Author: binner216@comcast.net

Mama D’s Harvest of Love

Basil in the yardDIGITAL CAMERAFall is harvest time everywhere and here at Mama D’s Kitchen of Love we have our own mini harvest festival. I am harvesting from what can be loosely called a kitchen container garden. It’s some herbs and the amazing colossal tomato plant.

If you follow my Facebook page Mama D’s Kitchen you know that I have a Grape Tomato plant that was over 6 feet tall at maturity. The plant continues to produce fruit and if the frost holds off, we may be eating homegrown tomatoes at Thanksgiving. I also have Basil which I’ve written about twice (but I don’t play favorites). It had a rough go midsummer. But some love and a small dose of Miracle Grow gave it a new lease on life.

So, back to the harvest. I checked on the tomato plant yesterday and  there was another pint of tomatoes ready to pick. I already had almost 2 pints in the house. When the plant gives you tomatoes, make sauce! I decided to try a roasted tomato sauce. I thought the sweetness of the Grape Tomatoes would work well.DIGITAL CAMERA So I tossed them with garlic, onions, oregano, basil, and olive oil.DIGITAL CAMERA They spent a little over an hour in the oven and once cooled , were blended until fairly smooth. It was so beautiful that I had to make something with it.DIGITAL CAMERA                        Enter some Italian Sausage and Cavatapi and there was dinner.

Basil is a delicate plant. It likes lots of sun and a good amount of water and it’s not too crazy about cold nights. It also has a number of insects that like to call it home, most damaging being the Japanese Beetle. I was feeling like the basil may be on borrowed time so a batch of Pesto was in order.  I make Roasted Garlic Pesto ( see What Is It About Garlic? posts). Aside from roasting the garlic it’s a pretty traditional cast of characters. DIGITAL CAMERA All are pictured here except for the pine nuts which were toasting in the oven when the photo was taken. Once the pesto is prepared it can be frozen for several months. DIGITAL CAMERA I divide it out in 1/4 cup portions, put it in zip top bags and freeze it. When I’m ready to use it, I thaw the bag and cut a corner off the bottom. I can then squeeze the pesto out into whatever I’m preparing. Everything comes out and my hands stay clean. A little pesto goes a long way so the amount in each bag is just about right. It’s just the right amount to toss in a sauce or soup, add to scrambled eggs, or grilled vegetables. And there isn’t a law that says you can’t use more than one bag in a recipe. Best of all it’s a little taste of summer in your freezer.

What’s next on the harvest agenda? There’s at least one more batch of pesto, and the Oregano, Rosemary, and Thyme are still going strong. As for the tomato plant, who knows. As long as it is producing fruit, I’ll keep finding ways to use it. Does anyone have a recipe for Tomato Cranberry Sauce?

 

 

More Memories from a Kitchen of Love

Scan_Pic0004Like many children of the 50’s I spent more time with my stay at home Mom than my Dad. My Dad owned his own business and until his heart made him slow down, put in 10 hour days.  He was home on the weekends and we seemed to cram all our family time into those 2 days.

Saturdays were a flurry of dance classes, grocery shopping, and in the afternoon Dad and Daughter Date Time. When I was small Kiddieland was my favorite destination. I’d ride the ponies, go on all the rides ending on the Little Dipper with my Dad. A chocolate/ vanilla frozen custard was the culmination of the day. As I got older, miniature golf became the new favorite. Whatever we did, the time I spent with my father was very special.Scan_Pic0003

Sunday morning was church for me and Mom and golf for my Dad. He had a regular 6:00AM tee time which got him home about the same time we got back from church. At least once a month he would make his “gravy” (the all purpose tomato sauce that is the backbone of every Italian family’s cooking) and meatballs. His recipes were simple, but they used quality ingredients the most important of which was love.

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He let me help in the kitchen before my mother did. I would use the special chopper that minced the onions, garlic, and parsley on a wooden cutting board. These went into a large pot with a good amount of olive oil. Tomato puree and paste were added along with some water and dried herbs. Sometimes he added pork neck bones and his homemade Italian sausage (more on that later). No matter what else was in the pot, he always added his meatballs.

He would blend beef, veal, and pork with bread that he soaked in water,  the onion, garlic, parsley  mixture that was also in the gravy. Eggs and Romano cheese were about the only other ingredients. He’d mix it by hand and roll it into golf ball size portions.  I would help him roll the meatballs because he said my hands were just the right size. We’d wind up with several platters of meatballs that he would brown in a cast iron skillet filled with olive oil (I still have the skillet.) The meatballs would  go into the gravy and simmer away for what seemed like half the afternoon. Periodically he would let me dip a piece of bread into the gravy to see if it was ready. Finally it would be “done” and we’d have it for supper over pasta adorned with whatever meat was in the pot. It’s still the best gravy I’ve ever had.

