Jane Ammeson's Road Trips

The Road to San Sebastia de Oeste

2011-12-24T12:57:00.000-08:00

High in the Sierra Madre, we follow the twisting road from Puerto Vallarta and the seaside on our way to San Sebastian de Oeste.

We're just an hour from Puerto Vallarta but its seaside beauty and lovely neighborhoods filled with shops and restaurants gives quickly away the higher we go into the magnificent mountains with their shades of green, ochre and dusky blue. The road is wide and smooth but our guide tells us that just a few years ago it was a narrow path and there were stops along the way at farms where freshly caught meat and distilled tequila were accompanied by hand patted tortillas and cheese made that morning. He sighs, missing what were some of the best meals he ever had and which are now no more.

As we near San Sebastian, taking a turn on a dirt road where cows,unconfined by fencing, have to be shooed out of the way, to San Sebastian. Here we stop at La Quinta Café de Altura, an organic coffee farm owned by Rafael Sanchez, his wife Rosa and Lola, Rafael’s sister. Five generations of the family have grown coffee here .

The family, in a building dating back more than 120 years, tend 11 acres of coffee trees, some as old as the house, handpick 30 tons of beans each year, dry, roast and grind them, making blends such as a mixture of ground beans with cinnamon and sugar for the traditional, and now often hard to find, Mexican coffee. Tastings are available and so are Rosa’s homemade candies such as guava rolls and sweets made from sweet goat’s milk. In an interesting aside, we learn that the Sanchez’s parents married early (the Don was 15), a 68-year union that produced 21 children. Their grandfather did even better, having 28 children, though that took both a wife and several mistresses.

Walking along the cobblestone road, past a massive 300 year plus ash tree and cascading white frizzes of el manto de la virgin, we enter Comedor Lupita. Here terra cotta platters loaded with chicken mole, fresh handmade tortillas (in America they’d be called artisan tortillas), refried beans and something I’ve never tasted before – machaca, a dish of dried beef mixed with spices and eggs, are heaped in front of us. As we eat, we watch the family busy behind the tiled counter, making even more food.

Through the windows we see splashes of bright purple from the masses of bougainvillea that drape the stone exterior walls and here the sounds of caballeros, their horses’ hooves striking the centuries old street. We sip our sweet agua de Jamaica water and feel time passing seemingly in reverse.

Machaca

Marinade:
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
Juice of 4 limes
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

Machaca:

2 lbs. skirt steak, cut into strips
1 large sweet onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes with green chilies
1/2 cup beef broth
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce (Tabasco or a Mexican brand, such a Valencia)
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons oil

Whisk all the marinade ingredients together, and then add the skirt steak. Marinate at least 6 hours or overnight tablespoon Remove meat from marinade, drain, and pat dry. Bring to room temperature. Discard marinade.
In a large heavy pot, heat oil. Sear the meat well on both sides, in batches so as not to crowd them. Remove the meat as it is browned and set aside.

Drain fat. Add in the onion, peppers, and garlic, cook until tender, then add tomatoes, broth, pepper sauce and spices. Bring to a boil, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot. Return beef and simmer, covered, for two hours, stirring from time to time until tender. Cool and shred.

Lay meat on a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 250º for 20 minutes or until meat is dry.

Machaca con Huevos

2 chopped scallions (white part only)
1 hot green chili
2 tomatoes
1 cup dried machaca
2 eggs
Chopped cilantro

Sauté scallions and peppers in oil until tender, add tomatoes and beef until heated. Remove from pan, add eggs and cumin. Scramble, then stir machata mixture. Garnish with cilantro and serve with hot tortillas.

The Baking Sisters of Monastery Immaculate Conception

2011-12-22T22:00:00.000-08:00

A special holiday tradition is a trip to the Monastery Immaculate Conception, a wonderful Romanesque building sitting high on a hill overlooking Ferdinand in Dubois County, Indiana. For it is here that the sisters make wonderful cookies in their Simply Divine Bakery which they sell at the monastery’s For Heaven’s Sake Gift Shop and online ( the sisters are very modern these days). Their big selling Christmas cookie is the springerle and they make and sell about 2700 dozen during their peak months – October through February. That may not sound like a lot, but the cookies are handmade by a group of the sisters using presses brought by one of the Benedictine order from Germany over a century ago.

