Cooking My Way through Life--Guest Post by Author Judy Alter

Please join me in welcoming guest author Judy Author to Killer Hobbies today.  In addition to being the author of over 60! books (many of them mysteries) Judy has a talent I certainly don't share--cooking.  Check out the recipe at the end of the article.

In my next life, I think I’ll come back as a chef. I love writing, but if I’m not at my computer (or in Scotland or at a gathering of my family), I’d just as soon be in the kitchen. It’s a legacy from my mom.

Food has always been important to me. Like my faith, it sustains me. It is part of my self-assumed role as a nurturer—I love to feed people—and it’s a big factor in my social life. I’d rather go out to dinner with friends or have them into my house than go to the theater or a movie. At the table, there’s sociability and interchange and friendship; at the theater or the symphony, each person is pretty well isolated until afterward, when talk may flow in comparing reactions.

For me, food is also about continuity—and change. I bring to the table today the recipes of my mother, still often used and some, I’m sure, from her mother. I bring a few from my ex-husband’s Jewish tradition. So my cooking preserves the past and carries it on for my children and grandchildren.

But cooking is also about change. Now well into my seventies (can that be true?), I’ve seen a lot of changes in what we Americans eat. I’ve seen fast food mushroom beyond belief and the family dinner hour almost disappear—both trends I bemoan. I’ve seen foods come and go—remember when the “in” thing was to order fondue at a fancy restaurant?  But not many eat fondue today, although I hear it’s making a comeback.

In the ’80s there was all that fuss about crepes—whole restaurants devoted to them—and quiche, and the book Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche. Pasta changed from spaghetti and meatballs to all kind of exciting things, beginning with fettuccine Alfredo and moving on to goat cheese pizza. Italian food in the United States today is much more sophisticated than lasagna, and that’s a good thing, though I still love lasagna.

Pretty much gone are the Chinese restaurants of my youth, with chrome and Formica furniture and little white take-out boxes (not that I ate at them very often—Chinese was not on my dad’s list of acceptable foods). Today, we eat pan-Asian food—Thai, Vietnamese, everything from glass noodles to sushi and sashimi (which I love)—but who would have eaten raw fish in the ’60s?

Hamburgers have morphed from a meat patty on a bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, and mustard into imaginative concoctions of which guacamole and bacon are the least exotic additions. We’ve added game to our menus, and now the trendiest restaurants serve elk tacos, venison medallions, wild boar chops, and buffalo hamburgers. 

I’m a believer in experimenting with the new foods, and I’m as ready as anyone to try a seared scallop on a bed of pureed cauliflower (even though I don’t much like cauliflower) and topped with foie gras (it was probably the best tapa I’ve ever had). But I also think it’s important to carry on the recipes of the past—King Ranch chicken and meatloaf and tuna casserole, albeit with a twist. In many ways, the path of my life with food traces the ways that our food has changed in this country and yet, I hope, emphasizes the importance of keeping tradition.

I’ve thought about the different foods that have been in my life at different times: a sheltered child in a middle-class, slightly British meat-and-potatoes household; a young adult who married into a new culture (Jewish) and moved to another new one (Texas); a single parent of four making a lot of casseroles; and now an older adult, living alone and entertaining often.

I am not a gourmet cook. My friends call me that, and one who has traveled the world often says she’s never had better meals than she has at my house. But I know better. I use prepared ingredients—I’m not above admitting that I use Campbell’s soup in some recipes, and have for years. When a recipe says “the finest French chocolate,” I use Baker’s if I have it on hand. I figure my friends and I can’t really tell the difference, and, frankly, I don’t have time to make my own pasta, and I often don’t have the money for French chocolate. So I fudge in ways that a true gourmet never would. I also use shortcuts, and I cook ahead of time rather than killing myself trying to coordinate a meal by preparing everything at the last minute for freshness. True gourmets would discount my cooking—but my friends and guests love it. So maybe my story is how a busy woman with a limited budget can still come off as a gourmet cook.

