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Eat Well and Smile Often!
tj
Category Archives: Entertaining
Up-Side-Down
This week my world turned upside down. My little girl went in to surgery on Friday to have a large lump removed from her chest. To say I was nervous all day is to put it mildly. I grilled her doctor before hand in a way that surely embarrassed the both of us. “So what about the anesthetic?” and “Have you done this before?” Antibiotics, what about those??” I was a paternal wreck to say the least.
While she was under, our lives together kept running through my thoughts. Had I been good to her, given her enough attention, fed her well? Did I discipline her too much . . too little? What would she think of me after? What does she think of me now?! Will I be able to take care of her when she comes home? Too many hard questions. And those times she ran away just break a father’s heart. I remember when she first came to me. She was only one year old and so delicate. We had quite a time of it the first couple years. She would rarely leave me side when I was at home, and the noises she would make when I left each day . . .
I held my breath when I saw the hospital’s caller ID pop up on my phone . . . “She’s doing great Mr Judt. She’s waking up right now and everything went extremely well.” Whew! To say it was a relief to hear is to not say nearly enough. My baby girl was alive and well and coming home.
So in honor of my baby girl making it through surgery I dug deep in to my parental trove of recipes for that one thing I know would make me feel better about . . . everything!
Betty Crocker’s Pineapple Upside Down Cake
1/4 cup butter or margarine
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
9 slices pineapple in juice (from 14-oz can), drained
9 maraschino cherries without stems, if desired
1 1/3 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup shortening butter
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 Heat oven to 350°F. In 9-inch square a round cast iron pan, melt butter in oven. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over melted butter. Arrange pineapple slices over brown sugar. Place cherry in center of each pineapple slice.
2 In medium bowl, beat remaining ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour batter over pineapple and cherries.
3 Bake 50 to 55 30 – 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately place heatproof serving plate upside down over pan; turn plate and pan over. Leave pan over cake a few minutes so brown sugar mixture can drizzle over cake; remove pan. Serve warm. Store cake loosely covered.
My baby girl feels better, I feel better. Make this and you’ll feel better too!!
Eat Well and Smile Often!
tj
p.s. Upside down, who’s to say what’s impossible and can’t be found?
I don’t want this feeling to go away
Please don’t go away
Happy Mother’s Day To All . . . Especially!!
I want to start off by wishing an extra special Mother’s Day to Melani Robinson who very kindly has taken me under her protective mother-blogger wing. Melani, who authors an emotionally brave blog 1 Year of Online Dating at 50, has been uncommonly generous with her time, advice, and support . So much so that she has created a special section on her blog entitled: Things I’m CRAZY About, where she graciously included a link to my humble little blog. Although, we’ve never met, her brand of kindness reminds me that the unselfish acts of mothers around the world should be celebrated. My hat’s off to you Mrs. Robinson.
Speaking of generous mothers, I wish my mother the happiest of Mother’s Days! Passed almost 20 years now, my mood brightens daily at the thought of her smile and the happy sound of her laughter still rings in my ears. My mother was extremely supportive of my quitting work to attend culinary school and happily shared in both my joys and frustrations while I was there. There were very few things that I was able to do for my parents while they were alive but one memory comes readily to mind.
My father would fish and often bring home the fruits of his leisure. What wasn’t immediately consumed was wrapped and frozen for some unknown future meal. Enter one culinary graduate of a son. “Tom,” my mother said one day. “Your job is to come up with a dish using all the fish in the freezer.” Imagine my dismay, frozen fish . . . and me, full of my fresh-cuisine-ness. Of course, anything for my mother. So I set to my cookbooks in search of inspiration and low-and-behold Bouillabase caught my eye. Now the following isn’t exactly line for line from the recipe. Actually I had to adapt a bit bit to make it work but here goes.
Start with a lovely fish fume’ – check – plenty of salmon bones
Saute’ onions – check
Garlic – check
Saffron – double check and double cool
Cook fish in fume’ – check
Serve with crusty bread to mom, dad and mom’s friends. (The ones who always brag about their 2 children graduating culinary school) – check
Here it comes, mom’s friends asked for a second helping. Now I know that mothers love their children unconditionally but it was a nice feeling to sense her pride in my accomplishments. It also felt good that she could brag right back to her friends about me and my various travels around the globe cooking. It wasn’t on Mother’s Day that I cooked for her but I was happy to repay a mother’s love and kindness with that simple meal made with a son’s love and gratitude. Happy Mother’s Day Mom!!
Eat Well and Smile Often
tj
p.s. Give a man a fish . . . and he’ll ask for seconds.
I’ve Got Class!!
Why yes, Yes I do. I’ve got class.
Cooking class that is. I must tell you that my time at culinary school gave me some of the finest cooking memories I have. It was an amazing art school experience. No pressure to produce, everything was about me learning, practicing and creating great dishes. I got to spend 7 hours a day, 5 days a week for 14 months learning about food, where it comes from, how to prepare it and (the very best part) eating it; lots of it! I played with colors, tastes, textures and more. It was fantastic! Never before or since have I felt so creative. I loved it so much I gained over 30 pounds in my time there. I think I felt that it was important to live up to the old adage – Never trust a skinny chef.
Upon hearing that I graduated from the California Culinary Academy, I am often asked what style of cooking I specialize in? Which is turning out to be a better question than I originally thought. You see I don’t really have a cuisine that I favor. Italian, I suppose, could best describe the style of cooking that I lean towards but not completely. Let me give you a brief insight in to my cooking; I’m a techniques kind of guy. I can readily attribute any minor creative streak directly to the company I kept in school. Talented, gifted people who could imagine tastes in their minds then recreate them on the plate. Just being around them made me a better cook. Me? I focus my attention more on the proper way to saute’, or braise, or roast, or poach. Each of these terms have specific time/temperature definitions. Employed correctly they yield tremendous results with the food I am preparing. Le Technique, this is where I like to seek mastery.
This last weekend I was lucky enough to brush elbows with another one of these talented, gifted types. Suzanne Griffin of Cooking by the Bay. Suzanne teaches cooking classes from her home in San Rafael and this last Sunday I took my first Indian cooking class from her. It was fantastic to be a student again listening to someone as enthusiastic and knowledgeable as Suzanne is. My classmates were 3 lovely, talented women and we spent a great part of the evening sharing wine and oohing and ahhing over the smells that emanated from the stove top. Each of us was given an apron, a cutting board and a knife with instructions on what and how to prepare each item for each dish. Our teacher’s easy style had us all in laughter and we felt such great pride and accomplishment in putting the meal together ourselves. Spinach Raita, Papaya Chutney and Chicken Tika Masala. YUM!! Sop that up with a little Naan and man what a great meal.
For all of you foodies out there who live in the San Francisco Bay Area I strongly suggest that you go to Chef Suzanne’s website and check out her list of classes. There is something there for everyone; from how to prepare a Tropical Feast, to whipping up Thai Food, to tips and techniques for a Fuss Free Dinner Party. I can not recommend her strongly enough. Release your inner chef, I say, and go get yourself some class!
Eat Well and Smile Often,
tj
p.s. (chickentikamasala, chickentikamasala, chickentikamasala)