make one new recipe from each cookbook on my shelf

Community cookbooks are wonderful. Junior League cookbooks generally lead the pack in this area, but church societies, chambers of commerce, and other groups put together pretty good collections too. I like the recipes because they are usually tried and true and sure to please.

Fog City Delights is the 1987 cookbook put out by the “Letterman Auxiliary” of the Letterman Army Medical Center that used to be in the Presidio in San Francisco (it has since been torn down and replaced with the more attractive Lucas Center).

Although “Cheddary Tomato Fish Fillets” may sound dubious, it was really tasty.

2 tablespoons butter
1 pound fish fillets
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped onions
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
1 medium tomato, shopped
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Melt butter in large skillet. Add fillets, turning to coat both sides. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the onions, parsley, and tomatoes over the fillets. Cover and cook over low heat for 7 to 9 minutes. Sprinkle cheese over the top and cover. Cook 1 to 2 minutes, until the cheese melts. Serves 4.

Other than The Joy of Cooking, this was the first cookbok I ever owned. The recipes now seem “so ‘80s” to me—but that isn’t a bad thing. I am often nostalgic for those ‘80s treats I used to make, like these “Toffee Bars” that were easy and very good:

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg yolk
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9×12 baking pan.
2. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg yolk; beat well.
3. Sift in flour, mixing well, then add vanilla. Spread batter in greased pan. Bake for 25 minutes.
4. Cover cake layer with chocolate chips and return to oven for 3 or 4 minutes.
5. Remove pan from oven and spead melted chocolate evenly. Sprinkle with nuts. Cool in pan completely before cutting.

About 30 bars.

The only change I made was adding a little salt to the batter because I used usalted butter.

Friends from Minneapolis gave me this cookbook from their favorite restaurant, Cafe Brenda—a “seafood and vegetarian cuisine” restaurant. I made the White Bean and Squash soup, which was not bad, but a little bland. It benefited from doubling the herbs and adding a healthy dose of hot sauce and a little butter melted on top (what wouldn’t?).

The paraphrased version of the recipe is:

Soak 1 cup of dried navy beans eight hours or overnight.

To make the soup, bring beans to boil in 5 cups water. Reduce heat, simmer for about an hour or until tender. Drain.

Sauté in olive oil for about 5 minutes: 4 garlic cloves, chopped; one large shallot, chopped; one medium onion, chopped.

Add 3 ½ cups peeled, cubed (1”) winter squash (butternut).

Combine squash/onion mix with cooked beans, 4 cups vegetable stock, ½ teaspoon dried basil, ½ teaspoon dried oregano, and ¼ teaspoon dried thyme. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered until squash is tender (about 20 minutes).

Puree soup in batches in blender or food processor. \

Return to pot and add ¾ cup half and half; salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 6.

I read this odd book over vacation last week. It is mostly commentary on food and cooking, with a few recipes in the back—sort of like an MFK Fisher book, but without the cache. I do not know anything about the author, George Jacobs, or why he wrote a book about cooking. He is not a chef. I gather that he is some kind of bon vivant, artist, occasional ex-pat who enjoys food. His musings are mildly interesting, but nothing memorable. Maybe I could write a book about food?

I tried to make burre blanc sauce following his directions. It didn’t work at all. It was melted butter with some shallots and a slight vinegary flavor. It never got thick.

I’ll try again someday.

I finally made homemade baklava like my hubby’s mother used to make—from her old cook book. A little labor-intensive, but not difficult. Super yummy and it got even better after about two or three days.

Mmmmmmmmm . . . . yummy shrimp and bacon kabobs with pickled onion and avocado salad. The recipe was simple, although it involved a lot of separate parts.

Use one pound of raw shrimp—peeled and deveined, but with the tails on. The recipe called for 16-20/pound shrimp, which Safeway didn’t have, so I used 20-25/pound shrimp and they worked fine.

Start the salad first:

Thinly slice one red onion and soak for one hour in white vinegar.

Chop two avocados into medium chunks. Seed and core one medium tomato and chop into 1/2” to 1” chunks. Toss avocado and tomato with 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup fresh lime juice, 1 tablespoon cumin, and 1 teaspoon crushed garlic. Set in fridge while onions soak.

Right before serving, drain the vinegar off the onion; toss the onions with the rest of the salad; add 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro. (See NOTE.)

To make the kebobs:

Dice 8 oz of slab bacon (the kind that isn’t pre-sliced) into 1/2 oz cubes. Blanch in boiling water for about 1 minute to they are cooked before the go on the grill.

