Three Sisters in the Garden

I have been a lazy but thinking gardener ever since I first read Ruth Stout's How to Have a Green Thumb without an Aching Back. Say the words "natural weed control" and I become interested. Add some Native American history to the mix and you have more of my attention and interest.

The Three Sisters planting method is featured on the reverse of the US Sacajawea Native American dollar coin. The Three Sisters are Corn, Squash and Beans.

I went hunting in Google Land. It is amazing where a good graphic can lead you. I like things simple. Keep it simple, Sweetie is my motto.

I learned that this garden is simple to do. Except for the getting dirty and doing the digging part. I cannot think of an activity that would be more fun for parents and children. My children loved digging in dirt and picking flowers and vegetables.

Making a Three Sisters Garden is an excellent teaching tool for science classes. There is an entire class lesson plan at the link.

Cultivating these companions in your school garden, a small patch near the building, a barrel, or even indoors, can inspire studies of Native American customs, nutrition, and folklore. As students dig in, investigations of plant growth and relationships will also flourish. - Creating a Three Sisters Garden

I learned a Three Sisters Garden is beautiful and became determined to put this planting into my own small backyard.

Mrs. Ian Erskine's Deviled Eggs

This is not your standard Deviled Egg. The recipe comes from The Royal Blue and Gold Cookbook produced as a fundraiser by the Marchioness of Cambridge in 1974. The cookbook is long out of print. This is another glorious library book sale find.

Before World War II, Dorothy Hastings Cambridge had an idea of making a cook book using recipes from dinner parties she and George had given for their friends and guests. The Marchioness had interesting friends like Clark Gable and Joan Crawford. Dorothy was supported in this effort by Queen Mary, who donated many recipes. The book did not get published until 1974. Proceeds were donated to the Royal British Legion Women's Section. 

This recipe is verbatim. I will provide one or two of the Marchioness's creative recipes also in another section. Enough typing for this morning.

Devilled Eggs

Ingredients to serve 4

1 tablespoon Butter or Margarine

1 ounce Butter (editor's note - you may use Margarine here as well)

4 Eggs

2 tablespoons Milk 

Salt

Cayenne Pepper

1 and 1/2 teaspoons prepared Mustard

1 tablespoon Chutney

2 tablespoons Capers

2 Eggs

Preparation

Melt the butter or margarine in a frying pan and fry the eggs carefully until the whites are set, but not hard. Meanwhile, melt the 1 ounce butter in a saucepan. Add the milk, the salt, and the cayenne and bring to a boil. Add the mustard, chutney, and the two eggs, well beaten. Stir the mixture over a low fire, until the sauce is like thick cream, never allowing it to come to a boil. Add the chopped capers and pour the sauce over the fried eggs. The dish may be warmed slightly under the grill or in a very hot oven for a few minutes, as it must be served very hot.

Halloween Gets Devil Sauce and a Soul Fondue

I have a charming small cookbook entitled The Gourmet Fondue Cookbook by B. Arthur Paull. This cookbook was written in the 70s during the Fondue craze. It was sold at Fante's here in Philly.

I am bringing Fondue back for my private little Halloween Party.  Mr. Paull's recipes are not long on quantities and procedure. They are terse. I produce them verbatim. The intrepid Foody will not be deterred. These two are adventurous and very good.

This is a savory Fondue in which the bits of food (chunks of bread, shrimp, cheese, tofu, veggies etc.) are individually cooked by the diner.

Soul Fondue

1/2 cup pureed Chicken Liver
1 minced Onion
1 teaspoon Cayenne
1/4 cup Brandy
1/2 cup Butter
2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 cup Tomato Paste
1/2 cup Cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
Salt to taste.

Pan fry onion in butter. Add flour and stir fry 5 minutes. Add tomato paste, salt, cayenne, Worcestershire, chicken liver and cream. Stir constantly for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and add cheese. Stir until cheese melts. Add brandy.

Devil Sauce

Combine tomato sauce, vinegar, sugar, horseradish and garlic. Pour into a serving dish, cover and chill.

Bookies ... of the Library Kind

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I hoard books. I have entirely too many of them. And I can rarely part with any one of them.

I found a site about books that I am hereby recommending BOOKRIOT.

