Shhh... It's a secret!

I mentioned last week that I would write about secret recipes today, so here’s the deal.  I’m not 100% against secret recipes when your business depends upon the recipe (or formula) for something being kept a secret, so I hold no ill will towards the manufacturers of Coke or the pretzel rollers at Auntie Anne’s. 

What I’m not a fan of are personal/family recipes that are held a little too close to the chests of some home cooks.  I don’t understand this phenomenon.  Perhaps I am a bit more communal than most when it comes to recipes or food in general.  I was raised in a house where if food didn’t have your name on it (literally), it was fair game for anyone who found it.  On my dad’s side of the family, recipes were passed along to anyone willing to cook them with the hope that it meant the good food would be made that much more often. 

My mom’s side was a different story.  My mom didn’t cook from scratch that often, but one of her best dishes was pot roast.  She used to make it on Friday nights when I was driving home from college or visiting from St. Louis.  I loved catching up with her in person over that meal after being away.  When I asked her for the recipe, she said, “Oh, my roast isn’t that good.  I’ll get you Cindy’s recipe instead.”  Her friend Cindy does make a mean roast as well, but that was not what I was looking for.  She really didn’t think her recipe was worth passing on.  Before I had time to convince her that her recipe was really the one I wanted, she grew ill and passed away.  Since then, I’ve spent a lot of time attempting to create a pot roast that tastes as good as hers.  I’ve come close, but my roast will never be exactly right, and whenever I make it, I feel more connected to and more distant from her at the same time.

I was recently asked to contribute to a church cookbook and was happy to hand over my very favorite recipes.  Obviously, I included the apple pie recipe I mentioned last week.  These were the other recipes I submitted:

Ham and Cheese Puff-Pastry Quiche (makes about 4 servings)

Ingredients:

1 sheet frozen puff pastry (from one 17.3-ounce package), thawed

1/2 cup diced ham

1 cup coarsely grated cheese

1 large egg

1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 cup sour cream

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400°F. Unfold 1 pastry sheet into an 8x8 pan. Top with ham and cheese leaving 1/2-inch plain border. Whisk eggs, rosemary, pepper, salt, and nutmeg in bowl. Whisk in sour cream. Spoon egg mixture over toppings on pastry. Bake until pastry is puffed and golden and toppings are set, about 25 minutes.

Stuffed Mushrooms (This recipe was one I was able to get from my mom.  We ate them on every holiday.  They are so good!)

Ingredients:

1 pint button mushrooms, cleaned and destemmed

1 8 oz block cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Preparation:

Combine last three ingredients.  Fill each mushroom with mixture.  Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees on a cookie sheet until golden brown.

Hash Brown Casserole

Ingredients:

For casserole:

2 lb frozen shredded hash browns

2 Tbsp minced onion

1 can cream of chicken soup

8 oz sour cream

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 stick butter, softened

8 oz shredded cheddar cheese

For topping:

1 1/2 c. crushed cornflakes

2 Tbsp butter, melted

Preparation:

Mix first 8 ingredients together and place in a 9 x 13 pan.  Spread cornflakes over mixture.  Pour melted butter on top.  Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Grandma Bonnie's Green Beans

Ingredients:

1 can or jar green beans with juice

1 tsp butter or grease

dry onions to taste

soy sauce to taste

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan.  Add water if necessary.  Simmer 30 minutes.

I’m sure that I could keep these recipes a secret and add something to their allure in the eyes of some, but honestly, I just want to share them while I still can.  Hopefully someone else will be able to create their own special memories around some of these dishes.  If you have any secret recipes, feel free to post them and get them off your chest!  Or if you are keeping a secret recipe, tell us why you want to keep it a secret.  I’d love to know! 

My(?) recipe for Apple Crumb Pie

Today, I thought I’d share with you one of my favorite recipes, which is actually a recipe that my friend, Jennifer, shared with me a long time ago.  It is my Apple Crumb Pie recipe, and I think it is actually why my husband married me.  Not to brag, but it is the best apple pie I’ve ever tasted, and now I share it with you. 

Apple Crumb Pie

Ingredients:

For pie:

6-8 apples

1 9 in. unbaked refrigerated pie crust

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp lemon juice, if using red delicious apples

1/4 c brown sugar

1/4 c white sugar

For crumb topping mixture:

1/2 c white sugar

3/4 c flour

1/3 c butter, softened

Preparation:

Wash, peel, and cube apples.  Mix cinnamon and sugars and combine with apples.  Add to pie crust.  Mix together crumb topping ingredients with a fork until crumbly.  Place over top of apples.  Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes or until top is golden brown.  Serve with vanilla ice cream. 

