Men can be good cooks, too

I like watch­ing the Food Net­work on TV, espe­cially the show “Chopped.” They start with four chefs (men and women), and only one can win. I notice there are more male chefs than women. They all work in or own a restau­rant. Many work in New York City. I love watch­ing “Restau­rant Impos­si­ble” on Wednes­day nights. Moss’s spaghetti House in Elyria will be on it some­time in Jan­u­ary. I will surely watch it.

I know some men — includ­ing my father — who are excel­lent cooks. Some even put women to shame. I even know women who hate to cook and only cook because they have to. When I was liv­ing alone, I didn’t cook much; mostly microwave cook­ing because cook­ing for one wasn’t worth the time.

I remem­ber when I worked at the VFW Post 6941. Mr. VFW — Ray Church — would always come in when it was time for me to close on Sat­ur­day nights. He wanted to know if I needed any­thing or needed a ride home. He would be com­ing back from some VFW func­tion. He was a night owl; I couldn’t believe he would stay up that late. He would tell me sto­ries about his younger days and it was very inter­est­ing. He lived a won­der­ful life help­ing peo­ple. He would tell me he was going to go home and make meat­loaf. Then in the day­time he would slice it in the desired thick­ness, then sin­gle wrap it with Saran Wrap and freeze it. When­ever he wanted a meat­loaf meal or sand­wich he would bring one slice out and thaw it.

He did the same when he made cook­ies or other baked goods. I told him that was a good idea for us sin­gle folks. Ray always reminded me of my own father. I do miss him.

When I was really young, about seven or eight, I would always like to go out and find some dirt so I could make mud pies. I would dec­o­rate them with flow­ers or grass and then leave them on a stone or piece of wood to dry. My mom would give me some old cookie sheets or pie pans to use. Even back then I knew I liked to cook.

I would invite my sis­ters and broth­ers to come and pre­tend to eat the mud pies. It was always a fun time for me. Some­times my broth­ers would fool around and try to put the soft mud in our faces. But my mom would always give my broth­ers an ear­ful if they did. Some­times my mom would let me help her do some­thing when she was cook­ing our sup­per. I just loved watch­ing her cook. I got a lot of my ideas from her.

I just wished I had got­ten her to write some of her recipes down. For instance, her span­ish rice, BBQ sauce, tur­tle soup, and her one-egg cake. She even made home­made ice cream of dif­fer­ent fla­vors. It was very delicious.

She also made the best rab­bit stew and rab­bit gravy, and home­made noo­dles. She made these large square noodle-like dough and made her famous chicken pot pie. She would use two stew­ing chicken she got from Irish’s meat mar­ket. I bet she could have used a tough cut of meat and it would come out ten­der and deli­cious. That’s how good of a cook she was. Like I’ve said before, my dad was also a good cook.

I heard from my dear friends in Palm Springs, Calif., Dick and Mary Car­men the other day. She was bak­ing her poppy seed and nut rolls and another Hun­gar­ian pas­try she makes. I keep ask­ing her for her nut roll recipe. It is so good, I could eat the whole thing. They love it out there but they do miss Welling­ton. They lived here most of their lives but their chil­dren are out there and they get to see them often.

They do want to come for a visit when they can. I would love to see them.

Hey, you men out there who read my col­umn! Send me some of your favorite recipes so I can try them. I’ll put them in my col­umn. I know my read­ers would like them.

I would like to get back to this cook­ing for one per­son. Ray had some really good ideas. When you make home­made soups you can put it in sin­gle con­tain­ers. When you make breads, bake them in the mini loaf pans and or even muf­fin pans so you can freeze them sep­a­rately. I don’t know why I don’t do this myself, but I am going to start.

I still have some recipes from dif­fer­ent coun­tries to share with you. I have already shared Ital­ian, Pol­ish and Hun­gar­ian recipes. Now I will try some Mex­i­can and more Chi­nese soon.

I know we all make res­o­lu­tions to lose weight. I will be doing some columns on weight loss. Until next time, enjoy these recipes.

Spicy Brunch Lasagna

1 1/2 lbs. bulk Ital­ian sausage

1 24 oz. con­tainer cot­tage cheese

1/2 cup finely chopped green onions (4)

1/4 cup snipped fresh chives

1/4 cup finely shred­ded carrot

18 eggs

1/3 cup milk

2 tbps. butter

1 14 oz. jar pur­chased alfredo sauce

8 oven-ready lasagna noodles

4 cups frozen shred­ded hash browns, thawed

2 cups moz­zarella cheese

In a large skil­let, cook sausage until it browns. Drain fat, set aside. In a bowl, com­bine cot­tage cheese, onions, chives, and car­rot; set aside.

