ElainaA

I thought of this topic last night when, hit by a dinner crisis, I started preparing "my mother's pork chops" -pork chops (or chicken pieces) cooked in a thick tomato sauce with lots of onions and thyme - a dish I ate so often as a child and have cooked so often as an adult that I don't need to think. It got me thinking about the recipes that get passed down through families. Besides the pork chops/chicken recipe, for me there is a meat and vegetable soup - soup bones, potatoes, carrots, celery,onion and lima beans, a very simple, no-fail sponge cake and, the one that all my siblings and most of my nieces and nephews make, English muffins. None of these are fancy nor are they unusual. But making any of them gives me a strong sense of the extended family that I am part of. I'd love to know about the recipes that awakens that sense of home and family for others here............ (I looked to see if I could find an earlier thread on this topic - couldn't find anything.)

My husband built my compost bin, however our cousins use this one and really like it: http://www.gardeners.com/buy/three-bin-wire-composter/40-280.html?cgid=Composters_Cat&start=2

No picture tonight due to chaos and time pressure. The plan was for Yassa chicken over rice. I did remember to take the chicken out of the freezer. But I did not remember that it should marinate 24 hours (in the recipe I use). And that realization didn't hit home until 6:00 pm when I was starting to cook dinner. Oops. I briefly panicked. My husband - on top of things as usual - poured me a glass of wine. After briefly thinking of other uses for the (now thawed) chicken I decided that I would do the chicken yassa tomorrow. For tonight I pulled out the pork chops, originally meant for tomorrow, and went to one of my fall back dishes which I only think of as "my mother's pork chops". This was one of the standard dishes of my childhood - pork chops seared briefly, removed from the pan, LOTS of onions sautéed in the same pan in oil, a mixture of tomato paste, a lot of thyme and water added to the pan and cooked down a bit, the chops returned to the pan and simmered until done. (She did basically the same thing with chicken quarters.) Simple, not at all sophisticated and very homey. My mother always served it with rice, some of the tomato/onion sauce going over the rice. I prefer it with mashed potatoes which is what we had tonight. With, of course, a salad. It's good - but that it makes me remember my mother makes it extra good After dinner, I chopped the onions, garlic and ginger and made the marinade for the chicken. For tomorrow.

Tonight's dinner: Tomato and roasted garlic soup with parmesan cheese. (From Fields of Greens) This seemed like a good idea - I have lots of garlic and many, many tomatoes. My husband really liked it. I thought it was kind of meh. A salad with grilled steak and potatoes. Topped with home made ranch dressing after I took the picture. And lavash crackers. From Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice

Not the greatest picture but a really good dinner - linguini with shrimp and leeks in a white wine and shrimp-shell broth. And salad of course.

Although much of my garden is finishing for the year, the fall raspberries are just coming in- prolifically. I already have made raspberry /cherry jam, raspberry sauce and have a quart of raspberry puree in the freezer - all from the summer crop. So these are just for eating. I have planted leeks for many years but this year, for the first time, several have sprouted what look just like garlic scapes and now are flowering: The flowers start out purple but get lighter in color as they open. The fully open ones are almost white. I usually leave leeks in the ground until after the first (or second) frost. However the ones that are sprouting and flowering are also very hard - so I think the rest come out this week. Like hummingbirdkiss I still have to plant garlic. Unlike her, I still have all the beds to clean up. My least favorite part of gardening. My compost is already overflowing. I think I need a pig.

I agree with Jaymes - thank you's for the thought and a tactful but honest explanation of your response. I have a large family - every year my gifts involve both home made chocolates and other candies and various canned things I have put up - jams, preserves, pickles, relishes. It took my favorite sister-in-law several years to tell me (after, during a visit, I found several jars of the previous years gifts in a cupboard) that she doesn't eat jam but loves pickles. Now every years she she asks "Could you give me just one more jar?" I do try to tailor the gift to the person. One extremely conservative (in food choices) brother gets plain strawberry jam, blueberry preserves and dill pickles. The more exotic stuff goes to the sisters, nieces and friends that I know will enjoy it. I don't think I would offer to give it back though. If you trust the quality and simply don't like the taste, pass it on to someone who might enjoy it. If you question the quality (whether for food safety reasons or because it really tastes bad), toss it.

I'll second Shelby's WOW! I am VERY impressed! Not only at what you produced but that you did that in 2 days! I still have a big bowl of tomatoes sitting on my counter if you want some more......... I did turn some of them (most of my plum tomatoes) into 6 half-pints of ketchup yesterday. I combined my usual recipe (from Better Than Store Bought) with the ketchup recipe on the NCHP web site. I've been trying to decide what to do with the rest (and if we don't get frost soon there are more ripening). I might try Kay's relish.