“It’s a very time consuming process,” Sister Jean Marie Ballard told me. “They take a long time to make and five of us often work on them at a time.”

Traditionally, springerles are made with anise oil but for those who don’t like the licorice flavor, the sisters created almerles using the same recipe but substituting almond oil for the anise.”

Leading the baking of the springerles is Sister Barbara Jean who grew up in the predominantly German area of Ferdinand and nearby Jasper who has been making them since she was young.

The baking sisters grow their own peppermint on the extensive monastery grounds and use that for their buttermint cookies. And they also bake a cookie they call the Hildegard after Saint Hildegard who lived in the 1100s and besides being saint sounds like a most remarkable woman.

A Benedictine abbess, she was a scholar who corresponded with popes and royalty and wrote books on natural science, medicine, theology, metaphysics and music. Besides that, as a composer and lyricist, Hildegard created the earliest recorded music by a woman. All this in a time when most women – and men – didn’t even know how to read. And when she wasn’t doing all that, Hildegard practiced natural medicine and in one of her writings, “Physica: Liber Simplicis Medicine,” she recommended the frequent consumption of a health cookie. It has long been a tradition in the monastery to make these cookies using Hildegard’s recipe which was recorded in 1157.

A Google search quickly led me to the recipe which calls for spelt flour, often available at health food stores, but whole wheat flour can be substituted. Besides that, all of the ingredients except for kelp, which is optional, are probably already in your pantry.

Saint Hildegard’s Cookie

Cream together:

1/2 cup softened butter

1/2 cup honey

1 egg

In separate bowl, mix together:

2 cups flour (spelt, whole wheat, or 1/2 cup garbanzo flour plus 1 1/2 cups wheat)

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 tsp dulse or kelp (optional, but this adds valuable trace minerals)

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 tablespoon ground fenugreek (optional)

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped almonds or walnuts (optional)

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour liquid ingredients in well and mix into dry ingredients.

Chill in refrigerator to cool, to make it easier to work with (optional). Form into walnut sized balls.

Place on greased and floured cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.

To order cookies, call 812 367-1411 or visit www.thedome.org

2011-07-04T20:40:00.001-07:00

My new blog

South of Puerto Vallarta Where the "Predator" Once Roamed

2011-07-04T09:27:00.000-07:00

On the second day in Puerto Vallarta, we drove south on Carretera a Mismaloya, a coastal road that follows the contours of the bay and then turned onto a rutted mountain track which wound its way through the jungle along the Mismaloya River. It was at the summit here, in an area known as El Eden, that Arnold Schwarzenegger filmed the movie “Predator.”

But even before Arnold arrived, this pretty spot was popular because of its large smooth boulders where the river spills over creating a natural water slide. The water collects into deep pools of cool water perfect for swimming.

For more than 30 years, people visiting El Eden could eat at the thatched topped restaurant that edges the river and many of the people working here, including the man playing accordion have been here almost since the restaurant first opened. Now there are also zip line tours above the jungle canopy and for those not afraid of heights, the sights include remains from the movie set including a large metal predator and a helicopter. Remote as this place is, Arnold was not the only movie star to visit. Eric Roberts was here recently filming “Sharktopus.”

But my interest is the food and El Eden’s specialty is fresh seafood prepared in the large open air kitchen filled with busy cooks including a woman making corn tortillas by patting balls of masa into flat rounds and then placing them on a hot comal or griddle.

The restaurant’s long time menu items now have names from the movie including their specialties – large shrimp stuffed with cheese and wrapped with bacon called Camarones Depredator or Predator Shrimp and La Mariscada del Depredator -- huge platters of grilled red snapper, lobster, shrimp, beef, crabs and skewered chicken. The fish seasoning is a traditional one typically found along the coast here and we tasted it again when eating the red snapper dish called Pescado Zarandeado at Mariscos Tinos Puerto Vallarta. This second floor restaurant in the city’s Centro or Central district near the water so impressed Mexican food authority and restaurateur Rick Bayless that he featured their recipe on his TV food show “One Plate at a Time.”