My Dad’s sausage had no peer. He used a meat grinder that bolted onto the table. He started with pork butt that he ground twice. Then he added salt, pepper, fennel seeds and red pepper flakes. My Dad didn’t have a fancy sausage stuffer attachment. He used a wide mouth funnel that he slid the hog casings on and then pushed the meat through with his thumbs. I had a very special job in this process. I used a large safety-pin and poked air holes in the sausage as it snaked out of the funnel. I occasionally poked my dad’s fingers which would result in a good-natured scolding.

The sausage was wonderful in the gravy especially after simmering for an hour or two, but I liked it best when it was grilled or fried and put on an Italian roll. The sausage was topped with my mom’s fried Melrose peppers. The simple purity of the sausage ingredients lets each one stand out. The crunch of the bread and the almost creaminess of the peppers and oil were a perfect complement. It was and is a sandwich for the gods and I like it , too.

The time I spent with my Dad in and out of the kitchen is very precious to me. It was far too short and I still miss him. I know that when I cook something  from his recipe or my own that the love I put in comes from him.         Thanks, Daddy.Scan_Pic0002

 

 

Memories from a Kitchen of Love

Mama D’s Kitchen of Love came to be because of the cooking  I witnessed growing up.  It was the 50’s. My father went off to work every morning and my mom stayed home and took care of the house. Monday was laundry day, Tuesday was for ironing. I don’t remember what specific tasks were assigned to the rest of the days, but I know that everyday at around 4 o’clock it was time to make “supper”.

My mother was a great cook. She was creative and took great pride in the food she created. My father was an amazing cook in his own right and loved to eat. My mother cooked the dishes my father loved. That combination of love and pride are the memories that are foremost in my mind and have influenced how I cook today..

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Every weeknight, except Friday, we’d have meat. Lamb chops, sirloin steaks, and hamburgers were prepared in our electric broiler. This was state of the art for the time. It sat on the counter and had a cast iron broiler tray with a separate rack that fit inside. The plug was a massive three-pronged affair that had to use more electricity than the TV. My mother’s broiling technique was unique. Meat went into the broiler frozen. The seasoning was garlic salt and little else. As strange as this seems to me now, the meat was always perfectly cooked, juicy, and delicious.

I loved summer because the vegetables were always fresh either from my grandfather’s garden or the produce bus that came down our street twice a week. Yes, a bus full of fruits and vegetables. It was a converted school bus that boasted a large bell that announced its arrival and wooden bins heaped with produce where the seats should be. You walked through and chose your produce which was weighed on a hanging sale and put in brown paper bags. My mother brought it home and that’s when the food memories began.

My mother did wonders with those vegetables. The green beans would be cooked and then tossed with olive oil, garlic and fresh mint from the garden to create a beautiful salad.file4021339082680 Melrose peppers were fried in a large saucepan that I still use. file0001269469362They started with the cover on  with a little olive oil and a good dose of salt. Then they were  fried uncovered until tender and slightly golden.

 

 

Tomatoes, OMG the tomatoes! Sliced and served in carpese style (without the cheese). Tomatoes (5)She made the salad early enough so that it would have time to get happy in the refrigerator resulting in a generous amount of olive oily, vinagery, garlicky juice. This juice was the best part because you could bagnare bread. That’s dip in Italian. Italian was not routinely spoken in our home but certain things could only be described with the Italian word.

My mother was an excellent baker. She made pies and cakes and enough Christmas cookies to keep our holiday table loaded for the entire 2 weeks of the season. She made the best buttercream frosting in the world. It was a cooked frosting that was creamy and not too sweet.I have tried for forty years to make this frosting . I can’t do it. I’ve flushed more failed frosting down the drain then I’ve put on cakes in my entire baking career.

The first real food preparation I did was baking Christmas cookies. I started with sifting flour and chopping nuts and gradually worked into cracking eggs and finally running the mixer. We would make at least 10 kinds of cookies  Pinwheels, Candy Canes, Chocolate Chips and the oddly named but delectable Rocks so named because that’s what they looked like.

Rocks    

1 1/2 C Brown Sugar                                           2 1/2 C Flour                                                         1/2 C Butter                                                         3 Eggs                                                                   1 t. Cinnamon                                                      Pinch of Salt                                                       11/2  t Baking Soda –                                          1 large box Raisins                                              mix in 1/4 C hot water                                      1 pound Walnuts

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs. Add cinnamon, soda, salt and flour and blend well. Stir in raisins and nuts. Drop by small balls on cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 7 minutes. This recipe makes a ridiculous amount of cookies. Fortunately they are very good.

