Food

This stuff is crack. It’s worse than potato chips. You can’t just eat one. They’re so yummy that you won’t be able to help yourself. It can be made with margarine instead of butter and it turns out okay, but if you can digest dairy, use butter.

Ingredients for the dough:

• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1 tbsp active dry yeast
• 1-1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1 cup milk, warm
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1-3/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter, melted
• 5 cups bread flour
• no-stick spray

Ingredients for the garlic butter:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 8 garlic cloves, grated or minced very fine
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
• 1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

First, gently whisk together the water, yeast, and 1/2 tablespoon of the sugar in a bowl. Let this proof until it’s bubbly and smells yeasty, at least five minutes.

To the yeast mixture, add in the milk, eggs, salt, butter, and the rest of the sugar. Beat these together with a wooden spoon or with a dough hook in your stand mixer. Slowly begin to add the flour, half a cup at a time.

Once all the flour is incorporated, knead the dough until it’s smooth and elastic. This will take 5 to 10 minutes in a stand mixer, or up to 20 minutes by hand. Always finish up your dough by hand, so you can tell when it’s ready. Place the kneaded dough into a lightly oiled bowl and turn it to cover all the dough with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap or a grocery bag with no holes, and let it rise until it’s doubled in size. This will take one to two hours.

While the dough is rising, make your garlic butter. Combine the butter, garlic, and salt in a small saucepan. Heat over a medium low heat and stir occasionally, until the butter is completely melted. Remove it from the heat, and stir in the parsley and rosemary. Reserve a tablespoon of the garlic butter for brushing on the finished bread.

Lightly grease two loaf pans (your favorite no-stick spray works great for this). Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into about 40 pieces. Shape each piece into a ball. Roll half the dough balls in the garlic butter, and arrange them in the bottom of the prepared loaf pans. Sprinkle with half of the Parmesan. Repeat with the rest of the dough balls. If you have any of the garlic butter left (except the reserved tablespoon), drizzle it evenly over the loaves.

Cover your pans loosely with plastic wrap or grocery bags, and let the dough rise until it has doubled in size. This will not take as long as the first rise, so plan on it being 45 minutes to an hour. Preheat your oven to 350°F during the last 20 minutes of the rise.

Uncover your loaves and put the pans in your preheated oven. Bake the bread until the tops are golden brown. If you have a thermometer, the interior should be about 200°F, which should take about 35 to 40 minutes to bake. Remove the loaves from the oven and brush the tops lightly with the reserved tablespoon of garlic butter. If necessary, reheat the butter to melt it.

Cool the loaves in the pans for five minutes, then remove the bread from the pans. Serve while still warm, with a side of pizza sauce!

Meatballs are the ultimate feast food, in my opinion. There are as many ways to make them as there are cooks, and maybe more. This recipe was created based upon a video by Country Life Vlog in Azerbaijan, Turkey. While Aziza (the cook) doesn’t give you amounts or any real instructions, I pieced this together by watching her cooking the meal. It’s incredibly delicious!

Ingredients:

For the broth:

• 6 cups water
• 1 lb beef soup bones
• 1 lb beef, diced
• 1 lb pork, diced
• 1 head of garlic, halved across the middle, paper still on it
• 1 large onion, quartered
• 1 hot pepper (dehydrated or fresh)
• salt, pepper, bay leaves

For the meatballs:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 onion, minced fine
• 1/3 cup rice, washed well
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp turmeric
• 1 tbsp dry mint (crushed fine)
• several dates, figs, or prunes

For the rest of the recipe:

• 3 large potatoes, peeled and split in half the long way
• 1 can chickpeas, well rinsed
• several threads of saffron

Make your broth first. Add the broth ingredients into a large pot and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and allow it to simmer for at least 3 hours, adding water as necessary to keep it from drying out. If you want to skip this part, you can use 6 cups of beef broth, and add the other ingredients to it, and let it simmer for 30 minutes before moving on.

While the broth is cooking, work on your meatballs. In a large bowl, add all the ingredients except the figs. Mix together by hand, until everything is well distributed. Let this sit, covered, for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.

When the broth is ready, remove all the ingredients and strain it to be sure there’s no hot seedy surprises lurking in the bottom. Return the broth to the pot, and taste it. Add salt and pepper to taste. Bring the broth back to a simmer while you form the meatballs.

For a pound of ground beef, make 3 to 4 meatballs (yes, they are LARGE). Really manhandle the meatballs, slapping them from hand to hand to make them fairly solid. In the center of each meatball, place one fig, and form the ball around it. Set the meatballs aside.

Mix together a tablespoon of turmeric, a cup of water, and a dash of salt, and whisk to combine. Use this turmeric water to “wash” the outside of the meatballs. This adds a bit of flavor, but also smooths the outside of the meatballs to help them hold together better while cooking. As each meatball is done, place it into the simmering broth. Make certain the broth covers the meatballs most of the way. Cover the pot, and allow to simmer.

Peel and slice your potatoes in half now, and slide them into the broth around the meatballs. Add the rinsed chickpeas, a few figs, and the saffron, as well. Be careful not to squish the meatballs, as they aren’t firm yet and could fall apart. If there isn’t enough liquid at this point to cover everything, you can add a bit of beef broth or water, or even a dash of red wine, to bring it up high enough. Using a large spoon, gently nudge the meatballs to make sure all sides are getting evenly cooked, and they aren’t sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Simmer until the meatballs are cooked through and the potatoes are soft and just beginning to crumble a bit. You can check the meatballs with an instant read meat thermometer. They should register at 165°F when they are ready.

Serve up this delicious meal with a side of pickles or beets if you would like to be immersed in Turkish food culture. Alternatively, a slice of bread never goes wrong, either.

Notes:
When I made this soup, I found the broth to be so spicy that I couldn’t eat it. I used a dehydrated poblano pepper, and it was just too much for me. I’m not a big heat person. Family said that it was warm but not hot to them, so your mileage may vary! I served the broth in small bowls on its own, and then put the meatballs, potatoes, and chickpeas on a plate. That way, people could use as much or little of the broth as they wanted. This was a very hearty meal.

The Country Life Vlog video:

“In all her life Laura had never tasted anything so good as that savory, fragrant, sea-tasting hot milk, with golden dots of melted cream and black specks of pepper on its top, and the little dark canned oysters at its bottom. She sipped slowly, slowly from her spoon, to keep that taste going over her tongue as long as she could.” — from By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder, pp 204

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have an uncontrollable fascination with the Little House series. It was my introduction to Christianity, and the reason why I invited the minister to dinner when we moved to New England (Ma insisted it was right and proper, so therefore it was what I ought to do, yes?). I’ve been through the series so many times that I’ve had to buy new copies on several occasions, the older ones having worn out. I learned morals and ethics from them. For me, Laura and Ma and Pa and the other people there are just as real as you and me.

Several years ago (several severals of years ago), I was living on the west coast and had managed to become unemployed and rather destitute. I was scraping by on unemployment insurance payments, but it was pretty dicey. My partner D and I were approaching the Christmas and Yule season with as much joy as we could muster. After all, we had a roof over our heads, heat, and each other. It was lean, but love fills a lot of gaps.

Some kind soul had told the local fire department that we were living lean over the season, and a soft spoken gentleman brought us a hamper of food. I tried to protest, but he insisted that it was alright, we weren’t taking anything from someone else. I’ll admit, once he was gone, I tore into that box like … well, like it was Christmas morning. D and I went through the rice and pasta, a tiny canned ham, some fresh vegetables, and then at the very bottom we found the single precious can of smoked oysters.

We could have eaten that can of oysters in two seconds. We’re both in love with them, their smoky flavor, savory and oily… But I looked at him and ran to the book shelf. I pulled out “By the Shores of Silver Lake” and went skimming through it to find the New Year’s Eve scene. There it was, Laura’s description of the oyster soup Ma had made for their guests. He and I started laughing, and we recreated that soup for Christmas Eve for ourselves. It was a wonderful meal.