Recipe for Doris Casserole

This is a family favorite, beloved by all but one of my children (she doesn’t like cream cheese, sour cream, etc.). It was served to me at a dinner party nearly fifty years go by a woman named Doris. I didn’t see much of Doris in later years but when I did she barely remembered the casserole. I gave the recipe to a friend who insisted the noodle layer should come first. I assured her it shouldn’t. This is supposed to feed six, but it disappears quickly.

First layer:
1 lb. ground beef
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed in garlic press
2 tsp each sugar and salt (I cut back on those but sugar is important in tomato-based sauces—my mom taught me years ago it sort of rounds it off.)
Pepper to taste

Brown ground beef in skillet. Drain grease and return to skillet. Add tomatoes and tomato sauce, garlic, sugar, salt and pepper. Simmer 20 minutes, until it thickens a little.

Spread in a 9 x 13 pan.

For noodle layer:

5 oz. (approximately—they don’t come in this size pkg.) egg noodles
3 oz. pkg. cream cheese (here again, you have to fudge; cream cheese doesn’t come in 3 oz. pkg. anymore)
1 c. sour cream
6 green onions chopped, with some of the tops included

Topping:

1-1/2 c. grated cheddar

Cook egg noodles and drain. While the noodles are hot, stir in cream cheese, sour cream, and green onions. Spread over meat mixture. Top with grated cheddar, bake 35 minutes at 350 or until bubbly and cheese is slightly browned.

 Leftovers, if any, freeze well.

 

Click the cover below for a link to the cook book!

 

 

Judy Alter, an award-winning author with over 60 books for young adults and adults to her credit, has written her own cookbook/memoir, Cooking My Way Through Life with Kids and Books. Currently she writes the Kelly O’Connell and Blue Plate Café mysteries series. The fifth Kelly O’Connell book, Deception in Strange Places, will launch as an e-book July 31 and a stand-alone mystery, The Perfect Coed, will be available as an e-book and trade paperback October 15.

Find her at http://www.judyalter.com, http://www.amazon.com/Judy-Alter/e/B001H6KPU6/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1403141253&sr=1-2-ent; or on her blogs, http://www.judys-stew.blogspot.com and http://potluckwithjudy.blogspot.com (a food blog—no surprise!).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dictated to "Lila Dare", by Grace Ann Terhune, star of Wave Good-Bye: A Southern Beauty Shop Mystery (March/2013/Berkley)

Just because she's married, and has two kids, my sister Alice Rose thinks she's the queen of the world. I think she should stick her crown where the sun doesn't shine. I invited her over to my apartment for pizza and beer to discuss what we were doing on Thanksgiving. Otherwise, she would have planned the whole shootin' match and sent me a memo. For the most part our negotiations were going well, until I explained to her about my dietary limitations.

"Look," I said, "I'm not telling you not to cook a turkey. I'm just saying that I won't be taking any turkey leftovers home, so don't go hog-wild."

"Why not?" she asked, all huffy. "Are you insinuating there's something wrong with my turkey-cooking ability? Honest to heck, Grace Ann Terhune, my white meat is moist, my skin crackles to perfection, and Wade even says I cook a better bird than his mama, and that's going some."

Brother. She had to go drag Wade into it. That was dragging out the big guns. It was the sort of "You might be older, Grace Ann, but I have a husband sort of nastiness" I expected from her.

"Calm down," I said, making placating motions with my hands. "Ever since Sam. I. Am. came into my life, I've quit eating poultry,"

She squinted at me. She's got our mother's blue eyes and platinum blond hair, whereas I have to put highlights in mine or risk being called "dirty blond." After a good long, squint, she said, "Are you telling me that out of deference to a parakeet, you no longer eat poultry? Is that really what you said?"

"Yes, ma'am. You heard me right."

"Fine," she slapped my table top. "Then you better cook a lot of veggies you like, because you know my boys won't eat veggies, and so I don't make them!"

That was true. Logan and Owen's idea of a vegetable was a bottle of ketchup.

"Got it!" and after that, the rest of our conversation went swimmingly, probably because I opened a Budweiser for her, and since she doesn't usually drink much, she got pretty schnockered.

