Great News!

My mom has agreed to post on this blog. You have no idea how lucky you are, dear readers. I am a lightweight in the kitchen compared to her. She is the best cook I have ever known. So put a napkin in your collar and prepare to be amazed.

Her name is Pat. In addition to cooking, she is a writer, poet and theatre director.

Welcome, Ma!

Crock pot spaghetti sauce

This is the second great recipe for the crock pot. Easy enough for a weeknight. Makes enough for a spaghetti dinner one night and baked ravioli the next.

Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 medium onion, diced
2 Tbs Olive oil
1 large can of diced tomatoes
1 large can of whole tomatoes
1 medium can of tomato sauce
1 small can of tomato paste
1/2 tsp. allspice. Yes, you read right. This is the secret ingredient for a great tomato sauce.
1 tsp oregano
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb. Italian pork sausage, sweet or hot.

In a small saute pan, saute onion and garlic in the olive oil until just translucent. Put in the crock pot with the rest of the ingredients. Stir. Set on high for at least 6 hours, or until the sausage is fully cooked.

I love this over regular linguine... but you can also use the leftovers for a quick baked casserole. I like to pour some sauce in the bottom of an oval baking dish, layer it with a single layer of frozen ravioli, more sauce, more ravioli, and end with sauce, the chopped sausages and some shredded mozzarella cheese on top. This goes in a moderate (350 degree) oven for about an hour until the ravioli is tender and fully cooked. (This really works, LOL. You don't even have to defrost the ravioli!)

Another options is to cook a pound of ziti to al dente. Saute some zucchini or other veggies. Mix the ziti, sauce and veggies in a 9" X 13" stoneware baking pan and top with grated mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Bake until the cheese is melted, about 20-25 minutes, at 350. Serves a ton of people.

Pulled Pork

Pork seems to be a theme of this blog. Maybe I ought to rename it 'The Pig Pen', lol.

This recipe uses a tool with which I have a love/hate relationship: The crock pot. I have ruined many a fine pieces of stew meat in this device. Beef comes out dry and stringy. Chicken? Fuggetaboudit. In my kitchen, the crock pot makes two dishes exceptionally well: Spaghetti sauce with sausage, and my fabulous pulled pork.

Here's the recipe:

1 picnic pork shoulder, fresh. Skin and all visible surface fat removed. (You can also make this with a boneless shoulder.)

2 cups Kansas City barbecue sauce

Kansas City barbecue sauce: (Adapted from a recipe in Saveur Magazine. This is, without a doubt, the best barbecue sauce I have EVER had.)

In a large bowl, add together
1 cup ketchup
1/3 cup dark molasses
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground mace (I usually use nutmeg)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 cup white vinegar (or cider vinegar)
1/2 tsp hot sauce, such as Tabasco or Franks

Mix it all together.

To make pulled pork, place the shoulder in a crock pot. Cover with the barbecue sauce. Cook on medium or high until the pork pulls apart easily with a fork. (8 to 10 hours)

When the pork is done, cool slightly and pull the flesh apart with a pair of forks. I like to serve this on toasted garlic buns with some cole slaw on the side. Or serve it on a plate with mashed potatoes.

This makes a boatload of barbecue. Bring it to the church pot luck and impress your friends.

Marguerites

Speaking of Ritz Crackers, Here is another recipe from the Sacred Heart cookbook. This time it is a dessert.

I had these cookies for the first time when my friend Annette brought them to church. They are simple to make, and just weird enough to be delicious.

Thanks to Pauline from Sacred Heart for sharing your recipe.

1/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
2 Tbs. milk
3/4 tsp. maple flavored extract
Walnut halves
Ritz Crackers

For frosting: Cream butter; gradually add sugar and alternate with milk. Add the maple flavoring. Yields about a cup of frosting. Spread onto crackers and top with half a walnut.

French Meat Pie

This recipe is adapted from the Sacred Heart Church cookbook I bought at the French Farmer's Market in Woonsocket, RI a few weeks ago. My brother said it was the best meat pie he ever had. I have to concur.

Crust for a two crust pie (I cheated this time and used the Pillsbury refrigerated crusts.)
3 Tbs. butter
1 medium onion, diced fine
2 lbs. lean ground pork. (I ground my own in the food processor, but you can buy it ready ground.)
salt and pepper
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
10 to 12 Ritz crackers, crushed fine
2 tsp. Bell's poultry seasoning (or more, to taste)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a small sauce pan, cover potatoes with water and bring to a simmer. Cook until tender. In a large 10 to 12 inch skillet, saute the onion in butter until translucent. Add the pork and some salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until no pink remains.

