2 tbsp dried minced onion 2 tbsp paprika 1 tsp celery seed
1 tbsp chili powder
4 cups bread crumbs
½ tsp dried mustard
½ cup olive oil
fresh ground pepper
Crush the minced onion and celery seed in a mortar and pestle. Put the bread crumbs into a large bowl and stir in the oil, mixing thoroughly.
Add the crushed onion, celery seed, and the remaining ingredients and blend well. The coating can be stored in the refrigerator.
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Bacon is easier to cut if it is frozen or only slightly thawed. I store it in the freezer, since it keeps longer that way. When I need a slice or two, I cut perpendicular to the way the slices run. Thus, I cut an amount of small pieces equivalent to the number of slices that I need. This also eliminates the need to crumble the bacon later.
bean with bacon soup serves 8
1 ½ cups pea beans
3 large onions, chopped
4 slices bacon
½ tsp sugar
¼ tsp dried sage
2 quarts of water
½ tsp dried thyme
1 tsp Tabasco sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
fresh ground pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced 3 tbsp vinegar Soak the beans overnight or use the quick method ( see the hickory baked beans recipe). Sauté the bacon in a heavy iron skillet until crisp. Remove the bacon, drain on a paper towel; discard the drippings. Crush the sage and thyme in a mortar and pestle. Add oil to frying pan and sauté the garlic, onions, sugar, sage and thyme until the onions are brown. Be careful not to burn them, but the darker they are, the better the flavor will be.
The sugar helps to brown them. Place beans into a large Dutch oven and add the browned onions and water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 1½ hours. Turn off the heat, crumble the bacon and add it, along with the Tabasco sauce, ground pepper and vinegar. Stir well. Serve with croutons made from dark bread, using the crouton recipe but substituting dark bread.
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menu for day ten
bean with bacon soup
tasty baked chicken
baked potatoes
Italian bread
tossed salad
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~~~ day eleven ~~~
I’ve always wanted an easy recipe for minestrone soup, but it seems all the recipes are so complicated. Here is a recipe that you’ll find enjoyable and easy to make. You can use any combination of beans that you have around, such as pinto, green or yellow split peas, lentils, black, pink, Great Northern, navy, or baby lima. Just don’t use jelly
beans.
turkey minestrone soup
serves 8
2 tbsp green split peas
1 turkey drumstick
2 tbsp yellow split peas
1 cup dry red wine
2 tbsp lentils
4 carrots, sliced
2 tbsp navy beans
½ tsp dried thyme
2 tbsp pinto beans
pinch of sugar
2 tbsp black beans
28-oz can tomatoes
2 tbsp Great Northern beans ½ tsp dried oregano 2 tbsp pearl barley
1 tsp dried basil
2 cloves garlic, minced
fresh ground pepper
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup water
2 stalks celery, chopped
Soak beans overnight. Drain and place into a soup pot along with all the other ingredients. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer until the turkey is tender, about 2 hours. Remove turkey and let it cool. Separate the meat from the bone, gristle and tendons. Chop the turkey meat and add back to the minestrone. Serve with any kind of crusty bread.
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One of the dishes that I recall from childhood was hamburgers with onions and tomatoes. It sounds like a simple dish, which it is, and it’s also delicious and quite easy to make.
stewed hamburgers
serves 6
3 lbs lean ground beef
1 tbsp olive oil
1 egg, beaten
3 large onions, sliced
1 cup bread crumbs
1 28-oz can tomatoes
1 tsp dried basil
pinch of sugar
In a large bowl, mix the ground beef with egg, bread crumbs and basil. Heat oil in a heavy iron skillet over moderate heat. Form hamburger mixture into patties and brown on both sides.
Remove to a Dutch oven. Repeat until all the hamburgers are browned. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for one hour. Serve the hamburgers on hard rolls dipped in the sauce and covered with the onions.
menu for day eleven
turkey minestrone soup
stewed hamburgers
corn on the cob
tossed salad
hard rolls
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~~~ day twelve ~~~
You can’t beat an Easter ham from the Broadway Market in Buffalo. The only other one that comes close is a Virginia baked ham. You may wonder what to do with a ham, other than baking it and making ham sandwiches. Actually, numerous dishes use ham in one way or another. I will include a few throughout this book. One soup you can make with ham or a leftover ham bone is yellow split pea.