Of course, my veggies were so good the boys had to have seconds. Don't you know I relished every minute of that! (Pun intended!):

Grace Ann Terhune's Squished Squash

1. Peel one butternut squash and cut into small chunks. Toss with olive oil and bake in 350 degree oven until soft. Some parts will be crispy. That's great!

2. Chop up one Vidalia sweet onion. Cook it slowly until it's translucent. Add equal portions of maple syrup and apple cider vinegar. Continue to cook until mushy.

3. Combine squash and sweet onion mixture. Serve on toasted slices of French bread.

From our house to yours, have a Happy Thanksgiving and don't let the turkeys get you down!

Recipes for a Crop

There are so many things I like about scrapbooking—but one of the coolest is that it can be such a social hobby. I confess that I’m kind of jealous, though, over the knitters and crocheters and their ability to take projects along with them to almost any event. With scrapping, it’s not quite that easy. But we do have social gatherings called “crops” and scrapbookers use groovy little cases with organizing systems to transport their stuff.
We also need tables to spread our photos, paper, glue, and embellishments out to consider and use. So space is often an issue at a crop. Often the public gatherings are held in churches, schools, and fire halls. When friends get together to crop, it’s a different matter.
The croppers in my book love to eat when they scrapbook. As you can imagine, that can be messy so the Cumberland Creek Scrapbook Club usually keep their food off on a side table. They wander over, fill up a plate and take it back to their seats, very carefully. In my second book, SCRAPBOOK OF SHADOWS, a character actually spills wine on a scrapbook. Stuff happens. So be prepared.
Deciding what to serve at a crop can be tricky. But it’s always best to stick with “finger-food” and have plenty of napkins and paper towels on hand because you don’t want your fingers touching a valuable picture after you’ve just used your fingers to indulge in a chocolate cupcake.
I have a new section on my blog here, which is a recipe section that gives recipes for some of the food in Secrets. But I thought I’d share a few here today—along with a little information about my characters.

Hummus
When Annie brought hummus to share with the scrapbook club, most of them had never had it before and, at first, they were put-off by the way it looked. But, to be polite, they each took a bite and were surprised to find that it was delicious. They all asked Annie for the recipe.
4 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon salt
2 1-pound 3-ounce cans chick-peas, drained and rinsed
2/3 cup well stirred sesame tahini
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, or to taste
1/2 cup olive oil, or to taste

Mince and mash the garlic to a paste with the salt. Purée the chick-peas with the garlic paste, the tahini, the lemon juice, the oil, and 1/2 cup water, scraping down the sides, until the hummus is smooth and add salt to taste. Add water, if necessary, to thin the hummus to the desired consistency and transfer the hummus to a bowl. The hummus can be made 3 days in advance and kept covered and chilled. Divide the hummus between shallow serving dishes and smooth the tops. Serve the hummus with pita bread, raw vegetables, or both.


Cheese Biscuits
Paige missed these biscuits at the crop because she was spending the weekend with her son, Randy. But never fear, DeeAnn whipped her up a batch and had them waiting for her on her return.

2 cups self-rising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup grated sharp Cheddar
1 cup buttermilk
Salt
1/4 stick butter, melted
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, to taste, and sugar together using a fork; cut in shortening until it resembles cornmeal. Add cheese. Stir in buttermilk all at one time just until blended. Do not over stir.
Drop by tablespoonfuls, or use an ice cream scoop, onto a well-greased baking sheet. Brush dough with melted butter. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

My, My, My...Blackberry Pie! And a CONTEST!

SEE BELOW TO WIN A COPY OF MOLLIE'S COOKBOOK!!

Note: I asked Mollie Bryan to share some of her piemaking expertise with us. She has a new series coming out in 2012--and it features scrapbooking! So you can tell, she's a woman of superlative taste.

We all have seasonal rites and markers. For some it’s the school year, for others, the garden cycle. While I appreciate and participate in both of those rites, I must admit, deep down, my favorite seasonal marker is pie. And summer is the best time for pie.

No matter where you live, it’s the time for the produce—and make no mistake, the old axiom of “the fresher the better” is true when it comes to fruit that fills pie. Whether it’s the summer’s ripest peaches, or its juiciest berries, choosing local, organic fruit for pie will yield the best flavor.

