Cabbage

Cabbage is not mentioned in the Bible, though it was eaten by both Romans and Greeks.  The Emperor Tiberius once required the Senate to vote on whether there was any dish in the world superior to to corned beef and cabbage.

     Diogenes, to a young courtier: If you lived on cabbage, you would not be obligated to flatter
          the powerful.
     Young courtier: If you flattered the powerful, you would not be obliged to live on cabbage.

In Russia, cabbage soup or shchi, is made from cabbage, carrots, meat, onions, celery and garlic, with a sour flavoring from apples, sour cream, or sauerkraut juice.  A favorite for at least a thousand years, it can be found in Russian poems and prose, on the table of both rich and poor and in the fond memory of every exile.

Taken from an excert of Life Is Meals by James and Kay Salter.

Which brings us to coleslaw and the advent of summer.  I am on my way to Canasta's at Joanne's and I have made this recipe for my contribution.

This book: Keepers, The Recipe Collection is by Helene Randolph Moore was printed in 1980.  It has over 400 excellent recipes, just waiting for you to try them.  This sells on my Amazon storefront for $8.88.  www.amazon.com/stores/oneofakindcookbooks .

Cabbage Slaw

1 small head of cabbage, halved

1 green pepper, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 cup sugar

1 cup vinegar

3/4 cup salad oil

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp mustard seed

1 tsp celery seed

Shred half of cabbage head.  In large bowl, layer cabbage, half of green pepper and onion.  DON'T STIR. Mix vinegar, salad oil, salt, mustard and celery seed; stir throughly.  Drizzle over top of vegetables.  DON'T STIR.  Cover and let stand 4 hours before serving.  Stir before serving.  Will keep in refrigerator for several weeks.  6-8 servings.

Does it get any easier than this? And you have a great salad to last for weeks (well maybe not in my house, but you get the picture).

Happy Cooking!

Artichoke Trivia

In the U.S., Artichokes were first grown in Louisiana, brought there by settlers in the 19th century.

In 1947, Marilyn Monroe was crowned the First Queen of Artichokes.

Castroville, CA is known as the Artichoke Capital of the world. (It is where Norma Jean (Marilyn Monroe) was crowned the Artichoke Queen in 1947).

Cynar(part of the Artichoke) is an Artichoke flavored aperitif made in Italy.

Artichokes are actually a flower bud, part of the thistle family; if allowed to flower, blossoms measure up to seven inches in diameter and are a violet-blue color.

My recipe today comes from a cookbook not found on my Amazon website.  .www.amazon.com/stores/oneofakindcookbooks . But you can buy it from me directly at crazyvalbrown@yahoo.com   for $7.99, plus $3.99 s&h. Quick & Easy Cooking for All Seasons featuring Ultrex. Ultrex is a kitchen appliance.  This is a quick appetizer recipe that I have used for my last few parties that I have been to.  Everyone loves it and wants the recipe to make themselves.

Hot Artichoke Dip
1 cup mayonnaise
8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
1 small jar marinated artichokes, drained and chopped
2 green onions, minced

Combine the mayonnaise, cheese, artichoke hearts and onions in a medium saucepan.  Stir and cook over low heat, until the cheese has melted and the ingredients are well-blended.  Serve warm with tortilla chips.

I used a small crock pot to combine and melt the ingredients-it took about a hour, but even after unplugging stayed hot for a long time.

Just to let you know, the book has some water damage, but nothing that affects the recipes.

Also, many of you knew that I went on a Trans-Atlantic Cruise 2 weeks ago.  It was so much fun and I met so many nice people that I am going again next April.  April 20th with Celebrity Cruises, again from Ft. Lauderdale to Rome, but now with stops in Gibraltar, Madeira (both off of the African coast), Sicily, Sardinia and Naples.  Can't wait for the next one!

The Soup Nazi-"No Soup For You"

"The Soup Nazi" is the 116th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, which aired in 1995.  This was inspired by New York restaurateur and soup-slinger Al Yeganeh. After the airing of that episode, Jerry Seinfeld was banned from "The Original Soupman" Restaurant in Manhattan.  After closing the restaurant in 2004, he sold the rights to The Original Soupman, which currently operates 22 franchises and sells their soup in many grocery stores in the US and Canada.  If you want to take home any of the "Original Soupman's renowned seafood bisque's or spicy chilies, you still must obey Yeganeh's rules, spelled out clearly on the restaurant's website: Pick the soup you want!  Have your money ready!  Move to the extreme left after ordering!  www.originalsoupman.com

I love soup.  In fact, on my recent cruise, I had soup every day.  I don't care if it's 110 degrees out, I love my soup!  Today, I have 2 recipes and 2 soup cookbooks that I am promoting.  One is called The Art of Making Real Soups by Marian Tracy published in 1967.  This is a great book with lots of recipes, that call for a lot of ingredients.  Many European recipes included.  In this book, I will be featuring Cream of Fresh Tomato Soup.  The other book is Twelve Months of Monastery Soups by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette, bringing easy, delicious soul-satisfying soup recipes from the monastery to your kitchen.  In this book, the recipe is Neapolitan Zucchini Soup, because zucchinis are in season right now.

Neapolitan Zucchini Soup

7 small zucchinis, sliced

3 tbsp butter

6 cups water

salt and pepper to taste
3 eggs
4 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
bunch of parsley and basil, finely chopped
croutons (optional)

Place the finely sliced zucchinis in a good-sized soup pot.  Add the butter and cook slowly over low heat for about 5 minutes.  Stir constantly.
Add the water, salt and pepper, bring it to a boil, and continue cooking until the zucchinis are tender (about 20 minutes).  Cover the pot.
Beat the eggs in a large bowl, add the cheese, chopped parsley and basil, and mix it all thoroughly.  Add the mixture to the soup and stir.  Allow it to cook for another 4 to 5 minutes, maximum.
serve hot, adding some croutons on top as garnish.  6 servings.

Cream of Fresh Tomato Soup

In this packaged age, one can get anything from Swedish instant rose hip soup to instant snail butter from France, but homemade cream of tomato soup made from fresh tomatoes tastes like an entirely different soup from that which comes in cans.

4 large or 8 small tomatoes
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup hot water
2 cups milk
2 cups half-and-half
1 1/2 tsp dried tarragon or 1 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper

Quarter the tomatoes and squeeze out the seeds and juice and discard.  Simmer the tomatoes in the butter in a covered pan until tender and thickened, about 20 minutes.  Put through a sieve or puree' in a blender and add the rest of the ingredients.  The garlic clove can be cut in half and fished out later.  Serves 4

Both of these books can be found on my Amazon storefront www.amazon.com/stores/oneofakindcookbooks for $19.99 each.

Happy Cooking!

Stinky Fruit

Every year, my friend Patty goes to Hawaii to get her "stinky fruit" or Durian-it's real name.  This is a very fragrant fruit, that is eaten outdoors.  Once peeled, the odor is incredible and if eaten inside, it would permeate the house.  But I am told it is fresh, sweet and wonderful.

Which leads to my book choice for today.  Out of print, it reads like a travel book "Hawaii Cookbook and Backyard Luau" by Elizabeth Ahn Toupin.  It sells on my Amazon storefront www.amazon.com/stores/oneofakindcookbooks for $39.99.  Now that's a lot of money, but if you are a caterer or chef-this book is invaluable.  I even considered doing my own luau with roasted pig, because it is so well written, that even a non-Hawaiian could do this. This book includes pupu platters, backyard luau, Hawaiian Luau, complete Hawaiian Dinners with menus and recipes and Christmas in Hawaii. Here is the recipe I selected from this book:

Chicken Luau

2 chicken fryers, cut up and weighing at least 6 pounds

4 tbsp butter

1 1/2 tbsp salt

1 1/2 cups water

Salt and Pepper to taste

1/4 tsp monosodium glutamate (keep in mind, this book was published in 1964-I'm sure this is optional now)

3 pounds taro leaves or fresh spinach

3 cups coconut milk

Brown chicken in butter.  Add salt and water.  Simmer till chicken is tender.  Drain chicken.  Season broth with salt, pepper and monosodium glutamate.

