My DH brought me his favorite bathroom reader/book, to show me a story. I do remember, vaguely, the famous book Peg Bracken wrote, called The I Hate to Cook Book. It was published in 1960 and now has the above 50th anniversary edition. Here’s the back story to the origin of the book.

[quoting from the book] When advertising copywriter Peg Bracken showed her husband (also a writer) the manuscript of The I Hate to Cook Book, he said, “It stinks.” Their marriage didn’t last, but the book did – and went on to sell more than 3 million copies.

It all started in the 1950’s, when Bracken and a group of Portland, Oregon, women friends who called themselves “The Hags” used to meet after work to down martinis and do a little griping about their lives. “At the time,” she wrote, “we were all unusually bored with what we had been cooking and, therefore, eating. For variety’s sake, we decided to pool our ignorance, tell each other our shabby little secrets, and toss into the pot the recipes we swear by instead of at.” What struck people most about The I Hate to Cook Book was that it was witty, funny, and totally irreverent about the sacred subject of cooking. Bracken hated spending time in the kitchen and wasn’t afraid to say so – it turned out that thousands of other women felt the same way. The recipes relied on the use of convenience foods (her recipe for “Sweet Steak,” for example, was pot roast cooked with a can of cream of mushroom soup), avoided complicated techniques, and took very little preparation time. She told women – in a tone both friendly and unapologetic – that it was time to stop feeling guilty about dinner and get on with their lives. That was revolutionary for the 1960’s. Sales of The I Hate to Cook Book topped 3 million copies, which encouraged Bracken to write other books, including the equally irreverent I Hate to Housekeep Book (1962) and I Try to Behave Myself (1964), an etiquette manual. And in keeping with her motto of “keep it simple” she became the spokeswoman for Birds-Eye frozen vegetables in the late 1960’s.[end of quote]

— from Uncle John’s Unsinkable Bathroom Reader (Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader) , by the Bathroom Readers’ Institute

Peg Bracken died in 2007, at the age of 89, and wrote 15 books over her lifetime, some published in the U.K. I remember having read her first book at one time, probably back in the 60’s, but I wasn’t fascinated with the techniques, obviously. It’s an interesting story, though.

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Two years ago: Steak Diane Flambé

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A few weeks ago I wrote about the planning (or lack thereof at that point) for an upcoming dinner with a group of people coming to stay at our house. My cousin Gary brought them – seven adults, close friends of his – for the college graduation of Matt, the 8th person (who didn’t stay with us, but ate dinner here). My difficulty was that this group has a whole myriad of food allergies. And none of them the same, except for one, which was nobody liked spicy hot food. We had allergies to corn, mushrooms, soy, Brussels sprouts, gluten (my cousin), red meat (that was a preference of most, not an allergy), citrus (ditto) and chocolate (ditto). We also had one strict vegetarian in the group too.

So I had my work cut out for me. I wavered between all different kinds of menus. Nobody had concerns about spices, just heat, but I wasn’t sure enough about that to try making a mild curry, for instance. Each time I emailed Gary with questions, it took a week for him to gather the responses. One reader of my previous post about this upcoming dinner suggested kebabs – that way people could skewer their own likes and dislikes (vegetables) and everybody would be happy. I did consider doing that, but wasn’t certain Dave would enjoy keeping track of everybody’s skewer on the grill. And had I done chicken kebabs, I really wanted to use a lemon-juice marinade, but that was a no-no. So instead I decided we should rotisserie chickens. That was a safe protein for everyone except the vegetarian. I finally put together the menu a few days before the big day/dinner and it came off well, I think. Everybody seemed very happy. Here’s what I did:

For appetizers I set out a cheese tray with 4 different cheeses on it, with Vinta crackers and Gary’s GF crackers to go with it. I put labels on each so people would know what they were trying. I also made an easy packaged herb mix dip that was ho-hum. That was served with pita chips.

The brined rotisserie chicken: I’m not going to write up a traditional recipe here, but will give you the link to my PDF recipe. My DH bought the biggest whole chickies he could find at Costco. I brined them – not in my usual jarred brining mixes (because they both contained some citric acid), but in a mixture of salt and sugar (about 3 T of salt and 1 T sugar dissolved in water in each of 2 freezer Ziploc bags).  They were filled with water so the birdies were nearly submerged. They brined for 24 hours, and I turned them over once. I drained them for about 20 minutes, then patted them dry with paper towels and left them out to air dry for about 30-45 minutes. I tied the wings and drumsticks up tight to the bodies, liberally spread them with vegetable oil, then I chopped up about 1/4 cup of fresh rosemary and patted that on the two birds. Put sprigs of rosemary into the cavity too. Onto the rotisserie they went until the instant-read thermometer registered 180°. That took about 1 1/4 hours. They sat on the grooved cutting board for about 20 minutes, tented in foil, and were carved. It was THE juiciest chicken I think we’ve ever made. The brining is the secret.

