Weekend Cooking: Apple Pie

Hi everyone! I know it’s been awhile since I have posted one of these, it’s been crazy with moving to the new house and everything.  One of the things I am sure that many of us made this week for Thanksgiving was some sort of pie, and for me that always means apple pie!  When I thought about apple pie it brought me back to our experience cooking over the open hearth at Old Sturbridge Village back in February where one of the items we had was apple pie!

One of the things that I found most surprising during that experience was that in the 1800’s apple pie would not have been eaten as a dessert, but rather with the meal! How cool is that!?!  I’m all for eating pie with my meal because I never have room for dessert after, however it felt a little bit strange as we are so programmed that a sweet comes as a dessert.  The other thing that was fascinating was that you would typically eat a cheese, like cheddar, with you pie – a bit of each in every bite.  I had not tried this before, and was a little hesitant, but OMG how the flavors of the two compliment so well!  I encourage you to give it a try with you next pie – we meant to this Thanksgiving, but forgot to buy the cheese…next time for sure!  An apple pie also was easy to prepare even when apples were out of season because it could be prepared using dried apples that were put up at the end of autumn for storage.  A very versatile recipe.

Apple Pie
Makes 1 - 9 Inch Pie

Recipe from The American Frugal Housewife, 1833

When you make apple pies, stew your apple very little indeed; just strike them through, to make them tender.  Some people do not stew them at all, but cut them up in very thin slices, and lay them in the crust.  Put sugar to your taste; it is impossible to make a precise rule, because apples vary so much in acidity.  A very little salt, and a small piece of butter in each pie, makes them richer.  Cloves and cinnamon are both suitable.  Lemon brandy and rose water are both excellent.  A wine glass full (about 2 oz) of each is sufficient for three or four pies.  If your apples lack spirit, grate in a whole lemon.

Modern Translation from Old Sturbridge Village Cookbook:

Ingredients:

6 cups apples (fresh or dried) or 2 cups applesauce
½ cup brown sugar
½ tsp. cloves or cinnamon
Piecrust for a double-crust pie
1 Tbsp. butter
½ tsp. salt (optional)
1 Tbsp. lemon peel, if apples are sweet
1 Tbsp. lemon brandy or rosewater (optional)

Directions:

1. To prepare apples, follow one of these three methods:
     a. Peel and slice apples, toss with sugar and spice until all are coated.
     b. Peel and core whole apples, slice into rings.  Put into saucepan with 1 inch of water on the bottom, sugar, and spices.  Stew for 10 minutes.
     c. Put dried apples in a bowl and cover with water.  They will swell up in a couple of hours in a warm place.  Put apples, a small amount of water in which they soaked, sugar, and spice into a saucepan and cook for 10 minutes.

2. Prepare piecrust

3. Line a 9-inch plate with pastry.

4. Arrange prepared apples in pie plate.  Add juice if stewed.  Dot with butter.  Add salt, lemon peel, and brandy or rosewater, if desired: Cover with top crust, make slits to let steam escape. 

5. Bake at 350°F for 1 hour if stewed apples are used or for 1 hour and 15 minutes for uncooked fruit.

Not a 2-Crust Pie – A Dutch Apple Version

Ok, so I didn’t have the foresight to have taken a photo of the pie when we were at the event (it was eaten too quickly), but the above photo is a picture of a Dutch apple pie that I made for this Thanksgiving that was fairly similar.  Everyone thought the pie was spectacular.  The team that made it followed the traditional method and used uncooked, fresh apples, cloves, and a pat of butter.  It was an excellent contribution to the dinner and I highly recommend playing around with the recipe a bit to meet your needs.  It would be interesting to try it out starting with dried apples and see how the final product comes out.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and anything even remotely cooking related can participate in this event.

 

Copyright © 2016 by The Maiden’s Court

Weekend Cooking: The Ellis Island Immigrant Cookbook

I don’t think it should come as any surprise that I like to collect cookbooks when I travel, especially if it’s a historical site. So my trip to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum was no different, and there were actually several to choose from because of their celebration of the immigrant culture during the 1800s in New York City. So the cookbook I ultimately chose is The Ellis Island Immigrant Cookbook by Tom Bernardin. While I haven’t yet made any of the recipes yet, mostly due to my diet at the moment and also not yet having time to read through them all, I wanted to feature the book this week.

