Jim Kuzzy (jimkuzzy@yahoo.com) submitted:

Ronnie,

Thanks for the stuffed potato recipes.  I look forward to trying the spinach and feta cheese variety.  I have a slight variation on baking potatoes which works well.  To your instructions, after scrubbing I would add drying with a paper towel to maximize benefits of 400 degree oven blast;  secondly, do not pierce the potato until it has baked for 30 minutes, then pierce as you said once with the tip of a knife.  Minor tweaks to be sure, but big results in the end. 

Thanks again for the recipes. 

Hey Jim — thanks for your wonderful input! Yes, quite true that the dry potato gets a better blast of heat and crunch. I agree fully.

I also agree that you should pierce the potato after 20-30 minutes — the most perfect way to bake a potato. I have to say — I did an article for a newspaper years ago on baked potatoes and actually recommended this and someone wrote to me that that was much too much trouble and picky for something as simple as a baked potato. So, I never recommended it again, for fear of angry readers!!  But you are so right — if you can remember and don’t think it’s too much to ask, pierce a baking potato 20-30 minutes after putting it into the oven!

Thanks!

Liked your Iman Bayeldi.  I added sliced pitted black olives. Added to eye appeal and delicious.  I am vegetarian and always looking for new ideas.  Thanks.

submitted by: jackalex@optonline.net

Wow, what a great idea to add olives! Thanks — will try that next time. Ronnie

Submitted by Carol Selkin (carol_selkin@sbcglobal.net):

Ronnie – As “Aunt Alice’s” daughter, I can testify that my mother was NOT a cook, although she had a refined and educated palate (my folks ate out a lot, and well).  However, she was clearly not motivated in the kitchen.  My brother and I considered canned Chef Boy-Ar-Dee ravioli a real treat (not surprisingly, it’s still a fave of ours, and—weirdly—of our local granddaughters)!  In the fifties, my mom bought an impressive rotisserie machine from which we ate chicken at least once a week.  A “gourmet” meal was baked, seasoned chicken pieces coated in egg and cornflakes.  All spinach was from the frozen bricks.  She hated lima beans, and never ate them, though she begrudgingly served them (I loved them).  Dessert was often red Jello with sliced bananas–my mother could never remember which of her kids hated red Jello (me), so she just served both of us.  Later, my mother graduated to nearly undiluted green jello poured into a drained can of sliced pineapple (after gelling, the bottom was opened and the “molded” tower of pineapple was pushed out and sliced).  So you can imagine how amazed we were when she baked!  She had a few quick and easy recipes: “Split Second” cookies, a lovely apple crisp, the Betty Crocker yellow cake mix with added Jello lemon pudding (not realy so bad…!), and the famous Schwarzwalder Kirchtorte.  I must admit I haven’t had it for more than 40 years, and sometimes, as you write, “food pushes emotional buttons”—  old “homey” things may be memorialized as terrific when they just represent the good time we had eating them (like canned ravioli?!).  But I did find Alice’s original recipe, with my handwritten “Yum Yum Yum” at the bottom.  I think your recipe looks much more tempting, but this certainly looks like an easy way out.  P.S.  My aunt (my dad’s brother’s wife, Roz) was an excellent baker, and some of my fondest memories of baked goods were the wonderful shoeboxes of pecan tartlets she would make for each of her nieces and nephews!

AUNT ALICE’S SCHWARZWALDER KIRCHTORTE from the ’50s

2 eggs; 1 c. sugar; ¼ lb melted butter (or margarine); 2 tbs. Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa; 1 tsp. vanilla extract; 1 tsp. almond extract; ½ c. sifted flour; ½ c finely ground nuts (done in a blender); 1 tsp. baking powder; 1 (16 oz.) can unsweetened (tart, sour) cherries DRAINED AS DRY AS POSSIBLE! (Alice’s note)

Beat eggs thoroughly.  Mix eggs with melted butter, vanilla and almond extracts, and sugar.

Add flour, baking powder, nuts, cocoa.  Coat a greased 8” (2 ½” high) springform pan with a fine dusting of nuts, or even fine bread crumbs.  Pour mixture into pan.  Spread drained cherries evenly over batter.  Bake about 60 minutes at 350 degrees.

Well this gave me two laughs and a half early in the morning!

I am so happy you found that recipe but I do want to say: IT IS NOT THE ONE SHE SERVED THAT NIGHT!!!

The one she served for dessert had no cherries in the cake — only on top. And it was covered with whipped cream and there were perfect rosettes of whipped cream too, topped with maraschino cherries and plenty of shaved chocolate over everything.

It didn’t matter. We had a good time and an evening — obviously — that lasts in the memory. So, as we both know, food can evoke great memories, even if the food wasn’t cooked by the person serving it.

