The Perfect Hostess - Part 2

As promised, here are the results of the baked egg in tomato recipe from The Perfect Hostess.


The recipe is a bit vague, as older recipes can often be: scoop out the innards of a tomato, crack an egg into it, cover with breadcrumbs and bake at 350 until the white is firm. Cross-referencing with a recipe from the JOY I decided to forego the breadcrumbs and instead topped the egg with a little butter, salt and pepper.


Thirty minutes later, I pulled the dish out of my toaster oven and enjoyed it with buttered, toasted English muffins. Unfortunately the pictures are not very appetizing - you'd probably have to bake 50 of these to get a pretty one. But they are tasty.

The Perfect Hostess - Part 1

Going through my grandmother's old books, we found this treasure from 1950. Written by a woman "still in her 20s" the book is full of wisdom for entertaining - as a wife or a career girl.

The book includes a lengthy section on how to cook all day and still appear fresh and energetic for the party. (It involves bubble bath, lying down with your legs above your head, and convincing your husband that "only he" can do the last-minute activities like putting out trail mix.)

However, I was equally entranced by the graphical explanations of formal dinner settings...

Glasses for alcoholic beverages...

And even the proper settings for buffet tables!

Next week I'll share with you the results of my trial of one of the book's recipes, eggs baked in tomato.

NOTE: These pictures are large, so click on them if you want to see details.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Baking Again

Nothing heralds the arrival of fall like the desire to start baking again after an incredibly long, incredibly hot summer.

In the last few weeks I've fired up the oven several times. Muffins are a favorite.

Adding lemon zest to blueberry muffins

Breakfast! Snack! Dinner! I'm always relieved to have my own "quick breads" around because the ones you buy at the store are either a) flavorless or b) needlessly expensive. This may be one instance where "making your own" is not a good way to maintain a healthy diet, though, because when there's no competition for baked goods they all go in one belly: mine.

Irish soda bread with raisins and caraway seeds. Basically a giant scone. It came together in about 5 minutes (30 to bake). I was shocked.

Baked Stuffed Poblanos

I don't usually post recipes on here because most of the stuff I make is from other people's recipes. But I made up this baked poblano dish this past week (after researching baked peppers, rice pilaf, and Mexican rice) and I was so dang proud of how they turned out I thought I'd share.

INGREDIENTS:
2 lg poblano peppers
3/4 of a large white onion
2 scallions
2 lg cloves garlic
1 lg carrot
2 c. vegetable stock
1 c. canned chopped tomatoes (1/2 can)
1 c. long grain white rice
1/3 c. chopped toasted walnuts
1 c. shredded jack cheese
chopped parsley to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Roast poblanos and set to steam
3. Chop vegetables (I made mine pretty small). Put large saucepan over medium heat; add oil. Let it get hot, then add the onions and garlic. Saute for a minute or two, adding salt to taste. Add the rice and carrot and cook for a couple more minutes. Add a little more salt, especially if your veggie broth is unsalted. Then add 1.5 cups of the vegetable stock and all the tomatoes. Cover and cook the rice until done (about 10 minutes after it boils). Then remove from the heat, fluff the rice with a spatula, and let sit covered for 10 more minutes. Stir in the cheese, walnuts, and parsley.
4. Peel the poblanos, cut off the tops, and make a slit down the side. Remove seeds and ribs.
5. In a 9x9 baking pan, lay down a layer of the rice mixture. On top of that, lay the poblanos, which you can stuff with the remaining rice and reclose. Pour the remaining 1/2 c. veg stock into the bottom of the pan. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 35 minutes.

Serve with black beans and or as a taco/burrito filling. Serves approximately 4.

Food on Screen: Grown in Detroit

Leave it to the Dutch to fund a documentary that Americans across the country should watch. I don't know if or when this film will arrive stateside, but I was lucky to catch it at the Austin Film Festival, where it won the prize for best documentary.

In a nutshell, GROWN IN DETROIT is about urban farming in, well, Detroit, where there are a lot of unused and vacant lots, high unemployment and poverty. Specifically, the film is about a program for teenage moms that not only provides day care/education for their kids, but also teaches the girls agricultural skills - with the hope that they will both feed the city and their families, and make some money doing it.

The school, one of only two in the US that has a similar program, is called Catherine Ferguson Academy. It's pretty amazing stuff (though might fall under the category of common sense...). The directors, a young Dutch couple, were at the screening I attended, and unfortunately it seems that the school has lost funding and had to fire half their staff last year. This will obviously affect the quality of the program. But on the bright side, the number of gardens in Detroit is mushrooming - from 300 to 800 in a little over a year.

Catch this documentary if you have the chance. The sight of an urban environment, usually so far from nature, being transformed not only into a green place, but one that can sustain food (and bees! the bees love it in Detroit!) makes you feel hope where it might seem none is possible.

Dining Out: Tarka

My cousin Mary had read about a new Indian restaurant down south so we went to check it out last week. Tarka is interesting as a concept restaurant - basically Indian fast food. The menu is on the wall as you enter; then you place an order at the counter and a server brings out the food a few minutes later.

It's clean and bright and family-friendly. Also seems like it would do well for the downtown lunch crowd who don't have many options for Indian food, and often prize convenience and speed.

A few interesting drink choices: mango-lemonade, lassis in splendid tall glasses, and this soda called Limca

Veggie pakoras - which though flavored with Indian seasonings were more reminiscent of tempura in the way they had been fried

I got a tomato curry with green peas, paneer and mushrooms. You have the choice of how spicy to make the curries - mild, medium or hot - and we figured out that the jalapeno placed on top was probably kitchen short hand for the spiciness of an order (mine was medium-hot)

If I go again I'll get a naanini.

Mommie Mack's Fruit Salad

I recently had the opportunity to make my grandmother's fruit salad for a potluck. Mommie Mack's fruit salad, which shows up often at family holiday gatherings, can be varied depending on taste and what looks good in the market.

When I was younger, I thought it was all canned - thus I imagined 1950s cuisine. But when I helped MM make it for the first time I realized that it consisted of more fresh fruit than canned. This helps explain its deliciousness.

Canned pineapple, neatly placed in its container

(The salad also contains canned tangerines)

All the fruit together: kiwis, red grapes, bananas, apples, canned tangerines, and canned pineapple

And yes, whipped cream and marshmallows

All assembled

Making the salad put me in the mind of family gatherings past, and maybe it was because I was listening to Beethoven's late sonatas, but I got nostalgic and a bit sad. Food can do that can't it? Jonathan Safran Foer has a great article in the NYT Magazine this week exploring some of the same feelings.