This is not just your standard curated cookbook, but it is an immigrant history through food. Bernardin solicited recipes from immigrants who had arrived in the United States at Ellis Island or from the children or grandchildren of those immigrants. When you read through these recipes you get the feeling of true Old World home cooking. Beyond the recipes, stories and anecdotes from those recipe submitters are included as well, so you get even more heart here. The recipe section is divided up by country, so if you are looking for a recipe from your family’s heritage or for a specific type of cuisine that makes it easy. My problem is that I don’t know what most of the recipes are in this book, so that type of division doesn’t help me much. There is an index at the back of the book that is arranged alphabetically by title, but that still doesn’t help me. I could seriously benefit from an index divided by main ingredient (i.e. beef, chicken, fish, bread, etc.) so I would at least know what I am looking at to some extent.

My family originally hales from Germany (on both sides), so some dishes of interest include: Open Face Bavarian Peach Pie and German Apple Cake. My husband’s family is French Canadian, so when I looked in the France section, there was one recipe, French Peas, and if you know my husband, the food he hates the most is peas, so we probably won’t be making that dish!

While this is a cookbook first, it also involves many other elements too. There is a brief history of Ellis Island, as well as a description of food at Ellis Island.

Ellis Island
Photo Credit: By Ingfbruno; cropped by Beyond My Ken (talk) 04:23, 19 October 2013 (UTC) (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

There is a cool visual of the type of fare that would be served to those who had to remain detailed at Ellis.  Ninety-Nine years ago today, this is what was being served (I totally stumbled upon this discovery!):

BREAKFAST:

• Apple sauce
• Oatmeal served in soup plates
• Bread & butter
• Coffee (tea on request)
• Milk & crackers for children

DINNER:

• Rice soup
• Boiled mutton with brown gravy
• Green peas-potatoes
• Bread & butter
• Milk & crackers for children

SUPPER:

• Pork and Beans (NY style)
• Stewed fruit
• Bread & butter
• Tea (Coffee on request)
• Milk & crackers for children

*Milk & crackers for children will be served between regular meals.

From page 25.

Not the worst of menus that could be served, but I don’t think I would necessarily want to eat it for long.

This is a very cool cookbook that I am looking forward to preparing recipes from!  So stay tuned for that experience!


Buy the Book: Amazon (used) | Barnes & Noble
 

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Any post remotely related to cooking can participate.

 
 


Copyright © 2016 by The Maiden’s Court

Weekend Cooking: Eating My Way Through the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

The second Weekend Cooking post for me in a row that actually involved no cooking on my part, just enjoying food and ambiance.  My connection this week is not historical in the slightest, but it is literary based!  I mentioned last time that back in May my husband and I had the chance to travel to Orland, Florida for a few days.  While there, we not only visited Medieval Times (link goes to my last Weekend Cooking post), but the whole point of our trip was to go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios!  OMG, guys if you ever have the chance to go there you HAVE TO!! This place was AMAZING!  Everything looked just like I imagined or even better if that is possible. 

The best moments:

• Walking through the crack in the wall and entering into Diagon Alley - OMG the dragon shooting fire from the top of Gringott's Bank, all the shops and sounds!

Entering Diagon Alley
My Photo

• Going through Hogwarts Castle - this is really the queue for the Forbidden Journey ride but it is SO well done!  I loved walking through the hallway and the paintings were talking to each other, going through Dumbledore's office, and the bubbles that magically appeared from the ceiling in one of the classrooms.

Hogwarts as seen from Hogsmeade
My Photo

• Visiting Gringott's Bank - complete with animatronic goblins and all!

The Dragon over Gringott's Bank
My Photo

• Watching people pass through Platform 9 3/4 - the way they pull that off was pretty cool!

The Hogwarts Express Arrives
My Photo

We knew before we even arrived that since we would be there for 2 days, one day lunch would be at the Three Broomsticks and the other would be at The Leaky Cauldron.  We also planned on grabbing some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and Chocolate Frogs.  These are what I am sharing with you today.

A word on both the restaurants: They are set up as traditional taverns and I have to say that they were well managed.  We didn't have to wait in line all that long to order or receive our food and they had people who seated you, delivered food, and bussed tables quickly.  Both served relatively similar, but not exactly the same fare.

