Food and their magazines

• Just because a recipe calls for it doesn't mean you have to use it (I hate cilantro but love parsley)
• Do not ever believe the number of servings because it makes a big difference on who you are feeding
• Good cooking does not have to be or should it be difficult
• Not everything has to be made from scratch
• Great ideas come from food magazines but be daring and change them up
• Cooking for family and friends is good for the soul

I should have closed my eyes when I walked by the magazine rack in the grocery store but there it was on the front cover, a gorgeous looking rib roast with au gratin potatoes and a salad glistening with dressing.  Do I know how to make these without the magazine?  Sure....but that picture.  So I threw the magazine in my cart, ran back to get the rib roast and hurried home with my version of Playboy.  The groceries are all put away and I search the magazine for the recipes and I do mean search (more on that later).  As I'm reading through the recipe (always,always do this) I see some strange language jumping off the page---Idiazabal and Ikan Bills.  Then I realize they're ingredients.  But for what?  Food?  Paint Remover?  A new cologne?  No, the Ikan Bills are used in the salad dressing and the Idiazabal is in the au gratin potatoes.  So that you don't have to do what I did and run to Google to get these  these defined for you, Ikan bills are dried anchovies (who knew) and Idiazabal is a smokey cheese from Spain.  I don't want recipes that I need a food dictionary for or ingredients  that I have to locate in some store 400 miles from my house.  Oh and to top it off the recipe called for throwing some saffron into the potatoes.  Sure, I'll do that, saffron only costs $135.00 an ounce.This is what I call the snob food magazine.

You may have to search long and hard for recipes in some food magazines.  In Bon Appetit ,for example, there are 138 pages between the covers.  After deducting 2 pages for the index, three pages listing featured recipes, you are left with 133 pages.  Guess how many of those pages have recipes on them?  An astonishing 24 or roughly 17%.  I couldn't bring myself to count the ads.  When I buy a food magazine I want recipes!  I don't want to know the best hotel in Paris, where the stars are flocking to for their hiatus or what dress to wear to the Kardashians Christmas party.

Two of the best magazines are Cooks and Cooks Country.  They have no advertising.  In their 33 pages there are 21 pages with recipes and the remaining offer useful information, how a recipe was created or adapted, taste tests and equipment recommendations.  That's  more like it.  I hope you like this.

                                                           Onion Chicken

                You can also make this recipe with a thick fish, just cook for a little less time.

                 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

                 2 cups french fried onions (crush in a plastic bag)

                 2 T Flour

                 1 egg, beaten

 Heat oven to 400.  Mix the two tablespoons flour with the crushed onions.  Dip the chicken in the beaten egg and then into the onion mix.  Press firmly so the onions will stick to the chicken.  Bake for 20 minutes.  

If you want to devil this up a bit skip the beaten egg and brush the chicken with mustard -dijon, honey mustard or country, whatever you like, and then cover with the onions.

And yes, this is 40 lines long and only 11 lines for the recipe.  Bon Appetit here I come!

Cooks and Recipes

• Just because a recipe calls for it doesn't mean you have to use it (I hate cilantro but love parsley)
• Do not ever believe the number of servings because it makes a big difference on who you are feeding
• Good cooking does not have to be or should it be difficult
• Not everything has to be made from scratch
• Great ideas come from food magazines but be daring and change them up
• Cooking for family and friends is good for the soul

Cooks and their relationship with their recipes generally fall into one (or maybe two) categories.  First there is the sharer.   I am a sharer. I'm thrilled if someone asks for a recipe I made.  It confirms my belief that it was worth making.  I carry copies of my recipes and try to give them to people whether they ask or not.  My Mom was also a sharer but I think she may have regretted it somewhat when a recipe she shared with my mother-in-law ended up being printed in a recipe book under my mother-in-law's name.

Then there is the "just say no" category.  This cook will get a snide smile when you ask for the recipe claiming that it's a family secret, state secret or giving it to you would mean he/she would have to kill you. 

Next is the just "can't say no" recipe holder.  This person doesn't have the conviction of the "just say no" but does not want to share the recipe.  From this cook you'll get sudden amnesia.  I can't remember   what was in it, how it was cooked, where it came from, where the recipe is now and who are you anyway?

The sneakiest is the alter-er.  My Mom had a friend like this, she made some of the best food and shared her recipes with my Mom.  However, when Mom made the recipes, they just didn't taste the same.  Her friend just shook her head in wonderment.  My Mom figured it out when her friend  gave her the recipe for homemade wine and instead of grape juice, the recipe was changed to grapefruit juice.  Mom stopped asking for the recipes.

And last but certainly not least is the assumer.  Shortly after I was married,we had another couple over for dinner and I made a recipe that my Mom had made for years.  The next day I called her in a frenzy there was barely enough food for two people let alone four.  She asked me if I doubled the amount of meat and I said no you didn't tell me to double the meat and she said "I assumed you knew that." Sometimes you can't even trust your Mom.  Many assumers give out their recipes in the original form  under the assumption that the recipient has ESP and knows all the changes they made to it. "Oh, didn't you know that I doubled this, eliminated that, added this and then cooked it at an entirely different temperature."  

Well here's a recipe to share but if you put it in a cookbook under your name I might not buy it.

                                            Pork Chops with Apples and Stuffing


Large Bag of Pepperidge Farm Stuffing Mix (made according to package instructions)
21 ounce can Apple Pie Filling
6 boneless Pork Chops

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray.  Brown pork chops on one side.  Spread pie filling in the bottom of the pan.  Place pork chops on top of filling, browned side up.  Spread stuffing over pork chops.  Cover pan with foil and bake 30 minutes.  Remove foil and bake ten minutes more. 

I know what you're thinking, PIE FILLING???  But think about it, nothing goes better than pork and apples.  Try it, you'll like it.

February 9, 2012

Long before Julie worked her way through Julia Child, I worked my way through Peg Bracken's I Hate to Cook Book.  Not quite the same caliber of difficulty, Peg refers to can sizes, onion soup mix and leftovers, but it showed me that cooking could be and is fun.  The most important lesson in the I Hate to Cook Book is to have a sense of humor about it.  If your experiment with veal scallops ends up more like the soles of your shoes, get the take out menu and make the veal shoe leather a nice treat for your favorite dog.


In the many years I've been cooking I picked up a few things:

• Just because a recipe calls for it doesn't mean you have to use it (I hate cilantro but love parsley)
• Do not ever believe the number of servings because it makes a big difference on who you are feeding
• Good cooking does not have to be or should it be difficult
• Not everything has to be made from scratch
• Great ideas come from food magazines but be daring and change them up
• Cooking for family and friends is good for the soul

So here's one of the first recipes you can try.  Change the fish if you want, add spices, use different vinegar flavors.  Just have fun!
                                                       Fillet of Sole
                              Sole fillets
                             1 beaten egg
                              Flour
                             Capers
                             Oil and melted butter for sauteing
                             Balsamic vinegar
Dip the fillets into beaten egg, then flour, coating both sides.  Refrigerate for ten minutes or up to 1/2 hour.  Get the oil and butter HOT otherwise your coating will stick to the pan, not the sole.  Add fillets and when staring to brown slightly carefully turn over.  After cooking second side for one minute add a tablespoon or two of capers.  Let them cook a minute and then sprinkle with balsamic vinegar, cooking another minute longer.Done. Easy. Good.
If you choose a thicker fish such as cod, you will have to cook a little longer,  This recipe is also great with veal scallops.  Enjoy..