We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
It's one of my favorite fishes. I happen to have plenty of favorite fishes though. Halibut has been overfished in the North Atlantic, like Cod and most other things. Atlantic vs Pacific Halibut.
This old photo of a handliner is from our favorite seafood cookbook, Howard Mitcham's The Provincetown Seafood Cookbook. As is typical of P'town, lots of Portuguese recipes.
"It's a true classic, one of the most influential of my life." --Anthony Bourdain, from the new introduction
Octopus is good food, grilled, sauteed, in a cold salad, whatever. We probably learned in high school bio that they are molluscs, same as squid. Cephalopod molluscs.
Compared to shelled molluscs, these creatures are advanced and have multiple brains. As far as eating goes, with squid we gut them and eat the rest, but with polpo we cook just the feet. I have never heard of eating an octopus head and guts as we happily do with clams and oysters (which have no heads, really. No eyes - but scallops have sort-of eyes...).
This recipe is good enough, but don't mix the beans with the rice. Make lots more of the beans, and dump them on top of the rice. The beans are the food, the rice is the vehicle.
I think I lived on this in college, and I still like it. Beans from the cans, as we always recommend. If anybody wants to spend the time to soak dried beans, God bless ya. That ain't me.
Plenty of salt, and hot sauce of your choice on the side, of course. Salad on the side if you like that stuff, but I think salad causes cancer, and maybe corona too. A Conona beer, on the other had, goes well with this supper.
Mrs. BD and her dad ventured out today to the real Italian market a few towns away. Everybody there speaks Italian or Sicilian, including most of the customers. Place smells amazing from all of the cheese and salumi and pickled vegetables. And, next door, is an Italian pastry shop. All of it, the best food on this planet.
We tend towards the Italian on religious holidays. Mrs. BD is 50%; her dad is as Irish as can be. However, trust me, Italian blood beats celtic or anglo-saxon every time.
She needed candied citron for Easter Pie (Wheat Pie). Naturally, they brought home a bunch of arancini for lunch. They were the size of baseballs. I've never seen them that big in Sicily. Also, baccala for tonight. Hard as wood.
For today, baccala to keep with her family tradition. For Easter dinner, a Nice Legga Lamb. That's the Irish part. Just 4 of us, sad to say. Distancing, for what it's worth. I miss the whole BD family but I miss church a lot too. It doesn't feel right. I love our congregation, my brethren.
I get the impression that people are making home-cooked meals during this so-called quarantine. This weekend, I made this: Marcella's beef braised in red wine. Not bad at all, an Italian pot roast I guess.
Readers know that I am not a pasta fan, but a little Bolognese as a primi - if it's really good - is ok. Just not too much.
Bolognese is a northern Italian meat sauce. Marinara is southern Italian tomato sauce. Spaghetti and meatballs is an American thing, marinara with meatballs.
Bolognese is not a meat sauce really - it's a meat-flavored sauce. Mrs. BD made a double recipe yesterday for friends tonite. Always better the next day.
The only recipe we endorse is Marcella Hazan's. The bit of nutmeg, and the milk, make it perfect.
Remember the rule: Toss the almost fully-cooked pasta in the hot saucepan with the sauce. Don't dump sauce on top of pasta. Some parmesan shavings on top is nice, and maybe a little parsley. Almost any sort of pasta works.
It's been a few years since I made this thing, so we made some yesterday for practice before I begin to serve it to friends for supper. Planning a bunch of suppers before Spring. Tried my version out on my father-in-law. He likes food.
If you asks him what restaurant he wants to go to tonight, he says one with food. But especially one with oysters, which is for tonight.
I use Julia Child's recipe, but I modify it a bit. My modifications: 3x as much garlic, lots of thyme sprigs from the garden, 1/2 cup of Port or some sugar, and a small handful of dried porcinis. Also, to keep it simple, I just throw in a bag of frozen pearl onions for the last 30 minutes of cooking. I do brown the fresh mushrooms and throw them in the pot for the last 30 minutes. I don't use the oven at all, just 3 hrs simmering on the stove.
Traditional ways to serve this is in a shallow bowl with french bread, or on a plate with (white) rice or roasted potatoes.
(Tip for those who like rich, earthy sauces: You can buy dried porcinis online, much cheaper than at the store. I buy them by the pound, but it doesn't take many to provide the flavor. You use the water you soak them in, too.)
Delicious when smeared on toast or crusty bread. Just scoop it out of the bulb and smear it on toast. It works best with those giant elephant garlics: Microwave roasted garlic.
An Egyptian friend, now thriving in the US, brought me a Turkish coffee kit from Cairo. The little copper pot, two ceramic cups, and a few bags of that powdered Turkish coffee. She blames it on the Ottoman Empire.
Turkish coffee is delicious, strong, and sweet. Once tried, you will never go back. Spain's coffee con leche is wonderful too, and entirely different. So is espresso. The only great thing about American coffee is that you get a lot of it to sip on. Coffee is a multicultural wonder and necessary for mental and physical health.
I learned that Friday was National Peanut Butter Day.
The use of peanuts dates to the Aztecs and Incas. They supposedly made a paste out of them too. Wow. Another New World food that I missed on my list of European appropriations of native New World foods: Squash, corn (maize), all peppers, tomato, potato, sweet potato, beans, vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, avocado, cashew, walnut, etc.
