The Happy Table of Eugene Walter

OK, some of you may not think Eugene Walter is that famous, but I do. It is one of my greatest regrets that I never met Eugene Walter. In a previous post at Lucindaville, we extolled the copious adventures of Mr. Walter. At Cookbook Of The Day we have featured several cookbooks from Eugene Walter. If ever there was a Renaissance man, it was Eugene Walter who was at varying time in his colorful life:

cryptographer

writer

poet

artist

founder of a chamber orchestra...
...and the Paris Review

winner of a Lippincott...
...an O’Henry...
...a Sewanee-Rockefeller fellowship...
...the Prix Guilloux

puppet maker

music composer

opera singer

actor (including Fellini’s 8 1/2 and Lina Wertmüller’s Ballad of Belle Starr and 100 others)

cookbook author

legendary party-giver

consummate Southerner

They just don't make them like this anymore. For much of his later life, Eugene Walter talked of writing a book about gumbo. It is the great "lost" book of Eugene Walter and the first question everyone asks his executor, Donald Goodman. Goodman says the book never existed. I have asked him repeatedly. One day last year, I got an e-mail form Goodman. While there wasn't a gumbo book, there was a manuscript that never got published. The University of North Carolina Press was going to publish the cookbook and Don wanted me to know. I immediately pre-ordered the book. The Happy table of Eugene Walter arrived last week. First I just looked at it for a couple of days and finally I sat down to spent the day with Eugene. It was the next best thing to meeting him.



The first thing one notices about the book is its division. The first, substantial section, is on drinks. Southern drinks, of course. There are 5 juleps, 7 eggnogs, 13 punches, two pages of instructions on iced tea and 9 hangover "cures" all with a proper history and introduction.

The second section is on victuals. And what victuals they are. Walter offers up a favorite from the famed creole cookbook author, Celestine Eustis. The recipe is a basic bread pudding recipe titled "Monkey Pudding." The recipe calls for stale bread, milk, cream, sugar and spice, but it is the actual baking instructions that caught Walter's eye. According to Eustis the pudding is cooked until... "it looks like an old monkey."

Water loved monkeys and one can just see him laughing at as he pulled that monkey pudding from the fire.
Walter never looses his humor nor his writing style when introducing a recipe. Here is his introduction to Sunday Supper Onion Pie:

"Okay, you have the wreckage of a baked ham, roast beef, or pork. So prepare your favorite flaky pastry for a deep pie pan --not a casserole, not a shallow pie pan, but a deep pie pan. Bake it; chill it.
Then make your onion pie filling. There are dozens of recipes. And, just like the 2,000 green tomato pie recipes are about evenly divided between sweet versions and savory ones, same's true of onions. Many eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century green apple pie recipes were simply northern apple pie recipes with, in the apple-less south, green tomatoes substituted for Eve's preference."

Walter's description of learning to make rice from Marie Honorine Julac is worth the price of the book.


Here is a little recipe Walter calls, "a mad dish from the 1920's."

Whoopsadaisy Toast

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 pound grated Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup dry Champagne
Dash of mace
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
Toast

In your chafing dish, melt butter over hot water, then add grated Cheddar cheese. As it melts, gradually add Champagne, Pit in a dash of mace, a pinch of salt, and a hint of freshly ground white pepper; serve immediately over warm toast. Chilled champagne, of course, with it.

Cheese toast. Every kid has had it at one time or another, yet, in the hands of Eugene Walter it becomes an elegant and delightful luncheon. "In your chaffing dish..." because everyone has a chaffing dish, really what kind of Southerner are you? "A dash," "a pinch," "a hint," all less than a 1/4 teaspoon, but important measurements to be learned through a culinary osmosis. Chilled champagne-- "of course" -- because what is the point of whoosadaisy toast without a little champagne on the side.

I said it before and I will say it again, I am very sorry that I never met Eugene Walter. But, I am grabbing a bottle of Champagne and making Woopsadaisy Toast for lunch in his honor.

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Italian Cooking

We are not particularly one an Italian cooking crusade this week, but we did pick up Robin Howe's vintage tome Italian Cooking on our recent beach adventures. In the 1950's the venerable British publishing house, Andre Deutch, published a cookery series featuring a vast collection of international cuisines from Alsace to Turkey. Robin Howe was responsible for several of the titles including this Italian cookbook.

