Like food, but not a food writer

My friend, RunnerSusan, brought me sweet corn all the way from Indiana and that got me hankering for Yankee summer food.

Brats on the grill. Roast corn. Strawberry pie.

You know, up north, where summer is this quiet, balmy time that you can linger outside all day under a tree and hold a grass blade between your thumbs and call to the birds -- not spend a month hiding in dark room with the air conditioning running while Ercot pumps so much juice through the grid that it sparks down the line and sets whole counties on fire.

I digress.

Here's a recipe that accompanied a story I wrote about berry picking for Texas Highways magazine that ran May 2007. The editors asked for it, and despite my admonitions that while I liked food, and cooked food, and grew food, I was not a food writer.

They pushed me just a little beyond my comfort zone by insisting the story just wouldn't work without some kind of berry recipe. So I dug this little gem out of my recipe box -- where all the family heirloom recipes have been stashed, except I remember my mother trying this one for the first time when I was a teenager. (Click to enlarge)

It'll become an heirloom when my kids make it.

Caramel Popcorn

I cannot believe I have not shared this recipe earlier, at least before I shared Parmesean Rosemary Popcorn.

When I was a teenager, I tried to make caramel popcorn by making the caramel recipe in Joy of Cooking and pouring it over the popcorn. We always had to eat it fast, because by morning, the brown sugar returned. Instead of caramel-coated kernels, they would be more like brown-sugar dusted.

When Michael and Paige were in nursery school (we were members of Cornerstone, a longstanding parent coop nursery school in Denton), one of the mothers brought homemade caramel popcorn to a school Halloween party.

It was incredible. I asked her what the secret was, and she said that after she made the caramel, she roasted it for an hour. Here's my version of her recipe:

Caramel Corn

3/4 to 1 cup popcorn, popped (about 10 cups)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 tsp. salt

Prepare a large bowl and a large cookie sheet by spraying with cooking oil. Pour the popped popcorn in the bowl.

Combine the sugar, butter, corn syrup and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium hit heat. Once the mixture is bubbling, do not stir, but wash down any crystals that stick to the side of the pan with a brush dipped in water. When you see a couple of wisps of smoke coming up from the caramel (after about 3-5 minutes of gentle boiling), immediately pour the caramel over the popcorn and stir well to coat. Pour the coated kernels onto the cookie sheet and roast at 225 degrees for an hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Melon Pops

I hauled off a 10-pound watermelon from the farmer's market last week. We ate some straight, the seed-spitting way. We made salad. We made granita. I couldn't find the melon pop recipe. I thought I'd lifted it from epicurious or Martha Stewart websites, but I couldn't re-trace my steps.

I remembered that Sam really liked them and when that happens, I usually write it down. Found it in the recipe box last night.

Cantalope, honeydew, watermelon. Any melon will do.

Melon Pops
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup lime juice (or lemon if you think it goes better with the melon you're using)
1 melon, cut up (about 6 cups of chunks)
Combine water and sugar in a small saucepan and boil to make a simple syrup. Cool. Puree half the melon chunks with half the lime juice. Then add the rest of the lime juice, melon and syrup and finish puree. Pour into molds and freeze.

Puffs-o-honey

A friend brought a jar of honey by today. Making a batch of Puffs-o-honey had been on my to-do list ever since we left Trader Joe's two weekends ago loaded with all kinds of items for the pantry, including four bags of puffed grains.

I would have bought Puffs n'Honey if they'd had it. It's made by the Bread Shop, but I don't know any retailers that carry it here.

It's hard to get even mainstream items. I asked Albertsons off and on for years to get Grape Nuts Flakes. The store manager said he would get requests for it from time to time (probably all mine, he just wasn't remembering) and he was having a hard time getting it. I about fell over when I saw it on the shelves for the first time two months ago. Also because it was $5.19 for a box.

Puffs n'Honey was one of Sam's favorite cereals as a child. When I couldn't get it here, I experimented with adapting granola recipes to make it. He was almost giddy watching me put a batch together tonight.

"Doesn't it give you memories of California, Mom?" he asked.

Yes, with Trader Joe's, the local farmer's market and my own garden, it's only taken 20 years to get back the kind of cooking we could do back in Sacramento.

So, here it is. Plain, the way Sam likes it, but vary it by adding spices you like -- a couple teaspoons of cinnamon or cardamom, for example. Arrowhead Mills makes good puffed cereals.

Puffs-o-honey

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In large bowl, combine one bag each of (unsweetened) puffed wheat, puffed rice, puffed corn and puffed millet.

