Category: Food & Wine

Chef Bill turned 84 yesterday so he didn’t chef but rather was taken to Tavola’s at the Springfield Country Club where he ordered the seafood combination platter and a margarita. The coffee and dessert – a delicious blueberry pie made by Mrs. Chef Bill — was served at home.

Tonight, however, he was back on the job where he cooked up a delicious skewerless shish kabob featuring lamb, beef (an old London broil), along with mushrooms, green and red peppers and cherry tomatoes. Some chicken drumsticks and basa fish were thrown in just to make the meal a feast.

Dessert was an Italian rum cake provided by some nice neighbors.

The wine was a syrah from Columbia Winery.

Everything was perfect.

Tonight’s meal by Chef Bill Sr. began with an antipasto of crudites including stuff olives from the Glen Mills Fresh Market olive bar and celery stuffed with whitefish salad. The main course was monkfish baked in a paprika sauce with sides of cottage cheese and egg noodles, and cole slaw.

The monkfish, whitefish salad and cole slaw came from Hill’s Seafood in Media.

The wine was a Nederburg chenin blanc from South Africa.

Delicious!

Tonight’s meal by Chef Bill Sr. was a jambalaya featuring chicken breast, Italian sausage and a piece of some kind of beef that had been frozen since August. It was delicious. The rice was cooked separately and mixed in afterwards. The bread was Italian and bought at Walmart for  77 cents.

The wine was a homemade Merlot.

Go here, for the recipe upon which it is based.

Shad With Lemon Pepper — Tonight’s meal by Chef Bill featured a delicious broiled shad seasoned with lemon pepper and — the secret ingredient — Adolph’s tenderizer in lieu of salt.

The sides were stewed tomatoes mixed with green peppers and onions, excellent fresh Italian bread brought from Brookside Bagels, and corn on the cob that tasted almost summer fresh. The corn was bought at the small produce stand in Media near Hill’s Seafood from whence came the fish. (He tries to get all of his seafood at Hill’s)

OK, the meal also included frozen mac and cheese, — Chef Bill swears by Stouffer’ —  which did go well the with the tomatoes.

The wine was a Woodbridge Pinot Grigio.

Shad With Lemon Pepper

This hodge podge is a great family Christmas favorite that we have been making for many, many years.

Ingredients

2 Cups coarsely copped walnuts

1 Cup dates

2 Cups cocoanut

1 Cup brown sugar

2 eggs beaten

Mix dates and nuts and add 1 1/2  cups cocoanuts and the beaten eggs. Shape into balls and roll in the remaining cocoanut. Bake on a greased sheet at 350 degree F for 10 -12 minutes. Makes four dozen cookies.

Lucky Elsie’s Hodge Podge

I’m  Lucky Elsie and I want to share my holiday favorites with you and my first will be my Thanksgiving pumpkin pie.

Ingredients for Pie Crust

3/4  Cup sifted flour

1/2  Tsp salt

1/3 Cup vegetable shortening

2-3 Tbls ice water

Mix flour and salt in bowl. Cut in shortening until mix looks like large peas.  Mix in the water until the mixture holds together. Dough should not be wet or slippery though. Roll the dough out to fit an 8-inch pie pan.

Ingredients for Filling

1 1/2 Cups cook, strained pumpkin

1 Cup milk

3/4  Cup sugar

1/4  Tsp salt

1/2  Tsp nutmeg

1/2  Tsp ginger

1 1/2  Tsp cinnamon

2 Eggs slightly beaten

1 Tb melted butter

Place pumpkin in bowl and gradually add milk, stirring constantly. Add the ingredients in the order above. Beat with a mixer until smooth and pour  into the pie crust. Bake at 400 degree F until a kitchen knife inserted into the pie draws out clean. The baking should take between 35-45 minutes.

Lucky Elsie’s Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie

Cricket bars are a yumalicious snack for the kids or anybody.

Baba ghanoush is an easy eggplant-based dish from the Levant. The name is Arabic and means “father of flirting”

Here is a recipe for the grill using Andrew’s garden eggplants:

2 eggplants (medium size to large)

1/2 Cup of tahini

1/2 Cup of lemon juice

4 Tbls of garlic powder

4 Tbls of sesame seeds

3 Tbls of olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Smear vegetable oil on the eggplants and grill grates. Poke holes in the eggplants with a fork. Cook on the grill with the cover down at 400°F for about 40 minutes, occasionally turning the eggplants.  It’s really hard to cook them too long. Take the eggplants off and put them in a pot of cold water. Remove the skin, which by the way, is rather tasty in itself off the grill. Put the insides in a bowl and combine it with the tahini, lemon juice, garlic powder, sesame seeds and salt and pepper. Mash them up, then puree them in a blender or Cusinart.  Add the olive oil, let chill for two hours and enjoy with crackers or chips.

And speaking of wine, I had an enjoyable chardonnay from Mendocino Vineyards acquired from the state store — excuse Wine and Spirits Shoppe — in Media for $7.99.

Made With Organic Grapes