Maggie's Farm

Now that we have finally been informed by our intellectual superiors that a real breakfast is healthier than fattening grains and fattening fruit, a new heresy appears to attack the dietary consensus: Breakfast is not important (unless you are a growing child or do physical labor all day)

Of course not. I thrive on coffee for breakfast, maybe with a cigar or some tobacco. A good diner breakfast, much as I love it on the rare occasion, puts me to sleep instead of giving me energy to do things.

It's the time of year when people begin to cook the game in their freezers. Readers know that I like to make a gallon or so of Gibier Sauce or Gibier Glace each fall or winter, and freeze it.

There are other tasty sauces too for game (or for chicken, pork, even steak) and they are easy, and fun, to make.

One you can buy - a standard in hunting clubs, is Chatellier's. Delicious and fruity.
Another classic is the old-timey Cumberland Sauce.
An easy one is Port Wine Sauce.

Whether it's meat from the field or meat from the market, these sauces are tasty and good fun.

A sharp surface browning of any sort of meat (and some vegetables, and roots for sure) brings out the strongest flavors of the thing. That's the Maillard Reaction. That's why hot-sauteed and lightly-browned parsnips, carrots, green beans, asparagus, and onions are so good too.

Cooking is chemistry. The Maillard Reaction is why every amateur cook dreams of a high-powered industrial stovetop with a big gas flame - "Cooking with gas." That way, you can brown things, even fish, while keeping the inside rare. Readers know that's how I cook steak, always on the gas stove (well, sometimes on charcoal for steak, lamb, and Bluefish but it's the same idea.) Chicken is more flavorful browned too regardless of what you use it for after.

To make a great European-style meat stock, you want max flavor. That's why you use the M Reaction to first brown all the bones and meat scraps, and the vegetables too (mushrooms, garlic, carrot, celery, onion, etc), before you throw them into the stewpot with the water, peppercorns, herbs, and wines.

I only use two stovetop heats: Max and Very Low/simmer.

For some recipes you do not want those intense flavors, which is why lots of Asian stew-type recipes use unbrowned meats. Boiled chicken, for example, pork, or shrimp, and lightly boiled vegetables and roots. The Maillard Reaction is thus avoided to permit more subtle flavors. Very pleasant things like like sashimi, carpaccio, steak tartare, etc., take subtle to the max.

Megan talked about browning her beef stew beef in the oven to make it easier. Not a bad idea. Browning chunks of beef or lamb for a stew in a pan is messy, and who will clean the damn pan? And, for a stew, you don't care how well-done the meat is.

With an Irish father-in-law, the boiled dinner is de rigeur around here on, or close to, St. Paddy's Day. I'll make up a big pot this weekend even though he is still in lovely San Diego, slowly on the mend and eager to get home.

I happen to be one of those people who love that New England Boiled Dinner, aka Irish Boiled Dinner, aka (per reader) "a greasy, one-pot slopfest." 

The real traditional Irish St. Paddy's dinner is Bacon and Cabbage. Why is the New England dinner associated with the Irish? Read all about it here.

Cook the heck out of the meat, for hours, until it almost falls apart. Lots of whole peppercorns, Allspice, cloves, bay leaf, and garlic in the pot.

The carrots are optional, in my view - and the cabbage is the best part. For a large volume of food with generous leftovers for all, I am using 2 packaged corned beefs, 6 turnips, a small bag of carrots, a couple of giant onions, a small bag of parsnips (yum), a bag of potatoes, 2 or 3 large cabbages. That's all that will fit into our largest stewpot.

We're gonna need a bigger stewpot.

A large pot of hot mustard on one side, and a pot of beer on the other side. Great peasant eats, and the spices perfume the entire cabin.

Update: Had to do it in multiple batches but reusing the water from cooking the meat.

My favorite winter puddings are Indian Pudding, Bread Pudding, and Plum Pudding (with hard sauce, please).

Bread Pudding is the easiest to make.

All of these puddings require something to be served on top. For Bread Pudding, I've seen Rum Sauce, Lemon Sauce, Vanilla Sauce, etc etc.

Or the old standby, English Custard Sauce. No need to make it yourself - you can buy Bird's at Amazon. Ol' Mr. Bird invented it because his wife had an egg allergy. A bird, allergic to eggs...

God made pitchers for pouring custard.

What are your favorite cold weather desserts?

I was raised on these things. In winter, baked beans with hot dogs and toast. Ketchup on the side as the vegetable. I still like that old, filling, Yankee poverty food.

