Comfort Foods

Nothing says comfort foods like the first tinge of autumn in the air—back to school, back to routines, back to basic, comfort foods. One of the bonuses of fall foods is their convenience to make; take out your slow cookers and soup kettles and simmer a large batch of pot roast, soup and chili and then store the extra in the freezer to pull out for a second or even third meal. You can even leave them in the refrigerator for a few days and the flavors will meld, making them even tastier the second time around. If you have houseguests, as I did this week, make a pot roast in the slow cooker with all the veggies; serve and then make a great soup from the leftovers. Add delicious, hearty bread from the bakery for the soup meal and you’ve scored a success.


Casseroles make a come-back this time of year, too. A couple of the quickest, easiest ones I know are old-timers that really satisfy.

End one of these meals with a creamy pudding—tapioca or old-fashioned rice—each is nice, creamy, reminiscent of childhood, and delicious!

Pot Roast in the crock-pot

1 3-4 pound rump roast
1 Tbsp Canola oil
3 cups water
1 cup dry red wine
2 large onions
2 tsp. salt
½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 pound rutabagas
1 pound parsnips
6 medium potatoes, red or gold
8 ozs. Carrots

Heat oil in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add beef to pan, browning on all sides. Transfer beef to large crock-pot sprayed with cooking spray. Add water and wine to drippings in Dutch oven. Peel and cube all vegetables and add to broth. Add salt and pepper. Bring to boil and turn heat down to low and simmer until vegetables are nearly tender. Set vegetables aside; add liquid to meat in crock-pot. Cook on high for 2 hours. Add vegetables and cook an additional two hours. Remove meat and vegetables and thicken gravy with slurry made of 2 Tbsp flour and one-fourth cup water. Turn crock-pot on high, add slurry and cook an additional half hour. Add meat and vegetables to crock-pot and heat for 30 minutes. Serve.

Second Day Soup

Liquid from pot roast and enough additional water to make 6 cups liquid.
All vegetables left over except potatoes (use for something else) cut in small dice
Meat leftover, cut in small dice
1 tsp. beef soup base for each cup of water
1 Tbsp. tomato paste
¾ cup pearled barley (quick or instant)

Heat liquid and add soup base; bring to a boil. Add barley and cook for time on package. Serve with dollop of sour cream.

Dag’s Quickie Cabbage Casserole

1 large head cabbage
1 pound boneless pork loin, sliced 1/2 thick
1 can cream of mushroom soup mixed with 1 8-oz carton sour cream
½ cup apple cider
2 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
Salt and pepper

Shred cabbage and put in large baking dish, 15x11. Pour apple cider over cabbage and salt and pepper to taste. Layer apple slices over cabbage, then pork loin slices. Cover with soup and sour cream mixture. Bake uncovered for 1 ½ hours at 350 degrees.

Cedric Adams’ Casserole

Any of you who remember Cedric Adams—a long time, beloved radio announcer for WCCO and a newspaper columnist for either the Minneapolis Star or the Minneapolis Tribune are getting to be old-timers indeed! You may also remember this recipe which he claimed was the all-time asked for recipe of his life. His column wasn’t particularly about food—just general chit-chat with an occasional recipe thrown in. All his recipes were man-style—hearty, easy and homey. This is so simple, it is scary—but it really is delicious.

1 head cabbage
1 pound hamburger, browned
1 onion, chopped
1 can cream of tomato soup
Salt and pepper to taste

Chop or shred cabbage, put into a greased casserole dish. Sprinkle browned hamburger over cabbage; cover with tomato soup and ½ soup can of water. Salt and pepper to taste. Cover with casserole cover or foil. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Rice Pudding

2 cups cooked rice (use Arborio or other short-grain rice)
3 ½ cups 1% milk
1/3 cup sugar
¼ cup nonfat dry milk
¼ tsp. salt
2 large eggs, beaten
¼ cup golden raisins
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon

Combine rice, liquid milk, sugar, dry milk and salt in large saucepan over medium heat; bring to a simmer. Simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Place eggs in bowl; gradually add half of rice mixture to eggs, stirring constantly with a whisk. Return egg mixture to pan and cook 2 minutes at medium-low temperature, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in raisins and vanilla. Spoon into serving dishes. Sprinkle cinnamon over each serving. Makes 8 servings.

End of Summer Vegetables

End of the summer vegetables are finally beginning to really mature. This summer has been so hot then cool that I was worried that the first frost would come before the tomatoes, squashes, eggplants and other late summer vegetables would get properly ripened. Well, September has come through for the farmers and we are the lucky recipients of the bounty.


Every year I make ratatouille with onions, tomatoes, zucchini and bell peppers and freeze it to savor the heady summer taste of the garden all year long. It is one of the most versatile dishes I have in my repertoire. Not only versatile, but it is delicious and easy to make, as well. Here is another example of a very healthy dish that is not particularly expensive at all.

There are lots of recipes for ratatouille, but it is a flexible recipe that you can put in things that you like and leave out what you don’t especially like. I found that through the years of raising my children, this dish, though composed of many vegetables that somebody or other didn’t like, was nevertheless very acceptable, particularly when served in the soup mode.

Ratatouille can be served as a soup with a crusty French bread crouton smothered with mozzarella cheese and broiled a la French Onion Soup. It can be served cold, as a side or condiment with roasts, steaks, hamburgers and fish. Or as a vegetable dish along side all of the above, but served hot. You can make your ratatouille soupy or thick. If you make it thick, you can add water or tomato juice to thin it out when you cook it.

Here is Julia Child’s recipe for ratatouille; I like it because she sautés everything separately so each vegetable retains its own particular flavor.

Preliminary salting
½ lb. eggplant
½ lb. zucchini (can be half yellow summer squash)
1 tsp. salt

Peel eggplant and cut into 1” cubes. Scrub zucchini under cold water, cut off and discard two ends and slice horizontally about ½ inch thick. Toss the vegetables together in a bowl with the salt and let stand 30 minutes. Drain; dry in a towel.

Sautéing

4 or more Tb olive oil
1 ½ cups sliced onions
1 cup sliced green peppers (about 2 peppers—can use red or yellow for one of the peppers)
2 cloves minced garlic
Salt and pepper
1 lb. tomatoes, peeled, seeded and juiced (or if you want a soupier dish, don’t juice the tomatoes)
3 Tbs. minced parsley

Heat olive oil in a large frying pan, then saute eggplant and zucchini cubes to brown lightly on both sides. Remove to side dish. Add more oil if necessary and cook onions and peppers slowly until soft. Stir in garlic and season with salt and pepper. Roughly chop tomato and place over onions and peppers. Cover pan and cook for 5 minutes, then uncover, raise heat and boil for several minutes until tomato juice has almost completely evaporated. Season with salt and pepper; fold in parsley.

Assembling and Baking

Spoon a third of the tomato mixture in the bottom of a 2 ½-quart flameproof casserole 2 inches deep. Arrange half of the eggplant and zucchini on top, then half the remaining tomatoes. Cover with the remaining eggplant and zucchini, and the last of the tomato mixture. Cover casserole and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. Uncover, tip casserole and baste with the juices rendered and correct seasoning if necessary. Raise heat slightly and boil slowly until juices have almost entirely evaporated.

Marian and Nino Tracy wrote a very famous cookbook which appeared in bookstores on the day after Pearl Harbor in 1941. It was an instant hit and ushered in what was then a new idea—the casserole. A revised edition was published by Marian (sans Nino) in 1968 and it remains, today, one of the foremost casserole cookbooks ever published. The following recipe is a favorite of ours and is open to some manipulation with ingredients.

Summer Squash with Chili

1-1/2 cups cubed stale bread
Salt and pepper
1 lb. ground beef (lean)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, minced
½ green pepper, chopped without seeds
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil or 1 tsp. dried
Grated peel ½ lemon
2 8-oz. cans tomato sauce
2 lbs. small yellow squashes, salted and cubed but not peeled (see preliminary salting in previous recipe)
2 Tbsp. butter

Brown bread cubes in a hot oven, being careful not to burn. Salt and pepper ground beef and saute in olive oil with onions and green pepper. Mix chili powder, basil, grated lemon peel and tomato sauce with the mixture in the skillet. Take a deep buttered casserole and place half of the squash and bread cubes on the bottom. Dot with half of the butter. Spread with half of the meat mixture and repeat. This needs no other liquid because the squash will cook down. Cover tightly and bake in 350 deg. oven for 30 minutes. Serves 4.

Food "Packages"

I love opening packages—especially gaily wrapped ones that are meant for me. Perhaps that is why the food package has always been so popular in every ethnic cuisine. Whether the food is wrapped in an inedible substance such as parchment, foil or banana leaves, or—even more enticing—an edible such as a hollow vegetable or dough—it is an intriguing and delicious surprise.

Stuffed vegetables are a great way to teach children to eat and even love them. When I was little I really didn’t like green peppers (no surprise there), but my Mom made the best stuffed peppers in the world. I liked the way they looked and smelled—but not the way they tasted at first. I would eat the yummy hamburger, corn, tomato and spicy filling topped with delicious melt-y cheese and leave the shell. Eventually, the taste of the green pepper shell that had permeated the filling became familiar and delicious, too. And, as I grew up, I began to love the pepper.

Dough has long been an established fill-able food. Just trying to list the variety of filled dough is exhausting, but think spring rolls, won-tons, dim sum, piragi, ravioli—even desserts—filled crepes, cannoli, pies—need I continue?

Perhaps it’s prosaic to include the sandwich, or its newer counterpart the wrap, but these are packages, too. The sandwich was invented centuries ago to contribute to convenience and multi-tasking—thus becoming the first fast food.

