Baked Beans

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Baked beans are a significant thing in my family. My grandmother was a Morrill, which is the Morrill in the B & M baked beans, and she came from Boston. She always made baked beans on Saturday. Now I haven't carried on that tradition, but we all like baked beans a lot.

3 big cans of beans of your choice
(1 must be B&M baked beans)
1 onions, chopped
1/2 - 1 pound sausage meat (optional)
or bacon diced, cooked, drained.
1 spoonful mustard, any kind you like
1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce
2 - 4 tablespoons brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the onions, then add the sausage and cook well and remove excess fat. Add the rest of the ingredients. Taste. You may need to add more pepper, or more mustard, or a dash of Tabasco sauce, or whatever. When it tastes great put into a bean pot and cook in a slow (250-325) oven for about 2 hours. This is great when made a day ahead. On the day you eat it put back in the oven to reheat.

The proportions for this recipe are entirely optional. You can make it as big or as little as you like, and you can make the seasoning more or less intense. But if you don't use mustard and Worchestershire sauce it's not the same.

Hamburger Buns

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1 pound flour
1 + teaspoon salt
1 cup lukewarm water
1 Tbl sugar
1 Tbl yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
2 Tbl soft butter

Combine the flour salt and 1 cup water. Give a bit of a stir and let sit. In a small bowl combine the sugar, yeast, and 1/2 cup water and leave to bubble up. When proofed add to the flour, add the butter and process in the mixer until the dough is soft and does not stick to the sides. If it is too dry, add a little water. If it is too wet, add a little flour. Tweak it intil it’s just right. Cover bowl with a damp cloth and set in a warm place to rise to double in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

When the dough is doubled, punch down and turn out onto a floured board. Knead a bit and then divide into 16 lumps of dough. Then make the dough balls into nice smooth balls and place on a grease surface. Cover with damp towel to let rise for about 45 minutes. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 10 - 12 minutes. When cooled a bit, remove to a rack so they don’t get soggy bottoms. Cut in half. The hamburgers for this size bun should be about 3 ounces each.

My House Dressing

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1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1/3 cup water
1 clove garlic
1 to 2 tablespoons sugar
a good pinch of salt
several grinds of black pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons red onion, this is a rough measure of a hunk.
1 teaspoon dijon mustard

Put everything but the olive oil into the blender and turn the blender on. After a bit, slowly add the olive oil. Place in a large cream pitcher and insert a ladle for stirring and serving. the water makes the dressing thinner, thus not clumping to the lettuce. If you put too much dressing on the salad it ends up on the plate. This is good

Semlor - Lenten Cream Buns

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1/4 cup butter
1 cup milk
1 oz yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp cardamom
3 cups flour
1 lightly beaten egg

filling:
the scooped-out portion of the buns
2 oz almond paste
1/4 cup cream of milk

garnish:
1 cup whipping cream
2 Tbls sugar

To make the buns: crumble the yeast in a bowl. Melt the butter or margarine in a saucepan, add the milk, heat until lukewarm (not over 100 degrees). Remove from heat and stir in the yeast until it is completely absorbed. Gradually stir in the salt, sugar, one egg, cardamom, and most of the flour. Work the dough until smooth and shiny, then cover and let rise 30-40 minutes. On a floured surface knead the remaining flour into the dough. Divide into 12 parts and hand roll into smooth round balls. Let rise 20-30 minutes on a greased cookie sheet. Set oven for 475 degrees. Brush with the beaten egg and bake in the middle of the oven 8-10 minutes until golden and baked through. Set them out to cool.

To make the filling: cut off the top of each bun and scoop out a hollow in the bottom half with a spoon. Mix the scooped-out bits with the almond paste. Add cream to thin the mixture to a soft, smooth consistency. Fill the buns with the almond-paste mixture and put the tops back on. Using stiff whipped cream in a pastry bag, squeeze out a wreath of whipped cream around the top of each bun, then sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

Alsatian Babies

These are individual Dutch babies with a French twist.

6 eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
nutmeg

Meyer lemons wedges
icing sugar
butter

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.
Melt a dab of butt in each of 6 small oval ramekins in the oven. In other words you are getting the dishes hot and the butter melted. This is like making Yorkshire pudding.
Mix up the batter. Ladle about 1/4 cup of the batter into each ramekin and bake for about 8 minutes. This is a great dish to watch cook. It is good to keep an eye on them to make sure they don't burn.

Serve with the butter, lemon wedges, icing sugar in a tea strainer. But of course some people will want to put something else on them, like jam or syrup.

French Waffles

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I don't know where the name for these came from, or where the recipe came from. I suspect I made it all up myself.

6 eggs, separated
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup cream
1 cup eggnog
(this would be the kind you buy in a box at the grocery store. I find myself trying to use it up when other members of the family have purchased it. I'm not to keen about drinking it, but it's not bad for cooking with.)
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) of butter, melted
2 cups flour (9-10 ounces)
1/2 tsp salt

Beat the whites with the sugar until nice peaks form and it's not too stiff. Combine the egg yolks and the liquids and the salt. Sift the flour and stir into the liquids. Fold in the beaten egg whites. Bake in a waffle iron, or if you don't have a waffle iron you can treat this as a pancake recipe and cook on a griddle.