A while ago (before I couldn’t handle dairy anymore), I wanted to make the soup again. I remember how delicious it was way back when I was barely an adult. Tastes change, though, and I wondered if it would still be as magical. I picked up three cans of cheap smoked oysters and sacrificed some of my coffee half-and-half, and made the soup as a starter to our Yule meal last night.

Everyone enjoyed it. I made enough that I assumed there would be much in the way of leftovers, but there wasn’t. Barely a drop was left in my soup tureen when we were done! It was just as Laura described it, with the oil and butter, the salty sea taste.
Read More

My father taught me this recipe just before I moved out of the house, and he learned it from his mother, my Nagymama (Hungarian for grandmother). It’s one of those stick to your ribs recipes, and can be made with a variety of ingredients. This is the base recipe, and I’ve included some additions at the end, for inspiration. This is the perfect thing to make when you know you’re going to be shoveling snow for hours, or you have to do other outdoor work in cold or damp and chilly environs.

Ingredients:

• 16 oz kielbasa sausage, coined
• 6 to 8 potatoes, cubed
• 4 cups broth
• 3 to 6 tbsp sweet paprika (Szeged brand, please)
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/4 package of bacon, diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 to 6 cloves of garlic, minced

In a large soup pot, add the oil and heat on medium. Add onions, and cook until softened. Stir in half of the paprika. Add bacon and sausage, and cook until they are thoroughly browned and bacon is beginning to crisp. If necessary, pour off some oil (though it will lend a lot of flavor if you leave it in).

Add the potatoes to the pot (do NOT stir). Pour in the broth until it is just barely above the top layer. Add more paprika, to make everything quite red. Bring everything to a boil, and then lower the heat to lowest setting and simmer for about an hour. Please note, this may stick a bit to the bottom of your pot. Don’t stress. As long as it doesn’t burn or char, it’s perfect that way.

After an hour, check on your stew. The potatoes should be soft and beginning to fall apart. Stir well, and add some salt and pepper to taste. The end result should be a stew thickened by the potatoes, and filled with tasty sausage.

Notes:

You can make this with any sausage, or technically any protein. Kielbasa was my Nagymama’s way of making this meal, but it can also be made with Andouille, Polish sausage, and even breakfast sausage or hot dogs if you’re in a pinch. When stirring, use a wooden spoon or spatula. Bits of potato will stick to the bottom a bit, but they can be scraped up gently and will make the stew taste even better! Also, if you like a bit of spice, you can also use some or all HOT paprika, as opposed to sweet. Beware… good quality Hungarian paprika is very flavorful, and the hot stuff is quite hot. I recommend “Szeged” brand, which is available in Market Basket, Shaw’s, and most other big box grocery stores.

I’ve made this with pretty much every kind of cheap meat out there. You can use any protein at all, but if you’re using a raw meat, cook it first. I prefer to use sausages and pre-cooked meat because it makes this trivial to pull together quickly. You can also make this in the crock pot by cooking up the onions and meat, then tossing everything into the crock pot and cooking on low for 8 hours, or high for 4. This freezes well, too, so if you have leftovers you can make up single serving packages and toss them in the freezer.

I serve this up with dill pickles and bread, because it’s what Nagymama always did. It goes well with just about everything, though.

I love my bagels. I love everything about them. You could use homemade bagels for this, but if you want to buy them, that makes it SO EASY. This is very much a throw-together meal that could be made the evening before then just heated up in the morning if you’re feeding a crowd. And if you can’t find everything bagels, use plain, and pick up a bottle of “everything bagel” seasoning and just sprinkle it throughout!