But with all those listed above, none has enjoyed more popularity than the tortilla. South-of-the-border foods first became a sensation in the middle of the 20th century and have gone on to be close rivals of Italian cuisine in the United States. Our American versions of Mexican standards do change a little in the translation, but that has been the basis of all American cooking from its inception. Mexican or Tex-Mex foods are now so popular it is hard to believe they were not always standard fare. A couple of the reasons that I like it so much are the tremendous variety and ease of preparation.

The following recipe has been in my file since 1973 when I found myself in Ottumwa, Iowa with a two-year-old and a baby on the way. We were a close group of pilots and pilots’ wives trying to keep a struggling small local airline from going under. (It didn’t work). No one had any money and no one knew anyone else in the town, yet, so our social life consisted of taking our children and going to one or another’s house for dinner. We had ample ability to show off all the newest recipes we found in magazines or gleaned from the newspaper or our Moms. This enchilada dish has served me and hundreds of my family members and guests for almost 40 years and I have never tired of it. It is quick and easy; it lends itself to many variations; it is colorful; and, best of all, it is delicious!

Barb Youngquist’s Easy Enchiladas

8 large flour tortillas
1 pound hamburger
½ onion, chopped
4 cans mild enchilada sauce
½ cup chopped ripe olives
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 can chopped green chiles
Sour cream

Brown hamburger and onion until onion is soft and transparent. Drain. Add green chiles and ½ the ripe olives. Lay 1 tortilla on flat surface and put 1/8 of meat mixture on tortilla. Roll up tightly. Repeat with rest of tortillas and filling. Spread ½ cup of enchilada sauce in pan. Lay each filled tortilla, seam side down, in pan. Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over tortillas in pan. Spread cheese evenly over tortillas; sprinkle the rest of the ripe olives down center of dish. Cover loosely with a piece of parchment cut to fit casserole. Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Serve with sour cream, lime wedge, cilantro sprig and refried beans on the side.

Here is my Mom’s recipe for stuffed peppers.

6 large green peppers
1 pound hamburger
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 8-ounce can whole kernel corn, drained
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
¾ cup cooked rice
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
6 slices American cheese
2 Tbsp. chili sauce
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
¾ tsp. salt
½ tsp chili powder

Cut tops from peppers; discard seeds and membranes. Set in glass baking dish and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Sprinkle insides with salt. In skillet, brown hamburger and onion until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in corn, tomato sauce, rice, Cheddar cheese. Cover each pepper with 1 slice American cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees about 35 minutes.

Jewish Cooking

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is a two day celebration that started at sundown on September 9th and ended at sundown on September 11th. It is a mixed holiday, in that it is a celebration of hope for a happy year and the start of the Ten Days of Penitence when observant Jews are to put their houses in order.


Jewish holidays are mainly days of memory, sorrow, joy in creation, celebrations of survival and thanks for God’s assistance in times of trouble or turmoil. Each holiday has some special dish, a special baked item or a pungent delight.

For Rosh Hashanah, as for other Jewish holidays, the feasting begins with a blessing over the Challah, a braided bread; the blessing usually given by the woman of the family. Other foods which are popular are date-nut tortes, poppy seed candy, honey cake (lakach), tzimmes and Herring Salad.

Since Jewish people are found over the whole globe, the question might be asked, “Is there a typical Jewish Cuisine?” The answer is yes and no. Original Jews, the ancient Jews of Old Testament Judea were a nomadic desert people, mostly shepherds. They ate cereals, grapes (from which they made wine), dates, lamb, mutton and some cattle. They also had fruit; probably pomegranates, peaches melons, dates and figs.

Jewish cooking as we think of it, however, is a cuisine of exile and is an evolutionary process of adopting native foods; improving refining or simplifying them to fit into the ritual dietetic rules of the Old Testament. Therefore there is a Jewish version of most of the national dishes of each of the countries they populated.

“Besides an interest in food and its preparation, the hungry, exploited people have—their isolation as groups was always menaced, always in danger; their food in their huddled life took on originality. Ritual food feeding a people engaged in eternal debate and paradox; rueful, wary, witty. A style that extended to their Friday-night candle-lighting, the realistic delight in chopped liver, a good fat herring, the smell of a properly roasted goose.”---

The Joys of Jewish Cooking

Even though the actual New Year celebration is past, I found some interesting recipes for some of the ritual foods in The Joys of Jewish Cooking by Stephen and Ethel Longstreet. I am going to give them a try and thought you might like to, too.

Rosh Hashanah Herring Salad

1 cup cooked diced beets
1 cup cooked diced potato
1 large red apple, peeled, cored, sliced
1 matjes herring, sliced
½ cup diced dill pickle
1 medium onion, minced
½ cup red wine vinegar
Salt, pepper to taste
½ cup sour cream

In a bowl mix beets, potatoes, apple, matjes herring, dill pickle, minced onion, wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Fold in sour cream. Cover bowl and chill for 3 hours. Toss salad to serve. 2 servings

The tzimmes seems an ethnic invention, a mixture of fruits, vegetables and often meat. Served either with the main course or after, it seems to have no rational function but to remain tasty. The word tzimmes also means mixed up, or to raise trouble: “A regular tzimmes.”

Here are two versions of this interesting dish. The first is Russian and the second is German.

Carrot and Apple Tzimmes

1 ½ pounds flank steak
1 bunch carrots, scraped, diced
2 large apples, cored, quartered, not peeled
1 small onion, diced
1 cup apple cider
½ cup dark brown sugar
½ tsp. salt
1 cup water

Put the steak in a saucepan, add salted water to cover. Boil 5 minutes and drain—wash in cold water. Cut beef strip into 4 parts. Put meat and all ingredients in a 3-quart pot with a lid. Add 1 cup water, bring to boil, lower heat, and simmer gently ¾ hour. While this is cooking, make knaidlach (recipe follows). 6 servings

Knaidlach (farina soup balls)

½ cup flour
½ cup farina
Salt, ground pepper to taste
1 onion, diced
½ cup ground beef fat
¼ tsp. baking powder

Mix all ingredients well. Dough should be sticky but firm. When the soup has cooked ¾ hour, remove lid and, with a tablespoon, drop walnut-sized lumps of dough into soup. Replace lid, return to boil, lower heat and simmer ½ hour.

Apple-Carrot Tzimmes

4 cups grated carrots
1 Tbsp. pearl barley
1 apple, peeled, grated
½ cup butter
½ cup water
½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. sugar
¼ tsp. nutmeg

Mix all the ingredients together in a pan. Cook covered, simmering over low heat 2 hours until barley is soft. Add more water if needed. 6 servings.

French Lakach (Honey Cake)

3 ½ cups flour
¼ tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp. powdered cloves
½ tsp. ground ginger
4 eggs
¾ cup sugar
4 Tbsp. salad oil
2 cups dark honey
½ cup strong coffee
1 ½ cups walnuts

Preheat oven to 325. Combine flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger together. Beat eggs, sugar. Beat thick and light. Beat in the oil, honey, and coffee. Add the flour mixture and nuts. Turn the batter into greased pan. Bake in oven 1 ¼ hours until browned. Cool on a rack before taking from pan. 8 servings.

Autumn in the Air

When autumn is in the air, it’s time for hearty, hot soup. All summer I have been serving cold, mostly fruit soups at the inn as a first course for breakfast but suddenly they have lost their appeal and its time to start the kettle on the back of the stove (I don’t really do that, but it sounds so homey and delicious).


Soup is a topic that could cover pages and pages and not even make a dent in the lore and recipes to be found. Nothing says comfort and hospitality and sustenance like homemade soup. And all begin with such a simple thing: stock.

There are devotees of homemade stock and many sources of the best way to make that stock and then there are respected chefs and food writers who unabashedly use and recommend good quality canned stocks. There are cooks who throw everything but the kitchen sink into their soups (read kettle on back of stove) and the purists who clear and strain and follow a precise recipe for their homemade broths.

Regardless of which school of thought you prefer, almost all good soups begin with a stock of some kind to which you may add other ingredients at will. The only exceptions are those soups whose main ingredient makes the broth at the same time it makes soup, such as split pea soup with a ham bone as its flavor source.

Personally, I think that homemade stock is one of two secrets of great cooking. Julia Child in volume I of Mastering the Art of French Cooking says, “The wonderful flavor of good French food is the result, more often than not, of the stock used for its cooking, its flavoring or its sauce. The French term, fonds de cuisine means literally the foundation and working capital of the kitchen.” And it is so easy to make and convenient to store. Yes, you have to set aside some time to get started and actually do it, but once you have, you’ll be a convert.

I keep a collection of bones and meat scraps in the freezer. Beef and veal are preferable red meat sources over pork or lamb. Use fresh vegetables—and don’t use starchy vegetables as they tend to cloud the stock.

Basic Meat Stock (Adapted from Julia Child’s Vol. I Mastering the Art of French Cooking)
To make 2 or 3 quarts:

3 quarts of meat and bones in 2-3-inch pieces
2 tsp salt
2 medium scraped carrots
2 medium peeled onions
2 medium celery stalks
Tie in cheesecloth: One-fourth tsp. thyme
1 bay leaf
6 parsley sprigs
2 unpeeled garlic cloves
2 whole cloves
Optional: 2 leeks, washed

In large kettle place meat and bones and cover them by 2 inches with cold water. Cook on medium heat until it comes to a simmer. Skim scum with spoon until it ceases to accumulate.

Add rest of ingredients and more water to cover by an inch. When liquid is simmering again, skim as necessary. Partially cover kettle and simmer for 4 or 5 hours. Accumulated fat and scum may be skimmed off occasionally. Never allow the liquid to boil. Never cover the kettle airtight. Taste until you are satisfied with the flavor and strain the stock out of the kettle into a large bowl.

Set the stock uncovered in the refrigerator until the fat has hardened on the surface and can be scraped off.

Taste the degreased stock for strength. If its flavor is weak, boil it down to concentrate strength. Correct seasoning and it is ready to use. When stock is cold you can refrigerate for 3 or 4 days or freeze.