First up, The Leaky Cauldron!  This is located on the Universal Studios - Diagon Alley side.

It was a little bit darker here unless you were sitting out in the open part of the main room.  We were seated under an overhang so it was rather dark, but I liked the ambiance.  I forgot to take a photo until the food was almost gone, but I ordered a Cottage Pie and my husband ordered the Beef, Lamb, and Guinness Stew.  Both were very good and much better than I expected given it was amusement park food. And then there was the butterbeer!  My husband got it frozen and I got it normal: I'm not sure what I was expecting it to taste like, but it was SO good!  It had a bit of a fizzy base - like a ginger ale - and then was topped with a concoction similar to marshmallow fluff that tasted like butterscotch.  So, so good!

On the second day, we ate at the Three Broomsticks - on the Islands of Adventure - Hogsmeade side of the park.

Here is was much more open and airy as all the tables were seated under a two story cathedral ceiling.  Here I made sure to take a photo before eating - I ordered a half chicken with corn and potatoes and my husband got the same thing but with an addition of ribs.  Again, very good food.  And the butterbeer!!!  I think I enjoyed eating at The Leaky Cauldron a little bit more, but that could have possibly been just because I was awe inspired on day one.  

As for the candy -

The Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans were made by Jelly Belly and were of good quality as I expect from them.  I can for sure tell you that some of them were absolutely disgusting - some didn't get past my tongue.  I found that most of the gross ones didn't taste like what they were supposed to, but just tasted gross.  However, dirt tasted exactly like dirt!  The Chocolate Frogs were of excellent quality.  I expected that they would be hollow like some of the chocolate bunnies you get at Easter, but these frogs are solid milk chocolate.  AND you get a wizard card in your Frog, just like in the books...of course we got Salazar Slytherin...

Overally, this trip was excellent and if you ever have the chance, I encourage you to go.  To ride the Hogwarts Express and visit both sides of the Harry Potter park, you have to have a Park to Park pass, which was more that I wanted to pay, but it was worth it!

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and any post remotely food related can partake!



 
Copyright © 2016 by The Maiden’s Court

Weekend Cooking: My Trip to Medieval Times

Last month, my husband had a conference for work in Orlando, Florida and I took the opportunity to join him for a short 4 day vacation following its end. We did a lot of eating while there and two of the places I will be sharing in Weekend Cooking posts (although I did none of the cooking in either case). In the case of today, it fits into the historical nature of my food posts.

Medieval Times entrance
Photo Credit: My Husband

My husband was excited to visit Medieval Times for dinner one night because he remembered attending when he was a child with his parents. I mean, his memory of this was excellent as he even remembered which knight was the champion of his section and which knight won the battle when he attended. I remembered going to something similar in Florida when I was young, Arabian Nights, which has since closed and the only thing I remembered was not liking to eat with my hands (my husband reminded me that I would be doing the same again, but as an adult that didn’t bother me!).

Selfie!

For those of you who haven’t visited an entertainment like this let me give a short summary. We were welcomed to the king’s castle and after some time milling around the great hall you are seated in a stadium style hall around a center dirt ring. While eating we watched our knights joust, fight in hand-to-hand combat, and watch some horses do some beautiful movements. We were seated in the Santiago section (each of the knights represented a different section of Spain) and we were represented by the Black and White Knight. He was wonderfully entertaining, but was the first causality of the battle, which was sad. I thought all of the exertions by the knights were very well done.

The Knights!
Photo Credit: My Husband

The food was fairly good and was actually better than I expected given the size of the crowd they were feeding all at the same time. The meal started off with a bowl of tomato bisque (which you had to pour into your mouth straight from the bowl). The main serving was roasted chicken, with a half of a baked potato, and corn on the cob. The dessert course was an apple turnover. The chicken was probably the best part, juicy and plump. The potato was a little overcooked in parts and the corn a little over steamed but edible. The soup and turnover were likely pre-packaged, but still good. I’m thinking that the only item of our dinner that was probably historically accurate was the chicken and maybe the turnover (or something fairly similar). Potatoes and tomatoes would come from the New World much later than the medieval time being represented here.

Our Meal
Photo Credit: Me

Regardless, the experience at Medieval Times was fun and we would do it again. It is fun for families and couples. You are paying mostly for the show than for the food and it is worth time money.

