Friday, May 29, 2009

I haven't forgotten

I haven't forgotten to post new recipes to this BLOG. I haven't forgotten how to cook, either. I just have had only one opportunity to cook this past week. And, because this recipe wasn't something my mom would have cooked, I had no remembrances of recipes past -- therefore, I guess I have forgotten, something!

The only meal I actually cooked this week included a rare sirloin roast which wasn't too tough to cut, and which when reheated, still stayed rare in the center. A trick I learned about cooking beef rare was actually learned on The Food Channel several years ago.

I think it was Bobby Flay who was making a standing rib roast at Christmas time -- something I used to do every year when the children were growing up, were living at home, and we spent Christmas Day all together, so it was worth cooking something. Anyway, he made this roast and it looked yummy, so I tried his method to get the perfect crusty roast with a rare center.

He suggested pre-heating the oven to 450 degrees, putting the roast in the oven at that temperature for 15 minutes, then cutting the temperature back to 350 degrees for an hour, which was enough time to cook a four-rib roast.

Well, roasts without bones do not have to be cooked as long, and timing is all important if you want a crusty, rare roast of sirloin. So, while I can't promise that your roast will be crusty and rare if you follow my recipe, I know that mine USUALLY is just right, and the amount of juice from the roast makes just enough gravy for a small to medium roast.

I usually get a 2-3 pound roast. I set it in the 450 degree oven for 15 minutes, then cut it back, and cook it for 45 minutes. I remove it from the oven after the 45-minute period and let it rest for 15 minutes. There will be "reddish" juice coming from the roast, which I pour back into the pan where the drippings are. I add one cup of water to the pan drippings, then thicken the drips with cornstarch (equal parts water and cornstarch), using a whisk to get all the drippings well mixed.

NOTE: If the juice from the roast isn't reddish, then it isn't rare in the middle, as you will find out when you slice into it.

I usually serve the roast with baked potatoes and a salad. That's it. Tonight, the potatoes didn't cook in time, so we just had roast and salad which was fine. The other night, when I first cooked the roast we had it with corn on the cob, instead of baked potatoes, and the requisite salad.

I say "requisite salad" because I am, after all, of Italian descent, and there was never a meal when we didn't have a green, leafy salad with our dinner.

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Monday, May 18, 2009

Holiday weekend

Well, the first holiday weekend of the summer is almost on us. This weekend will be a busy one for me and mine. Saturday our pool opens and I must bring a breakfast (brunch) dish, and then bring a dish for our dinner bar-b-q for our community events. Sunday we're celebrating with our own family -- all 21 of us -- at one of the local parks. And on Monday we'll be at the pool, I suppose and in the morning there is a service at our flagpole honoring our soldiers and sailors, past and present, then another breakfast! I do love this weekend even though it is a tiring one.

I recall that Memorial Day was a day when we ALWAYS went to Aunt Annie's for an outdoor picnic. I don't recall one single rain-out. The women made the food, and it must have been organized by Aunt Annie as to who would bring what, because there was a table load of food, but no duplicates. Aunt Rita, my mom, sometimes Aunt Fran, if she was up from Tennessee, and the cousins, Grace, Hannah, Mickie, David's wife, Virginia, all contributed to the feast.



My mom always took potato salad and a jello dessert of some kind. There was a wonderful layout of lunch meats and real, good, fresh, Italian bread, so that we could make sandwiches. There was no grill. We didn't need grilled meats.



Mom's potato salad was always a hit. I think she made the best potato salad there ever could be.



Her recipe for a crowd follows:



5 pounds of potatoes, cooked, peeled, and sliced
1 large onion, diced
1/2 dozen eggs -- hard boiled and slices
1 red or green pepper, diced
1/2 cup sliced dill pickles
2 T dill pickle juice (sometimes she would use white vinegar or lemon juice)
1 to 2 cups of Hellman's mayonnaise (enough to make it moist after it is stirred)
1/4 cup mustard
a shake of garlic salt
1 T salt



Mix all together making sure all the potatoes are coated with mayonnaise, but not too much mayo. Test this for your own taste. You can use low-fat mayo. It works just as well.

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Thursday, May 14, 2009

Our favorite desserts

The Drexler clan had few favorite desserts. However, one my father was especially fond of was Junket. It was a custard-type dessert -- sort of like creme brulle without the brulle (crisped sugar), and it was made with a tablet stirred into a mixture of milk and eggs and sugar to thicken it. It was not baked in an oven as custard is today, but cooked on top of the stove. Mom made that at least once a week.

We children all like jello -- any kind, we didn't care. One small package of jello stretch just right for all six of us. Mom almost always included a can of fruit which expanded the dessert just a little bit.

We also loved pudding. The stir kind, not the instant kind. However, I have to admit that after instant pudding became very popular, mom switched over. She like to mix the chocolate and vanilla together, making it chocola pudding. Not too bad, but I would have preferred plain chocolate. There were times when she'd make instant lemon pudding and try to pass it off as lemon meringue pie without the meringue. Didn't work! We might have been little, but we weren't stupid. It was sweet, however, and thus we dug in and finished a little dish off in three swallows.