Combine in saucepan, then bring to a simmer:
12-ounce can of apple juice concentrate
1/2 cup canola oil
3/8 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup honey

Cool slightly, then pour over cereal and toss to coat.

Roast for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool and store.

Writing Prompt #17

The final entry in Sam's summer school journal:

I feel usually excited before I go camping. I can roast marshmallows, stick them on a chocolate on a Graham Cracker, put the other Graham Cracker on top of it, and then eat it. -- July 24, 2002

Cookies 'n Cream recipe for Texas expats

I really missed Blue Bell Cookies 'n Cream when we were living in California. Once, on a drive back from a visit to Texas, Mark tried to figure out where the last stop in order to bring back two half gallon cartons. He didn't want to risk not finding it in Amarillo, so he picked it up before then and packed it in ice. 

What a wonderful surprise! He was bummed that it had nearly melted by the time he got to Sacramento, but I didn't care. I refroze it in our little ice cream maker and, other than not have the satisfying crunch of a cookie in the middle of a smooth ice cream bite, it tasted wonderful. 

Blue Bell is still just in 20 states, mostly southern. But now that Trader Joe's has opened in Fort Worth, I'd almost think the world was righting itself. But then, Mark would have to be here, too. 

God, I miss him still. 

Here's a cookies 'n' cream recipe we'd make in California. I still make it here from time to time, like I will later tonight, since I was able to pick up some Newman O's on sale. (Note: this recipe calls for raw eggs. Know your source. Also, if you use the little Cuisinart freezer, you'll need to cut this recipe in half.)

Mark and Peggy's Original Cookies N' Cream

4 eggs, beaten

2 1/4 cup sugar

5 cups milk

4 cups heavy cream

1 1/2 T. vanilla 

1/2 tsp. salt

One-pound bag of chocolate sandwich cookies

Crumble the cookies in bits and put in freezer to chill. Add sugar to eggs and beat until stiff. Stir in milk, cream, salt and vanilla. Freeze mix according to manufacturer's directions.

About 3-4 minutes before its finished freezing, drop in the cookie bits a little at a time. The dasher should push them evenly throughout, but if it doesn't, stir it by hand a little. 

Okra pickles

If rhubarb is Northern, okra is Southern. Especially okra pickles. I like cooking on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line.

This recipe comes from an old Martha Stewart Living show, and my instructions assume you know canning basics. If you don't, read more about here. Here's a hint from a mistake I made one year falling for that everything-is-big-in-Texas way. Don't use elephant garlic. It turns blue in the pickling salts.

Pickled Okra
2 lbs. tender okra
1 quart white vinegar
6 T. kosher salt
16 garlic cloves, peeled
8 red jalapeños, (opt.)
8 fresh dill heads
1/2 c. yellow mustard seeds

Wash okra and trim stems, leaving caps.

Prepare 8 canning jars and lids in boiling water bath, according to manufacturer's instructions. Meanwhile, bring vinegar and salt to a boil with 3 cups of water.

Pull jars from water bath, drop in dill head, jalapeño, a pair of garlic cloves and 1 T. mustard seeds to each jar. Pack okra in tightly, pour over hot liquid, making sure okra is covered and there is about 1/2-inch head space at the top of the jar. Release any bubbles with a clean wooden skewer.

Wipe rims, screw on tops, and process for 10 minutes. Cool for 24 hours before storing. Let mellow for two months before opening. Keep refrigerated after opening.

Rhubarb-Strawberry Crumble

This is based on a recipe from The Gourmet Cookbook, the first edition (2004) of which I scored on Amazon for $12 because of some kind of production error that made the headings unreadable for people with certain kinds of vision impairments. I hope I never develop that impairment as I age. I adore this cookbook.

Filling:
2 lbs. strawberries, hulled and halved
1 lb. rhubarb, sliced 1/2-inch thick chunks
1 c. sugar
3 T. cornstarch
1 T. lime juice
1/8 tsp. salt

Topping:
1 1/4 c. rolled oats
3/4 c. flour
3/4 c. brown sugar, packed
1/4 tsp. salt
12 T. unsalted butter, cut into cubes

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Stir the filling ingredients in a large bowl and then pour into a 13-inch baking dish. (I use my lasagna pan.) Stir all the topping ingredients, except the butter in another bowl and then crumble in the butter with your fingers. Spread it evenly over the top, bake for 45-50 minutes until the topping is nicely browned and the fruit is bubbling. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Homemade Nutella

2/3 cup hazelnuts
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 T. honey

Toast hazelnuts on a cookie sheet at 400 about 15 minutes. Skins will be very dark. Immediately wrap them in a kitchen towel and rub the skins off. Put the hot hazelnuts in the food processor and process until liquefied (about 5 minutes). Combined the sweet milk, chocolate chips and honey in a bowl and microwave one minute, stir, and return for 30 seconds at a time until the chips are melted. Stir into hazelnut butter and process until very smooth, 3-5 minutes. Pour into glass jar with a tight lid and store in refrigerator.

If you gave up chocolate for Lent ...

Here is a great way to savor the return.

Big Chocolate Blobs

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate

6 oz. semisweet chocolate

3 oz. unsalted butter

1/4 c. flour

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs

3/4 c. white sugar

2 tsp. instant coffee or espresso

2 tsp. vanilla

6 oz. chocolate chunks

4 oz. walnuts

4 oz. pecans

Prepare cookie sheets with parchment. Melt chocolate and butter in microwave, stir and let cool slightly. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat eggs, sugar, coffee and vanilla at high sped then switch to low speed and mix in chocolate, and then flour mixture, just til blended. Stir in chocolate chunks and nuts.

Using a cookie scoop, drop about 1 tablespoon of dough for each cookie, about nine per pan.

Bake for 16 to 17 minutes at 350 degrees. Do not over bake. Slide the parchment onto a cooling rack and remove the cookies after fully cooled.

Parmesan-Rosemary Popcorn

I visited St. Louis for a conference last week and had some great popcorn for a healthy snack. I did my best to replicate it at home. Parmesan is one of Sam's favorite things. When I told him I would be making this, he said, "That sounds good. But I didn't think you liked Parmesan that much."

Parmesan-Rosemary Popcorn

2-3 T. corn oil

3/4 c. unpopped popcorn

2 T. extra-virgin olive oil

2 tsp. rosemary, ground fine in a mortar and pestle

1/3 c. grated parmesan

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. fresh ground pepper

In a prep bowl, combine the rosemary, parmesan, salt and pepper, cover the bowl and shake well for even distribution.

Heat corn oil over high heat in a large, light weight fry pan -- covered -- with three kernels of popcorn. When the three kernels have popped, add all the rest of the popcorn at once and shake until all kernels have popped. Usually, that's after two to three seconds go by between pops.

If you can release some of the steam by slightly lifting the lid while the popping is going on, without sending kernels all over the kitchen, do it, because this makes the most tender kernels possible.

Pour out into a wide bowl and drizzle the olive oil over all, tossing well to coat. Then sprinkle the cheese mixture over all and toss well to coat.

Eat immediately, but once cooled can be stored in a tightly covered container for a day or two before its too stale and you just have to feed it to the chickens.

Team Kolaches

2 c. milk

1/2 c. butter

1/2 c. warm water

2 tsp. yeast (one package)

1 1/4 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 c. whole wheat flour

6 1/2 to 7 c. white flour

2 tsp. salt

2 packages jalapeno/cheddar sausage

16 bits of cheddar cheese (cut about 1/4 inch thick, 1/2-inch wide and 1 1/2 inch long)

Peggy's part:

Warm milk with butter until butter melts. Set aside. Pour yeast over water and let stand until softened and moist, about five minutes. Check temp of milk and butter (make sure its lower than about 100 degrees, but still warm) and stir into yeast mixture. Stir in sugar, eggs, wheat flour and salt. Add white flour enough to come together and start forming a ball, but not stiff, or the kolaches will be too dry. Let rise until doubled. This can take 2-3 hours. Punch down and put into the refrigerator a minimum of four hours.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Bring dough out to warm up. Meanwhile, cut sausage into 16 even lengths. (You want about 3 inches).

Sam's part (how to shape): Cut dough into 16 equal parts. Flatten the dough to shape, then put sausage and cheese in middle to wrap.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Pizza a la Sam

This recipe is on the regular rotation in the Wolfe house. It's all in the dough.

You can either top it with barbecue sauce, mozzarella cheese and bits of cooked chicken breast for preferred variation number one, or smother it with bottled marinara sauce, mozzarella, and slices of turkey pepperoni and Canadian bacon for the all-time family favorite.

Pizza dough
(enough for one large round and one small round)

Put in a mixer outfitted with dough hook 1 1/2 cup warm water, 2 T. olive oil, 2 tsp. salt, 1 c. whole wheat flour, 2 1/2 to 3 cups unbleached white flour, 2 tsp. sugar, 2 tsp. Rapid Rise yeast.