 
 
Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Any post remotely related to cooking can participate.




Copyright © 2016 by The Maiden’s Court

Weekend Cooking: Dinner in A Country Village, Butter Biscuits, and Giveaway!

Last weekend, the coldest weekend we have had yet this winter with wind-chill temperatures in the negative double digits, my husband and I attended an event that we were really excited for at Old Sturbridge Village. If you don’t know about Old Sturbridge Village it is an excellent mostly outdoor living history museum that recreates a New England village from the 1830s. It is located in Sturbridge, Massachusetts and it is a favorite location of mine – I even got married there almost 2 years ago! You can check out more about OSV here.

We have attended pretty much every event that OSV has put on over the last 5 years. The event that we attended last weekend was one of their after-hours events called Dinner in a Country Village. What is so special about this event is that you actually get to cook an entire dinner and eat it family style in the ways of the 1800s in one of their exhibit homes! That is something we have observed before, but never able to actually take part in. I wanted to share our experience with you today and encourage you, if you ever have the opportunity, to not only visit Old Sturbridge Village, but their evening events as well.

So my husband and I arrive around 5 PM, it’s already FREEZING COLD! We met up with one of the costumed interpreters and the other 9 participants. They usually have groups of adults (age 18+) of up to 14 people – but a few had cancelled because of the cold temperatures. We made our way over to Parsonage building where we would be cooking that evening. Everyone broke up into 4 groups – appetizers, baking, vegetables, and meat; my husband and I took on vegetables. Everyone had their tasks and a dish that they were responsible for making. Everything prepared in the old ways and cooked over the open fireplace, hot coals, and in the brick bake ovens. At the vegetable station we made roasted carrots, gourd soup, stewed red cabbage, and fricassee of parsnips. When all the food was done, we set the table, learned traditional table manners, and sat down to enjoy the results of our labors family style. The food was delightfully simple and delicious and everyone glowed with their successes. The complete evening included the following all made by our own hands: potted cheese on common crackers, mulled cider, gourd soup, stewed red cabbage, fricassee of parsnips, roasted carrots, scots collops, roasted stuffed chicken, cranberry sauce, butter biscuits, apple pie with cheddar cheese, floating island, and hot chocolate. After dinner we moved into the parlor for hot chocolate and a dessert which we sat and ate by the fire before heading back out around 10 PM.

Here are a few things I learned from this experience:

• I really appreciate my immersion blender. While making the gourd soup we had to essentially puree the squash and onions by pressing the simmered vegetable through a colander with a mallet. Oh my word did my arms hurt the next day! It took us a good 20 minutes of trading turns to push all the vegetable through the colander.
• Being one who is used to following recipes very specifically I had a hard time working from authentic recipes (or receipts as they were called) because they are so vague with their measurements.
• Cooking over an open fire is hard and hot work. We frequently had to pull out to metal bar suspended over the fire to add or remove the metal cooking pots or to adjust how close to the fire they were. We pulled hot coals out onto the front of the fireplace to place a clay cooking vessel directly onto them and cook via that heat. We baked in the bake oven where you determine the appropriateness of the temperature by sticking your arm into it and counting to a predetermined number.
• Despite the temperatures outside and lack of modern heating, the kitchen was HOT from the fireplace and oven.
• Doing anything from fire/candle light is difficult! You have to make sure to not catch you hair on fire and look really closely to see. And we had more candles going than the average household would have on a normal night.
• Apple pie would have been eaten as part of the meal, which I struggled with. I kept finding myself leaving it for later until I remembered. Adding the cheddar cheese to each bite was AMAZING!
• The biscuits were the best any of us had ever had and were very easy to make.

We appreciated how difficult it was to cook in these times but also how the food was still very good, not just boring as we had anticipated. It was a great time had by the couples that attended. Here are a few of the photos from the event – we didn’t manage to get photos of all of the food.

L. My husband cooking over the fire.  C. Me chopping veggies.  R. The bake table

Hearth side cooking

L. The dinner table being set.   R. My husband, myself, and mulled cider

OSV also has cooking events that can involve families, called Families Cook, or if you would rather have someone else cook it all for you and you just sit back and enjoy, they have an event called Hearthside Bounty.  You can find out more about their hearth cooking events here.