Mango Salsa: I wanted to serve something alongside the chicken, but the group couldn’t handle citrus or heat, so I made my old standby Mango Salsa, which can be made with either mango or pineapple. I just left the jalapenos and chili powder out of half of it and served two bowls, making sure everyone realized which was which. A few people did take the heated one, so I combined them both at the end, which we’ll eat with the leftovers. This salsa is very easy – some red bell pepper, red onion, cilantro, a dash of sugar, and lime juice (if you want it). Then for those who can handle the heat, a minced small jalapeno pepper and about 2 teaspoons of chili powder, which adds flavor but almost no heat.

Asparagus: After the chickens came off the grill, Dave reconfigured the barbecue and I tossed about 3 pounds of fresh asparagus in about 3 T of EVOO. They went into my new Williams-Sonoma grill basket. What a treasure this new gadget is! It’s $39.95, but if you were on the Williams-Sonoma email list, it was offered at half price (plus shipping) a few weeks ago, for just one day. I ordered one for me and one for my friend Cherrie. Happy day! The asparagus was thicker stemmed than some I’ve purchased, so they took about 10 minutes on the barbecue. Dave stirred them a few times. Once off the grill I sprinkled them with just a tiny bit of flake salt and they were served. There was nary a single spear left.

Bean Salad: Actually, this salad is called The Best Bean Salad (by Paul Prudhomme). I’ve posted it before, but it’s perfect for a side dish to a grilled dinner. I think it looks like confetti, doesn’t it? It was some vegetable protein for the no-animal-protein person in the group. It has a pronounced vinegar flavored dressing (and just 2 T olive oil for the entire recipe). You can vary what you put in it, but it calls for canned beans (I use black, white and black-eyed), Napa cabbage, chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, red bells, red onion. Also some fresh basil and dried oregano. The starch in the beans absorb most of the vinegar, so it shouldn’t be sharp at all and it’s especially good with a grilled meat. Ideally make this 24 hours ahead, or at least 6-8 hours before, so the dressing has time to soak in.

Watermelon Salad: I’ve talked about this salad in the last couple of weeks already, but it’s a recipe I turn to over and over again. Nobody dislikes it. It’s VERY easy to put together as long as you have watermelon, Feta cheese and mint. Dave helped me slice up the watermelon a few hours ahead, then the Feta and minced fresh mint were added just before eating (if you leave the mint on it for awhile it develops dark edges – you want it to be fresh and zesty, not wilted). One of the guests professed a dislike for watermelon, but she tried it and pronounced it wonderful.

Meringue and Berry Parfait Dessert: This is a sort-of-a-new and ridiculously easy recipe. I’ve made it before, but I changed it a little bit this time, so will write it up as a new recipe. Stay tuned tomorrow.

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A year ago: Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce
Two years ago: Zucchini Ribbons
Three years ago: White Wine Vinaigrette

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If I were to do a blind tasting of these cookies, next to some traditional chocolate shortbread cookies, I think I’d choose these as the best. And certainly I’d think these contain flour. But no, they have no wheat in them. My cousin Gary (from the Bay Area) eats GF (gluten free), and he’s visiting for the weekend (by the time this posts, this will have been last weekend) with a group of his close friends who came for a college graduation. When Gary comes to visit I try real hard to make things he might not prepare himself at home or get out at a restaurant. Not only does he love cookies, but he loves chocolate. And there aren’t all that many GF cookies out there, or recipes for such. But GF AND chocolate, I knew this was a match!

Most of the GF people out there are allergic to gluten (an ingredient in wheat and lots of other things related to wheat), so the food manufacturers lump all of them together and make things GF. Gary thinks he’s allergic to wheat only, but he prefers to not test that theory. He eats lots of GF products. Thank goodness the food producers do make them. Like the latest GF pasta, for instance. And crackers. And a variety of bread products made from some of the weirdest stuff.