For Howe this book is two-fold:

"...to bring Italian cooking to the housewife and to help those traveling in Italy who, faced with a long and tantalizingly attractive menu, end up by ordering spaghetti because it is the only dish they are sure about."

As Bob Dylan might say, "the times, they are a-changin'." Or maybe not. One could actually take most every recipe in this book, give them an updated re-write, add some color photos, slap Mario on the cover and have a fine cookbook.

This is not so much a testament to Robin Howe as it is to Italian cuisine. Truth be told, once you learn a few basics, you can cook up a storm. And while Howe laments the fact that the most the British housewife of the 1950's might have known of Italian cooking is as simply "spaghetti, garlic, olive oil, and tomatoes", there is a lot to be said for spaghetti,garlic, olive oil , and tomatoes! Trow in a pounded cutlet and some aubergine, grab a bottle of red wine and it's dining at its finest. It seems that every other recipe title ends with the words, "cooked in wine." There is:

veal with marsala
chicken marsala
whiting cooked in wine
beef braised in wine
beef stewed in wine
rabbit stewed in wine
quail cooked in wine
artichokes cooked in wine
cabbage cooked in wine
onions cooked in wine

We are sticking with the aubergine.

Fried Aubergine Slices
Melanzane Fritte

4 medium aubergine (egg-plant)
Salt
coating batter

Wash the aubergines, cut off the stems, peel and slice thinly in rounds Sprinkle the slices with salt and press between two plates. Leave for one hour. Wipe dry with a cloth and dip in coating batter. Fry in deep boiling fat until brown.

Alternatively you can dip the slices in egg and breadcrumbs, or fry au naturel. Serve hot.

Mario couldn't have done it any better. If you don't want to fry it, just cook it in wine!

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BEST APPLE PIE EVER !!!

I've made a zillion apple pies in my life that I thought were pretty good. However, the following recipe is new to me, and I have to tell you it is the absolute BEST apple pie I've EVER tasted.

Sorry about this photo, I cut the pie when it was still too hot

When I served this pie to Picky-Picky husband and guests, no one spoke. All I heard were forks clicking on the plates, and the muffled sounds of "oooohhhh man!!"  and "Mmmmmmm"  (a good sign). The first servings of pie were followed quickly by second servings and comments like "wow, that's good".  I totally agree!!!
Double 9" pie crust
6 large Granny Smith apples
½ cup butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon corn starch
¾ cup brown sugar
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract + enough water to = ¼ cup

Peel and thinly slice the apples. Place them in the bottom half of the pie crust. NOTE: It is important that you use a DEEP dish pie plate or you will get spill over.

In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, melt the butter. Add the flour and corn starch and stir until smooth.  Measure 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract into a quarter cup measure, and then fill the rest up with water (total liquid ¼ cup). Add the liquid, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to the melted butter. Bring to a low boil (actually not a boil...just let it start to boil around the edges of the pan for about 30 seconds.

Take off the heat and pour over the apples.  Put on the top crust. Pinch the edges shut and cut some vent holes in the top crust.  Brush the top pie crust with beaten egg whites and sprinkle with granulated sugar.

Place pie on a baking sheet (in case it spills over), and bake in PREHEATED 400 degree oven for 1 hour or until apples are tender. Let cool until you can hold your hand (comfortably) on the bottom of the pie plate before cutting.

The pie tastes almost like a mellow caramel apple, it is beyond good!!

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Cooking Dinner

Full Disclosure: The author's sent me a copy of their book. My gentle readers might think this happens a lot. Well, much to my chagrin it does not happen nearly enough! Seriously all you editors out there at Clarkson Potter and Chronicle, send us your books... sorry, I digress... Generally, however, we are kind of the low-girl-on-the-totem-pole. Cookbook writers, like everyone else who publishes, get a really small budget to market their books. They make a big list and then they get a dozen books to send out, so of course, they go to big media outlets. While we are often asked it we will review a book, we often fail to make the final cut. So when Rima Barkett and Claudia Pruett asked if I wanted a review copy, I said yes, but didn't really expect to make the cut. So imagine my surprise when a big fat envelope arrived with a shiny copy of their book, Cooking Dinner.



