Heritage...A to Z through our kitchen

Courtesy mmagallan at sxc.hu

In most everyone's kitchen, there are certain intangible objects that influence the way we cook. In our kitchen, heritage plays as much a part of our meal planning as a love of great food or a desire to experiment.

Harry's family is a blend of Danish and hills of eastern Kentucky. On my side of the fence, I have the roots of eastern Tennessee and the Canadian Maritimes. During our childhood years, we've found a constant. We both come from homes where both parents worked. For the most part, weeknight dinner was usually a meat, potatoes and some sort of vegetable. When Harry and I are short on time for cooking, we usually fall back to those heritage meals.

In my house, corned beef wasn't just for St. Patrick's Day. Mom loved a New England boiled dinner and we probably had it a few times a year. The smell of the slow cooking of the corned beef brisket would fill the house. Then, the aroma got turned up a few notches as Mom added cabbage and rutabaga along with carrots and potatoes. In all these years, 2012 will go down as the year that I finally believe I got my boiled dinner to turn out just like Mom's.

There weren't a lot of dinners Harry would like to repeat from his mother. He told me if he judged pizza by the first one she ever made - which was the first time he ever ate pizza - he never would have eaten it again! But, Harry loved his mother's meatloaf. Through most of my years, while I loved Mom's meatloaf, I was just never able to replicate it on my own. I'm sure the reason is that she has a recipe card somewhere that she still follows to the letter today.

Mom blended her fishing-village family's food heritage with that of Dad's family. Slow-fried southern style chicken with milk gravy. In the summer, I always looked forward to fried green tomatoes (just flour, salt & pepper - none of that batter crap!) and fried okra (these were fried in corn meal, salt and pepper - again no batter!). In the summer, we put up food for winter - strawberry freezer jam, green beans, tomato juice, freezer corn, Lady Ashburn pickle relish.

Through our years, our tastes have changed. Our travels have led us to enjoy foods from around the country and around the world. But, our family heritage still finds its way into our kitchen.

Crockery, Casseroles and Cookbooks...A to Z through our kitchen

Having a kitchen of my own for nearly 30 years, I've collected an eclectic mix of, well, everything! There's very few items that I could ever need, even for a once-off dish or catering gig, in which I don't have the proper means to cook it or serve it. And many of these items come with so many memories.

In the foreground is a bean crock. I've actually only used it successfully once, for Christmas dinner this past year. The memories belong more to my mother. The bean crock came from Grannie, and Mom can remember beans for supper every Saturday night when she was a kid. Since Mom is, um, 20 years older than me, you can imagine how old this crock is.

With the bean crock are two bowls I received when Gramma passed away. Now, there's a very famous blogger who claims to channel Lucille Ball. Well, I do channel Lucille Wright - except I've never tried to make her banana pudding. While I use the larger bowl in the back for raising bread, I remember Gramma filling either of these bowls with banana pudding with a baked meringue crust. If the dinner was for a big holiday, Gramma used the large bowl. If it was "supper" preceded with a phone call saying "well, I just had a few things that needed to be cooked", she used the small bowl.

Out of all these casserole dishes, only three were purchased during my adult years. The small square in the foreground - great for a chicken pot pie just big enough for Harry and I - belonged to a set of Corelle dishes I needed for my post-divorce kitchen. The top two round casserole dishes on the back/right were purchased in 1983. Everything else came from Gramma's kitchen. They are all so sturdy and lend themselves to baking as well as serving when I feel the need to be proper and serve at the table. Which isn't very often.

I've culled my cookbook collection drastically over the last 18 months. With the dark corners and the strange early morning light, I could not get a proper picture. I have it whittled down to just about 100 cookbooks now. The ones that get the most use, not surprisingly, are some of the old, heritage cookbooks from Gramma's collection.

I have a few "celebrity" cookbooks that I turn to often. Cat Cora, Harry's dream girl, finds her way into our kitchen often with "Cooking from the Hip". I'm particularly fond of Justin Wilson, who was a celebrity cook long before the Food Network made everyone a celebrity. Mark Bittman's "The Minimalist Entertains" taught me that it was possible to serve guests without going overboard.

Of course, with the Lucy mantra of "We got plenty!", I hope I can be forgiven for always going overboard.

Is there an item in your kitchen that was passed from a previous generation? Or, do your children jokingly fight over who will get a certain item when you are no longer in need of it? I'd love to hear about!

Bar Glass...A to Z through our kitchen

It's just after 5:00 a.m. and still dark outside. With less than a cup of coffee in me, I know this photo isn't great but it's the best I could do.

I have a LOT of bar glass. I can host a wine-tasting party for 24 or Irish Car Bombs for 16. OK, I have way more than 16 pint glasses, but only 16 shot glasses. Martinis? Margaritas? Brandy Alexander? Irish Coffee? I have the glassware for all.

Keep in mind that this cabinet doesn't hold all of our coffee cups, the tea cups from 2 sets of china (8 and 24 respectively) or our travel sippy cups. Other than those few random plastic cups I've picked up along the way, a pewter shot cup that was handcrafted for me in Louisiana, Missouri, and my cocktail shaker, this is nothing but bar glass.