The most versatile and beloved of all stocks is a great chicken stock. This can be used in almost any savory dish you make. For quick and easy meals, a good canned chicken broth can be used (for instance, Swanson’s) But if you really want to put your soul into the dish, make this wonderful, absolutely frugal chicken stock and freeze it to use as needed. When the soup has been defatted, you can boil it down to half its volume; cool and pour into ice-cube trays. Freeze. Remove “ice-cubes” and put into a freezer plastic bag and freeze. You can use one cube at a time, diluting each cube with one-fourth to one-half cup water, wine, vegetable cooking water or tomato juice. Or use cubes without diluting as a flavor booster any time.

Absolutely Frugal Chicken Stock (adapted from “Soup and Bread” by Crescent Dragonwagon

3 and one-half quarts water, vegetable cooking water or secondary mild stock
2 Tbsp cider vinegar
4 pounds chicken
Pam cooking spray
2 medium onions, unpeeled, quartered
8 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
3 whole cloves garlic, unpeeled
1-1/2 tsp. salt
6 to 8 black peppercorns
3 ribs celery, with leaves, broken in 2 or 3 big pieces
3 or 4 sprigs fresh parsley
1 medium leek, washed
1 medium parsnip, scrubbed and cut into pieces
2 medium carrots, scraped and cut into pieces
Large pinch each of dried rosemary, thyme, sweet basil, sage and savory or 1 Tbsp each chopped fresh herbs
Large pinch of celery seeds.

In large kettle bring water to boil with vinegar. Stud each onion quarter with a clove. Spray another heavy soup pot with Pam and place the chicken in it. Surround chicken with studded onions and all other vegetables and seasonings. Pour over all boiling water. Bring liquids back to a boil, then turn down the heat and let simmer, uncovered, skimming surface foam for about 20 minutes.

Cover the pot and cook for 30 minutes; check for tenderness. If you poke it with a fork, you should be able to pull it from the bone with little effort. It should not have reached the point of completely falling off the bone on its own. About 1 hour of simmering over low heat should do it. Remove chicken from pot.

Strain, reserving both the chicken and the stock but discarding the vegetables. Cool the chicken and stock separately for 30 minutes. Refrigerate the stock to defat.

Pull the chicken from the bones in large pieces, discarding the skin. Save the bones and return to defatted stock and cook them a second time, uncovered for another hour. Strain again.

You are now ready to make a delicious chicken soup with added carrots, cooked chicken meat and noodles, matzo balls or dumplings. Or use your imagination and use it to cook any vegetable; pair with a starch—dumplings, rice, wild rice, diced potatoes, corn, noodles or barley. Then again, you can make the cooked chicken meat star and make it into a hearty casserole, or substantial hearty main-dish soup for which there are innumerable recipes. Yum!

Oh yes, the other vital ingredient in your cooking is the love with which you make your dishes—the value of this cannot be underestimated.

Pears---the Other Fall Fruit

Pears—the other fall fruit. Around here we think of the fall fruit as the apple—no fruit is grown in greater volume and in more varieties than the apple—but its close cousin, the pear, is greatly loved as well. And deservedly so. Like the apple, its sweet, succulent flavor lends itself well to eating simply out of hand or to the wonderful desserts we like to make this time of year: pies, tarts, baked pears filled with nuts and dried fruit.


Pears come in several varieties; among them Anjou, Bartlett, Bosc, Clapp Favorite, Comice, Seckel and Winter Nelis. In Europe there are over 5000 known varieties. Around here, the Anjou, Bartlett and Bosc are found commonly in our markets. There are a few local farmers raising pears which you can find for a short time at the farmer’s market, if you’re lucky. I was lucky this year and the pears yielded the most delicious eating, though I’m not sure what variety they were. Like the apple, the pear belongs to the rose family along with plums, cherries, apricots, raspberries and strawberries. Pears were known to the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks.

They are one of the few fruits which improve in flavor and texture when ripened off the tree so they are picked when mature but hard. When choosing pears, pick those that are firm but not hard and yield to slight pressure at the stem end. Pears bruise and discolor easily, so handle them gently.

Any recipe that calls for apples can generally be made with pears resulting in a delicious and different taste and texture. Pear sauce, like apple sauce is delicious served with a lacing of heavy cream and brown sugar. Caramel and vanilla are the flavorings often paired with pears (hmmm?), but they are delicious poached in wine and fruit juices. For something really different and delicious try the Oven Poached Pears in Pomegranate glaze. These are best made with Bosc Pears.

Three-fourths cup dry red wine
Three-fourths cup pomegranate juice
½ cup sugar
1 stick cinnamon
2 tsp. grated orange stems, peeled
6 Bosc pears with stems, peeled
Vanilla ice cream

Heat oven to 350. Heat wine, pomegranate juice, sugar, cinnamon stick and orange peel in medium saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes.

Peel and core pears, leaving stems intact. Coring whole pears can be done using a melon baller and coring from the bottom of the wide end of the pear. Trim bottoms flat and stand upright in 8x8x2-inch baking dish. Pour pomegranate-wine sauce over pears. Bake pears until tender when pierced with a knife, basting pears with sauce every 20 minutes, about 1 hour total. Place pears on serving platter. Transfer pan juices to small saucepan. Simmer until reduced to two-thirds cup, about 5 minutes. Spoon glaze over pears. Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream.

Candlelight Inn’s Champagne Pears with Custard Sauce

6 red Anjou pears
½ cup whole almonds, unblanched
½ cup whole walnuts
½ cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups domestic Champagne
½ cup dry red wine
One-fourth cup additional sugar

Pare and halve pears, removing stems. Using melon baller, take core out of pear. With small sharp knife, remove stem vein. Again with melon baller, enlarge the circle made from coring. Do not discard this portion of pear. Cut a small strip from bottom of each half, allowing the pear to lie flat in pan. Put these pear halves in a shallow, large Pyrex baking dish in which all twelve will fit.

Put saved portion of pear in work bowl of food processor. Add both kinds of nuts, sugar and egg and process until nearly smooth.

Fill pear cavities with this mixture; sprinkle with additional sugar. Pour Champagne and red wine into dish, not over pears. Bake for 1 hour at 400, watching so stuffing does not burn. If they begin to get too brown, baste juice over the pears.

Custard Sauce

1 3-oz package instant vanilla pudding mix
2 cups milk
1 cup half and half

Mix pudding according to directions, using the 3 cups of liquid instead of 2. Put into refrigerator to set. Spoon over pears in a stemmed dessert dish along with a bit of the pan juices.
Garnish with finely chopped, toasted almonds.

Pear Kuchen

Three-fourths cup flour
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
3 Tbsp. butter
1 3-oz. package vanilla pudding (not instant)
1 egg
½ cup milk
3 medium Bartlett pears
1 8-oz package cream cheese (not reduced fat)
3 Tbsp. apple juice
½ cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbsp sugar
Two-thirds cup chopped nuts

Beat the first 7 ingredients in mixer for 2 minutes. Spread mixture in a 10-inch spring form pan which has been sprayed with Pam.

Pare and core pears, removing stems. Slice thinly and place over mixture in pan. Drop cream cheese mixture over pears. Don’t allow to touch sides of pan.

Mix the cinnamon, sugar and nuts. Sprinkle over cream cheese.

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Apples, Pears and Grapes

This end of summer and early fall weather is exquisite—warm, breezy days, blue skies, a crisp feel to the air—and beckons us to take some of the back roads around our beautiful bluff country.


Such a day was last Sunday and our back road explorations led to a lovely old orchard, Domaine Da Vine, on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi near Bay City. There we wandered through mixed orchards and a vineyard and picked a variety of apples, pears and grapes of many varieties—most of them with unusual and old-fashioned names we had not heard. The orchards are not sprayed or treated, so some of the fruit has spots—but they were not bad and I like the unsprayed fruit. You can cut out any spots that bother you.

The owners, Jeff and Paula Soholt instructed us to circle the orchard, pointing us in the direction of certain kinds (crab, pie apples and pears) and inviting us to sample from any tree. The same was true for the different varieties of grapes. It was great fun.

Of course I came home with bags and bags of eating apples, pie apples and crabs (for jelly), as well as many pears and two varieties of grapes. Now, again, I have a porchful of produce to process.

Last year I found Concord grapes at the same farm, but the owners were not home and someone was helping out. Grapes were all picked and at the end of their season—I purchased the two pounds they had and made spiced grape butter—it was delicious. This year, with more grapes and some good instructions, I am making grape jelly.

Some of you probably know that grapes contain tartaric acid which causes crystallization in jelly. To remove the tartrate crystals, you must let the juice stand in the refrigerator overnight, then pour the juice through a paper coffee filter or 3 layers of dampened cheesecloth to leave the sediment behind.

How to make grape juice:

Place washed grapes (stems removed) in nonreactive saucepan. Add ½ cup of water per pound of grapes (1 pound is about 3 cups). Crush grapes with potato masher. Heat for 5 minutes at medium heat (do not boil). Crush again, and cook 5 to 10 minutes longer, or until skins lose much of their color. Strain through several layers of dampened cheesecloth or paper coffee filters. Do not squeeze—let drip. You should get about 1 ½ cups of juice from each pound of grapes.

The pears are so good to eat out-of-hand, I’m not sure that we’ll have a lot left to process when I get to them. They were a bit under-ripe, so I can leave them on the porch for a few days. I found a recipe in Abundantly Wild by Teresa Marrone for Pear muffins that is perfect for our inn. Pears are great in salads, paired with walnuts, too.

Here are the recipes that I’m going to do—I’ll report on the results in a later column:

All are from Abundantly Wild. (See above).

No-Cook Grape Jelly

3 half-pint canning jars, with bands and clean lids; or plastic freezer containers
1 ½ cups grape juice (let juice stand overnight in refrigerator and strain before using; see above.)
2 ½ cups sugar
Half of a 1.75-ounce box powdered pectin
1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp. water

Sterilize jars and lids in boiling water. Combine juice and sugar in glass or Pyrex mixing bowl, stirring to dissolve sugar. Let stand for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. In small saucepan, combine pectin and water; stir well (mixture may be lumpy). Heat to a full, rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Cook at a rolling boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour pectin mixture into juice in bowl. Stir constantly with wooden spoon until sugar is completely dissolved and no longer grainy, about 3 minutes; a few grains may remain, but the mixture should no longer look cloudy (or the jelly will be cloudy).

Pour mixture into prepared jars or containers, leaving ½ inch headspace; cover with clean lids. Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours; the jelly should be set. If it is not set, refrigerate for several days until set before using or freezing; grape jelly may take as long as a week to set. The jelly will keep for 3 weeks in the refrigerator, or it may be frozen for up to a year.

Pear Muffins (12 muffins)

2 cups flour
½ cup sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. nutmeg
1 cup whole milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
¼ cup (half a stick) butter
1 cup finely diced pears (peeled, cored and diced before measuring)
½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Heat oven to 425. Spray 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick spray; set aside. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg in sifter or wire-mesh strainer; sift into large mixing bowl. (Or stir with a wire whisk). In another bowl, stir together milk, egg and butter. Add milk mixture to dry ingredients; stir until just moistened (batter should still be lumpy). Add pears and nuts; mix together gently. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling 2/3 full. Bake until tops are browned and center springs back, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from pan immediately; cool to warm room temperature before serving. Best served warm.

Pear-Apple Jam

3 half-pint canning jars, with bands and new lids
1 cup finely chopped pears (peeled, cored and chopped before measuring)
1 cup finely chopped apples (peeled, cored and chopped before measuring)
Half of a 1.75-ounce box powdered pectin
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
¼ tsp. cinnamon
3 cups sugar

Prepare jars, by sterilizing in boiling water for 10 minutes; lids and bands by simmering for 10 minutes. In heavy-bottomed, nonreactive saucepan, combine pears, apples, pectin, lemon juice and cinnamon. Heat to full, rolling boil that can’t be stirred down, stirring constantly. Add sugar. Return to a full, rolling boil; cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir for about a minute. Ladle into prepared jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Seal with prepared lids and bands. Process in boiling-water bath for 10 minutes.

Domaine Da Vine is open weekends in September, or by appointment

Directions from Red Wing: Cross bridge on Hwy 63; turn right on highway 35. Proceed south 1.7 miles, turn left on County C. Proceed .5 miles, turn right on 170th street. Go up the hill, .7 miles. Turn right at the Domaine Da Vine sign. Proceed .5 miles through the fence to the farm.
Cell phone 651-334-5613
PBSoholt@aol.com

Old Time Pressure Cooker

The slow cooker or crock-pot has been around for a long time and recipes to make in it abound. I guess we’re all just so busy—everything is about doing things in fast time—why not try the new old-fashioned “fast cooker”? An old cooking utensil with a great history that has been enjoying a well-deserved come-back is the pressure cooker, now called a pressure pan or supercooker. This appliance has a really new and improved profile.


With the fast lifestyle of today and an avid interest in healthy cooking, pressure cooking is ideal. Pressure cooking takes about one-third of the time of regular cooking and fewer fats are needed. Additionally, there is very little evaporation, so fewer nutrients are lost. Pans are usually made from stainless steel and have a heavy layer welded on the bottom to increase heat distribution and prevent burning. Several safety valves are built in the new pans, so that it is virtually impossible for the pot to explode. If all these advantages were not enough, pressure cookers are energy efficient and have a tenderizing effect on low-cost meats. Yes, you can use your old-style pressure cookers, but because they do not have the added safety features, a new stainless steel one is a small investment for the return.

If you’re like I am—you’ve forgotten to put everything in the slow-cooker in the morning and you’re halfway through the day when you remember. No problem; when you get home, you can brown in the pressure cooker (not possible in the crockpot, so you have to dirty two pans), then throw in the rest of the ingredients, the liquid and seal. Fifteen to forty minutes later, voila! Dinner.

Any recipe that you now make in a slow cooker is possible in the pressure cooker, plus a few. I have a large one and a smaller one, so I can make side dishes, like potatoes or rice while the main dish is cooking. You can put casserole ingredients in a round casserole, seal it with foil, set it on the trivet which comes with the new models, add water and pressure cook it in the pot. Even breads and desserts are great in the supercooker.

The pressure cooker is ideal for soups. The caveat is that some ingredients like beans and rice cause foaming which can plug your valve. To insure against this, add one tablespoon of fat per cup of dried product or fill the pot with less liquid than the maximum fill line. You may also want to cut down on the amount of liquid your soup recipe calls for (slightly) because there is very little evaporation during the cooking process compared with conventional cooking methods. Vegetables cook very quickly, so consider adding the vegetables towards the end of the cooking time to insure tender, not mushy vegetables.

A perfect way to start using your pressure cooker is a beef-vegetable soup. Just put soup bone and meat into cooker with desired vegetables, 6 cups water and seasonings. Heat to boiling, put lid on, wait until steady stream of steam is coming out, put weight on and when jiggling, reduce heat to medium and cook for 15 minutes. Reduce pressure by running cold water on lid until pressure releases. Open lid. This is a general method for all cookers, but you should read the manual that comes with yours.

For a quick fall supper, try Creamy Celery and Potato Soup with a green salad and crusty bread.

2 tablespoons butter 1 large potato (8 to 10 ozs.), peeled and diced
One and one half pounds celery Salt to taste
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped 1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Heat butter in cooker. Add celery, onion and potato; season with salt. Add 6 cups water, bring to boil. Put lid on cooker and seal. When steam flows, put weight on. Cook for 8 minutes. Reduce pressure with cold water on lid. Puree soup in blender or with an inversion blender right in the pot. Stir in lemon juice, garnish with celery leaves.

And for dessert? Spicy Raisin Pudding with Caramel Sauce

One and one-fourth cups brown sugar One half cup milk
One cup flour Four tablespoons melted butter
One cup raisins Three-fourths teaspoon cinnamon
Two teaspoons baking powder One half teaspoon nutmeg
One-half teaspoon salt Two cups boiling water

Grease a one-and-one half-quart baking dish (that fits in your pressure cooker). Mix together one-fourth cup brown sugar, flour, raisins, baking powder, salt, milk, and 2 tablespoons melted butter. Pour mixture into prepared dish. In a separate bowl, mix together remaining one-cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons butter, cinnamon, nutmeg and boiling water. Pour over raisin mixture (do not stir). Cover entire dish with aluminum and seal well. Place on a trivet in the pressure cooker, seal, bring up to pressure, reduce heat to stabilize pressure and cook for 22 minutes. Remove from heat, depressurize, and remove lid and foil. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

Apple Pie

September is the month of apples—between August when the earliest apples come to market and October when they reach their peak. I’m not sure why, but this year the apples are scarcer and much more expensive. Two relatively new varieties, Zestar and SweeTango are on the market competing with Honeycrisp, but were either sold out or so expensive I only tasted the samples. So—until Haralsons reach the store, I decided to go for the cheaper apples best known for their great cooking properties.


Haralson is still my go-to apple for both munching straight from the fruit bowl or making pies, crisps and other delicious apple desserts, but it is a relatively late apple and is nowhere to be seen yet. So I opted for some Wealthys (a long-standing variety) to make some great fall desserts—including the pie-of-the-month—a good, old-fashioned apple pie. For the all-around American favorite, you just can’t beat plain apple pie with a meltingly tender, flaky crust and served warm accompanied by aged Cheddar cheese wedges or premium vanilla ice cream, sprinkled with a bit of cinnamon sugar.

I love baked apples, too, and they are a relatively low-calorie dessert if you don’t stuff them too decadently and pour heavy cream over them (yum). But a compromise between the baked apple and apple pie is a plump, steaming apple dumpling.

Finally, the best-I-ever-tasted apple walnut cake with cider sauce is a winner for any time of year, so I had to include it again in this column. So, go pick your own, or buy them at the store or farm stand and bake with apples for a great taste of fall.

Perfect Apple Pie

7-9 Wealthy apples (or other tart cooking apples)
1 cup sugar
¼ cup flour
½ tsp. cinnamon
Dash nutmeg
Dash salt
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. butter
Pastry for 2-crust 9-inch pie

Pare apples and slice thin. Combine sugar, flour, spices and salt; mix with apples. Line 9-inch pie plate with pastry. Fill with apple mixture; dot with butter. Adjust top crust, make vents in top crust and sprinkle with sugar for sparkle. Bake in hot oven (425 degrees) 50-55 minutes or until done.

Note: I always cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place unbaked pie on it; then put strips of foil on the edges of the crust. This will keep your oven clean if the pie bubbles over and keep the crust from browning too much. You can remove the foil strips 15 minutes before pie is done.

Old-Fashioned Apple Dumplings (makes 4)

2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. sugar
2/3 cup Crisco
¼ cup water
1/3 cup sugar
½ tsp. cinnamon
4 medium crisp, tart apples such as Haralson or Granny Smith, peeled and cored
2 Tbsp. butter
1 ½ cups water
2/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
¼ tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425. Put flour, salt and ½ tsp. sugar into large bowl. Cut shortening into flour until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add ¼ cup water by tablespoonfuls, tossing with fork until mixture begins to come together. Do not handle too much. Shape into ball. Mix 1/3 cup sugar and ½ tsp. cinnamon in another small bowl. Roll dough out on floured surface to 1/8 inch thick and 14” x 14” square. Cut into four 7-inch squares. Set 1 apple in center of each square. Spoon ¼ of cinnamon-sugar into center of each apple. Cover each opening with 1/2 Tbsp butter. Lift corners of each pastry up and overlap atop apple, sealing with water. Place dumplings in a 9”x9” square dish. Set aside. Cook 1 ½ cups water, 2/3 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons butter, lemon juice and ¼ tsp. cinnamon in heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and boil 3 minutes. Pour syrup around sides of dumplings. Bake until dumplings are golden brown and pierce easily, 40 to 45 minutes. Spoon caramel syrup over each and serve.