I love cookbooks that advocate family dinner. As a child in Alabama, everyone in the family had Sunday dinner together whether you wanted to or not! I learned to cook, not from the thousand cookbooks that line my walls, but at the elbows of the women in my life. Cooking, like reading, is something one needs to actually see being done.

Cooking Dinner: Simple Italian Family Recipes Everyone Can Make are just that: simple recipes that you can make with your kids in tow and feed to everyone in the family and all those people who happen to be hanging around the house when dinner is served. The recipes are full of flavor while maintaining a simple kitchen-friendly vibe.



One of the nicest features of the cookbook is the addition of info bubbles beside the recipes. They offer info, tips and a helping hand. The helping hand feature is aimed at the kids in your kitchen, but if you cook, you know there is always someone coming in and asking, "Can I help?" The helping hand feature gives an efficient and easy answer to satisfy even the biggest helping hand.

Writing a cookbook just wasn't enough for Barkett and Pruett. The pair has a website, A Tavola Together, which is chocked full of tips, recipes, shopping lists and more to keep the family in the kitchen.

My favorite recipe from the book is the penne with asparagus. I love both penne and asparagus, and when you add cream and cheese how could you go wrong?

Penne with Asparagus

1 pound penne pasta
1/4 cup olive oil
1 onion, peeled & chopped fine, about 1 cup
2 pounds asparagus, rinsed and cut into 1/2 pieces
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Dash freshly ground pepper
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over low to medium heat. Add onion saute until translucent, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot over high heat. When the water is boiling, add 2 tablespoons salt and penne pasta. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally.

Add asparagus, salt and pepper to the onions. continue cooking, stirring occasionally. After 5 minutes, add cream and cook two more minutes.

Meanwhile, pour hot water into a serving bowl and let stand. This is an important step which serves to warm the bowl.

When the penne are 3 minute from being done, transfer them to the sauce in the skillet using a slotted spoon. Add about 1/3 cup of the cooing water and cook for a few more minutes over medium heat, stirring often and adding more water if necessary. he pasta will finish cooking in the sauce. Taste and adjust salt and pepper. Stir in 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese.

When the penne are ready, pour out the water and dry the serving bowl. Transfer penne to the bowl. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese and serve.

The tip for this recipe: Slice the asparagus in the diagonal to match the shape of the peen pasta.

The helping hand: Young children can help rinse the asparagus. Older ones can grate the Parmesan.

If you are looking for a way to get the whole family into the kitchen, grab a copy of Cooking Dinner and get in there and cook dinner.

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The Lewis & Clark Cookbook

If you read the post over at Lucindaville, you have been regaled with pawpaw facts. Continuing in that vein, here is an entry from the journal of William Clark, September 18, 1806:

"Subsisting on poppaws. we divide the buiskit which amounted to nearly one buisket per man, this in addition to the poppaws is to last is down to the Settlement's which is 150 miles the party appear perfectly contented and tell us that they can live very well on the pappaws."

Clearly, me and Clark share a love of speling! As one might remember, in 2006 there was a celebration of the bicentennial of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Every museum in every state that Lewis or Clark ever set foot in had an exhibition and books proliferated.

Leslie Mansfield wrote The Lewis & Clark Cookbook: Historic Recipes from the Corps of Discovery & Jefferson’s America. It is a nice cookbook featuring foods that Lewis & Clark might have encountered on their journey as well as (note the subtitle of the book...) recipes prevalent during the Jeffersonian era. George Washington was supposed to be greatly enamored with iced pawpaw as a dessert. Not to be outdone as a statesman or botanist, Thomas Jefferson cultivated the pawpaw at Monticello.

