Recipes

[laura]

This is one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes. 

Mrs. Reep's Chocolate Cake:

350^o oven

Set out:
1 1/2 cups boiling water (or just keep it in the kettle until needed)
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 greased & floured cake pans
 
A:  3/4 c sugar
     3/4 c regular cocoa
     3/4 c milk

B: Sift together
     2 1/4 c flour
     1 1/2 tsp baking soda
     1 1/2 tsp baking powder
     1 1/2 tsp salt

C:  1 1/2 c sugar
     3/4 c shortening

Add A to double boiler.
Sift B together.
Add C to double boiler & stir until mixed

Take mixture of A&C off stove.
Alternate with dry ingredients while mixing. 
Add eggs and mix.
Add 1 1/2 cups boiling water & 1/2 tsp vanilla. 

Bake in greased & floured cake pans for 20 minutes at 350^o.

Cake will sag in the center a little. 

I do not have a frosting recipe handy, but it should be served with one of those old-fashioned ones that get hard - preferably in a really good 1930's green.

I like to eat this incredibly moist cake with fresh whipped cream - I have frosted with such, to my mom's grave distress.  I don't like the additional sweetness of the frosting, but the era of the recipe certainly calls for one.   

[glinda_w]

I guess it's my turn to post a recipe. I hope to be making these next week, when I'm on the other side and can get produce reasonably cheaply...

Dilled Green Beans

For each pint, make a mixture of:
   ½ tsp. ground or crushed red peppers (or one or two dried red chiles, of whatever
               hotness you prefer)
   1 tsp. dill seed (or one or two heads of fresh dill)
   3 or 4 cloves peeled garlic (or 5 or 6...)

For each pint, boil:
   ½ c. water
   ½ c. vinegar (I prefer cider vinegar for this)
   1 tbsp. salt

Put mixture in jars, pack with beans, pour brine over vegetables.  Can in water bath canner for 20 minutes.

*   cauliflower, yellow wax beans, garlic, carrots, etc. may be substituted

Dilled garlic is also great, and easy if you use one of those big containers of already-peeled garlic cloves from Costco to avoid the hassle of peeling all that garlic. (That variation started with a former co-worker who scarfed the garlic left in the jar; one year, I made a jar of pickled garlic, with one green bean in for garnish, as a present for him. Other people wanted some, and, well...)

[glinda_w]

Also, in a similar vein, a bread-and-butter pickle recipe from *thinks about relationships* my step-cousin's wife:

Helen's Pickles

Slice:
   1 gal. small cucumbers
   8 small onions
   2 green peppers

Sprinkle with
   1/4 cup un-iodized salt

Let stand, covered, for three hours.  Rinse thoroughly.

Make a syrup of:
   5 cups sugar
   1 1/2 tsp. turmeric
   1/2 tsp. ground cloves
   2 tbsp. mustard seed
   1 tsp. celery seed or salt
   4 cups cider vinegar
   1 cup water

Let boil.  Add sliced vegetables, bring to boil again.

Pack in hot jars, and can in water bath for 15 minutes.

[dancing crow]

Glinda - Thank you for the Dilly Bean recipe - it makes me think of summers in the North Carolina mountains and the best corn and peaches I ever had. We got beans in the CSA share yesterday, so I'll try that tonight.

[glinda_w]

dancing crow - you're welcome

Also, if you happen to like Bloody Marys, use a couple of the beans instead of a celery stick for garnish...

[asciikitty]

also? if you do dilly beans with purple beans, the pickle brine turns lavender! it's exciting and fun.

the garlic, usefully, does not turn lavender.

[glinda_w]

also? if you do dilly beans with purple beans, the pickle brine turns lavender! it's exciting and fun.

the garlic, usefully, does not turn lavender.

Oh, cool. I may have to try to find enough for a pint or two, just to confuse people... *evil grin*

[rekre8]

Halp?

I don't tend to cook extravagantly, my recipes tend to be pretty basic.  Many moons ago, my honey (with similar cooking philosophy yet a different base of recipes) introduced me to the Wonders of Articokes.  Now, we occassionally put canned hearts into simmering chicken dishes and all, but when we can get ahold of fresh chokes, we've only had one way to cook & eat them:

Pull out the giant steamer and steam them whole for about 40 minutes or more, then they are set on the plate, a discard bowl to the left, a dish of melted butter to the right.  We peal the leaves off, dunk the ends in butter, then scrape off the meat with our teeth.  It's basic, really good, and probably takes years off our arteries.

It was 104 deg F today, and we decided the fresh chokes we got would heat up the house way too much.  So I pulled out a cook book and found a stuffed artichoke recipe for the microwave.  In essence, pour broth over them, cover in saran wrap, nuke for 15min, slice open, scoop out the hairy bits, fill with a bread, butter, cheese, garlic & oregano mix, cover, and nuke again for 5.

The results were pretty, but 1) neither of us had a clue how to eat it.  Peal from the outside?  Messy - people don't do this in fancy restaurants, do they?  Fork from the middle? Didn't get all the choky goodness out. Also 2) they seemed kinda dry.

It was tasty enough that we want to do it again, but we're looking for advice - particularly before we try to serve this at a dinner party.  What's the accepted way to eat an artichoke in company?

[txanne]

The first artichoke I ever ate was in France, and we did it the little-tubs-of-butter-and-a-spare-plate way.

[MadGastronomer]

With stuffed artichokes, you're mostly going for the hearts, which are the soft fleshy parts under the hairy bits (known as the choke).  You can pull a few of the leaves if you like, and use them to scoop up stuffing, but mostly I recommend using a fork on the stuffing and making sure the get the heart.  If you still feel stinted on artichokey goodness, when it's empty, flip it and pull the rest of the leaves.
If they're dry (and I assume you mean the artichoke and not the stuffing), try oiling or buttering it very lightly before nuking it the second time.

Random fact:
Artichokes are a type of thistle.  The globe artichoke is actually an immature flower bud (one of only two, I think, commonly eaten in Western cuisines); the choke is the bloom, with all the bristliness one would expect from a thistle.

[Elizabeth Bear]

That's one BIG THISTLE.

What's the other flower? Nasturtiums? Violets? Dandelions (I have some dandelion wine jelly in the fridge. om nom nom) ? Oh, right, broccoli. Duh.

Nasturtiums are tasty. And I love violet pastilles and violet wine.

[txanne]

I bet it's broccoli.

[MadGastronomer]

Damn, I forgot about broccoli.  Well, but with broccoli, while you eat the buds, you also eat other bits.  The one I was thinking of, the other one where we eat the bud alone, is the caper.

[Elizabeth Bear]

How about cloves?

[glinda_w]

The one I was thinking of, the other one where we eat the bud alone, is the caper.

Oh. I forgot about capers.

Ever had deep-fried, tempura-battered dahlias? omnomnom.