Cabbages and Bananas

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—
Of cabbages—and kings—"
--Through the Looking-Glass

Or how about cabbages and bananas—two red-letter foods for February?

In another one of my ancient cookbooks, The Cooking Calendar from Betty Crocker, the book is laid out in calendar style with foods that are at a peak for that month featured. February’s special foods are cabbages and bananas.

It is an ongoing theme of mine that seasonal, healthy foods are not necessarily expensive. In fact, they are usually at peak quality and reasonably cheap. Cabbages and bananas are always available and almost always inexpensive, but now is the time to get the best buys and the best quality. They are so common, however, that we sometimes forget to feature them in delicious, nutritious dishes—or we take them for granted and (so the saying goes) familiarity breeds contempt. For our special dishes we opt for out-of-season or exotic fruits and vegetables. I hope you will agree that today’s recipes are anything but ordinary.

There are a great many kinds of cabbage, but the most versatile and inexpensive is the domestic green variety. Choose a head that is well trimmed, heavy for its size and has no discolorations. It should look fresh, not coarse or puffy.

My late mother-in-law, Monika, came from Eastern Europe where cabbage rolls were as common as hamburgers are in America. She made a great stuffed cabbage dish, but unfortunately, I didn’t get the recipe. So I re-created it as best I can remember and, after a few tweaks, this comes very close.

Daughter-In-Law Cabbage Rolls

½ pound regular ground beef, not extra lean
½ cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped green pepper
½ cup chopped celery
2 cups beef stock (divided)
1 cup water
2/3 cup uncooked long grain rice
1 tsp. Italian seasoning (or use a combination of oregano, basil and thyme)
½ tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
8 medium cabbage leaves
½ cup (2 ounces) shredded American or Cheddar cheese
1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
½ tsp salt
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp butter
¼ cup shredded American cheese

In a large skillet cook meat, onion, green pepper and celery until meat is brown and vegetables are tender. Drain fat, if excessive. Stir in 1 cup beef stock, water, uncooked rice, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer, covered for 20 minutes or until the rice is tender and the liquid has been absorbed.

Trim cabbage and immerse leaves into large pot of boiling water for 3 minutes or until limp, being careful not to crowd the pot. Stir the cheese into the meat mixture. Spoon about 1/3 cup meat mixture on each cabbage leaf. Fold in sides and roll up each leaf, including folded sides in roll. For sauce: stir tomato sauce, remaining beef stock, sugar, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper in a bowl. Pour half of tomato mixture into 9 x 13 oblong baking dish, sprayed with vegetable spray. Arrange rolls on tomato mixture. Spoon remaining tomato sauce over cabbage rolls. Dot with butter. Cover and bake in 350 oven for 1 hour. Check to see if cabbage is tender and sauce bubbling. Dish may be baked for 15 minutes longer, if necessary. Sprinkle with ¼ cup cheese before serving.

This banana dessert is spectacular. It is even more spectacular if you’re able to serve it immediately out of the oven, as is the way of soufflés. Leftover sauce is absolutely marvelous over ice cream.

Banana Soufflé

¼ cup sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
½ cup milk
3 eggs, divided
½ cup banana puree
1 ½ Tbsp. butter
Pinch of salt
Powdered sugar
Rum Sauce (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter and sugar 6-cup soufflé dish. Combine ¼ cup sugar and flour in medium saucepan. Gradually whisk in milk. Boil over medium-high heat until mixture thickens, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes. Stir to cool slightly. Whisk in yolks 1 at a time. Beat in banana puree and butter. Beat egg whites with salt until stiff but not dry. Gently fold 1/3 into banana mixture to loosen. Gently fold in remaining whites. Turn batter into prepared dish. Bake until soufflé is puffed and golden brown, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Continue baking until top of soufflé is browned and skewer inserted in center comes out clean, 10 to 15 minutes more. Serve immediately with sauce.

Rum Sauce

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
½ cup water
1 cinnamon stick
½ cup dark rum

Cook sugar, water and cinnamon in saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves, swirling pan occasionally. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. Add rum and simmer 5 minutes more.

Crock Pot Cooking

The slow cooker or “crock-pot” has been much maligned. Trendy for a long time in the 90s, it suddenly spawned cookbooks called “Not Your Mother’s Slow- Cooker Recipes” and, like the microwave, the slow cooker was relegated to two or three dishes: pot roast, spaghetti sauce and soup.


The major complaint is the sameness of everything cooked in a slow cooker. This is a legitimate complaint but only if the cook wants to just dump everything in the slow cooker in the morning, plug it in, and come home to dinner completely ready. Just a few preparation steps can make the difference to something everyone groans about or something everyone raves about.

