Food for Comfort and Comfort for Food; Part I

As the Laughing Matriarch, I laugh through about 98% of my life, but recently cancer made an uninvited and unexpected visited to my immediate family. Even a smile is hard to come by these days.

After a few weeks of tears and anger and confusion, I felt the need to try and wash away some of the sadness by going back into the kitchen full-force.

 

This isn't to say that the next few weeks/months won't be filled with tears, but I will do my damnedest to at least smile in the face of pain and confusion- and fucking cancer. 

 Once an optimist...

Of course, I still don’t have my own kitchen (next week I will!) but this lovely temporary one provided by my favorite female cousin will do just fine.

With the air conditioner cranked and an iced espresso with Bailey’s at my side, I will start this important/positive week off by cooking up the best potato salad recipe I’ve ever tasted- courtesy of the Pioneer Woman. (I will mention my slight adjustments.)

This is the real deal.

Screw the Costco Bucket O' Crap and don’t you dare bring potato salad from Vons to a gathering.

Mon dueu! (I still love France.)

Ask your hostess if you can bring something else if you can’t boil potatoes and eggs. I mean, really? You can't boil potatoes and eggs?

Anyway, here we go.

" Perfect Potato Salad for 20 or So." For the full-on recipe go to: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/06/fourth-of-july-week-perfect-potato-salad/

(I tripled this recipe for our Labor Day family gathering.)

 

Simple ingredients.

There is a reason it's called 'potato salad.'

Smash & mash. (But don't use the ricer- yuck!)

 

 

Sweet baby dills & green onions. Your greens.

 

If you don't have one of these things go buy one now. RUN! (Thank you, Cissy.)

Perfect potato salad for 20. (I fought the urge to add bacon- but you might not be as strong.)

 

Next up: Strawberry cheesecake.

Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food.- Hippocrates



The World's Greatest Sandwich. Not Kidding!

Did you see the movie, “Spanglish” back in 2004 about a chef, his crazy rich family and the hot nanny that comes to live with them? 

It was a good film, but you know what the best part of the movie was? The sandwich. That’s right. A sandwich. 

Here’s the scene. Adam Sandler- the chef- has had a hard day at work. He comes home to a quiet house and builds this beautiful egg sandwich. When he cuts it in half the yolk oozes out of the middles and oh my… (but he’s interrupted by the pissed-off nanny, and doesn’t get to eat the damn thing. Or does he? Like I can remember anything that long ago.)

Moving on.

So, I thought New Year’s Day deserved to come into my kitchen in an impressive way. So I did the ‘Google’, and found the recipe- Oh, Happy New Year, baby!

I whipped up a batch of my infamous Champagne Passion cocktails and re-created this glorious sandwich. The Husband actually momentarily walked away from the football to partake in a sandwich that he had been dreaming about since 2004.

2011 is going to be a great year if this sandwich is any indication!

“I quit drinking weeks ago! No one noticed, but I guess that's a pretty good indicator that I conducted myself quite well when I was drunk. But this isn't about me right now.” Quote from the movie, “Spanglish.

World's Greatest Sandwich- created by famed chef, Thomas Keller
3-4 slices of bacon
2 slices of Monterey Jack cheese
2 slices of toasted rustic country loaf (pain de campagne)
1 tbsp of mayo
4 tomato slices
2 leaves of butter lettuce
1 teaspoon butter
1 egg
Preparation:
1. Cook the bacon until crisp, drain on paper towels
2. Place slices of cheese on one side of toasted bread. Place in toaster oven or under broiler to melt.
3. Spread mayo on other slice of bread top with bacon, sliced tomato, and lettuce
4. On non-stick skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Fry egg, turning over briefly when the bottom is set (keep yolk runny)
5. Slide finished egg on top of lettuce, top with other slice of bread (cheese-side down genius)
6. Place sandwich on plate and slice in half, letting yolk run down sandwich

Champagne Passion Cocktail

2 bottles of Brut champagne (no need for the expensive stuff!)