Apple-Walnut Cake with Cider Sauce

2 cups sugar
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
¼ cup apple cider
3 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
3 cups flour
2 large cooking apples (3 ½ cups), peeled, cored and sliced
1 ½ cups chopped walnuts

Cider Sauce

2 cups apple cider
¼ cup packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla

Heat oven to 350. Coat a 10-inch tube pan with removable tube insert with nonstick spray. Whisk first nine ingredients (through salt) in large bowl until blended. Stir in flour until blended. Stir in apples and walnuts. Scrape mixture into prepared pan. Bake 1 hour and 10-15 minutes. Let cool in pan 1 hour. Remove sides of pan. Cool completely before lifting cake off bottom of pan.

Cider Sauce: Whisk cider, brown sugar and cornstarch in saucepan until blended. Place over med-high heat and bring to a boil, whisking occasionally. Boil 1 minute or until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla; stir until butter melts. Let cool to warm until serving.

Putting Food By

I remember my Grandma sending me “down cellar” to bring her a jar of green beans or tomatoes or peaches, or whatever she was after. I would go down the gray marine-painted wooden steps to a dark, earthy, but scrupulously clean cellar where wooden shelves built by my Grandpa were lined with blue glass jars with gray metal covers, all holding precious food for the winter. Sometimes Grandma would go with me and even at a tender age I could discern the pride and enjoyment she experienced just standing and looking at her rows of jars. I know that’s how she felt because that is how I feel when I can or preserve food. Nowadays, I am more likely to admire my neat, properly wrapped and properly labeled packages of frozen foods—which come close to, but not quite, being as satisfying.


To “put by” was a nineteenth-century way of saying to save something you can’t use now against the time when you’ll need it. The book “Putting Foods By” by Hertzberg, Greene and Vaughan, published in 1973 mentions many methods of preserving food including canning, freezing, preserve-making, drying, curing, wintering-over in a root cellar, rendering lard and making soap. All of this seems hardly necessary in these times of amazing variety and availability of all types of food unless you’re interested in deep satisfaction, economic prudence and knowing what is added to the food you feed your family. Oh—and if you’re a foodie, having fun!

I must confess that as much as I freeze, preserve and occasionally can, I have never really made more than a small scratch in the surface of drying, curing, rendering, and soap-making or root cellaring.

Canning relies on sterilization and the exclusion of air, both of which are accomplished by heat. The two things which determine how much heat is needed and how long to apply it are the organisms that cause spoilage or toxicity and the natural or added acid in the food itself. Heat is the determining factor. You’ve all heard horror stories of dangerous toxins, most notably Clostridium botulinum which causes a deadly disease called botulism. The low-acid and neutral foods must be processed in a pressure cooker which can attain much higher temperatures than boiling. The high acid fruits can be canned with the boiling method, using a time table given in any good and up-to-date canning book.

Freezing food is the easiest, fastest and most reliable method of preserving food available today, provided that you begin with a first-quality product to freeze. Freezing does not destroy bacteria or enzymes that eventually spoil or contaminate food but it temporarily arrests their development. That is the reason there are so many warnings about re-freezing food that has thawed. In order to make freezing the wonderful money and time saver it potentially can be, follow all instructions scrupulously—especially about wrapping—and be sure your freezer holds food at 0 degrees or below. I have one of those air-vacuuming heat-sealing appliances that makes quality freezing even more do-able.

Drying is probably the oldest method of preserving food and is still used in areas where the other means are not feasible. The early settlers from Europe were taught how to dry their food by the Indians and many of the pioneer families brought most of their stores in this fashion across the country since they have roughly one-sixth to one-third the bulk of their original state. Wooden trays with slats can be purchased or plans for building them can be had from the library. Different foods are dried both indoors and outdoors, using the above-mentioned trays or your oven or a purchased dryer.

All the other old-timey methods of preserving food are intriguing, but impractical in any real sense. Root-cellaring requires an old-fashioned cellar that is about 38 degrees, with some vegetables needing temperatures hovering around freezing. That is hard to accomplish at all, much less maintain in our modern homes.

Salting and smoking are tedious, to say the least, and though interesting really do not result in a superior product to that which you can purchase.

Rendering lard and making soap are really hobby-type activities that are also fun, actually relatively simple to do and produce specialty products that only a few people will use. But if you’re interested or just curious (as I always am) there are several good books that will instruct you on how to proceed.

Preserving fruits and vegetables with sugar or salt into jams, jellies, conserves and preserves as well as pickles and relishes is a great way to begin preserving food, for the operation is really simple and the results delightful—especially for unique gifts.

Now that the pumpkins are in the market, I am going to try this simple recipe for kicks:

Sweet Pumpkin Pickle

6 cups prepared pumpkin
2 cups vinegar
2 cups sugar
2 large sticks whole cinnamon

Prepare pumpkin by peeling and cubing flesh, discarding seeds and inner pulp. Place pumpkin cubes in a colander and set over boiling water; make sure water does not touch the pumpkin. Cover and steam until just tender. Drain. Simmer vinegar, sugar and cinnamon for 15 minutes. Add pumpkin cubes and simmer 3 minutes. Set aside for 24 hours. Heat and simmer 5 minutes more. Remove cinnamon. Pack boiling hot in sterilized jars, adjust lids and process in a Boiling-Water Bath for 5 minutes to ensure the seal. Makes 3 pints.

Back to Basics

The long, hot summer is over and it’s “back to school” and, for me and cooking, “back to basics.” While the kids get back to reading, writing and arithmetic, the ABC’s of everyday simplicity in my meal plans are beckoning to me.


Of course, it helps that the weather is cooler and making roasts and lots of root vegetables (just coming in to the local markets) and running the oven for baked goods is tempting again. But I am really running out of ideas for interesting salads, cold soups, and other cool cooking. New-and-interesting is moving over and making room for tried-and-true basics. Sort of like the “little black dress”, the basics can be served adorned or unadorned. In the simplest version, they do not require recipes (most of us have these classics in our heads if we have been cooking for any time at all), use ingredients that we have on hand or can get easily on our weekly shopping trip and are a big hit with our families and their newly revived appetites.

That does not mean that I don’t use lots of the fresh foods from the farmer’s market that are so available right now. Here is a wonderful menu that I made for friends and family—everyone was delighted and it was fun to cook.

Roast Chicken
Mashed Potatoes
Gravy
Corn Pudding
Tomato and Cucumber Salad
Apple Pie

How much more basic can you get?

Roast Chicken (adapted from Bon Appetit)

1 4-5 pound roasting chicken
1 7-ounce container purchased pesto sauce or equal amount of homemade
3 Tbsp dry white wine
¾ cup plus 2 Tbsp. chicken broth
2 Tbsp. flour
3 Tbsp half and half

Pat chicken dry. Slide hand between chicken skin and meat over breast and legs to form pockets. Reserve 1 Tbsp. pesto for gravy; spread remaining pesto under skin and over breast and leg meat of chicken, in cavity of chicken and over outer skin. Tie legs together to hold shape. Tuck wings under body. Place chicken in large roasting pan. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Roast chicken 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 and roast until juices run clear when chicken is pierced in thickest part of thigh, basting occasionally with pan juices, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Transfer chicken to platter. Pour pan juices into glass measuring cup; degrease. Add wine to roasting pan and bring to boil, scraping up any browned bits. Add wine mixture and any drippings from platter to pan juices. Add enough broth to measure 1 cup. Transfer to heavy small saucepan. Combine 2 Tbsp. broth and flour in bowl; stir until smooth. Add to saucepan. Bring to boil, whisking constantly. Boil until reduced to sauce consistency, stirring often about 5 minutes. Mix in cream and reserved 1 Tbsp. pesto. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish chicken with basil. Serve with gravy.

Fresh Corn Pudding (adapted from American Home Cooking by Jamison and Jamison)

2 large eggs
1 cup half and half
¾ tsp. salt or more to taste
Freshly ground white pepper to taste
Pinch of nutmeg, freshly ground
8 to 10 ears of fresh sweet corn, kernels and scrapings (4 ½ to 5 cups) removed from cob
¾ cup crushed pilot or oyster crackers (can use unsalted soda crackers)
3 Tbsp butter, melted
2 to 3 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, grated (1/4 to 1/3 cup)
Paprika

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a medium baking dish. Whisk the eggs and half and half together in a large bowl along with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mix in corn kernels and scrapings, ½ cup of the crackers and 2 Tbsp. of the melted butter. Spoon the pudding into the prepared baking dish and scatter the cheese over it. In a small bowl, mix together the remaining ¼ cup of crackers and 1 Tbsp. butter and sprinkle them over the cheese. Dust with paprika for a bit of extra color. Bake the pudding for 45 to 50 minutes until puffed and golden brown. Edges should be a bit crusty, but the center should remain a little soft. Let sit for 10 minutes and serve.

Tomato and Cucumber Salad

3 large tomatoes (homegrown, of course)
1 large or 2 small cucumbers (ditto, above)
3 Tbsp. canola oil
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
¼ tsp. salt
Few grindings of black pepper
1 tsp. sugar

Cut tomatoes in wedges, about ¾ inch by ¾ inch. Peel cucumbers and slice about ¾ inch thick. Mix oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and sugar. Pour over tomato and cucumber mixture and allow to marinate for at least 1 hour in refrigerator. Serve in large Romaine lettuce leaves.