We are all familiar with the positives about crockery-lined slow electric cookers. There is no preparation mess to clean up at dinner time and so the kitchen is clean and serene when you need that the most—the dinner hour. There is no scorching or drying out of food that is being held, the nutrition is still in the vegetables just as in steaming and microwaving and retains not only vitamins and minerals but juiciness and flavor as well.

And, best of all, the variety of recipes and flavors is endless. Almost every monthly woman’s magazine sports at least one and usually more recipes using the crock-pot. It makes delicious main dishes, but few people realize that it also makes great side dishes and even desserts.

Here is a dinner that is a different version of an old comfort food: meatloaf. Not only is this delicious, but most of the dinner is in the pot; just add a green vegetable and/or a salad.

Glazed Meatloaf and Potatoes (adapted from The Crockery Pot Cookbook by Lou Pappas)

3 mild (sweet) fresh Italian sausages
2 eggs
½ cup 1% milk
2 slices whole grain bread
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. beef stock base
1 small onion
1-1/2 pounds very lean ground beef
¼ cup catsup
1 tsp. Dijon-style mustard
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
4 large potatoes
2 Tbsp. soft butter

Prick sausages with a fork in two or three places. Simmer in water to cover for 10 minutes. Drain. Place eggs, milk, bread, salt Worcestershire, dry mustard, stock base and onions in blender container. Cover and blend until smooth. Place ground meat in mixing bowl. Pour in blender contents. Mix until smooth. Pat half of meat loaf mixture in the bottom of a sprayed crock-pot. Cover with sausages. Top with remaining meat loaf. Pat to seal. Combine catsup, mustard and brown sugar. Spread over meat. Peel potatoes. Cut in strips. Coat well with butter and place around meat. Cover. Cook on high 1 hour. Reduce to low for 6 hours. Serves 8.

Here’s an interesting old recipe that works great for a breakfast food or a dessert in the winter.

Indian Pudding

3 cups milk
2/3 cup dark molasses
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
¾ tsp. cinnamon
¾ tsp. nutmeg
¼ cup butter
1 cup milk

Grease a 2-quart casserole that will fit inside your slow cooker. Heat 3 cups milk and molasses in saucepan on top of stove. Mix cornmeal, sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Gradually stir into hot milk mixture. Add butter. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, about 20 minutes or until thickened. Pour into casserole. Pour 1 cup milk over pudding; do not stir. Cover baking dish with foil. Place on metal trivet or rack in bottom of slow-cooker. Add 1 cup hot water to pot. Cover and cook on high for 3 hours.

One morning when I was dashing out of the house for an all-day event in the Twin Cities, I decided to make some chili to come home to. I didn’t even have time to defrost the hamburger, but I thought “What the heck, I’ll just try it” and put the frozen meat in the crock-pot; dumped the rest of the ingredients in and put the slow-cooker on the automatic setting (goes from low to high, back and forth, during the cooking). When I came home, as expected, the meat was cooked in one lump. I opened the pot, broke the meat up with a meat fork and a wooden spatula and cooked it for about another 15 minutes. It was absolutely the best chili we’ve had. Here’s the complete recipe (the best I can remember since I sort of dumped in what I had at the time)

½ pound lean ground beef (you can use more but we were trying to cut down on red meat)
2 cans chili beans in mild sauce
1 4-oz. can chopped green chilies, undrained
1 14-oz can tomato sauce
2 cups tomato juice
1 Tbsp. chili powder (or to taste)
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. sugar

If meat is defrosted, you can break it up in the crock pot (no need to brown). Just put all the rest of the ingredients in the crock pot on low or automatic for at least 6 hours. This will tolerate more cooking, if necessary.

Favorite Recipes of Presidents

Monday is President’s Day and I like to check the fantastic recipes in my President’s Cookbook by Poppy Cannon. I have been taking recipes for the presidents as well as anecdotes and information about their eating habits from this book for many years and was always frustrated because it’s so old it stops at Nixon. Nevertheless, it is the best resource about the presidents’ food tastes I have come across.


Then I remembered that now we have the internet. Yes, I know we’ve had it for awhile now, but I have not been a comfortable user until lately—especially for recipes. I still have to add a note of warning—many of the recipes that I have found online are not very good. You must be willing to try a lot of them or be an expert discerner of what makes a great recipe. That is why I go to my cookbook collection so often—if I try a couple of recipes from a book and they are great then I feel confident to use recipes from that book—and, of course, the reverse is true as well.

Since some experts have debunked the George Washington-cherry tree story, I have abandoned the obvious cherry ingredient. Actually, I set out to find some recipes that were liked by many of our presidents. I quickly saw that the common denominator ingredients were corn and apples.

Abe Lincoln’s Rail Splitters

1 egg
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 cup yellow cornmeal
4 Tbsp. melted butter
1 cup buttermilk
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cold water
1 cup flour
4 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an iron corn-stick pan or stoneware muffin pan or a dark metal muffin pan well and heat for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat egg well and add sugar, salt and cornmeal. Mix well and slow add melted butter that has been allowed to cool somewhat. Mix again and add buttermilk. Beat all together. Dissolve baking soda in cold water and add to the other mixture. Add flour and baking powder. Beat vigorously. Pour batter in sizzling muffin cups. Bake for approximately 20-22 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve piping hot.

Two recipes from George H. W. Bush are worth of printing (and eating!)

Corn Pudding

4 strips bacon, cut into small pieces
¾ cup onions, chopped
1 sweet bell pepper, diced
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
2 Tbsp butter
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup white corn kernels
2 Tbsp plus 2 tsp flour
½ tsp thyme
1 ½ Tbsps chopped fresh parsley
Salt and white pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a frying pan, cook bacon until crisp. Remove the bacon and set aside. Add onions to pan and saute until transparent. Add pepper and cook for 3 minutes. Set aside. Heat milk and cream over low heat until warm. Add butter and heat until butter melts. Remove from heat and slowly add milk mixture to beaten eggs, whisking lightly to combine. Add corn, flour, thyme, parsley, bacon, onions and peppers and salt and pepper to taste. Stir to combine. Pour the mixture into sprayed 1 ½-quart baking dish or 6 ramekins. Bake oval 1 hour, 15 minutes, ramekins 1 hour.

Apple-Cranberry Brown Betty
(10 servings)

8 large Granny Smith apples
1 tsp lemon juice
6 Tbsp butter
½ cup melted butter
3 Tbsp sugar
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup raisins, soaked in warm water for 15 minutes then squeezed dry
Zest of 2 oranges
1 ½ cups light brown sugar
¼ tsp mace
1 tsp cinnamon
4 cups stale white bread coarsely crumbed, crusts removed.

Preheat oven to 375. Butter or spray a 2- ½ quart glass soufflé dish and then sprinkle with sugar. Peel, core and dice the apples in ½ inch dice. Reserve in a bowl. Sprinkle the lemon juice over apples and toss. In large frying pan, heat half the butter until hot and add half the apples. Sprinkle with 1-1/2 Tbsp sugar. Saute over high heat until apples are lightly caramelized. Remove apples and repeat process with second half. Combine apples with cranberries, raisins, orange zest, brown sugar, mace and cinnamon; mix well. Mix the bread crumbs with remaining ½ cup melted butter. Line bottom of soufflé dish with 1/3 bread-crumb mixture. Add ½ apple cranberry mixture, then sprinkle with 1/3 more of the bread crumbs. Add rest of apple-cranberry mix and top with remaining bread crumbs. Bake in oven for 1 ½ hours. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Baking Yeast Breads

Brrrrrrr-it’s been a cold winter; the kind I remember from when I was a kid, but which hasn’t happened for awhile. And on top of that, our heating bill has been astronomical! The antidote for both the cold and the bills is winter baking—the hot oven means a warm kitchen filled with the wonderful aroma of baking something, especially something with yeast.


Many people, including me at one time, are intimidated by yeast. So many failures are hard to bear when you fancy yourself a budding cook. Add to that that my mother won prizes from the age of 15 for her yeast breads and was constantly telling me that it was simple. I stayed away from it for years. Then I attended a class taught, ironically, by my mother wherein the hands-on experience and being carefully watched did the trick. I finally mastered yeast breads.

Another thing that has made yeast bread making a joy for me is the bread machine. I actually make room for two of them on my counter. Before you shake your head and say that’s not the same thing as baking bread—let me assure you that I really never use my machines to bake anything. I use them to mix and knead and raise the dough and then I take it out and shape it—give it a second rising and bake it in my own pans in my own oven. I can make dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls for breakfast, pizza bases, loaves of grainy artisan-shaped bread—you name it—in the blink of an eye. Well, almost the blink of an eye. As long as you put the liquid in first and the yeast in last, almost any recipe for yeast dough comes out fine in a machine.

Another great thing about making your own yeast dough is that you control what goes into your bread or rolls—or rather you control what DOESN’T go into it. I am trying to eat healthier all the time and whole grains are a large part of a healthy diet. Without the preservatives and dough conditioners found in commercial products, some alterations may be necessary. I use a couple of teaspoons of gluten (sometimes sold as Vital Gluten) in my completely whole grain recipes—it really helps the strength of the dough so that it can rise higher. Without it, the texture of the whole grain can actually cut the strands of flour, keeping it from rising as high as white flour breads.

