EASIEST PASTA COMFORT FOOD

Photo by Carol Guilford

Actually, this is a classic Italian pasta with butter and cheese.  It is my ‘mac and cheese’ comfort dinner when I am under the weather and don’t want to eat anything but know I have to.

I call the picture ‘study in white’.  When I’m feeling fine, I crumble hot red pepper on it. The pasta in the picture is pappardelle, an egg noodle. You may, of course, cook your favorite pasta.

For one (can be doubled, etc.)

4-ounces pasta

2 tablespoons melted butter (I nuke)

grated Parmesan cheese, to taste

1. Boil the pasta in 2-quarts water for 4 ounces. Stir once or twice, should take 10 to 15 minutes.  Taste a strand to make sure it’s not underdone, or mushy. Drain in  a colander.
2. Plate the pasta, pour over the hot, melted butter.  Mix.  Lay on the Parmesan, to your liking.

EASIEST EARLY GUILFORD BLEU/BLUE CHEESE SPREAD

Photo by Carol Guilford

An 8 ½  out of  10 with a history.

We were nearly younger than springtime when the late Henry Gibson (the poet on Laugh In) and I appeared at the Willamstown Theater, then Yale University’s summer theater, in a new musical by David Shire and Richard Maltby.

Henry and I spent our salaries dining at the Williamstown Inn.  Every dinner table had on it a complimentary crock of this very rich blue cheese spread. I believe it to be the first recipe I thought I could replicate. I have made it for years. 

This latest version in from The Gourmet’s Recession Cookbook, only 99 cents at Amazon. Excerpt below.

You need a garlic press for the fresh cloves.

8-ounces cream cheese

(without bovine growth hormone) Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are sources.

4-ounces blue cheese, softened at room temp

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

¼ cup milk

1 teaspoon raw garlic (about 3-6 cloves, pressed)

1. Mash all the ingredients together. 

 Serve in an attractive container with your favorite crackers.   Will keep three or four

days in the fridge. Take out 30 minutes before serving.

“I liked, your little book,” Marian Tracy said to me, at an annual cookbook awards luncheon where my book, The New Cook’s Cookbook lost to the Kitchen Primer, written by Craig Claibourne, then editor of The New York Times. 

Marian, a slip of a woman wrote Casserole Cookery (with Nino Tracy.)  The book had six printings from 1941-1945. with subsequent printings until 1968. Casserole Cookery was the hot book among the sophisticated set, subtitled, “One-dish meals for the busy gourmet.”

Marian lived through tough times—a depression and World War 11.

I learned from Marian that food writing can be humorous.  About eggplant, she writes.  “Some do and some don’t.”

That day, at the awards luncheon, all the buzz was about a woman of the British baronage who “wrote” a best-selling cookbook.  Turns out, all the recipes were verbatim, from Gourmet magazine.

I don’t remember my precise question to Marian about the truthfulness of  cookbook authors, but I’ll never forget her answer, “We are all honest pirates.”

Cg note.  Marian’s books are available, but I can find no biography of her to determine her birth date and date of death.  Write to me at guilfordcarol@gmail.com if you know. Thanks.

 

EASIEST CAESAR SALAD

Photo by Carol Guilford

Most important ingredient is the crouton. Tempted as I am to purchase them, I resist and make a cup of my own from 2 pieces of crust-less unbleached flour bread, cut into ½- inch squares. Takes about 10 minutes in an 8-inch pan. You must stand your ground, over low heat and a drizzle of about 1 tablespoon olive oil because they will burn as soon as look at you. I scorched the first batch for this test salad and watched over the second  like a crane protects her offspring with her wings. Use tongs or a fork to turn as they brown.

serves 2

4 cups Romaine lettuce, washed, dried and cut into attractive pieces, about 1 large head

For the dressing

3 tablespoons lemon juice

3 tablespoons olive oil

2-4 flat anchovy fillets, mashed (I use a mortar and pestle)

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (Lea and Perrins is good)

1 raw egg yolk

1/8 teaspoon dry mustard (Colman’s is my choice)

2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice, 3 tablespoons olive oil, mashed anchovy fillets, garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce and the egg yolk.

2. Out the lettuce in a salad bowl. Sprinkle on the Parmesan cheese.

3. Toss the salad with the dressing.  Serve. Salt and pepper, to taste.

 I have changed my version of Caesar Salad, classicist though I like to think I am. 

I wrote a scene in a (yet to be produced) film where, in a restaurant,  a mother and daughter talk about the daughter’s career as a classical flutist, while the waiter prepares a Caesar salad step by step at the table side.

SUSAN

                                   From Sunday’s Times.  Read the underlined part.

Victoria reads.

SUSAN

(continuing)

                                     Out loud.

 VICTORIA

                                                               (reads)

                                          “There is no question of the popular appeal of the

                                             flute as a solo instrument.  Flutists are becoming

                                             the ‘pied pipers’ of the current concert world.”

The waiter squeezes lemon into a bowl, adds salt, dry mustard and olive oil to the bowl.

SUSAN

                                              I want you to play again, professionally.

The waiter sprinkles Parmesan cheese into a bowl of romaine lettuce, anchovies and croutons.

Victoria starts to cry.

SUSAN

                                                                 (hands Victoria a Kleenex)

                                              Please don’t cry.

VICTORIA

                                               Emblazoned on my brain. “This was our first

                                               hearing of the pretty pre-touted-to-the-skies

                                               young flutist...

The waiter breaks a coddled egg over the greens.

VICTORIA

                                                ...who had trouble all afternoon, particularly in

                                                Bach’s B minor sonata.  Lower spitzig attacks        

                                                were weak and...

The waiter adds the dressing, tosses the salad, heaps it onto 2 plates, serves.

VICTORIA

                                                               (continuing, to the waiter)  

                                                  My spitzigs are weak.

The waiter holds up a pepper mill. Susan nods yes to the waiter who grinds pepper over the salad.

WAITER

                                                    I hope the Caesar is up to your liking. I tried to
                                                    outdo myself.

                                                                 
                                                         WAITER

                                                                         (to Victoria)

                                                          I’m very sorry about your spitzigs.

The waiter disappears. Susan and Victoria look at each other, and laugh.

VICTORIA

                                                           I ruined your Kleenex.

*spitzig is a term for using the tongue to make a sharp sound in flute playing.

              

                                                                                 

                            

                                              

                           

EASIEST FRIED CHICKEN

Photo by Carol Guilford

Of course, any part if the bird can be fried, but I like to fry the legs—substantial finger food.

Here’s a picture of Bob Park, a hunk gnawing on this simple Texas-style fried chicken. He manned up—the first batch was a tad pink at the bone. I upped the time from 15 minutes per side to 20 minutes.

Look for legs with the most skin covering the flesh.

Best utensil:  An electric skillet is good, but I used my 12-inch Wolfgang Puck fryer that will hold 5 legs. For fewer legs, a smaller pan is good as long as the oil is a least ¼ -inch deep. 

chicken legs

salt, pepper

flour

   I use King Arthur, organic, unbleached white flour

olive oil

 ¼ inch deep is about 1 to 1¼ cups.

1. Rinse the chicken quickly in cold water.  Pat dry.

2. Liberally salt and pepper both sides of the chicken.

3. Heat the oil until the oil is moving around and a drop of water (stand back) sizzles.

4. Just before frying, coat the chicken with flour, shaking off the excess.

5. Fry, uncovered for 20 minutes, then turn and fry 20 minutes on the second side. Check a couple of times to make sure the the chicken is not burning, so that you can adjust the heat.  

6. Drain on paper towels to remove the excess oil for a result that will be brown and crisp  on the outside, moist and tender on the inside. 

EASIEST BRAISED SWEET AND SOUR RED CABBAGE

I wrote on “About Carol Guilford” blog page how I wanted the blog to be fun, having written copiously about the adulteration in our food supply and especially the lethal artificial sweetener, aspartame, in diet colas and gum.

I have tried to keep my word, but last week, I realized it has been ten years since I wrote an article about a bizarre case involving a woman, Diane Fleming who was convicted to 30 years in prison for poisoning her husband with Krystal Cleer, an antifreeze. It was and is my belief today that Charles Fleming was a “death by aspartame.”

Here is the link to my article about Diane Fleming on the D. L. Dewey site, especially for you crime buffs. 

Let me know what you think at guilfordcarol@gmail.com.

Diane Fleming has been in Fluvanna prison, in Troy, Virginia, since 2002.

Back to fun and easy:

Photo by Carol Guilford

Rick Kurek bellied up to the bar and gave me this German-style recipe, a condiment for any roast meat or sausage. Can be made the day before and the result is scrumptious but lovely to look at, a beautiful purple hue.

Best Utensil:  I used my deep 12-inch stainless steel (Wolfgang Puck) skillet. 12-inchers are sometimes called chicken-fryers. I used my new “simmer-ring”.  The old one lasted about a year and for $6.59 on (E-bay) affordable to replace.

1 small red cabbage (about 12 cups, shredded)

¾ stick butter

½ cup vinegar*

2 tablespoons sugar*

salt, pepper to taste

1. To shred the cabbage, cut out the core, cut in half and slice thinly down the cut half. This is the same method to make coleslaw.

2. Sauté the cabbage in butter for 10 minutes.

3. Add vinegar and sugar.

4. Simmer, covered for 2 hours.  Stir occasionally. So interesting that 12 cups of shredded red cabbage reduces to 2 cups, a reminder of how much water is in vegetables.

5. Rick says sometimes he puts a peeled, sliced  Granny Smith spple in 10 minutes before the dish is done.  I didn’t do it. 

*Rick used cider vinegar.  I didn’t do that either.

*Rich uses  brown sugar. I used my regular organic cane sugar.