My sister tells me that she really loved the crumb cake mom made every Saturday night (for Sunday morning, but it could have been a dessert). If mom dressed it up -- i.e., she added apples to the mix -- it became a dessert. I could tolerate it then (with apples) because it wasn't as dry as it was just plain.

Mom also made a yellow cake and usually made a simple butter icing for it. She would often let us children put a few drops of food coloring in the icing just for a change.

So, the deserts were simple, but they satisfied our hankering for something sweet.

Oh, yeah, let's not forget ice cream!

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Monday, May 11, 2009

Rum-Tum Tiddy

This is a really friendly kid dish. And even an adult dish, and it is one of those Sunday-night-I-don't-want-to-cook dishes. It was passed down to my by my mother-in-law, Ruth Hahn.

Who doesn't like tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches? Well this dish combines both of those treats into one dish, and it's so easy to make -- you can even do it in the microwave if you want, and which I usually do.

For a family of 6 you'll need 2 cans of tomato juice (made with your choice of either water or milk). Into this you'll need to add 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese. You can do the math if you cut the recipe in half. Cook the soup as you would normally, either on the stove or in the microwave, until the cheese is melted enough to be stirred into the soup and the soups is good and warm.

While the soup is cooking, start making toast. Most people will want two slices of toast, some may want more, but start with two each.

After the soup is done and you have a pile of toast, cut in half so you have triangles, you're ready to put the dish together.

On a dinner-size plate place the toast triangles on the plate, then spoon the soup over top of the toast.

There you have it -- a variety of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, and a lot less mess than slopping those grilled cheese sandwiches into the bowl or cup of soup. It tastes the same.
I hope you and your children come to love this dish the way my children and my husband's siblings did. I know there was always a fight as to who was going to get the last piece of toast to get the remaining bit of Rum Tum Tiddy out of the pan, and the father of the clan usually won!

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Friday, May 8, 2009

Children love this pasta

It's not a Runnemede Recipe -- in other words it's not from my mom. But it is, sort of. I recall she'd use different kinds of pasta on Sunday night, usually, and all she'd add was garlic powder and butter, and it was delish,. At least my 8-year-old pallete enjoyed it.

My take on that mom's Sunday-night offering is just a wee bit different

This is a bow-tie pasta recipe. I have friends who aren't fond of bowtie pasta, but Alan and I like it, so I use it a lot. It absorbs the sauce/gravy really well.

You'll need (for a family of 6)

one pound of bow-tie pasta, cooked according to the box directions. I like it a little softer than the box recipe, but it's a matter of your taste. Most people prefer el dente.

any veggies you like raw (shredded carrots, broccoli, peas, peppers, onions, zucchini, etc.) as many as you and your family will eat. I use about one cup of each one.

The sauce is basically butter and cream (or you can use milk, but it doesn't thicken as well).

In a sauce pan put three pats of butter and one cup of cream (I prefer heavy, or half and half, but you can use milk). Bring to a simmer and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Add 1 cup shredded cheese (your favorite). I use parmigiana or Romano cheese which I grate fresh. This will cause the mix to thicken. Simmer another minute until the cheese melts. Stirring while you wait.

When the sauce/gravy is ready, pour it all over the drained pasta which you have put in a dish and using a large spoon stir or mix the sauce/gravy into the pasta. Wait about three minutes and add the raw veggies. Stir again. I know raw peas (frozen) doesn't sound that great, but they cook in the hot pasta and by the time you get the dish to the table most of the veggies are blanched, and not so raw.

One note: I prefer to use cooked broccoli. I'm not a raw broccoli lover, and I like broccoli cooked until it is pretty soft, but not mushy.

Herbs you might want to add: basil (fresh); thyme (fresh); rosemary (fresh) -- not all three at once. One at a time. I also top it with fresh cut parsley.

Enjoy this one. It will become a summer favorite.

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Monday, May 4, 2009

Baked Alaska

My own recipes will return in a few days, but I had to post one of our most favorite desserts. Alan and I love baked Alaska. The first time we ate it was on a very special date we had at a very expensive restaurant in Philadelphia in August 1965 -- it was to celebrate our engagement.

For dessert Alan order us baked Alaska. I had never had it. He had, and it was one of those dishes they flamed at the table.

Well, on our recent cruise they served baked Alaska, but because of fire concerns they didn't flame it at the table. They either broiled it or singed it with one of those torches chefs are using these days.

Baked Alaska is a thin lay of yellow cake topped with Neapolitan ice cream (they use a one gallon block). Then all that is coated with a very stiff meringue. The meringue, in a real baked Alaska (thus the name) is baked at a very high temperature for five minutes, just enough to brown the meringue. The ice cream is frozen very cold, so it doesn't melt while the meringue is being browned.

The result is a wonderful dessert, and I'm slobbering just thinking about it. No dessert for me tonight. I'm off to bed. I will be back in full force, I hope, later in the week. I need to get over my vacation. !!!!!

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