Ingredients:

• 4 everything bagels, chopped
• 1-1/2 cups shredded cheese
• 1-1/2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
• 8 oz block cream cheese, cut into 1/2″ cubes
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 10 large eggs
• 2-1/2 cups milk
• 2 green onions, sliced, plus more for garnish
• salt to taste
• freshly ground black pepper
• a pinch of cayenne
• 1 tsp poppy seeds
• 1 tsp dried minced onion
• 1 tsp sesame seeds
• 1 tsp dried garlic
• 1 tsp coarse salt

Preheat your oven to 350°F and grease (or no-stick spray) a 9×13″ baking pan. Distribute half of the bagel pieces int he pan, and top them with half of the cheese, tomatoes, cream cheese, and red onion. Repeat to make another layer.

In a bowl, whisk together your eggs, milk, and green onions. Season with the salt, pepper, and cayenne. Pour the egg mixture over the bagels, making sure to coat each bagel piece. Sprinkle the top of the casserole with the poppy seeds, minced onion, sesame seeds, garlic, and coarse salt. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes.

Remove the foil, and continue to bake until the bagels are golden and the eggs are cooked through. This may take up to 25 minutes more. Allow it to cool for 15 to 30 minutes.

Garnish with green onions before serving.

Notes:

You can add spinach to this if you like! Sprinkle it through with the tomatoes and onions. Any kind of cheese will work. You should cater to your intended audience. This can be made dairy free by using a dairy free milk substitute like oat milk or Silk, and by using a non-dairy vegan cheese. It can’t really be made vegan, however, because the egg is the binder for the casserole.

If you want to make this ahead, bake it for the first 45 minutes, then set it somewhere to cool, and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, bake it for the final 15 to 25 minutes, so it’s warm throughout and everything looks delicious.

Some people prefer more eggs and some prefer less. The casserole should have enough egg incorporated to allow the bagel bits to “stick together.” If you like more egg and want it to be more solid, feel free to add as many eggs as you think you need to get it there. Be aware that it may change the baking time. Be prepared to add an extra 15 or so minutes to make sure the egg is cooked through before taking the foil off.

Okay, I made these because they seemed funny and amusing, and very retro. I am making more because they’re also easy and REALLY yummy. They also have a lot less sugar than some of the cookies I’ve seen out there, which is nice. This is based on an early 1970s Jello recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
• 1-1/2 cups butter (room temperature)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 package (3 ounces) jello gelatin, any flavor
• 1 egg (room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat your oven to 400°F. It doesn’t take long to pull the cookie dough together, so you should be ready about the time it comes up to temperature!

Sift your flour and baking powder together. I don’t normally do that, but because these are technically spritz cookies, the dough is supposed to be very soft. Sifting helps the dough come together the way it should. If you don’t have a sifter on hand, pour your flour and baking powder into a strainer and tap the side of it until all the ingredients fall through.

In a separate container, cream your butter. If you’re doing it by hand, you can use a fork or whisk, and work it. I recommend using a stand mixer, however. Using the wire whisk attachment, whip the butter until it’s soft and fluffy. At that point, add in the sugar and Jello packet, about a quarter cup at a time, creaming it well after each addition. This makes the dough very light and fluffy, which is necessary. Add the egg and vanilla, and continue to beat well.

Gradually add in the flour mixture, and ensure that  you mix well enough that the dough is smooth each time before adding the next portion. About half way through the process, if you’re using the whisk attachment, you’ll want to switch to the paddle attachment on your mixer. The dough gets a bit thick, though continues to be light and fluffy.

There are two ways to make the cookies. They both start with lining two or three baking sheets with parchment paper. Do not grease them.

For shaped cookies, force the dough through a cookie press. Decorate however you wish.

For round cookies, use your hands to make inch-wide balls of the dough, and place them onto the parchment paper. Lightly grease the bottom of an appropriately sized glass or cup, and press gently into the dough to make it into a circle. It ends up looking almost like a wax seal, to be honest. Again, decorate as you wish. This is the method I used, and I put on sprinkles to most of my cookies. I just shook them on, then pressed very gently with clean hands to seat the sprinkles into the dough. I also did one batch with “snow” on top, by baking them and adding powdered sugar AFTER they came out of the oven but when they were still very hot. To do “snow” you add a tablespoon of powdered sugar to a small sieve and then tap the side of it over the cookies. The sugar will fall through and dust the top of the cookies. You can even use pre-cut shapes like stars and trees to decorate with “snow”.

Bake your cookies for 13 to 15 minutes, or until they’re golden brown at the edges. They can be frozen, or they can be stored in a loosely covered container.

Notes:

I used orange jello for my first batch, and the result was very tasty. The “snow” batch had a sort of orange creamsicle flavor to it, and the rest it was hard to taste the jello. The color definitely comes through, though. I also used margarine for my cookies, since I can’t digest dairy. They turned out just fine!

I love making different feasts. It pleases me to no end to come up with some new recipe based on something I saw in passing online. This recipe is based on something I saw on TikTok, and another recipe that I skimmed through on Facebook.

Ingredients:

• pork ribs (2 per person, roughly)
• barbecue sauce (your favorite)
• orange juice
• cranberries
• salt, pepper, paprika, thyme, oregano, red pepper flakes

Grease a large oven-safe pot or pan, deep enough to contain all the ribs plus the liquids. I use no-stick spray, but you could use any fat, really. Preheat your oven to 250F.

Place your ribs into the pan in whatever manner you like, but in a single layer. Don’t stack them on top of each other, or some will be delicious and the rest will be hard and yucky. While the oven preheats, whisk together the barbecue sauce and juice, then add in the spices until it’s right for you. You want enough to cover the top of your ribs, but not to drown them. They’ll make their own liquid as they cook, so you just need to coat the top.

Cover the top of the ribs with the sauce, using a brush to get all the nooks and crannies. Add in the whole, fresh cranberries or some dried ones (or dried cherries, or whatever floats your boat here). Cover the pan with a lid or tin foil, and place in the oven. Bake for 2 hours.

After 2 hours, check on the ribs. They should be partially cooked (pork ribs are fully cooked when they reach an internal temperature of 210F, but they also tend to fall apart when you try to take their temperature, so you can just judge it by that if you like) at this point. Move the ribs around if some of them are sticking out or looking dry, but otherwise, just check on them. Raise the temperature of your oven to 350F, and continue to bake, covered, until the pork is falling apart and ready. You’ll know it’s ready when it basically falls apart when you poke it with a fork.

Serve up hot, with delicata squash and fresh made spinach noodles.

Notes:

I spooned the liquid out of the pot over my noodles, and it was FANTASTIC. I made the noodles myself, although they were a bit soft. I didn’t add enough flour to the recipe. Still, they were tender and quite yummy. And green LOL!

I adore sausage gravy and biscuits. They’re the ultimate comfort food. The biscuits are a wee bit sweet, and the sausage gravy is a bit spicy and savory and creamy, all at once. I always make mine with an egg, though you can do what you want with yours.

Ingredients for the sausage gravy:

• 1 lb ground sausage meat (Jones or Jimmy Dean work well)
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 to 2 cups of milk (regular, cream, or non-dairy is fine)

In a large pan, brown your ground sausage meat over a medium heat. You want it to be thoroughly cooked, but not crispy or burned. Drain off the fat, and reserve it (pro tip: add a lining of tin foil to a bowl and strain your fat into it… after, use what you want by spooning it out, then discard the rest, wrapped up in the foil). Remove the sausage and set aside.

Add 2 tablespoons of the fat back into your pan and add in the onion. Saute over a medium heat until the onion until becomes soft and opaque. Add in the garlic and stir continuously for about 30 seconds to a minute. You want the garlic to be fragrant, but not brown or crisp. Add extra fat if necessary.

Sprinkle the onion mixture with the flour, and stir with a wooden spoon until it’s incorporated and clumpy. If it’s very loose and saucy, you may need a bit more flour. If it’s all white and not mixing into the onion, you may need a bit more fat. The idea is to make a roux.

Lower your heat to just below medium. Pour in your milk very slowly, about a quarter cup at a time, and stir gently and constantly with a wooden spoon. Work on getting rid of any lumps or bits of unincorporated flour to ensure your gravy comes out smooth. Continue to add your milk until the gravy is a good consistency for you. You want to end up with a smooth, fairly thick gravy that is easy to stir and has no lumps.

If your gravy “breaks,” meaning it separates into lumpy bits and oily liquid, you can fix it. Add warm water a tablespoon at a time and whisk vigorously in between. This should allow your gravy to emulsify again, and get creamy. The water must be warm, not hot or cold, for this to work.

Once your gravy is how you like it, add the sausage back in and stir to mix it well. Set aside until your biscuits are done!

Now it’s time to make the biscuits!

Read More

If you’re like me, you currently have a turkey carcass somewhere in your fridge, freezer, or on your (very cold) porch. Thanksgiving was delicious, and you’ve mostly picked that carcass clean. What’s left are the bits no one generally eats (wings maybe, or the bottom of the bird, the backbone, and perhaps the neck and giblets). Don’t throw those away, folks. That right there is Winter Gold.

To make a hearty turkey broth is quite easy. You can do it in a crockpot, a Westinghouse (which is my method), or on your stove top. This can even be done over a fire, on a hearth, or on top of your wood stove, if you like. You simply need a heat source that will bring your liquid to a low simmer, but not a full boil.

Whatever method you’re using, the preparation is exactly the same. First, denude your bird. Pull off ALL the edible meat (yes, even from the legs). Leave behind tendons, bones, gristly bits, and parts no one eats. Store the meat in the fridge for later. Now take your hands, a large knife, or a good pair of kitchen sheers and cut the bird into pieces that will fit into whatever you’re making your broth in. You want all the bones and bits to be submerged, so depending on your size of pot, you may need to chop up the bird fairly small. It’s perfectly okay to put the carcass into your pot then use a large spoon or a wooden mallet to shove and break it until it fits. For our purposes, it does not matter if the bones are broken.

Once the bird is in the pot, you will begin to add your vegetables. If you want to be truly frugal, you should add in all the peelings and skins from Thanksgiving dinner. I didn’t save all mine (though I have in the past), so instead, I’m adding in the following:

• one whole onion, skin on, quartered
• one head of garlic, cut in half so all the cloves are halved, skin on
• 2 bay leaves
• leftover carrots (carrot tops and skins are fine here, too)
• celery tops (the leafy bits, rough chopped)
• whatever herbs you prefer (my garden yielded the last of the sage, thyme, and some parsley)
• whatever spices you prefer (at least the standards: salt, pepper, garlic)

Add all these to your pot, and then pour in enough water to cover everything, but not to boil over. Bring your broth to a boil, and then put the temperature down to low and let it simmer for several hours.

Read More

Last week it was turkey. This week, I’m sharing my favorite side dishes that I use in a perfect Thanksgiving Feast!

Mashies

Mashed potatoes are a definite requirement at any Thanksgiving feast. The easiest way to make delicious mashed potatoes is to cut them into about inch square cubes, and boil them until they’re soft but not yet falling apart. Mash with whatever masher you have on hand, adding in a minimum of a tablespoon of butter per potato in the mix and drizzling in milk or cream (or in my case, oatmilk) as needed to bring them to the right consistency for you. I like my potatoes a little lumpy, but everyone else likes them creamy, so I tend to whip them very fine. Serve them with a slight well in the top, filled with a pad of butter and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. They don’t need anything else!

Bread Stuffing

Stuffing is a constant battle in my household. We have several recipes we like, but I’m going to share my Hungarian grandmother’s recipe, because it’s my favorite. This was named “Song Stuffing” by one of my kids, because it contains parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme… but we adults call it “Heart Attack Stuffing” because of all the yummy fatty goodness inside it. It’s also a great way to get liver into your kids, because they’ll never know it’s there until they’ve fallen in love with it. It’s how my Nagymama got me to eat liver!

Read More