First, if you are using whole wheat, try the new white whole wheat. King Arthur makes one and so do a couple of other flour companies. This is not a bleached or processed whole wheat, it is actually a different hybrid type of wheat that is lighter but has the same nutritional value as whole wheat. A tablespoon of lemon juice is a great dough conditioner as well. One other caveat when using whole wheat—use at least ¼ cup of orange juice as part of the total liquid; you won’t taste orange, but the bitter taste of whole wheat is somewhat tamed by it. The recipe for the rolls is easy in either the bread machine or by hand. The food processor and a heavy-duty mixer are also alternatives to mixing and kneading by hand. Or you may be a purist who loves the hands-on therapeutic effect of kneading your own dough. The following recipe is geared for use in a bread machine. You can use any other method to mix your dough, using the same ingredients. Any way you look at it, winter is a great time to bake bread.

Whole wheat Bran Rolls

1 pkg. active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
¼ cup orange juice
1 tsp. lemon juice
2 cups white whole wheat flour (or regular whole wheat)
1 ¾ cups white flour
4 tsp. gluten flour (Vital Gluten)
½ cup whole bran
¼ cup brown sugar (packed)
1 ½ tsp. salt
1 egg
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1/8 cup wheat germ (optional)
1 egg yolk, mixed with 1 Tbsp. water (optional)

Put ingredients into the vegetable-sprayed container of a bread machine in the following order: water, juices, oil, egg, flours, bran, sugar, salt and yeast. Set machine to dough setting. When machine signals done, turn dough out onto lightly floured board. Knead lightly for 1 minute. Cover with a towel or inverted bowl and let rest for 10 minutes. Divide into 12 sections (for large rolls) or 24 (for smaller rolls). Roll into balls. Flatten each ball with a rolling pin; then shape into a smooth ball by tucking edges together. Place in a greased baking pan large enough to hold rolls separated by 1 inch. (May take 2 pans). Cover with sprayed plastic wrap, sprayed side down. Cover that with a clean kitchen towel, tucking it in under pan. Place in oven that has been heated to 170 degrees and then turned off before placing pans. Let rise until double (about 1 hour). Mix together water and egg yolk with a fork, if using. Brush egg mixture over rolls and sprinkle with wheat germ. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Do not bake on rack above or below any other dish or pan in oven.

Valentine Sweets

Sweetie pie, honey bun, sugar, cupcake, cookie, apple of my eye; all endearing names for the ones we love and the foods we love. The common denominator? Sweetness.


I would never eschew roses, of course, or jewelry for that matter—but if you want to win my heart, chocolate will do nicely. I think it’s partly because women worry about their weight almost universally and don’t feel like they should indulge in their passion for chocolate—but if your sweetheart brings you chocolates—well, what can you do? And men love chocolate too, even if they don’t let everyone know, so you can share the joy; there are some who even say chocolate is an aphrodisiac.

Every Valentine’s Day we give the couples at our inn something special. The most well-received gift is chocolate—hands down. I used to buy chocolates thinking they would be too difficult to make myself since I’ve never had good luck with candy making. But I finally found a recipe that combines the wonderful creaminess of peanut butter with a rich dark chocolate shell that tastes a lot like the peanut butter cups you buy; and it’s simplicity itself to make. Now I buy some cute little foil candy cups and have a really delightful treat to give—well, if I can hide them really well from Zig.

Cupcakes are another way to deliver chocolate. Cupcakes (in case you’ve been asleep for a couple of years) are really a hot item. Cupcakes on tiered holders stand in for the traditional wedding cake and can run from simple and elegant to flowered and fancy. Cupcake wars are held on the Food Network and whole cookbooks are devoted to the art of the cupcake. They have so many advantages over large cakes that I’m not sure why this trend didn’t happen sooner. I love them because I can give my guests an individual serving without slicing and plating and because they make a perfect way to make cake for two people without wondering what to do with the rest of it. (Well, it’s not really a great idea for us to finish off a whole cake by ourselves).

