Pickle Soup

Polish people love pickles. We use crushed pickle puree to season dishes like sauteed mushrooms. We even make Pickle Soup.

You can find many Pickle Soup recipes on the Net. This recipe comes from Treasured Polish Recipes for Americans published in 1948 by the Polanie Club.

It would be silly to publish a Pickle Soup recipe without publishing a recipe for Polish Dill Pickles. They are delicious and easy to make. So look for that to be posted next. I have three volunteer cucumber plants. So I will be making lots of pickles.

Babcia is translated as GrandMother.  My Babcia made Pickle Soup at Easter with the broth left from cooking the kielbasa for the cold breakfast that breaks the Easter fast. I wondered for years how she got that unique savory flavor. And then I found my vintage Polish cookbook.

I have to make this. If you, Cher Reader, make it before I do, let me know how it goes. I will update.

DILL PICKLE SOUP

3 large Dill Pickles
3 tablespoons Butter
Meat or Vegetable Stock
1 cup Sour Cream
2 tablespoons Flour

Slice the Pickles and saute in Butter and Flour until thoroughly wilted. Add the Stock and simmer slowly for half an hour. Strain and add the Sour Cream. Serve with Pierozki.

City Chickens

I was searching for a recipe for a dish called City Chickens. My friend Grace Persichelli made it for me long ago and it was so good. I typed the phrase into google and I got back this delightful and informative site about raising chickens in the city.

Even though I got such a happy result, I still wanted to find a good recipe for this old dish. So I typed in "city chicken" and I found this dish has a wikipedia entry all its own.

After diligent searching, I found the definitive City Chicken recipe. It comes from Simpson-Fletcher's Soul Food Recipes published by Simpson - Fletcher United Methodist Women and Fundcraft Publishing. We can thank Sue Delaney for providing the recipe. The Church has a Facebook page. I sent a message to find out if this regional cookbook can still be purchased. I will let you know if I get more information. Illustration from The Old Design Shop an award winning blog and shop featuring Vintage Illustrations. 

City Chicken

3/4 pound Pork, cut in one inch pieces
3/4 pound Veal, cut in one inch pieces
1 cup Cracker Crumbs
1 Egg, beaten
5 tablespoons Shortening

1/2 cup Flour
1/2 cup canned Milk
Salt, Pepper and Paprika to season the Gravy

Alternate, very closely, Veal and Pork on wooden skewers. Dip each skewer into the beaten Egg, and then into the Crumbs. Continue to alternate this dipping until the meat is well covered and resembles a chicken leg. Brown the skewers on all sides in hot Shortening. Place skewers side by side in an oiled roasting pan, cover and then bake in a moderate oven until the meat is very tender. Baste occasionally with drippings. Remove the City Chicken from the pan. Add Flour, Milk and Seasonings to the drippings. Stir until brown and thick. This is a gravy for the City Chicken.

Note: Put your Crackers in a bag and bang them with a rolling pin to make the Cracker pieces fine.

Bees on a Roof Means Money Honey

I found a most amazing Japanese eco-creation. Gives me hope for our foody future. And Bees.

In 2006, the Ginza Honey Bee Project set up hives on the top of a multistory building in central Tokyo. A decade on, the project is a regular supplier of honey to local businesses and continues to provide food for thought on the relationship between the urban and natural environments.

“I wondered if we might be able to produce something locally, right here in Ginza, in the center of the city. Since the Edo period, this has never been anything but a commercial district. By using bees to turn it into an agricultural production site, I thought it might be possible to raise the consciousness of people in the area. Ginza has always been receptive to the latest trends. Anything that is out of step with the character of the district is weeded out, and whatever remains accumulates as an element of the neighborhood’s culture and traditions. We decided to see whether the project could make it through the Ginza filter. The first thing was to have a go at it and see how people reacted...Ginza may seem an unlikely place to be tackling environmental issues, but it’s becoming that sort of neighborhood.” - Tanaka Atsuo
Read more...

Weighing the Philadelphia Grocery Tax

I oppose it. You are taxing the wrong folks. Tax the Suits, not the poor and middle class. 

Tax the sugary drink and snack makers who make beaucoup money and socialize the costs of doing business. Convenient and disposable? Their detritus is on every street corner for the people and the City to clean up. Got the courage to sue Nestle Coke etc., Mayor Kenney? It will make you famous. Come on, Dude. This is Filthydelphia. Let us lead on this. 