I would like to share one of the recipes we made with you today, that of the butter biscuits, the favorite of everyone present.

Butter Biscuits
Makes about 8-12 depending on size

Recipe from American Cookery, 1796:

One pint of milk and emptins, laid into flour, in sponge; next morning add one pound butter melted, not hot, and knead into as much flour as will, with another pint of warm milk, to be of sufficient consistence to make soft. Some melt butter in the milk.

Modern Translation from Food Through the Pages:

Ingredients:

1 pint milk (2 cups)
1 pint emptins (you can just use a yeast mix)
Flour
1 lb. butter
1 pint of milk (2 cups)
Additional flour

Directions:

1. Mix the half cup milk with the half cup emptins, along with a ½ cup flour to make a sponge. Cover loosely with a dish towel and let sit out overnight. In the morning, your sponge will be larger, bubbly, and, well… spongy.

2. Melt 1 stick of butter into another half cup of milk, and let cool until it’s just warm; if too hot, it will kill the yeast in the sponge. Add to the sponge, and gradually mix in 2 cups flour. At this point, you should have a thick batter. Gently knead in additional flour until the whole mixture comes together into one cohesive mass that is soft but not sticky.

3. Tear off 8-12 pieces of equal size, and gently form into small rounds. You may either place these directly onto a baking sheet, or into the cups of a muffin pan.

4. Bake at 350° F for 25-30 minutes, until the tops are just slightly golden, and the biscuits feel firm to the touch.

Two trays of biscuits and the roasted chickens

These biscuits were absolutely amazing! They are fluffy and more like dinner rolls than biscuits. You could use them as dinner rolls with butter, at breakfast with jam, or even with a fruit compote for a pseudo shortcake. SO good!!

I received 2 complete sets of the receipt cards for the meal we made at the Dinner in a Country Village event – and we really only need one. So I’m going to offer the second set for a giveaway! Make your entries through the Rafflecopter below. Giveaway is open to the USA and Canada only and ends February 27^th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and anything even remotely cooking related can participate in this event.




Copyright © 2016 by The Maiden’s Court

Weekend Cooking: Elizabeth Hunter's Spiced Apple and Cranberry Cake

Earlier this week I posted by review of An Angel Called Gallagher by M.K. McClintock. Not only did I enjoy the newest entry into the Montana Gallaghers series – but I was excited to see when I reached the last few pages that the author again included a recipe from the novel! Elizabeth Hunter is the grandmother to main characters Ramsey and Brenna and she is always in the kitchen cooking up something that sounds delightful – so much so that I can almost smell it! Well, now I truly can with the recipe for Elizabeth Hunter’s Spiced Apple and Cranberry Cake.

 Elizabeth Hunter’s Spiced Apple and Cranberry Cake
Serves approximately 12 people

Ingredients:

For the Cake-

3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. allspice
¼ tsp. nutmeg
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
2 large egg whites
2 cups apples, chopped
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup pecans, chopped

For the Glaze/Icing-

¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
2 cups powdered sugar
2-5 Tbsp. non-fat milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

For the Cake-

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray Bundt pan with cooking spray w/ flour or lightly grease and flour the pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice, & nutmeg.

3. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, butter, and eggs. Combine with the dry ingredients until it just comes together.

4. Fold in the apples, cranberries, and pecans. Pour into pan. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes. Be sure to test at 45 minutes – a knife inserted should come out mostly clean but not entirely.

For the Glaze/Icing-

1. Combine the melted butter, powdered sugar, and milk. Blend in the vanilla extract. The 2 Tbsp. will result in a consistency of a frosting. If you want more of a light glaze, add additional milk until it reaches the desired consistency.

Fresh from the oven, frosted, and ready to eat!

Tasty!

First, let me say that this cake smells AMAZING!!! My husband couldn’t stop commenting about it even when it was wrapped up and stored – it has a very strong smell. That being said, the taste isn’t as strong as it smells - the cake is just a good spice cake. The vanilla frosting is VERY sweet when consumed on its own (and let’s be honest, I did consume my fair share while frosting the cake before my husband forcibly took the spoon from my hand). When combined with the vanilla frosting (I made mine with just 2 Tbsp. of milk, so it was more like a spreadable frosting), the sweetness of the frosting toned down and blended beautifully with the spice cake. It would be either a good sweet breakfast pastry or an after dinner dessert – I would go with a glaze for a breakfast or a frosting for a dessert.