This year I’m putting the little candies in their festive wrappers in the guests’ rooms and serving the cupcakes for an evening treat. Both of these recipes are simple and quick and a perfect way to make your sweetie pie or honey bun happy on Valentine’s Day.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

1 cup creamy peanut butter, divided
4 ½ tsp. butter, softened
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
½ tsp. salt
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
4 milk chocolate candy bars (1.55 ounces each), broken in pieces

In a small bowl, combine ½ cup peanut butter, butter, confectioners’ sugar and salt until smooth; set aside. In a large microwave-safe pan or bowl, melt the chocolate chips, candy bars and remaining peanut butter (about 2 minutes, checking every 30 seconds); stir until smooth. Drop teaspoonfuls of the chocolate mixture into foil paper-lined miniature muffin cups. Top each with a teaspoonful of peanut butter mixture. Top each with another teaspoonful of chocolate mixture. Decorate with sprinkles if desired. Refrigerate until set. Store in an airtight container. Yield: 3-4 dozen

Red Velvet Cupcakes

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
3 Tbsp red food color
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
4 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1 cup buttermilk
½ tsp. salt
½ cup sugar
2 ¼ cups sifted cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp. White vinegar
2 ¼ cups cream cheese frosting (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 350. In small bowl combine cocoa, red food color and vanilla; set aside. In large bowl, beat together butter and ¾ cup sugar. Add egg yolks, one at a time, and beat well after each. Add cocoa mixture and blend well.

In another clean bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form; set aside. In a measuring cup combine buttermilk with salt. In a separate bowl, combine ½ cup sugar, baking powder and cake flour. Add buttermilk mixture and flour mixture to cocoa mixture, alternately, beating after each addition. In another bowl combine baking soda and vinegar then add to batter and blend well. Fold in egg whites. Line muffin pans with paper cups, lightly sprayed with vegetable spray. Fill cups ¾ full. Bake 15-17 minutes or until centers spring back when lightly pressed or a toothpick comes out clean. Cool cupcakes before frosting. Makes 24 cupcakes

Simpler: use a Duncan Hines red velvet cake mix.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8-ounce pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
Dash salt
2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
2 Tbsp. half and half

Put all ingredients in mixer bowl. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Add more half and half if frosting is too stiff and beat at high speed until very smooth and creamy.

Homemade Valentine's Candy

This coming Monday is Valentine’s Day. If you’re looking for something special to celebrate, I think candy’s dandy. And you can whip up some homemade candy that’s delicious and inexpensive in no time.


I wasn’t always an advocate of making candy at home; as a matter of fact, of all the things that I am afraid to cook—candy takes first place. Let me explain.

Years ago (never mind how many) when I was a young bride, I decided to make a birthday cake for my husband. His favorite cake and frosting was a specialty of my mom’s and I thought I’d call and get her recipe. The frosting for the chocolate cake was a true fudge frosting made like old-fashioned fudge—cooking the sugar and chocolate and cream or milk until the soft-ball stage, then cooling it down without stirring, adding butter and beating until it set up to frosting consistency.

I made the cake without mishap and confidently began the frosting. I was too young and cocky in those days to even worry about a failure. But a failure would be putting it mildly. Since I didn’t own a candy thermometer, I used the cookbook advice of testing the mixture by dropping a small amount in cold water and rolling it into a “soft ball.” If it just spread out in the water it wasn’t done yet; if it rolled into a hardball or a stiff, crackly thread, it was overdone.

I made my batch of frosting and when it tested done (I thought), I cooled it and beat it. And beat it and beat it and beat it. It wouldn’t set up. I called my mom. She said cook it longer and try again, which I did.

Several hours later, with a kitchen piled top to bottom with chocolate: pans, counters, spoons, me, and after kneeling in front of the refrigerator with my pan of chocolate, beating it in the refrigerator because I thought it was too hot in the kitchen for the frosting to set up, I finally gave up and went to the bedroom and cried until I fell asleep in exhaustion.

When my husband arrived home he took one look around and suggested we go out to eat. I have never made that frosting or any cooked candies since.

This year, I decided to find some recipes for candy that would taste delicious and still keep my sanity. I think you’ll agree that these fill the bill.

Creamy Peanut Dreams

½ 8-oz pkg. cream cheese, softened
¼ cup butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1 Tbsp. real maple syrup
1 pound chocolate candy coating
½ cup chopped peanuts

Beat cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and syrup until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Shape into 2-in. balls. In a microwave or heavy saucepan, melt candy coating, stirring often. Place balls of candy on waxed paper set on a large baking sheet. Spoon chocolate over candy; sprinkle with peanuts. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Raspberry Truffles (Country Woman, Nov. 1999)

1 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. whipping cream
1-1/3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
7 ½ tsp. seedless raspberry jam
6 ounces white or dark chocolate candy coating
1 Tbsp. shortening

In heavy saucepan, combine butter, cream and chocolate chips. Cook over low heat for 4-5 minutes or until chocolate is melted. Remove from the heat; stir in jam until combined. Transfer to a small freezer container; cover and freeze for 20 minutes. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a foil-line baking sheet. Freeze for 25 minutes. Roll into balls; freeze until very firm. In a microwave or heavy saucepan, melt candy coating and shortening, stirring often. Cool slightly; spoon over balls. Place on a wire rack over waxed paper. Let stand for 15 minutes or until firm. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Yield: 4 dozen