I loved hearing about your memories of Chef Boy-Ar-Dee, jello molds and lima beans.

What are split second cookies?

Ronnie –

I really loved your “Balagan” blog entry, and took the liberty of copying and printing it out (with a tiny bit of editing and adding your next day’s entry about Jayne Cohen’s contest) for the folks who attend informal Shabbat services at the independent/assisted living center where Carl’s mom now lives.  On March 18^th, the services (which are held at 2 p.m. for those folks who can’t last through an “after sundown” service) are going to be abbreviated to accommodate a little Purim shpiel written by one of the volunteer service leaders who are sent courtesy of our Pasadena Temple.  Many of the people who attend these services are really “cultural” Jews, and attend because they’re looking for a comfortable Jewish community in this facility of more than 200 people, of whom about 60 are Jewish (anywhere from 4 to 15 regularly attend services, but many more come to the Highlands’ Chanukah celebration and Pesach seders – and even interested non-Jews attend those dinners).

Since we only have an hour in the space allotted for services, this first-ever Purim party will definitely NOT be a balagan, though all the “Esthers” will wear silver crowns and the Purim play Esther has a gold one (all are paper, and recyclable, of course!).  We will have graggers, but I think those with hearing aids (like myself, now) will use them gingerly.  Carl’s mother is already worried that people will drown her out every time her last name is mentioned (she is “Heiman” – pronounced “Haman”!)  We won’t be reading the “whole Megillah” (or any of it, come to think of it), but the Purim play should suffice.  I think your little resume of the Purim story will act as a brief for some attendees on the 18^th (Jews and non-).  Of course, we end the event with hamantaschen for all, and special little shalach mones goodie bags with more hamantaschen..

This segues nicely into my thoughts on your last Friday’s blog on The Happy Prince, which made a deep impression on me as a child.  I had both the book and the record, which I, like you, played over and  over and over.  The other day, the phrase, “swallow, little swallow…”  came to me out of the blue, prompted by our preparations for Purim and discussion about shalach mones.   I couldn’t for the life of me remember where the phrase came from, but it resonated deep in my psyche.  You can imagine how happy I was to see your blog about it a day later(!), reminding me of the story’s name and author.  It brought back such flood of memories (I think this may have been the first story that made me cry).  I remember I SO wanted the swallow to fly south and save himself just as I wanted him NOT to leave the prince.  If I remember correctly, radio programs for kids, which I listened to, featured the Orson Welles reading around Christmas.  (Did you remember that Bing Crosby was the voice of the Happy Prince? See the whole thing at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIPaS10r-T0 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JApl4-mgZ0).  In any case, I began thinking about how Chanukah, a relatively minor Jewish holiday, has replaced Purim, which – says my mother-in-law who grew up on New York’s Lower East Side speaking only Yiddish till she was 5 – used to be the major gift-giving holiday of the year for Jews.  Families baked goodies, including hamantaschen, and kids and their parents delivered these gifts – shalach mones – to friends and relatives throughout Purim.  Visiting was important.  What a wonderful tradition!  Why have we lost this?  Our Temple has recently instituted shalach mones  goodie bags, which people can order and send, with a “Purim wishes” card, to friends and family (or people can pick up their bags at the Temple).  Still sending and picking up aren’t exactly in the same spirit as human contact. What next – shalach mones over the social network?  Happy Pre-Purim 

Submitted by Carol Selkin (carol_selkin@sbcglobal.net):

Carol:

So happy to be a tiny “part” of your Purim celebration! Hope it went well and that all the Esthers and Mordechais had fun and enjoyed the hamantashen and the quiet “balagan.”

I do remember that when I was a child Purim was a much more important holiday and resembled Chanuka/Christmas festivities. But in the United States we follow the corporate culture so often and that culture says it makes more sense to have everyone going to the store in the last quarter. So maybe that’s part of it.

As for The Happy Prince, I don’t remember it on radio because we listened to the record, at least once a week. I think my brothers and I had memorized the entire script and the accents of the bird, the mayor, the prince and the town councillors. It is a wonderful story; I recently have read versions of it to my grandchildren, who were all mesmerized and have asked me to read it over and over. It’s timeless and priceless. 

