A Skillet, a Spatula, and a Dream Read online

  1/2 cup ripe black or Kalamata olives (I prefer the black)

  1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, washed well, spun dry, and chopped fine

  Method

  In a bowl whisk together the vinegar, garlic paste, and pepper to taste and whisk in oil until emulsified. Add the remaining ingredients and salt to taste and toss to combine well. Let salad stand at room temp fifteen minutes to allow bread to soak up some dressing

  TIP: The easiest way to chop the basil is to chiffonade the leaves: roll then as tightly as you can then slice with a sharp knife.

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  PARROT SALAD

  Of course it's not really parrot salad, but it is a salad I shared with a parrot in Houston a long time ago.

  Years ago I was the dinner speaker at a big writers conference in Houston. I flew in a day early so I could hang out with my friend Linda who was determined to show me everything Houston had to offer. (And it has a lot to offer, believe me.) She met me at the airport in a limousine (complete with gorgeous driver) champagne, and hors d'oeuvres. The greeting was so wonderful that I was almost able to forget the fact that my luggage was missing.

  Anyway, we had a blast that day. We rode from one side of the city to another and when we stopped mid-day at her house for a quick lunch, we discovered my garment bag waiting for me in front of her door. Unfortunately it had been left on top of the sprinklers and the sprinklers had gone off and -- well, it wasn't a pretty sight

  This delicious salad, however, almost made up for what happened to my poor clothes. Linda served the salad on chilled glass plates and the combination of dark greens, pale celery, tan almonds, and purple onions was a joy to behold. Seated opposite me on the back of a kitchen chair was her parrot, a big African grey named Corey, who spent the better part of our lunch break trying to figure out how to get the almonds away from me.

  That poor Polly didn't know who he was up against. I have three wily parrots at home just like him and I know all the moves.

  I did, however, give him one almond and an orange slice and he allowed me to retain all of my fingers. A fair exchange, don't you think?

  Ingredients

  1/4 cup salad oil (olive oil has too distinctive a taste for this; if you ask me this is too much oil)

  2 tablespoons sugar

  2 teaspoons malt vinegar (too little vine for me)

  1/4 teaspoon salt

  1/4 teaspoon almond extract

  6 cups torn mixed greens

  1 cup thinly sliced celery

  3 medium oranges peeled sliced crosswise halved

  2 tablespoons sliced scallions

  1/3 cups toasted slivered almonds

  Method

  Combine oil, sugar, vinegar, salt, almond extract. Mix, mix and mix again until it emulsifies. Mix longer than a sane person would even consider mixing. This makes all the diff in the world. Chill.

  (Personally I don't care for the traditional balance of oil to vinegar. It tastes like a Valdez special to me. We tend to reverse it in favor of vinegar over oil. You do what tastes right to you.)

  At serving time, arrange your mixed greens in a large bowl, then add oranges, celery, and onions. Sprinkle with almonds. Pour dressing over and toss.

  Serve immediately or the parrot will eat it all.

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  COLD SHRIMP WITH BASIL MAYONNAISE

  I have always been a cold shrimp and cocktail sauce kind of girl. The sauce must be red. It must contain copious amounts of horseradish, lemon juice, Worcestershire, and Tabasco. You can leave out the shrimp but don't mess with my cocktail sauce!

  Well, that all changed last summer when I was dipping a dainty piece of grilled Portobello into a luscious basil mayo and the thought occurred to me that maybe one of those plump firm perfectly chilled shrimp on Roy's plate might benefit from a touch of the pale green sauce. So I stole one. And I dipped it. And I nearly slid under the table from the absolute wonderfulness of it. Roy was about to complain about the theft of one of his shrimp when I pointed toward the sauce and sighed with pleasure.

  What a perfect combination. What sensual bliss. What a big change from cocktail sauce.

  And it's easy too.

  Ingredients

  Shrimp, as many as you want, whatever size you like - just make sure they are plump, firm, and perfectly chilled

  1 cup mayo (homemade would be great but Hellman's is just fine)

  1/4 cup basil leaves (1/2 cup wouldn't hurt)

  1 teaspoon lemon zest

  1 tablespoon lemon juice

  Method

  Place ingredients in blender or food process and whir until smooth.

  There are fancier ways to make this but this is a wonderful place to start.

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  My mother used to worry that she would leave nothing of value behind for me when she died. She was so delighted when Daddy presented her with a beautiful emerald ring not long after they moved here. "Your inheritance," she used to say with a laugh each time I admired the dazzling gem. She loved that ring, loved its beauty and especially that Daddy chose it for her, but I think she especially loved the fact that one day it would belong to me.