Even the great naturalist painter, John James Audubon was not spared from the plentiful pawpaw. It makes and appearance below.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo in Pawpaw Tree, John James Audubon

Given all the Lewis & Clark hoopla, Mansfiled's book generated more than one "Lewis & Clark Dinner." This was favorite dessert:

Pawpaw ice Cream

2 cups pawpaw puree, thawed if frozen

2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup milk

1 cup sugar

Place the pawpaw puree in a bowl and set aside. In a heavy saucepan, stir together the cream, milk and sugar. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat. Slowly pour the cream mixture into the pawpaw puree, whisking to blend. Cover with plastic wrap and completely chill in the refrigerator. Pour the cold mixture into an ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Yes, Lewis & Clark did eat more than their share of pawpaws.

No, they did not bring their Cuisinart ice cream maker along with them.

If they had, no doubt, Sacagawea would have had to tote it on her back and make the ice cream.

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CROISSANT PEACH BREAD PUDDING and BUTTER RUM SAUCE

OK, this dessert is SERIOUSLY delicious and definitely not for the calorie shy. It makes a nice big bread pudding and yet it lasted only one evening (thank goodness we had company). It is a creamy, custard-y (but not heavy) bread pudding made with croissants and fresh peaches.  As if that weren't good enough, it is topped with the most delicious butter rum sauce you can imagine.

4  large (day old) croissants
3 large (ripe) peaches, peeled and diced
(1) 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
3 large whole eggs + 3 egg yolks (well beaten)
1¼ cups hot milk
¼ cup butter melted
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk everything together except the croissants and peaches. Once mixed well, stir in the peaches. Tear the croissants into 1" pieces and add them to the mixture (stir ever so gently, just to moisten...be careful you don't turn the croissants into "mush").

Pour the mixture into a greased 8" x 11" baking dish. Bake in a preheated 325 oven for 50 to 60 minutes (my oven took 55 minutes). A knife inserted in the center of the bread pudding will come out clean when the bread pudding is done. Let bead pudding cool for about half hour before serving (or serve it chilled). Top with warm butter rum sauce. Refrigerate any leftovers.

BUTTER RUM SAUCE

½ cup brown sugar
½ cup butter
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 tablespoon rum (I use 1 teaspoon rum extract)

While bread pudding is baking, Mix the brown sugar, butter and corn syrup in a heavy bottomed sauce pan and bring to a boil. Immediately turn heat down so that the sauce just simmers around the edges and simmer for 1 or 2 minutes (mine was done in 1 minute) or until it is just slightly thickened. Remove from heat and mix in the rum (or rum extract). Let the sauce cool a little before you use it.

 

NOTE: As the butter rum sauce cools to room temperature (which takes quite a while), the butter may separate from the sauce. If it does, just heat it up a little and whisk it again (it will go back together).

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A Recipe Request...

...from Amy.

Amy sent us this:

Thanks for featuring this cookbook Lucindaville. I remember it being a fantastic read and a great snapshot of some of the more popular recipes of the past. In there is a very special Christmas Plum pudding recipe. My ex's mum used to make this every Christmas and extra for me to last until July! In the break-up I unfortunately lost my pudding privileges and access to the recipe. There are no words to describe how amazing this pudding is! I think many women in my mum's generation might have experienced the same feeling I get from the first bite of the pudding, when they saw Richard Chamberlain take his clothes off in The Thornbirds way back then. So could I ask *pretty pretty please* for you to share the Plum Pudding recipe from the book? If anyone gets past the astounding number of ingredients required it really is worth all the effort!

We do so hate to lose recipes in a break-up. So here is Colleen's Christmas Pudding recipe.

Christmas Pudding

4 cups raisins
6 cups sultanas
1/2 cup chopped almonds
4 tablespoons chopped orange peel
4 tablespoons chopped lemon peel
1 cup glace cherries, chopped
2 cups brandy
450 g (1 lb) butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
8 large eggs
1 cup apple puree (or apple sauce)
1/2 cup orange juice
6 cups fresh soft bread crumbs
2 cups plain flour
2 tablespoons ground ginger
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons ground allspice
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

Chop the fruit and almonds and orange and lemon peel, dust lightly with a little flour, and put in a basin overnight with the brandy poured over them.

Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs one by one, getting each one well absorbed before breaking in another. The mixture will look very curdled by the time the last egg is added, but this is quite normal for rich dark cakes and puddings, and as the flour is added the curdling disappears.

To the creamed butte/sugar with the eggs beaten in, add the apple puree and beat well, the orange juice and beat well.

To the liquid mixture, add the breadcrumbs a cup at a time, mixing well.

Sift the flour together with the spices, salt and baking powder, then stand the mixture aside in a basin.

To the liquid and breadcrumbs, add 2 cups of the soaked fruit, stirring well.

Add 1/2 cup of the flour, stirring well.

Add 2 more cups of the fruit, then 1/2 cup of the flour, and continue in this way until all the fruit and flour have been incorporated.You may find that this is impossible toward the end to mix with any other implement than your hands, so use your hands.

Make sure that you put into the pudding all the liquid that might have run out of the fruit soaked overnight. You don't want to lose any of the brandy!

Spread the pudding cloth, sprinkle it with flour except for the outer margins, then pile the pudding mixture in its center. Tie it up tightly and well with string.

Place the mixture tied in its cloth in a very large pot of boiling water, put the lid on the pot, and boil the pudding for 8 hours. As the water evaporates, replenish it with more boiling water - never add water which isn't boiling, and never let the pudding go off the boil.

It is best to make the pudding at least two weeks before Christmas, to permit it to mature.

You can add small silver coins to the mixture which is traditional for Christmas, but make certain they are silver coins, and do not use any of the modern Australian five and ten cent pieces which are amalgams of metals other than silver.

The pudding is served with brandy butter and hot custard.

When you make this, Amy, do send us photos. Merry Christmas!

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CRUSTLESS CRANBERRY-WALNUT PIE

 

 

This is a very old (and wonderful) recipe. It is called a pie, although I would say it is a cross between a pie and a cake...(a little more like pie than cake, if that makes sense). It goes together in just a couple of minutes with a bowl and spoon. I serve it while still warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and company gobbles it up....it is the perfect balance of flavors, not too sweet and not too tart. Our son is NOT a cranberry fan, but he loves this dessert.

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon table salt
2 cups fresh cranberries (I use frozen)
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup butter, melted
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract (don't leave out)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

 

Preheat your oven to 350 and spray a 9" pie plate with vegetable spray, set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar and salt. Add the walnuts and gently toss to coat the fruit and nuts (this will keep them from sinking in the batter as it bakes).

Whisk the eggs, melted butter, cinnamon, almond extract and vanilla extract together until smooth. Pour over the dry ingredients and mix with a spoon. NOTE: The batter is almost as thick as cookie dough, so I use my hands to mix gently.

Spread into prepared pie plate and bake at 350 for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. NOTE: I used frozen cranberries (no need to thaw), so it took about 48 minutes to bake in my oven. It slices beautifully like a pie.

 

 

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The Three Chimneys

When you write a cookbook blog, you often find that you are the recipient of cookbooks that your friends bought on a whim. I know this sounds bizarre, but there are some people out there who see no need whatsoever for a thousand cookbooks to peruse. Well their loss is my gain.

Recently, I gained a lovely cookbook from my friend Nanci. Several years ago, she and her husband took a whirlwind trip to Scotland. While they were there, they had dinner at the famous restaurant, The Three Chimneys that was vote one of the world’s top 50 restaurants.

Being dutifully impressed, and filled with vacation largess, they not only ate at The Three Chimneys, but they also bought the book. Recently, without ever having to visit the Isle of Skye myself, I became the inheritor of the cookbook.

Shirley Spear, the cook at The Three Chimneys began her career as a journalist. The job took her to London where she met her husband. As with any journalist living in London, she couldn’t wait to go back to Scotland and open a restaurant. Sure, after being named one of the 50 best restaurants in the world, one might think it was a great idea, but for many years it seemed like a huge catastrophe. But Shirley was determined to make the local ingredients of the Scottish countryside a source of culinary pride.

Shirley succeeded.

Now, along with the gift of this cookbook, I also received the menu from 16 August 2004, the night Nanci dined there. I really wanted to start with the Loch Dunvegan Lobster & Langoustines with Peashoot, New Potato & Quail Egg Salad, Lemon & Olive Oil Vinaigrette but alas, the recipe was not included so I went for dessert.