In a very large bowl, whisk eggs, milk, 1/2 tsp salt. and 1/2 tsp. black pep­per. Melt but­ter in a large skil­let over medium, pour in egg mix­ture. Cook over medium heat, with­out stir­ring, until mix­ture begins to set on bot­tom and around the edges. Lift and fold par­tially cooked egg mix­ture so the uncooked por­tion flows under­neath. Con­tinue cook­ing over medium heat for 2–3 min­utes or until egg mix­ture is cooked through but is still glossy and moist. Imme­di­ately remove from heat.

In a small bowl, com­bine alfredo sauce and sea­son­ing. Spread about 1/2 cup sauce mix­ture over the bot­tom of a three quart rec­tan­gu­lar dish. Layer half the noo­dles in the dish, over­lap­ping as nec­es­sary. Top with half the remain­ing sauce, half the cot­tage cheese mix­ture, half the hash browns, half the scram­bled eggs mix­ture and half the sausage. Sprin­kle with half the moz­zarella cheese. Repeat lay­ers. Cover dish tightly with plas­tic wrap and chill 8 hours or overnight.

Let lasagna stand at room tem­per­a­ture for 30 min­utes before bak­ing. Pre­heat oven to 350 degrees. Remove plas­tic wrap from bak­ing dish and cover dish with foil. Bake for 45 min­utes. Remove foil and bake 15 min­utes more or until heated through. Let stand for five min­utes before cut­ting into por­tions. About 16 servings.

Moz­zarella Cheese Sticks

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

2 eggs, lightly beaten. 2 table­spoons water

12 moz­zarella cheese sticks or one 16 oz. block moz­zarella cheese cut into 12 sticks about 1/4 inch thick.

1 cup fine dry Ital­ian bread crumbs

Peanut oil or other veg­etable oil

3/4 cup mari­nara sauce

In a shal­low dish com­bine flour, salt, and pep­per. In another shal­low dish, com­bine eggs and water. Dip cheese sticks in egg mix­ture, then coat with flour mix­ture. Dip cheese sticks in egg mix­ture again; coat with bread crumbs. Place on bak­ing sheet. Cover and freeze for one hour or up to two days.

In a turkey fryer or deep fryer, pre­heat oven to 350 degrees. Pre­heat bas­ket in hot oil. Fry cheese sticks, half at a time, in bas­ket for two to two and a half min­utes until crisp and golden. Do not crowd! Be cau­tious of splat­ter­ing oil. Mean­while, remove cheese sticks from hot oil and drain on wire racks. In a small sauce pan, heat sauce over medium.

Keep oil main­tained at 350 degrees. If the cheese sticks are frozen for one to two days, let them stand at room tem­per­a­ture for 15 min­utes before frying.

Spicy Herb Fried Green Tomatoes

1 8 oz. car­ton dairy sour cream

6 cloves gar­lic, minced

1 tbs. snipped fresh cilantro

1/8 tsp. salt

1/4 cup milk

2 cups crush potato chips (about 5 oz.)

1 tbps. snipped fresh thyme

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/2 cup flour

2 large firm green toma­toes, about one pound, sliced 1/4 inch thick.

3 tbs. but­ter or margarine

3 tbs. olive oil

In a small bowl com­bine sour cream, gar­lic, cilantro and salt. Reserve half the mix­ture to serve with fried toma­toes. Place the remain­ing mix­ture in a shal­low dish and whisk in milk until com­bined. In another shal­low dish com­bine crushed potato chips, thyme, black pep­per and cayenne pep­per. Place flour in a third shal­low dish.

Dip tomato slices in flour, turn­ing to coat; shake off excess. Dip in milk mix­ture; dip in potato chip mixture.

In a large skil­let heat 2 tbls. of the but­ter and olive oil over medium heat. Add half the coated tomato slices, cook about 4 min­utes or until crisp and golden, turn­ing once halfway through cook­ing. Drain on paper tow­els. Add remain­ing but­ter and oil to skil­let, cook remain­ing tomato slices. Serve with remain­ing sour cream mixture.

Busy Day Cake

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

2 tsp. bak­ing powder

2/3 cup milk

1/4 cup but­ter, softened

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

3 cups assorted fresh berries

Pre­heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 8 inch round cake pan; set aside.

In a medium bowl, com­bine flour, sugar, and bak­ing pow­der. Add milk, but­ter, egg, and vanilla. Beat with an elec­tric mixer on low speed until com­bined. Beat on medium speed for one minute. Spread bat­ter in pre­pared pan.

Bake about 30 min­utes or until a wooden tooth­pick inserted near cen­ter comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 10 min­utes. Loosen sides of cake; invert onto plate. Cool 30 min­utes. Serve warm with berries and, if desired, whipped cream. Yields 8 servings.

This is the cake my mother would make us when we were kids. But she always made her own frost­ing, or even used pow­dered sugar.

Posted by Kathleen Willbond on Feb 1 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.