocolate, chopped

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

4 large egg yolks

6 regular size candy canes, smashed

8 peppermint cream sandwich cookies*

½ cup sugar

Pinch of salt

(*I use Peppermint Joes, if you can’t find these Oreos and a ½ tsp peppermint extract would work just fine)

 

In a saucepan combine milk, salt, sugar and about 4 smashed candy canes. Heat on low until sugar and canes are dissolved.  In another saucepan (or double boiler) heat a few inches of water. In a heatproof bowl, combine the chocolate and cream and place bowl on top simmering water. Stir continuously until chocolate is melted. Once melted remove bowl from heat and set aside. In another bowl, whisk together egg yolks. Add a tablespoon or so of milk mixture to the yolks and whisk. Slowly add the rest of milk mixture while constantly whisking. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Heat on medium and stir constantly until mixture coats the back of your spoon. Remove from heat and pour, through a strainer, into the chocolate mixture. Put mixture immediately into the coldest part of your fridge.  Once cool all the way through, freeze in your maker. 5 minutes before it is frozen through add crushed cookies and remaining peppermint pieces.

 

No ice cream maker? Follow the directions above to make the ‘batter.’ Cool in fridge. Once cool, stir in the remaining crushed peppermint pieces. Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap (make sure it is big enough to fold over the top of the pan). Line the pan with the crushed cookies. Pour your ‘batter’ in and cover with the plastic wrap. Put in the freezer for 6-8 hours until frozen solid. You can then slice this like cake pieces!

 

Enjoy!

Erin

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

Cocoa-tastic!

I really like this next recipe box. It’s a little yellowed box with pink and blue flowers. The recipes, mostly written on index cards, are themselves are a bit yellowed. Besides the index cards, there is a large collection of recipes clipped from newspapers, butter boxes, cracker boxes and advertisements.

There are no clues in this box as to the identity of its owner. There is only one recipe with a name on it. It’s a recipe for Fresh Corn Fritters given by a Zhanela Griffith. Whoever the owner of the box was, she was a pretty confident cook. A large number of the cards only list ingredients, not measurements or directions! Her writing is small and neat and she took care to make her own tabs for sections like “Seafood.” 

 

A few of my favorite recipes are for Ugly Duckling Cake, Mock Apple Pie and a candy called Sea Foam. There is a recipe for doughnuts made with potato and one for Emergency Cake (is this for a cake emergency? Or cake during an emergency? No clue.) There were lots of fun-looking recipes to try but as I’ve been sick as a dog this week, the one recipe that jumped out at me was one for Chocolate Drink. It’s basically the richest hot cocoa ever.

 

Chocolate Drink

 “This is the way: take three squares of chocolate, the unsweetened kind, and add one-half cup of cold water. Put in a saucepan over a low flame, stir until the chocolate is melted all nice and smooth. Then ass one-half cup of sugar and just a dash of salt. Blend and stir and boil about five minutes. Cool. When cool fold in one-half cup of cream, whipped fairly stiff. Flavor with one teaspoon of vanilla.

 To serve, put a small ladle or a good tablespoon of the mixture in each cup and fill the cup with hot milk. If you like a sweeter chocolate, use a little more sugar in the chocolate mixture. And this same recipe makes a perfect chocolate sauce; only when you use it this way leave out the cream.”

 

 I can’t even begin to tell you how decadent and rich this is. I mean it was so amazing, but I could only drink about ½ cup. I made very few changes… I used Dove dark chocolate instead of baking chocolate and granted… I did put Kahlua in the whipped cream because I’m sick and I felt like it damnit, but the basic recipe as written is still very rich. I recommend making this as a dessert and serving it in espresso cups. Trust me… it’s all you need of this yummy winter warmer.

Enjoy!

Erin

Tea With Polly

 

 

I really enjoyed my recipe box project his week. I felt like such a detective on this little venture. I pulled one of my favorite boxes off the bakers rack, grabbed my glasses and sat down. The pink and yellow tin box is faded from the sun—maybe in a bright spot in the kitchen. The windowsill even? It is rested, a little chipped and, judging by the recipes bulging out of it, much loved.

 

There are lots of sweet potato recipes like Sweet Potato Bake and just as many pecan laced desserts leading me to think that this box had to belong to a southern woman. There are old Xeroxed copies of things like Million Dollar Pie and handwritten recipes like Brown Betty Candy ‘protected’ in an old bread bag.

 

  

 

I started finding recipes written on AT&T share holders note paper with a logo of the state of Texas chatting on the phone and recipes written on paper from local businesses like McMurry Tools of Houston. Then the clincher…. a newspaper clipping from The Redland Herald of Nacogdoches County, Texas dated Nov. 25, 1973. She had to be, not just southern… but Texan!

I kept digging and found several recipes for ‘loaf dishes’ (made by stacking Velveeta, deviled ham and white bread), and A LOT of ‘party salad’ type of dishes involving gelatin. Did this Texan like to entertain?

 

 

 

Towards the back of the box there were recipes given by others like the Frozen Fruit Salad from Evelyn McCain given 2/13/67 and several cards where a child’s hand has written out the ingredients while mom wrote the directions and coupons for Tang (did she have children?)…..then…. a recipe on personal note paper from “Polly” and a few recipes ‘signed’ Polly Pate! The writing on these matches the bulk of the recipes. So here I am… holding a Texan’s, Ms. Polly Pate’s, recipe box.

 

Yes, of course I looked. There are several Polly Pates who lived in Texas in the 60’s. There's really no way for me to know which one she is. But no matter. I decided to make a recipe for Tea Cakes that was in the box. They are a cross between a biscuit, cookie and cake. The original is good but I’ve modified it a bit to be a little more flavorful.

 

 

Tea Cakes from Polly’s Box

2/3 cup butter

3 eggs

3 2/3 cup flour

3 tsp milk

2 tsp lemon juice

Zest from one large lemon

1 ½ cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 ½ tsp baking powder

1 cup powdered sugar for topping

 

Combine butter and sugar. Beat in eggs. Add remaining ingredients and stir until dough comes together. Lay out plastic wrap and place ½ of dough in center. Form a log, wrap tightly. Repeat with other half of dough. Let rest in fridge for several hours (or you can freeze).

Preheat oven to 350*.  Cut ¼ inch discs of dough and space apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 mins.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

Erin