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.
Pancakes are for fun, not nutrition. Little ones like pancakes. So do adults - if with bacon and fried eggs on the side. Bacon just makes everything better.
Pancakes are no more nutritional than bread, but fun with real maple syrup. Fact is, as a kid, we sometimes used molasses instead.
We make them many ways: with a little corn meal and canned corn; with sliced apples, with our stash of frozen cranberries (best), or with blueberries. All good.
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.
With or without kidney beans? The classic is chunks of beef, but it's all fine with me as long as it is hot enough, has some sour cream, and chopped scallions or red onions on top.
If it's too mild, just put some hot sauce on the table or a bowl of chopped jalapenos.
I've visited Scotland a couple of times, and we are headed there again this year. May I say that Scotland (England too) is not known for cuisine?
OK, they do cook good fresh fish, and mutton. Clootie pudding is ok with ice cream, and kippers are fine but too big. Haggis is not terrible as part of a breakfast, but it's not the greatest.
Haggis Recipe. A chef friend recommends barley instead of oatmeal. Where do you buy a cow or sheep stomach?
It's Bobbie Burns' birthday. What's the Highland Fling?
This production should hold together tightly, almost like a firm 6-10" deep lasagna. Macaroni Pie. It's really a Primo, but could be a meal in the US, with a salad. You serve it in clean slices.
Meats in it? Any or all fowl including duck. Needs ham too. Chunks of mortadella are great. As for the eggs, you can include the cooked egg yolks as in this recipe, but it's good to throw in some whole hard-boiled eggs. The Quail eggs are not required, but Quail eggs are good things.
The recipe below is inspired by di Lampedusa's book , which I highly recommend reading.
The photo in the recipe below is not right - the thing should hold together firmly: Timballo recipe . It might get a couple of tries to get it right.
Eves of holy days are "fast" days for Roman Catholics, maybe for other Orthodox rites too. "Fasting" means no meat - but, conveniently, fish do not count as meat.
We had 22 for Thanksgiving. It's a cheerful chaos. Our prayer was for gratitude, of course, for family and friends. Little else matters. My only mistake was not getting the pianny tuned. Musicians are senstive about that.
Two turkeys as usual. Lots of leftovers. This is the one on the grill, cooked over firewood:
Fennel grows like a weed - and literally as a roadside weed - all over Europe. A celery-like thing, with a cool licorice flavor. You can munch on it raw, sautee it, or pickle it either as refrigerator pickles or real pickles. Fenuil in French, finocchio in Sicily and Italy.
It's perfect with simple seafood. Here's my first course (lousy photo): Warm salad of sliced octopus on a bed of sauteed fennel.
Main course (which was not really needed) - a rare filet of French beef with a jus with olives, not mushrooms. And usual Euroland runny mashed taters.
Readers know that my idea of a healthy breakfast is two coffees and sometimes a little nicotine. For adults, the idea that "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" was debunked long ago. Growing kids, of course, need food all the time including protein at breakfast.
If you do heavy labor all day, it's another matter. All I do is to work out at the gym for an hour or so every morning, and some yard work on weekends (as little as possible because I have become bored with it), and take good walks on weekends. That is sedentary.
Sometimes, though, there are occasions for a hearty breakfast.
I have always liked kippers with some eggs. In Scotland, the kippers are about a foot long. Too much. The canned kippers that you find in US supermarkets are barely OK.
Another breakfast that some hate but I love: Creamed Chipped Beef on Toast (aka shit on a shingle). A classic prep school, and military, breakfast.
And the ultimate American breakfast (South and Midwest especially): Biscuits and Gravy. Every family has its own recipe, so I won't link one. Those Bob Evans restaurants make a fine one, but I don't think they let you in unless you weigh over 250 pounds. Grits on the side are good.
To stay multicultural, I can't omit the English Breakfast. Blood sausage:
I love calamari in a seafood risotto or anything else. However, fried calamari is a great treat. I like it with some hot pepper flakes, and I like the tentacle parts too.
The danger is over-cooking. Squid can turn into squid chewing gum if overcooked.