I don't see why not. I use whatever I have around - red, green or yellow - I like a mix although after all the cooking time everything does look basically dark. I really like peppers so I often increase the amount. In fact, I use peppers so much I'm probably using up all the ones that you and Rotus reject.

Just google 'mushrooms Berkeley" - the recipe is available on line. Be sure you get the one from Anna Thomas' Vegetarian Epicure -lots of red wine, brown sugar, etc. - I found a different recipe also under that name that looked like a wimpy wannabe.

Jo - Too bad about the filet but I'd choose lamb over beef any day. The final dinner sounds great.

It is delicious. Enjoy.

Last night: Grilled steak, mashed potatoes topped with sauteed leeks and 'mushrooms Berkeley' from the Vegetarian Epicure. Mushrooms, peppers and onions cooked for almost an hour in red wine, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce and mustard. To quote the cookbook "they are very dark and evil looking but irresistible in flavor and aroma". The author would probably be upset that I consider them one of the best accompaniments for steak ever. This cookbook always gives me flashbacks - It was a gift when it first came out (1972) and I was a recently out of college Teacher Corps intern sharing an apartment in northern Vermont with 2 other interns and beginning to learn how to cook. Our stipend was $60 a week. We were largely vegetarian not really due to ethics or philosophy but because beans and rice were cheap. It was Vermont in the early 1970's; therefore, it had to be brown rice. We learned to bake bread from the Tassajara Bread Book and ate a lot of homemade granola. It was a good time. I'm sure there are other good recipes in this book - but this is the one I come back to over and over.

WOW. There are some amazing meals here! This is not so complex - but good. Grilled chicken thighs with a cashew, lime and soy marinade, Peppers and tomatoes over brown rice with frico. Both reccipes from a NYTimes "week day meals' article. Also, without a picture, a plate of tomatoes and cucumber slices with oil and balsamic vinegar.

No picture tonight but I made a BIG pot of tomato sauce with roasted garlic, roasted peppers and basil. All the vegetables (and the garlic and basil) from my garden. Dinner was the sauce over fettuccine (with, of course, a salad). And there are 3 quarts more to go into the freezer for later when it is winter and I want to remember when I had fresh tomatoes, basil and peppers.

This is CI's summer vegetable torta. (Sorry, not a great picture.) The recipe used a lot of asiago - if I do this again (and I definitely would for a dinner party) I would either use something less assertive (fontina?) or a mix. For me, the cheese over powered the vegetables (eggplant, summer squash, roasted red peppers, tomatoes). My husband however, loved it as is. It takes a lot of total time but not a huge amount of active time. Served with scallion and black pepper buttermilk biscuits and our inevitable salad.

I am SO enjoying this. Your house and grounds are lovely - I love the flowers along the vineyards. Living in the Finger Lakes we are surrounded by wineries but almost all are commercial operations. This is so much more personal. And even if it is primarily your husband's domaine, you are very good at explaining your processes.

Tonight's dinner - Risotto with leeks and peas and grilled calamari with a lemon vinaigrette. The leeks sort of melted into the rice - they are these. I liked this a lot - it goes into my list of "things you must make when you have lots of leeks". And our inevitable salad.

Maybe they weren't happy in the oven? Nice pies, whatever they are thinking.

A tomato and goat cheese tart - I still have lots of tomatoes getting ripe. (PLEASE give me 2-3 weeks more before frost. Please!) Served with grilled swordfish and roasted beets.

I don't know if it is me or my very stony soil but I do seem to grow some odd (and suggestive) carrots - The other ones I pulled were very normal. And tasted good too.

Dessert: peach crisp with vanilla ice cream

Anna that is just gorgeous!

Yes - The zuke with tuna and allioli is from The New Spanish Table. It's really good. But my favorite recipe from that book is the Basque chicken with peppers. Unless it's the sizziling garlic shrimp or..or..or... In other words, I've liked everything I've done from this book. I usually steam the zuke boats - using a wok and bamboo steamer. Then I do as you do - bake and a brief time under the broiler to top brown. My regular zucchin are done for the season but I still have a few small golden zucchini to deal with.

Fresh corn, peppers, onions, sausage (lots) and lots of cheese. I like a combination of fontina and parm. Sometimes some bread - crumbs or cubes - and an egg to hold everything together. I recently did a recipe from a Spanish cook book - zucchini stuffed with roasted tomatoes mixed with tuna (tonno in oil) and allioli, topped with breadcrumbs. Very good.