Tino’s Pescado Zarandeado as adapted by Rick Bayless

(Fish Zarandeado)

4 ancho chiles or 8 guajillo chiles, stemmed, seeded and torn into flat pieces

1 8-ounce can tomato sauce

2 garlic cloves, peeled

3 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons Worcestershire

Salt

1 3-pound fish (round fish like snapper, grouper or striped bass work really well)—ask to have it filleted

Oil for brushing or spraying the basket and fish

12 warm corn tortillas

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced, for serving

2 limes, cut into wedges, for serving

Chinese toasted chiles in oil (or your favorite salsa or hot sauce), for serving (optional)

In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast the chile pieces a few at a time, pressing them firmly against the hot surface with a metal spatula until they are aromatic, about 10 seconds per side. In a bowl, rehydrate the chiles for 20 minutes in hot tap water to cover; place a plate on top to keep them submerged.

Use a pair of tongs to transfer the rehydrated chiles to a food processor or blender. Add 1⁄2 cup of the soaking liquid, along with the tomato sauce, garlic, soy and Worcestershire. Blend to a smooth puree. Press through a medium-mesh sieve into a bowl. Taste and season highly with salt, usually about 2 teaspoons.

Cut 1⁄2-inch-deep diagonal slashes along the flesh side of the fish (to promote even cooking and aide in marinade penetration). Sprinkle with both sides with salt. Spread or brush about 3 tablespoons of the marinade over both sides of the fish. You’ll probably have marinade leftover for another round of fish which will keep for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator.

Grill and serve. Turn on a gas grill to medium or light a charcoal fire and let it burn to until the coals are covered with white ash. Lay a grill basket over the fire. When quite hot, brush or spray the basket generously with oil. Spray or lightly brush the fish with oil, then lay the oiled-side down on the basket; spray or brush the other side. Close the basket and cook lay over the fire. Cook, turning every 3 or 4 minutes until the fish is cooked through but still juicy. A 3-pound snapper typically takes 10 to 15 minutes.

Gently and carefully open the basket and remove the fish to a platter. Serve with warm tortillas, red onion, lime and toasted chiles for making very tasty soft tacos.

Puerto Vallarta Restaurant Week: Trio

2011-05-28T19:26:00.000-07:00

Who could turn down an invitation to Puerto Vallarta during Vallarta Restaurant Week, a 17-day event held every May 15-31 and the chance to try so many of their great restaurants. During restaurant week many of the city’s dining establishments – and they have a ton -- offer innovative three-course menus, with three options available for each courses at prices that are often discounted up to 50% (tips and beverages not included).

At Restaurant Trio, I met chef/owner Bernhard Güth who fixed a wonderful meal for all of us. Trio, which is located on Guerrero, the oldest street in Puerto Vallarta dating back to the 1840s when the city was a trading port where salt was shipped in and taken by mules up into the mountains. And though now Puerto Vallarta is a sophisticated city, Güth, who moved here from New York in 1994, told us that they didn’t get electricity until 1971 – the same year that the first road was paved.

Güth changes his menu five to six times a year and some of his special dishes the night we were there relied upon what was in season (though in this part of Mexico there’s always something wonderful ripening). We tasted chile and roasted red snapper over ratatouille with a lime-cilantro sauce, a Lebanese salda –baked beet slices with parsley and marinated goat cheese and young goat from Tuito – a Colonial town about an hour from Puerto Vallarta –cooked in the traditional Jalisco style called birria which is a thick stew. It was served with a ragout of sweet corn and huitlecoche (corn fungus) and a cabbage salad.

