Resolutions for the New Year

New year....new roads to travel for me

Farmer Jim Neal, a local radio host who worked the early Mississippi morning airwaves for five decades started his 5:00 a.m. show with “It’s a brand new day. Ain’t never been used before.”

Every year as I turn the page on the calendar to January I think of Farmer Jim's line and raise him one -- "It's a brand new year...and it's never been used before."

I’m ready for a brand new year. I’m down with black eyed peas for New Year’s Day. I plan to eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner just to make sure I’m covered in the good luck department. Don’t want to take any chances. Before the whooping and hollering and merry making this evening, I’ll spend some quiet time as I always do on New Year’s Eve and think about the year ahead. I’m a believer in the power of a New Year’s resolution. I learned to be a resolution maker as a child when I was encouraged to sit down at the kitchen table and think about what I wanted to do differently in the brand new year. I wish I had saved some of those earnest resolutions of New Year’s past that included being kind to my brothers and not forgetting to feed my cat.

My resolution record over the years is a mixed bag of notable successes outweighed by more than a few good intentions that stayed…well, they stayed good intentions.  For me, a resolution is not the same as writing goals and objectives as I was trained to do in business. It’s a message to the universe...an expression of  intent…a heartfelt wish to grow…to change…to do better. A good resolution, I know, can be and should be made any day of the year, but there’s something magical…almost sacred… about starting with a clean sheet of paper on the first day of a brand new year that’s never been used before.

These are the beginnings of my resolutions for 2011:
1 – to spend less time communicating by e-mail, voice mail and text message and spend more face-to-face time with my friends
2 – to cook more dishes that are “slow and difficult” instead of “quick and easy”
3 – to have friends and family around my kitchen table more often
4 – to spend more time cycling than watching crime shows on television
5 – to spend more time hiking than cycling
6 – to paddle my canoe in at least two rivers I’ve never done
7 – to avoid getting in bad relationships just to have someone to bike, hike or canoe with
8- to spend more time and watch more sunsets in the Mississippi Delta

How’s that for a start?  Wishing you peace and prosperity in the New Year.
Carol

Peas and Prosperity - A Southern Tradition

“Luck is believing you’re lucky.” Tennessee Williams said it... and I believe it. I've always considered myself lucky maybe because I had the good fortune to be born the daughter of a man who radiates good luck. He believes he’s a lucky man and acts on it...makes it happen. He has all manner of peculiarities to insure his good luck – at least in his mind. Never ever put a hat on the bed. Don’t touch a fifty dollar bill. And always always always eat black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day.

Walk into most any Southern kitchen on New Year’s Day and there’ll be a pot of black-eyed peas on the stove or a dish featuring some form of black-eyed peas on the table. The peas are thought to be African in origin and have been a mainstay of our Southern diet for over 300 years. One popular theory on the marriage of black-eyed peas and good luck dates back to the Civil War, when Union troops stripped the countryside of food, crops, and livestock, and destroyed whatever they couldn’t carry away. At that time, Northerners considered field peas and field corn suitable only for animal fodder, and didn’t steal or destroy these humble foods, thus leaving food for Southerners to eat during the conflicts bleakest days. And that’s good luck.

As I make my rounds of friends and family on New Year’s Day, I’m guaranteed a heaping helping of good luck. I’m likely to find black-eyed pea salad, black-eyed pea salsa, black-eyed pea dip and Hoppin’ John, a favorite presentation where peas share the pot with tomatoes and rice. And I’ll eat them all, just for insurance. Me? I find that simple is sublime...so heres what’ll be cooking on my Viking Range on New Year’s Day.

Good luck in the New Year,
Carol

“May good luck be your friend in whatever you do and may trouble be always a stranger to you.”
Irish Blessing

Lucky Black-Eyed Peas
4 cups fresh or frozen black-eyed peas
4 -5 slices bacon *
1 large onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

* Ham can also be used. If so, add a little oil to sauté the onion, celery and garlic.