Best pizza I've ever had, at least recently. Pupette and I took Mrs. BD out to a fancy Italian dinner for her birthday but I just ordered the pizza there. Not ordinary pizza.
Very thin crust pizza, like a cracker, burned black on the bottom as I like it, with melted chunks of goat cheese and chunks of peanut-sized chopped and sauteed white truffle, (no sauce), cooked over firewood, then sprinkled with some dandelion greens and thinly-sliced fresh figs and the whole thing splashed with hot white truffle oil.
The smell of it was a meal in itself. I usually prefer a pizza bianco with wild mushrooms, but I suppose I am, unfortunately, a pizza snob. This was better than that.
Mrs. BD had their beef carpaccio as an antipasto. It was as good as you can get in Todi, but without the view. Pupette had their tuna carpaccio with dill and cucumber as her antipasto, then ate half my pizza with a bottle of Moretti. She lost 15 lbs. on her 14 hr/day film job, need to fatten her up before she returns to school.
Truffle oil - and truffle - is one proof to me of God's existence. My hope is that Obama or Bernie will make truffles free for us all, when Utopia arrives. I can't wait.
Pic is a beautiful White Truffle. Cost around $125./ounce.
That is actually "Shrimp-Shrimp", because "Scampi" is the Italian term for cooked shrimp or prawns.
In Italy and Sicily, it's just "Scampi." Not a common item over there though. More common are mixed seafood things with shrimp or prawns, squid, clams, fresh anchovies, cuttlefish, etc.
Readers know that the Soft-Shelled Crab (ie moulting Blue Crab) in all of its forms is perhaps my favorite food. My friends and I would catch them at the shore with bacon tied to string and bring a bucket of them home to Mom. She'd steam the hard-shelled ones, and sautee the soft-shells.
I love the soft-shells fried, sauteed, in a sandwich with mayo, Chinese-style - or anything. A perfect combination of juiciness and crunchiness, and you just eat the whole darn thing feathers and all.
I have the perfect method of producing boiled, peelable eggs.
Steam them. Put them in a vegetable steamer basket and bring the water to a boil. Top on the pan, reduce heat to where steam is barely escaping the pan. If you have four eggs cook 12 minutes. Add 1 minute for every 2 extra eggs.
Don’t do more than 8 eggs at a time. Do them in batches. Drain the pan at the timer’s chime and fill with cold water.
Then change water and add some ice cubes to the water to bring down the temp fast and avoid the dreaded grey mantle of sulfur.
Pancakes are for fun, not nutrition. Little ones like pancakes. So do adults - if with bacon and fried eggs on the side. Bacon just makes everything better.
Kid-friendly, unfashionable, and not for weight loss. Reposted annually by popular request.
With or without kidney beans? The classic is chunks of beef, but it's all fine with me as long as it is hot enough, has some sour cream, and chopped scallions or red onions on top.
This production should hold together tightly, almost like a firm 6-10" deep lasagna. Macaroni Pie. It's really a Primo, but could be a meal in the US, with a salad. You serve it in clean slices.
Parsnips are good winter food. They were more popular before potatoes took over. 
It's not just for turkey. I have a friend who will not eat chicken without it. Excellent with pheasant too.
The great
Of course, an array of pies are needed. We like squash pie. We like all pies.
Best pizza I've ever had, at least recently. Pupette and I took Mrs. BD out to a fancy Italian dinner for her birthday but I just ordered the pizza there. Not ordinary pizza.
That is actually "Shrimp-Shrimp", because "Scampi" is the Italian term for cooked shrimp or prawns.
Readers know that the Soft-Shelled Crab (ie moulting Blue Crab) in all of its forms is perhaps my favorite food. My friends and I would catch them at the shore with bacon tied to string and bring a bucket of them home to Mom. She'd steam the hard-shelled ones, and sautee the soft-shells.
Even in a bad tomato year people get plenty of Cherry Tomatoes.
No, Eve did not eat an apple. It's called poetic license by the translator.
A pal sent me this: