Category: Recipes

Potter's Cookbook Exacting Yet Flexible

8/31/2018

A WRITER'S WIT
I did not want my tombstone to read, “She kept a really clean house.” I think I'd like them to remember me by saying, “She opened government to everyone.”
Ann Richards
Born August 31, 1933

A. Richards

My Book World

Potter, Margaret Yardley. At Home on the
Range. With a foreword by Elizabeth
Gilbert and introduction by the author.
San Francisco: McSweeney’s, 2012.

This book was originally published by Potter in 1947 and may be the second cookbook I’ve ever read from cover-to-cover (the other, Mildred O. Knopf’s Memoirs of a Cook). Often, I’ll casually peruse the contents, checking out the ingredients of a particular recipe, to see if I might like to prepare it. But At Home on the Range is no ordinary cookbook. The author seems to create a story with each recipe. Even its presentation on the page defies modern conventions where one lists the ingredients above and directions below. No, Potter’s entire recipe is frequently a delightful but informative narrative, giving one the most minute detail about how to prepare it. Here is a notable example:

CHICKEN CACCIATORE is made for six with 2 three-pound frying chickens cut up, dusted with flour, salt and pepper, and browned in ½ cup of olive oil. Fish out the chicken, put the pieces in a casserole, and add to the oil a chopped garlic clove, 1 cup of chopped onions, and an optional pinch of sweet basil and rosemary. When the onions are soft, pour in 1 can of tomatoes and 2 tablespoons of tomato paste. Let this simmer for 15 minutes. Pour over the chickens, cover tightly, and cook in a 350° oven for 45 minutes. Serve it with buttered boiled spaghetti, and pass the grated Romano or Parmesan cheese (51).

I’ve prepared perhaps a half a dozen different recipes for chicken cacciatore (my late Italian uncle informed me cacciatore means “of the hunter,” intimating a certain flexibility of contents), but I find this one fascinating. First, Potter uses different phraseology, “dusted with flour,” instead of perhaps the more common “dredged;” she specifies “fish out the chicken,” instead of “remove the chicken”; “pass the Romano or Parmesan cheese” instead of “sprinkle with,” subtly indicating that cheese is an option. “Buttered boiled spaghetti,” however, sounds a bit redundant to today’s ear. Second, Potter departs from most cacciatore recipes by preparing the sauce separately and then pouring it over the chicken; most directions require one to add all ingredients following the browning of the chicken (usually with garlic and onion). And finally, her recipe is baked in the oven instead of simmering in a skillet or Dutch oven.

Overall, Potter’s directions are exacting yet flexible, her opinions strong, so much so that I shall have to try this one, too, just to see how it tastes—not to mention the other two dozen recipes I’ve marked with Post-It arrows! McSweeney’s has recreated the original end papers and added engaging chapter fonts, as well as pert little illustrations, giving the book its historical and artistic due. If you love to cook AND read, you'll love this book.

NEXT TIME: My Journey of States-21 Mississippi

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A Mother's Recipe

5/14/2017

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A WRITER'S WIT
With what price we pay for the glory of motherhood.
Isadora Duncan

I. Duncan

Pfeffernüsse

Pfeffernüsse are tiny spice cookies popular in the Netherlands and other northern European countries.

Ingredients:
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 Tablespoon cardamom(n)
1 teaspoon anise seeds
½ cup candied pineapple
2½ Tablespoons grated orange and lemon peel (from 2 oranges and 1 lemon)

Directions:
Sift and mix all dry above ingredients together.

Then mix in a separate bowl:
2 Tablespoons butter
5 egg yolks (beat egg whites separately)
Cream butter and yolks and add
2 cups sugar
¼ cup molasses
Stir until smooth.

Add flour mixture and fold in well-beaten egg whites. Refrigerate dough for at least an hour, maybe longer. With floured hands shape dough into small balls and place on a greased cookie sheet. Let stand uncovered for 12 hours at room temperature. Bake cookies at 350 for 15 minutes. Let cool. Glaze with confectioner’s sugar blended with milk. Instead, if desired, toss in sifted confectioner’s sugar.

“Makes about 83. First used successfully 1960. This is my own—using from 2 other recipes." -Norma Richards Jespers

Because Mother's heritage was partly German and because my father was Dutch she felt compelled to make Pfeffernüsse at Christmas time. No one ever asked her to stop.

Norma Richards Jespers and Son, 1982

NEXT TIME: New Yorker Fiction 2017

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Book-TV Update

3/24/2017

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A WRITER'S WIT
Everything has two sides—the outside that is ridiculous, and the inside that is solemn.
Olive Schreiner
Born March 24, 1855

O. Schreiner

My Book World

Each weekend I try to view selected portions of C-SPAN’s Book-TV, forty-eight straight hours of recorded author readings of nonfiction now hitting the shelves, and sometimes six- or eight-hour segments covering book festivals around the US. C-SPAN, by the way, is supported by most cable and satellite TV providers, so check your listings. You can also view at any time any reading at Book-TV’s Web site. And if you do wish to tune in, you can view, download, and print a copy of the weekend’s schedule off the Web site. Please find below a presentation that recently piqued my interest.

Adrian Miller. The President’s Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, from the Washingtons to the Obamas. Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2017.