A Fall Picnic

Maiden Rock, Wisconsin looking at Frontenac, Minnesota

Those of you who read this column regularly probably remember that I love picnics. And fall is my favorite time of year for a picnic. It is almost never too hot. The leaves and foliage are at their greatest beauty and the insect level—well, insects are always a bit of a problem. And here in Goodhue County we have a plethora of wonderful picnic spots.


If you’re going spur-of-the-moment with just the two of you, which is what we do mostly—you can keep a hamper or cooler packed with the necessities and just quickly pack a few edibles, hop in the car and go. Other, more elaborate picnics aren’t really that hard, either, but they do take planning.

The most important step in planning is the setting for your picnic and the number of people to feed. Around here we have city parks which are perfect for large family gatherings where children will be able to run and play on the playground equipment. Is there anyone that hasn’t attended a large family reunion-style picnic? Here there are tables—some in covered shelters for rainy days, large grills for cooking at the site, parking lots and accessibility to the picnic area—but alas, also lots of other people!

If you are a small group, there are lots of wayside rests along the scenic river roads on either side of the Mississippi and Lake Pepin. We love the many turn-outs along Highway 35 in Wisconsin and seldom have any competition for those picnic tables and breath-taking views. Such was not the case this last Labor-Day Weekend, however. If you choose these places for your picnic, be sure you are able to accept and adjust to the bikers!

You can pack a beautiful, sumptuous repast complete with crystal and china and linens, have a multitude of fancy equipment—coolers, hibachis, thermal carriers of all kinds, plastic picnic sets, tables and chairs that pop out and set up anywhere—you get the idea. Or, you can have a grocery sack with a roll of paper towels, some paper plates and plastic flatware and aluminum foil to wrap around food. I prefer something in between.

A fall menu that is fast, easy and delicious is what we took on our Labor Day Excursion and would be great for the crisp, breezy, cool days of September—while the sweet corn lasts.

Crisp cucumber slices in Sour Cream
Sliced garden tomatoes
Ham Salad Sandwiches on whole wheat
Corn on the cob
Potato Salad
Brownies

Cam’s Cucumber Salad

2 large cucumbers
4 scallions
1 cup sour cream
¼ cup vinegar
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup mayonnaise
Salt and pepper to taste

Slice cucumbers and scallions (white and green parts)
Mix all other ingredients and pour over cucumber and scallion mixture. Chill.
Put into thermos container before leaving home.

Large homegrown tomatoes

Slice tomatoes thickly. Sprinkle liberally with sugar. Stack in slices and wrap in plastic wrap. Put into leak-proof container.

Ham Salad

8 ounces ham
½ cup bread and butter pickles
2 Tbsp. pickle juice
½ cup mayonnaise
Pepper

Put ham and pickles through food grinder. (I use the grinder attachment to my Kitchen Aid mixer). Mix with juice and mayonnaise. Add pepper and salt (if needed).
Spread between two slices of good whole wheat bread (homemade preferred.) Pack lettuce slices separately, if you wish, to add to sandwiches at picnic site.

Corn on the Cob

Bring 2 quarts of water to boil in large Dutch oven or kettle. Add 1 Tbsp. sugar and 1 Tbsp. lemon juice into boiling water. Do not add salt. Husk and clean silks off corn cobs and plunge into boiling water mixture. Bring back to the boil; turn off heat and cover. Let sit for at least 10 minutes and up to 30 minutes.
Remove from pan and lay each one on a square of aluminum foil. Butter, and salt and pepper. Roll corn around to cover with butter and wrap tightly. Put hot corn into a wide-mouth beverage thermos (for 2-4 ears) or an insulated soft lunch-style bag for up to 8 ears.

My Favorite Brownies (Better than any mix and just as easy)

½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 1-oz. squares baking chocolate, melted
½ cup flour
½ cup chopped walnuts

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla; beat in eggs. Blend in chocolate. Stir in flour and nuts. Bake in greased 8x8x2” pan at 325 deg. for 30-35 minutes. Sprinkle with sifted powdered sugar.

Rat in “Wind in the Willows” summed up my sentiments of picnics: “Nothing seems really to matter, that’s the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don’t; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all.” Rat is also responsible for the most delectable picnic in literature: “He…reappeared staggering under a fat, wicker luncheon basket…”What’s inside it?” asked the Mole, wiggling with curiosity. “There’s cold chicken inside it,” replied the Rat briefly.  “coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssandwichespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesoda-water---“

After School Snacks

Now that school is underway, families are back to “normal” and the cooler weather is upon us, attention is directed at healthy, filling food for kids. Since you have less control over what kids eat at school it becomes more important to offer really delicious and easy snacks and meals at home.


The after-school snack was the most important meal of the day for my four children—especially as they entered the middle school and high school ages. They were active in sports and other extracurricular doings, which always seem to take place at dinner time. They usually came home, at least briefly, to change clothes, dump books and grab something to eat before going out the door again. With parents on the go, too, food should be available that can be fixed fast by the kids. If a parent is home, it makes sense to have an easy snack prepared or something you can make ahead and is just ready to eat.

Kids are creatures of habit, too, just like adults. I remember when I was in grade school my Mom worked at my Dad’s business for two years. They were the only two years of my childhood that Mom worked, but it meant that my brother and I were on our own. We always had the same snack (I’m not sure if my mom really knew this, though she probably did)—Wonder Bread toast with peanut butter. Sometimes just plain toast. I think we may have gone through a whole loaf of bread in one day. We still had an appetite for dinner, though. Amazing.

The magazine, Everyday Food (put out by Martha Stewart Living), has a monthly feature on after-school snacks. They have always intrigued me, though I don’t have any school-age children, because I wish I had had some of these ideas when my children were young. Here are a few that I think fill the requirements of being healthy, easy, and delicious.

“Panini” With Banana and Chocolate Hazelnut Spread (Nutella)

2 slices whole-wheat bread, crusts removed
1 ½ tsp. butter
1 Tbsp. Nutella
½ banana, thinly sliced lengthwise

Spread one side of each slice of bread with butter. Place one slice, buttered side down on work surface. Spread with Nutella, top with banana. Top with remaining bread, buttered side up. Heat a small skillet over medium. Add sandwich; cook, turning once, until both sides are golden brown, about 3 minutes for first side and 1 minute for second. Halve and serve. Serves 2.

Peanut Butter-Granola Balls

1/3 cup honey
¼ cup Natural Peanut Butter
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 cup crisp rice Cereal (Rice Krispies)
1 cup old-fashioned Rolled Oats (not quick cooking)
¼ cup dried fruit (such as cherries, raisins, or cranberries)

In a small saucepan over medium, heat honey, peanut butter, and butter. Stir until loosened and smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in cereal, oats and dried fruit. Drop mixture by the tablespoon into mini paper cupcake or candy liners. Place on a rimmed baking sheet, and refrigerate until set, about 15 minutes. To store, refrigerate in an airtight container up to 1 week.

Pear with Honey and Pecans

Halve 1 red or green Bartlett pear lengthwise, and core with a melon baller or spoon. In a medium bowl, mix together ¼ cup chopped pecans and 2 Tablespoons honey; mound onto pear halves. Serves 2

Pita Nachos

1 regular-size (6-inch) whole-wheat pita, split in half horizontally and cut into quarters
1/3 cup mild salsa, plus more for serving (optional)
2 ounces (1/2 cup) shredded cheese, such as cheddar or Monterey Jack.

Heat broiler, with rack set in top third of oven. Arrange pita pieces in a single layer, cut side up, on a baking sheet; dividing evenly, top each first with salsa, then cheese. Broil until cheese has melted and edges of pita are crisp. 2 to 4 minutes. Serve with extra salsa, if desired. Serves 2

Cheddar-carrot Balls

In a medium bowl, with a wooden spoon, combine 4 ounces (1/2 bar) cold cream cheese, 2 ounces yellow cheddar cheese, finely grated (1 cup loosely packed), and 1 carrot, finely grated (1/2 cup). With moistened hands, gently form 23 balls, each equal to 1 level tablespoon of mixture. Serve or refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap, up to 2 days. Serves 4

Cinnamon Tostada

2 whole-wheat tortillas (10-inch)
1 Tbsp. light-brown sugar
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
1 ½ tsp. butter, room temperature

Place tortillas on rack of broiler-toaster. In small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. Dividing evenly, spread butter on one side of each tortilla; sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Broil until sugar is golden brown and has melted, 1 to 2 minutes. (Tortillas will puff under broiler and become flat again once taken out.) Cut each tortilla into wedges. Serves 2.

Peach Season

The peach season is late this year—at least for the Colorado peaches that my friend uses in her special recipes. And the good season is short—so now is the time to make those succulent pies, cobblers, drinks, ice-cream or just to stand over the sink and eat them plain, letting the juice run down your chin.

Here we go again—when I was young… But truly, the peaches were more dependably good then. I can even remember when they started shipping fruit that could withstand the treacherous journey—it was hard, wooden and juiceless. The ads said to put them in a paper bag and let the ethylene ripen them—but even doing that didn’t always work. Some just rotted before they ripened. Now, however, MOST of the time, the peaches are good.

The peach is the third most important fruit crop in the United States coming in after second place orange and first place apple. Its close cousins include the cherry, apricot, plum and the almond, all members of the Prunus genus. Peaches are often confused with nectarines which have smooth skins, while the peach sports a fuzzy, velvety one. Actually the nectarine is a variation of the peach and both fruits can occasionally be found on the same tree.

Poets and artists have dwelt on the charms of the peach. In China, where the peach is native and has grown for thousands of years, its fruit and flowers are used extensively in decorative art and porcelains painted with a peach blossom are given as birthday gifts to express the wish for many happy years.