To get it right, probably should use dried Navy Beans, but the canned would work too. A crock pot item? Why not. It should come out firm, not soupy.

Boston Baked Beans

Mom's home cookin, overlookin' scenic Hudson's Bay

Salad course: Brussels Sprouts Salad

Braised Lamb Shanks

Mashed Taters

Creamed Spinach

A Merlot 

Cranberry Crumble with Vanilla Ice Cream

Simple and easy: Garlic and Lemon Chicken Breasts (or any other part of the chicken, I suppose)

Double or triple the garlic - always. Use green beans, asparagus, or whatever.

Reposted for the season -

Try this: Shaved Brussel Sprouts with Truffle Oil and Parmesan.

Please do not use the fake truffle oil.

It's basically a slaw. We had that at a restaurant this weekend as a salad sort of molded from a cup on top of a potato fritter. Damn good. I told Mrs. BD that dog kibbles with black truffle oil and parmesan would be delicious. Actually, I have always liked B. Sprouts anyway, especially sauteed with bacon.

(Speaking of bacon, my brother served an hors d'oevres Sunday afternoon -  dates wrapped in bacon, broiled. Amazing.)

Culinary tip: Brussel Sprouts do not hit their peak of flavor and sweetness until hit by at least a frost or two. The ones from the stores have not been. Put a stalk of them outdoors on a frigid day for a few hours, and let them freeze. Much better. Serious gardeners leave them standing in the garden all winter, and just go out and cut some off from the stalks. I guess you could try the freezer, too. When we buy them in bags, we leave them out in the snow until we use them.

One of my favorites: Braised Lamb Shanks

The sweetest meat is near the bone. Cook the heck out of it until fork-tender. You can bake or slow-cooker it. Some people like to brown the marinated meat before cooking.

Generally one whole shank per person is plenty. Serve one whole shank, bone in, with a pile of sauce over polenta or white rice.

I have not made it with venison shank yet, but I should. Maybe soon. A saw would save the trouble of cutting the meat off the shank bone. Yes, I do know how to butcher a deer. 

This is an annual re-posting.

The global cooling we are experiencing inspired me to consider some truly fine cool-weather all-white breakfast eats which are not easily found in Yankee-land. The good stuff that sticks to your arteries ribs and warms you from the inside.

Creamed chipped beef on toast is the fine old Yankee version of the southland's biscuits 'n gravy. Both have done wonders for warming the hearts and narrowing the arteries of generations of American boys. Add some potatoes and you have the perfect meal for a lumberjack or hunter.

While apple pie is an old-time Yankee breakfast staple, it has been replaced long ago by eggs, toast, and bacon, maybe a chunk of fruit, and preferably home fries with ketchup on them. Not Heinz 57, though - it's not my job to feed John Kerry.

Some people eat cereal for breakfast. Why? Because Dr. John Kellogg, a health-food charlatan in the 1800s, told them to. Zero nutrition. Breakfast cereal is a fraud and a scam, unless it's plain grits or cream of wheat or oatmeal. The crunchy granola stuff? Well, I thought the guy who discovered that you could sell people plain water was a genius, but the people who decided to sell guinea pig food to humans was his creative equal.

(At Maggie's Farm, we are also fond of fish for breakfast, like the Brits. Kippers. Or a lighty sauteed trout someone has caught early, sprinkled with parsley. Or left-over broiled salmon.)

The chipped beef was always a boarding school standard, and half loved it and half barfed to look at it. It does look like vomit, but it's great stuff. It's a gourmet's delight, but nobody makes it anymore.

When I did my time south of the Mason-Dixon, a local favorite was hot dog gravy on biscuits. Grits on the side, of course. Everything white. Not a refined breakfast, just gravy made with supermarket hot dogs instead of sausage. A truly revolting flavor unless you grew up in the hills and hollers, but it will fend off hunger for hours. I prefer my Sabretts on a bun at Yankee Stadium. But other sorts of southern gravy, made with ham or sausage, are just fine. I won't presume to offer a biscuit 'n gravy recipe, because every Southern Mom has her own. Well, here's a Virginia one from someone's Grandma.

Biscuits 'n gravy, and grits. Serious food for the soul.

Image: New Hampshire chipped beef on English muffins - with home fries. They don't do grits up north (except in Italian homes and restaurants, where they like to call grits "polenta") and it's a damn shame. Good stuff.

This was news to me, from a Paris-trained chef friend.

Butter will keep for weeks or months without refrigeration, depending on how much oxygen it is exposed to. The purpose of a butter dish (or butter crock, etc) is so you can have soft, usable butter on the counter or table at all times, while protected from ambient air.

In fact, butter will stay better and fresher in a butter dish rather than in the fridge where it is exposed to ambient air. Why do Americans keep butter in the fridge? Who knows. It won't melt under 80 degrees F. Supposedly, the butter crocks that use a water seal will keep butter fresh even longer, many months. Well, butter has been around a lot longer than refrigeration.

My days of tearing bread and toast with hard butter are over, as of now. Yes, I do love butter, and even more now that we know it's healthy.

In reference to our Scientific Survey about coffee containers, a reader sends this:

Victor Coffee Mugs made by the Victor Insulation Company.

These mugs originally were made without handles for use on Navy ships, so outside lookouts could wrap their hand around one to warm up and drink coffee, too.  Also, they are hard to knock over or break.

The real ones are commonly available on Ebay (see:  9 Victor Coffee Mugs Heavy Thick Diner Restaurant Vitrified Stoneware Original) and worth every penny.  We use them exclusively.

We learned how to make it right from Jewish friends. Mrs. BD has had the bug that's going around - stiff neck, headache, muscle cramps, general weakness, so I made a batch for her. No, it's not meningitis.

Quick and easy. I lightly sautee a pile of chopped onions, celery, and garlic in some olive oil and butter. I chop a few carrots, skin on. Throw them in the big crock pot. I lightly brown a few chicken legs and thighs, and throw them in, and cover with water. I toss in a bunch of herbs - bay leaf, thyme, a little rosemary, maybe tarragon, and a large pile of chopped parsley. Lots of salt and pepper.

I put the crock thing on high for 5 or 6 hours. It can't go wrong, and it is good medicine for whatever ails ya.

 Pic shows a pretty cup from our everyday set, a regular logo mug, a demitasse cup from my Grandpa's set which we are using for espresso now, a good old Dunkin medium styrofoam cup, and a coffee cup aka teacup.

Mrs. BD assures me that "coffee cups" like the Cuthbertson Christmas cup in my photo are actually teacups. I do not like to drink coffee from those things, because it's too delicate and precious, does not hold enough, and gets cold too fast.

What sort of thing do you like to drink your coffee or tea from?

Cooked up a big batch of superb Beef Stew (my opinion) for the family crowd yesterday, to be served today for birthdays. A stew always benefits from a day's rest.  I do it the Frenchie way with the cheapest cuts of meat, lardons, lots of pearl onions, porcini mushrooms, Cotes de Rhone - all the best stuff. My concoction is also good for the unwanted cuts of venison.

I slow cook it, low heat, for 6 or 7 hours, let it rest for 24 hrs, and serve on egg noodles, Italian or otherwise.

However, I somehow stumbled on recipes for liver 'n onions. I love calves liver and onions, with a side of mashed taters. (Me like chicken liver too, but that's another story.) The trick to tasty calves liver is the same as for foie gras - crispy on the outside and pink on the inside. That means high heat, quick cooking. I like liver in chunks, not slabs.

Readers know that we do not meander around this incredible museum colossus at random (which works fine if you are stoned and have all day but that ain't us anymore), but we only go for one show or one area. One hour only, or a little more, or you get the deadly brain affliction known here as "museum-brain."

Having accumulated a manageable dose of education and culcha, a nice lunch and a glass or two of wine nearby is perfect. Mrs. BD suggests the following for affordable cheap amazing prix-fixe lunches - make reservations) Decent dress code not a bad idea for these, ie dresses and jacket and tie.

Our long-time favorite: Giovanni Vento Cinque. Cozy, cuisine not entirely predictable but always good. My favorite? The calves liver with balsamic. That's Italian.

Caravaggio. Jacket and tie required. Wonderful and elegant but not stuffy.

Jean Georges - just across the park. Mind-blowing.

If you can handle two venues in one day, stroll down to the intimate Neue Gallery and have a perfectly authentic Viennese lunch in their parlor. I have been in Vienna, and this is Vienna.