I am tired of cleaning up the chip bags and drink containers that flow downhill from Frankford Avenue and clog the sewers and filthy the sidewalks. It costs our City money to collect this garbage. Make the Suits pay. 

Pay attention. Reality is. These folks will tell you all about what is happening to our watersheds. It is not good. 

Honey Bees

Honey Bee Suite

I have a small garden in my Philadelphia backyard. I grow a few peppers, herbs, tomatoes, flowers. I have been very sad because the Bees seem to have gone away. We need Bees, so go here for some pet Bees if you like them. Most of the really good stuff we eat needs pollination by bees. No bees means less food.

On Sunday, I saw my very first Bee of the Summer. I was out in the garden, poking around in the Dill without my glasses. I was glad to learn that my eyes still work and I am not crazy. I saw a Bee. The Bees are coming back.

Bees are smart. They know who is growing those flowers. I have been given, while gardening, an affectionate bee nudge more than once. The Bees are making a comeback in Illinois too.

Native bee species spotted for first time since ’90s

COURTESY OF WILL PETERMAN / COPYRIGHT 2013

 By Sandi Doughton 

Bee enthusiasts beat the bushes Sunday to see if the colony of rare insects is still active, and biologists are planning conservation efforts.

More information is available at www.xerces.org/bumblebees. If you would like to be involved in our citizen science project moving forward, you can sign up at www.bumblebeewatch.org.

If you think you have observed the western white tailed bumblebee, please send a photo and site information. Please note that we cannot verify sightings without a photo, so please include one with your email. 

I fell on November 13 and sustained a concussion. I am meant to rest my brain and do little for the next few weeks.

It is go slow holiday around here until I can write, read and think better.

Philadelphia Opera Company - Musical Interlude for Attitude Adjustment

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats. - Albert Schweitzer

I shop at Reading Terminal Market weekly for fresh ground coffee and real bread. Iovine's for fresh produce. The Amish butcher for breakfast sausage and honey. Then I eat lunch at Pearl's Oyster Bar. Music and good food is Paradise.

I love the City of Brotherly Love. You never know when a random act of culture by the Philadelphia Opera Company may appear. 

Orange Bread

This Orange Bread is delicious all by itself or spread with Cream Cheese or Peanut Butter.

Quick breads are generally easy to make. This one requires cutting the Flour into the Shortening which is an extra step. The loaf is worth the bit of extra work.

Orange Bread

4 cups Flour
3 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Shortening
2 Eggs
1 cup Milk
1 cup Candied Orange Peel
1/3 cup Syrup from Orange Peel

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together Flour, Baking Powder, Salt and Sugar. Cut the Shortening into the Flour mixture. Beat Eggs thoroughly and add Milk to them. Combine with Flour mixture and stir in candied Peel and Syrup. Pour into a loaf pan and bake 45 minutes.

Wisconsin Bars

I found this recipe in a regional cookbook entitled Cooking Wisconsin Style published by the Wisconsin State Journal. It was published in 1985 as a compendium of 30 years of the Journal's collected recipes. I do not know if one can still obtain a copy.

Wisconsin produces about a quarter of America's cheese. I am not surprised that this apple dessert contains two kinds of cheese and butter. And if cut in larger portions, is best served with iced cream. Wisconsin is the Dairy State.

This recipe courtesy of Mrs. Lawrence Eberle of Lone Rock. The painting below is by Dennis Plamann, a Wisconsin Artist, and it is entitled Frank Fox's Farm.

Wisconsin Bars

1/4 cup Sugar  

1 cup Butter
2 Egg Yolks
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
2 cups Flour
4 cooking Apples, medium sized
1/2 pound Cheddar Cheese
1/4 cup Flour
1/2 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
2 Egg Whites
1 and 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
1/4 cup Cream Cheese

Combine the butter, egg yolks, baking powder, salt, flour. Blend until a crumbly mixture is formed. Put half the mixture in a 13x9 inch cake pan and press it down. Reserve the remainder.

Grate together in one bowl the apples and the cheddar cheese. Discard the cores and only the larger pieces of the apple peelings. Add the sugar, flour and cinnamon. Mix well. Spread this mixture as the second layer in the cake pan. Spread the remaining crumbly mixture to form the third layer.

Whip egg whites until peaks are formed. Gradually add powdered sugar and cream cheese, beating continuously. Spoon this topping over the contents of the cake pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes until golden brown. Yield 3 dozen bars. 