It’s easy and delicious.
yellow split pea soup
serves 8
2 cups yellow split peas ½ cup chopped rutabaga 1 smoked ham hock
2 quarts of water
1 carrot, finely chopped fresh ground pepper 1 small onion, chopped 2 slices of ham, chopped Place the split peas into a large pot with the ham hock (or ham bone,) carrot, onion, rutabaga, and water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 2 hours. Remove the ham hock and let it cool. If there is any meat on it, cut it up and add to the soup.
Add the ground pepper and ham and simmer for another ½ hour. Serve.
The next recipe calls for soy sauce and mayo. You can use any brand you like, but my preference is Kikkoman Lite soy sauce and Hellmann’s mayonnaise. Kikkoman seems to have a more distinctive flavor. It costs a little bit more than the others, but I think it’s worth it. As far as 35
mayonnaise goes, Hellmann’s makes a Light and a cholesterol-free variety in addition to the regular.
tuna macaroni salad
serves 8
1 lb elbow macaroni
fresh ground pepper
6 oz can tuna in water
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 cucumber, chopped
½ cup mayonnaise
1 small onion, chopped
Cook macaroni according to the package directions. Drain and cool. Drain the tuna. Place the macaroni into a large bowl; add tuna and the remaining ingredients. Mix and, if necessary, add more mayo. Refrigerate. Serve with basil tomatoes.
basil tomatoes
serves 4
4 large tomatoes, sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp dried basil
Place the tomatoes in a glass dish. Sprinkle with basil and olive oil. Toss gently and marinate for two hours in a cool place. Do not put in the refrigerator, as the tomatoes will lose their flavor.
Serve.
When I first began to cook, I used powdered ginger. Now I always use gingerroot, which I grate myself. If you use the root instead of the powder, you will need a hand grater. The one I use I’ve had for years and it has served me well. I also suggest keeping gingerroot in the freezer. It lasts longer and more important, it’s easier to grate when frozen.
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Chinese cauliflower
serves 6
1 head cauliflower
¼ cup orange juice
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 green pepper, thinly sliced ½ cup water 1 tbsp grated gingerroot
1 tbsp cornstarch
Trim the cauliflower and place into a medium saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil.
Lower the heat and simmer for ten minutes.
Remove from the stove and drain. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add green pepper and ginger and sauté for 3 minutes.
Add orange juice and soy sauce and cook for 1
more minute. In a small bowl, mix the water and cornstarch, dissolving the cornstarch. Add to the green pepper mixture, stirring. Raise the heat and cook until sauce thickens. Place the cauliflower on a serving plate, pour the sauce over it and serve.
menu for day twelve
yellow split pea soup
tuna macaroni salad
basil tomatoes
Chinese cauliflower
French bread
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~~~ day thirteen ~~~
In Binghamton, I lived on the second floor, above my landlord. You may have seen those little bottles of root beer extract on shelves in the grocery store. I doubt that you could find them today, but at the time, I bought one and in the spring of 1971, I started to make my own root beer in a gallon jug.
All you have to add is water, sugar and yeast to the extract and let it brew for a few weeks. This I did according to the package directions, but I noticed that not much seemed to be happening. I added some more yeast.
A day or two later, I went out to play softball. When I returned, the back door to my place was wide open and the floor was much cleaner than when I had departed. My root beer had exploded and the liquid somehow dripped downstairs into the landlord’s apartment. He probably heard the explosion too. I had to do some explaining as well as cleaning up. I noticed some tiny fragments of glass, not much larger than grains of sand. It must have been some explosion. My landlord probably thought the house was being attacked.
The lesson from that episode is simple: follow directions. You can improvise for certain situations but not for others. The root beer directions also said to keep the jug on its side and capped with a cork, if possible. Had I done that, the cork would have shot out and there would have been some liquid on the floor, but certainly no explosion.
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chicken shadow soup
serves 8
3 quarts of water
2 stalks of celery, sliced
1 bay leaf
2 large onions, chopped
¼ tsp dried sage
1 package chicken soup
¼ tsp dried thyme
mix
4 carrots, sliced
fresh ground pepper
Put the water, bay leaf, sage, thyme, carrots, celery, and onions into a large soup pot and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until vegetables are soft, about fifteen minutes. Add the soup mix and simmer for ten minutes more.
Season with ground pepper and serve with egg noodles.
Dried beans are reasonably cheap and loaded with protein and numerous vitamins. They are also said to be a fine way to lower your cholesterol. You can make the next recipe with great northern, pinto, pink or black beans. Smoked sausage adds a zestful flavor.
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Cajun beans and rice
serves 4
1 ½ cups pinto beans
2 tbsp paprika
2 cups water
8 oz tomato sauce
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 green pepper, chopped ½ tsp Tabasco sauce 1 large onion, chopped
1 tbsp chili powder
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
¼ lb smoked
1 celery stalk, minced
sausage, sliced
Soak the beans overnight. Drain. Place in a large Dutch oven, add the water and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 1 hour. Add remaining ingredients, except for the sausage, and simmer until the beans are tender, about 1 hour.
You may need to add more water as the beans cook.
Add the sausage and simmer for fifteen minutes more. Serve over boiled rice.
Boiled rice can be made quickly and is loaded with carbohydrates. Just remember to use twice the amount of water as of rice.
boiled rice
serves 6
2 cups long grain rice
4 cups water
Place the rice and water in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for twenty minutes or until all the water is absorbed.
You can stir occasionally. Serve.
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menu for day thirteen
chicken shadow soup
egg noodles
Cajun beans
tossed salad
steamed rice
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~~~ day fourteen ~~~
During my third year in the Triple Cities of Endicott, Binghamton and Johnson City, I shared an apartment with two college students. I cooked some of the time but John and Tom did some of their own cooking. I mentioned that I was never a big macaroni and cheese dinner aficionado. One day, John made himself some, but it turned out watery.
Apparently, he hadn’t drained the macaroni before adding the cheese sauce. He didn’t follow directions on the box.
On another occasion, I made beef stew for everyone and John cooked some lima beans – not one of my favorites but healthy nonetheless. A day or two later, John warmed up the stew together with the lima beans. I didn’t have any.
At that time, a store on the outskirts of town sold horsemeat. Thom and Linda, good friends of mine who lived in nearby Pennsylvania, would fix it for me but not tell me that sometimes the meat could be found at the racetrack. I enjoyed whatever they fixed and couldn’t tell the difference between cow and horsemeat, even though I felt it could have been the latter.
One day, I made some hamburgers from horsemeat. I believe the recipe was the one for stewed hamburgers in this chapter. John liked it and finished it up, since I couldn’t eat it. Somehow, all I could think of was Mr. Ed.
A quick meal for any occasion is fish. You can cook certain types of fish on the grill outside, such as salmon, swordfish, halibut, tuna, monkfish 42
and mahi-mahi. Baking and poaching is easy, too, and quick. Any kind of fish will do, as long as it is fresh. Today, even fish in the supermarket is quite fresh. You can use haddock, cod, pollock or scrod for the following recipe.
baked fish
serves 4
nonstick vegetable spray
¼ tsp garlic powder
2 lbs haddock
½ tsp dill weed
1 tbsp lemon juice
¼ cup rye bread crumbs
Spray a baking pan with the nonstick spray. Place the fish into the pan and sprinkle with lemon juice, garlic powder and dill weed. Cover with bread crumbs and bake at 375° for 15 minutes. Serve with rice pilaf and a dry white wine.
During my teens, my mother used to fix a soup made from cabbage and potatoes. It seemed like a simple soup but was very flavorful. My version of the soup is a little different, but still tasty.
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potato sprout soup
serves 4
1½ lb brussels sprouts
½ lb smoked Polish
2 cups chicken broth sausage 3 large potatoes
fresh ground pepper
Clean the brussels sprouts and trim. Place sprouts in a medium saucepan and cover with broth. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and cook for 10 minutes.
Remove brussels sprouts from the broth. In a blender, coarsely chop sprouts. Cut potatoes into ½-
inch cubes and put into saucepan with the broth.
Bring to a boil, lower heat and cook for ten minutes.
Add brussels sprouts and sausage and simmer for ten more minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
Season with ground pepper and serve.
chicken broth
makes 2 quarts
2 cups of water
2 tbsp parsley
½ tsp salt
1 celery stalk
1 bay leaf
chicken necks, wing tips and backs Put all ingredients into a soup pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for two hours. Remove chicken wing tips and celery stalk and discard.
Remove chicken backs and necks, separate any meat from the bone, and save for another use.
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menu for day fourteen
potato sprout soup
baked fish
rice pilaf
tossed salad
dry white wine
The following conversation took place at a restaurant following dinner between my sister Pat and her daughter Elizabeth, who was then three years young:
Pat: That was very good. Elizabeth, are you full?
Elizabeth: No, I’m empty.
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3. Westchester: where the bread is
I left the Triple Cities to head across the Hudson River. My new home was to be Wappingers Falls, noted for nothing much until an event a few years ago, which I won’t get into. It had nothing to do with cooking. Within a short time, I found myself moving into my first house in the grand old county of Westchester.
