Strange Meals My Mother Made

Win a rare, out-of-print

Betty Crocker Cookbook!

Most of us were not raised by mothers who cooked like Julia Child. Many of us grew up with ordinary fare. A few of us grew up shaking their heads over meals an ax murderer on Death Row would turn down. These are the people we want to hear from. Send in your stories by posting a comment on the blog. Just a short description of the strangest thing your mother made.

Pam and I also want to know which meal you think is the strangest. Whoever submits the meal that generates the most comments will win a  Betty Crocker cookbook published in 1960. It’s not signed but it is rare and out-of-print. If you want, I’ll get Hansel to sign it and ask him to enclose some cute photographs of himself.

Here are a few examples of strange meals that mothers made back in the day:

Mama Watts, creator of the dried fruit and nut pancakes described in the January 12, 2010 blog, had ample motivation to excel as a chef.  Here’s her story:  “My mother made the worst liver I ever ate.  It was so tough you couldn't take a bite out of it.  I complained about it one night at dinner and even picked it up and waved it in the air.  She got so mad I had to go get a branch from the Lilac bush outside and give it to her so she could whip me.”  Well, today that mother would end up in court for child abuse but this story is from a long time ago…


Lostpastremembered:  “When I was young my mother made a dish called Frank ‘N Bean Mash (frankenbeanmash).  She served franks baked with beans and mashed potatoes and a scoop of cottage cheese on the side.”  It sounds OK until you get to the part about the cottage cheese.  That’s what landed this one on the Worst Meals list.

Lyndsey:  “My mom had a different version of Snow on the Mountain:  she would layer cooked rice, chow mein noodles, chicken soup mixture, tomatoes, celery, green pepper, green onion, pineapple, cheese and more chicken soup mixture.  This was topped with almonds, coconut and pimentos.”  OH… MY… GOD.  It sounds like the kind of cocktail Dr. Kevorkian used to give people who wanted to end their lives.

I discovered the meal below in an old cookbook.  The eggs benedict look like Ms. Pacmans.  What kind of animal could eat Ms. Pacman?  There’s also something called a “jelly omelet”.  Ugh.  Nobody over 6 would be willing to eat that.

Those little ceramic chickens in the back are kind of cute though.  But wait there’s more:

Eggs Foo Yung?  That blasted me back more years than I'd bargained for.  If you're not sure what this is, don't even ask.

So let's hear from you.  Post a comment with your description of the strangest meal your mother made.  Whoever gets the most votes will win the Betty Crocker cook book.  C’mon, you know you’ve got a story… send it in today.

By Guest Blogger Randy Ashton
All text and photos are property of The Gypsy Chef

Fans of The Gypsy Chef

My 6th Photo

Sarah, at  All Our Fingers in the Pie, tagged me for the 6th Photo Game. I really enjoyed this exercise because it allowed me to go back, look at what I shot and the order I shot it in. 
I took this photo after snow storm in February. Because of the storm our flight had canceled and we were reassigned to work an all-nighter home. The timing was perfect, it was right before daybreak when I pulled in front of my house. Even though I was dead tired I ran for the tripod and camera, set up in the street and began shooting. Lucky enough it was Sunday morning and there was no traffic. As the sun came up the light changed and all the blues and pinks disappeared.  This is my 6th photo, taken before day break but after the moon set. It just might be my Christmas card next year.
So now I will send this out to 7 bloggers to do the same (even though I choosing 8) . Show us your 6th photo and tell it's story.

Kate at Serendipity

Stella at The Witchy Kitchen

Joumana at Taste of Beirut 

 Ilse at Insh'allah 

 Barbara at A Moveable Feast 

 Neeta at The Healthy Plate

Maggie at Normandy Life 
The Hungry Dog

Stay tuned we are going to have a very unusual give-away.......

All photos and text belong to The Gypsy Chef

Snow on the Mountain

Where I grew up there had been a huge German immigration wave.  I inherited German genes from my mother’s side of the family.  To feel more connected to this tradition, she made a strange version of a German dish she called “Snow on the Mountain.”  The recipe had been passed down and Mom adapted the wonderful dish as best she could to our mid-60’s supermarket and Ozzie and Harriet lifestyle during the years of Sputnik and the Superball.