In a 5 quart Dutch oven or large saucepan, cook bacon until crisp; set aside to drain. Saute onion, celery and garlic in bacon drippings until tender then add broth, salt, pepper and peas. Bring to a boil and skim foam off top if necessary. Lower heat to simmer; Crumble bacon and add to peas. Cover and simmer until peas are tender (30 minutes to 1 hour depending on how tender you like them). Season to taste.

True Grits

Holiday breakfast of egg strata, grilled quail and cheese grits.

Stirring a pot of grits this morning stirred my memory. The directions say stir constantly for 20-25 minutes until the grits are smooth. So I had twenty luxurious minutes to ponder and probe my deepest feelings about grits. To borrow from Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways?” Cheese grits, shrimp and grits, grits and grillades, grits with redeye gravy….

Grits are my favorite food. Always have been.  I’ve lived and traveled far from my Mississippi home, introduced many and converted some adventuresome souls to the glories of grits.

Don’t even talk to me about instant grits. Give me stone ground grits and make them yellow if at all possible. If there is a choice to be made, I’ll take the yellow in honor of my grandfather Hiram Todd who loved yellow grits. But I’d never pass up a bag of white grits.

After tasting my cheese grits at a brunch in Peoria, Illinois, one of my Midwestern friends soon found himself at a greasy-spoon diner in Birmingham, Alabama. Proud of his new knowledge of southern foodways he leaned across the counter, looked the world weary waitress in the eye, and in a drawl that would make any self respecting southerner cringe ordered “two eggs over easy, bacon, toast and ‘a grit’.” The waitress glared at him in disgust then yelled to the short order cook, “Hey Joe, there’s some guy out here that wants some eggs and “a grit.” So much for fitting in with the natives.

One of my favorite writers, Rick Bragg, gave the opening address at the Southern Foodways Symposium a few years back. The symposium is a lively sometimes irreverent annual gathering of unusual characters – writers, academicians, culinary enthusiasts - who come together to document, study and celebrate the food cultures of the American South. For some reason, the opening address was at 8:00 a.m. and those who were in attendance were either sleepy, hung-over or still drunk from the night before. Rick Bragg’s stirring address touched on grits. The crowd quickly sobered up when he announced his distaste for grits. It was shocking to learn that a writer…and a native born Southerner at that… whose words and storytelling skills I so admired hated grits. Looking around the auditorium, I saw that others were visibly shaken and shared my distress. Rick Bragg opined that grits have no taste… and that they are merely a blank canvas on which to put salt, pepper, butter, cheese, milk or all of the above.

This morning I am flavoring my grits with “all of the above”. Thinking deep thoughts as I stir, I conclude that my grits are a blank canvas for adding fat…and lots of it. After stirring the grits in boiling milk (at least I’m not using cream) till they’re thick and creamy, I plan to add lots of butter, stir in some egg yolks then add a heaping quantity of cheese. Oh yes…a dose of salt, black pepper and a dusting of cayenne will finish the dish.
I suppose there’s some truth to what Rick Bragg said. Grits are a blank canvas…but I look at a blank canvas as a beautiful thing …awaiting the master’s touch to coax it to life. That’s my challenge this morning as I stir the pot. Cheese grits anyone?

Cheese Grits Souffle
Serves 8

4 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup grits (not quick- cooking)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
4 large eggs, separated
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 375° F. Butter a 9 x 13 casserole

Bring milk and salt to a boil in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat.

Pour in grits and simmer, stirring constantly, until thick and perfectly smooth, about 20 minutes.

Add butter, stir and remove from heat.

Add cheese, egg yolks, and cayenne, and blend well. Set aside, covered to thicken and keep warm.

In a large, clean bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry and grainy. Fold into grits mixture.

Pour mixture into the prepared casserole. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown and firm in the middle.

Diary of a Ham - #3

“Eternity is two people and a ham.” Courtney Parker

Dear Diary,
Christmas Eve is drawing nigh and my family will begin to gather. Tonight a family member or two or four or six will drop by between candlelight church services and I’ll be ready for them. I’ve got ham.

There’ll be gumbo on the stove, maybe oyster soup cooked by my Mobile-born father whose childhood memories are of oysters at Christmas, and my contribution to the evening – ham and mushroom lasagna.

My electronic mailbox continues to overflow with good tidings  from ham hostages who thank me for opening their eyes to the world of possibilities beyond ham sandwiches. It gives me great joy  to know that I am spreading good cheer - no matter how small my contribution. They’re going to love this lasagna. I wish I could claim credit for this fabulous dish but, alas, I am giving credit where credit is due and that is to Chan Patterson of Jackson, Mississippi who was director of the cooking school at my Everyday Gourmet store for many years. Chan taught a series of Italian Dinner Party classes that provided a wealth of recipes that her students – including me – still cook today. I hope no one tells Chan I didn’t make my own lasagna noodles.

With a song in my heart...and ham and mushroom lasagna in the oven, I am ready for a joyous holiday.
Carol

Chan Patterson’s Ham and Mushroom Lasagna
serves 8 - 10

Pasta:
12 lasagna noodles (for 4 layer lasagna)

Filling:
2 pounds fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup olive oil
7 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup canned Italian plum tomatoes, drained and chopped
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Freshly ground pepper
Bechamel sauce
3/4 lb. ham, cut into strips
2/3 cup fresh parmesan

Bechamel Sauce:
5 tablespoons butter
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 quart milk
2 teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

For the pasta:
Prepare lasagna noodles according to package directions. (As this dish has a brief cooking time, do not use pre-boiled “no bake” lasagna noodles.)

For the filling:
Sauté onions in oil and 4 tablespoons butter. When onions are golden, add tomatoes and parsley. Cook over medium heat, stirring well. When most of the liquid has evaporated, add the fresh mushrooms. Cook for a few minutes and set aside.

For the sauce:
Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, stir in the flour until smooth. Continue stirring as the flour cooks to a light, golden, sandy color, about 7 minutes.

Increase heat to medium-high and slowly whisk in milk until thickened by the roux. Bring to a gentle simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low and continue simmering until the flour has softened and not longer tastes gritty, 10 to 20 minutes, then season with salt and nutmeg.

To assemble:
Smear bottom of lasagna pan or 9 x 13 pan with 1 tablespoon butter. Line with layer of pasta then spread with thin layer of mushroom mixture. Spread very thin layer of béchamel on top. Sprinkle with a few strips of ham, then parmesan. Repeat layering up to as many as four layers, ending with a layer of pasta on top. Spread with a layer of béchamel, sprinkle with parmesan and dot with remaining 2 tablespoons butter.

Place in top of 400 ° oven. Cook 10-15 minutes or until a golden crust forms. If after 10 minutes no crust is beginning to form, turn heat up 50 degrees for the next five minutes. Let rest 10 minutes after removing from oven before cutting.

Diary of a Ham - #2

“Eternity is two people and a ham.”
Courtney Parker

Dear Diary,
Good fortune has smiled on me since I wrote my first diary entry on ham. With all the chaos and discord swirling round us, it seems I’m onto something…a culinary tie that unites us in this holiday season. Ham.

My electronic mailbox is overflowing with ideas, recipes, and comments that are enlightening, helpful and just plain hysterical. In my hometown, strangers stop me in the market and inquire about my ham. “How’s your ham doing,” someone asked…as if it were a person. My favorite comment as I wheeled down the produce aisle was, “Are you out shopping for your ham?” like I were going to dress it up in a little outfit.

Let me be clear. Things are going well….extremely well…with the ham. Except for a bona fide food emergency when I was home with a cold, there have been NO ham sandwiches. Variety and creativity are the bluebirds on my shoulder when the ham comes out of the refrigerator.

This week, naturally, I’m thinking ahead to Christmas morning….and I suggest you do the same. Melissa Reed of Charlotte, North Carolina suggested that everyone with a ham in the refrigerator make a Breakfast Strata for Christmas breakfast or brunch. The best thing about it, she reports, is that you make it the day before and then just pop it in the oven. This was only ONE of Melissa’s tips. I’m pretty sure her ham is bigger than mine. This recipe takes about a nano-second to put together and the results are guaranteed to please everyone around the table.

Please continue to send tips, recipes, suggestions and ham humor to cpuckett52@gmail.com, through Facebook or in the comment section of this blog.