Thread the kebobs: alternate shrimp, a cube of bacon, a 1” red pepper chunk, a 1” piece of green onion, repeat. I got 3 shrimp and 2 of everything else on a 9” stick. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Grill over medium heat for about 3 minutes or so, until the shrimp are cooked through but not dried out.

Serve kebobs on top of the salad.

NOTE: There were a couple of things I would change about the recipe.

1) The bacon, even though it was cooked through and gave good flavor to the shrimp, was too blubbery to eat. I don’t know what to do about that.

2) Unless you REALLY love onions, use only half or less of what the recipe calls for. I made them all, but only used about 1/3.

3) The salad needs something crunchy. I served it on a couple of romaine leaves and that turned out to be a very good addition.

All in all, a good recipe because it got me to try shrimp kebobs on the grill. Needs individualization, but I will make this one again.

Junior League cookbooks are a big favorite of mine, so I was extra disappointed that the recipe I tried from the Eugene, Oregon book didn’t turn out very good.

I made Pork Chops Florentine, which sounded like a good combo: slow cooked pork chops on a bed of spinach, smothered in a cheesy sauce. But smothered doesn’t come close to describing the incredible amount of goo involved. There was something way off in the ratio of sauce to food. And, of course, the sauce got so mixed into the spinach that there was no way to separate everything once it was cooked. It was an unappetizing mess.

Oh well, they can’t all be winners.

I love my 1968 edition of this book! It gives a little description of the dish or tells a story about it, then tells you what to serve with it to make a complete dinner (along the lines of “serve with a butter lettuce salad; dinner rolls; and sliced peaches”),

Last night I made “Poulet Marengo” and it was pretty tasty. I’d make it again. I used more basil and more garlic than the recipe called for. Also, I couldn’t find a 2 1/2 pound chicken, so I used a normal grocery store chicken (around 4 pounds) and just added a little more liquid, tomatoes, and mushrooms to make enough sauce.

1/2 c. flour
salt & pepper
t. dried basil
2 1/2 lb. chicken, cut into parts
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. olive oil
1 c. dry white wine
1 jigger (1 1/5 oz.) brandy
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 1/5 cups chopped canned tomatoes
1/2 lb. mushrooms, sliced

Mix the salt, pepper, basil, and flour. Dredge the chicken parts. Save the remaining flour mixture. Sauté the chicken in the butter and oil until well-browned on all sides. Transfer chicken to covered casserole.

Add the remaining flour to the butter and oil and stir with a whisk until it is dissolved. Slowly add the wine and brandy, stirring until well mixed and thickened. Add the garlic, tomatoes, and mushrooms. Stir well.

Pour sauce over chicken. Cover casserole dish. Cook in 350 oven for 30-40 minutes* or until the chicken is done.

The books said to serve with noodles, a Belgian endive salad, and wine sorbet with sliced strawberries.

• I left it in the oven for 90 minutes because I don’t like undercooked chicken. It was delicious. The leftovers will probably be even better because the flavors will really have soaked in and melded.

Caprial’s Bistro is one of my favorite restaurants in Portland. I also love her on her tv show and have learned a lot by watching her (I am indebted to her for fixing my pie crust—I needed to use more water, as I learned from one show). But, this cookbook doesn’t really do much for me. The recipes, like the items on Caprial’s bistro menu, are deceptively simple. But the things I make never taste as good as they do at her restaurant. Of course, I’m not a world-class chef; she is. She must have secret ways (yes, called “talent”) that makes things taste super yummy.

I tried the Seared Ahi with Five-Spice Glaze. It was not hard to make, and it was good, but like every other time I’ve tried searing tuna at home, it doesn’t come out like at a restaurant. It was nice and rare in the middle, but it was like a rare steak—it was cooked on the outside and faded to rare in the middle. But at a restaurant, it is cooked on the very outer edge, and then rare really all the way through. I can never do that at home. I think it is because I can’t get the pan hot enough or something.

So, tasty, but I won’t be making it again.

I made Marinated Goat Cheese for a Halloween pot luck. It was just several garlic cloves simmered in olive oil until they were soft, cooled, then poured over disks of goat cheese with more olive oil to just cover and some pitted kalamata olives. The recipe called for Nicoise olives, but I didn’t want pits. Refridgerate overnight. Bring to room temp and serve with crackers or bread.

It may have been the simplest recipe in the book. And although I make fun of this book, people loved the cheese—they ate every bit.