David Ross

That sounds really refreshing. I think I'll start making Huckleberry Vodka Martini's!

The floor level cupboard I forgot about where I had stored a trash can--full of kitchen garbage. It didn't smell, but a few months later I happened to open the cupboard, forgetting what was in there. There was literally a large green plant spear, with leaves, growing out of the garbage can. It was like something growing out of a body in Aliens. I did not attempt to determine which piece of garbage had been the planting seed for the evil weed. To this day it makes me feel ill to think about how long that stew was brewing in that cupboard.

I do the same thing. Have all kinds of oven mitts and gloves rated to protect one from intense heat but they just sit in a drawer and don't get used. I use stupid little kitchen towels to open up the oven and dearly pay for it. I tried to take a Cuisinart casserole dish out of the oven the other day--with my bare hands. I was quick enough to pull back and didn't suffer any burns.

My preferred vinaigrette is hazelnut oil, pear flavored white balsamic and a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, sea salt and pepper. The hazelnut oil is fairly mild as is the pear balsamic. Both taste and remind me of the pears and hazelnuts from Oregon. I just whisk it by hand in a bowl. It's delicious on a salad of sliced pear, toasted hazelnuts, bleu cheese and greens. I usually only make enough to dress two small salads and don't store it.

Yesterday I made waffles using a recipe that is a take on the Cargon Malted Waffle Mix. The key to the recipe is to used malted milk powder and to fold an egg white into the batter to make it light and airy. The malted milk powder gives the waffles a tangy flavor. Sometimes I substitute buttermilk for regular milk in the batter and it adds to the sweet yet sour flavors in the waffles. Crisp on the outside and still fluffy in the center.

We all know that commercial kitchens are a hazardous place--Chefs come into contact with intense heat, flames, slippery floors and sharp knives--all during the fury of service. Yet the home kitchen can also be a hazardous workplace albeit on a smaller scale. Today when I was painting my kitchen, I was up on a small ladder. To reach a corner in the ceiling, I stepped on top of a butcher block with a large countertop attached. When I stepped on the countertop, it popped off. I lost my balance and fell to the floor, along with all the kitchen tools on top of the counter. The glass jars I use to hold kitchen tools broke, but luckily I wasn't cut by glass. Unfortunately, I had left my portable deep-fryer on the counter to cool so it was full of cold oil. The deep-fryer went flying, but it helped break my fall. When I collected my oil covered self off the floor, I realized I was sitting on top off the deep-fryer. The fry basket is a horrible tangled mess to say the least. Other than a scrape on my left shoulder and a swollen, bruised, left elbow, I seem to have survived intact. Albeit my back will suffer in coming days. It was sort of funny in a tragic way. Cleaning up a gallon of used fry oil wasn't a pretty sight. While my foible was due to using poor judgement while painting my kitchen, I imagine some of you have suffered similar spills, trips, falls and the like in your kitchen.

I miss the demise of the local Hayesville market we went to as kids. We would go there on the days we collected dues from the people on our newspaper route. Back then a lot of customers paid the paperboy direct rather than mailing in their subscription fee. We got a take on the fees plus a few tips from customers. On collection day we'd go to Hayesville market and buy candy and maybe some pepproni sticks and a soda. I remember hanging out in the store and the employees were always glad to see us. They never shooed us away. It was probably about 1970 or 1971. The market closed down about 1985 or so, but the owners relocated to a large, new supermarket down the block. It's an independent, employee-owned local market, but it's a supermarket with a thread of the feel of the old place. I also miss the other local market my Mother used to go to. We started going there when we moved to Salem in 1964 and it closed sometime in the mid-70's. I can't remember the name of the store, but the butcher was Oliver Kuykendall-a good German butcher. He had played football in college in the days when they didn't wear faceguards and he looked like Knute Rockne with his knobby nose. He always had bloodspots and stains on his white apron, always wore a paper white butcher's cap. What stands out in my memory was the fresh ground beef Mother got from Oliver that she fed to our dachshund Snoopy. (Mother served Snoopy a spoon of cottage cheese with his fresh ground beef). Oliver let his customers pay monthly on account. When we went in for a pound of bacon, he simply wrote it up on a paper receipt, gave us a carbon copy and filed the original. Mother would go back down to the store at the end of the month to settle her balance in cash. This was standard practice in local stores going back decades, but sadly, by the 70's I think few stores were left that let customers pay on good faith at the end of the month.

You know I haven't substituted butter for the Crisco in the cake but if I got the ratio right, I think it would be delicious.

So right. And those chickens were injected "with up to 10% solution," which I don't think we had heard of before. Nothing against folks in other parts of the country, but I remember first seeing "Arkansas" chickens show up in our markets in Oregon and we were really shocked. I was just a teenager in the early 70's, but I remember thinking at the time why aren't our chickens good enough.