Whisky and Lemon Syllabub with Skye Strawberries

250 ml fresh double cream

Finley grated rind and juice of 1 large lemon

125 g castor sugar

1/2 a measure or I generous tbsp. of your favorite whiskey

Whisk all the ingredients together until holding just form.

Spoon on top of fresh strawberries.

Eat and enjoy.

Did she really have to tell us to enjoy? Now I feel the need to re-visit Scotland. And eat langoustines and syllabub and…

Thanks, Nanci!

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Caviare to Candy

Mrs. Philip Martineau, sometimes known as Alice, wrote several cookbooks and a gardening tome or two or three. Caviare to Candy features recipes for small households from all parts of the world. This particular “new” edition Mrs. Martineau notes:

“…there are fashions in cookery as in all things and “Caviare to Candy” must be kept up to date. Readers have urged me to give more French dishes while some have said…I should tell them how to make and omelette, and how to prevent Brussels sprouts looking brown instead of green!

So here is good eating to you all, good appetite and a cook good enough to like experimenting.”

Caviare to Candy was updated in1933. Mrs. Martineau suggests Welsh Rarebit as a savory, but interestedly, with all the lovely hard English cheddar, she suggests Kraft cheese.

She laments the poor soul who lives in a small flat and thus, has very little room to hang game.

Since the poor old cook in one’s employ has rarely eaten in the finer restaurants. How Mrs. Martineau asks:

“…can one expect one’s cook to invent such a sauce as current jelly beaten into horseradish cream to eat with saddle of mutton – or to stuff French prunes with chutney as an alternative?”

I am definitely explaining to my cooks that she should add current jelly to the horseradish cream.

I keep coming back to this economical and emergency recipe.

Poached Eggs with Sweet Corn

A dish for an emergency

Make a white sauce of half a tin of sweet corn, butter and a spoon of milk or cream, pepper and salt.

Heap up and pour over the poached eggs, and garnish with tiny strips of fried bacon.

Well, you know most anything is better with fried bacon.

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nobody does it better…

Trish Deseine is a lovely Irish lass. For twenty years she has been an Irish lass living in France. Writing cookbooks. Her book Ma Petite Robe Noire was awarded the Priz La Mazille at Perigueux, one of France’s highest culinary honors, making Deseine the first non-French author to ever win the prize.

In 2007, she put her love of French cooking into an English language book appropriately titled, nobody does it better…Why French home cooking is still the best in the world. Our love of French cooking and cookbooks is well noted and while French home cooking might just be the best in the world, I am convinced the French food photography is clearly the best in the world. Frankly, the food could be absolutely abysmal, but the pictures of the food make it look fabulous.

Deseine is not a trained chef, but learned to cook in the French style the same way most home cooks learned, at the elbow of other women. She watched them cook and more importantly, she watched them shop. She read and experimented and before long, she was the woman with the elbow everyone wanted to stand beside. Of course, her fist inspiration was Elizabeth David…”the only guru you needed or heeded, she was the first foreign cook you wanted to emulate.”

Of course, like most French cookbooks, this one has a battery of recipes that you know and love (and find in every other French cookbook you own), but there are many other new and luscious recipes just waiting to be added to your personal repertoire. Like this joues de porc braisées au cidre.

Pig Cheeks Braised in Cider

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for frying

50 g butter

1 kg pig’s cheeks

4 –5 shallots

750 mi dry cider

200 g button mushrooms

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 160 C/325 F/Gas mark 3

Heat the oil and butter in a heavy-based casserole with a lid. Brown the meat with the shallots for a few minutes, then pour over the cider and scrape the bottom of the pan to deglaze, bring to a boil and cover. Transfer to the oven and cook for 1 hour 30 minutes.

Some 20 minutes before serving fry up the mushrooms in a little olive oil and add them to the casserole.

Serve with fresh ribbon pasta.

Chefs just love to make pig’s cheeks and they make such a fuss about cooking them, like only a big old chef would be able to master such a recipe. And here is a recipe that anyone can make and everyone will want to eat. Oh yes and even the picture is yummy.

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CLASSIC APPLESAUCE CUPCAKES

I have been making these cupcakes for my kids since they were little. They all have teenagers of their own now, so, lets just say the recipe has been in our family a while. It is a simple, one bowl recipe, that produces a moist and flavorful cupcake in short order.