  The ring is mine now. I love it but she was very wrong when she said that was the only thing of value she had to leave me. She left love behind, and wonderful memories, and -- to my eternal delight -- her recipes.

  Daddy and I used to tease her mercilessly about her love of soup-making. He was the Ultimate Carnivore and not terribly fond of slurpable dinner while I thought a can of Campbell's Cream of Celery soup was haute cuisine. We always moaned and groaned each time she made a pot of soup. "Laugh all you want," she'd say. "That means there's more for me."

  Well, I grew up and wouldn't you know I ended up loving soup every bit as much as she did. I love to make soup and I love to eat it too. I especially love it when the soup involved is one of hers.

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  SOUPS

  For a while there I honestly thought I could move mountains. When my father was first diagnosed with cancer in January 1996, I refused to believe we wouldn't beat the disease and I set my mind to fighting it with everything in my arsenal. My husband was crazy enough to believe right along with me and together we convinced my mother that the three of us could be strong enough and positive enough to show my father that he still had plenty of life left to live.

  I'm not quite sure how it happened but my mother and I came to the conclusion that Pasta e Fagiole (Pasta Fazool) could cure just about anything and we embarked on the Great Pasta Fazool Contest. Every night after we got home from the hospital after visiting Daddy, we would repair to our respective kitchens and whip up a bowl of pasta fazool. The next morning we would exchange Tupperwares of the stuff, rate it, discuss changes, then eat the contents and start all over again.

  It was a silly ritual but powerful in its own way. Soup is the epitome of home cooking. Few things are more comforting than the sight and smell of soup simmering on the back burner on a cold winter's day. The world could be falling apart around you but a good bowl of soup just might keep you from falling apart along with it.

  This is the version we ended up liking the best. (The secret to a great pasta fazool is at the end of the recipe.)

  SUPERWOMAN SYNDROME PASTA FAZOOL

  Ingredients

  1 teaspoon olive oil

  1 pound. ground beef (optional; my mother used it but I didn't)

  1 onion, chopped fine

  4 large carrots, sliced thin

  4 stalks of celery, chopped

  3 cups (24 ounces) canned diced tomatoes

  1 can dark red kidney beans (or light; I mean, what does it matter?)

  1 can white kidney beans (or cannellini beans)

  5 or 6 cups of beef stock (or College Inn broth or a good beef soup base and filtered water)

  Oregano, as much as your taste buds demand

  Black pepper, to taste

  Flat leaf Italian parsley,
chopped fine -- maybe 6 tablespoons

  Tabasco, to taste

  3 cups (more or less) leftover homemade spaghetti sauce

  8 oz. dry macaroni (ditalini is best)

  Method

  Brown beef in soup pot. Drain. Wipe the bottom of the pot with a paper towel to remove excess fat. Add onions, carrots, celery, and tomatoes. Simmer for maybe 10 minutes. Drain and rinse the kidney beans then add them to the soup pot. Add the cooked beef, oregano, pepper, Tabasco, spaghetti sauce. Simmer hard for maybe 45 minutes or so then add the dry pasta shells. (Medium is best.) Let simmer slowly the longer the better. You can eat this as soon as the pasta is cooked and it will taste just fine . . . or you can be very patient and let time work its magic and turn a good soup into something spectacular.

  PS: Want the secret to a truly great pasta fazool? Do what my friend Liz from the old neighborhood taught me to do: add the rind from a wedge of Parmigiano Reggiano or Locatelli Romano to the soup pot. Yes, the rind with maybe a quarter-inch or so of cheese still clinging to it. (Don't have a cheese rind? Add a few generous tablespoons of freshly grated Romano or Parmesan instead.) The cheese will slowly melt into the soup making every spoonful a passport to Italy.

  Mangia! Mangia!

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  Deadline Soup or Minestra di Spinaci (Spinach Soup)

  Ingredients

  1 1/2 pounds fresh spinach (or 2 10-ounce packages frozen spinach) washed and chopped (Believe me, the frozen works absolutely great)

  6 cups chicken broth

  3 cloves crushed garlic - or more or less or whatever you like. (We use much more.)

  1/2 cup long-grain rice

  1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (works with or without)

  1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

  Pepper

  Salt

  1/4 cup grated Locatelli Romano cheese

  Method

  Place broth, garlic, and spinach in large pot. Bring to boil, add rice, nutmeg, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and simmer until the rice is cooked.

  Serve hot with Romano cheese and pepper.

  This is so good you would think you'd spent hours slaving over a hot stove. Quick and delicious: exactly what you need when time is at a premium and there's a chapter begging to be written.