Here in America, though, I believe we reach one of our culinary highpoints in peach pie, followed closely by peach cobbler and peach ice cream. Even so, peaches are delicious served fresh, canned (they are unusually good), or dried. They can be stewed, baked and even grilled. They are fantastic in jam, conserves, nectar, and mixed fruit compotes. They make wonderful smoothies and other drinks such as peach daiquiris.

When you purchase peaches, be very careful to select fresh, firm peaches, free from blemishes. Avoid any with a green-tinge; they will not ripen. Bruises are common and should be avoided. I like to apply a little pressure (not much, you don’t want to be the bruiser) and good peaches should give ever-so-slightly. Peaches which will reward you with good, sweet flavor and plenty of juice always smell heavenly.

To remove the fuzzy skins, carefully put the peaches into a large saucepan that will hold them in a single layer. Cover them with cold water and put them over medium-high heat. When they come to a boil, time them for 1 minute, remove them immediately from the heat and put them into cold water. The skins should slip off easily.

Here are my favorite peach recipes:

Peach pie (adapted from Bon Appetit August 1982)

Double crust for 10-inch pie, using standard pastry recipe but substituting cold peach nectar combined with 1 Tbsp. cold lemon juice for the ice water

Glaze

1 and one-fourth cups peach nectar
One-half cup plus 3 Tbsp. peach jam
2 Tbsp dark rum

Filling

One-half to three-fourths cup sugar (depending on the sweetness of peaches)
One-fourth cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 and one-half Tbsp. cornstarch
8 medium peaches (about 2 and one-fourth pounds)
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
One-fourth tsp. cinnamon
One-eighth tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
One-eighth tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten with 2 tsp water

Prepare crust and refrigerate, covered, for at least 30 minutes

For Glaze: Combine all ingredients in small saucepan and stir to blend. Cook over medium heat until reduced to about three-fourths cup, about 45 minutes. Strain and cool slightly.

For filling: Combine sugars and cornstarch in small bowl and mix well. Transfer some of sugar mixture to large bowl. Peel peaches and cut into one-fourth inch slices. Arrange layer of slices on top of sugar mixture in large bowl. Repeat layers with remaining sugar mixture and peach slices. Toss gently to blend. Sprinkle with lemon juice, spices and salt and toss again, blending thoroughly.

To assemble: Position rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 425. Roll dough out on lightly floured surface into a circle one-fourth inch thick. Put into 10-inch pie pan. Press dough into place and trim, leaving one-half inch overhang. Reserve trimmings. Brush bottom and sides of pastry with glaze. Layer filling neatly in pastry. Gather dough trimmings together and roll out into circle one-fourth inch thick. Cut one-half inch wide strips of dough. Arrange in lattice design atop filling, pressing ends into edge of crust. Crimp. Brush lattice and edge with beaten egg mixture. Cover edges of pie with foil. Bake 20 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking until golden, about 20 to 30 minutes. Cool slightly. Serve warm with ice cream.

Peach Ice Cream with Fresh peach compote

1 and one-half cups whipping cream
1 cup half and half
Three-fourths cup sugar
5 large egg yolks
1 pound peaches, peeled, sliced
One-fourth cup light corn syrup
One-half tsp. vanilla extract

Compote
4 large peaches, peeled, sliced
One-half cup Essencia (orange Muscat wine) or late-harvest Riesling
One-half cup sugar
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

For Ice Cream: Bring 1 cup cream, half and half, and one-half cup sugar just to simmer in medium saucepan. Whisk yolks in medium bowl; gradually whisk in cream mixture. Return mixture to saucepan. Stir over medium heat until custard thickens and leaves path on back of spoon when finger is drawn across, about 4 minutes (do not boil). Strain into bowl. Refrigerate custard until cold, about 3 hours.

Place peaches, corn syrup and one-fourth cup sugar in medium saucepan. Stir over medium heat until peaches are heated through, about 4 minutes. Mash to coarse puree. Cool completely. Stir into custard along with vanilla and one-half cup cream. Process custard in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

For Compote: Mix all ingredients in medium bowl. Let stand 10 minutes and up to 1 hour. Serve over ice cream.

Peach ‘n Berry Cobbler

1 Tbsp. cornstarch
One-fourth cup brown sugar
One-half cup cold water
2 cups sugared sliced fresh peaches
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 cup flour
One-half cup sugar
1 and one-half tsp. baking powder
One-half tsp. salt
One-half cup milk
One-fourth cup soft butter

Mix first 3 ingredients; add fruits. Cook and stir till mixture thickens. Add 1 Tbsp butter and lemon juice. Pour into 8 and one-half x l and three fourths inch round cake dish.

Sift dry ingredients. Add milk and butter all at once; beat smooth (can use electric mixer). Pour over fruit (or spoon in dollops if too thick to pour). Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Serve with cream or ice cream. Serves 6.

Grilled Peach Melba (adapted from Everyday Food, July/August 2003)

Heat grill to medium. Halve and pit 2 large ripe peaches; prick skins with a fork. In a bowl, stir together 2 Tbsp. each melted butter and light-brown sugar; brush butter mixture over peach halves, coating entirely. Grill on both sides until fruit is tender, 5 to 10 minutes. Serve warm, topped with ice cream and drizzled with Raspberry Sauce

Raspberry Sauce

In a bowl, toss one-half pint raspberries with 2 Tbsp. sugar; let sit 5 minutes. Pass through a sieve into another bowl, pressing with a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible; discard solids.

Some peachy ideas:

Toss sliced fresh peaches with 2 Tbsp. lemon juice, then fold into sour cream. Flavor with orange liqueur. Serve on thin slices of pound cake.

Cover and bake peeled peaches in syrup of 1 cup port wine, 1 cup sugar, juice of 1 lemon and one-half tsp. cinnamon in a 350 deg. oven for 45 minutes. Serve chilled, topped with crème fraiche or sour cream.

Beat 1 quart vanilla ice cream to soften, then mix in one-fourth cup anise-flavored liqueur. Serve over fresh poached peaches and garnish lightly with chocolate curls.

To make peach butter, put one-half cup peeled, sliced peaches, 1 cup butter and one-half cup powdered sugar in blender or food processor. Whirl until smooth. Chill and spread on crepes, then fill with fresh peaches and heat. (This butter is also delicious on toast or with muffins, waffles or pancakes.) --Bon Appetit/ August 1978

Back to School

Here it is—the unofficial beginning of the New Year. Of course, the official one is January first, but even if it’s been years since you were in school or even connected through kids to school, there is something about the start of the school year that marks a new beginning.

It might also be considered the start of the cooking New Year. For starters the season is beginning to change; fall is in the air. You still find an abundance of melons, tomatoes, zucchini and corn, but now come the winter squashes, mature onions, potatoes, the slower-growing broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Oh, and the wonderful apples; can the pumpkins be far behind?

As the weather turns cooler, I’m thinking more hearty meals and more oven-type stuff, but almost everyone is thinking more regular, everyday meals. Some of us like that; some of us don’t—but regardless, it’s usually necessary to start regularly scheduled meals every day. Working out the vagaries of the kids’ schedules, your schedules and meal schedules can be a daunting task. My answer: plan and organize, organize and plan.

People often ask me how I manage to cook for the inn and do three meals a day for my family (there are three adults in the family, all home for every meal). The only way I could possibly do that and continue to enjoy cooking and stay sane is through my organizational food plan. I plan each and every menu, snack and breakfast ahead of time. Before you throw this down and say—“forget that—way too hard, time consuming, boring, etc.,” maybe give it a try. I use all sorts of aids to help me plan meals, including the monthly planner in Woman’s Day magazine. This planner has been published for years by Woman’s Day and although it has changed over the years to reflect the changes in our eating habits, it was and is a very practical, useful tool. I have kept all the old copies, and it’s really fun to go back and see what families were eating in 1960 or 1970.

Here’s a sample from July’s edition, Thursday, July 6, 2006:

Onion-smothered Meatball Heros
Coleslaw

Sauté thinly sliced onions until tender and golden. Top split hero or club rolls with warmed purchased turkey meatballs and the onions.

Anyway, it’s a good jumping-off place. Next I have several cookbooks written in menu style; anything from Rachel Ray’s books where everything is 30 minutes or less, to an old Good Housekeeping’s Menus for a Whole Year of Dinners, published in 1971. A sample menu from that book:

Beef Balls in Zesty Sauce
Green Beans in Butter Sauce (use fresh beans)
Pineapple-preserved Yams
Coleslaw
Fruit-mint Sherbet Ring
Tea Coffee

Beef Balls in Zesty Sauce

One and one-half pounds ground beef chuck
1 cup fresh whole-wheat bread crumbs
One-fourth cup evaporated milk, undiluted
2 tsp. Worcestershire
1 tsp. ground sage
Salt
2 Tbsp. shortening
2 medium onions, sliced
1 cup applesauce
1 Tbsp horseradish
One-half cup canned tomato sauce
One-eighth tsp. oregano
One-eighth tsp. Pepper
1 Tbsp. lemon juice

About 45 minutes before serving: Combine chuck, crumbs, evaporated milk, Worcestershire, sage and 1 and ½ tsp. salt; mix well: shape into 1-1/2-inch balls. In large skillet, in hot shortening, brown beef balls on all sides; pile to one side of skillet. In same skillet, sauté onions until golden. Add applesauce, horseradish, tomato sauce, oregano, 1 tsp. salt, pepper and lemon juice; heat thoroughly. Makes 6 servings.

Similar dinner, but what a difference in time and convenience. Take your pick: if you’re rushed, or don’t like cooking, go with Woman’s Day—if you’re in the mood for a more leisurely meal and have time to cook it—choose the Good Housekeeping menu.

Another big difference between these menus is the number of different dishes at each meal. I know it takes more time to cook several foods, but I think nutritionally and aesthetically the greater variety is preferable. Just for kicks, let’s look at the rest of the recipes for the Good Housekeeping menu.

Vegetable tip: Toss drained canned yams with pineapple preserves and butter; heat and add dash salt. (Update—bake fresh sweet potatoes. Split and serve with fresh pineapple cooked in small amount of butter and brown sugar).

Fruit-Mint Sherbet Ring

3 pints lemon sherbet
One-third cup green crème de menthe
2 pints strawberries, blueberries, raspberries or sliced peaches
Shredded fresh or canned flaked coconut

Early in day: In large bowl, with electric mixer at medium speed, quickly combine lemon sherbet and crème de menthe. Pack into 51/2-cup ring mold; freeze.

To serve: Unmold sherbet by running small spatula around outer and inner edges of ring mold. Invert mold on chilled serving plate; place cloth, wrung out in hot water, on top of it for a minute or two; then lift off mold. (If sherbet does not come out, repeat hot-cloth treatment.) Fill center of sherbet ring with fruits; sprinkle lightly with coconut. Makes 10 servings.

Okay, it’s a lot more work, but certainly do-able and wouldn’t your family be surprised to sit down to this meal? It might make for some lively conversation.

I keep my menus posted on the refrigerator so that anyone home can see what’s planned and do some of the preliminary work—you can assign this task if you work away from home. After the initial work of the planning, aided by magazines and cookbooks, it really makes meal-time a lot easier and our meals taste better and are way more economical. Give it a try.

Labor Day Weekend: the end and the beginning

Labor Day Weekend: the end and the beginning. Summer will hold out for a little while, we will still have some more hot days and I suppose even humidity. But summer is failing and autumn is taking hold; school starts and the cabin seems even more miles away than it is. Let summer dominate the weekend--time for one last gala barbeque before we are too busy.


A Dream of Autumn

Mellow hazes, lowly trailing
Over wood and meadow, veiling
Somber skies, with wild fowl sailing
Sailor-like to foreign lands;
And the north wind overleaping
Summer’s brink, and flood-like sweeping
Wrecks of roses where the weeping-
Willows wring their helpless hands.—James Whitcomb Riley

This holiday is for celebrating our laboring masses—actually that is most of us—but in particular those who work at a physical trade. It doesn’t seem appropriate to me to serve fancy foods and wines on this holiday; instead I think of robust and down-to-earth foods. And the perfect menu is just that; robust and down-to-earth—also delicious! Oh, and also very easy on the cook, who happens to be a laborer, too.

Chips and dip
Sheboygan-style Brats
Rye buns
Kraut relish
German hot potato salad
Baked beans
Sliced tomatoes
Chocolate Brownie Cobbler

Sheboygan-style Brats (10-12 servings)

This recipe for brats was given, actually demonstrated, to me by a fellow from Sheboygan who said there was no other authentic brat recipe. I have never come across it exactly the way this is done, but I’ve made it many times and everyone always raves—so give it a try.

2 pounds raw brats (Johnsonville brand is really good)
2 large onions, thinly sliced
1 stick butter
Beer to cover brats (about 4 12-oz cans)

Start charcoals or preheat gas grill. Put beer, butter and sliced onions into a deep kettle or Dutch oven. Bring to a boil. Drop brats into boiling liquid and immediately lower heat until mixture simmers. Cover kettle and allow to simmer for 15 minutes. When grill is ready, and using tongs, transfer brats to grill. (Be careful not to pierce sausages). Grill until brown all over, sizzling, but not burned. Take brats off grill and drop them back into the simmering kettle mixture. Keep them on grill or stove on low heat, covered, until ready to serve. Serve in warmed rye brat buns with kraut relish, catsup and mustard.

Kraut Relish (10-12 servings)

2 cups sauerkraut, drained and cut in short lengths
One-half cup chopped green pepper
One-fourth cup canned pimientos, cut in strips
One-half cup mayonnaise
1 Tbsp prepared horseradish
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
One-half tsp. salt
One-eighth tsp. pepper

Combine all ingredients; mix well. Chill. Serve with brats.

German Hot Potato Salad (in slow cooker) 10-12 servings

8 medium potatoes
1 pound bacon
4 Tbsp. flour
½ cup sugar
1 Tbsp. salt
1 tsp. celery seed
One-fourth tsp. pepper.
2 cups water
1 cup white or apple cider vinegar

Cook potatoes in boiling water until tender. Cool slightly and peel. Slice into one-eighth inch slices. Put into crock of slow cooker.

Cut bacon into small 1-inch pieces and fry in large skillet until crisp. Drain on paper towel, reserving bacon drippings. Stir flour, sugar, salt, celery seed and pepper into drippings. Stir and cook until mixture is smooth. Add water and vinegar, stirring and cooking until smooth and thick. Add to potatoes in slow cooker. Add bacon and cover. Keep salad on low setting until ready to serve.

Chocolate Brownie Cobbler (10-12 servings)

2 cups (4 sticks) butter
1 12-oz. package semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 cups sugar
8 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 and two-thirds cups flour
1 tsp. salt
2 and one-half cups coarsely chopped walnuts (about 10 ounces), toasted
Cocoa powder
Vanilla ice cream.

Preheat oven to 350. Butter 15x10x2-inch baking dish. Stir butter and chocolate in heavy large saucepan over medium-low heat until melted and smooth. Remove pan from heat. Whisk sugar into chocolate mixture. Whisk in eggs 2 at a time. Whisk in vanilla, then flour and salt. Stir in walnuts. Transfer batter to prepared baking dish. Bake until top is crisp and tester inserted into center comes out with wet crumbs attached, about 50 minutes. Cool 15 minutes. Dust with cocoa powder, if desired. Spoon warm cobbler into bowls. Serve with vanilla ice cream. (Adapted from Bon Appetit September 1998).

Tomato Time

It’s tomato time! It’s been a tough year for Minnesota tomatoes what with hail storms, fungus, blight and beetles but there are still some of those big, juicy ripe, red tomatoes to be had. They are so delicious that I would probably pay a premium for them, but if you are willing to buy them by the half bushel and take some hail damaged along with the perfect, you can really get a good buy. I did at the farmer’s market last Saturday.


I quickly sorted out the perfect ones from the not-so-perfect and we enjoyed our salads, BLTs and just slices (with sugar in this household). Then I got to work and made the simplest recipe I have for lots of tomatoes—an all-purpose tomato base. This recipe has several things to recommend it: it is extremely versatile; you don’t have to peel the tomatoes if you have a sieve or an attachment to your stand mixer that works as a strainer-colander and it is done in thirty minutes. Put it into rigid freezer containers, label and freeze. Now you have the makings for dozens of recipes with that wonderful summer tomato taste all winter and tomatoes have sparked the greatest number of recipe ideas of any food I know.

Besides being delicious, tomatoes are a great source of vitamin C (especially when raw), vitamin A, potassium, phosphorus and other minerals and a lot of lycopene which can help prevent prostate cancer. (Lycopene is most useful when tomatoes are cooked). But putting all that aside, they are just plain delicious.

Here is the recipe for the tomato base and some of the endless uses for it:

Tomato Base

3 Tbsp. olive oil
½ cup chopped parsley
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large onion, sliced
2 ounces ham, diced fine
1 Tbsp. dried basil or ¼ cup fresh basil, chopped
½ tsp. dried thyme or 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh thyme
8 medium tomatoes
3 Tbsp. tomato paste
4 cups beef stock or broth
1 tsp. sugar

Heat oil in Dutch oven or large kettle over medium-high heat. Add next 6 ingredients and saute until onion is soft and golden. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, stock and sugar. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered 30 minutes. Cool slightly, then puree with an inverted blender or in a food processor. Strain out seeds and skins, using a strainer attachment to your stand mixer or the back of a wooden spoon against a mesh strainer.

Taste for seasoning and add additional if necessary. Base may be frozen at this point.

For delicious soup add the any of the following:

Celery stalks, sliced on the bias
Leeks, white part only, washed well and sliced thin
Carrots, sliced or shredded
Potatoes, peeled and chopped
Italian green beans, fresh or frozen
Zucchini, sliced
Cauliflower florets
Baby lima beans or red kidney beans or combination, partially cooked or canned
Peas
Cabbage, cut into strips, steamed briefly, drained and squeezed dry
Sliced Mushrooms
Meatballs

To make soup: Add choice of ingredients from above, starting with those that require longest cooking times, such as potatoes, carrots, cauliflower and lima beans. When partially cooked, add other ingredients. Serve hot, sprinkled with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Broiled Tomato-Basil Soup

6 cups tomato base
1 cup (packed) fresh basil, chopped
¼ cup flour
½ cup chicken stock
1 to 3 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. white pepper
1 cup whipping cream
½ cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Additional Parmesan cheese

Cook base and basil over low heat until simmering. Mix flour and chicken stock and add to simmering soup, Increase heat to high and bring mixture to just below boiling point; reduce heat and simmer uncovered 25 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent scorching. Preheat broiler. Whip cream until stiff and fold in ½ cup Parmesan cheese. Ladle hot soup into individual bowls and dollop whipped cream over top. Sprinkle additional cheese over cream and broil 6 inches from heat about 30 to 60 seconds. Watch carefully to make sure cream does not burn. Serve immediately.

This soup base makes a wonderful start for a spaghetti meat sauce, since onions, garlic and other herbs have already been cooked in. Brown meat and drain well—add to soup base and simmer until thick. You may add tomato paste if you want more thickness.

Huevos Rancheros are wonderful from this base. Ladle 2 cups base into shallow, large skillet; add salsa (jarred or homemade), and hot sauce to taste. Reduce until nearly thick. Break eggs carefully into sauce and cover. Cook slowly until yolks are well-set. Place eggs on warm tortillas, ladle sauce over and sprinkle with grated cheddar or Jack cheese.

There are virtually endless things to do with this base, as you can see. Any chile, enchilada, lasagna, soup or pot roast dish will be enhanced with this sauce. Remember, it will be another year until the tomatoes taste this good again.