What sold me on the site enough to subscribe and send you there was an article on literary gifts. Click the picture to go there. I have a daughter who reads. Oh how she reads. Guess what she is getting for Christmas.

The second attribute that sold me on the site was an article about cookbooks as historical and sociological sources. I love it when I find a fellow traveler.

E. H. Kern writes:

At my parents’ house, in the room where the book scorpions live, there is a cookbook from 1886. The title is Cookbook for Housekeepers. A Manual to the Current Practices of Fine Cooking and Everything That They Include. This cookbook was first published in 1822 and by 1886 it had been printed in fifteen editions.

The fact that Cookbook for Housekeepers exists tells the story of the nineteenth-century European class system. The book is not intended for the lady of the house, but for the cook working in her kitchen with a kitchen staff. 

And then I found my way to this Poster just googling 'literary gifts.' Bless my google finger. I have to have one. You can find a poster you love HERE. I have no monetary interest in these recommendations, Bookies. Enjoy.

Green Sauce (Sauce Verte)

I made Salsa Criolla yesterday to accompany a roast.  It started me thinking about Fresh or Uncooked Sauces and how good and easy they are. I did the Green Sauce below in a food processor.

I served this Green Sauce from Silvana Franco's cookbook Salsas and Ketchups with Grilled Shrimp and Filet Mignon at a dinner party I catered. I always make it fresh before service. I discovered I had no lemon and substituted a small Tangerine. Such an inspired-by-emergency solution. So good. I believe this cookbook, published in 1995, is out of print. It is worth searching for, if only for the Banana Ketchup recipe.

Green Sauce (Salsa Verde)

6 Scallions, finely chopped
2 Garlic cloves, minced
1 Onion, finely chopped
2 Green Chilies, finely chopped
6 tablespoons chopped fresh Cilantro
6 tablespoons chopped fresh Parsley
1 tablespoon capers, well drained and finely chopped
4 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Lemon, freshly squeezed juice and grated peel (or one Tangerine)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a large serving bowl and toss together. Season to taste and serve immediately.

Reading to Cats

This is the feel-good Pennsylvania story of the month. I love cats.

The Animal Rescue League of Berks County PA has a program called “Book Buddies.” Children volunteer to read to sheltered cats. Via Reddit.

Have patience if you go to their website. Everyone is going there for more information, more pictures and to donate to this great program. The boy in the photo thought he was "too dumb" to learn to read. Nope. His reading and grades have improved tremendously. And the cats are finding forever homes. 

Chinese Fried Chicken Neither Chinese Nor Fried

I quote the author of Country Flavor Cookbook, Haydn Pearson, verbatim.

"Here is a delicious and different way to use Chicken. The recipe is from Miss Ruth McKinlay, of the Old Crombie Gift Shop, Francestown, New Hampshire. No one seems to know how it gathered the name Chinese Fried Chicken."

Chinese Fried Chicken (neither Chinese nor Fried)

1 broiler cut in pieces

2 cups of cream in which dissolve:

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried mustard
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce.

Roll pieces of chicken in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Pack chicken in a baking dish with straight sides. Fill cracks with pieces of bread and the liver. Pour over all the sauce. Let stand in the refrigerator for several hours. Cook one hour at 400 degrees in a covered dish. Remove top and let brown. Serves 4 to 6." 

I make this chicken regularly. My children love it. It is very rich and totally suitable for company. And it is easy on the Cook because the ingredients are simple and so is the preparation.

Debutante's Cake

This easy cake comes from French Family Cooking by Audrey Ellis. This cake stays moist for a week. Most young cooks in France learn to make  this cake before attempting to make pastry.

The illustration is from Marjorie Torre Bevans. 

Debutante's Cake 

4 cups all-purpose Flour sifted with 4 teaspoons Baking Powder
5 Eggs
1 and 1/3 cups Sugar
1 large Lemon
pinch Salt
3/4 cup Corn Oil
1 and 1/4 cups Milk

Sieve the Flour into a mixing bowl. Make a hollow in the center.

In an other bowl, beat the Eggs with the Sugar, grated zest of Lemon and the Salt. Beat in the Oil and the Milk, adding a little of each alternately.