If you are more adventurous than I, or have successfully made the cooked type of candy; here is a recipe for President’s Day

Martha Washington Bonbons (The President’s Cookbook)

2 cups light brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
½ cup cream or milk
1 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
Chopped nuts, chopped citron or fruit flavoring or rum extract

Cook sugars and cream in a covered pan to the soft-ball stage (234 deg. F). Pour the candy onto a buttered platter. Cool. When cool, beat in butter and vanilla until creamy. Knead the candy on a marble slab (Formica would do—or any hard surface); divide it into as many portions as you want varieties. Mix one portion with chopped nuts, another with chopped citron, and another with fruit flavoring or rum extract. After mixing each type, shape the bonbons. Leave some plain; dip others in melted chocolate, decorate with nut halves and/or candied cherries. Put each finished piece on wax paper and let it stand until firm (“Let it ripen,” says the old cookbook).

Valentine's Day and Chocolate

Here comes Valentine’s Day, the day of romance, happiness and high expectations. This seems to be a day of quandary for men trying to please their ladies. At least that’s what I hear all the time—from my three sons and husband. Well flowers are nice, jewelry is a positive and dinner out is almost essential (unless you or your spouse love to cook and do so fabulously), but my vote goes for chocolate as the piece de résistance. Everyone loves chocolate—even those who say they don’t. The only people that really don’t want any chocolate are those who are allergic to it or those on a stringent diet. And now—wonder of wonders—the food experts have declared chocolate healthy!


Not so fast: the heart-shaped box filled with cream-filled milk chocolate doesn’t measure up, but dark chocolate is filled with antioxidants and essential minerals. Specifically, they are magnesium, copper, potassium, manganese and it is also rich in flavonoids which is actually the best news of all. Flavonoids are plant pigments that act as antioxidants which neutralize the free radicals (which cause aging, among other things bad), and improve vascular flexibility. Minimally processed, dark chocolate is the leader in flavonoids beating out such giants as green tea, red wine and blueberries. If all that weren’t enough, dark chocolate also has a low glycemic index which means it holds blood sugar levels steady.

Of course, everyone knows that cupid actually has chocolate in the head of his arrow and that it is a powerful aphrodisiac. (Well, that’s still a theory, but one that I subscribe to).

Think of all the words that describe chocolate and romance: decadent, divine, heavenly, voluptuous, ultimate, exquisite, luscious, wicked, luxurious, enticing, tempting, irresistible—need I go on? So I suggest that a bouquet of roses, some diamond earrings, dinner at a great restaurant should all happen and then, home to that homemade chocolate dessert and, well, bed.

Here are a few ideas for that dessert—the rest of the stuff is up to you.

Molten Chocolate Cake with Cherries (for two)

1 can sour cherries
Three-fourths cup sugar
One-fourth cup kimmel liqueur or kirsch (cherry brandy)
1 Tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 1 Tbsp. cold water
2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
One-fourth cup butter (half stick)
One-fourth cup sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 large egg
2 teaspoons all purpose flour

Combine cherries, their juice, three-fourths cup sugar and kimmel or kirsch in heavy saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Simmer until sauce thickens and is slightly reduced, about 10 minutes. Recombine cornstarch and water and add to bubbling cherry mixture. Let bubble for 1 minute. Remove one-fourth cup of cherries (using slotted spoon); chop coarsely and reserve for cakes. Set aside cherry sauce.

Butter two three-quarter cup ramekins or custard cups. Whisk cocoa and one-fourth cup sugar in a bowl to blend. Stir chocolate and butter together in a small saucepan over low heat until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat; whisk in cocoa mixture. Whisk in egg yolks, then whole egg and flour. Fold in reserved cherries. Divide batter between prepared ramekins. Preheat oven to 350 deg. Bake cakes uncovered until edges are set but center is still shiny and tester inserted into center comes out with some wet batter attached, about 22 minutes.

Warm cherry sauce over low heat. Cut around cakes to loosen; turn out onto plates. Spoon cherry sauce alongside. Drizzle with warm fudge sauce. (optional—recipe follows) and dust with powdered sugar. (Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit February, 2001)

Fudge Sauce

Two-thirds cup whipping cream
2 Tbsp. light corn syrup
12 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped

Bring cream and corn syrup to simmer in medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth.