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  Mushroom Barley Soup

  What could be better than a brisk walk on a cold and sunny day in autumn? You guessed it: a wonderful pot of soup simmering away on the stove, waiting for you when you come home. Roy found this recipe many years ago and it quickly became one of our favorites. It takes almost no time at all to prepare, is reasonably healthful, and tastes fantastic. Soup just doesn't get any better than this!

  Ingredients:

  1 lb sliced white mushrooms

  2 cloves garlic, minced

  1 onion, chopped (or however you like your soup onions)

  3 carrots, sliced

  2 stalks celery with greens attached, sliced

  4 T butter

  1/2 to 1 full 6 oz can tomato paste

  10 cups beef stock (or broth)

  1 bay leaf

  Few pinches of parsley

  Health splash of Worcestershire sauce

  Splash of Tabasco

  Barley

  Method

  Melt four tablespoons of butter in a heavy soup pot. Add garlic, onion, and 1/2 lb of the sliced mushrooms. (Some people prefer to slice half of the mushrooms and chop the other half. Your preference.) Saute maybe three or four minutes until soft. Add celery, carrots, bay leaf, parsley. Add beef broth, Worcestershire and Tabasco to taste. Salt and pepper, to taste. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer. Simmer thirty minutes. Add three or four handfuls of barley. Cover. Simmer low until done.

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  Snowy Day Cream of Celery Soup

  When I was a kid, my idea of culinary heaven was a bowl of cream of celery soup. Campbell's cream of celery in the red and white can. Nothing short of meeting Superman in person could have made me any happier than sitting by the radiator in the kitchen, slurping up soup and watching the snow fall.

  I sit by a different window these days and have pretty much given up on meeting Superman, but I still love cream of celery soup.

  Ingredients:

  2 cups chopped celery

  2 cups chopped carrots

  4 tablespoons butter

  2 cups onions, diced

  3 tablespoons flour

  6 cups hot chicken broth (or vegetable, if you prefer)

  Salt and pepper

  1 cup heavy cream

  Method

  In a small saucepan add 1 cup celery, 1 cup carrots, 1 cup vegetable broth. Bring to a boil , reduce heat, then cook until tender. Maybe 4 minutes? Drain and set aside. In a larger saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onions and saute until clear. Whisk in flour, cook 2 minutes making sure flour does not brown. You just want to get rid of that "raw" floury taste. Add 5 cups broth and continue to whisk until mixture boils, making sure to reach the bottom of the pan. (If it doesn't boil, it won't thicken.) Add 1 cup raw celery and 1 cup raw carrots. Bring mixture to a boil again, reduce heat, and simmer about 30 minutes. When cooked, strain soup through a fine sieve into a clean pot reserving vegetables. In a blender puree vegetables with 1 1/2 cups of liquid. Stir puree into pot with liquid. Stir in cream, reserved vegetables. Heat and serve.

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  Cape May Clam Chowder

  Ingredients

  3 cans of chopped clams with juice (of course you can use fresh if you like)

  2 bottles of clam juice (I prefer Snow's) plus one cup or so of water

  3 slices bacon

  1 large onion, chopped

  1 green pepper, chopped

  2 carrots, chopped

  3 celery stalk, chopped

  2 potatoes, peeled and diced

  2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

  1/4 teaspoon thyme

  1/4 teaspoon basil

  1/4 teaspoon marjoram

  1 tablespoon sugar

  4 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped or 2 cans diced tomatoes

  Salt and pepper, to taste

  Method

  Fry bacon in saucepan. Add onion, green pepper, carrots and celery. Cook until tender. Add bottled clam juice w/ water, potatoes, thyme, parsley, salt and pepper, and sugar. Cook 15 min. Let cool. Add chopped clams and tomatoes and juice from tomatoes. Reheat for 7 min. Serve hot. I like mine tomato-y. You might want to adjust this accordingly.

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  Kansas City Steak Soup, NJ Style

  Kansas City is one of my favorite places. I went there for the first time in 1985. Roy had to go there on business and I tagged along. (One of the best things about being a writer: have keyboard, can travel.) Anyway, aside from the frequent tornado warnings that almost turned my hair grey and the breathtaking dark green of the rolling lawns, I discovered the wonders of steak soup. (I'm an occasional vegetarian.)

  Anyway, I've had the pleasure of returning to K.C. a number of times to attend MARA's wonderful conference and during one of those visits a good friend presented me with the recipe for Plaza III Steak Soup.

  I owe her big time.

  Here, with a few minor alterations to the original recipe, is my version:

  Ingredients

  4 tablespoons butter

  1 / 2 cup flour

  20 ounces beef broth (College Inn Broth is wonderful)

  1/4 cups carrot, diced