Note: These can be cut into bars or served in larger portions with ice cream or whipped cream.

World Food Day Poster Contest for Children 2015

These are my favorite posters. The 2015 World Food Day theme is:

“Social Protection and agriculture: breaking the cycle of rural poverty”

Social Protection has been chosen as the theme of this year’s World Food Day (WFD) to highlight its importance in reducing rural poverty and granting access to food or means to buy food.

Social protection can be defined as a range of solutions, often combined with each others, —such as work opportunities, provision of food, money and services— that are designed to support the vulnerable and help the poor in society move out of hunger and poverty. If you click HERE, you can see other World Food Day winners.

See More Posters...

Black Joe Cake

Old Black Joe is a parlor song by Stephen Foster (1826–1864). It was published by Firth, Pond & Co. of New York in 1853. I post the song below sung by the Paul Robeson in mighty voice. Joe is American slang for coffee.

I do not find this cake recipe in modern cookbooks. I find it in old regional cookbooks from the 30s and 40s. I think the omission is deliberate. You cannot sell cake mixes if making a scratch cake is this easy. 

Note: This cake is only as good as the Chocolate you use. I find some Chocolate too bitter. Find out more about Chocolate from the video below. 

This cake is not too sweet and that is also true of the frosting. Frosting recipe follows Chocolate video.  Not a cake for children. I like a slice for breakfast right out of the fridge. Trust me, you will too.

 Black Joe Cake

Mix together:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

Make a well in the dry ingredients and then add, then mix with a spoon:
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup milk

Add, then mix again with a spoon: one cup black coffee. 

Pour into two greased 9 inch layer cake pans or 10x13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about forty minutes for large pan, 15 to 20 minutes for 9 inch layer cake pans. Be sure to test for doneness and do not overbake. If a knife blade comes out clean: it is Done! This batter is too loose for a tube pan.

Serve Black Joe Cake with sweet vanilla flavored whipped cream. If you want to get really fancy, make the layers and fill the space between the layers with raspberry jam and fresh raspberries.

Frost Black Joe Cake with Chocolate Frosting Helen Evans Brown:

Helen Evans Brown was a food writer in the 1950s. If you can find one of her cookbooks, buy it immediately and never let it go. This icing sets up fine when cool, never hardens and remains glossy. It is a wonder frosting. Add a teaspoon of vanilla or dark rum.

Melt one 15 ounce package of milk chocolate or semi-sweet chips in a bowl over warm water. Blend the melted chocolate with one cup of sour cream.

Chicken Mushrooms

Mushrooms are beautiful and they taste divine. We have a brand new urban farmer and food purveyor in Philly and you can see their logo on the right.

Their blog is Chicken Mushrooms. If you go there, you will learn more about Mushrooms than you ever wanted to know. 

You will find recipes for Mushroom delicacies there. You can buy a kit to grow Mushrooms. You can find out about Mushroom Seminars teaching how to find wild edible Mushrooms and how to grow your own at home.

I love Mycopolitan's Statement of Purpose:

In short we’re building Philly’s first mushroom farm where we plan to:

1-Grow gourmet varieties for local restaurants and a retail establishment or two

2- Grow and make stuff for hobbyist mushroom growers of all levels

3- Research new varieties such as the namesake of this blog which hasn’t had much press lately

4- Research new agricultural and environmental applications for fungi

5- Go wherever the mushrooms lead us.

Halloween Pumpkins

Halloween is my favorite holiday. How could it not be so? The air is crisp, the harvest is home and dressing up your hearth or porch.. Here are some pictures and websites to help you plan your decorations and help you celebrate. 

The Zombie Brain Pumpkin comes from skulladay.com. 

Pumpkins can be carved and they can be painted, etc.

Oil based glossy house paint works the best, especially if you want to put your pumpkins outside on the porch. Oil based paint is durable, glossy and adheres well to pumpkin rind. A decorated pumpkin will last without rotting from Halloween through Thanksgiving.

Glossy acrylic paint is a good choice if you are working with children. It washes off.  Do not buy small containers of hobbyist paints unless you are only going to paint one or two pumpkins. Go to an art supply store for premixed acrylic paints in a wide variety of exotic colors in a generous size.
.  