Chocolate Gateau

21/2 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
One-fourth cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. honey
1 large egg
2 Tbsp finely chopped toasted almonds
One-fourth tsp. vanilla
One-eighth tsp. almond extract
Pinch of salt

Glaze

One-fourth cup whipping cream
2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 Tbsp. honey
1 drop of almond extract
3 Tbsp. finely chopped toasted almonds

For cake: Preheat oven to 325. Spray a 9x5inch metal loaf pan. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper. Spray parchment. Combine chocolate and butter in saucepan. Stir over low heat until melted. Cool slightly. Whisk sugar, honey and egg to blend in bowl. Stir in chocolate mixture, almonds, vanilla, almond extract and salt. Pour into prepared pan. Bake until done—about 30 minutes. Cake will only be about ½ inch high.

Cool 10 minutes in pan. Turn out onto rack; carefully peel off parchment. Cool completely.

For glaze: Bring cream to boil in heavy saucepan. Remove from heat; add chocolate and stir until melted. Mix in honey and almond extract. Let cool until spreadable, about 1-1/4 hours. Cut cake crosswise in half. Place 1 half on plate. Spread with 3 tablespoons glaze. Top with second half of cake. Spread top and sides of cake evenly with remaining glaze. Press some almonds onto 2 long sides of cake. Draw tip of knife across top of cake from 1 corner to opposite corner, forming 1 triangle. Sprinkle almonds over top of cake, covering 1 triangle only. Transfer to clean plate. Chill until set. (Adapted from Bon Appetit, Feb. 1994).

Making Cake Rolls

Cakes are like people; when you try to do studies on them, there are many variables to consider. There may be so many that results are close to impossible to validate. Such was my experience with making cake rolls.


Both my mother and my husband can bake cakes from scratch that are high, light, tender and delicious—better than any cake mix cake. Me? I really have trouble with them and have even been known to convince people that they would rather have birthday pie than cake. I can turn out a pie in the blink of an eye—to be honest. But cake is another story.

One type of cake with which I have been successful from time to time is a cake roll—you know, usually called a jelly roll—filled with anything from jelly to frosting to whipped cream or even ice cream. In fact, my standard cook books tout them as “fun and easy to make, even if this is your first jelly roll.” But remember what I said about variables?

I went to two old standard cookbooks—Better Homes and Gardens and Betty Crocker. I used my newest versions and found each book used a little different recipe and method. I decided to try both and see which I liked best. One is quite a bit easier and I was hopeful that it would be the best, or at least as good as the more difficult one.

Side by side I made the two cakes—then I added a variation—a chocolate version of the easy one. I used a standard jelly-roll pan: 15 ½ x 10 ½ x1 inch. I sprayed the pan with vegetable spray, then lined it with waxed paper and sprayed it again. I baked them separately but using the same rack position (close to the center of the oven). I baked them at the same temperature for the same length of time. I used the same ingredients, exactly. Did they turn out the same? No. Then I made one with the other method of mixing but everything else the same. Was this one different? Yes.

By this time, I was getting frustrated and just a little bit mad. This couldn’t be rocket science—after all, my mother and Zig aren’t necessarily geniuses. I decided to try a different flour, a different pan liner, a different flavor and do each variable with each method. Kindly draw the curtain on the mountain of mixing bowls, beaters, spatulas, measuring cups, flour and powder-sugared towels all over the kitchen. I emerged with an outstanding cake roll. I am going to give you the exact instructions in hopes that you can make a great one, too—although this is NOT “fun and easy to make even if it is your first jelly roll.”

Lynette’s Cake Roll (standard yellow)

4 eggs
¾ cup sifted cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp vanilla
1/3 cup sugar
½ cup sugar
Sifted powdered sugar

Separate eggs and bring to room temperature in separate bowl. (Tip: you can microwave whole eggs for 5 seconds each before shelling) Meanwhile, spray a standard jelly-roll pan (see above) with vegetable spray. Line bottom and sides with waxed paper; spray well again. Set pan aside. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together in small bowl and set aside. In bowl of electric mixer on high speed beat egg yolks and vanilla for 5 minutes or until very thick and lemon colored. Gradually add the 1/3 cup sugar, beating on high speed for 1 minute, scraping sugar down from sides of bowl occasionally. Thoroughly wash the beaters. In another bowl beat the egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add the ½ cup sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. Fold egg yolk mixture into beaten egg whites. Sprinkle flour mixture over egg mixture; fold in gently just until combined. Spread batter evenly in the prepared pan. Bake in a preheated oven (375deg.) for 12 to 15 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Immediately loosen edges of cake and turn cake out onto a towel sprinkled with powdered sugar. Roll up towel and cake into a spiral starting from one of the cake’s short sides. Cool on a wire rack. Unroll cake; remove towel. Spread cake with filling of your choice to within 1 inch of edges. Roll up cake.

Fillings:

• ¾ cup jelly or jam, stirred with a fork before spreading
• 2 cups ice cream, softened. Store in freezer
• Lemon filling or lemon curd mixed with whipped cream
to equal 2 cups total.