Happy Holidays,
Carol

Egg Strata with Dijon Wine Sauce
Makes 1 13x9x2 inch casserole

1 large loaf day-old French bread
3 tablespoons butter, melted
Ham slices (to cover 9 x 13 casserole)
1/4 cup chopped green onion
4 ounces Swiss cheese, grated
4 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, grated
8 eggs
1 3/4 cups milk
1/4cup white wine
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
3/4 cup sour cream
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Cut bread into ½ inch slices. Arrange bread on the bottom of two 13 x 9 x 2 baking dishes. Drizzle evenly with melted butter. Layer ham, green onions, and cheeses. Combine eggs, milk, wine, mustard and peppers. Pour over cheese. Spread sour cream over the top. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Bake, covered at 325 ° for 1 hour. Uncover and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake 10 additional minutes.

Peace on Earth and Pie for All

I am highly motivated by the mere thought of pie and with such a thought rattling around my brain, I aimed my car south and drove as fast as the law would allow to the eastern shore of Mobile Bay and the charming town of Fairhope, Alabama. I’d been invited to work with one of my favorite cooks so a four hour drive was no big thing.

Unlike the rest of his friends, Todd Puckett wasn’t thinking of the North Pole but of South Florida…Key West to be specific. On a cold winter’s day so close to Christmas that Santa was loading his sleigh, he had Key Lime Pie on the brain.

When I arrived, there was none of the polite chit chat characteristic of a family holiday visit. There was no “how do you do?”, “how was your trip” or “what have you been up to lately”, I was greeted by “when can we make the pie?” Limes, a grater, a can of condensed milk and a carton of eggs had been placed on the kitchen table to let me know this cook meant business.

Todd is my twelve year old nephew and this isn’t our first rodeo with Key Lime Pie. I wrote about one of our pie making experiences last summer (http://www.carolsvikinglife.com/2010/05/peace-of-pie.html#comments). What made this one different was (a) we had a new recipe from Cook’s Illustrated and (b) he was in a wheel chair with two straight leg casts. I know what you’re thinking – “How can a four ingredient recipe be different?” Well, this time he was hell bent on making the graham cracker crust and would not be pacified with a store-bought substitute. Nor would he agree to the use of Cool Whip and demanded that we whip a carton of heavy cream for the topping. After protracted negotiations, I capitulated. The old State Department maxim bears repeating again – “Never negotiate with a terrorist.”

Cooking is always a series of interpretations and adaptations, never more so than my cooking sessions with Todd. Having cerebral palsy doesn’t normally slow him down – at least in the enthusiasm department, but a recent surgery resulting in two casts and a wheel chair posed a whole new set of challenges. Since I was unsuccessful in negotiating a Cool Whip topping, we placed the heavy duty Viking mixer on a chair so he could raise and lower the mixing bowl, control the speed, whip the cream and watch the cream form into soft peaks. Other  creative modifications allowed him to help grate and juice the limes and pour condensed milk into the bowl.

While other families roasted chestnuts on an open fire and sang Christmas carols, my family ate Key Lime Pie to the sound of Jimmy Buffet music. With Christmas tree lights twinkling in the background, there was peace and love…and pie… all around.


KEY LIME PIE
(from Cooks Illustrated Magazine, 1997)
Serves 8

Lime Filling
4 teaspoons grated lime zest
½ cup lime juice from 3 to 4 limes
4 large egg yolks
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Graham Cracker Crust
11 graham crackers, processed to fine crumbs (1 ¼ cups)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Whipped Cream Topping
¾ cup heavy cream
¼ cup confectioners’ sugar
½ lime, sliced paper thin and dipped in sugar (optional)

1. For the Filling: Whisk zest and yolks in medium bowl until tinted light green, about 2 minutes. Beat in milk, then juice; set aside at room temperature to thicken.

2. For the Crust: Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Mix crumbs and sugar in medium bowl. Add butter; stir with fork until well blended. Pour mixture into 9-inch pie pan; press crumbs over bottom and up sides of pan to form even crust. Bake until lightly browned and fragrant, about 15 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack; cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes.