Drain the water from the potatoes and add them to the pork. Mash with a potato masher until the potatoes are well incorporated into the meat mixture. Add cracker crumbs and seasoning. Taste and adjust spices as necessary. Use meat to fill a pie crust. Add the top crust and pierce to vent the steam. This is a huge pie, so be sure to use a big enough pie plate. (I used the Pampered Chef deep dish pie plate.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

The traditional Woonsocket way to serve this is doused in ketchup, but it is so delicious on its own that I can't bring myself to do it. Also, another traditional spice for this dish is ground cloves. You might try a tiny pinch and see if you like it.

Bon appetit, mes amis. Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Linguica, kale and white bean soup

6 cups of chicken broth (I sometimes make homemade)
1 lb linguica, casings removed and chopped coarse (Or, if you prefer it spicy, you can substitute chourico.)
1 bunch of kale, washed, stems removed and chopped coarse
1 onion, diced
1 can of white beans (great northern work well)
1 Tb. olive oil

In a large stock pot, fry onion in olive oil until translucent. Add linguica and saute until cooked through, about 4 or 5 minutes. Add chicken broth, kale and beans. Simmer until kale is cooked, about 15 minutes.

Serve with crusty bread.

Don't even get me started on toasters!

I have no idea where my obsession with vintage appliances began. It is possibly the time I stayed home from school for several weeks when I was around 9. I had a sore throat that wouldn't quit and spent my time watching old movies on channel 56 all day. I became obsessed with shoulder pads. Later, as a teen, I spent a lot of time in St. Paul's thrift shop where I even found a 1940s woman's suit, once, the jacket of which I wore for years.

During "big trash" week in Newport, I would scour the huge piles for old stuff. Once, I brought home a perfect, working, 1920s vacuum cleaner. It had a huge aluminum head and a big black bag that you had to empty. I loved that vacuum.

So, toasters.

In my first apartment I had an old broil king that I used to toast stuff. Then, in my second one, I got a toaster at the Earthen Vessel thrift shop that I finally had to throw away because a mouse got electrocuted in it. Ick.

At one point I made the transition to toaster ovens.... starting with a great one from Black and Decker that lasted 10 years, but ending up with pieces of crap that would practically break on start up. They were horribly designed. One after another, I desparately tried to find one that worked. Even the Black and Deckers had gone to the dark side.

Then, one day, I was in Ocean State Job Lot and found a reconditioned Cuisinart toaster. I brought it home and plugged it in, wondering if I could live without the tiny broiler on my counter. It lasted a few months bofore it died. Then I bought a brand new one from Linens and Things, which has lasted a couple of years.

Is it any wonder I love the vintage ones?

About a year ago I became obsessed with the Sunbeam Radiant Control toaster. I scoured ebay looking for just the right one. Finally, I made a bid on a t-35 and won. 2 weeks later, a completely trashed toaster arrived on my doorstep. It was smashed on one side, didn't work, the bakelite base was broken. Of course the seller blamed the post office. I was out $20 bucks, but worse, crushed! LOL.

My friend Kelly from the mixer forum said he had a spare Sunbeam Toaster and offered to send it to me. Days later, it arrived.... all shiny and beautiful. He had packed it within and inch of it's life. When we placed a piece of toast in the slot, it lowered automatically, clicked on the element and toasted that baby beautifully. Then, gently, raised the toast when it was finished. It was "Automatic Beyond Belief". The toaster is proudly displayed with my Sunbeam percolator.

Here are a couple of links I found from my mixer forum: (Thanks to Jon, my major enabler!)

The Toaster Museum

Sunbeam Radiant Control Toasters

Toaster Central

Toast anyone?

Simple French Vanilla Ice Cream

I didn't have all the ingredients that were called for in the ice cream recipe I had... so I started to just throw stuff together and it turned out to be a delicious and simple ice cream recipe.

Here's the recipe:

3 cups light cream
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Put all the ingredients in a sauce pan, over medium heat. Stir constantly as the mixture warms up. Do not allow it to boil, or the eggs will curdle. Just as the liquid begins to steam, lower the heat. Keep stirring until the mixture thickens slightly and can coat the back of a wooden spoon.
Take the custard off the heat and allow it to cool completely. I poured it into a 1 quart mason jar and refridgerated it.... then threw it in the freezer to speed up the cooling process. It took about an hour to get good and cold. Place the custard in an ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's directions.

Mine came out perfectly custardy, vanilla-ish and amazingly creamy. After I took it out of the ice cream machine, I froze it in a plastic tub for another 45 minutes or so to make it more solid. It was simply incredible!

Next time I am going to try adding fruit... berries or peaches, perhaps. Summer is here!

Grilled Vietnamese Pork Chops

6 pork chops, bone in.

Marinade:

1/4 cup salad oil
2 T Vietnamese fish sauce (or to taste.)
1 T sugar
Fresh ground pepper
4 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped
1/2 cup sliced green onion, tops only.

Marinate the pork chops in a plastic bag filled with the marinade ingredients. Grill over hot coals until charbroiled.

Serve with hot jasmine rice and salad.

Salad dressing:

1/4 cup salad oil
1/8 cup white vinegar
2 cloves garlic, skinned and crushed
plenty of black ground pepper.

We just use romain or green leaf lettuce for this dish. Nothing else in the salad.

On the table we have soy sauce and shark brand hot sauce.

Is it safe?

Sandy, of the aforementioned 'We Actually Collect Electric Mixers' club asked me to post pics of my cake safe. Because of the teak handle, I am pretty sure it would fall into the Danish Modern catagory. Although that might be a huge assumption on my part. Kind of like people on ebay calling everything "Eames" trying to capture people in the search engine. (Did the Eames actually make kitchen gadgets, table cloths, toasters and purses? You should see the stuff attributed to them on ebay!)

I bought this cake safe at the resale store down the street from me. They have a lovely, but small, selection of kitchen stuff. It is on the third level, which is a sort of catwalk that overlooks the big second floor filled with furniture. There are deals to be had. I found a great, cream colored cassarole dish with cover for $12. The cake safe was on sale for $15. Occasionally you will find a vintage toastmaster or electric skillet. Even a cuisinart, once, with a bunch of attachments.

In the days following my foray into English mixers, I have been trying to account for the irresistable pull that vintage kitchen stuff has for me. I don't think it is nostalgia, exactly. My mother, though she is a superb cook, was not too into gadgets, especially vintage ones. She had a brief romance with a GE food processor in the late 70s, but mostly her cooking involved a big Glenwood C wood stove in the dining room of our farm. Yes, we had an electric stove, but for years, literally, the element in the oven was burned out, so we made do with wood in the winter and cooked on the grill or stovetop for summer.

My granny didn't have vintage appliances much, either. There was a toaster oven at the place in Canada. And a hot plate for when it was too hot to cook on the wood stove in her oven. At some point her daughter convinced her to install an electric stove and the woodstove was pulled out. But there was no mixer, no blender, no electric gadgets save for the tea kettle and Farberware percolator.

My dad certainly isn't into this stuff. He is a man who collects bits of nature. In particular, animal skulls that he finds on his daily walks into the woods. He has hundreds of them, classified and lined up on shelves. Periodically he culls his collection, giving away duplicate specimen to anyone he thinks might be interested. The other day, my children got a box, posted from Newfoundland, of teeth. Horse molars, beaver incisors, moose. Packaged in a box with a label for customs: Toys.

So where does this romance come from? I try to keep from collecting much of anything. I have the demon of aquisitiveness which I hold at bay by avoiding 'collections'. (Meaning three of anything!) I have a tarot deck collection which I am planning to dismantle. And a tarot book collection that I am trying to decide what to do with.

And now kitchen stuff. Both from the local junk store, and from Pampered Chef.

I wonder where it comes from?

My new love....

At first I was attracted by his boyish good looks. But when I actually got him home, I discovered that he has all the muscle I knead. (LOL)

He's my new to me Kenwood Chef A700, circa 1950. This is an English mixer, very rare on this side of the pond. Even rarer is the fact that this one was designed for export, so it actually uses 110 electricity. And he is in mint condition. 300 watts of power. Swoon.

So, why does a perfectly sane girl need three mixers? It isn't that I'll use them all at the same time, right?