Run in mixer for 4-5 minutes until dough is a nice, pliable ball. Let rise til doubled.

Bake the pizzas at 425 F for 8 minutes, one on top rack, one on bottom, rotate and bake til crust begins to brown and cheese is bubbling and golden.

Peanut Sauce Promise

Here is the recipe Mark got from the hornist when they were both principals in the Sacramento Symphony.

I found the recipe unexpectedly authentic and always wondered where Eric got it. Mark used to like to say that, as a French hornist, Eric played very sharp and nearly missed all the notes. It's tuba humor. You had to be there.

Peanut Sauce

1 chicken carcass
1 bunch of cilantro
1 bunch green onions
3 carrots
1/2 bunch of celery
3 yellow onions, chopped
5 garlic cloves, chopped
1/3 cup ginger juice (grate fresh ginger and squeeze through a cheese cloth)
2 1/4 pounds crunchy peanut butter
1 1/2 lb jar of Crosse and Blackwell
red sambal
3 T butter
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

In four quarts of water, boil chicken with cilantro, green onions, carrots and celery for one hour. Cool to lukewarm and strain.

Saute onions and garlic in butter and olive oil til golden, set aside.

Add peanut butter to lukewarm broth. (If broth is too warm, it will coagulate.) Stir until lumps are gone. Add onion mixture, cocktail sauce, ginger juice and red sambal to taste. Stir thoroughly.

This makes a lot of peanut sauce. Serve over cold noodles and cucumber cut julienne. Stir fry tofu til brown, add red peppers and spinach til wilted, stir in peanut sauce as desired. Marinate chicken in sauce, grill, basting with additional sauce. Give a jar to a friend.

Bonenkai or not?

There are many things about 2011 that tell me it doesn't matter how many black-eyed peas I eat, that Southern tradition for good luck isn't going to work for me.

I loved being a part of many year-end parties in Japan when I was there twenty-five years ago. (Gad, that's a long time.) Even though 1985 was a good year, everyone acted as if it couldn't come to an end soon enough so that they could have another shot at it in the New Year. We ate like kings. And then the New Year came -- and that's three full days of resting and eating and being with family and friends.

Now, 1986 was a very good year for me. So I'm thinking Paige's little project this afternoon of making ramen noodles from scratch (based on a website that has thorough directions, with photos) ought to be our bonenkai. She's trying to channel her dad, who was an excellent pasta maker (his recipe below -- he would have the noodles cut by the time the water was boiling).

Yep, I'm thinking 2012 is going to be a very good year.

Mark's Perfect Pasta
Two heaping 1/3 cups of semolina flour
1 egg
1 T. water
salt
1 tsp. olive oil
white flour
large pot boiling, salted water

Put all ingredients in a food processor and process til a ball forms, about 3 minutes.

Turn out on a floured board and knead for a minute or two until supple. If it's too wet, knead flour into it. Divide into parts and put through your pasta machine. You may need to roll it through several times at the wider setting until the dough is supple enough to start rolling it through the thinner settings. Dust with flour on both sides before you roll it through the cutter.
Drop the noodles in the water and cook until slightly swollen, about five to ten minutes. Big noodles take longer.
Drain.
Serve hot with garlic butter and grated Romano cheese; your favorite marinara sauce; room temperature with pesto; or cold over cucumber cut julienne style and peanut sauce poured over all.

I've already posted the pesto recipe. I'll put up the peanut sauce recipe tomorrow.

Mark's Kahlua

Just about every year this time of year we'd have to hightail it outside and stay gone for a while because Mark would be making kahlua for his friends and music colleagues. The only thing that stinks up the house more than making kahlua is making mustard. Caramelizing onions isn't even on the same scale of stink, I'm telling you.

Ok, guys. Here's the recipe he refined while we were living in Sacramento.

2 quarts plus one cup water
7 cups sugar
6 ounces of freeze-dried coffee
1 T. Hershey's cocoa, optional
1 fifth of Everclear
3 T. vanilla

1. Drive to Reno to buy Everclear. (After we moved to Texas, he drove to Paradise.)
2. Boil water and add sugar. Add coffee and boil for 15 minutes. The house will be really smelly, so go outside. Add the cocoa and remove from the heat. Let cool.
3. Add Everclear and vanilla. Bottle and keep in your liquor cabinet.

Today it's four years since he's been gone.

I don't like thinking that at some point in my life I will have lived more of my life without him than with him.

Happy 24th, Sam!

The only time in his life I can buy a pack of candles and use every last one of them.

Here is the cake we nearly always bake for a Wolfe family birthday, ever since I bought Rosso and Lukins New Basics Cookbook and adapted it.

The Chocolate Birthday Cake

1 c. butter
1 1/4 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
3 eggs
3 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
2 1/4 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
9 T. buttermilk
1 c. boiling water
2 tsp. vanilla

Cream the butter and the sugar in the mixer for five minutes. Add eggs one at a time. Make sure each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next one. Meanwhile, melt chocolate in the microwave by breaking the blocks in pieces and microwaving on high one minute. If not fully melted, microwave for 30 seconds at a time until melted. Fold into butter and egg mixture.

Sift flour, soda and salt together. Add one third of flour mixture with 3 T. of buttermilk and mix on low. Repeat two times, mixing until all buttermilk and flour is incorporated.

With mixer on low, slowly pour in boiling water and then add vanilla. Pour into two prepared cake pans (I prefer Doughmakers) and bake at 375 til it pulls away from the sides and springs back in the middle, 25 to 32 minutes.

While the cake cools, melt 1 1/2 c. chocolate chips in a small saucepan with 8 T. of butter over very low heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, gently store in 2/3 c. half-n-half, 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 c. confectioner's sugar. This mixture will be thin. Refrigerate, stirring every 10-15 minutes until its stiff enough to frost the cake.

Start by applying a thin layer of ganache on the bottom cake round. Sprinkle with additional chocolate chips, pressing them down into the ganache. Top with other round, frost top and sides.

Serve. Store any leftovers covered in the refrigerator.

Pesto

Puree in a blender 3-4 cups of basil leaves, 1/4 cup of olive oil, 2 tablespoons pine nuts, 3 garlic cloves, 1/4 tsp. salt.

Pulse in 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup grated Parmesean cheese. Thin to desired consistency with pasta water, or additional olive oil.

JoC's Strawberry Punch, freely interpreted

For Sam's graduation party, I put out a devil's food cake (from Rosso and Lukins' New Basics Cookbook), chili-lime peanuts (from epicurious), butter mints (from Albertsons) and a double-batch of strawberry punch, based on the recipe from Joy of Cooking.

A few people asked for the recipe. The original is good just the way it is and I've made it that way many times, but Sam doesn't like carbonated beverages, so I had to fake it a little bit.

The Original

Boil for 5 minutes:
4 cups water
4 cups sugar
Cool the syrup. Combine:
2 quarts hulled strawberries
1 cup slice canned or fresh pineapple
1 cup mixed fruit juice -- pineapple, apricot, raspberry, etc.
Juice of 5 large oranges
Juice of 5 large lemons
(3 sliced bananas)
Add the syrup, or as much of it as is palatable. Chill these ingredients. Immediately before serving, add:
2 quarts carbonated water
3 cups or more of crushed ice.
The basic mix is concentrated, to offset the dilution that happens with the icing. Water can be added, as desired.

JoC Strawberry Punch, Sam Style

Boil for 5 minutes
4 cups water
4 cups sugar
As the syrup is cooling, hull and slice the strawberries into the syrup (helps the infusion)
When ready to mix, I added one bottle of TexSun Orange-Pineapple Juice (a favorite from his childhood) and 1 1/2 cups of lemon juice, and a small can of pineapple slices, drained.
Chill.
To serve, I added three trays of ice cubes.

An old family recipe

This week the Wolfe house is busy with the making of play-dough on the stove top. The DFW team for Texas Parent-to-Parent will have a booth at the Autism Speaks Walk this Saturday at the Ballpark in Arlington and we plan on giving the kids at the event a super experience for their senses.

I've dusted off an old family recipe that was a big hit with Sam when he was little. He was consumed with making sense of the world through his challenged senses. We made this dough, and then added a secret ingredient -- a package of unsweetened Kool-Aid to match the color with a flavor "scent." He loved it.

To wit, put these ingredients in a large saucepan and heat over very low heat, stirring constantly, until it's thick:

1 cup flour
1/4 cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil.

Remove from the heat and as soon as you can work the dough with your hands, make a well in the middle and add 1/2 teaspoon of food coloring to match the Kool-Aid flavor. For example -- purple and grape; green and lime; red and strawberry; yellow and lemon; and, of course, orange orange and blue blueberry.

The dough keeps for a few days in a rubber keeper or airtight bag. Plus, if your little one takes a bite, you don't have to worry about any mystery ingredients.