For us, it translated down to two Kahn’s wieners and a big scoop of instant mashed potatoes topped with some canned sauerkraut which was the “snow” “on the “mountain”.  Kahn’s slogan was “The Weiner the World Awaited”.   That slogan baffled me then and now, I am just glad I didn't live in a world waiting for these wieners.  Our wait was over.  Now they sell it at Balducci’s in New York as some kind of rare delicacy or homage to regional food.  I have to laugh every time I see it.

I now enjoy a somewhat more authentic version of this wonderful German staple.  I wouldn’t exactly call it “Snow on the Mountain”.  I think that is an embellishment my Mother threw into the mix at a rather late date.  It's more than a little questionable from an historic perspective.  But it tastes better than when I used to chew on my Superball OR the concoction Mom made back in the day.


First of all, loose the Kahn’s:  love ‘em but leave ‘em.  I drove down to Findlay Market and bought the real thing... hand-stuffed German fresh metz at Kroeger & Son's Meats.

 Here's a list of the different kinds of sausages they have:

Then I bought some Yukon Gold potatoes -- not paper bags of instant potatoes that tasted like pocket lint.


Now for the sauerkraut, my favorite is Stokely’s Bavarian Style Sauerkraut with caraway seeds.  What’s not to love?  If you want to get fancy and make your own sauerkraut, just remember the following cautionary tale.  My Mother took this on and filled up a big crock pot with cabbage and other stuff.  Time went by.  It started to smell really bad.  By the time she cleaned it out we all had to stay at Grandma’s place for the whole weekend.

This is quite pedestrian compared to Pam's gourmet treats, but isn't comfort food wonderful sometimes? Here's the recipe:

Fresh Metz, Potatoes and Saurkraut:  Traditional German Cuisine


INGREDIENTS FOR 2 SERVINGS:


4 metz (I prefer Fresh Metz but there are a variety of choices)
5 gold yukon potatoes
1 can of sauer kraut


Boil potatoes for 25 minutes


After starting the potatoes, poach the metz in a skillet with enough water to halfway cover the metz.  Cover with a lid and let boil for 15 minutes.


When the metz are done, pour water off and add 2 tablespoons of canola oil.  Cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes until metz are brown on all sides.


When the potatoes are done, drain the water and put in a large bowl.  Kee some of the water in case you need to moisten the potatoes.  Add two tablespoons of butter and smash.


Heat one can of sauer kraut in a bowl covered with wax paper in the microwave.  The amount of time to heat varies depending on your microwave oven, usually about two minutes.


Serve on a plate with sauer kraut on top of the potatoes.  Finish dressing plate with some brown or Dijon mustard.


by Guest Blogger Randy Ashton
All text and photos are property of The Gypsy Chef

San Francisco Eye Candy

I haven't been blogging much, who am I kidding, I haven't been blogging at all. I haven't even been cooking. It's been a fend for yourself kind of spring. Last night, my son grilled Italian sausage and I pulled together a pasta sauce of basil, olive oil and garlic. We ate it while doing our homework. It's been that kind of spring.  

I thought it was only fair I showed you what I was up too. I am not posting the algebra work, it's just too tedious. However, I am posting my photo essay I produced for my digital photography class. Since I spend more time in San Francisco than in New York, I spent my layovers photographing Chinatown. I discovered new places and noticed architectural details I'd never seen before. The interesting thing about this is that I've been coming to San Francisco and strolling through Chinatown since 1979.  However, I felt as though I was seeing it for the first time.  So here goes.

 Recognize anything?

  

So 600 photos later I narrowed it down to these 11. It's amazing how much you learn just by shooting and editing. I now shoot raw on the manual setting and take the best picture possible because the less work you have to do in PhotoShop the better. It's a tedious business at best. I also find that you just have to carry your camera everywhere and all the time. No lens cap but a filter is fine to protect the lens. 
Maybe some day I will feel confident enough to share all the knowledge I gained from my digital photo class. At this point I feel as if I am still absorbing the info and trying to put it into use. I also have to write an essay about the pictures, I'll publish that this weekend. Time is running out.......
Now I just have to finish my photos for the Lighting for Photography class.Those I'll publish later this week.
But I promise, no algebra formulas!


All photos and text are property of The Gypsy Chef

My feed is Back!

 For quite a while I struggled with the feed on my blog. It just never updated, stuck in time, it remained 10 months old. Nothing new, always the same post. I would play with it from time to time but never fully engaged my problem solving skills. It seemed all too much with everything else........( Heavens! This could the real struggle with my life! ) Anyway, today Ilse, of Insh'allah, diagnosed the problem, found a solution and sent it to me. Now keep in mind this is someone I've never met, never even talked with, but still took the time to help. That my friends is the stuff that keeps me rooting for the human race. 

Ilse describes herself as "....an African-born Kiwi from Oz living in Bahrain" . Insh'allah is a record of Ilse's thoughts and observations. It's witty, interesting and insightful.  I find it fascinating, an open door onto the world of the Middle East.

I learned of Ilse's blog, through my friend Lynn of Autour de la Table d'Hote, and Jardins des Thevenets fame. (This is a photo Lynn took of the pool house at JDT). In my dreams, I live here.

Drop by both blogs, I am sure you will find them unusual and interesting.
And if you haven't already decided to come along, join Lynn and I in September for a French Culture, Food and Wine Holiday!

Thanks Ilse for the assistance, I never would have fixed the feed without you! Thanks Lynn for introducing me to Ilse. Thanks Ujwala for introducing me to Lynn, and Thanks Natasha for moving across the street from me, you made it all happen!

All text and photos are property of The Gypsy Chef

THE KIND OF COOKIES HANSEL AND GRETEL RISKED THEIR LIVES FOR

My friend Randy posted a blog on this web site last year while we were in Paris. About two months ago, he decided to post again. Which would be precisely why he uses my blog and not his own. Ya gotta post more than twice a year. Skimpy as my posting has been lately, I do manage at least one a month. (Which is not easy when your taking algebra. It's like doing Sunday's New York times crossword puzzle with no eraser while having a hangover.) But this post is not about me, but about Randy. Who then enlisted Mama Watts, because, let's face it Randy doesn't cook. Rodney however is a wonderful and intuitive cook. His Fried Chicken Salad is to die for, and I hear he makes a mean cake, but of course I haven't tasted any, so as far as I am concerned, it's just a rumor. 

I read the recipe while adding the text and I must say I haven't been able to get these cookies out of my mind. I must make them tonight.  Once you read this recipe, you will completely understand the plight of those greedy children Hansel and Gretel and certainly understand why that witch wouldn't share. But really, with cookies like these, who would want to eat a couple of dirty, ill behaved children?

 One of my "Spiritual Advisors" cautioned me about this title.  He said that "no one knows who Hansel and Gretel are anymore."  That thought shocked me so much I felt like I was about to twirl down the driveway counter-clockwise in my car on a snowy night.  But then I thought of Mama Watt's latest batch of cookies.  I took command of the wheel and landed safely at the bottom of my driveway.  I rushed upstairs dreaming of cookies fit for an old witch to use for luring Hansel and Gretel to their doom.

In case my spiritual adviser is right, and you don't actually know who Hansel and Gretel are, it's time to find out with a quick read in Tale of Hansel and Gretel (Gawd).  In another blog I will explain how to cook what they actually ate the NIGHT BEFORE they were left alone in the forest by their evil step-mother.  Amazingly, I even have information, on what the mean, old witch might have requested as her final meal from the DEATH HOUSE in Sing Sing, New York had she lived to face her heinous crimes.  But more on that later.  These cookies will knock your socks off, but that is all.  Believe me, nothing like anything that happened to Hansel  and Gretel will happen to you if you make these cookies.

But you know,  Gretel kind of asked for it.  In the version I read, she cracked out an entire candy window glass pane and was caught eating it.  Some people could consider than entrapment today.  Hansel was content with just a few decorative details.  He was a good boy.  My grandmother knew them both when they were all small children.  She passed down little known details about the both of them that puts a whole new light on this beloved fable.  Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to disclose this material at this time.

Hansel today, a very good boy.

I hate to share this recipe because it's so very special and I've loved having it as mine, mine, and only mine.  But I've known Pam for half my life.  I love her and want to support her in any way I can (plus she's knows where I've buried all the bodies over the years and it’s better to be safe than sorry).  This elegant shortbread will “make” your reputation as a desert chef.  It's embarrassingly simple.  It's quick to make and fool proof as long as you remember to handle the dough as little as possible.  For you pie makers out there, think pie dough.  Just as with pie dough, the less you handle this dough the more tender and delicate the shortbread will be.  The recipe yields 20 to 24 shortbread cookies.  That may sound like too few, but -- believe me -- these cookies are so rich and satisfying you don't want too many of them lying around the house.  This is the perfect dessert to bring along when attending an especially high-toned dinner party -- just a “little something" to share because you are so very nice – which  is guaranteed to steal the cooking thunder from your host.

The ingredients:

3 and 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
3/4 pounds plus 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter (3 sticks + 2 tablespoons) at room temperature
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 tablespoon of ice cold water (if needed)
12 ounces of very good bittersweet chocolate

Sift together the flour and salt in a medium size bowl.  Set this aside.  

With a hand-held electric mixer using dough paddles, blend the butter and sugar.  The butter must be at room temperature.  Do not cream the butter, just blend the sugar enough to incorporate it into the butter.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.  

Add the vanilla and stir a little more with the spatula.  

Set your mixer on low speed and add half of the flour & salt mixture to your mixing bowl.  Begin mixing but stop in less than a minute.  The dough will only be partly combined.   

Scrape down the sides of your mixing bowl and add the remainder of the flour and salt.  

With your mixer still set on low combine the ingredients until the dough just begins to come together.  Scrape down the sides one final time, then use the mixer for a few more seconds to incorporate that last little bit that you’ve just scraped down.

Pour the dough onto a flour dusted surface.  If needed, add a few drops of cold water to ensure that the dough will come together as you gather it into a ball.  

Press the dough into a disk like shape (don't get carried away here).  Tightly wrap the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 to 20 minutes.  

Set your oven at 350 degrees and let it preheat while the dough rests in the fridge.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it on a floured surface.  

Roll it to a thickness of 3/8 of an inch.  Not 1/4 inch.  Not 1/2 inch.  Roll it to a thickness of 3/8 of an inch.  

With a 2 3/4 inch cookie cutter, cut the rolled dough into cookies and place onto 1 large baking sheet or 2 medium baking sheets.  

Sprinkle the top of each cookie with sugar and bake in the middle of your oven.  

Begin checking for doneness after 16 minutes.  

The shortbread is done when it just starts to brown.  Resist overcooking.  Keep checking at 60 second intervals until the shortbread is perfectly done.  

Remove the dessert from the oven and use a spatula to lift each cookie from the baking sheet and place on wire racks to cool.

Once the cookies are completely cool, prepare the chocolate.  I'm intimated by chocolate so I cheat.  Pam's an expert, so pester her about the correct way to melt the bittersweet chocolate. 

I pour chocolate morsels into my big pyrex measuring cup and use my microwave oven to melt them.  I heat the chocolate bits at 30 second intervals stirring them with a fork between each interval.  It's important not to overcook your chocolate: so as soon as I see all the chocolate melting I remove the measuring cup from the microwave and beat the chocolate for 60 seconds or so to finish the melting and to give the chocolate a nice shine.  

If you haven't done so already, put a piece of wax paper under the cooling racks to catch the chocolate overflow.  Dribble a generous tablespoon of melted chocolate over each cookie.   Leave a bare edge on one side of each cookie to use as a handle when it's time to eat this chocolate covered shortbread treat. 

It's impossible to describe how good these shortbread cookies taste.  

Eat them slowly.  Allow the body heat in your mouth to melt and release all the buttery flavors baked into the cookies.  

Be prepared to reapply your lipstick when you're finished and you will definitely need a nice thick napkin to get rid of all the evidence left behind by indulging in this guilty pleasure.

Written by Randy Ashton and Mama Watts

Pam's note:  I've just read the recipe and have to make these cookies! It sounds that good.  And as far as melting chocolate, Mama you did it perfectly! I wouldn't have changed a thing!

All photos and text are property of The Gypsy Chef.