Chocolate Variation: Prepare as above, except reduce flour to 1/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp. and omit baking powder. Add ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder and ¼ tsp. baking soda to flour. Fill with sweetened whipped cream. Drizzle cake roll with a chocolate glaze, if you wish.

If you have a recipe that you like, e-mail me at lgudrais@charter.net.

Groundhog's Day

Writing movie reviews isn’t really my thing, but it seems appropriate today to mention one of my all-time favorite movies, "Groundhog Day." It’s a great movie on several levels: great acting, great comedy, great premise, and interesting life philosophy thrown in for flavor. I guess it’s the philosophy that speaks to me most—that doing it over and over will finally result in getting it right.


None of us will really get a second shot at our daily lives, but when it comes to eating, we do it over a lot. And if we’re talking leftovers, it rarely comes out better the second time. However, we are all faced with leftovers and unless you have no guilt about tossing all uneaten food you have to figure out some good ways to serve them.

When I was growing up, my mother fixed a Sunday night leftover buffet. She just reheated everything leftover from the week and put it out on the counter to help yourself. Those were the days before the microwave, so it took a lot of saucepans and bake ware to accomplish this and there were a stack of dishes afterward (I know, I washed them).

Psychologically, I rebel. Food just doesn’t seem as good reheated and served a second time. So I went on a hunt to find a way to re-cycle food and make it even better—well, at least as good.

First stop, my cookbook collection and I found three that deal with this subject exclusively: the oldest, Magic with Leftovers by Lousene Rousseau Brunner was published in 1965; Miriam B. Loo’s, Never Say Leftovers was written in 1982 and The Leftover Gourmet by Patricia Rosier and Jessica L. Weiss was published in 1991. I picked a philosophical tidbit as well as a representative recipe from each one.

Magic With Leftovers states, “A little ingenuity goes a long way in making cooking with leftovers interesting, challenging and economical…the thrifty cook never throws away leftovers. A tablespoon of many vegetables can be added to vegetable or cream soups. A strip of bacon can be crumbled into a one-egg muffin.”

Stuffed Green Peppers

1 ½ cups chopped leftover beef or lamb
2 large green peppers or 4 small ones
2 Tbsp bacon fat
2 Tbsp. chopped celery
2 Tbsp chopped onion
3/4 cup cooked tomato with juice or juice alone
1 cup bread crumbs
Salt and pepper
1 Tbsp. butter or margarine

Split peppers lengthwise, remove seeds and membrane, and parboil 2-3 minutes in boiling salted water. Drain and turn carefully upside down to drain further.

Heat bacon fat in skillet and sauté celery and onion until yellow. Add meat, tomato or juice, bread crumbs, and salt and pepper to taste. Lay pepper halves right side up in greased shallow casserole or pie plate and fill solidly with mixture. Sprinkle tops with additional bread crumbs, dot with butter, add about 2 tablespoons water to casserole and bake 25-30 minutes in a hot oven (400 deg). Serves 4

Never Say Leftovers is full of tips that apply to the use of leftovers such as:

1. Add leftover fish to shrimp cocktail sauce and use as a dip.
2. Combine juices from cans of fruit with orange juice, club soda, and any flavor sherbet for a refreshing drink.
3. Leftover mashed potatoes make a nice addition to the meal when shaped into patties, dusted with flour for easier handling and sautéed in butter.

Mashed Potato Puff

2 cups leftover mashed potatoes
One-third cup milk
2 eggs, well beaten
½ cup grated Cheddar cheese
One-third cup chopped onion
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
One-fourth cup grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 350 deg. Butter an 8-inch pie plate and set aside. Combine potatoes, milk, and eggs. Blend well. Fold in Cheddar cheese, onion, and salt and pepper to taste. Place in pie plate. Top with Parmesan cheese and bake for 30 minutes or until golden. Serves 4

From The Leftover Gourmet, “The aid of the blender, food processor, freezer, microwave oven and other kitchen tools now widely available, made it easy to reprocess foods and give them totally new identities.”

Hot Chicken/Turkey Timbale

1 cup warm chicken stock
½ cup light cream
4 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
½ tsp. dried tarragon
½ cup Swiss cheese, grated
1-1/2 cups cooked chicken or turkey, cut in large chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put the ingredients in a food processor and process for 10 to 20 seconds. Spoon the mixture into 6 buttered ramekins and set them in a pot of hot water. Bake at 350 deg. For 25 to 30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove timbales from the oven and let stand for a few minutes to set. Run a knife around the edge and unmold. Serve immediately. Garnish with chopped pecans or walnuts. This makes a great luncheon dish served with soft warm rolls and a salad.