Pour the mixture into the flour, drawing it in gradually, then beat until smooth. Pour into two greased and line 9x5 loaf tins and bake in a moderate 350 degree oven for 50 minutes. If necessary, cover the top of the cakes with greaseproof paper or foil after 25 minutes to prevent over browning. Test with a fine skewer, cool for a few minutes in the tin and turn out.



A friend of mine makes this moist cake in a fluted tube pan. When he serves the cake, he fills the center with Raspberries and surrounds the cake with Whipped Cream all around it on the plate. Perfect.

The cake is so moist it needs no frosting. Might be nice with a tart Lemon Glaze. But there is really no reason to gild the cake as it is lovely all by its lonesome.

Portagee Joe's Cafe Shrimp Bisque

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This recipe comes from Eggs I Have Known by Corinne Griffith. It was Miss Griffith's Coconut Bars that so delighted Clark Gable. I write about those elsewhere. Of course, this cookbook is out of print.

I have not yet made this bisque. I am going down to the Italian Market to get the shrimp today. I expect this dish to be delicious. I give it to you verbatim. Old cookbooks are low on directions. And I do not think this movie star actually ever cooked anything. We shall see. Nip and tuck.

Portagee Joe's Cafe was one of the small cafes which could be found along Fisherman's Wharf in 1950's Monterey California.

Portagee Joe's Shrimp Bisque

1 tablespoon Celery (chopped fine)
3 tablespoons Butter
2 cups Milk
1 cup cooked Shrimp (mashed fine)
1 wineglass Sherry
1 tablespoon Onion (chopped fine)
3 tablespoons Flour
3 cups Cream
1/4 teaspoon Salt
Paprika

Cook Celery and Onion in Butter over a slow fire for 5 minutes. Place in a double boiler and cook over hot water. Add flour. Add Milk, 2 cups Cream and put remaining 1 cup of Cream aside. Cook mixture until thickened. Add Shrimp, Salt and one drop of Tabasco Sauce (approximately) and reheat. Now whip remaining cup of Cream, add Sherry to Cream and Paprika. Remove soup from stove. Add whipped Cream and stir. Serves Six.

1932 Rice Muffins

We have been making all sorts of muffins when snowed in and out of loaf bread. Recipe experimentation is dangerous. We added Cranberries to homemade Corn Muffins in a fit of foody fancy. The muffins were really good. And we have gone sort of muffin mad.

This recipe comes from Things You Have Always Wanted to Know About Cooking by Margaret Mitchell. The cookbook was published and printed in silver ink by The Aluminum Cooking Utensil Company in 1932. My particular copy was given away as a courtesy by Lit Brothers in Philadelphia.

I type the recipe verbatim. It makes a lovely muffin with an interesting crumb. Graphic Artists may find the illustrations and typefaces a pleasure to look at and utilize.

"Rice Muffins are among the best of their kind and are made thus: Sift together two and one half cups of flour, 5 teaspoons of baking powder, 3 tablespoons sugar, one half teaspoon of salt. Beat one egg and add one half cup of milk and three tablespoon of melted shortening, or oil, and stir into dry ingredients. Into one half cup of milk put one half cup of cold boiled rice, and stir well. Add to mixture, mix well and bake in an oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes."

Pie for Breakfast!

"I like Pie." - President Barack Obama

Every culture has both savory and sweet dishes wrapped in pastry. In my opinion, Pie reached its apotheosis in America.

Although apple pies have been eaten since long before the European colonisation of the Americas, "as American as apple pie" is a saying in the United States, meaning "typically American." In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, apple pie became a symbol of American prosperity and national pride. A newspaper article published in 1902 declared that "No pie-eating people can be permanently vanquished." There are claims that the Apple Marketing Board of New York State used such slogans as "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." Pie Town, New Mexico is named in honour of the apple pie. - wikipedia

I recommend the best Pie cookbook I know: Jame's McNair's Pie Cookbook.

The recipes are precise. The illustrations of pastry technique take the mystery out of Pastry. You can buy a copy (new or used, paperback or hardcover). The hardcover edition is out of print and can be pricey. I read cookbooks like novels. James McNair is the best of food writers and he does some mean book design. McNair's Cherry Cream Pie will knock your socks off. Yummy.