We also tasted (okay it was more than taste) several Mexican wines and I learned that the oldest winery in the Western hemisphere is Casa Madera, established in 1597 in Parras de la Fuente, one of the Pueblos Magicos – pretty and enchanting towns in Mexico featuring symbolism, legends, history, important events and charming day-to-day life.

Bernhard Güth’s Fish & Shrimp

4 red snapper fillets, 7 oz each, seasoned with salt, pepper and fresh thyme

16 - 20 peeled shrimp

4 oz butter

1 clove garlic, chopped

Sauté the fresh fish fillets and shrimp in frying pan with the butter and garlic. Finish off in oven 5 - 6 minutes, until cooked through. Strain and reserve the butter for the lime-ginger sauce.

Lime-Ginger Sauce

16 oz fish stock

8 oz cream

1 tsp grated ginger

2 tsp lime juice

Habanero sauce

Reserved butter from fish & shrimp

Combine the fish stock with cream and reduce by half. Add the ginger and lime juice. Season with salt, pepper and habanero sauce. Add the butter.

Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Mash

24 oz pumpkin, peeled and cut in chunks

24 oz sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in wedges

1 sprig rosemary

1 - 2 tbsp maple syrup

Toss the pumpkin and sweet potatoes with the other ingredients and bake about 30 minutes, until tender. Stir and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Blood, Bones and Butter

2011-04-25T18:09:00.000-07:00

I just finished listening to Gabrielle Hamilton's book on CD in time to ask her some rather okay questions (I hate when I interview someone and haven't read their book, seen their movie or whatever and end up asking a question that even a five year old would know the answer to) and she took the time to really give me some great answers, ones I hadn't seen written in 25 other places.

She is totally compelling, seemingly frank and honest and not really into the glamour of being a top chef who owns one of New York's best restaurants but instead focused on cooking, her family and friends. Listening to her made me want to get in my kitchen and cook fried sweetbreads with capers which are on her menu at Prune though I refuse to kill my own chickens, pigs and lambs which Hamilton has no problem doing. Alas, I had a deadline so instead of cooking I had to write. Here's one of the articles I wrote about the book which ran in the Northwest Indiana Times -- or read it on their Website: http://www.nwitimes.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/article_68589136-19c5-5bf8-8b07-e927607121b5.html

Chef Gabrielle Hamilton: Finding the end of a journey in food

Gabrielle Hamilton knows what she's hungry for and what she isn't, and this fierce chef, owner of Prune, a very popular New York City restaurant, won't let anything stop her. Her honesty for life translates well in her newly released memoir, "Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef" (Random House $26).

"Being extremely honest is my nature and also a family trait - we all were raised with such candor in the household," says Hamilton, who will be at the Publican in Chicago on Sunday for a reception and book signing.

"That said, I exerted terrific effort to take good care of everyone I had to include in the book and wrote about people and places and events as I experienced them and with as much gentleness as I possessed. I also did not exempt myself from such honesty. I frequently am unlikeable in this book, as in life."

The book is, in some ways, about her search to recreate a family like the one she had when young. It was a childhood ranging from her parents' wonderful parties, sometimes for over 100 people, of pit-cooked lamb and fresh root beer, to breakfasts of homemade Italian sausage and fresh bread made by her father.

This dream existence, at least for Hamilton, ended one morning when her mother, cooking over a six burner stove in the family's rural kitchen, swept the New York Times off the table and away from her father and he retaliated by throwing dishes and food to the floor before walking out.

"It probably took over a year, or almost two, to dismantle the family," writes Hamilton. "But I was eleven turning twelve, and I felt as if I fell asleep by the lamb pit one day and woke up the next morning to an empty house, a bare cupboard, the leftover debris of a wild and brilliant party, and only half an inch of Herbal Essence left in the bottle on the ledge in the shower."

Hamilton and her older brother were pretty much abandoned by both parents - often for weeks at a time. Or they'd be isolated in a remote area of Vermont with their mother and then back to a distracted father who set no limits and had no money.

Next came jobs in restaurants starting at age 13, as Hamilton tried to make money, and also often "borrowing" cars from a local repair shop when they left the keys in the ignition. It was on to more stealing, inventive illegal schemes, drugs, affairs and that continuing achy hunger for what no longer existed.