Wish-Bone "Green Goddess" salad dressing. One of the classic salad dressings of the early 20th century that we always had in our fridge in the 70's. Sadly, it left the grocery store shelves for decades, but in recent years I've seen different brands of Green Goddess return. I now make a very good version at home and everytime I do it reminds me of the wonderfully tangy flavor of Green Goddess.

Have we forgotten Fondue? My Mother had a fondue pot she bought with S&H Green Stamps, probably sometime around the late 60's early 70's. I remember getting green stamps when we got gas from the Mobil station. I think she also got green stamps in soap boxes. There was a Green Stamp store in downtown Salem,(OR), where we would go and redeem the stamps for merchandise. We got a tacky little metal fondue pot. Bright yellow as I remember and each fork had a different colored handle so everyone had their own dipping stick. We didn't have much traditional cheese fondue, but I remember Mother making a savory fondue with hot oil and chunks of steak, probably green pepper and onion. I think the real treat was dipping meat in hot bubbling oil. Funny how those old pots stayed dormant for a couple of decades, only to return to popularity in recent years and appear on kitchenware shelves as new designs called "retro." In my mind Fondue never went out of fashion--although the tux I wore at my prom in 1975 sure did!

Real Caesar Salad, properly tossed tableside in a wooden bowl and served in a "Continental" Dining Room decades before Caesar Salad would find a resurgence in popularity and become a shill of its true self. (In other words, without coddled egg, anchovy, Worcestershire sauce and freshly made, buttery croutons). I'm sorry that some now call "Creamy Roasted Garlic Caesar Dressing" in a bottle the correct way to dress a real Caesar Salad. And another classic of the Continental cuisine of the 70's I miss terribly-Steak Diane, also prepared tableside, with flames and flourish.

My crappy Sear's Kenmore stove/range. The oven is o.k., but pulling and pushing the racks in and out is a pain--like nails on a chalkboard only it's metal against metal. The stupid reason I bought the glass cooktop (because I thought it would be easier to clean), turned out to be 11 years of ongoing arguments with that damn cooktop. Is it easier to clean? Sort of. Sugar burns on the glasstop and is virtually impossible to clean, and the elements never really give you the heat and regulation you find with a gas cooktop. I almost used the recent burnout of one of the elements as an excuse to trade-in the buggar. But instead, I shelled out $90 bucks for a replacement element, (very much more expensive than regular electric range elements). It's a terrible love (I need hot food), hate (I hate the damn thing) relationship.

The original recipe for my Devil's Food Cake came off the back of the Pillsbury "Soft as Silk" Cake Flour box. Cake flour is milled from soft wheat that has very little protein. Thus, cakes made with only cake flour are light and airy with a delicate crumb. (My personal preference for a cake). The Pillsbury recipe calls for only cake flour. At first, I thought the cake was too light in texture when it was made with only cake flour--it couldn't hold the weight of the heavy chocolate ganache frosting layers that I planned--so I used about 2/3 cake flour and 1/3 all-purpose flour. The cake was denser in texture and stood up well to the weight of the ganache. Then I started to make Devil's Food Cupcakes and went back to using only cake flour for a light texture. This Devil's Food Cake was made with only cake flour. The recipe calls for both vanilla and almond extract, but I typically only use vanilla because I find almond extract is very strong and I don't want it to interfere with the devil chocolate flavor. The recipe also calls for Dutch-processed Cocoa that is alkalized. Well, I didn't have any Dutch Cocoa in the cupboard and I'm not familiar with the term alkalized, so I used Hershey's Cocoa powder. I've used Dutch Cocoa in the past and found it has a more dark chocolate flavor and I prefer the lighter flavor of Hershey's Cocoa. Of course, the trick to a good Devil's Food Cake is to "devil" it with buttermilk. In fact, buttermilk that sits for a few days and gets real tangy is especially good in Devil's Food. One last note on the cake recipe. The recipe on the box says it makes enough for three 9- round cake pans. I only find the recipe makes enough batter for 2 8" rounds that are 2" deep. And the recipe calls for using Pillsbury brand non-stick spray with flour, but I just grease the pans with Crisco and dust with flour. (And a parchment round on the bottom of the pan also helps). Devil's Food Cake- 2 cups granulated sugar 1 cup butter, softened 2 tsp. vanilla 2 eggs 2 1/2 cups cake flour 1 cup cocoa powder 2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt 2-2 1/3 cups buttermilk Heat the oven to 350. Grease and flour two 8" round cake pans. In a large mixing bowl, beat the sugar and butter until light and creamy. Add the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time, while continuing to beat the mixture until combined. In a separate bowl, sift together the cake flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. (The recipe says to just mix the dry ingredients, but I sift them together so they are fully incorporated. And--the extra sifting makes for a lighter cake). Add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk while the mixer is running. Continue to beat until the batter is smooth and creamy. Add additional buttermilk if needed. Divide the batter between the two cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. (The recipe calls for a 26-30 minute baking time but my oven calls for about 5-7 minutes longer at 30-35 minutes). Cool the cake pans for 20 minutes on a wire rack before unmolding the cake from the pans. Let the cakes cool completely before frosting. Chocolate Frosting- For this Devil's Food Cake I made a basic chocolate frosting. Since the only cocoa I had was Hershey's, I used that for the frosting. The recipe calls for butter OR margarine, but of course I used butter. And I'm the oddball when it comes to baking because I prefer salted butter when most baking recipes call for unsalted butter. The recipe also calls for regular milk, but I substituted buttermilk-partly because I had it on hand for the cake but also because I wanted some tang in the frosting to accent the buttermilk flavor in the cake. I found that the recipe only makes enough frosting to barely cover two 8" rounds, so if you like frosting like I do, double the recipe. 1/2 cup butter 2/3 cup cocoa powder 1/3-1/2 cup buttermilk 3-3 1/2 cups powdered sugar 1 tsp. vanilla Melt the butter over medium heat in a saucepan. Stir in the cocoa powder and continue to stir until it it combined with the butter and the mixture is smooth and creamy. Remove the saucepan from the heat and spoon the chocolate mixture into the bowl of a mixer. Beat in the milk alternately with the powdered sugar until the frosting is smooth and creamy. (I stop the mixer a couple of times to check on the consistency of the frosting so it's to the point where it will spread easily on the cake). Add the vanilla. Add additional powdered sugar and buttermilk if necessary to get to the desired consistency. And here it is again-