Rosemary Grilled Shrimp

It is far too hot to cook indoors. This is my favorite grilled Shrimp. I have a Rosemary shrub in my garden. I can pick a stem of Rosemary and pull the leaves off right into the marinade. If you have no Rosemary bush, use one tablespoon dried Rosemary. Dried herbs are more pungent than fresh.

Ingredients:

1 cup Olive Oil
6 cloves Garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh Rosemary
1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
1/4 cup Parsley, minced fine
1 cup fresh Lemon Juice
1 tablespoon Lemon Zest
1 dozen Jumbo Shrimp (10 to 15 per pound)

Shell and devein Shrimp. Combine Oil, Garlic, Rosemary, Cayenne, Parsley, Lemon Juice and Zest. in a nonreactive bowl. Add Shrimp and toss in the marinade. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight. Stir occasionally.

When ready to grill, remove Shrimp from marinade. Broil or Grill about 4 minutes per side. Baste shrimp with marinade while it is broiling or grilling.

Brock Davis Plays with His Food

My favorite part of catering was creating beautiful tablescapes with flowers, and drapery and artistic whimsey. And I loved making the food look beautiful on the plate. That work has given me an appreciation of Food Art wherever I find it, on the canvas or on the plate.

You want to go to Brock Davis website, if only to see the Banana Peel Trucker Hat.  

I Love the Library of Congress WPA Posters

I cannot stop looking through them.

Support artists in the community. They make our lives better in uncountable ways. And if we support them in their work, artists may find ways of transforming our culture and person not yet clear to those of us engaged in more mundane and lucrative occupations. Van Gogh never sold a single painting and even so he transformed our way of seeing forever.

If you click on each poster, you will see who created the poster and other interesting details. You can purchase prints of these posters or download them. Many of them have no restrictions on duplication.

"On March 6 in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order creating the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA was just one of many Great Depression relief programs created under the auspices of the Emergency Relief Appropriations Act, which Roosevelt had signed the month before. The WPA, the Public Works Administration (PWA) and other federal assistance programs put unemployed Americans to work in return for temporary financial assistance. Out of the 10 million jobless men in the United States in 1935, 3 million were helped by WPA jobs alone.
While FDR believed in the elementary principles of justice and fairness, he also expressed disdain for doling out welfare to otherwise able workers. So, in return for monetary aid, WPA workers built highways, schools, hospitals, airports and playgrounds. They restored theaters--such as the Dock Street Theater in Charleston, S.C.--and built the ski lodge at Oregon's Mt. Hood. The WPA also put actors, writers and other creative arts professionals back to work by sponsoring federally funded plays, art projects, such as murals on public buildings, and literary publications. FDR safeguarded private enterprise from competition with WPA projects by including a provision in the act that placed wage and price controls on federally funded products or services."

365 Days a Year - Course Dinner in 15 Minutes by Mabel Claire

I sing the praises again of my library book sale. I found a copy of Mabel Claire's The Busy Woman's Cookbook - Course Dinners in 15 Minutes published in 1925. Consider that all the machines and products that are sold today as labor and time saving did not exist in the 20s and 30s. This book can still be found at $20.00. I spent $0.50.

Vintage cookbooks are an educational peek at American culture of the period. I give you one of Ms. Claire's "15 minute course dinners" verbatim. This menu is delicious and quick. Just what a busy person needs when they have to cook dinner 365 days a year.

MENU - Serves 2

Ham and Eggs
Tomatoes, Peppers and Onions
Bread and Butter
Baked Bananas with Cream
Coffee

SHOPPING LIST

Slice of Ham
Four Eggs
Two Tomatoes
Three Green Peppers
Half Pint Cream
Four Small Bananas
Loaf Bread
1/4 Pound Butter

HAVE READY

3 Frying Pans
Fork
Tablespoon
Knife
Sugar
Butter
Cinnamon
Salt

Light the gas oven. Light two gas burners. On one put frying pan with a tablespoon of butter. On the second burner heat the frying pan for the ham.

When the butter in the frying pan is hot, peel and slice into it the onions, next the peppers cut small with seeds removed, last the tomatoes, cut in dice. When these are not, cover closely and cook over moderate flame until wanted.

When the frying pan is hot for the ham, brown the slice on both sides. Cook 8 minutes. Dish on to a platter and put into the oven.

Break four eggs into the pan the ham has cooked in and cook until done to taste, about 5 minutes.

