ruthcooks

I don't like the idea of uncooked cake batter becoming the lava; the versions with ganache inserted in the center are more appealing. So how about this? Mix lemon juice and sugar and freeze in cubes. Cover each cube in unsalted butter and re-freeze; use as a center for Molten Lemon Cakes. I'm sure you can find a cake recipe that works. How about frozen fruit and ice cream mixtures? The caramel sounds good, too.

I don't really care for lasagna (pasta plus tomato sauce not a favorite) but I used to make a killer that was simply lightly cooked shrimp, crab and scallops with Alfredo sauce. The sauce I used was Stouffer's Fettucini Sauce, available commercially. I've never been able to duplicate the sauce, but perhaps one of the other Alfredo's on the market would be acceptable. No extra cheese, save a bit of Parmesan on the top. Easiest and bestest for me.

My oldest cookbooks, pre-1960 versions of Betty Crocker and Better Homes and Gardens, are held together with duct tape. Joy of Cooking has lost half its index pages. My cookbooks prior to 1985 have a lot more spatters and handwriting in them, simply because those years were the ones in which I did a lot more cooking. I was teaching myself to cook, having lots of company and being involved with restaurants and catering. Now, I mostly jot down notes and bring them to the kitchen, where there's hardly room to cook, let alone find a place to set down a book. After I've made something new and it makes the cut, I enter it in my computer and from there on out, make a print out each time I make it. These I can tape to the wall or cabinet door for easy referral. I don't really like to mess up books, but how else would I recognize a forgotten favorite if the book was pristine?

Megan, you will always be to me (see your last blog) "The Girl Who Bought a Quarter Pound of Bacon." Never heard of such a thing! I always buy several pounds at a time when it's on sale, and never cook less than a pound at a time--in the oven. Cooked not quite done, and freshened up in the toaster oven as needed, I have a week's worth of breakfast meat, BLT's and salads with bacon. The last few slices of the last pound I cooked went into a special treat, Eggs Benedict. I crumble the bacon on top, and prefer it to ham or Canadian bacon. That would be on my menu for a solo Valentine's Day dinner.

Julia Child was a big proponent of using dry vermouth instead of white wine. I've done it forever and am pleased with the results. In my experience, if you get the wrong bottle of wine--white OR red--you can end up with some pretty funky flavors. The vermouth keeps, in or out of the refrigerator, for quite some time.

They are usually referred to as ABMs, the A standing for automatic. I bought mine a year ago last Christmas and still haven't used it. (Severe case of procrastination when it comes to instruction manuals.) Enjoying your blog. I try to keep several types of soup in individual freezer portions. Cream or pureed soups are great to drink from a mug; I'm thinking carrot and cheese for today, while everyone else is having their Super Bowl dips.

Mashed potatoes, definitely. Since the seniors like them, why not include potatoes every time they fit the menu? I think the onions and peppers qualify as a vegetable, especially if you are serving cole slaw, but perhaps some broccoli if you really need another. Dessert: seniors seem to really like cookies. Large heart shaped sugar cookies frosted pink or red, if you have time. Or raspberry, strawberry or peppermint ice cream with chocolate sauce, perhaps a small candy heart on top. For that matter, any old dessert you feel like making, garnished with candy hearts.

Because my catering/restaurant days were spent in Nashville, the celebrities I mostly served were country music stars. I catered a reception for CBS on the occasion of a platinum single for Crystal Gayle (unfortunately, no one told me she was vegetarian) and a birthday party for Amy Grant, given by her parents. Visitors to my restaurants included one of the Everly brothers, country comedian Jerry Clowers, Roseanne Cash and Rodney Crowell, Larry Gatlin and, frequently, Eddy Arnold. When catering for The Nashville Network, I served then-governor Lamar Alexander and actress Florence Henderson. The strangest catering job I had was purported to be a surprise birthday dessert buffet for a lawyer; when Al Gore showed up and I questioned his presence, I was told it was a fund raiser for him. What's up with that? Said lawyer and his wife were later "run out of town" by a banking scandal.

This article reads like a lot of same old, same old to me. EXCEPT for the quote above. I have read that it takes only 2 calories a day to support a pound of fat. That means that only 200 calories extra can maintain 100 pounds of fat. Most dieters of my acquaintance would gain weight on 1800 calories a day. Take it from one who does not lose weight on the old-fashioned low calorie method until I go below 1000 calories. Pollan thinks these women are cheating: no, Mr. Pollan, they are just women with a woman's metabolism. Too bad you can't walk in our shoes. I occasionally read an article (and perhaps a comment right here on eG) that it takes a tremendous amount of calories to support extra pounds. T'aint so.

Thank you for the whipped cream! I used to occasionally volunteer cook for a halfway house, and the director made SUCH a big deal out of it when I made homemade chocolate pudding with real whipped cream.

I didn't have to read any biographies to detect MFK's "streak of mean." I read her many, many years ago and, meanness aside, think I never really got over her "passion" for catsup on mashed potatoes. She does not have a corner on the arrogance market, however. I can't tell you how disappointed I was to hear Julia Child make a comment that it is irresponsible not to provide financially for your retirement years. It would be ideal, surely, but think of all those people who are hand to mouth their entire lives. (And her with a trust fund from her youth.) While I'm at it, might as well admit I don't worship at the altar of John Thorne, either. If I recall, his last book featured chapters on plain rice and dry toast. Food to choke on does not appeal to me. I did enjoy, however, the chapter on his search for Roald Dahl's best cookies in the world.

Randi, Shortcake tastes just as good baked in pans and cut into squares. SO much less work. I'd rather have a tablespoon of real whipped cream than a cup of CoolWhip. Someone needs to do a price comparison on those two.

Roy Andries de Groot's "Auberge of the Flowering Hearth" in which he finds a tiny inn (in France? Switzerland?) run by two spinster ladies who tempt his palate with local fare. Written like a fairy tale for gourmets, a delicious read. The three Blueberry Hill Cookbooks" "The Blueberry Hill Cookbook, Menu Cookbook and Kitchen Notebook. " A New York secretary learns to cook when her husband purchases a ski lodge in the NE, and it doesn't snow! She gives 30 days of menus and doesn't repeat herself once, in an area where she has only a small local grocery to rely upon. Elsie Masterton died young, unfortunately for those of us who loved her books--three more books deal with her life "off season". Both these from the 60s.

Here's my favorite food tip of all time: roll out cookies using powdered sugar (10x, confectioner's, icing sugar, whatever you call it) instead of flour. Re-rolled cookies get more crispy instead of getting tough. I find this easier than messing about with paper and chilling and peeling.

I served pepper jelly with Escalloped Chicken at one of my restaurants and it was a match made in heaven. The chicken included layers of chicken and dressing, topped with an eggy bechamel layer. Mostly, I use it as a spread on sandwiches, like chicken or cheese. I think it would be good with duck, perhaps in a sauce. It's wonderful with lamb, instead of mint jelly. I don't make my own as long as I can get it here: Pepper Patch Click on Products. They don't list the jelly as available by itself, but have substituted for me in the gift packs.

Toast pecans in butter (the butter will brown, also) and serve over cooked broccoli or brussels sprouts.

I think the pickles and ice cream thing is just a metaphor for weird food cravings. Never knew anyone who wanted those two things together. Also, weird food cravings does not mean she wants weird food! Think comfort, not creative. My only craving was for green olives, probably because I couldn't keep anything down and got dehydraated, thereby depleting my sodium. Asking is always good.

I'm posting a recipe for Indian River Consomme, which meets every one of your requirements! Here it is, a tomato-beef broth-onion-orange-lemon-vermouth-basil EASY

Indian River Consomme Serves 8. This soup is a very light starter--a little tart and very unusual. Great served (like you'd serve hot cider) at large gatherings with cheese straws. (From my cookbook "Nobody Cooks Like Ruth: Menus from Cherotree" 2003, Infinity Publishing, www.buybooksontheweb.com) 1 medium onion, sliced 2 T butter 32 oz tomato juice 8 oz double strength beef broth 2 oz orange juice concentrate 2 tsp lemon juice 1 T sugar, or to taste 1/4 c vermouth White pepper 1/4 c fresh basil, cut in chiffonade Saute onion in butter until soft. Puree in food processor or blender, adding a little tomato juice to rinse it out. Combine with all remaining ingredients except basil and simmer 20-30 minutes. May be made ahead and reheated. To serve, reheat and garnish each serving with basil. You may use a 10 ounce can of beef broth, undiluted, instead of the home made beef broth. Keywords: Soup, Easy ( RG1860 )

I have successfully preserved basil in my refrigerator, layering dry leaves with a non-iodized salt in a glass quart jar. I also tried olive oil, but the salted ones were better and kept for months although they did lose the bright green color.

The soy producers "killed" coconut oil back when the cholesterol scare came into being. Yes, coconut oil contains saturated fat, but it does not have the same effect on the body that saturated fat from animals has. (And I've never been convinced that there is solid proof of that, either.) In fact, coconut oil contains the fat closest in approximation to the fat in mother's milk. How could that ever be bad? Just be sure you get organic, extra virgin. cold pressed oil.

My ex in-laws used to set up their own portable bar as soon as the car was unloaded. Then they would proceed to down 100s of calories in booze and their ever present peanuts. When it came to the meals I made (and I went all out for them), all I got was, "Oh, you shouldn't, we're trying to cut down," and "Did you use fat free sour cream in the potatoes?" and "Oh, this has so many calories." Every time they would come, the MIL would say "Don't go to any bother for us." So one time they came, I didn't go to any bother. I didn't even cook. And that's the last time I heard the "don't bother" speech. As for what I keep on hand...I usually have so much around I don't have to stock much, but if the company has kids I'll ask what they want. I don't keep stuff on hand like canned ravioli, cereals, pop tarts, etc.

The good cook who receives compliments on his food from friends is basking in the glory. Make a list of the other things involved in restaurant running (assuming a moderate beginning) besides cooking and basking: Cleaning toilets when the cleaners don't show up Washing dishes when the dishwasher doesn't show up Cooking when the chef/cooks don't show up Running down to the grocery when the delivery truck: a) doesn't show, b) delivers inferior goods, c) is out of what you need most, and/or when you forget to order at all Bookkeeping and writing out checks Taking money out of your pocket to cover those checks Dealing with nasty customers, complaining customers, and little old ladies who smile and tell you that you should include dessert in the price of the meal Having the walk-in go on the fritz and having to replace all of your ready made foods and staples like a 5 lb jar of blue cheese dressing Taking the linens home to wash every night Having a staff of students who all quit because you won't allow them to go to Ft. Lauderdale for spring break Ask the would be restaurant owner if he loves each of these things as much as he loves cooking, planning, basking or whatever most appeals to him. These are the things he'll spend most of his time doing. When I closed and auctioned off my second restaurant, an acquaintance came up to me and said, "I'll bet this is just like losing a child." I said, "Are you kidding? This is like becoming a bird!"

Surely this phrase comes from a religious base. It has been around for possibly centuries and Shirley was just making a pun because her grandmother was named Grace.

I once had a propane two-burner hot plate. It used a grill-sized propane tank, which could be left outside and the gas tube run through the window or wall. When a transformer blew, I served 35 restaurant guests a four course meal using this emergency hotplate and candles.