I first made this Devil's Food Cake for the Gerry Frank Chocolate Cake Contest at the Oregon State Fair back in 1995 or so. The contest is a tradition at the Fair that started back in 1959. (And certainly there were plenty of "Old-Fashioned" chocolate cake entries back then). The competition cake was made up of something like 6 or 8 layers of Devil's food sandwiched between layers of Chocolate Ganache and then blanketed with a Milk Chocolate Frosting. Now when I make Devil's Food cake I take a softer approach--just two layers of cake and a frosting made with Hershey's Cocoa. (And a big scoop of vanilla ice cream).

Cutting butter and Crisco into flour--knowing that it will soon be a beautifully light, flaky, buttery pie crust.

I've had quite the ride with dealing with Acid Reflux the past two years. I'm currently on Nexium after trying Prilosec, Protonix, Aciphex and a couple of others whose name escapes me. As others have mentioned, it's a case of finding the right drug that treats your symptoms combined with the right insurance plan that will pay for it. (Of course, drug therapy is after you've tried to lose enough weight and change your diet enough to escape the symptoms). According to my Doctors, Nexium is the "gold standard" for treating GERD, (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease), in terms of the effectiveness. Unfortunately, Nexium is also one of the most expensive drugs for treatment. I am lucky in that my insurance covers 3-months of Nexium for a mere $30. Otherwise is would cost upwards of $900 if I didn't have insurance. It did take a couple of letters and calls from the Doctor to my insurance company to convince them that I needed to be on Nexium for the long-term--they apparently consider it to be a short-term drug. I have the head of my bed elevated by a couple of blocks of 2 x 4. The theory of course being acid won't "reflux" back into your throat if your head is elevated. I can't really say if that's been effective. In the past 2 years I've had 3 Endoscopy procedures where you are sedated and a scope is put down your throat and into the upper stomach to view your inner workings. It was on the first Endoscopy that they discovered a hiatal hernia, which I now realize some of you also have. Apparently many of us with Acid Reflux also have a hiatal hernia. My Doctors don't surgically treat the hernia alone--they only treat it is the sympotoms of Acid Reflux require surgery--then they repair the hernia during the procedure. The last Endosopy I had include the "Bravo" technology where a small chip is sutured to your esophagus. Over the course of 2 1/2 days, the Bravo device sent electronic readings to a monitor I wore on my belt gauging the acid levels. In addition, I kept a journal of what I ate and when. The results were inconclusive--at times when the acid was high I didn't have symptoms like a cough or a feeling of acid reflux. During meals, the acid levels didn't increase. Right now we're just staying the course and no surgery is needed. They've told me dairy, caffeine and spicy foods aggravate the condition. I have only found spicy foods in big quantities to aggravate the problems. And like Steven said in his opener-I could lose weight, which I constantly am trying to do, but the amount of weight would probably exceed 50lbs. for me to see a difference in symptoms. The jury in my case is out in terms of whether large weight loss would cure the acid reflux. The hernia wouldn't go away and that is a contributing factor that leads to acid reflux. It hasn't had a serious impact on my life, but it isn't something I welcome either.

I would imagine that a lot of the Old-Fashioned Cakes we've been discussing were standard offerings under the glass cake domes on Diner counters. (I have two layers of Devil's Food Cake cooling on the counter as we speak. Now that's a Diner classic).

I'm not the expert in terms of definitions, but in my mind "Diner Food" is the quintessential description of "American Food"-simple, flavorful, hearty dishes made from basic ingredients-beef, potatoes, bacon, and eggs. I think of the dishes that were popular when the Streamliner Diners were introduced in the 1930's-pork chops with onion gravy and crab apples, grilled cheese sandwiches and, like you mentioned, coconut cream pie as typical Diner dishes that we can cook at home. There is an interesting history on the Diner here. I'm sure there were ethnic influences in some of the dishes served in Diner's depending on the part of the country you lived in-but back then there wasn't access to the wide variety of ingredients that influence cooking today. In the Northwest, we didn't see many ethnic dishes on Diner menus when I was a kid in the late 50's and into the 60's. However, the Depot Grill that my Grandfather frequented was in the heart of sheep country in Southern Idaho. My Grandfather was in the wool and sheep pelt business and knew a number of the Basque Sheepherder's in the area. Maybe they had some Basque dishes on the menu at the Depot Grill in 1943?

Thank you, thank you. The delicious open-face hot turkey sandwich. A classic I forgot. You've inspired me to add that to my menus for the days ahead. As I remember it from the "Depot Grill" diner in Twin Falls, Idaho, (My Grandfather's favorite diner), it was simply white bread, untoasted, with layers of turkey breast, a scoop of mashed potatoes, then smothered in a hot, dark, turkey gravy. I don't think they served any vegetable on the side as I remember. Now that is certainly a diner classic I'll make at home.

I have a soft spot in my heart for the American Diner. My local Diner is a classic--a dining car from the Great Northern Railroad that served for decades on the Empire Builder passenger train that still runs today between Seattle and Chicago. In fact, the original concept of the Diner was to duplicate the streamlined, chrome design of the passenger dining car, manufacture it offsite and then transport it to a roadside location. Over the decades the Diner has evolved into all manner of architectural designs that are different from the original Streamliner, yet what has stayed constant is the style of Diner food we've come to love-pancakes and homemade corned beef hash for breakfast, thick hamburgers and fresh cherry pie for lunch and the "blue-plate" special for dinner. (And in my mind, Diner food isn't the "Fusion" cuisine we sometimes see spotlighted on a certain television show). Although I can't duplicate the atmosphere of the Diner at home, I do cook Diner food at home-maybe a meatloaf with gravy, peas and carrots (fresh-cut carrots, not frozen). How about a tuna melt or chipped beef on toast. I even have some white porcelain dishes that I use that accent the nostalgia of the Diner. What are your favorite Diner dishes and do you cook them at home?

How ironic you should mention a cake with Penuche flavors. Last night I was reading through my 1953 edition of Ladies Home Journal and there is an ad page for "Junket" brand Penuche flavor "Quick Fudge and Frosting Mix." The recipe on the ad calls for making a cake, then using the Penuche Frosting Mix, add vanilla and pecans to make a frosting.

I'll try it. I never felt that fresh pineapple gave the cake the same sticky-sweet flavor and texture I like, but it's worth a try. Thanks for the link.

The Burnt Sugar Cake is a dense cake in texture, sort of a cross between a light sponge cake and a pound cake. You can find recipes for the cake in a number of old cookbooks. I've adapted the recipe using a combination of all-purpose flour and cake flour along with Heath Bar bits added to the batter. Burnt Sugar Syrup- You can use any method for caramelizing sugar. You basically want to end up with sugar that cooks until it forms a deep amber color. 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar 1 1/3 cup boiling water Place the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Let the sugar melt slowly in the saucepan. Remove from the heat and add the boiling water. Return the saucepan back to the heat and stir the sugar mixture while it continues to cook. Turn the heat to high and boil the sugar mixture until it's reduced by about 1/2 and turns a deep amber color. Burnt Sugar Cake- 1/2 cup shortening 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 1 tsp. vanilla 2 eggs 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup cake flour 3 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 3/4 cup water 3 tbsp. burnt sugar syrup 1/4 cup Heath Bar Bits (optional) Pre-heat the oven to 375. Grease and flour two 8 or 9" cakepans. Cream the shortening and sugar in a mixer until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and the eggs and continue to mix until the ingredients are thoroughly combined. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cake flour, baking powder and salt. With the mixer running, alternately add the dry ingredients with the water, continuing to mix until combined. Add the burnt sugar syrup. Stir in the Heath Bar Bits (optional). Pour the batter in the cake pans and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cakes cook 15 minutes and then turn the cakes out onto a rack and let them fully cool before frosting.

Gulp. I shudder at the thought of all that history on the page going in a bin. I'll never get totally past the sentimentality of a paper magazine.