Hello there, you, on the other side of the kitchen counter. To get you started, Nadine Carden of Ooltewah wrote to say, “I would like the recipe for cornbread salad that is served at Home Folks Family Restaurant in Soddy-Daisy. It is very different and very good.”
We have an anonymous request for “really good gluten-free crackers, either a recipe for homemade or a favorite store-bought tip.”
And B.L. sent a most tempting description of a cookbook dedicated to cast-iron cookery. Tucked into her cookbook thoughts is a request for one particular cookie. “The cookbook is ‘Cook It in Cast Iron’ from America’s Test Kitchens. I haven’t purchased it, but it sounds great. One of the recipes mentioned was a cast-iron skillet chocolate chip cookie. If any one has a tested recipe for a giant cookie made in a skillet, please share it.”
And if you have investigated this cookbook, let us know your thoughts there as well. Might it become one of our “Go-To Cookbooks”?
FANCY TUNA SALAD
We were speaking about tuna. In Edith Parker Middleton’s cookbook, “Recipes and Remembering,” filed under Party Foods is the following recipe for tuna mousse. This would also be a fine salad, served on a tomato slice or a lettuce leaf or anything of the kind.
Tuna Mousse
1 (1/4-ounce) envelope unflavored gelatin
3/4 cup milk
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed tomato soup
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 (7-ounce) cans or packages albacore tuna, finely chopped
1/2 cup minced celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
Dissolve gelatin in milk; set aside. Heat soup and cream cheese, and stir well until smooth. Remove from heat, and add gelatin mixture. Fold in mayonnaise, tuna, celery and onion. Pour into a 4-cup mold, and chill. Serve with crackers, celery or carrots.
POTATOES AND PESTO
Talk of pesto continues today with this contribution from Pam of the blog sidewalkshoes.com. “I make and freeze this chive pesto all summer long while my chives are flourishing. It is also amazing on eggs.”
Roasted Fingerling Potatoes With Chive Pesto
Crispy roasted fingerling potatoes are tossed with an amazing chive pesto. Use the extra chive pesto on sandwiches.
For Fingerling Potatoes:
1 3/4 pounds fingerling potatoes, washed, scrubbed and cut into equal sizes
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and black pepper
Heat oven to 425 degrees.
Place fingerling potatoes on a baking sheet, drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to coat the potatoes. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes.
For Chive Pesto:
1/2 cup fresh chives chopped, packed
1/2 cup fresh parsley chopped, packed
2 tablespoons pine nuts
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons lemon juice, fresh
2 tablespoons water
While the potatoes are roasting, place the chives, parsley, pine nuts and garlic in a food processor. Process until finely chopped. With the processor running, slowly pour in the olive oil. Scoop out and place in a large bowl. Add the lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of water, and stir. Leave half of the pesto in the bowl, and put the other half in a small bowl.
Assembling the dish:
Remove the potatoes from the oven, add them to the large bowl of pesto and toss to combine. Serve with the additional pesto.
Variations: For the pine nuts you can substitute walnuts or almonds.
DREAMY BREAKFAST
Jon McKeachie has a recipe for a dreamy breakfast, stuffed French toast.
Stuffed French Toast
2 whole eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 to 2 cups of milk, half-and-half or heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Challah bread cut in 1/4-inch slices
For each serving:
Your choice of fruit: 1/4 cup of strawberries sliced thin (or blueberries, raspberries or blackberries whole) or 1/4 cup kiwi or bananas sliced thin
1/2 tablespoon Nutella
Toppings: Your choice of powdered sugar or whipped cream
In a bowl whisk together the eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and milk or cream. Mix until well combined. Heat butter in skillet over medium heat. Dip one piece of challah bread in the mixture, and let excess drain off. Then place in the skillet on the melted butter. Cook on one side until lightly browned, then turn over and brown on the other side. Remove from pan.
Add fruit or Nutella to a slice, then top with another piece of coated bread. Top with powdered sugar or whipped cream.
EASY CHICKEN
In a recent lifetime collection from M.H.V. came this easy chicken recipe, pre-crockpot but with the virtues of long slow cooking and no need to brown the chicken in advance.
Polynesian Chicken
8 to 12 pieces of chicken, bone-in
1 (8-ounce) bottle Thousand Island dressing
1 (10-ounce) jar apricot preserves
1 package Lipton’s dry onion soup mix
Mix together preserves, Thousand Island dressing and soup mix. Heat to blend well. Pour over chicken pieces in a rectangular baking dish large enough that you don’t have to stack the chicken. Bake, covered, at 325 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours. Serve with rice and a green vegetable. Steamed or roasted broccoli work well.
CORRECTION
Here’s a commendation and correction from Betsy Zbinden about last week’s Oatmeal Shortbread Bars. She wrote, “Since I love oatmeal cookies, I tried the oatmeal shortbread bars. They are delicious; I used brown sugar and added dried blueberries. One problem: The recipe takes 1 1/4 cups flour, not just 1/4.”
The corrected recipe with Ms. Zbinden’s additions is printed below.
Oatmeal Shortbread Bars Version 2
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar, white or brown
1 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup rolled oats
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 handful dried blueberries (optional)
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9-inch square pan.
In a medium bowl, beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Add flour, oatmeal and salt, and beat until blended. Add dried blueberries if using. Press dough evenly over bottom of prepared pan.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until golden. Cut into bars while hot. Transfer to a rack, and let cool in pan. Makes about 2 dozen.
LAST SWEET BITE
There’s a lovely poem by Joy Harjo about a kitchen table. It begins with this line: “The world begins at a kitchen table.” It ends like this: “At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering and remorse. We give thanks. Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.”
It’s not so much about the actual table as about the spirit in a kitchen, the elemental place where we break bread and keep each other fed on the ordinary, messy days. The kitchens in our history have been short on tables, but spirited nonetheless. This column is meant, at its best, to carry the kitchen table spirit as we sit down together, virtually, on Wednesday mornings. It works for me, and I hope it does for you.
REQUESTS
* Home Folks’ cornbread salad
* Gluten-free crackers
* Skillet cookies
TO REACH US
Fare Exchange is a longtime meeting place for people who love to cook and love to eat. We welcome both your recipes and your requests. Be sure to include precise instructions for every recipe you send.
Mailing address: Jane Henegar, 913 Mount Olive Road, Lookout Mountain, GA 30750
Email: chattfare@gmail.com
Jane Henegar