I started bartending in 1987 in a little beer and shot bar my then in-laws owned in Mount Vernon. Through the years, I've worked in just about every kind of alcohol venue you can imagine - nightclubs, full-serve restaurants and the Olympics of bartending in Columbus, Ohio: the Lobby Bar at Holiday Inn on Lane during Hiney Gate (RIP) during Ohio State's 2002 championship season.

I don't know if it's the bartender in me that desires all this bar glass. After all, it's not like Harry and I are actually that social. We did host my entire family for Christmas dinner a couple of years ago and that number didn't hit 20. There was also very little alcohol flowing.

It could be something else that makes me want to collect bar glass. I've had my own kitchen since 1983. In all that glass up there, there might be 2 or 3 pieces that I've carried from my children's teenage years. Yes, teens and dishwashing didn't seem to mix in my house. I can't count the number of glasses I bought during their years at home.

There's something else in that collection of bar glass: memories. There's the hand-painted wine glasses that we actually use for margaritas. I haggled for those in the straw market on our trip to Nogales, Mexico. There are hurricane glasses from Pat O'Brien's in New Orleans. There's the pair of pint glasses from Three Little Pigs, somewhere in Virginia while Trey and I were on a business trip. There are several pairs of wine glasses indicating that Harry and I completed the Indiana Wine Trail.

While most everything in our kitchen is actually used on a regular basis, I know that my collection of bar glass is just that - a collection. I dream of a glass cabinet someday to display it properly. Do you collect anything in your kitchen? Trivets? Salt shakers? Potholders? Le Creuset? Tell me about your kitchen collection in the comments!

Harry's Mom's Meatloaf

For some people, meatloaf is boring but for many households, it's a fairly easy go-to dinner when time is tight. We we make meatloaf, it's always two loaves - Harry loves sandwiches and sometimes, we don't even eat it for dinner but make it specifically for meatloaf sammies.

I love my mom's meatloaf - when she makes it. Mine never turned out the same for some reason. I failed HUGE with a meatloaf recipe in 1984 that caused my then-husband to turn green at the slightest mention of meatloaf for dinner. OK, ok, the sausage wasn't quite as thawed as it should have been and that was long before I learned the joys of a digital thermometer. When Harry and I started The Wright Taste, my ex-mother-in-law - more than 20 years after the fact - chirped "You can't even make a meatloaf and you expect people to buy food from you?"

Harry wasn't, in general, a fan of his mother's cooking. We both have memories of the same general meals and these days, I'm not a fan of the way my mom cooked a lot of things when I was a kid. I still loved them - the only place I'll eat Ragu on my spaghetti is when Mom makes it - it's kind of hard to explain. And I STILL can't get my Boiled Dinner (corned beef and cabbage) to come out the same way Mom does, even if we buy the same brand of corned beef at the same time!

But Harry did like his mom's meatloaf and the first time he showed me the recipe, I thought "ICK!" But, this is the best meatloaf recipe I've ever tried. It's never dry and it's the perfect sandwich meatloaf - it doesn't get crumbly when you slice it and it also freezes beautifully.

This is the "normal" recipe - plenty for dinner for six plus leftover for sandwiches. Save yourself a little time and double the recipe. Freeze one loaf whole to heat for another dinner or freeze it in slices for sandwiches later. I don't know where Mrs. W got the recipe but since Harry was eating this as a kid in the late 50's, early 60s, I don't stand a chance of tracking down the original source.

Harry's Mom's Meatloaf

2 pounds ground chuck
1 cup plain bread crumbs
1 can evaporated milk
3 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons dried minced onion
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon Frank's Red Hot
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine the evaporated milk, ketchup, dried minced onion, eggs, granulated garlic, Frank's and salt. Mix it well and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the ground chuck with the bread crumbs - take your time to work all the crumbs into the meat.

Now is when it will get really messy: Have Harry pour the liquid mixture into the ground beef mixture. As you squeeze the liquid into the meat, it will originally appear to be very soupy. Mix it with your hands until the liquid and meat are well-combined, then allow to rest for five minutes. The resting time will give the bread crumbs time to absorb the moisture, so it's possible to form it into loaves.

Add the cooled melted butter and mix well. Now it's time to shape your meat loaf. Only shape it into two loaves if you have doubled the recipe.

This is where I deviate from Harry's mom's recipe: I love ketchup baked onto my meatloaf. Harry's mom always covered it with American cheese slices - the choice is yours.

Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for about an hour. I check the temp and try to keep it between 170 and 180 degrees inside.

Remove from oven and let rest for five minutes. Then, remove to a serving platter (to get it out of the grease), cover with foil and allow to stand for another 10 minutes - this will help the meatloaf "stiffen up" so that it's easier to cut without crumbling.

Lemonade for Grown-ups and the Yucca Jar!

Several years ago, I discovered the joys of vodka and lemonade. I was in Scottsdale, preparing mass quantities of pico de gallo and guacamole in advance of a Rent-a-Party West/Sewing Circle mashup. It was hot, I was thirsty and there was lemonade.