I can't help it if I am an Italian food snob. Very happy to never see baked ziti again in my life, or meatballs. They make me feel stuffed and just gross and tired. Soak the breadcrumbs in milk for the meatballs. Better that way.
Kid-friendly, unfashionable, and not for weight loss. Reposted annually by popular request.
I've collected the posts on old-timey Mommys of America non-gourmet, comforting (eg filling), quick 'n easy (eg no lasagna or fried chicken), and sensitively-multicultural (even Shrimp 'n Grits) winter suppers here, in no particular order. Such foods mean family love.
I suspect some of our foreign readers - of whom we have quite a few - might be interested in what American moms (and sometimes modern dads) fix up for ordinary family suppers in Upper Yankeeland (with the exception of Shrimp 'n Grits which is real Southern food and suitable for breakfast, lunch, or supper).
A number of these are suitable to ye olde slow cooker aka electric crock pot.
As you may know, cassoulet is basically French baked beans with meat. The real original of hot dogs and baked beans. It is country home cookin, but it can be great stuff. Dutch oven cooking. Crock pot? Why not, as long as the meats are browned first, but it will not brown the top.
It's a good way to cook some wild game meat, especially the less-tender parts.
Any meat, but not beef - strong red meat is too strong for cassoulet. We have, over time, used various mixes of duck, snow goose, chukar, venison, chicken, pork, wild boar, and pheasant which we have killed. Mix the meats - it adds to the flavor. There should be some source of pig fat or duck fat in it. Some venison sausage, or any sausage, because it is a necessary traditional ingredient. The meat-to-bean ratio is supposed to be fairly high - 30% - but I like beans and prefer a lower ratio. I think every village in southern France has its own recipe and method. I figure roughly one hunk of sausage and one hunk of meat per person.
A few tips about Cassoulet:
1. Make it at least the day before. Like beef stew, it improves overnight. 2. Serve with salad, toasted garlic bread with a pile of stinky and gooey cheeses on the side, and then fruit for dessert. And a Cote Rotie or Cotes du Rhone. 3. You need to use large white beans, ideally French haricot beans. Use the canned beans, don't bother with dried beans. 4. Make sure you push the bread crumbs down into the surface of the mixture when baking. 5. Sprinkle chopped fresh parsley on top when done - it looks better that way.
I forgot to mention Caviar Pie in my authoritative American caviar post. This decadent concoction is perfect for a brunch, hors d'oevres, or munchies.
Some caterers make Caviar Pie which looks perfect, round, and daintily-finished, but the ones I've had at fancy New Year's Day cocktail brunches look a little raggedy, as in this photo. They don't have to look good because as soon as they are attacked by people armed with cheese knives or crackers it's messy anyway.
You scoop a piece out and put it on toasts, or bagel chips, or whatever. It goes fast.
As usual, one uses the most expensive caviar one can afford - or not afford.
Chopped red onion is key. Here's one recipe, but you can google for more. It's a real meal too if you want, with a glass of champagne. The height of decadence.
My annual Christmas present for my Dad used to be a tin from Petrossian. Worth every penny for the delight it provides.
Turkey Hash is pretty good, and so is turkey soup (for which I am boiling a stock from one of the carcasses right now with water, onions, garlic, celery, parsley, herbs, etc - we fight over the carcasses and bones like jackals), but the main reason people in my family cook so many turkeys at Thanksgivings is for the sandwiches for a few days after.
Here's how I make them:
White bread Smear of mayo on one slice of bread Smear of cold congealed turkey gravy on the other slice Slice or two of left-over turkey, white or dark meat (I like the dark) Generous spoonful of my cranberry sauce Generous spoonful of turkey stuffing Salt and pepper
Squoosh the sides of bread together, and cut in half with a sharp knife. Then eat with a glass of beer. Delicious.
Then take a little nap.
How I make turkey stock:
Throw into a large stock pot a whole or chopped turkey carcass, leg bones, wings, etc. Not a bad idea to break the bones with a cleaver and/or to roast the carcass first so some of the bones brown. Cover with water. Take a bunch of celery, carrots, onions and garlic. Chop very roughly with skins on - do not peel - and sautee in butter or cooking oil until browned. (The skins add color and flavor) Then toss them into the pot. Add some cut-up raw potatoes, skins on. Throw in some salt, whole peppercorns. Then parsley, thyme, a little sage and marjoram. A little sugar. A bottle of white wine in there is optional. Simmer for 5-8 hours, adding water as needed. Then strain. That's a tasty turkey stock. It's man-cooking.
Wild Rice is a marsh grass seed, like regular rice. It traditonally goes with game meat, wild bird meats. Well, it goes with turkey too.
People tend to cook it with various additions (mushrooms, cranberries, apples, nuts, white rice, etc) but it's a treat on its own if you have enough of it. Chicken broth and salt and pepper does this wild grain justice.
Simple recipe: 
Seems like the middle-eastern version of 
Readers know that I am not a pasta fan, but a little Bolognese as a primi - if it's really good - is ok. Just not too much.
It's been a few years since I made this thing, so we made some yesterday for practice before I begin to serve it to friends for supper. Planning a bunch of suppers before Spring. Tried my version out on my father-in-law. He likes food.
Kid-friendly, unfashionable, and not for weight loss. Reposted annually by popular request.
I forgot to mention Caviar Pie in my 
A traditional, festive punch for holiday season and for winter days: