How about polenta or soup to warm up the kids this Halloween night?

Fall is here - the official kick-off of long sleeved shirts, apple pies, fires in the fireplace, pumpkin spice lattes, afghans, stews and soups. As kids, mom insisted that our Halloween night meal be something to keep us warm on our trick or treating trek so the menu usually consisted of a dish meant to stick to our ribs like polenta with a pork tomato sauce or a hearty beef soup. Even my sister who was not a polenta fan managed to fill herself up enough to brace the cold and satisfy mom enough to permit her to celebrate with the donuts and cider that became an after trick or treating tradition. (Not to mention the loot she collected!)

Anyone who is reading this and knows me, will of course assume that I repeated the Halloween tradition with my own kids. I too have one child who loves polenta and another who does not so I've switched it up between polenta and beef soup every year, even as my kids became adults. With an almost 2 year old grandson preparing for his first trick or treat adventure, Halloween festivities will begin early at my house on Monday and this year, I'll  introduce him to polenta. I'm not sure if any of you will be interested in trying this one out yourselves, but I'm providing the details anyway plus the recipe for beef soup, which just may go over a bit better.

Happy Halloween!

Polenta
1 lb. sweet Italian sausage
1 lb. hot Italian sausage (optional)
Rack of pork spareribs, cut
2 34oz cans of Italian peeled tomatoes
olive oil
1 clove garlic
oregano & basil
1 container of Quaker yellow corn meal

To make the sauce:

1. In a large dutch oven, brown garlic in 2T. olive oil. Add the sausage and spareribs in batches to fill the bottom of the pot but do not overlap. Sprinkle with oregano and brown meat on all sides; remove from the pot and reserve. Drain excess fat from the pot.
2. Puree the tomatoes in a food mill. Add the meat to the pot, the pureed tomatoes, basil and pinch of salt. Bring to a boil on medium-high heat, reduce heat and simmer until thickened and meat is tender, stirring frequently.
3. Sauce can be made in advance and reheated when making the polenta. Remove meat from the sauce using a slotted spoon, shaking off excess. Serve the meat with the polenta.

To make the polenta:

1. Bring a large stockpot filled with cold water to a rolling boil. Add salt to taste.
2. Using a wooden spoon to stir, slowly sprinkle in some of the polenta. Stop and stir to remove lumps. Repeat the procedure until all the corn meal is used noting that the more corn meal that is added, the thicker it becomes and the harder it is to stir. Alternate between a spoon and whisk to work the corn meal into the appropriate consistency.
3. Tip: It is advantageous to use 2 people to make polenta as it thickens. One person can sprinkle in the corn meal while the other stirs.
4. When all corn meal has been added, the polenta should be cooked uncovered for 5-10 minutes, using a whisk to smooth out the consistency. The polenta should resemble a thick porridge.
5. To serve, ladle the polenta into a flat dish and top with sauce and grated locatelli (or parmiggiano) cheese. Eat from around the edges of the plate into the middle. 

Beef Soup
6 beef short ribs
3 carrots sliced on an angle
2 ribs of celery sliced on an angle
1 yellow onion
bay leaf
salt & pepper
water
1 large can Delmonte tomato sauce
acini de pepe pastina

1. In a large stockpot, add short ribs, whole onion, sliced carrots and celery, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Fill the pot with water about 3/4 full.
2. Bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, stir in Delmonte sauce and cover. Cook for 3-4 hours. Taste for seasonings and add more salt if desired.
3. Remove onion and beef. (Remove the beef from the bone, shred and add to the soup or reserve for other use. My husband makes a beef salad with vinegar and oil to serve as a second course.)
4. In a separate pot of salted water, cook the acini de pepe. If the stockpot is large, cook 1 lb. of pasta; for smaller stockpots, use 1/2 lb. (I cook the pasta in the soup.)
5. Add the acini de pepe to the soup and serve. Top with parmiggiano cheese.  

Preparing for Easter

Do you remember Alexander's department store? It was a step down from Macy's but a step up from Korvettes and when our parents would treat my sister, brother and me to our Easter outfits, and some spring clothes, it was the most exciting day of the year - at least for me forced to wear the same uniform day after day. While Mindy and I tried on bright yellow spring coats and mod  "bonnets" with wide brims, Stephen would entertain the other shoppers with his moaning and groaning, pleading and threatening, and whining and nagging over the amount of time we girls were spending on our shopping, the suits my mother would suggest for him, particularly any with short pants, and the fact that my father was "letting her get away with it," all the while laughing at his unhappiness.  In spite of his drama, our annual venture was the official kickoff of winter ending, spring beginning, and the first sign that the Easter preparation period would soon begin.

As you should know by now, everything in my life revolves around the food and Easter is no exception. Throughout the 6 weeks of Lent, we deprive ourselves of red meat, rich foods and 3 solid meals a day per canonical law, but we are dreaming of what we are going to scarf down once Easter arrives! So we start preparing right before Ash Wednesday and by the time the blessed holiday arrives, everything is ready to launch. And it all does on Easter morning with as much fanfare and excitement as the arrival of Santa.

First we start with the sausage: every January, right after the Christmas holiday season officially closed, my grandparents would make homemade dried sausage that cured in the cold, dry attic for about 3 months until it made its Easter debut.  Grandma would hand cut the pork butts and mix the chopped meat with paprika and fennel seeds smuggled in through the mail by relatives from the old country, adding enough salt to ensure the curing process would not spoil the goods. After the mixture was hand stuffed into the casings, Grandad would hang them over a pole in the attic for about a month and then lay them out on paper-lined trays with bricks to flatten them until they were ready to complete their curing process in a ceramic vat of olive oil. There was and still is no taste to compare with our sausage and even slicing it became a distinct art form to our family, as slicing thinly and slicing on an angle enhanced the taste.

For several years now, my brother, the Easter charlatan, has carried on the sausage tradition from my grandparents and this year, I was his sous chef.  I chopped butts and stuffed casings, although I admit to using his fancy attachment to the Kitchen Aid mixer, after he mixed the various ingredients with his hands! Unfortunately, the paprika and fennel did not come from Calabria but I'm sure it'll be fine. And the sausage is drying right now - in the fridge rather than the attic because you just can't trust the weather on the east coast anymore - too damp, too inconsistent. I doubt that we will put it into a vat of oil and probably won't even cut it super thin and on an angle but it will still be the best sausage you can imagine. I'm not providing the recipe because, let's face it, who in their right mind is going to make homemade sausage? (I never said we were a sane family...)

Next comes the Easter bread - a little dry, a little sweet, and a lot of delicious! Yes, it's easy enough to make the dough, but really tough to work into just the right shapes. Grandma always made one big round bread like a doughnut with two eggs on either side and a piece of blessed palm from Palm Sunday mass, as well as a "baby" for each of her grandchildren. She would proudly present us with our baby bread, wrapped in a brand new handkerchief secured with a thin pink or blue ribbon and wait for our reaction as we unwrapped it to find what did in fact look like a small baby and tasted like a weird bread. I have to admit that as a kid, I thought it was a bit strange to receive this as an Easter present: unwrapped, the baby was about 12-18" inches long, (depending on how old each grandchild was), with an egg that represented the baby's head, crowned by a piece of blessed palm, and legs that crossed with distinct toes on the baby's feet. Minus the arms and facial features, the bread really did look like a swaddled baby! It felt criminal to cut into it and dismember the damn thing for a piece of bread that admittedly, I needed to grow into, and grow into it I did. My own kids were fortunately less traumatized by the look of the baby and acquired a taste for it at a very young age as demonstrated by Noelle, age 2 below.

