Monthly Archives: April 2010

When my parents married, my mother knew how to cook absolutely nothing, as that is what her mother, not a stellar cook herself, had taught her.

Her mother-in-law stepped in and taught her Dad’s favorite foods, all German. Rouladen, kugelhopf, schnitzel and white asparagus with mayonnaise. I’m the eldest child of four so knew that grandmother for a few months after I was born.

After that, Mom was on her own, cooking-wise. Dad stepped in Sunday mornings to make pancakes and bacon, a family tradition. Mom did the traditional Campbell’s soup recipes until a friend sent her a subscription to Gourmet. Just as Betty Friedan lit a fire in women (including my mother), Gourmet lit a fire under her. The light bulb was on and it was not in an Easy Bake Oven. She cooked and went to college and graduated the same year I did. I made Deans’ List 5 out of 8 semesters. She was Summa Cum Laude.

But as a kid she put out three meals a day and dinner was always protein, starch, veg and handmade dessert. All done in a dress and heels with pouffed hair.

Rouladen was never one of my favorites. I always found the meat tough, being wrapped around a couple of carrots with no gravy to speak of. I’ve never made it in all my life. I did like her simple beef stew. Her first cheese souffle was a milestone in too many ways to speak of. It was my first souffle, elegant and tasty.

Mom’s roast chicken with simple bread stuffing was very tasty and I make it that way today. She went through many incarnations of the Thanksgiving turkey dinner, improving every time. She was the turkey and gravy lady and we did sides and desserts.

But where she broke the mold was getting away from turkey for Christmas and moving to prime rib with Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings. I’ve yet to cook a prime rib roast and at my age that’s a shame but once a year, it was always terrific. I won’t order it in a restaurant and haven’t had it at all for many years, well before she died.

As for desserts there are two that stand out above all others. Her cheesecake was made with cottage cheese, not cream cheese, and was delicious. Everyone who tried to make it failed, and she never left out a technique or ingredient. I’ve never tried it because I don’t make desserts. Letting kids turn Margaret Fox’s lemon ice cream in a hand-cranked apparatus and topping it with berries is as complicated as I get these days.

Her Viennese chocolate pecan torte was a masterpiece that she had to make five times a year for all birthdays. My sisters are the dessert experts and have made it before. I never have, don’t even have the recipe. It was a dense pecan cake with a light chocolate layer within and on the sides, then a silky dark chocolate swirl on top. Nothing has topped this cake in my memory for all my life.

There were many more dishes that are memorable, these are but a few I can recall at the moment. What are your earliest food memories? Think about it. The smell of Snickerdoodle cookies in the oven… Cheers, Dee

After two days of snow, it has now melted, except the “black snow” churned up by the incredible snow moving equipment. The largest mound of that is down to about 5′ by now.

On Friday throughout the snow, we were visited by a pair of cranes, a pair of geese and a rare pair of glossy ibis, who only stayed the day before moving on. They were all in view at the same time, a real treat to see.

Saturday morning we took a drive and ended up at a small town drugstore that’s supposed to have the best burger in state! It’s the best I’ve had so far. Got myself a summer cowboy hat with beads on it, quite striking and it’ll keep me out of the sun, which is quite strong here because of lack of atmosphere at higher elevations.

En route home we stopped at an open house nearby. Sure, it would be nice to have four bedrooms, two living rooms, a wine cellar and Wolf range overlooking a reservoir and signature golf course. And prices for these “designer cabins” (their term not mine) are probably less than 1/2 of original asking prices but not for us right now.

We heard music as we returned home so took the dog on a walk and ended up sitting in a couple of Adirondack chairs outdoors listing to a couple of bands for the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Then a brand new neighbor came over for a drink and stayed for dinner in front of the fireplace.

Sunday we went into town for lunch then enjoyed a quiet afternoon reading before I made a simple supper and we sat down to watch a movie. Today the sun is out and it’ll be in the upper 60′s before it cools off again with rain on Wednesday and more snow Thursday.

At lunch we were talking about atmospheres in different locations. I wore an embellished suede jacket to breakfast at Nate & Al’s in Beverly Hills last year and got glares. Who knows what to wear in NYC these days. In cities in Italy, good leather (coat, shoes, bag) are a necessity with perhaps a Ferragamo scarf.

But out west if you want to want to go out to a middle-of-the-road restaurant (not Ruth’s Chris) you can wear a cowboy hat and boots, plaid shirt, even a bolo tie and fit right in. The realtor at the open house came out ostensibly to meet the dog, who spent the day happily riding in the back of our SUV on her orthopedic bed, but was really trying to see what kind of car we were driving so he could figure out whether we could afford the house. He couldn’t tell by what we were wearing!

Now, Robert Redford would look good in anything, but imagine him being tossed out of a restaurant for wearing his rugged and sensible clothing. The guy who is clean but is wearing the kind of clothing that could have been worn mending fences an hour ago may be a multi-millionaire (of course he’s driving a beat up old Ford pick-up, to boot).

Here one pretends to be a Democrat but couldn’t have bought that $8 million second home without being a Republican for a few decades. Everyone is eco-friendly, it’s almost a competition. I may have a 6,500 sf home but have bamboo floors…. One restaurant serves drinks with paper straws, now I wouldn’t serve a straw at all and save both the paper straw and the paper that covers the paper straw and the box that holds the paper straws, because said straws disintegrate before you can get to the bottom of a Diet Coke glass!

That’s all for now. Just wanted to say that between snows it’s getting to be a pretty fantastic Spring. Cheers, Dee

I have two postcards, one from Dubai and one from Athens. Yes, that means Dad and Jane are traveling again. And they deserve it. Dad’s got a big birthday coming up next year.

In his Athens postcard he referenced our last time there together, two days before 9/11 which we experienced in Florence with neighbors pounding on the door and shouting CNN, CNN.

In the somber days that followed Dad’s big birthday on a tribute to Odysseus’ journey I had to wait to come home and two weeks later I met my husband. Open heart, open mind.

Thank you, Dad and Jane. I always thought I was outside the box. Turns out you’re more trendy than me and will always be. I don’t think we’ll try to emulate your cool-ness, only cherish it. And Dad, when you wanted to hold my hand walking down the street when I was 8, sorry. I appreciate it now. But thanks for the Ho Jo’s fried clams. Thanks readers and contributors! Dee

Your roots. No, don’t look at your hair. Who you come from and where you come from are important.

Use these taste memories to create new dishes to make grandma’s dish into today’s hit for friends and family. At age 8 I wrote a paper about Chicago and its meat markets and quoted Carl Sandburg. I think Mrs. Tibbetts gave me an A+ on that one because I glued on photos of Chicago and made a big presentation and only wish I had it now.

Though she’s gone now, my mother, by encouraging me to go the distance, even if it was to make up for my flaws, I remember certain things from my childhood that enhanced my education.

Yes, she got me the easy bake oven which was a bust. Imagine cooking brownies under a light bulb. But imagination was there. And we had access to a great outdoors with berries and snakes and everything a girl needs.

Freedom is a word kids don’t know these days, as they don’t get to go down 150 feet to the creek and catch crayfish as I did. Our parents weren’t afraid that we would cross the street because it was so far away it didn’t matter.

My days up on the hill are probably the best times of my life, picking strawberries and blueberries and sitting with Mom and my sister eating cherries from our friend’s farm stand.

Mom taught me manners, elegance, wit, and a desire to plumb the depths of cooking. I’ve taken her Chicken Saltimbocca two steps up but know who taught it to me in the first place. I miss her. Dee

To think that nearly 27,000 people would like to read my recipes, ideas and stories is something I couldn’t dream of, or believe. My husband started this for me so I would have a way to write and share recipes. I ended up writing stories about food and other issues.

I made friends and learned a lot about cooking, writing, blogging, our people working for us overseas, knitting, music and other things. I wrote about the loss of Tim Russert, a fellow Bills fan and met one of my favorite bloggers by talking wings and beef on ‘weck.

It has been an interesting time. A sad time as my mother may have enjoyed the blog but was too sick to do so and died shortly after it was created.

I don’t expect or desire millions of hits as this is not a full-time job for me and I haven’t made one cent on this blog. It’s a niche blog and I appreciate my readers and those who submit comments.

The basic pantry, cookbook shelf were my stand-apart items that no-one ever plumbed. It’s such a treasure trove that I spent a lot of time accumulating for you. Now my own library and pantry have been in storage half a country away and my advice is useful for all! Teachers always told me to stick to the basics and that I did.

The basics are never sexy, until you have the pantry items and cookbooks I recommend and make them into something useful. Think of a violin and a drum. Then think of a symphony. Add the strings, reeds, horns et al and you’ve got a terrific meal.

Thanks for participating in this symphony. The notes are sweet, except for you on clarinet. Oh, you make the signature seviche? You’re forgiven. Play on. Best wishes to all readers and contributors, Cheers, Dee

Two weeks ago this place was covered with snow. Now we have many ducks, a few geese, and cranes. As of yesterday we hear crickets and frogs. It is interesting not only to watch nature, but to hear it. This time last year, I was probably bombarded by it or didn’t notice it at all because everything was so new. Now I revel in the new-ness of everything.

Winter is so silent, not only is there no wildlife, one does not ever see neighbors. Now everything is coming to life and we went from silence to a cacophony of sounds. I know the sounds of a crane, goose, duck, frog, redwing blackbird, and that road-runner type that just started shrieking at us this morning for going down the trailhead.

There’s something to be said for learning something new every day. I always look forward to it, whether it be a new recipe, fact, or reading a new book.

On car trips I get lessons from my husband and I know he’s a learned man, perhaps genius. Sometimes an esoteric question comes up and I just know the answer. It could be anything from religious dogma to lyrics to a Broadway show or German palaces. And I don’t know that I know it, I just know it. Strange, but with a genius as a husband I have to try to keep up!

I’ve never been a birder, have been afraid of birds because I don’t know them but love them now and love learning their songs. The robins here are bigger than any I’ve ever seen, and the ground hasn’t thawed enough to bring the worms out but they’re patiently waiting and will probably grow even larger with the rainy season.

Thanks for sticking with me – your participation is valued. Cheers, Dee