NOTE: Baking times for using this recipe in a 9" x 13" pan, a 9" square pan, or (2) 8" or 9" layers and cupcakes are at the bottom of this post.

2½ cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1½ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1½ teaspoons salt
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon allspice
1½ cups applesauce
½ cup water (I use apple juice)
½ cup shortening (I use butter flavored)
2 eggs
1 cup raisins (I use golden)
½ cup chopped walnuts

Beat all ingredients (except raisins and nuts) in a large bowl with an electric mixer (on low) for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl. Then beat on high for 3 minutes. Stir in raisins and nuts and pour into greased and floured pans. It is just that quick and easy!!

NOTE: If you want to make half of this recipe (my mother used to call them "snack cakes"), just cut the recipe in half and bake it in a 9" square pan.

BAKING TIMES
9" x 13" pan = bake for 60 to 65 minutes
(2) 8" or 9" layers  = bake for 50 to 55 minutes
9" x 9" snack cake = 50 to 55 minutes
cupcakes = 20 minutes  (makes 3 dozen)

A toothpick, inserted in baked cake should come out clean when the cakes are done.

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The How-Not-to-Miss-the-Cocktail-Hour-Cookbook

Just as the Swinging Sixties were rolling to an end, Edward Lowman was gathering all of his entertaining expertise into a single volume -- The How-Not-to-Miss-the-Cocktail-Hour-Cookbook. Lord knows we have no intention of missing the cocktail hour, so this little cookbook is simply a must-have. We are told from the start:

"The joy of cooking for friends is in spending time with them. Time away from guests is precious. The secret of cooking-cum-conviviality is now told by an inveterate entertainer with gourmet tastes."

The recipes and menus in this volume promise no more than 20 minutes in the kitchen and away from the cocktails. In fact each recipe has its own TAG time. (That would be the Time Awayfrom Guests.)

Surprisingly, Edward Lowman, who happens to be a medical doctor, is a huge fan of MSG. He just loves to throw it in everything and swears that there is no proof that MSG in any way affects those hypochondriacs who complain of headaches and other ailments. I already have a headache.

Lowman has a very good list of shortcuts at the beginning of his book and a list of things not to do. Lowman says:

"There are many good prepared food products that measure up well in the art of gourmet shortcuts, but there are others that will dismally betray your trust and expose you with an inferior result. These latter are what I dub "N.O.O.C.D." which translated means, "Not of our class, darling!""

On his "Yes-Yes" list he includes items such as prepared pie crusts, packaged breadcrumbs, frozen cleaned uncooked shrimp, curry powder, and bakery bread. No-Nos include canned shrimp, instant coffee, pre-cooked rice and cornbread mix! (I am totally creeped out just typing "cornbread mix."

Alas, many of his soups begin with canned soup, and of course, I feel that most probably, canned soup should end up on the "no-no" list. Here is the very first recipe. The TAG time is a mere 1 minute. Just the time it takes to drag it out of the refrigerator. This recipe sounds positively dreadful and yet, there is something about it that makes it sound that it just might work, you be the judge.

Quick Pâté Maison

2 6-ounce packages liverwurst
1 3-ounce package cream cheese
2-tablespoon butter, melted
1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon MSG
1 1/2 tablespoon sherry
1/4-teaspoon salt
1/2-teaspoon curry powder
1/3-cup mayonnaise
Pinch nutmeg

Have liverwurst and cheese at room temperature (easier to mix). Combine all ingredients and mash and cream well together, using a fork; do not use and electric blender. Chill well.

Frankly, if you stuffed this into tiny little ramekins and served it with some toast points, it might just be a winner.

The best news - you will only miss 1 minute of cocktails.

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Dinner With Tennessee Williams

Let's just get this right of the way -- I am not fond of cookbooks that take a famous person of event and then just throws together recipes claiming to be a cookbook. So I was quite skeptical about Dinner With Tennessee Williams. Drinks with Tennessee Williams might have been another story...