I'm not giving out this recipe either as again, I sincerely doubt anyone would make it or want to eat a baby but I will tell you how to make the baby bread shape. Simply, a piece of dough is rolled out and crossed over the egg, toes are cut with a knife into the bottom of each piece or leg, and voila, un bambino. (When all is said and done, really not such an easy task.) No matter how long I have been making them, my babies never turn out as eerily cute or oddly tasty as Gram's but I do love making them if for no other reason than to carry on my grandmother's tradition so I make a large round one for the Easter host and babies for the other members of my family. Add a shmear of butter and yummo as the infamous RR would say.

Sometime during that week before the holiday, my mother would bake delicious Easter goodies like birds nest cookies and apricot pastries that would also make their debut on Easter morning. Although not a baker, these were her specialties and I don't know of another family that had these cookies in their Easter repertoire. Maybe because they are a huge pain in the neck to make! So, as Mindy and I got older, mom started delegating the task to us, particularly the birds nests, and she never went back. I made them for a brief while until Mindy became the family baker and makes them to this day. This recipe I will share with you however because aside from the fact that misery loves company, they are delicious, very colorful and perfect for Easter. Here's the process - you decide....

After making the cookie dough, Mindy and I  would roll teasponfuls into balls, dip them in egg whites and chopped nuts, then place them on a cookie sheet, bake for a few minutes, pull them out, press a hole into the center with the end of a wooden spoon, (fortunately mom always had several spoons regardless of how many she would break on my brother's ass), put them back into the oven for another few minutes, take them out, cool them, then fill them with different kinds of jellies and just keep repeating the process. We would get punchy from standing up and rolling, dipping, denting, filling over and over and over again until all the damn dough was used up and one year, during our bouts of exhausted hysteria, Mindy and I decided we should roll up one big ball and fill it with jellies in sections so we could slice it up and serve it as a cake! We got as far as gathering all the dough into the big ball until my mother coaxed us out of going further through her giggles but it was an exciting idea nonetheless and one we reprised every single year! The apricot pastries didn't fare as well over the years. I have made them a few times and Mindy did them last year but no one has really owned them and probably never will as carrot cake has repeatedly beat them out. (Side note: Since Mindy is hosting Easter dinner this year, I have volunteered to revisit the nests and pastries. I'll let you know if I succumb to the one big nest.)  

But wait, there's more! What would Easter be without pizza rustica and frittata? That story will just have to wait until next week as the countdown to Easter draws nearer. In the meantime, get started on these...

Bird's Nest Cookies
1 bag of shelled walnuts chopped

2 sticks of margarine softened
2 egg yolks
2 C. flour
1/2 light brown sugar
2 egg whites
Assorted jellies (mint, grape, strawberry, raspberry)

-Soften the margarine and add brown sugar. Cream together.
-Add the egg yolks, blend thoroughly and add flour. Mix well.
-In separate bowls, put slightly beaten egg whites and chopped nuts.
-Make balls of dough mixture. Roll first in egg whites and then chopped nuts
-Place on a greased cookie sheet in preheated 350 degree oven for 5 minutes; remove from oven and, with the end of a wooden spoon, press the center of the cookie making a dent.
-Place back in the oven for 8 minutes more. Remove and place a small amount of thick jam in each cookie pocket.

What did I tell you???? 

Leveraging the Lentils

The doldrums are setting in. The holidays are sadly, (yet happily), over; the tree has dried up and awaits the garbage truck, the stockings, lights and other decorations packed away for another year; the January wind is blowing - fiercely and frigidly - and now I am ready for my grandchild to enter the family to break up the dull months ahead. In the past month, we have eaten every thing from stuffed turkey to fried baccala, from a fenneled, spicey pork roast to a garlicky filet mignon. I've served up tortellini in beef soup, polenta with "gravy," tagliatelle alla bolognese, and macaroni and cheese; I've creamed spinach, stuffed mushrooms, braised carrots, sauted escarole. And we gifted cupcakes, chocolate cakes, cheesecakes and lots and lots of cookies. So what's left? Well, we still have the lentils.