¼ cup of vodka

¼ cup of Triple Sec

¼ cup of orange juice

Dash of orange flower water. (Note- they have stopped making this ingredient so if you don’t have any you can make it.* The recipe really needs it, but if you’re too lazy I understand. Sigh.)

Pour into a large pitcher. Lock the doors and start sipping.

Orange Flower Water-

Time Required: 1 hour preparation, plus several weeks steeping time

Here's How:

1. Use flowers that have not been sprayed with herbicides, pesticides, or insecticides.
2. Flowers should not be hybrid varieties as the smell and essence may have been bred out of them in favor of "showiness."
3. Pick blossoms early in the morning before the sun gets too hot, about 2 to 3 hours after sunrise.
4. Wash the blossoms and petals in cool water and rinse thoroughly to remove insects and dirt.
5. Macerate petals using a stone or porcelain mortar and pestle and let sit for several hours.
6. Place petals in a large glass jar with lid and cover with distilled water. Less is more. You can always add more later.
7. Let stand in the full sun for a couple of weeks. Check the scent. If it is too weak leave it in the sun for another week.
8. Strain the blossom water into several smaller sterilized jars with lids.
9. Store in a cool dark location such as the refrigerator.

What You Need:

• Orange flower petals, preferably from Seville orange trees
• Distilled water
• Bowl, strainer and fresh water for washing the petals
• Stone or porcelain mortar and pestle
• Large glass jar with lid
• Small sterilized glass jars for storing the orange flower water

Then again, this really is a pain-in-the-ass, so you can leave it out. Just drink it already!

Mmmmmm, Beerganoff!

For the past three days I have been home.

I have not gone shopping, or to the bank or even been in the car. The only other person I have spoken to is The Husband. I feel very Amish. Or slightly stir-crazy. Not sure which is worse.
I should be working on the novel, but the cloud over the lake seems to be inside my head as well and the words get all jumbled. Kind of like I am drunk. But I'm not. At least...I don't think I am.

Trying to figure out dinner last night I remembered a cooking segment The Husband was watching on the Today Show. Or Regis or the View. I can't keep his shows straight.

Anyhoo, I remember bits and pieces of the recipe, but the one thing I remember was beer. Beer, which is the one thing I won't drink. Seriously, it's the only item from the alcohol family that I turn my nose up at. But not the husband. Or the Children, for that matter. So I started tossing stuff out of the fridge and into the Dutch oven, mixed it with beer and came up with....Beerganoff! Have a cold one and serve this over noodles and think of me...drinking wine.

 "I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel." Homer Simpson

Beerganoff
Adapted from Nigella Lawson

 

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 8 ounces (1/2 cup) pepper bacon, cut up- or turkey bacon if you must.
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 teaspoons dried allspice
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 2 1/2 pounds boneless beef shank, in approx. 2 inch cubes
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cups beef broth (canned, carton or cube is fine)
• 4 teaspoons grainy mustard
• 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 2 cups English dark ale or if you only have PBR like I did, go for it.
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt or 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• Good grinding pepper

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
Get out a large, heavy-bottomed Dutch oven and, on the stove over a medium to high heat, melt 1 tablespoon fat, or warm 1 tablespoon oil. Add the bacon pieces and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 to 10 minutes, until they are crispy.

Add the chopped onion, stirring well so that they're mixed into the bits of bacon, and turn down the heat to low and cook — stirring every now and again — for 10 minutes, by which time the onions will have softened.
Stir in the allspice and thyme and then tumble in the cubed beef shank and, for ease, with a pair of spatulas or suchlike, toss and turn the meat in the pan.
Shake in the flour and stir to mix as best you can.
Pour the broth into a large pitcher and stir in the mustard and sugar and then add the beer before pouring this over the stew in the pan.

Stir to mix, then let come to a boil, add the bay leaves and salt and a good grinding of pepper, then clamp on the lid and stagger to the oven with the heavy pan.
Cook gently for 3 hours. The house will smell delicious and you will wonder why the hell you never thought of making Beerganoff before. Serve over noodles to experience the whole Beerganoff effect. If you want, let cool, uncovered, before covering and refrigerating, then heat and serve the next day to bring happiness to your kitchen and stomach.