Like most little girls I learned a lot about cooking from my mother but I learned even more about cooking from my Dad.

To be continued… 

 

 

Mama D’s Pantry of Love

“If a kitchen is going to be filled with love, then the pantry needs to be filled with the ingredients that will create that love.” Mama D

When I was growing up we had a pantry. It was big enough to hide in and it is where I had my first taste of baking chocolate. Most every mother tells their child that baking chocolate doesn’t taste good and every child doesn’t believe it until they (in my case) sneak into the pantry and try it for themselves. I got my unsweetened revenge  when both of my sons made the same discovery for themselves without the benefit of a pantry to hide in.

Anyone watching Downton Abbey knows that pantries in England were a series of rooms where all manner of food preparation and lots of others activities took place. In America pantries evolved in much the same way to the current much desired small storage room in the kitchen. In my case, the pantry I use is 2 old kitchen cabinets that were relegated to what we laughingly call the office. A pantry doesn’t have to be big or fancy, It just needs to be a place where canned goods and baking ingredients and other non-perishables can be stored in cool dark comfort.

I like to keep a well stocked pantry.  It takes a pantry to raise a dish. What’s in my pantry? Canned tomatoes of all kinds; San Marzano, Fire Roasted, crushed, diced, there might even be a jar of pasta sauce. Canned beans, chilis, corn, roasted red peppers, and artichokes are always on hand. Rice, pasta, and other grains along with Panko bread crumbs live there as well. Flours, sugars, and other baking ingredients round out the contents of my pantry at any given time. I try to replace what I have used as well as stock up on things when I find them on sale.

This week I decided to see if I could go a whole week without running to the store to get an ingredient for a dish I wanted to make. This also was the first week that I had no severance coming in so the belt needed to be tightened. The rules were I had to use what was in the pantry, frig & freezer, and garden. I made it! The food was good, in fact some of it was outstanding. Everything started out as a recipe I’d seen somewhere, but when I came across an item I didn’t have I had to improvise from the “pantry”.

The first dish was Baked Gnocchi and Chicken. Grilled chicken, marinated artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers and packaged gnocchi were baked in a creamy chicken gravy.The gravy was made from another panty staple, boxed chicken stock (Meijer Naturals) and milk.DIGITAL CAMERA It’s the kind of stick to your ribs meal that is great in the fall. It reheats very well which is important because my husband has it for dinner at work and when Mama D’s Kitchen starts selling food, reheating will be a factor.

The following night I made Tomato and Cheddar Cheese Soup. The recipe was designed to be a riff on grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Mine paid the proper respect to this iconic duo but I decided to add pepper bacon to the mix. I sautéed it and then used the drippings to sweat the onions and garlic. Fire Roasted Tomatoes, more boxed chicken stock, thyme and extra sharp cheddar cheese made up the soup.DIGITAL CAMERA Once it was blended, I added the bacon back in along with a little heavy cream. I toasted stale leftover French bread to make the croutons. Once again it was delicious and I felt so empowered by relying only on what was on hand and I used some leftovers to boot.

Weeknight number three was a Chorizo, Chicken and Rice Skillet. it was my interpretation of  recipe for chicken breasts in a chorizo, pepper and green pea sauce. I used some link chorizo and chicken thigh trimmings from the freezer. I browned the meats and  added onions, garlic, red bell pepper, and smoked paprika.DIGITAL CAMERA Some artistic license was taken in leaving out the peas. Peas have their place, but not in this dish. I cooked the rice in chicken stock flavored with a little onion and butter. I combined everything in a large skillet and let it all get acquainted. The result was smokey, savory and delicious.

Weeknight dinner number four was Fettuccine with Sausage and Brocoli. This relied more on the frig and freezer than the pantry. The sauce featured chicken sausage, brocoli, onion, and garlic along with a container of Kraft Savory Garlic Cooking Cream. This is a cream cheese based cooking sauce that I’ve found to be a great addition to both pasta dishes and casseroles. I combined this with the rest of the roasted red peppers from earlier in the week. DIGITAL CAMERA To create the sauce I blended the cooking cream and peppers in the processor then added it to the sausage and veggies in the pan. Barely al dente fettuccine was thrown into the pan and further loved with some freshly grated Pecorino Romano and fresh basil while it reached a perfect al dente.  This was great, but when I make it again I will add a little red pepper flakes or cayenne. It would be good with zucchini and summer squash.

The final weeknight dinner was Steak, Grilled Potatoes, and Sautéed Green Beans. Petite Sirloin has become my new favorite steak and when Meijer has it on sale for $4.99 a pound it comes home with me.  It is generally available in 6-8 ounce portions and when marinated and grilled is juicy and tender. Red potatoes were cut in wedges and tossed with garlic, rosemary and olive oil before going into the grill basket. The frozen green beans were from Trader Joes. They are darn close to haricot vert and when thawed need only a light saute. Bacon, red onion and olive oil were its pan companions. It was enjoyed on the deck on a lovely early autumn evening with a nice Pinot Noir.DIGITAL CAMERA

The experiment worked and it was very easy. My well stocked pantry and frig/freezer came in handy. I will be relying on these tools for budget and creative reasons. It’s also an exciting challenge to make something wonderful and filled with love from what’s on hand.

 

Bacon Love

I love bacon. There I’ve said it, I love bacon and I’m not ashamed. If you’ve been following my food adventures you may have noticed that many of them involve bacon to one extent or another. I love to cook with bacon. Mama D’s Kitchen always has bacon love available.

Bacon has been around for a long time. Records date it back to 1500BC though I’m pretty sure that’s cured pork in general. The word bacon comes from the Middle English bacoun which referred to anything pork.Pepper bacon Whenever and wherever it arrived,,I’m glad that it’s here now.                                   Thick Cut Peppered Bacon-

 

Oddly, I’m not a big fan of bacon as a breakfast meat,but any other meal, well it just makes most everything better. Lately, I’ve even been putting it in the desserts I’ve been making. One of the best is a Peanut Butter and Bacon Bar.DIGITAL CAMERA The base is made with a peanut butter cookie mix laced with crumbled bacon and flavored with maple syrup. The topping is melted chocolate chips adorned with more crumbled bacon (I used maple smoked bacon).  The bacon and peanut butter go together almost like PB&J. The ingredients make it a meal or at least a protein source. Maybe not so much…

I recently discovered an apple pie recipe that uses bacon. It also includes bourbon so it has become a favorite on many levels.DIGITAL CAMERA The filling is apples, sugar, vanilla and bourbon. Cinnamon doesn’t show up until the streusel topping which also is where the bacon is all crisp and  crumbly. The flavors were  wonderful. We had it topped with whipped cream but a good butter pecan ice cream would be spectacular. This pie could  be served naked and it would still be great.

Bacon is a tasty addition to side dishes. From potatoes to vegetables to salads, bacon can make a big statement . The rich smokey taste is wonderful when combined with roasted brussels sprouts or sautéed green beans. Even brocoli on the grill is better with bacon. When bacon comes to the potato party it brings a salty richness. There’s the classic baked potato topping, but mashed , french fries and au gratin potatoes reach new heights with the addition of bacon. Like potatoes, salads are often topped with bacon as a garnish.

Bacon is worthy of so much more. DIGITAL CAMERAI found a recipe for cole slaw that uses it as an ingredient. It combines cole slaw mix, roasted corn, cherry tomatoes, and bacon with a homemade ranch dressing. The heartiness is a refreshing change from typical sweet creamy  slaws. It’s a superb accompaniment to barbecued ribs or chicken. And I would bet it would be good with a burger, maybe even as a topping on said burger.

Bacon, where else is it wonderful? How about in and on soup. Looking back at all of the soups that I’ve written about here and on Facebook, many have bacon as an integral component.DIGITAL CAMERA Many feature bacon as a garnish and quite often that bacon was fried and some of the drippings were used to build the rest of the soup. That’s just what happened with this Cauliflower Cheddar Cheese Soup. Using a little of the bacon drippings for sauteing the vegetables went a long way to imparting a lot of flavor. Some soups let the bacon swim with all the other ingredients and that is a beautiful thing, too.

Bacon is one of the darlings of the culinary world right now. You can get your bacon fix in so many ways. There’s bacon salt and bacon jam (which might be one of the best guilty pleasures on earth.)  How about some bacon chocolate, candied bacon or bacon candy? There’s even a Bacon of the Month Club  that will deliver unique bacon to your door for a price. (The Pig Next Door)

As much as I love bacon there is a place where I’ll draw the line. You won’t find Bakon, a premium bacon flavored vodka or Baconized Makers Mark Bourbon in my cocktail shaker. I won’t put Torani Bacon Flavored Syrup in any of my coffee beverages and I won’t burn a bacon scented candle.  I will however, continue to cook and eat bacon. I’m always looking for new ways to use bacon, so please share your bacon love with me.