Lentils were Friday night meals. My mother served them throughout the cold winter months to warm our insides and since they were always accompanied by a second dish we really liked, even during the old Friday night fish days of Lent, we didn't mind the thick beans with the heavy dark green oil. And as appearingly "dull" as the meal seemed to be, there was an exuberant end-of-the-week tone present each Friday night in that small, warm kitchen. Who am I kidding? Every day of the week was loud and exhuberant in our house but Fridays perhaps more so while my mother served lentils and thick homemade pizza, or lentils with doughy paprika foccaccia, even lentils with "sea squab," a type of blowfish that she found in the local A&P that my sister, brother and I literally BEGGED for each week. Later on, when I got married and had my own kids, I switched it up a bit and served lentils on Friday nights with stromboli's, boboli's or my own homemade pizza, not as thick as my mother's and topped with some of my mother-in-law's pizza ingredients. Although my kids had no baby brother to lock out of the house in the dark while throwing the garbage, there was the same Friday night "exuberance" - lentils, pizza, friends and "Full House" on channel 7.

To get you out of the doldrums this winter, leverage those lentils of the new year with strombolis stuffed with spinach and mozzarella, sausage, peppers and mozzarella, or broccoli di rape, sausage and mozzarella. In warmer months these breads can be stuffed with fresh tomatoes and veggies but those recipes will come. And remember, strombolis and pizza make great appetizers too!

Using Pizza Dough

Working the dough takes time. I prefer using homemade dough especially for pizza but when making a stromboli, store bought works well once you learn how to work it well. Here are some of my tips for working the dough for stromboli, or pizza.

• Use only pre-made pizza dough from a bakery, pizzeria or Italian delicatessan
• If dough has been refrigerated, it's important that it's at room temperature before stretching it out and preparing it.
• Sprinkle a baking sheet with a hand full of flour and put the dough on the sheet and cover with a clean dish towel. Let it sit for about 2 hours.
• Sprinkle some flour on the counter top and press the dough down. Using both hands, stretch the dough in a circular motion. Alternate the hand stretching with a small roller or rolling pin, sprinkling with flour.
• The dough should be rolled out to an oval shape that is length and width of a baking sheet.

Spinach and Mozzarella Stromboli

1 fresh pizza dough, prepared as explained above
2 packages frozen chopped spinach
1 Polly-o mozzarella, grated
2 garlic cloves, chopped fine
Olive oil to saute spinach
Pinch of salt
Crushed red pepper or dried red hot pepper (optional)

Defrost spinach and squeeze out excess water. Saute in a frying pan with olive oil, chopped garlic, salt and hot pepper if desired. Spread the spinach onto the rolled out dough, leaving a 1-inch border around edges. Sprinkle the grated mozzarella on top of the spinach.

Taking one end of the oval, roll the bread approximately 3 times, ending with the narrow end facing the top.

Drizzle some olive oil on the bottom of the cookie sheet and spread around with finger tips. Place the bread on the cookie sheet and using your fingers, spread some oil onto the top of the bread.

Bake the bread in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until the crust is golden browned. When cooled, cut the ends of the bread and slice it lengthwise, then slice it crosswise into slices to serve.

Sausage, Pepper and Mozzarella Stromboli
1 pizza dough prepared as described above
1 lb. sweet fresh Italian sausage with fennel
3 red bell peppers, sliced in 1/2" strips
1/2 lb. mozzarella, grated
Olive oil for sauteing the peppers

Take sausage out of its casing and brown the rounds in a frying pan with a tablespoon of olive oil, stirring frequently. Remove the browned sausage to a bowl. In the same pan, add another tablespoon of oil and fry the peppers.

Spread the sausage and peppers onto the pizza dough and sprinkle with mozzarella. Roll the bread from the narrow end as done for the spinach bread but be careful to avoid making holes in the dough from the sausage.

Drizzle olive oil into a cookie sheet and lift the bread carefully onto it. Using your fingertips, spread the oil onto the top of the bread. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown. When cooled, cut off either end and slice bread lengthwise, then slice it crosswise into slices to serve.