I like to serve this with berry sauce or apple sauce. And of course some members of my family will put syrup on anything.

Crepes Betty Crocker

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This is the recipe for crepes that I started on when I was in high school.

Heat in a saucepan:
1 cup milk
2 tbls butter
When slightly cooled, beat in:
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Beat until smooth.
Bake in a greased 4 or 5” skillet.
Serve as dessert pancakes.

amount: 30 3” pancakes

At the time I am pretty sure I made mine bigger than 3 inches.

I have since come up with a better recipe, and I don’t really know where it came from. In this first recipe I do not like the addition of baking powder, there is too much salt, and sugar is very good for a proper browning of the crêpes.

Crêpes Molly

Another discussion of crepes can be found on my other blog.
I don't know when or how I came up with this recipe. The noticeable oddity in it is that half of the liquid is water. It seems to make for a nice light crepe that is easy to cook. I don't think I got the idea on my own. In other words, it's probably a French way of doing it. I always like to make a lot of crêpes, so be forewarned.

8 eggs
1 2/3 cups milk
1 2/3 cups water
2 cups flour
1-3 tablespoons sugar
a pinch of salt
4-6 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoons vanilla (optional)

Mix it all together very thoroughly and let rest for a while if bubbly.
To make the crêpes get a small skillet, or if you have it, get two or three crêpe pans. I can do three pans at once, but it takes concentration.

Get ready your pan(s), a 1/4 cup, a saucer, a plate and a turner, a very small dish with a tablespoon of oil in it, and a paper napkin. When the pan(s) hot enough (medium) dip the crumpled napkin into the oil and use to lightly grease the pan. Dip the 1/4 cup into the batter to fill, pour into the pan, quickly swirl to cover the pan, and set the cup down on the saucer. Let cook until the bottom is nicely browned and the top of the crêpe takes on a dry look. Carefully turn over, having gently eased the crêpe loose at the edge. The second side cooks more quickly than the first. Pile up the done crêpes on a plate, covering with a tea towel to keep them warm if you like.

We generally serve these with yogurt of any kind smoothed around on the flat crêpe then rolled up. A dusting of icing sugar is nice, and for a special occasion spoon on fresh-made berry sauce.

Pecan Pie

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1 unbaked pie crust


3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark corn syrup
2 tbls butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups pecans
1 Tbls bourbon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl.
Pour into the pie shell and bake for about 50 minutes.

Pumpkin Pecan Pie

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1 unbaked pie crust


Pumpkin Layer
1 egg
1 cup pumpkin

1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Pecan Layer
2/3 cups corn syrup
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbls butter, melted
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup pecan halves

Preheat over to 350 degrees.
Mix up the pumpkin layer and place in shell.
Combine pecan layer, stirring in the pecans last.
Spoon over the pumpkin layer.
Bake for about 50 minutes.

chocolate heart cookies

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I have to state up front that I got this recipe from Martha Stewart in her Entertaining cookbook, which is one of my all time favorite cookbooks. I first used these at my oldest daughter's wedding. They keep very well.

makes about 40 hearts

3 sticks butter, unsalted
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs

3 cups flour
1 1/3 cups cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 tsp finely ground black pepper
1 pinch of cayenne
1 tsp cinnamon

Cream the butter, sugar and eggs. Combine the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Wrap the dough up like pie dough for chilling, in 2 or 3 discs and chill for a while.

Preheat the oven to 370 degrees. Roll the dough out to 1/3" or 1/4" thickness and cut with a heart cutter, or whatever else you want to cut it with. Bake on parchment for 8-10 minutes. Cool

Icing for the hearts

1 egg white
1 cup icing sugar
1/4 tsp lemon juice (optional, maybe cream of tartar will do just as well)

Whip up these ingredients until lovely and white and fluffy. I like to ice the cookies by dipping them lightly in the icing so they are very smooth. For these cookies if you used the heart just did on side in the icing, so it's half dark and half white. Place on a wrack to harden.

Scrambled Eggs

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I'm rather picky about scrambled eggs.  I learned how to cook them from my amah Lita in Hong Kong.  It's a very simple and clean method, and if you do it right the pan is practically clean when you are done.  You can use this method for doing one egg or up to 8 or 9.  If more eggs are used you do need a BIG pan, as the eggs will cool down the pan.

eggs, at room temperature preferably (not more than seven at a time)
salt and pepper
1 to 2 tablespoon of oil

Stir up the eggs using a fork. Heat the oil on medium high in a frying pan or saute pan if going a big batch.  Do not use a non-stick pan for this method of making scrambled eggs. The oil must come to the point where it starts to have a rainbow effect as you look at it, but is not smoking.  In other-words you want the oil to be as hot as is reasonably possible.  Have the eggs and a fork ready to go in at the right moment.  With the fork in one hand and the dish of eggs in the other slowly pour in the eggs, stirring with the fork as they go in.  Stir stir stir with the fork, flipping the eggs around to get all the bits cooked.  As soon as the eggs look mostly cooked tip the eggs back into the bowl they came from.  The heat will continue to cook the last bit of uncooked eggs.  And at this point the pan should look almost clean.  There should have been absolutely no sticking of the egg to the pan.