I didn’t have any allspice available, so I used just an extra ¼ tsp. cinnamon and ¼ tsp. cloves – came out equally as good. I also want to offer a tip I learned while making this dish – have all your ingredients prepped in advance – including chopping your apples and pecans so that you can add the wet to the dry and followed quickly by the stir-ins.

 
All attributions for this recipe are owed to M.K. McClintock and An Angel Called Gallagher.

 
Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Any post remotely related to cooking can participate.

 


Copyright © 2016 by The Maiden’s Court

Weekend Cooking: Collops of Rabbit with Champagne Wine

Hi friends!  I promised a Weekend Cooking post this weekend and I am cutting it quite close!!  But I have a very good dish for you here today!  I was looking for some historical inspiration and took to Pinterest (where I usually end up for recipes).  Pinterest led me to the Colonial Williamsburg Historic Foodways page where I found a whole bunch of interesting sounding recipes - I will definitely be visiting there again!  The one that stood out the most however was Collops of Rabbit with Champagne Wine: 1. because I had no idea what the word collops meant, 2. I am a fan of rabbit, and 3. because there is champagne in this recipe! 

So, first, the definition of collops: a small slice of meat (Dictionary.com).  Second, I substituted chicken in place of rabbit.  I do have a butcher nearby where I could have bought rabbit, but I had chicken in the freezer and the recipe (even the historical part) says it can be made with chicken instead, so I didn't feel like I was violating the historical aspect and it was for convenience sake.  Third, we definitely had champagne!

Rabbit isn't a protein that is commonly consumed in today's culture, however, it was extremely common in the 18th century where this recipe come from.  I happen to love rabbit and it does taste very similar to chicken, so I can see why the flavor palate would work the same here.  Below I am including the original 18th century recipe from "The Complete System of Cookery" by William Verral - if you would like to see the modern translation, please visit the Historic Foodways page.

Collops of Rabbit with Champagne Wine
Serves 4

Historical Recipe:

Take the flesh of a couple of rabbits, cut it in slices, and with a knife pat it down so as to make it very thin, rub some butter all over a large stew pan, mixed with some green onion and some parsley minced very fine, stick the meat round, and fry it a minute or two over a brisk stove, giving it toss or two, let it lie in that til you have prepared your sauce, which must be thus done, put into a small stew pan a ladle of cullis, a glass of Champagne, pepper, salt and nutmeg, a small quantity of such herbs as you like, and a morsel of shallot, boil it five or six minutes, and put your rabbit in, make it only boiling hot, squeeze in the juice of a lemon or orange, and serve it up. The flesh of chickens make a neat dish in the same way.

 

We paired our chicken with a basic buttered rice and glazed carrots - side dishes that would have been possible at the time this recipe was written.  The sauce that you see in the separate bowl is the Champagne sauce created in the recipe above, we just put it on the side so it didn't run all over the plate. 

I must say, this dish was extremely tasty and I would for sure make it again (hopefully with rabbit next time).  It was sweet, thanks to the Champagne and orange juice, but mellowed nicely by the chicken stock and herbs.  I do have one significant recommendation, don't add the green onions at the beginning of the recipe as it states - I highly suggest waiting until after you have added the Champagne and stock to your pan.  We had a little incident of the temperate being set too high and then my husband and I both thought the other was watching the dish (neither of us were) and they essentially burned in the pan.  I had to empty the pan and start the sauce over.  Adding them later in the recipe still allows them to impart their flavor, but without losing their texture too much. 

 

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Any post remotely related to cooking can participate.

 

Copyright © 2015 by The Maiden’s Court

Weekend Cooking: Wycliffe Hotel Coffee Cake

I love when you can make recipes that are featured in novels! Last Saturday I sat down and devoured the three short story collection, A Home for Christmas by M.K. McClintock. Set in the American West in the days leading up to Christmas, this collection is full of heartwarming moments, and food. In the story Teton Christmas, the hotelier makes a well-loved coffee cake. When I got to the end of the book and found the recipe for this cake, I had to make it for Weekend Cooking and coordinate it with my review of the collection (which posts Monday 11/24).