Anyway, I had eyed this recipe over on Kalyn Denny’s blog, Kalyn’s Kitchen. And looking at her cookies, they sure looked like regular cookies to me. Except they’re made with almond meal. She makes these because it’s a low-carb cookie (and she uses some Splenda in it). Gary doesn’t so much like the artificial sweeteners, so I made this batch with white and brown sugar. But what makes these GF and low-carb is the almond meal (a protein rather than a carb). Thank goodness for me, (and for Gary) almond meal is available and not that hard to find anymore at some markets (Trader Joe’s always carries it) and health food stores. Almond flour is another GF baking staple, but in this recipe you want the almond meal. It’s like finely – really finely – ground almonds, whereas almond flour is milled – like flour is – and it’s much lighter and fluffier – like flour. If you look very carefully at the photo at top you can barely discern lots of tiny flecks of almond in the middle.

This recipe starts off with a cube of butter and 2 cups of almond meal. Plus a bit of sugar, salt, vanilla and cocoa. That’s it. These are SO easy to make. The dough is quite soft, and my handy-dandy cookie scoop was a huge help in scooping about a scant tablespoon of the dough. You roll them, then press them down on a parchment-lined baking sheet. The recipe makes 20 (I got 21, even with the bit of dough that I sampled). I flattened each cookie with my hand, then gently pressed a fork across the tops (as in peanut butter cookies). I forgot to do the cross-hatching on the 2nd tray of cookies, and that’s what I photographed above. You don’t have to do that step, but it makes a more interesting looking cookie. They bake for 30 minutes (yes, 30, a whole lot longer than you’d bake a regular flour-laden cookie), then cool for another 10 or so.

The cookies are as tender as can be. Like crumbly light-as-a-feather shortbread cookies. They’re fragile, a bit, so be gentle with them. Even if you can eat flour and gluten and wheat, I’d recommend these cookies. I liked them a lot. I ate one cookie and gave the rest of the batch to Gary to take home with him (he and the family friends left the next day for the return drive). Kalyn said they will keep for a few days in a plastic container. They’d likely freeze just fine too. I doubt they’ll last long enough for Gary to freeze them at home.
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A year ago: Celery, Date, Walnut, Pecorino Salad
Two years ago: My mother’s (old fashioned) Nut Chopper
Three years ago: Apricot Ice Cream

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For those of you who live in non-Trader Joe’s geography, I’m truly sorry. Sad for you! Because you can’t buy the plentitude of good stuff the store has to offer. And the really nice prices too. So you can tune out here. But, for those of you who DO live in Trader Joe’s country, get thyself to the store and buy these adorable mini-wontons. They’re in the freezer case with the other wontons and pot stickers. (Except that last time I went they were out of them – hope that doesn’t mean they’re discontinuing them – they’re new – they can’t do that!) They’re chicken and vegetable. They’re tiny, bite-sized. Perfect for an appetizer. My friend Cherrie brought these (above) to a dinner we had here a couple of weeks ago. These disappeared very quickly. But then, our youngest grandson, Vaughan, “almost 3,” he says, was madly in love with these. He must have eaten about 13-15 of them all by himself. Always dipping them, with a toothpick, into the sauce.

Since I love the dressing I make for my Grilled Salmon on Watercress Salad, that’s what I’d serve with it – it takes two shakes to make this. If you don’t have one of the ingredients, don’t worry about it – it’s very forgiving. If you have leftover sauce, toss it on a salad. It tastes great that way.

Asian Dipping Sauce:

1 tablespoons sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon fresh ginger root — minced
1 tablespoons seasoned rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper — to taste

Combine ingredients and allow to sit for 30 minutes before serving.

One year ago: Lamb and Eggplant Shepherd’s Pie
Two years ago: Chicken Salad with Almonds Sandwiches (for a tea), Curried Chicken Salad Sandwiches (also for a tea), Ham Mousse sandwiches (ditto)
Three years ago: Chicken with Artichokes and Olives

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It was one of those days when I needed to clean out the refrigerator a bit. I had cooked chicken. I had fennel and carrots. So when I leafed through a cookbook I’ve had for awhile and not made anything from it, this recipe popped out. All I needed was snow peas, which my DH picked up for me. And, as it turned out, we’ve been having some truly chilly days lately. Today (the day I’m writing this, which was last week, once this posts) – the high never got over 70, I don’t think. And the sun didn’t shine – it was overcast, humid, muggy. A good soup day!