"I wrote a book in a way that I would like more people to write books," says Hamilton, noting that she isn't afraid of the real truth. "There is nothing you can tell me about yourself that is going to make me clutch my pearls."

Her honesty is legendary. Asked during an audition why she wanted to become "The Next Iron Chef," she pondered and then replied that she really didn't, removed her microphone and left the room.

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

At times she has even said that she isn't a real chef by society's standards, looking down on the celebrity chef phenomenon.

"I was commenting that I must not be a real chef if I am still in my kitchen cooking," says Hamilton, "while my peers all seemed to be out golfing at charity events or cooking in their Tuscan summer villas for an elite group of wine enthusiasts or buddying around at the Aspen Food and Wine Festival."

But despite all this, there is still more of Hamilton that we don't yet know.

"I realize the book feels intimate and deeply personal to the reader," she says. "But I withheld significantly and aimed to write with a larger or greater point of view than simply my own little personal story."

It will be interesting to learn what Hamilton held back, if she ever decides to write another book.

Rebecca Rather's Sweet Treats

2011-04-09T08:07:00.000-07:00

I spent early Thursday morning drinking coffee and sampling pastries and baked goods at Rebecca Rather’s Rather Sweet Bakery & Cafe in Fredericksburg, Texas. Rather, the author of “Pastry Queen Parties: Entertaining Friends and Family, Texas Style” and “The Pastry Queen Christmas: Big–Hearted Holiday Entertaining, Texas Style,” which was an 2008 IACP Cookbook Awards Winner, has a charming shop fronting a secluded courtyard.

Rather started cooking as a child but segued into it after a career as a model, running a catering business in Houston. With an avid interest in baking, she honed her bread baking skills training with Daniel Leader, owner of Bread Alone in Boiceville, New York, who was one of the leaders in introducing artisan hearth-baked, European style bread to this country. After working in a corporate job opening up bakeries, Rather decided she’d rather be on her own and so, after moving to this delightful historic town in the Hill Country of Central Texas, creates delicious goodies at her bakery.

Although everything I tried there was delicious, one of my favorites – and one of Rather Sweet’s best sellers – is her apple-smoke bacon scone. Here is Rather’s recipe and though I doubt that I can come close to making my as good as hers, I’m going to give it a try.

Apple-Smoked Bacon and Cheddar Scones

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1-1/2 cups grated Cheddar cheese

4 green onions, thinly sliced

10 slices bacon, cooked and chopped into 1-inch bits

3/4 to 1-1/2 cups buttermilk

1 large egg

2 tablespoons water

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Using a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and black pepper in a large bowl on low speed. With the mixer running, gradually add the cubes of butter until the mixture is crumbly and studded with flour-butter bits about the size of small peas. Add the grated cheese and mix just until blended. (This can also be done by hand. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper. Gradually cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture resembles small peas. Stir in the cheese.)

Add the green onions, bacon, and 3/4 cup of the buttermilk to the flour and cheese mixture. Mix by hand just until all the ingredients are incorporated. If the dough is too dry to hold together, use the remaining buttermilk, adding 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough is pliable and can be formed into a ball. Stir as lightly and as little as possible to ensure a light-textured scone. Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a lightly floured flat surface. Pat the dough into a ball. Using a well-floured rolling pin, flatten the dough into a circle about 8 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick. Cut the dough into 8 to 10 equal wedges, depending on the size scone you prefer.

Whisk the egg and water in a small mixing bowl to combine. Brush each wedge with the egg wash. Place the scones on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown and no longer sticky in the middle. Serve warm.

Yield: 8 to 10 scones

Sweet Indiana

2011-03-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

Early spring is sweet in Indiana when maple sap is turned into rich golden syrup. It’s a historic rite, one first used by Native Americans who taught the newly arriving settlers how to tap trees and create syrup and sugar that would help sustain them throughout the year. Maple syrup and sugar are considered to be Indiana’s first agricultural product and to celebrate this heritage, Burton’s Maplewood Farms in tiny Medora, Indiana, becomes the Mecca each spring for all things maple syrup during their annual National Maple Syrup Festival, held each year on the first two weekends of March.

And so I traveled to Medora to participate in this springtime event and to help judge the Sweet Victory Challenge sponsored by King Arthur Flour which asked for home bakers to send in their best recipes – using maple syrup and their flour -- for judging. About 30 finalists were chosen from more than 500 recipes sent from all over the country and their recipes were prepared by professional chefs in Medora’s school auditorium.

The contest, divided into Adult and Youth Divisions, each had three categories -- Savory Main Dish, Dessert and Breakfast. My job, along with five others, was to judge the Youth Breakfast. The judges were a diverse group that included chefs from places such as Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville, print and TV journalists, the screenwriter/director of “Hoosiers” and “Rudy” and even a local blacksmith --Medora, set amidst a rural landscape dotted with covered bridges and round barns, is the kind of place where there are still blacksmiths.

While tasting the entries, served by the chefs who prepared them, I couldn’t help noticing that in the crowd of people watching us (we were also being televised and believe me, it’s tough to eat knowing that a camera is focused on you), was a large family wearing Native American garb.

After our judging forms were finalized and the winners announced, I discovered that one of my favorite dishes, the Native American Maple Meatballs, had won first place and had been created by Elijah Batz, a 9-year-old and one of the children in a Native American outfit.

He told me that his family made maple syrup every spring, he loved meatballs and had visited a buffalo farm in Lincoln City, Indiana and so had taken those ideas and devised a recipe. The meatballs, Batz explained, were also based on Native American food traditions.

Elijah’s 12-year-old sister Martha had submitted a recipe for maple soufflé and though it made it into the finals and was one of my favorites, she didn’t win. Martha vowed to return next year to best her brother and win.

One of the chef's was ChickiePoo, whose parents started a restaurant with the same name in Madison, Indiana as a way for the family to be together while ChickiePoo fights acute lymphoblastic leukemia. For more info on the restaurant and Chickiepoo, visit http://chickiepoo.me/

After the judging, I boarded the shuttle bus to the Burton farm, where they have 1400 taps (tapping a tree is the way that the sap, which rises after a cold night and warm day cycle typical of early spring, is siphoned from the tree) and five miles of the tubing used for tapping. After collecting the sap, it is sent to the rustic looking “Sugar Shack” where it processed into syrup. Inside the shack is a state-of-the-art evaporator used to boil the syrup.

But this is the modern way.

Syrup used to be made by boiling the sap in big open kettles above a roaring open fire. During the National Maple Syrup Festival the old-fashioned ways are on display. And so by following a winding pathway through the woods, I moved through history, watching syrup making as it was done by the varied people who had lived in these Southern Indiana hills. Living history enactments, all researched and prepared according to contemporary documents, showcased encampments of French fur trappers, Delaware Indians and English surveyors – all preparing syrup the way it was made centuries ago. And in an interesting aside, one of the Delaware enactors had trapped several beavers earlier in the season. Field dressed, they were now simmering in a stew pot at another enactment campsite. I would have taken a taste but it wasn’t going to be ready for several more hours.

Also on the agenda was live music, horse drawn wagon rides, pioneer games for kids and lots to eat including, you guessed it, pancakes with freshly made maple syrup, maple barbecue pork chops and maple baked beans.

For more information about the National Maple Syrup Festival visit www.nationalmaplesyrupfestival.com/ For recipes, visit www.sweetvictorychallenge.com

Martha Batz’s Maple Soufflé

8 tablespoons unsalted butter

8 tablespoons King Arthur flour

2 cups milk

½ cups maple syrup

1teaspoon salt

6 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On low/medium stovetop burner, make a roux with butter and flour. Add milk slowly and mix with a whisk. Next, add maple syrup and salt, cook for a minute .

Remove from burner and stir in 6 well-beaten egg yolks. Meanwhile, beat 6 egg whites until stiff with a kitchen-aid or electric beater. Fold in egg whites into the maple/yolk mixture.