I occasionally revisit that cocktail. If I'm not in the mood to make my own lemonade, I've found that Simply Lemonade is probably the best commercial brand available. Sugar, not corn syrup, as a sweetener, lemons and water. Can't get much more simple than that.

A short while later, we were shaking it up and consuming the first of what would be many Yucca Jars before the night was over. Definitely a party drink, as each batch makes a gallon. Tastes like lemonade and goes down like lemonade - which could offer some interesting results.

Yucca Jars waiting to be called to duty!

The most appropriate way to consume Yucca - straight from the jar! Well, you wouldn't be partying with all these people if you weren't friends, right?

Too much Yucca can lead to bad things...

A Yucca Jar can make you dress a little "different"

Many Yucca Jars can lead to spankings...

And the morning after can sometimes look like this...

It's summertime! For complete recipes for homemade lemonade and a Yucca Jar, read Spirited Lemonade: Refreshing Summer Cocktails.

C is for Chowder...

It's raining and that makes me think of Chowder - well, that and the fact that today is "C" day in the A to Z Blogging Challenge. When it's cool and icky outside, I love a warming chowder.

We don't draw the line at clam chowder. A chowder is thick and creamy and filled with chunks of good stuff like protein, veggies and sometimes potatoes. OK, in our kitchen, our chowders always have potatoes. I will admit to cheating when I do make clam chowder. I buy the canned things because I've never actually cooked a real clam. Remember - I live in central Ohio. Truly "fresh" seafood is a luxury item. Oh, except for that guy in Jelloway that goes to Maine every couple of weeks to catch live lobsters and brings them back here to sell very cheap!

If I'm making a chowder involving seafood or fish such as mussels, clams, cod or any firm white-flesh fish, I start sauteing the veggies. And no - I'm doing this off the top of my head so I don't have any pretty pictures. Celery, carrots and onion - and the diced potatoes. We tried this with some kind of stew late last fall and I was amazed at the new depth of flavor that was added by lightly sauteing the potatoes before adding the liquid.

Chowder liquid. I've not had any success making fish stock because all my fishing expeditions end in hamburgers. Homemade vegetable stock is a good option and plain ol' water works well. I always take care to just cover the veggies because I know I'm going to be adding cream or half and half.

The protein in a chowder doesn't have to be from the sea. I love to make chowders featuring ground Italian sausage and I've eaten some heavenly corn chowders. I add the clams or other fish just as the liquid has come to a simmer - don't want to cook them until they're too tough!

My cousin Freddie makes the most beautiful fish chowder I've ever had. Filled with whatever catch his son brought in off the boat that morning and a light, barely-creamy broth. I haven't eaten it since the fall of 2001 because he lives in New Brunswick but I can still taste it.

No recipes, no pix, no links...just warm and fuzzy thoughts.

Texas Straw Hat...Centerburg Schools Style!

My friend Arlene mentioned Texas Straw Hat that was sold at the Oldtime Farming Festival in Centerburg a few weeks ago. So many people immediately had flashbacks to our school days. Personally, I loved it until I walked into the cafeteria kitchen one morning to say "Hi" to Gramma and saw her grinding the kidney beans.

That might explain my to-this-day aversion to beans. I'm going to try to not gross anyone out with the image I still carry in my mind of those beans coming out of the grinder.

Oops. Sorry.

Texas Straw Hat is so simple - and I've seen it on restaurant menus as Frito Pie. Take a handful or so of Frito's, cover it with chili and shredded cheese. I would cheat a bit when my kids were teens and use Chili-O with Onions seasoning mix - it wasn't bad and if I did it right, we had enough left over for chili-dogs the next night.

Gramma loved sharing her recipes. The Centerburg United Methodist Church used to do what Gramma called her "circle cookbooks" and as I thumb through the pages of these books, Gramma always submitted a lot of recipes. How I cherish this collection. It's not only Gramma in those pages - Mrs. Debolt is there, Bertha Wright, Jacque Cordle and Justine Reynolds - although Justine never gave up her recipe for her amazing Butterscotch Pie that I've been able to find.

If you're really looking for a school-days Texas Straw Hat flashback, here's the recipe - according to Gramma, who cooked at the school when they really used to cook. It's cut down to a normal quantity, maybe 6 or 7 servings.

1 cup chopped onion
2/3 cup chopped celery
2/3 cup chopped green pepper
3 tablespoons fat (yes, the word is FAT - I have no idea what they used in the 70s!)
2 pounds ground beef
2-3 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 6-ounce cans tomato paste
2 cups water
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Dash of Tabasco sauce
1 large can kidney beans, drained and ground up (hmmm...large? probably not a #10 can!)
2 (6 ounce) package corn chips (maybe they weren't Fritos in the 70s?)
2 cups American or sharp cheese, ground up (I'm almost positive it would have been the surplus government American cheese back then)

In large skillet cook onion, celery and green pepper in hot fat until tender, but not brown. Add ground beef and brown lightly. Add remaining ingredients, except corn chips and cheese. Simmer, uncovered, for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Serve over corn chips and top with a generous serving of the cheese.

There it is - when I make it, I always add diced raw onion on top of the chili and under the cheese.

Enjoy the memories!