For in-laws, kids, and their significant others

Roast Boneless Leg of Lamb to 120 degrees (F) - rare - au jus of course
Steamed haricot verts with olive oil
Steamed spinach with garlic and olive oil
Mashed Oregon Gold taters
I forgot to get the beets at the store - I have never gone to the market without forgetting something
Green salad of baby spinach, baby kale, and arugula, with goat cheese

Hard crusty bread

Prosecca, Mt. Etna Rosso, Martinelli's

Christmas cookies and espresso from my Christmas machine

The Art of the Bûche de Noël

Great to make, but easier to buy one at your baker

Best Macaroni and Cheese

The best side with any juicy, fatty, succulent meat

5-Minute Peanut Butter Frozen Fudge

We changed our Christmas Day menu. Our neighborhood butcher is making us a crown roast of pork with 18 chops - and each chop 2 inches thick. I'll stuff the roasts with sausage-apple stuffing, and we'll make some applesauce. Few winter foods are more succulent and delicious.

We want it easy but good. We're thinking something like this:

Eggnog and/or Champagne, and Martinelli's of course for the teetotalers, then wine
A spiral-cut full-size Harrington's Country Ham big enough for 20, with some cool sauces and mustards for it
Corn Pudding
Scalloped potatoes with bacon
Asparagus
Biscuits
A green salad
Misc. Christmas cookies for dessert - bring homemade ones with you

We do church Christmas Eve, not Christmas morning as I did as a lad. We forbid gifts with extended family so we omit that silliness - except gifts of homemade cookies. In fact, we are not too big on gifts in general anymore. Instead, we'll have Mrs. BD on ye olde Steinway playing Christmas songs for us all to sing off-key, and some group games. We often play the "Who am I?" game.

At night, the kids go off to the movies with friends.

What's your plan?

it's a good opportunity to catch up on the local news. In Maine.

I see this morning that, during the night, Mrs. BD & Co. produced three punkin pies (from fresh pumpkins and homemade crust) and two pecan pies. Nice. My job this morning? Making stuffing (cornbread with sausage, onion and celery) and grilling the turkeys. Then the friendly Indians will arrive bearing their goodies after their annual TG 10 K race. I say they are nuts but they all blame me for introducing them to the running habit which I did, years ago. I quit that when my 3rd kid was born. It did not feel right to disappear for two hours every weekend morning with three little kids around.

Basting is a waste of time, the stuff just runs off the skin. With my frightening horse-sized hypodermic needle, I am injecting cider into the birds this year. Breasts, legs, wings, and under the skin. Once in the beginning, again when half-done. They are not Butterball, just plain fresh turkeys. One is 20 lbs and one is 26 lbs. That's a big turkey. Good leftovers for all. On the grill, I have plain charcoal and I am keeping some oak and apple logs burning and smoking on top of the charcoal. Nice smelling smoke wafting around for a country mile, as light snow falls. That's Yankeeland Thanksgiving. And the Indian Pudding is in the oven.

For a dumb reason, I did brine one of them for 24 hrs. in a ton of herbs and spices and wine, etc. but it really is not worth the trouble. Just inject them with liquids - sherry, white wine, cider, brandy, beer, or anything. You can add herbs, melted butter, whatever. It's a man's job, cooking meat and game. And mashing the taters with cream cheese, butter, sour cream, and heavy cream. Taste while doing to make sure you added enough pepper and to keep your strength up.

The Thanksgiving Recipes Googled in Every State - Which foods are unusually popular in each state on Thanksgiving.

It's wonderful to see how regionally-diverse this big nation of America remains, but I would not touch some of that stuff. I mean, Snickers Salad for Thanksgiving? Sheesh! Nothing against Snickers but oh, well, it's all good as long as we are grateful. I don't want to be a food snob, but, gee whiz, there are some limits!

Pic is my standard Yankeeland cooking. I use half the sugar, twice the berries. My mother in law always makes raw cranberry and orange relish - deliciously tangy and different from this.

It looks like we're down to only 20-25 (not counting rug rats) of friends and family for Thanksgiving this year at the Maggie's Farm HQ. Some of my sibs are doing TG at their new vacation house on Cape Cod, appropriately-enough.

The way we do it is like the Indians did: everybody brings part of the feast. We rent a few round or long tables with chairs to put in the parlor, light up a couple of fireplaces, decorate things a little, and warm up the grill.

Best holiday of the year - no presents, just festive get-together. No TV allowed, generally-speaking.

Our home team is, as usual, providing 2 turkeys, stuffing, gravy, wine and beer, green salad, and Mrs. BD's pumpkin pies and Indian Pudding. Oh, and  whipped cream. Soup is just too much trouble. Guests are bringing apple pies and ice cream, grilled brussel sprouts, pickled beets, sweet potatoes, mashed taters, mashed rutabaga, roasted parsnips, cranberry relish, champagne and Martinelli's, and hors d'oevres. 

Low-carb, fat-free, vegan, and gluten free of course!