Wycliffe Hotel Coffee Cake
Serves approx. 15-20 people (depending on slice size)

Ingredients:
2 ⅓ cups flour
¾ cups unsalted butter, softened
1 cup coconut flakes
½ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 cups non-fat milk
2 ½ cups fresh blackberries, raspberries, or huckleberries

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 375°. Spray a 13” baking pan and flour it.

2) Combine ⅓ cup flour, ¼ cup butter, coconut, brown sugar, and cinnamon – set aside. This is your coffee cake topping.

3) Sift flour with baking powder and salt into a small bowl – set aside.

4) Beat ½ cup butter until fluffy. Gradually add 1 cup sugar until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each.

5) Mix dry mixture into the wet, alternating with adding milk in three steps.

6) Fold in the berries.

7) Pour into pan, sprinkle with topping mixture. Bake for 45 minutes.

I had no idea what exactly this cake was supposed to look like. I envisioned something tall and crumbly – sort of like an Entenmann’s, but with berries (I used raspberries and blackberries in mine). My pan might have been larger than 13” (the above photo is only half of the cake) – so maybe that is why mine came out more like bars rather than cake. Flavor is still really good and the cake is moist and tender. I’m not a huge coconut fan, but it tasted good in this cake.  I think I don't typically like how dry coconut flakes can be, but with the brown sugar it baked in nicely.  The topping sort of melted down into the top of the cake, maybe next time I would add it after it has started to cook some? Any suggestions? I took it to work last week and they devoured it – so it must be good, regardless of how it was supposed to come out.

Side note: I don’t know if you have ever used Pam for Baking – but I love it and use it all the time in place of the grease and flour method.  Just quicker and it smells SO amazing.

All attributions for this recipe are owed to M.K. McClintock and A Home for Christmas.

 

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Any post remotely related to cooking can participate.

 

Copyright © 2014 by The Maiden’s Court

Weekend Cooking: Review of The Culinary Lives of John and Abigail Adams

 

 

      The Culinary Lives of John and Abigail Adams
       Rosana Y. Wan
       Schiffer Publishing, Ltd
       October 28, 2014
       152 pages
       56 recipes

      **Received for review from the publisher, via Netgalley**

 

 

This is the first cookbook that I received with the express purpose of reviewing it. Being that I love all things President and First Lady, and I already have a few cookbooks along this theme, this was a no brainer for me to accept.

Layout: Every recipe in this cookbook are recipes from cookbooks that existed during the lifetimes of John and Abigail Adams and the recipe selections are based on foods that they describe in their letters. There are excerpts from letters where they described different dishes that they had eaten or types of game that were caught. As the Adams’ were prolific letter writers there is a lot to work with. There is also a great introduction where colonial cooking styles are explained, with particular focus on New England. For the historically inclined there is also a timeline of John and Abigail Adams life. The selections in this book include everything from breakfast, to vegetables, to drinks and desserts. There are very few photos included in this cookbook – they are used more for section dividers rather than for showing the recipes.

Recipes: I would have to say that the recipes presented in this cookbook are fairly easy – I would feel safe saying that almost everyone could cook the recipes here. New England style foods are very sparse with ingredients and have simple preparation methods. Some of the recipes are as simple as: peel carrots, slice carrots, boil in salted water, drain and eat. I’m not even kidding – but this is how a lot of the foods would have been prepared at that time. The proteins probably have the highest levels of difficulty, but they are not too bad. I made the roasted chicken a couple weeks ago and it came out very good.

I would have to say that this is a well-researched historical cookbook. The recipes come from cookbooks that existed at the time and are based on things that the President and First Lady are known to have, at the very least, discussed. Short of a recipe book in their own handwriting, I think this is the next best thing.

A couple of recipes that I found interesting and might make: Roast Leg of Lamb with Mint Sauce, Cod Stew, Cherry Pie, and Abigail’s Punch.

Here are some choices for purchasing the book: Amazon, B&N, Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.

 

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Any post remotely related to cooking can participate.

 

Copyright © 2014 by The Maiden’s Court

Weekend Cooking: Roast Chicken

You know how I love to cook and you know how I love the Presidents and First Ladies? How about combining those passions with a cookbook about John and Abigail Adams?! Review of the cookbook, The Culinary Lives of John and Abigail Adams: A Cookbook, is upcoming, but today I wanted to take a look at one of the recipes that we tried from it. We started with something simple – Roasted Chicken.

Chickens were among many types of fowl prepared in New England during the colonial and early American period – many of which are still made today. Among these types of fowl are: quail, duck, chicken, turkey, pigeons, and partridge. New England preparations are known for being simple to prepare and quite frankly, a little bland.

Roast Chicken
Serves 4-5

Ingredients:
3 lb roasting chicken
2 tsp. fresh ground pepper, divided
3 tsp. table salt, divided
5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
1 Tbsp. all purpose flour, plus one pinch
Pinch of salt
2 tsp. parsley flakes, for garnish
Slices of lemon for garnish

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 425°. Sprinkle the chicken’s interior with 1 teaspoon pepper and 2 teaspoons of the salt. Truss the chicken. Grease the baking pan with a tablespoon butter.
2) Mix 3 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon flour in a small bowl. Rub the mixture on the chicken. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and pinch of flour on the bird. Place the bird in the roasting pan.
3) Cook the chicken for about 15 minutes, until the skins starts to turn a light brown. Remove the pan from the oven, flip the chicken over, spread with remaining tablespoon butter, another pinch of salt and pinch of flour. Return to the oven.
4) Every 10-15 minutes remove the chicken from the oven and sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pinch of flour. Cook until chicken reaches a temperature of 180° - about an hour and a half total cooking time. Remove skewers and serve with lemon and parsley garnish.

From the method the chicken is cooked it made me think that this was rather bland and I couldn’t figure out the sprinkled flour aspect. So, I changed it up just slightly. We stuck some fresh herbs inside the cavity with the salt and pepper – however these herbs still fit into the historical aspect because they would have been available in New England in the Adams’ time, we used rosemary and marjoram. We also only sprinkled with flour about 2 times instead of every 10 minutes. It did absorb some of the oils and made the skin a little crispy. Overall, not a bad tasting chicken.  Paired it with rice and some maple carrots.

 

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Any post remotely related to cooking can participate.

 

Copyright © 2014 by The Maiden’s Court

Weekend Cooking: Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Cider Sauce with Neeps & Tatties

 

I found this great blog that focuses on recipes for foods mentioned in the Outlander novels and TV series – it is called Outlander Kitchen.  I encourage you to check out her website for many other great recipes, I know I will. 

Title from Outlander Kitchen blog

 

The recipe I chose to start with this week is inspired by the TV show, 4^th episode where everyone is coming to swear allegiance to Colm as laird.  Pork tenderloin, roasted in an oven, is certainly something that could have been made in the 18^th century. And neeps, or rutabaga, would have been a regular part of any meal. Tatties, or potatoes, are certainly Scottish fare, however they may or may not have been available to the Mackenzie clan at that time as potatoes were newly come to Scotland. You can find more history of neeps and tatties on the Outlander Kitchen site.

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Cider Sauce and Neeps & Tatties
Serves 3-4

As I don’t want to steal the thunder from Outlander Kitchen, you can find the ingredient list and directions for these 3 recipes at their website.

However I will discuss my experience with these recipes. The pork tenderloin and the companion sauce were AMAZING!!! We chose to use regular apple cider, because that is what we had on hand, but I think that the slightly thicker nature of regular cider contributed to the texture of the sauce, more so than a hard cider would. The spice mixture that was rubbed into the pork was so fragrant and tasted great on the pork. We would make this pork recipe again and again.

The tatties (the more yellow lump in the photo above) – I just made my standard mashed potatoes because we love how they come out and my recipe is fairly similar to the one from Outlander Kitchen. I always add paprika to my mashed potatoes as well as salt and pepper and use a hefty amount of butter (we only eat them occasionally, so it is fine.

The neeps, (the more white lump in the photo above) I made according to the recipe – well, none of us liked them. I tried, I really did. But just couldn’t get past 2 bites. The taste of the rutabaga was SO strong and we associate the taste with dirt. I like regular yellow turnips, have them every year at Thanksgiving, but these rutabagas will likely not see a return to my table.

Well, 2 out of 3 isn’t bad, right?

 

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Any post remotely related to cooking can participate.

 

Copyright © 2014 by The Maiden’s Court