Strangely, I recently found a very similar recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks – Don’t Panic, Dinner’s in the Freezer.  http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Panic-Dinners-Freezer-Great-Tasting/dp/0800730550  This, combined with the fact that I’ve been passing the recipe off as my own for about 14 years now, made me think: When does a recipe become yours?  I’m sure I’ve changed a few things in the recipe (for example, I never use lemon juice because I always use gala or fugi apples, and occasionally I use less flour and add oats to the toping mixture), but it’s still basically the same as the one that Jen gave me so long ago.  I am still the one making the pie, so I am using the recipe, but does that make it my recipe?  The US copyright office doesn’t really help.  Their website www.copyright.gov/fls/fl122.html is pretty technical and tells you the paperwork that’s required to file for a copyright on a recipe, but it doesn’t really say much except that you can’t just republish an entire cookbook that already exists and call it your own.  (There goes that plan.  I guess Paula Deen is safe for now…) 

My other thought is, does it even matter if a recipe is yours or not?  There’s an episode of Friends where Phoebe decides to give Monica her grandmother’s chocolate-chip cookie recipe as an engagement present but realizes it has been burned up in a fire. They try to figure out the secret recipe only to realize that they are Nestle Tollhouse cookies and hilarity ensues.  I’m curious how many of our grandmothers are passing off Nestle Tollhouse cookies as their secret recipes, and how many of us care?  If the cookies are delicious and come from someone you love, does it really matter if they pulled the recipe out of their own clever mind or off the back of a bag of chocolate chips?  I will post more about secret recipes next week, but in the meantime, can somebody tell me if I need to repent and stop lying about my pie recipe?

Words of love

Happy Valentine’s Day!  I hope that each of you is celebrating love in a very special way this year and that someone is romancing your heart and your tastebuds today!  In honor of this day, I thought I’d provide you with some of my favorite conversation heart sayings – also perfect messages on a heart-shaped cake or cookie for your sweetheart!  In 2010, NECCO (the company that originated the chalky little confections) came out with conversation hearts directed specifically at food lovers.  I do still enjoy the old stand-bys, but these are a nice addition!  Enjoy!

Retro:

Dig Me

Funky

Modern:

You Rock

Text Me

Timeless:

Kiss Me

Be Mine

Love You

Foodie:

Recipe 4 Love

Stir My Heart

My Treat

Sugar Pie

Sweet Love

Honey Bun

Spice It Up

Yum Yum

Eating with your eyes first – is presentation everything?



My dear friend, Jennifer (who created this blog for me – thanks, Jen!), invited us over for sushi the other night.  She and her husband are actually former sushi chefs, so this was an amazing treat!  They taught us how to prep all of the ingredients, how to properly make the rice, and how to build California rolls and spicy tuna rolls, just like at the sushi bar.  We even created sushi out of steak and mushrooms, and she showed me how to create a rose out of pieces of tuna!  It was a wonderful evening – so relaxing and fun – and we were so full when we left!  (Check out pictures of our sushi under the "Fun in the Kitchen and Finished Treats" page.)

Jennifer mentioned to me when we were making the sushi (well, she was making the sushi, and I was gazing in admiration at her handiwork) that in Japan, presentation is very important.  There are specific techniques that must be mastered and garnishes that add flair and flavor to each dish, all of which indicate the quality of the food even before you take the first bite.  However, she and her husband are Korean, and in that culture, food is more about the mixture of flavors than the elaborate design.  She said that in Korea, their version of sushi involves a bowl of rice with the components (lettuce, fish, etc.) all mixed up together.      

I can understand both sides of this dichotomy.  As a cake decorator, I have seen people drop piles of money on elaborately decorated cakes, with no guarantee of anything worth eating under all that frosting.  I’ve also been pleasantly surprised by a “rock star” cake masquerading as some kind of “average joe” bake sale cake.  I’ve spent many hours learning to create beautiful flowers and decorations out of buttercream, gum paste, and fondant, but equally as importantly, I’ve spent a great deal of time perfecting recipes with the ideal taste and texture. 

To me, the taste is far more important than the decoration.  By my very nature, I’m more of a cake person than an icing person.  In fact, I usually just scrape off most of the frosting on a piece of cake.  But I know that if something doesn’t look appealing, many people won’t even give it a try.  I mean, think about sushi – if it didn’t look so awesome, how many otherwise squeamish Americans would have really jumped on the raw fish bandwagon? 

So I ask you, can you judge a cake by its icing?  Is presentation really more important than content?  Is food a metaphor for life in this context?  (Whoa, it just got deep in here.  I promise tomorrow I’ll just talk about conversation hearts or something.)  Let me know what you think! 

Welcome!

P. S.--

Welcome to the first of (hopefully) many posts.  I created this blog for one of my best girlfriends as an alternative hostess gift.

She has created many fantastic confections that are devoured before they are given their due praise and admiration.  Here, we can celebrate her rapidly expanding portfolio of comfort food and creativity!

Feel free to post your own creations, tips, failures, and fun.

--Jen