I found Mr. Miller’s reading, held at New York’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, not only entertaining but quite edifying. His book scours history to locate the African-American men and women who cook for the nation’s first families and tells of their struggles. He includes anecdotes about presidents without much of a palate to tantalizing recipes that have survived. He describes one concoction, which sounds fascinating, in which one empties out a jar of pickles, mixes a packet of Kool-Aid with the remaining juice, repacks the jar with pickles, and lets the concoction cool in the fridge for two weeks. Mm, yum! The sweet-tart nature of that description creates a curiosity I can’t pass up (this book is on my Wish List). Perhaps you’ll find it tempting, as well, and tune in to Adrian Miller's presentation. I hope you'll be moved to buy a copy of his book.

NEXT TIME: New Yorker Fiction 2017

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Grog for the Game

1/31/2014

A WRITER'S WIT
I think we Southerners have talked a fair amount of malarkey about the mystique of being Southern.
Reynolds Price
Born February 1, 1933

DK's Grog

For the last two Christmases a kind friend has left on our doorstep an icy milky potion that leaves the body relaxed, the mind supple, clear. But because it is a family formula, our kind friend will not release the recipe. And I respect that. Sort of.

So what does one do but head for the Internet, the god of all knowledge, and Google (the Internet's favored son) "drinks with milk and bourbon." One can determine that much. There one finds several of the recipes lacking, not quite like the friend’s mixture, so one tinkers with them a bit and the following is what one comes up with:

2 oz. of Jack Daniels

1 or 2 oz. of Amaretto (or some other tasty liqueur)

3 oz. of Half and Half (some recipes indicate whole milk, ye gods)

1-2 tsp. of powdered sugar (to taste; I happen to have TWO sweet tooths . . . teeth)

Nutmeg

Caloric Intake: at least 5,000

This is one of those concoctions that MUST be shaken with ice until homogeneous, never stirred or mixed. Save the nutmeg until you have poured the drink into a tumbler and sprinkle a tiny bit across the top. The pleasing arrangement, rather like tea leaves, will forecast which team is going to win the Super Bowl. If you do it right you won't care. Otherwise, the dots of nutmeg may spell out your future, if you’ll win that case in court, whether the boss you hate will choke on his or her sandwich and die all alone in his or her chair. It’s powerful stuff, so be careful with the knowledge you attain.

Finally, you must be sitting down. The effects of this drink—mesmerizing, enlightening, need I say intoxicating—may last up to an hour or two. Consume a second at great risk.

The world has a long history of gathering in an arena to watch men smash each other up. It's the reason why high schools still teach Beowulf. Even today we must have dragons to slay, and as we look on, we must have grog . . . gobs of mighty grog!

TUESDAY: MY BOOK WORLD

New Yorker Fiction 2014

1/9/2014

A WRITER'S WIT
Prejudice, which sees what it pleases, cannot see what is plain.
Aubrey de Vere
Born January 10, 1814

Overpopulation?

Because of last week's 2013 presentation, I chose not to profile the January 6 story until today. From now on I will consider one story per week, presented a few days before the cover date, so that readers might locate a copy and read the story if their interests are so piqued. RJ

Grant Cornett

January 6, 2014, Antonya Nelson, “First Husband”: This outing provides a short, or long, few wee hours in the morning, when a middle-aged woman is called upon by her youngest stepdaughter, her favorite, to sit with her three children, while she hunts down her alcoholic husband. ¶ This story seems to have too many characters for the modern reader to keep track of (you expect to do so while reading a novel): an ex-husband, three stepchildren and their spouses, their offspring, in this case two squalling girls and one dutiful boy, whom Lovey, the step grandmother loves more than the others. In their ongoing game of Monotony (Caleb’s renaming of Monopoly), Lovey keeps allowing him to win, even if he is the banker. It may be emblematic of Lovey’s relationship with all of her relatives, all her spouses and lovers: she’s the ultimate "loser," putting everyone’s happiness above her own. ¶ Nelson’s natural milieu seems to be this nexus of modern relationships, who somehow rule each others' lives in a stranglehold of angry love. She understands this tangle (though I hate so many names to keep track of for no apparent reason than to show how many people are in this family) and distills it for us with loving insight. Caleb’s last words of the story, when he discovers that Lovey has been hiding the money she was winning at Monopoly:

“‘Lovey,’ he said, ‘what happened to your money?’ ¶ ‘What do you mean?’ ¶ His face was suddenly furious, his rage as rare as his laughter, and this time aimed at her. ¶ ‘Don’t let me win,’ he demanded. ‘Don’t you dare let me win!’” (61).

Nelson had three stories published in the magazine in 2012 and none in 2013. She gets 2014 off to a rousing start! Just not so many characters, please! The magazine states that Nelson “will publish Funny Once, her seventh short-story collection, next spring.” Watch for it.
Grant Cornett, Photographer

Quiet Revolution

January 13, 2014, Dinaw Mengestu, “The Paper Revolution”: Two young men enter a university in Kampala, Uganda, in the 1970s, and quietly go about starting or involving themselves in a “revolution.” ¶ The “boys,” Isaac and “Professor Langston,” the narrator, wish to become noticed on campus and devise ways to do so on “paper.” The narrator, at least, has been inspired by a historical writers’ conference that had taken place about a decade earlier. As a result, they “publish” pamphlets (handwritten) with clever sayings, but they don’t have much bearing on the current politics, nor are the two young men influenced much by such politics; they simply wish to forge a future for themselves in their new Africa. Mengestu’s novel All Our Names will be out in 2014.
[The magazine gives no credit for the story’s illustration.]

TUESDAY: MY BOOK WORLD

Potter's Cookbook Exacting Yet Flexible

My Book World

A Mother's Recipe

Pfeffernüsse

Book-TV Update

My Book World

Grog for the Game

DK's Grog

New Yorker Fiction 2014

Overpopulation?

Quiet Revolution

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