3. Pour lime filling into crust; bake until center is set, yet wiggly when jiggled, 15 to 17 minutes. Return pie to wire rack; cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until well chilled, at least 3 hours. (Can be covered with lightly oiled or oil-sprayed plastic wrap laid directly on filling and refrigerated up to 1 day.)

4. For the Whipped Cream: Up to 2 hours before serving, whip cream in medium bowl to very soft peaks. Adding confectioners’ sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, continue whipping to just-stiff peaks. Decoratively pipe whipped cream over filling or spread evenly with rubber spatula. Garnish with optional sugared lime slices and serve.

All I Want for Christmas.....

I’m no rookie when it comes to gourmet food of the month clubs. Even though food and lifestyle writers are crowning “of the month” clubs a hot new trend, I know better.

My earliest Christmas memories are not so much of Santa Claus but of Harry and David. My salesman father sent every business associate, family member, friend AND acquaintance the Fruit of the Month Club from Harry and David. He was devoted to those “aw shucks” guys who were pictured in their mail order catalog on a tractor or walking their orchards in Medford, Oregon, the world wide headquarters of the “original” fruit of the month club founded in 1934. We believed that he believed he was actually talking to one of the brothers when he placed his prolific orders over the phone. My mother lived in dread that the door bell would ring one December day and Harry and David would show up at our front door for a visit with my Dad.

Food of the month clubs make people happy….people like me. Living with a heightened sense of excitement and expectation all year long is a beautiful thing. These days you can give or receive a whole pantry full of foods by the month - steak, dessert, chocolate, coffee, even dinners. Talk about something to look forward to! My expectation level has never been so keen as the year I was the grateful recipient of the Bacon of the Month Club . Talk about heaven…a different bacon every month of the year. Nothing says L-O-V-E like a pork product….unless, of course, its cheese. And that’s what I found on my door step this week....and will find at my front door once a month for the next 3 months.

Elegantly packaged from Artisanal Cheese (http://www.artisanalcheese.com/) in New York City, I eagerly unwrapped 5 lovely cheeses: Tomme Vaudoise (cow), Robiola Rochetta (cow, sheep), Val Bagner (cow), Purple Haze (goat), and Gorgonzola Piccante (cow). The gorgonzola immediately made its way to the table in a walnut, apple and gorgonzola salad and the others are being prepared for a cheese tray to be served at a holiday gathering tonight (and tomorrow night and the next night…). I can’t think of a better holiday gift for a food lover than a cheese of the month club….unless , of course, it’s a box of Harry and David’s Royal Riviera pears to go with this fabulous cheese. Santa, are you listening?

Diary of a Ham

Spaghetti, leeks, mushrooms and ...HAM

The words of food writer Courtney Parker ring in my ear this time of year like a Salvation Army Christmas bell.  “Eternity is two people and a ham.”

The ham arrived last week, an annual gift from a company on whose board I serve.  In past years, when I owned and operated The Everyday Gourmet, a retail store and cooking school, a trip to the grocery store in December was just one errand too many.  The ham typically served as my lone source of protein in a harried retail season.  Being married for many of those years, I believed it my responsibility to create at least the allusion of dinner after an exhausting day on the retail battlefront.  “What kind of ham are we having for dinner tonight” was the usual question.

There have been years when eternity was one person and a ham.  This year there are two of us in my household, plus assorted friends and family wandering in and out.  The ham countdown has begun.

The first slices landed between two pieces of whole wheat bread when I was laid up with a wretched cold and the refrigerator was bare, except of course for the ham.  Last night, “ the weather outside was frightful but the fire was so delightful” so we abandoned Saturday-night-on-the-town plans in favor of a lazy at-home evening.  A quick inventory of provisions turned up enough ingredients to create an impromptu dinner of leeks, shitake mushrooms, spaghetti noodles and ....ham bound together with a white sauce.  Paired with glass of Burgundy, we couldn’t think of a better spur of the moment rainy night dinner.

This is one really big ham... and 20 days left till New Year.  It’s not eternity....but in ham time, it seems like one.  I encourage....rather I implore you....to send your favorite ham recipes and ideas. We'll share!