Appropriately enough, it was here that I really started to make bread. I don’t think that you’ll have to think about that one too much. But seriously, this was where I developed my ability for the art of making bread. I don’t precisely recall in which town I tried my first recipe for bread. I do remember that it was Cuban bread from The James
Beard Cookbook and it was a big flop. The result would have made an excellent paperweight or boat anchor, so I threw it out.
The good thing about this disaster was that I didn’t completely give up. It may have taken some time, but nonetheless at some point I tried to bake bread once again. The result was much better and eventually each new attempt proved to be an improvement over the last one. Not only did I like the bread, but my guests commented on how good it was. I knew I had done something right. I really believe that anyone can make bread. It is not that difficult. It takes a few hours from start to finish, but your effort is minimal, from fifteen to twenty minutes in all. The secret for baking bread includes three key points:
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1. patience
2. the yeast mixture
3. the kneading process.
As far as patience goes, most yeast dough breads need to rise twice for approximately one hour each. The actual baking will take close to another hour, so the whole process will take about three hours. I made some onion bread recently. I mixed the dough together, put it into a warm oven, and went out for an hour walk. When I returned, the dough was ready for its second rise. You don’t have to take a walk between risings, but you can do something else, such as leaving the house. That way, the three-hour time frame will not even matter.
The aroma wafting through your home while the bread is baking will also inspire you to do it again.
This brings up the idea of patience on another plane.
If your first attempt does not turn out exactly as you would like, don’t give up. Try again and again.
Your perseverance will pay off.
The second important point is the yeast mixture. This applies to yeast breads as well as to quick breads, as you will see in the next paragraph.
I will concentrate on yeast breads for now. Any bread that you try will be a failure without yeast.
Burning the yeast has the same effect as no yeast and your effort will be worthless. It is critical NEVER TO BURN THE YEAST. You can avoid burning by using almost lukewarm water or liquid to proof the yeast. Proofing means dissolving in water or milk with a pinch of sugar. Also, remember to cool down any mixture into which you 48
add the yeast mixture. An ice cube or two should do the trick.
For quick breads, the process is similar but easier. You need to have an active catalyst, baking powder in most cases. If the baking powder is old, the bread may not rise. See to it that the ingredient has not expired. If no rising takes place, the result will be a rock rather than bread. That’s why my first bread attempt failed.
As far as the type of yeast to use, I used the solid cake yeast in my first few bread attempts. I have not used it since, but rather I use the package yeast, which is easier to find on supermarket shelves. One is as good as the other. Generally speaking, wheat and rye breads will require 2
packages of yeast. You can probably get away with one for bread that uses only white flour.
The last point has to do with kneading the bread. Kneading means taking the bread dough into your hands and working it so that the ingredients are blended together. Most recipes call for five to ten minutes of kneading. I usually knead bread for one or two minutes. The reason I use less time is because, by the time I put the dough on the board to knead, the ingredients are well blended. That’s because I use a huge mixing bowl. It is made of earthenware, seven inches high and thirteen inches wide at the top. I’ve had it for over thirty years and it cuts down on kneading time. I use a long wooden spoon for mixing to assist in the process. If you can find a bowl like this one, I’d recommend it for use not only in bread baking but also whenever you are 49
mixing something in a large quantity. It can even double as a punch bowl.
Here are some other points about baking bread. I usually warm the oven to about 90° to let the dough rise. It is not essential, but using the oven means drafts are eliminated and I’ve been doing it this way for years with great success. Sugar is necessary to interact with the yeast. It is not necessary to proof the yeast with the sugar, but if you get into the habit of doing it this way, you’ll never forget the sugar in a recipe. The amount of flour to use brings up a good point: I never measure the flour in any bread recipe. If a recipe calls for wheat, rye and white flour, I add some rye flour, some wheat flour and then the amount of white flour depends on when the dough is the way I like it. It’s a matter of judgment. You’ll get the idea.
When pouring the dough onto the surface for kneading, if you try to scrape the dough from the wooden spoon it will stick to your fingers. Instead use a jerky shoving motion to get the dough off the spoon. As far as determining when bread is finished baking, tap the loaves with your fingers. A hollow sound indicates the bread is done. Above all, have patience in your bread baking endeavors. Good luck!
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~~~ day fifteen ~~~
Bread is always best right out of the oven.
Even a day or two later it is still better than any bread you can buy. The darker breads tend to keep their flavor longer than the white breads. If you ever have coffee left over from a meal, put it into a plastic container in the freezer. You can use it in this recipe for brown bread.
Russian brown bread
makes 2 loaves
2 packages dry yeast
2 tbsp caraway seed