Handy Dandy Resource: Kitchen Cheat Sheet

Hello friends!  I found this handy dandy resource on the internet courtesy of Everest Kitchens and it was so chockful of cooking information I had to share it with you.

  • Ever wonder how to convert a recipe from metric (hello BBC Food, I’m talking to you).
  • Wonder the best way to cook different kinds of meat or which part of the animal they come from?
  • How about how long can something be frozen safely?

This infographic has your answer.  And much more.  Keep a copy handy in your Joy of Cooking (or other kitchen reference book.)

Thank you Everest Kitchens!

This is the  printable. 

 

 

“There is no blue without yellow and without orange.” — Vincent Van Gogh

Oranges

Photo credit: Rebecca Penovich

 

A wise friend once remarked, “You are never sorry when you eat an orange.”

And that is so true.  Oranges pick you up and make you feel brighter, cleaner, sunnier. I’m in need of a pick-me-up this morning as we’ve received news of a favorite elderly relative who has died.  I’m too sad to reminisce now but I will share thoughts in a later post.

Instead I will share some of my favorite things, inspired by orange.  Then maybe I’ll feel better and fortified for the upcoming travel to say goodbye to someone I loved.

 

Chinese saucer

This saucer looks great in our light grey bathroom. It looks antique to me but it’s not. $1 at the thrift store.
Now THAT makes me happy.
Photo credit:  Rebecca Penovich

 

My friend, Josie, works at a local farm stand and once gifted me with a huge box of vegetables at the end of their selling day.  I was challenged to find recipes for cooking them all.  (Note to self:  need to cook and eat more vegetables so it won’t seem so daunting.)

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Photo credit: Rebecca Penovich

Here are a some of the recipes I made:

My favorite roasted carrot recipe:

Carrots

Simple Roasted Carrots

Ingredients

  • 6 large carrots, peeled
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper, liberal amounts
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (I’ll also use chopped fresh mint or thyme if I have them on hand)

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 400°.
  • Toss the carrots with the olive oil and season liberally with salt and pepper.
  • Place in casserole dish, cover with foil and bake for about 30 minutes, until tender and lightly browned.  (NOTE: You don’t need to fuss with parchment paper; I just laid the cooked carrots on parchment for the photo.)
  • Toss with the fresh herbs.
  • Feel good about yourself because you ate your carrots!

I think the key to this recipe is roasting the carrots covered instead of exposed in the oven like other roasts.  It gives them the tender texture like the carrots you braise with a pot roast but they are not mushy.  Try it sometime!

And in closing, some bright flowers I arranged earlier this year.

I buy flowers for myself all the time (from the grocery store.)  Go ahead and disassemble the supermarket arrangement and break up the bouquet into 2-3 different vases.  Grab something green from your yard (a sprig from a bush, a small branch with some leaves on it) and go for it.  It will make you smile when you look at it.

Orange flowers

Photo credit: Rebecca Penovich

“Be calm. God awaits you at the door.”
― Gabriel Garcí­a MárquezLove in the Time of Cholera

Thrift Shop Goodness

Just kidding.  I didn't buy this little guy.

Just kidding. I didn’t buy this little guy.

Thrift shopping is one of my favorite things to do.  You never know what you might find! Like a cherub lamp.

John and I always make time to poke around in thrift shops on vacation and we drag our boy along, hoping to instill the bargain-seeking thrill in him too.  Much of our furniture and artwork was scored at estate sales, thrift shops, tag sales, or is what I like to call “urban curb” (translation: free off the street.)

Thursday was 25 percent off day at Value Village and my friend, Laura, and I headed out with 2 hours to spend and our VIP cards in hand.

Come along, won’t you?

Gilded globe and cherub lamps.

These lamps gave us a chuckle.  Not for our homes, but maybe if we had a crash pad in Vegas.

 

Karastan wool rug, 10 x 14 feet!

Karastan wool rug, 10 x 14 feet!

 

This, on the other hand, was absolutely beautiful.  A Karastan rug, wool, extremely large at 10 x 14 feet, in excellent condition.  Price was $1,999 (a Steal).  Neither of us had that so we sadly left it there for some interior decorator to have a heart attack over.

 

Karastan label.

 

Beautiful colors on a cream background.  Drool.

Beautiful colors on a cream background. Drool.

 

Vintage Tonka truck.

Vintage Tonka truck.

This Tonka truck was the real deal.  Metal, not plastic.  Large and sturdy for some serious sand box action.  We didn’t take this home either. Laura is on a toy moratorium for the moment.

 

Abstract painting on canvas.

Abstract painting on canvas.

 

I couldn’t resist this painting, though.  The colors were gorgeous and I’m a sucker for abstract expressionism, even if amateur.  I took this home for $9.50 with the discount.  It looks great on the front porch mantle against the brick.  I think I have it on it’s wrong side, though.  We posited that the black object on the far right side is a clock radio.  No matter, I still like it!

 

A vintage rug for the porch.

A vintage rug for the porch.

I couldn’t have the Karastan (and even if I could, our living room is much smaller than 10 x 14 feet) but this one was a perfect size for the screened porch and great colors on the brick-red painted floor.  Polyester, but in decent condition and only $14.99 ($11.25 with the VIP discount.)  Sold!

Our front porch gets a lot of traffic so this rug probably won’t last the winter, but it made me happy and inspired me to do a porch fall clean up.  We like to sit out there at night, have a cocktail, and say hello to our neighbors as they walk their dogs.

 

Vintage pewter sauce boat with wooden handle.

Vintage pewter sauce boat with wooden handle.

 

As you can imagine, I collect vintage cookware and serving pieces (just can’t help myself.)  This was a nice little sauce boat, substantial and heavy in the hand, made of pewter with a nice gleam for $3.99 (3 bucks with my VIP status.)  You are mine, baby.  Gravy here we come.

 

Cool comic book art.

Cool comic book art.

 

More cool comics.

Bam!  Pow!

Bam! Pow!

 

Had to grab these comics for Joe for $1.50 a piece.  Such cool art.  I want to frame them.

 

All in all, a great haul and a fun way to spend a couple of hours in the thrill of the hunt.

 

Cheers!

Rebecca

My Vintage Kitchen Column for OKRA magazine: Cardamom Sour Cream Pound Cake with Burnt Sugar Ice Cream

Cardamom Sour Cream Pound Cake with Burnt Sugar Ice Cream

Last month for my assignment as the Vintage Kitchen columnist over at OKRA magazine, I tested an old Alabama recipe for Cardamom Sour Cream Pound Cake with Burnt Sugar Ice Cream.

The recipe came from Sook’s Cookbook, Memories and Traditional Receipts from the Deep South which I came across in a box at an estate sale.  The cookbook is a compendium of old recipes from the Faulk family of Monroeville, Alabama.  Sook Faulk was Truman Capote’s great aunt and her special fruitcakes are immortalized in Capote’s lovely and sad short story “A Christmas Memory.”

Compiled by Marie Rudisill, Sook’s niece, the recipes date as far back as 1836 in plantation record books.  Marie and Truman started work on the cookbook in 1947 but put it aside until 1972 when they collaborated again, mostly by phone.

Marie wrote a great deal about the characters in the Faulk household:  the cook, Little Bit; Corrie, the housekeeper and sometime cook; Sem Muscadine, another cook and handyman; and Truman, Aunt Jenny, and Aunt Sook.

Truman Capote's Aunt Sook, as illustrated by Barry Moser.

Truman Capote’s Aunt Sook, as illustrated by Barry Moser.

 

The cookbook is a charmer and the pound cake and ice cream recipes were fantastic!   I will definitely be making these again.  Pop over to OKRA, the digital magazine for the Southern Food and Beverage Institute (SoFAB), and check it out.

 

 

Classic Mint Julep, 1937

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Photo by Allison Beuker.

 

Vintage cookbooks and especially community, church, and Junior League recipe collections offer a lens into the food culture of the time–what was fashionable, what was available, and what was deemed good enough for “company” or for at least putting forth for a fundraiser for your church or social group.  One thing I love reading through are the recipes for punch and cocktails.  I love that the recipes usually have the name of the contributor as part of the title: “Sue Emory’s Eggnog” for example. It makes me think: Who was Sue? Was her eggnog really good? Did she throw the best Christmas party? Did Bob the tee-totaller get sauced on her eggnog and end up wearing the lampshade on his head in 1952?

 

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Photo by Allison Beuker.

The best old recipes have excellent ‘head notes’ (you know, those descriptions preceding the ingredients that tell you the why, what for, provenance, special notes or anecdotes about the recipe to follow.) Read the head note and if makes you want to try the recipe right then and there, then it’s a good one.

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Doesn’t this make you thirsty?
Photo by Allison Beuker.

A little late for Derby Day, I know, but this recipe for a Mint Julep from “Queen Anne Goes to the Kitchen, Third Edition” produced by The Episcopal Women of St. Paul’s Parish of Centreville, Maryland is a gem. Produced for the tricentennial of the founding of St. Paul’s Parish (that’s 300 years ya’ll), this church cookbook has some of the most pithy and interesting head notes I’ve ever read and some of the best Old-School recipes for classic Chesapeake cooking.

So with no further introduction, I give you “Mint Julep” reproduced in its entirety.

MINT JULEP
This recipe is extracted from a letter of Colonel S.B. Buckner, Jr., U.S. Infantry, Ft. George G. Meade, MD, to Major General William D. Conner, West Point, NY, dated March 30, 1937.

cool, clear spring water (bottled)

lots of fresh mint
a good Kentucky bourbon
sugar bowl
row of silver goblets and spoons
ice

In a canvas bag pound twice as much ice as you think you will need. Make it fine as snow and keep it dry.

In each goblet put a heaping teaspoon of sugar, barely cover with spring water and slightly bruise one mint leaf into this mixture, leaving the spoon in the goblet. Pour bourbon to make about 1/4 full. Wipe goblet dry and embellish copiously with mint.

Then comes the important and delicate operation of frosting. By proper manipulation of the spoon, the ingredients are circulated and blended until the goblet is encrusted with frost.

