Fall and Winter Cooking

At the end of the garden season, you'll have several pounds of heirloom tomatoes in various conditions, not suitable for slicing. What to do with them? Fresh tomato soup! For 4-5 servings: take 5 pounds of tomatoes, wash and trim or cut out the bad spots and drop in boiling water 1-2minutes, plunge in ice water, slide off the skins and remove to a chopping board. Chop the tomatoes and set aside. In a soup pot, melt 1/2 stick of butter with a medium chopped onion and 1 clove of garlic, minced. When the onion and garlic are translucent, add the chopped tomatoes. Use an emulsion blender if you like the soup smooth or if you're like me and prefer it a bit chunky, use a hand-held potato masher. Add kosher salt and pepper, and 1-2 tablespoons of brown sugar. Add 1 teaspoon of baking soda and fizz! Let it simmer a few minutes. Now add 8-10 ounces of heavy cream, a few shakes of Tabasco sauce, and it's done! To thicken, you may add a bit of chicken stock. Otherwise, top with fresh basil and some croutons!

I use this in my Thanksgiving turkey stuffing, as well as alongside chili, ham and beans, etc. Its simple, and not too sweet. Cornbread shouldn't be too sweet. You can add molasses, honey or other sweet things on it. Here is how to make this: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. While the oven is preheating, put 2 tablespoons of bacon grease (or more, up to 1/3 cup) in the bottom of your cast iron skillet, insert in the oven and let it melt. Country folk understand the concept of keeping a small jar of bacon grease in their refrigerator. The rest of you city-folks can use lard or other shortening.  This recipe is for a  9-10 inch cast iron skillet. While the oven heats up and the bacon grease is melting, mix the batter: 1 cup of yellow corn meal, 1 cup of unbleached flour, 1/4 cup white sugar, 4 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir the dry ingredients, add 1 egg, 1 cup of milk, and finally, take the skillet from the oven: swirl the bacon grease around the skillet to cot the bottom and sides, then  pour  the hot bacon grease into the batter. It may sizzle when it hits the batter. Stir the entire mixture to create a thick batter, then pour it into the skillet. Bake 20-25 min at 425 degrees,

I used this recently for a family Christmas Dinner featuring Spiral Ham, and everyone enjoyed it. It is a throwback from the 1950-1968 era. Start with a lettuce (iceberg) base. Place a poached or canned Pear half on it. Fill the pear with either Mayonnaise, Cottage Cheese, or Whipped Ricotta. Honestly, when I was a kid, my mom used cottage chesses and one of my aunts used Mayo. I wasn't thrilled with either, but I'm sure plenty of folks like both. So, its whipped ricotta for me. Now add a maraschino cherry on top and sprinkle the whole thing with grated cheese. You can use Cheddar, blue cheese, or whatever you feel goes best with pears. In this photo I used a smoked gouda with bacon. 

Start by visiting the butcher and getting a few beef bones. Put them in a stock pot, quarter a small to medium onion, add water to cover and some salt, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer 2.5 to 3 hours.  Now add chopped potato, carrot, celery, and green beans. Simmer another hour. Add chopped cabbage, frozen or canned corn, canned tomatoes, and 1/3 to 1/5 cup of barley. Simmer another hour. You can add more salt, black pepper. After that, scoop out the beef bones and discard...but be sure to pull out any marrow remaining in the center of the bones. Eat the marrow...it's good for you! That's it...I don't use any other spices. Its basic, simple and delicious. Allow 5 hours!

Very important to set the roast out ahead to bring it to room temperature before roasting. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Season the roast with salt and pepper or your preferred steak seasoning. Place roast on a rack in a roasting pan, fat side up. Bake exactly 5 minutes per pound at 500 degrees. Calculate this precisely, including ounces. As an example: a four-pound roast takes 20 minutes, but a 4 pound, 3-ounce roast takes 21.5 minutes, etc.  Set a timer and roast for the exact calculated amount. When the timer goes off: TURN THE OVEN OFF but DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR. Keep the oven door closed. Keep the roast in the oven for the next one and one-half hours. Take the roast out after the 90 minutes having the door closed with the oven off: and let it rest on a carving board for 10 minutes. Now slice and serve. Roast should come out medium rare.