This soup was simple to put together. The carrots and fennel are simmered in chicken broth, then it’s all poured out into a bowl on the side. Then you make a cream sauce: melt butter, add flour, then half-and-half, fennel seeds (crushed in my mortar and pestle), some salt, then you add in the vegetables and chicken. It’s a soup by that point, and snow peas were added last and are just barely cooked since you want them to have some texture when served. The creamy broth has a very subtle taste of fennel, and the small amount of fennel seeds don’t add any strong flavors. I ended up adding some of the chicken stock concentrate that I buy from Penzey’s. I thought the soup needed a little bit more oomph.

The recipe comes from Sunday Soup: A Year’s Worth of Mouth-Watering, Easy-to-Make Recipes by Betty Rosbottom. It’s an easy soup to make, and one I’ll make again. I really enjoyed the subtle but good flavor of the fennel. Raw fennel (which I do like, mostly in salads) becomes so mellow and sweet when it’s cooked. I have another recipe on my blog using fennel. A recipe from my friend Joan, a Baked Fennel. It’s baked with some broth and Parmigiano cheese. It’s a favorite of mine ever since she brought it over one night several years ago. Anyway, do try the soup.
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A year ago: Basil Vinaigrette
Two years ago: Peanut Butter Cookies
Three years ago: Hashed Brown Casserole (wicked, great with summer menu)

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Oh, I do like that photograph! Just the right amount of blur, and the muffin front and offset from the center. Did you know that, in the art world, it’s a no-no to ever place your object/subject in the center? It’s always supposed to be off center. Even portraits. And usually you should have some kind of angle/triangle in your picture too (see the muffin tin edge on the right?). So I set this picture up with that in mind. With the crumbs still sitting there on the side. I didn’t pose the crumbs – they were just there when I extracted that one muffin. Dave and I promptly ate the muffin.

Back years ago, when my DH and I were still career folks, we used to leave early some workday mornings, in separate cars, and stop for breakfast at Mimi’s Cafe, a restaurant that’s right on the route we both took to work. And mostly we ordered their crock of oatmeal that came with a little bitty bowl of brown sugar and another of raisins, plus a pitcher of milk. We’d do this at least once a week, sometimes twice. And when you order some breakfasts at Mimi’s, you also get a choice of juice and/or a muffin. And they have a couple of muffins on their menu, but this buttermilk spice one was the one I always ordered. Heaven’s knows how many calories are in one of theirs (they’re much bigger than the one above). It always came with a huge, wide falling-off-the-edges top, smothered in those nutty cinnamony crumbs. Once in a great while I’d buy a few of them and take them to the office to share. They’ve always been a big favorite.

So it was with great glee a year or so ago that I read over at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody (one of my favorite blogs) that the recipe is online at Mimi’s website. I was astounded! Really? Yes. I promptly copied it over into my recipe software, thinking for sure they’d take that sucker down momentarily – that they’d been way too hasty giving away that famous recipe. Surprise – it’s still there! Meanwhile, I’ve looked at the recipe many times but never had the reason to make them.

I’d considered just running down to Mimi’s and buying them, but my recollection was that the price was considerable, even 15 years ago. So since I had the recipe, and I needed a bunch of muffins for a breakfast we had for a big group of houseguests, why not make them myself. Totally easy. It’s just an ordinary muffin batter, and ordinary ingredients in the topping. But put them together and they’re a wow in my book.

There you can see the batter in the paper cups. The topping mixture is in the center (sugar, walnuts, cinnamon and a drizzle of buttermilk to hold it together). On the right are the muffins ready to pop in the oven. The only caution I read was that you must put the muffins in the oven immediately after you add the topping – otherwise the topping sinks down into the batter. You definitely don’t want that to happen.

So even if you don’t have a Mimi’s in your neighborhood, you can try these wonderful muffins yourself! I definitely DO recommend them. Eat them right away, or freeze them. They will keep for a day, but I’d suggest you freeze them instead.
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A year ago: Madeira Onions (made from sweet Noonday onions from Noonday, Texas)
Two years ago: Pork Tenderloin with Mango Sambal (sambal is like a salsa)
Three years ago: Pesto Pea (and Spinach) Salad (an Ina Garten recipe)

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Certainly I hope you’ve visited your local Costco and purchased some of the fabulous in-season peaches. They’re fabulous. That’s all I can say. Outstanding. I allowed them to ripen a bit out on my kitchen counter (about 4 days), and made this delicious peach cobbler with 8 of the 12. If you like cobblers, you’ll enjoy this one too.