Well, the story is this: I bought the Hamilton Beach model K at a Salvation Army last fall. It is a lovely, chrome mixer from the 1940s. It is in mint condition. And it is very limited in it's usefulness because it has a pair of beaters that are stuck together as a single unit, which makes them awful to clean. Plus, the old girl doesn't have the ball bearings to get through something like a stiff cookie dough, never mind bread.

So, I convinced my husband to get me a refurbished Kitchenaid Artisan for my birthday. And I was in mixer love: Sir Mix-A-Lot is extremely powerful, has a great paddle that is easy to clean, a huge bowl and the ever-necessary 'planetary action' that means the stuff in the bowl gets thoroughly mixed.

My husband thought I was crazy to want to keep the Hamilton Beach at this point, but I liked her Chromy-ness and put her on top of my cabinet, where she reflects the kitchen light.

So where does the Kenwood come in? Well, I belong, believe it or not, to a vintage mixer club on the internet. We Actually Collect Electric Mixers is a great group, full of knowledgeable and friendly people. People who will act like crack pushers when it comes to mixers. Want a little taste? Here, it's free. And soon you are hooked. HOOOKED.

I swore it was just curiosity when I logged on to ebay that day. I am NOT interested in any mixers. I will never need another mixer.

And then, there was the Kenwood. Pristine. US voltage. Can still get a potato peeler and pea huller attachments. And so. Darn. Gorgeous.

I posted to the group, begging them to talk me down. One friend half heartedly agreed to bid on the Kenwood, but by then, it was already too late. Another friend from England sent me a private email RAVING about the Kenwoods. She has 3 of the vintage ones. Ahem. (Crack, I tell you.)

So I bid. I chose a reasonable amount of money. $32.24 was my bid. I posted it at the last minute. (Yes, sniped, I am sorry to say.) And won.

And waited. I had chosen parcel post, as it was less expensive. But the seller was exceptional and posted it the next morning and within a week he was sitting on my counter next to Sir Mix-A-Lot.

I don't need another mixer. In fact, my english friend, even at this moment, is scouring ebay.uk for a beater and dough hook for it, as it only came with the whip. But in the mean time I'll make meringue and whip some cream and dream of the day I can bake 3 loaves of bread at once, with both mixers whirring away on the counter.....

grilled pizza

Yeah, you can do it the hard way, with a charcoal grill and real dough. Or you can do it the easy, cheap-ass, weeknight dinner for the kids, way.

I bought a pair of prebaked packaged thin pizza crusts. I doused them in garlic, olive oil and italian spices. I slapped them on a hot gas grill and slightly charred the top, then flipped 'em, doused the other side and covered it with red onion, black olive, fresh grated parmesan and mozarella. I turned off the heat directly below and closed the lid just long enough to melt the cheese.

That's all folks. Not a crumb left.

Why heat up the house when the weather is warm? Go outside and play!

Salad

My friend Peter thinks I make the best salads. And frankly, I have to agree.

Here's my no fail recipe:

romain lettuce, torn into pieces
kalamata olives
big chunks of feta cheese
capers (that is the secret ingredient... around these parts, I buy my capers in big jars at our local Job Lot. For those of you elsewhere, try Cosco.)
And Newman's Own olive oil and red wine vinegar dressing.

That is my every day salad. If I want to get fancy, I might add jarred artichoke hearts, red onion or some raddiccio. If I am making my own dressing, it is a lemon juice, olive oil, salt and garlic combination that I learned from my french former step-uncle.

I like wooden salad bowls. The best one I have is from a church yard sale. It is a single piece of maple that is beautifully carved. By now it is completely impregnated with oil, so it is sticky on the outside. But it is a dark, warm color, and it miraculously holds just the right amount of salad, no matter how many people are eating it. (It is like my loaves and fishes salad bowl)

I'll post a picture later.

Welcome to my new blog!

This one is all about kitchen stuff. I am a kitchen gadget fanatic, and love little odds and ends. Plus, I sell Pampered Chef kitchen tools for a job, so I am always interested in tools that make cooking simpler. I am going to invite my friend Emily to post on the Tool Crib too!

To start, I should disclose that I own 3 mixers:

A KitchenAid Artisan named Sir Mix-A-Lot
A Hamilton Beach Model K named Harriet (circa 1940s)
And I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my brand new (to me) 1940s Kenwood Chef.

I am not an addict. I can stop anytime.

Now go away. I am cruising Ebay...