My favorite summer pie? No question. It’s blackberry.

Nothing is quite so satisfying as picking your own berries. Perhaps it’s the knowing where the food came from and taking part in this ancient practice of foraging. For me, it dredges up the sweetest memories of growing up in the country during long rambling summer days, which is forever burned in my mind along with my mother’s oven opening to display summer’s most delicious treat—blackberry pie.

If you don’t have access to fresh blackberries and must use frozen berries, it’s best to measure them while still frozen because they shrivel as they thaw. Thaw and drain the frozen berries before placing them in the pie shell. Otherwise, the pie will be watery. Use cornstarch or potato starch, which gives a clear, jewel-like color and has less flavor than cornstarch.

Mollie's Blackberry Pie

(Makes one 9-inch pie)

One pie crust, prebaked

4 1/2 cups blackberries

3 tablespoons cornstarch or potato starch

1 cup sugar

In a small saucepan, mash one cup of berries with a fork.

Cook over medium heat until the berries begin to break down and give off juice.

Mix 3 tablespoons of potato starch or cornstarch with 1 cup sugar.

Add to the berry mixture and cook until thick and bubbling.

Sugar will be dissolved, mixture will coat a spoon and a finger run along the spoon will leave clean edges.

Cool to lukewarm.

Place the remaining berries into the baked pie shell.

Pour the mixture over the berries and stir around gently to distribute evenly.

Chill for 3 to 4 hours or overnight.

Serve with whipped cream.

**

CONTEST

Mollie has graciously consented to send one lucky winner a copy of her cookbook. Just post a comment and I'll select one randomly. That's as easy as...pie!

**


Mollie Cox Bryan is the author of Mrs. Rowe's Little Book of Southern Pies (Ten Speed Press, 2009) A sweet collection over 60 pie recipes, and Mrs. Rowe's Restaurant Cookbook: A Lifetime of Recipes from the Shenandoah Valley (Ten Speed Press, 2006)

You Can Run But You Can't Hide from Snow--and Happy Valentine's Day!

I seriously needed a break from the snow. I hadn't been out of doors for an entire week. So when my sweetheart suggested a trip to Kiawah Island, I was delighted.

During the eight hour drive, I took a turn behind the wheel while my husband snoozed a bit. We were crossing the stateline into South Carolina when I noticed tiny particles on the windshield. I squinted, looked twice, and then I said, "Honey, I think it's snowing."

David half-opened one eye, viewed the windshield and said, "Can't be."

Okay, folks. I lived outside of Chicago for years. I've driven through blizzards. Suffice it to say, Jo knows snow.

Minutes later, David's phone rang. Now he was totally awake. My husband explained to the caller where we were and where we were going.

The caller shared the weather report with David: Two to four inches of snow was predicted for the Carolina coast. It was snowing all along Highway 95. In fact, it looked like we were driving right into a blizzard. We stopped at a rest stop, and David took the wheel.

What did I do?

Well, folks, I couldn't take it anymore. I started crying. While the snow swirled around us, I had my own little meltdown.

This morning the headline in the Post and Courier notes that snowmen have invaded the yards in Charleston!

Yes, we drove south to escape the snow, and for the first time in 10 years, Charleston SC got four inches of cover on the ground. White powder dusted Kiawah Island, too. Our favorite restaurant, Rose Bank Cafe, was closed at lunch on account of "bad weather."

Sheesh. And now we're back here outside of DC, and guess what's expected tomorrow? SNOW.

Homemade Cork Stamp...

Before our trip, I did manage to send out a few valentines. I'd been saving corks from champagne bottles for some time, so I carved one of them into a heart-shaped stamp. Now it's not like I don't own a zillion stamps, but I wanted that special wonky look that cork gives.

Those cork-shaped hearts the pandas are holding are ones that I stamped. You can read how to make your own cork stamps here. (I've also posted a nifty recipe for broccoli salad.)

Okay, how was your Valentine's Day?

Why I Love the Internet

How did we ever live without the Internet, and who could have predicted what an integral part of our lives it would become?

I leave my computer on all the time because the Internet has become my constant companion. This week alone I used the Internet as my research assistant, my recipe helper, my kitchen counselor, my clipping service, my secretarial aide, and my entertainment committee.

Let me explain...

RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Last night at 9 p.m., my husband explained that he had invited six people over for dinner tonight. They're from Israel, and a few of them eat according to the rules of kosher. Okay, I knew that serving pork or shrimp was out. But what could I cook to avoid mixing meat and dairy? Then I had an idea: I'd serve salmon! David and I went online, and YES! that works. (No, I don't have a kosher kitchen, but our friends assured us that as long as we adhered to the meat/dairy thing, they could, indeed, eat at our home.)

RECIPE HELPER

Next, I discovered that the second page of my best salmon recipe had gone missing in the move. I went online, typed in the URL, and here's what we're having for dinner Crispy Salmon with Risotto and Slow-Roasted Tomatoes.

MY KITCHEN COUNSELOR

But how on earth do you clean leeks? Inquiring minds want to know. Back to the computer, and here's the video How to Clean Leeks.

CLIPPING SERVICE

As for the clipping service? Years ago, if you wanted to know what the media was saying about anyone or anything, you hired a clipping service. People read the print media with scissors in hand and cut out any articles relating to you or your interests.

Not any more. Today we have "google alerts," and it's a smart idea for anyone in business or with a public presence to put an alert on his/her name.

I have no idea how this happened, but a photo of me and my husband wound up on this website, Broadway to Vegas. Scroll down and look at the right side. I'm doing something incredibly impolite...I'm pointing. It'll be a long time before I do that again! Ever! Anywhere!

And I guess I won't be joking about not knowing Mandarin, either.

Sigh.

I don't even know who was listening in!

But whoever it was, got the name of my book right. Gotta love them for that!

SECRETARIAL AIDE

All of us Killer Hobbies Blog Sisters are working on a project together. We were having trouble exchanging files. So Mitch, who has since been officially designated as "my assistant" by my husband, suggested we all use Google Docs.

Voila! The problem is solved!

ENTERTAINMENT COMMITTEE

Once in a while, I need a smile. I went to You Tube, where I watched my friends at Apollo Piano Moving hauling our 1,100-pound, 9-foot Steinway Grand into the Chinese Embassy with its 55 steps.
Apollo Piano Movers at the Chinese Embassy

Okay, maybe that bag of groceries wasn't so heavy after all. Way to go, Jake!

TELL ME!

So tell me, how do you use the Internet? Do you refer to it daily, as I do? Do you keep your computer on all the time? Use it as you watch TV? (We do. We look up the names of actors, and we check to see what's factual in movies.)

Hoppin' John

Stop by our house tomorrow, and you’ll find me cooking a mess of “Hoppin’ John.”

“Hoppin’ John” is an essential part of southern lore, especially honored in the Low Country, South Carolina’s coastal counties. If you stop in an area restaurant around New Year’s Day, no matter what you order, they’ll slip you a small dish of beans and rice—gratis. Eating Hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day is said to give a person good luck all year long.

The dish is believed to be first made by the slaves as a form of pilau. Black eyed peas, rice and ham hocks or bacon are traditional ingredients. The New York Times called the meal “a nutritional marvel, the culinary touchstone of the African diaspora and a hangover remedy without equal.” And the article goes on to say“the first known appearance of ‘hoppin' John’ in print was in 1838, in Caroline Gilman's novel ‘Recollections of a Southern Matron.’"

My version is lowfat, and only 6 Weight Watchers’ points. If you swap out bacon for Bacos, of course that number will change.

Hoppin’ John

1/3 C chopped celery
1 tsp. olive oil
1/3 C chopped onion
1 minced garlic clove
1 bay leaf
1 T Bacos (or bacon)
1 C chicken broth
½ can (1/2 C) black-eyed peas (cooked, from a can)
¼ C chopped lean ham (Okay, if you want to use a ham hock, who am I to stop you?)
1 C brown rice, cooked

Saute first 4 ingredients. Add to other ingredients, mix well. Put in 1 quart casserole dish and bake, covered, in 350 º oven for one hour.

**

Do you have a New Year's special recipe? Care to share?