Thomas Lanier Williams by Alfred Eisenstaedt

Still, if you were going to do a Tennessee Williams cookbook, this one was done in the right way. First, there was rhyme to their reason. Every year New Orleans has a Tennessee Williams Literary Festival. This cookbook grew out of a love of Tennessee William's New Orleans. Chef Greg Picolo had cooked for the Literary Festival on occasion. Troy Gilbert had written a cookbook or two. Throw in Dr. Kenneth Holditch, a noted Williams scholar, and you have a fine cookbook, one even Tennessee Williams would have been proud of.



I lived in New Orleans for a year. I gained forty pounds! Seriously, I GAINED forty pounds. Even the crappiest food in New Orleans is about ten times better than the BEST food in most places. Southerners love to sit around an talk and eat. And talk and eat and tell you about what they ate and how their grandma cooked it and how that differed from the way Mama cooked it and how they cook it and what restaurant has a good approximation. New Orleans is one of those cities where people can talk poetically and passionately about food and spend their entire life having never set foot in a kitchen!



Gilbert and Picolo do a great job of translating Dr. Holditch's scholarship about the food in the plays of Tennessee Williams into actual food on a plate. Here is a pork chop fit to serve the overbearing and "big" Big Daddy from Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. Note they are not just pork chops but double-cut pork chops cooked in Coca-cola, bourbon and molasses the real "holy trinity" of Southern cooking.

Big Daddy's Braised Double-Cut Pork Chops With Coca-Cola, Bourbon, Molasses, and Granny Smith Apples



6 double-cut pork chops

Salt and pepper

2 cups flour, seasoned

1/2 cup olive oil

1 large onion, sliced

2 cups bourbon

4 cups Coca-Cola

2 cups apple juice

1 tablespoon minced garlic

3 tablespoons lite soy sauce

2 tablespoons Steen's Molasses

2 teaspoons Tabasco or Crystal Hot Sauce

2 cups demi-glace

2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme

1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

1 cup beef stock, if needed

5 Granny Smith apples, cored, quartered

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Season chops with salt and pepper and then dust in seasoned flour. Sear chops in hot oil in an ovenproof pan until light brown, about 2 minutes on each side and remove to a plate. Carefully pour off excess oil, then add onion and saute 2 minutes. Return chops to pan and deglaze with the bourbon, allowing the pot liquor to reduce by two-thirds.

Add Coca-Cola, apple juice, garlic, soy sauce, molasses, Tabasco, demi-glace, thyme, rosemary, and salt and pepper. While cooking, take a brush and baste the chops every 5 minutes or so. Braise in an oven, uncovered, at 450 degrees F for 8 minutes. If needed, add stock or water if the pot-liquor reduces too quickly. Reduce heat and cook at 350 - 400 degrees F for 20 minutes; turn the chops. Cook for an additional 20 minutes then turn again. Add apples and cook an additional 20--40 minutes, until the meat is almost falling off the bone. Serve .

Another reason to feature this cookbook is to take a look back at some of the fine actresses that have given life to the complex women of Tennessee Williams' imagination.

Judith Ivey

The Glass Menagerie





Calista Flockhart and Julie Harris

The Glass Menagerie





Cate Blanchett

A Streetcar Named Desire





Olympia Dukakis

The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore





Cherry Jones

Night Of The Iguana





Elizabeth Ashley

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof





Natasha Richardson and Amy Ryan

A Streetcar Named Desire

Frankly, this is the "short list" ...we could go on and on... Check out more actresses at Lucindaville.

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PIZZA PUFFS

In these rocky financial times, I've been trying to save on the grocery budget by staying away from pre-prepared foods. Not only has it saved us some money, but we really enjoy knowing what ingredients are going into our favorite (junk) comfort foods.

PEPPERONI PIZZA PUFFS

PIZZA PUFFS

3/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup whole milk
¼ teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 1 cup)
4 ounces pepperoni, cut into small cubes (about 1 cup)

1 cup favorite pizza sauce for dipping  (warmed up)
Preheat the oven to 375°. Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder; whisk in the milk and egg. Stir in the mozzarella and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes.



Stir the batter and divide among the mini-muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, microwave your favorite pizza sauce until warmed through. Serve the puffs with the pizza sauce for dipping.

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