Colonel Buckner ends: “Thus harmoniously blended by the deft touches of a skilled hand, you have a beverage eminently appropriate for honorable men and beautiful women.”

” When all is ready, assemble your guests on the porch or in the garden, where the drama of the juleps will rise heaven-ward and make the birds sing…Being overcome by thirst, I can write no further.”

 

–S.B. Buckner, Jr., Col., U.S. Infantry

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Vintage sterling shot measures.
Photo by Allison Beuker.

Integral to the enjoyment of Mint Juleps, in addition to the fine technique instructions of Colonel Buckner (above), the fine company to drink them with, and the wrap-around porch, are the accoutrements that go with making them.  These vintage sterling shot measures are engraved with ‘Little Shot’ (1 oz. marked on the bottom), ‘Just A Shot’ (1 1/2 oz on bottom) and ‘Big Shot’ (marked 2 ounces on bottom.)

The Colonel’s cocktail instructions just say to fill your silver goblet up 1/4 way with bourbon after your shaved ice and muddled mint are in.  The amount of bourbon would depend on the size of your goblet (and here we photographed some genteel sterling punch cups). We can imagine the Southern porch parties gone awry as characters mix their own bourbon and ice ratios.  In fact, I’m sure great Southern novels came out of that phenomenon.

 

 

On Moms, Vintage Cookbooks, and Heirlooms

Some of our most-cherished heirlooms, right up there among old silver and art, are the vintage kitchen hand-me-downs like these old cookbooks from our mothers and grandmothers.

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Photo by Allison Beuker.

We love their splattered pages, the notes in the margins, and particularly the inscriptions in that beautiful old handwriting.

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Photo by Allison Beuker.

This is John’s mother’s signature on her copy of  “How To Cook His Goose (and Other Wild Games)” published in 1973.  This always brings a smile to my face, not only because of that cheeky title, but because I can imagine Eleanor actually cooking a recipe from it for the wild goose or duck that John’s dad would hunt on the Eastern Shore (of Maryland.)

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Photo by Allison Beuker.

This first edition of the “I Hate To Cook Book” from 1960 was given to Allison’s mom by her mom in 1963  when Pat (‘Patty’ in the affectionate inscription) was starting out as a young wife.  There’s even a note from the same year tucked inside advising the newlywed, “I can recommend heartily the Skid Road Stroganoff, Saturday Chicken, Aunt Bebe’s Bean Bowl, and Sub Gum Yuk.”

The inscription is endearing, “For Patty, who is already an excellent cook” because while the book title would suggest her interests and abilities lay elsewhere, Allison’s mom is indeed to this day an excellent and avid cook.  There are some oddly good recipes in there, and the whole edition is a quirky and fun read.  While researching this post, I discovered that the publishers reissued this book in 2010 for a new generation of I Hate To Cook cooks.  We look forward to highlighting some of the gems and downright hilarious recipe headnotes in future posts.

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Photo by Allison Beuker.

I’ve saved this old envelope with my mom’s handwritten recipe for Raw Apple Cake.  This must have been a very popular recipe (and a traditional one too) considering the number of Google hits one gets for it.  I have to say I haven’t made it yet because Mom’s recipe doesn’t say whether to peel the apples or not and I don’t have a memory of the cake.  I’ve transcribed the recipe for you at the end of the post.  If you try it, let us know in the Comments section how it compares to your Nana’s.  And if you peeled the apples or not.

I also found a handwritten copy of my grandmother’s recipe for Date Pudding which I assume was a family favorite back in the 1930s or 40s.  Dates are back in fashion now and I will give this recipe a try in the fall; I suspect it’s more cake-like or bread pudding-like and was probably served with a “hard sauce” although she was a teetotaler.  Grandmother Cullen was a Home Economics teacher in her small town in the Midwest and that is her journal in the background (in the photo above) with notes and instructions for homekeeping and meal planning.  I love that you can see my mother’s name, Norma, in the upper right.

 

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Sad clown lives in attic.
Photo by Allison Beuker.

Some heirlooms are less than fabulous in today’s taste.

But we will never, ever give this sad clown up, even if it has to live in the attic, because of this heartfelt inscription to my husband on the back.

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“Made with so much love for John in the Autumn of 1962 before he was born by his Mother.”

Happy Mother’s Day to Eleanor, Norma, Pat, Hazel, and Nellie (both in heaven and on Earth.)  And Happy Mother’s Day to you moms out there.

Hugs,

Rebecca and Allison

 

RAW APPLE CAKE (as written by Norma Lee Horton)

Rebecca’s notes in brackets.  [Note that I also changed her original abbreviation “t” to “tsp” so that we are not confused between the modern abbreviation for tablespoon (T) and teaspoon (tsp)]

Cream [together]:

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

Add and mix well:

2 cups flour

1/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. soda [she means baking soda]

2 tsp. cinnamon

Stir [in] 4 cups finely diced apple [peeled or not, Mom?]

1 cup chopped nuts [she would have used walnuts or possibly pecans if she had them]

Bake 45 min at 350.

9 x 13 loaf pan  [we wouldn’t call this a loaf pan anymore]