Coquilles Saint-Jacques

Who-Said-What?? Is the reaction I get when I tell people I made Coquilles Saint-Jacques the other day.   It's another recipe from my mother-in-law's "attic" - well, she didn't really have them in the attic. She made this quite often judging by the stains and marks on the paper. I do remember she made it for my husband and me at least once. On one of the final clean-up days before selling the house, the dishes she used for "that French dish" appeared. So, I grabbed them. Since I had them, as with the bean pot, I had to made the recipe.

I uploaded the recipe to Tastebook. I like the ingredients, but made a few tweaks in the method as I went along. First, as on "About French Food", I sautéd the scallops and spices together. Then, in the same sauté pan, sautéd the mushrooms. So as not to have a mountain of pots to wash at the end, wiped out the pan to make the cream sauce, then melted the butter to combine with the bread crumbs. After each step, I built individual portions in the dishes until the final breadcrumb layer. Then broiled (gratinéed) before serving. In the end, a very tasty dish met us at the table. We decided that the mushrooms didn't add all that much to the overall flavor. Hmm ... , what's up with that? Otherwise - YUM!!!

Now, reading Julia Child, I see she has two slightly different recipes for Coquille St. Jacques. The recipe "Á la Provençale", sautés the scallops with herbs and onions and seems to have no mushrooms, but has cheese over the top vice bread crumbs. I think a little tweaking will be in order.

It is 2013

Ok, it has been a while since we worked on this project. I now have additional incentive to get back to these recipe comments, having recently acquired a large inventory of recipe cards and cookbooks from my mother-in-law, Lorraine. In the past couple of weeks I have made a couple of her recipes. I neglected to photograph them. I think I will be re-creating her Boston Baked Bean recipe as it was quite the hit. After a little research based on a clipping of her recipe I learned that the origin of the recipe is from a restaurant in Boston, Durgin Park. I have actually been to this restaurant years ago. My father, having discovered the place on his work trips to Boston, recommended giving it a try one time when I was out there. I do believe I sampled their baked beans. If you go to the recipes section of their website, you can download their original recipe.

My adventure with Boston Baked Beans wouldn't have happened had I not picked up the bean pot from my in-laws basement. I grabbed it saying to myself - well the grandkids like baked beans, and I had never really tackled them, and there's this recipe for them in the pile  ... so ... there I was. The first time I made it strictly according to the recipe. Well, as strictly as I can, I was surprised that our local Harris Teeter carried salt pork. Salt Pork is really salty. There seemed to be an large amount of salt in the recipe. I confess that I did slightly reduce the amount of salt this first time. Yet, it ended up not seeming too salty over all. The overall family rating was 2 thumbs up, with one "I think it needs ketchup". I had hoped they would taste more smokey to emulate a batch of baked beans I had at a party some years back. This wasn't quite get that.

Tried the second batch with ketchup and barbecue sauce and, after some reading, liquid smoke. While the vote was still 2 thumbs up, some felt the ketchup an unnecessary ingredient. Most liked the smokiness the liquid smoke brought to the party. Then, while watching Martha Stewart on TV one day, she added tomatoes to her Boston Baked Beans. I'm wondering if the addition of tomatoes might satisfy the tomato urge without bring the sugar that ketchup brings. Stay tuned for more developments.

Mexican Lasagna

Or Tacolasagna. I was watching Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals while ironing the other day. She was making what she called "Tacozanga". I thought to alter it a little for my family's tastes. Here's my recipe:


1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
5 chicken breasts
1/4 chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 bay leaf
cayenne pepper to taste
jalapeno pepper to taste
salt and black pepper to taste
cheddar cheese
1 29 oz can tomato sauce


Tortilla shells


In large skillet or dutch oven saute onion in vegetable oil. And chicken and seasonings. Cook until chicken is opaque. Mix in tomato sauce and let simmer until chicken will shred. Shred chicken with two forks. 
Using a 13x9 casserole or lasagna pan sprayed with cooking oil to help prevent sticking, build the "lasagna" by layering chicken mixture, tortilla shells sauce and cheese. End with cheese topping. You'll have to tear some of the tortilla shells, unless you choose a round casserole dish. hmm??... 
Bake at 350 for 30 until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly. Let rest. Cut and serve with salsa and a salad.


An idea for my vegetarian friend out there, you could probably do this without the chicken. Sort of like flat enchiladas. Let me know if you try it that way.

Theater Popcorn

I really like my Presto Pop. It makes the best popcorn. But how can I get a batch to taste like movie popcorn? Here's my base recipe. (Which basically means that I'll probably be tweaking it for years to come)

1 Presto Pop

1/3 cup kernal popcorn

1 TBLS vegetable oil

3/4 stick of butter

Artificial butter flakes

popcorn salt

1 big bowl to toss the popcorn

(1 microvae ;-) )

Popcorn: Please follow the directions for cooking your popcorn. I do nothing special for this step.

Sauce:

In a small skillet, melt the butter. Use a spoon and take off the fat leaving behind just the oil.

Putting it together: When the popcorn is finished cooking,:

• shake popcorn salt over the popcorn as you are dumping it into your serving bowl.
• Pour the butter oil over the popcorn
• Add a liberal amount of the butter flakes
• Toss

Let me know if you have another way?

Chocolate Cookie Cheesecake

Now, when you're 11 you get to have a birthday party with all your friends. If the real date of your birthday isn't a weekend date that you can have a fun birthday outing; then, you get to have two birthday celebrations. One on the real day with family. One on another day with your friends. Gosh, life is tough! Just kidding. 
For the "real" birthday celebration, there were tiny peanut butter cheesecakes [q.v.]. For the "fake" birthday, the cake was the first request: Chocolate Cheesecake. Why leave it at just chocolate when you can add oreos?

Tiny Peanut Butter Cheesecakes

Step one: go to New Year's Day party where cheesecake is served.
Step two: browse through cheesecake cookbook on kitchen counter.
Step three: walk home with recipe in hand.

All kidding a side, thanks to my friend Dawn and her son, David, I made these mini-Reese's cheesecakes for Colman's real birthday (more on 'fake' birthday later). Everyone agreed - YUM-O!!!

Basic White Bread

Ever run out of white bread? Don't have time to run to the store? Want to go to bed instead? Dump white bread ingredients in the bread machine. Wake up to fresh homemade bread. Simple? Yummy? Better than store bought?

INGREDIENTS:

  1 cup water

  1 1/2 tablespoon butter or margarine

  2 cups white flour

  1 tablespoon sugar

  1 teaspoon salt

  1 teaspoon bread machine yeast

METHOD:

  Select loaf setting: white

  Add ingredients to bread machine.

  Press Start

SERVINGS: approx. 6 (12 slices)

Pinwheel cookies

Had this idea and the components to put it together. On hand were two packages of sugar cookie mix. Yes, mix, nothing "dangerous about that". But, what happened next is out of the ordinary. Mixed up one batch according to directions. Mixed up the second batch and enough added Hershey's Cocoa Mix to make the batch chocolate looking and tasting. Chill both batches. Roll out each batch individually making them about the same size. Chill some  again keeping them flat. Layer chocolate batch on top of sugar batch and roll into a log. Trim edges as needed. Slice into cookie rounds, placing them on the cookie sheet as you go. Bake according to sugar mix package directions. They were a hit, and I have had requests to make them again.

Macaroni and Cheese

One of my staple recipes, and a recipe that kids love. There are lots of variations on this. I like mine. I acquired the recipe from a friend of mine and tweaked it over the years. If you know how to make a béchamel, you add cheese to the béchamel and bake it. I shred the block cheese in my food processor - way easier than by hand.

INGREDIENTS:

  Pasta:  2 cups elbow macaroni, (8-oz.)
  Cheese Sauce:
     2 tablespoons butter
     2 tablespoons Wondra flour
     2 cups milk
     1/2 teaspoon salt
     1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
     1 block Colby/Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
     1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
  Topping: sprinkle a thin layer bread crumbs on top (you can mix the bread crumbs with melted butter for an extra crisp.)
  Bake in a casserole for 325 for 45 min or until bubbly and the topping has crisped up.