Weekly Cooking (and related issues) Thread

The first cookbook that I ever bought with my own earned-money was a copy of the Culinary Arts Institute's 'Encyclopedic Cookbook'. I had a newspaper route throughout Junior High and High School and - money always burning a hole in my pocket then, exactly as now - I knew every month what I would buy with my little profits; and I had seen and coveted this book at the local drugstore.

The odd thing is that I was not particularly interested in cooking at the time; but I was - and had always been - intensely interested in BOOKS. And this was definitely a BOOK! It was the size of our family Funk & Wagnall, with the same kind of finger-tabs giving quick access to general topics; and had pictures of wonderful 1960's-type dishes on every page (the word "Encyclopedic" would get me every time, and probably still does ;-)

I remember walking home from the store with it, thinking that I had acquired a real treasure; I think I felt that it was a valuable 'reference', and I was building a Library. But for a long time, all I did was LOOK at it.

A few years later, when I actually became interested in the nuts-and-bolts of cooking, I was especially impressed with the section on cruciferous vegetables. Except for my Grandmother's plain boiled cabbage, and the very occasional head of cauliflower (sitting on the dinner table like an anemic brain-in-a-bowl with a douse of pallid cheese sauce) I didn't know much about these veggies. I had never seen a Brussels Sprout, and didn't know what a 'Broccoli' was.

I opened this book recently for the first time in ages - it's very yellowed, the spine splitting from the covers; and as I handled it the spine split even more. But I saw the first recipe I ever cooked from it, which was a Broccoli Souffle. (I had written notes in pen, indicating that in my considered Tyro opinion, the recipe really needed the addition of onion.)

Time went on, and I acquired more cookbooks, along with a great love affair with Broccoli, Cauliflower, and sometimes Cabbage.

One recipe that I found during my first forays into cooking has become a staple, and a nice improvement on plain boiled cabbage; it came from a book on Shaker recipes:

Heat butter in skillet. Add cabbage, salt and garlic, and stir well. Cover tightly and steam 10 minutes, or until tender (a little water may be added, but if you cook slowly, the cabbage will wilt and give up its own water.) Add caraway seeds, sugar (if used) and vinegar. Stir in Sour Cream, and serve immediately. ________________________________________________________

A Broccoli recipe that I've made at least once or twice a month for over thirty years, involves steaming broccoli until it's just shy of tender, and then layering it in a casserole with a white cream sauce (seasoned with a little bit of garlic powder, salt and pepper), diced onions, and grated Cheddar cheese. Put more grated Cheddar on the very top, sprinkle with Paprika, and bake at 350 degrees in the oven until everything is bubbly and the cheese on top has melted and slightly scorched. Here is a recipe for a basic, medium-thick White Sauce, or 'Roux':

My husband and I found a recipe for Cauliflower which is probably quite familiar to anyone who has switched to a low-carb way of eating for weight-loss or health reasons - sometimes it's called 'Loaded Cauliflower', to summon the idea of a loaded baked potato. But the recipe is wonderful as a side dish, whether one is dieting or not. I usually make this with cream cheese and bacon in the mashed cauliflower, and grated Cheddar on top. Here is a typical recipe:

I don't fuss with those type of veggies, just cook and eat them plain except there are lots of good ways to use broccoli and cabbage but have to avoid them for now as I've had a problem with gas and bloating.

I have my mom's old BH&G as well as my 1960's one when I got married. I was going to use some apples in the fridge and have a new way I want to try to make pie crust.

But I thought of how I used to make apple crisp so searched the web. Found one with some oatmeal which is healthy but not how I used to do it so googled apple betty and found the old BH&G recipe for it. Except I don't use orange juice, the top is crusty with brown sugar, cinnamon, little nutmeg, butter, flour, yummy. Need to get to peeling apples which I hate.

I'm always out of sync. My latest adventure is making hummus. Made some roasted red pepper hummus with peppers I roasted and peeled myself. It was delicious. When I ran out of store-bought pita bread, I made my own pocket bread which turned out about twice as much as the recipe. It was good the first day and with hummus, but the olive oil I used in my iron skillet accumulated with burnt flour and think it affected the bread. Will try my newer skillet if I try it again.

Next up is using my eggplant. Was going to make some eggplant hummus but wanted to fry up a batch which I love, have a huge eggplant, don't know if I have enough for both.

When I'm freed from remembering ingredients and procedures, I can move right along with my cooking, but a simple (so I thought) job of roasting peppers and making the hummus in a food processor turned out to take longer and was a messy ordeal. Well worth it.

I don't have any greek olives but think I might make some green olive hummus although mine have the pimientos in them, shouldn't matter that much, will rinse well as I salt is an indulgence I shouldn't do often.

I'm out of pita bread so will have to wait until I can get to the store.

Happy cooking. I made some killer ham and potato casserole with a rich and creamy white sauce with gruyere cheese melted in it. I still cook a lot like I did when the kids were home but I can freeze or take four even five days to eat stuff reheated, don't mind at all.

And I'm working on my special hamburger mix I found on the web. I am hoping to make hamburgers (smashburgers) at home that taste better. My daughter went to the store to ask for my custom blend, 2 parts 80% ground chuck, 1 part ground sirloin, 1 part beef brisket. The butcher wouldn't sell her any brisket except 20# so she came home with 1-1/4 pkgs of just chuck and sirloin, not mixed. I can find plenty of uses for that though, already made spaghetti and meatballs and froze some for Italian meatball sandwiches.

Next project is finding these:

to make this:

Chef John, Food Wishes blog. Walmart carries those tomatoes but not sure if mine does, also my store may order 6 cans for me, very expensive from Amazon so will only do that as a last resort. Just a whim; my sauce is usually fine with crushed tomatoes, sauce, paste, sometimes diced or plain canned cut up and drained & garlic & spices.

Sorry if I ran on too long. Still haven't used my frozen raspberries from last year. They will be fine. Am drinking some old frozen juice. Off brand grape, tastes good.

Am hoarding my 3 remaining bottles of Welch's Farmer's Choice blackberry juice, so delicious and I don't generally like blackberries as well as raspberries.

That sounds delicious---reminded me of this Betty Crocker recipe.
Lazy way to make stuffed cabbage. Outstanding flavor---when you lift
the casserole lid---the cabbage is all steamy and unctuous from the soup
that is now a sauce. Adding hot crusty bread dripping w/ butter is a must.

CEDRIC'S CASSEROLE

METHOD Sweat chp med onion, 3 tbl butter almost tender. Add
1/2 lb ex/lean hamburger, s/p; stir well. Heat through but do not brown.

ASSEMBLY Layer in greased casserole 3 c coarse-shredded cabbage,
onions/meat, then 3 c cabbage. Pour over can undiluted tomato rice soup.
Bake covered 350 deg an hour.

Can add side of hot cooked rice....
Even better just w/ hot crusty French bread and butter.

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