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In with writing posts about recipes, I thought I’d share some photos and information about some of my favorite kitchen utensils. The ones that I’ve learned to love and treasure. Some bloggers now have a sidebar filled with mini-photos of their favorite utensils. I suppose I could do that too, but so many of you read my blog through an RSS reader and you’d never even see the sidebar anyway. I won’t make this an everyday thing – that would get really boring. I’ve already taken photos of all of the treasures, so I’ll put them in now and then.

This actually is my newest purchase. I already have the regular single citrus presses in orange (for oranges), yellow (for lemons) and green (for limes). And they work fine, but the paint has begun to chip off. Very unattractive, and perhaps not all that healthy since juices could grow bacteria in the crevices. So when I saw this one at the cooking school Cherrie and I visit all the time, I grabbed it up. It is available at Williams-Sonoma for $19.95. It’s not yet available at Amazon; sorry! What’s nice about this new press is that it works for both lemons AND limes. And maybe small oranges. It has gradations in the bottom (see the circles in the bottom part?) so it will work with any small citrus. Now I’ll be able to get rid of the other three I own and just use this one. I might keep the orange squeezer, though, because this new press wouldn’t take a large Naval orange.

A year ago: Grilled Rib Lamb Chops with Herb Rub
Two years ago: Flank Steak with Orange Marinade
Three years ago: Roasted Poblano Asiago Soup (oh, a real winner)

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Julia Child did know a thing or two about baking and cooking. She went to the Cordon Bleu school in Paris, after all. And if you remember from the movie, Julie and Julia, she wasn’t exactly a shoe-in in the beginning. Not only because she was over six feet tall, but a woman. And an American besides! Who spoke little or no French. Grudgingly, though, the chefs and instructors came to know her and respect her. Then she took on the challenge of writing a cookbook, and another, and another. But most of her dishes are complex. Requiring many steps, lots of pots and pans, cooling, chilling, stirring, sautéing. You know what I mean, I’m sure.

After a Julia Child retrospective cooking class with Phillis Carey a couple of weeks ago, my friend Cherrie and I lamented that we didn’t think we’d make any of the dishes. They’re all too much work. But I did tell you that I’d share this recipe, just because the tart was very good. But good enough to make it? For me, no. For you – well, I don’t know.
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A year ago: Charred Eggplant Salad
Two years ago: New Potato Salad with Chipotle Vinaigrette
Three years ago: Bacon and Tomato Dunk (a dip)

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Have you heard about the new Cooking Channel? It’s run by Michael Smith and is a sister channel to the Food Network. Among some new chefs it also shows some older foodie TV series. Like Julia & Company and Nigella Lawson when she was much younger. So I’ve set up my Tivo to record Julia and Nigella both. And in the first recorded show that I watched of Julia she was creating a baked creamed corn and scoffed at the work required to scrape the kernels off 12 ears of corn. I nearly laughed out loud since I was just writing up another post and was scoffing, myself, at most of Julia’s recipes. And the time it takes to make one of her recipes – like Beef Bourguignon, for instance. So why she would not scrape 12 ears of corn, I don’t understand!

A week or so ago my friend Cherrie and I went to a cooking class about more of Julia Child’s recipes. Phillis Carey did the cooking, and made four dishes at the class. These crepes, a pork roast, quenelles and a lemon soufflé tart. To tell you the honest truth, I’m not sure I’d make even one of them. They’re just too darned much work. And although I like pork roast, I didn’t think Julia’s recipe was all that great. And the shrimp quenelles – oh my goodness! You know what they are, right? Little French kind of oval-shaped dumplings. They are nothing short of a labor of love. And they were just okay, served with a very rich chive beurre blanc sauce, but would I make them? No. The lemon soufflé tart was good. Very good, actually. But the different steps, the different pans and bowls required, the mountain of dishes deter me from even thinking about making it. I will give you the recipe for it, in case you’d like to make it.

The only one of the four dishes that I really liked was the crepes gateau. But oh, are they a ton of work. Maybe Cherrie and I will pool our resources, divide up the labor and make it once for our husbands. Cherrie and I both thought the spinach overpowered the mushrooms, so we thought we might use twice as much mushroom filling as spinach. But whichever, Phillis told us it’s a first course. Not like a main course. I think we’d have to make it a main – no way would I want to make something else other than a green salad, perhaps, to go with it. With an appetizer maybe and dessert, it would have to be a complete meal. It also would make a lovely brunch dish, I think. For that matter, just look at the calorie count – nearly 1000 calories for a wedge!
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One year ago: White Gazpacho Soup
Two years ago: Asparagus – everything you ever wanted to know

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