Heat the third frying pan and melt in  it a tablespoon of butter. Peel and halve lengthwise the four bananas. Saute on both sides. Sprinkle over these a large tablespoon of sugar and a dusting of cinnamon and let this melt into them. Cooking time about 3 minutes. Remove the bananas to the oven to keep hot until wanted for dessert.

Turn off the oven. Prepare the coffee. Set the table, five minutes. Ms. Claire points out that doubling this recipe for a larger family does  not increase the cooking time.

Ms. Mary Giblin's Old Fashioned Sweet Chili Sauce

Bill Giblin, Mary Giblin's son, did the technical drawings in 1938 for my Father's model airplane The Trenton Terror. People are still building the model all these years later.

Bill also played a Munchkin Soldier in the film The Wizard of Oz. He once showed me an autographed studio photograph of Margaret Hamilton he kept as a souvenir.

I used to go with my Dad to visit the Giblin's. They would make us Creamed Chicken and Waffles. Mrs. Giblin would send some Chili Sauce home with us. It is delicious with Cheese. It is savory but not hot.

Mary Giblin's Chili Sauce

6 Onions
3 green Peppers
18 medium ripe Tomatoes
1 cup Brown Sugar
2 1/2 cups strong Vinegar
2 level teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon each Cinnamon, Allspice, Nutmeg, and Mace (if you can find it)

1/2 teaspoon Cloves

Chop or grind the Onions and Peppers finely. Cut up the Tomatoes into small pieces. Cook all together slowly for 2 1/2 hours. Watch closely and stir often. Sugar makes things burn easily. Makes about 5 pints.

Ms. Lissa Patton's Chili Divine

CLICK ME !

I give it to you, Cher Reader, as she gave it to me. You are going to be so glad I did.

Ms. Lissa Patton's Chili Divine

"Twelve good sized ripe heirloom tomatoes (they have an acidic taste, not like the cardboard you find in the supermarket).

Peel (I drop them in hot water for a few seconds then put them on ice, which cracks the skin and it is easily stripped). Slice in half lengthwise. De-seed. (A baby spoon works for this).

Put in food processor along with de-seeded jalapenos to taste. (Slice lengthwise and use a baby spoon again)

Puree.

Put in Dutch oven.

Add two cinnamon sticks, salt and black pepper to taste. (Sometines I add a bit of white pepper).

Finely chop a sweet white onion and add.

Add beans (Kidney and black beans are what I use a pound or so of each.)

Add about two cups of chicken or turkey broth.

Brown about two pounds of pork sausage. (We have an old fashioned hand crank grinder, so we do it ourselves with white pork shoulder meat.)

Add a half cup of honey after you put the browned meat in the pot.

Three cloves garlic, finely chopped.

Heat at 220 in the oven for at least three hours, pulling the rack out every thirty minutes or so to stir.

I like it to go five or six hours the first time. Gets better every time you reheat. It’s thick, so sometimes we serve it over white rice, like gumbo.

Freezes well."

Whole Wheat Quick Bread

My Grandfather, Angelo Pietro de Angelis, was a baker for Rossi's bakery in Trenton, New Jersey. My family has sophisticated taste in bread. We travel well, breadwise. We like it all, from baguettes to pane rustica to bialys.

I went to culinary school. I can bake and braid a challah, but why? I go to Kaplan's Bakery on Third and Poplar. I will go the extra mile for a hard crusted Russian Black Bread or a fragrant golden Onion Rye.

Click Me!

I do not let them slice the bread and put it in a plastic bag. I am green. I just put the loaf in my shopping bag and boogie. Makes me feel so European. I have a bread knife and that is one less plastic bag clogging the universe. I get myself a kasha knish to eat while I wait.

Sometimes I give in to convenience and buy supermarket bread because it is there. I prefer to make the loaf below.

Although this is a quick bread made without yeast, it is not particularly sweet, slices well and makes excellent toast. Do not cut it until it is COLD. I make a simple vegetarian Green Pea Soup to go with this bread for a satisfying, comforting meal. Perfect for Meatless Mondays.

Whole Wheat Quick Bread

Mix together:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Combine, then mix with dry ingredients. Do not overmix. It is okay if there are a few lumps:
1 beaten egg
1 and 3/4 cups buttermilk (or whole milk soured with 2 T. vinegar)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

Fold in:
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins

Turn into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes. Makes one loaf.

Note: My children are not raisin fans. So I make this with dried cranberries to keep the peace.