Wash spinach and break into large pieces.  Cook without additional water in covered saucepan over low heat till tender.  Add 2 cups of hot-but-not boiling coconut milk to the spinach and simmer for 2 minutes.

Arrange chicken pieces in the center of a large deep dish.  Arrange the spinach in coconut milk around the chicken pieces.  Heat the remaining cup of coconut milk with chicken broth and pour over chicken and spinach.

To prepare ahead: Follow instructions and cook chicken and spinach in the morning.  Make coconut milk.  Refrigerate chicken in its seasoned broth; the spinach in coconut milk.  Reheat separately.  Arrange and serve as instructed.

Happy Cooking!

Rum

1655, Admiral William Penn, whose son of the same name became the famed American colonist, seizes Jamaica, a relatively unimportant provisioning base, from Spain.  Rum, distilled there and throughout the West Indies, began to replace beer as a British seaman's ration in the Caribbean waters.  The custom would later spread throughout the fleet and remain in effect until 1970.

Distilled from sugar cane juice or molasses, a process that occurs almost naturally in the hot climate of the islands, rum is essentially colorless.  Caramel, added as a matter of style, makes it pale gold, amber, tawny, or dark brown.  There is mention of it in Barbados in 1600 and it became the overwhelmingly favorite drink of American colonists, as well as an essential part of the triangular trade that made considerable fortunes for New England ship owners.  Their ships sailed to Africa with a cargo of rum, returned to the West Indies with black slaves to work on the plantations, and took molasses from there back to New England to be made into rum.  When Paul Revere started out on his famous ride to warn of the coming of the British, he began shouting only after a stop and several drinks of rum at the house of a distiller, Isaac hall. 

Many fine rums have beautiful island names:  Rhum Barbancourt from Haiti; Demarara from Guyana; Mount Gay from Barbados, rich and smooth; Rhum St. James and Rhum Clement from Martinique, the latter aged for six years; and Ron Rico and Bacardi from Puerto Rico.  Were it not for rum, who would ever have heard of the tiny West Indies island called Dead Man's chest. 

Cuba was once famous for rum, and, in fact Bacardi originated there in 1862 but later moved to Bermuda and Puerto Rico.  A mass producer, it has come to dominate both the U.S. and world markets.

Legend says that when Horatio Nelson was killed at Trafalgar, his body in order to be preserved, made the voyage back to England in a cask filled with the spirits of the navy-rum-although, in fact, it was brandy.

Taken from "Life is Meals" by James and Kay Salter.

The following book is not for sale on my Amazon storefront.  This is one of those spiral cookbooks, "Atlanta Cooks for Company", published in 1968 by The Atlanta Music Club and sells for $7.99.  If you are interested, place contact me by email crazyvalbrown@yahoo.com.  I still have 1400 cookbooks though available at www.amazon.com/stores/oneofakindcookbooks.

Rum Angel Food Cake

1 1/2 cups milk

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar, granulated

1/4 tsp salt

1 envelope plain gelatin

1/2 cup cold water

1/4-1/2 tsp rum extract (or I'm sure you could add the real thing)

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 Angel Food Cake

Blend first four ingredients together in top of double boiler. (Do not let water boil in bottom).  Stir until mixture is of custard consistency and coats spoon.  Remove from heat.

Add plain gelatin softened in 1/3 cup cold water.  Add to custard and heat.  Add rum extract.  Chill until firm.

Whip heavy cream into peaks and fold into chilled custard.  Pile onto angel food cake!

Happy Cooking!

Cookie Trivia

Americans consume over 2 billion cookies a year, or 300 cookies for each person annually.

The official state cookie of Massachusetts is the chocolate chip cookie, invented in 1930 at the Toll House Restaurant. (Pennsylvania is also considering the chocolate chip cookie as their official cookie.)

Eel Cookies: Unagai Pie, a speciality of Hamamatsu, Japan are cookies made with fresh butter with crushed eel bones, eel extract o.r garlic mixed in (yech).

Nabisco produced 16 billion Oreo cookies in 1995 at it's factory in Chicago, IL.

My next books is once again, one of those spiral books, not sold on Amazon, but a wonderful book filled with hundreds of recipes from St. Mary's Hospital Medical Center Auxiliary of Madison, WI, published in 1981.  It's called Come Share With Us.  It sells for $7.99 and if you are interested in buying this book, please email me at crazyvalbrown@yahoo.com.

Of course, I still have over 1400 books on my Amazon storefront-so don't forget to look at those.  www.amazon.com/stores/oneofakindcookbooks.

Also, I will be on a two-week cruise, starting April 14th and I will still be publishing my blogs, but they may not be on Facebook, until after I get back (they need phone verification each time on Facebook-international charges are too much for me).  So sign up on my blog www.cookbookval.blogspot.com, so you don't miss anything!

This cookie recipe seemed interesting.  I haven't made it yet, but I know that it would work-sometimes you can just tell.
Skillet Cookies

Mix together: 2 eggs, beaten, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup chopped dates.
Melt in skillet 2 tbsp butter and date mixture.  Cook over low heat 10-15 minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and add the following:
2 cups rice krispies, 1 cup chopped nuts, 1 tsp vanilla.  Mix well and drop by tsp into bowl of coconut and form into small balls.  Cool and serve.

Happy Cooking! 

Movies

Food isn't featured as often in movies as sex, but screen meals leading up to or following it are often more memorable.  One unforgettable scene centers on Albert Finney and Joyce Redman gluttonously devouring a chicken and soon each other in Tom Jones.  Another is the more decorous Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief, with white gloves and carrying her chicken n a picnic basket.  "Breast or leg?" she said sweetly.

Movies with food as a theme have been made around the globe: The  Baker's Wife from France, Babett's Feast from Denmark, Tampopo from Japan, Like Water for Chocolate from Mexico, Monsoon Wedding from India, La grande bouffe from France/Italy, Life is Sweet from Great Britain, and Eat Drink Man Woman from Taiwan.  American contributions to the field run the gamut from Diner and Big Night in which there's a lot of action, to My Dinner with Andre and The Big Chill, in which talk at the table is the main thing going on, or nearly.  And who is able to leave The Godfather without the desire to go get some pasta-perhaps because of the length.

Taken from Life Is Meals by James & Kay Salter.

Now a recipe.  This is not a book sold on Amazon, because it doesn't have and ISBN number that is required.  This is one of those books you see with the spiral plastic spine.  Favorite Recipes from the American Rose Society Members of Shreveport, LA probably printed in the 60's .  This will sell for $7.99, but if you are interested in purchasing this, please send me an email and we will see what we can do.

There are hundreds of recipes in here and the closest thing I could find to Cajun or Southern was this:

Chattanooga Cheese Grits

4 cups water

1 tsp salt

1 cup hominy grits

1 stick butter

4 eggs, slightly beaten

1/2 cup grated cheese

Add salt to water, bring to a brisk boil.  Add grits slowly.  Cover and cook slowly for 1 hour or until grits are soft, stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat, stir in butter and milk.  Cool to lukewarm, beat eggs in and our into greased 2 quart casserole.  Bake at 350F for 1 hour or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.  Ten minutes before dish is done, sprinkle cheese on top and bake until golden brown.

Serves 6 or more as a side dish.

And of course, I have another 1400 books available for sale on my Amazon storefront, www.amazon.com/stores/oneofakindcookbooks.

Happy Cooking!