My English professor husband Carl is teaching a class next quarter in non-fiction writing that includes food writing, and the first person he thought of was the renowned M.F.K. Fisher. Most foodies know that Fisher was one of the greats — her writings about food qualify her as a gastronome, but, more importantly, they place her in the forefront of distinguished American sociologists, philosophers and — most certainly — essayists.  This article by Krissy Clark for American Public Media <http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/07/19/wolf/#> includes a recipe for Gaspacho [sic] Soup by “Mary Frances,” from Fisher’s 1942 wartime book, “How to Cook a Wolf” — a major treatise in economizing without sacrificing the fun of preparing a meal (it’s clearly apropos for today’s tight times).  OK, I know a cold soup is mid-summer, not mid-winter, fare.  But who cares about dates or seasons when Fisher’s passion for cooking and eating is concerned?  Clark quotes from Fisher’s chapter, “How to be Cheerful Though Starving” [yikes!], about a woman who cooked meals of beach-foraged sea spinach and kelp.  Wrote Fisher: “I doubt very much if anybody but Sue could make it good… But anyone in the world with intelligence and spirit and the knowledge that it must be done, can live with her inspired oblivion to the ugliness of poverty. It is not that she wandered at night hunting for leaves and berries; it is that she cared enough to invite her friends to share them with her.”  Krissy Clark ends her article: And so Ferrary and I sat down to a simple lunch of delicious soup… and to the pleasure of each others’ company, which, Fisher reminded us, was the most important part of all.”  That’s the true holiday spirit, I think!

Submitted by Carol Selkin (carol_selkin@sbcglobal.net)

I agree, the true holiday spirit. And I cheer the fact that Fisher — food writing!! —  will be included in Carl’s course. Too many people think of food writing as a frivolous subject. But food is life. And good writing is worthy, whatever its subject matter.

Agreed. Those costumes were lame, cheap and uncool. And they were worn at *least* twice.

Submitted by cookiequest

Dear Mom,  

I am sorry that you got a flat tire; that happened to me once with Z in the car and we … . Well, very long story short, we began on 94th and Park and ended up in the Lower East Side where a guy named Dominic whose “shop” was a folding chair on a random stretch of sidewalk, hooked me up with a new tire.  

And all the while Z had to pee.  

And I was pregnant.  

And late to see a client.  

Hm, and it was your car.

I had indian food that night, I happen to remember.  

I don’t think there is a solution for how to keep the right stress food (for me it would be like potato pierogies or steamed roast pork buns or bubble milk tea) in the car and not just eat it every day.  But I bet there’s an app for locating the closest vendor.

Mer

Thanks Mer! It was certainly frustrating. And I think your idea is right — get something comforting from a nearby restaurant. There is a fabulous Middle Eastern place down the block from that gas station (Waterfalls Cafe on Atlantic Street). I could have had mujadarah!

Next time. Oh no! I hope there is never a next time!!

We made apple coffee cake with some of the apples we picked last weekend and it’s delish! An old friend taught me this recipe and it’s a big hit every time I make it. 

For the cake: 

1 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c sugar

1 T. cinnamon

5 1/2 T unsalted butter, room temp

1 egg, beaten

1/2 c milk

2 apples, peeled and sliced

For the crumb top: (mix in separate bowl)  

3/4 c flour

3/4 c brown sugar

1 tsp salt

4 T unsalted butter, room temp

1/2 c oats

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease parchment paper and place in baking dish

2. sift flour, baking powder and salt

3. mix 1/4 c sugar w cinnamon and set aside in separate bowl

4. In separate bowl, mix 1/4 c sugar w butter

5. Beat in egg and add flour mixture and milk slowly

6. Spread half batter on parchment

7. l;ayer the apples and sprinkle with 1/2 the cinnamon sugar

8. Add rest of batter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar

9. Cover with crumb top

10. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes

11. Reduce heat to 350 and bake another 25 minutes

Submitted by cookiequest

WOW this DOES sound delish! Thanks for the recipe. I still have lots of apples, even after all my pie baking. Will definitely make this cake. YUM

Hi - we went apple picking this past weekend but we didn’t pick greenings. The orchard had cortland, empire, fuji and gala. Of course they are all mixed up now and we don’t know which is which. Can you bake apple brown Betty with apples other than greenings? If so, what changes?

Submitted by Gillyf (Gillian@redfive.com)

Yes, of course you can use almost any kind of apples, except, I would say, Red Delicious, which are truly flavorless and in any event, don’t bake well. It might be a good idea to use a variety of apples, that would give it a nice flavor. The apples you picked are a bit sweeter than Greenings, so, if you like sweet desserts I would say don’t change anything about the recipe. But you could also cut down the brown sugar by a tablespoon or two.

IN addition, different apples soften (or not) differently, so the texture of these, when cooked, may be firmer than Greenings. No matter. Granny Smiths stay firm too and the dessert is still wonderful.

Guess what I am saying is that this is a very forgiving recipe, as is apple pie. Use whatever you have, try different apples each time and you’ll taste the difference as well as feel the different texture, but it will all still be delicious.