Pour mixture gently into 7”X9”X3” (or 8”X8”X3” or 9” round glass pan, which is a 3 qt. pan).

Bake 50 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve immediately with sausage or bacon for a delicious breakfast.

Elijah Batz’s Native American Maple Meatball

1/2 pounds buffalo (bison meat) or ground sirloin

1/2 pound sausage

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose King Arthur flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup onion, sautéed (optional)

1/4 cup maple syrup

Combine ingredients with fork or mix with hand in a large bowl. Divide into walnut shaped balls, making 20-24 and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Cook at 350

degrees for 15 minutes.

For white gravy:

2 tablespoons coconut oil or butter

2 tablespoons King Arthur flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 cup milk or half and half

1/3 cup maple syrup

In a saucepan combine fat and flour, salt and pepper. Then add milk or cream stirring constantly until thickened. Stir in maple syrup after mixture is thick. Pour over cooked meatballs and serve with biscuits, pancakes, or other bread OR alone on toothpicks with the gravy for a quick snack.

Pimento Cheese Please

2011-03-10T18:59:00.000-08:00

Late last summer, my friend Deb O’Connor and I were trying to decide what to order at the Phoenix Café in the Arts District of Benton Harbor, Michigan when we both noticed that one of the menu items was a grilled pimento cheese sandwich. It started us reminiscing about eating pimento cheese as youngsters, spreading it on crackers and celery sticks. And one of the best things about this bright orange cheese spread was that after it was gone, both of our families used the glass jars as juice glasses. It soon became a joke between the two of us as we pretended to vie to be the Queen of Pimento Cheese.

But pimento cheese in a jar had long ago disappeared from my list of foods that I commonly ate. The last time I’d run into it was down in Madison, Indiana, an old river port town just across the Ohio River from Kentucky. And though Madison had played a big part in the only battle of the Civil War fought in Indiana (the local telegraph operator realized that the Confederates had taken over the telegraph machine in Corydon because the key strokes sounded different), it tends to be a little Southern in its outlook.

“I’m from Raleigh, North Carolina and it’s a Southern thing,” Elizabeth Frost, owner of the Phoenix Café, told me when I mentioned that the only other place I’d seen pimento cheese served at restaurants for the last 20 years was in Southern Indiana. “I even know of someone who writing their dissertation on pimento cheese for a degree in Appalachian studies.”

And not long ago I was reminded of pimento cheese once again when Deb, who works for KitchenAid and so knows all things food, sent me a list of the top food trends and there it was again.

Phoenix Café Pimento Cheese

12 ounces each of a good white cheddar and yellow cheddar (sharp and/or extra sharp)

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 cup finely diced bottled roasted red peppers

3/4 cup mayonnaise preferably homemade

Splash of bread and butter pickle juice

Rum Delights

2011-03-08T18:12:00.000-08:00

"Nana Dee’s is all about the rum,” says Dee Batchelder, who cooks luscious desserts under the name of Nana Dee. “As a great grandmother of 11, I’m into the rum.”

Rum desserts that is.

Batchelder, who with her daughter, Denise Batchelder, aka Peanut, make lush and rich pecan rum cakes and rum fudge which they sell at the Sawyer Garden Center in Sawyer, Barney’s Supermarket in New Buffalo, Michigan through special order and, during summer months, at Skip’s European Market in New Buffalo.

It all started when Batchelder was making a yellow cake for her granddaughter’s christening 28 years ago.

“I wanted to do something different for the event,” says Batchelder. “I’d had some rum cakes and I’d heard about rum in cakes and desserts so I thought I’d try it.”

At the time she started baking her pecan rum cakes, Batchelder owned a record store in Michigan City called Flamingo’s Record Depot.

“Every year I had a charity event,” she recalls, “and for my contributors who gave $100 or more, I just started baking them a cake as a thank you. People began asking me to make them cakes and then their friends started asking me to make cakes.”

Before long Batchelder was also making fudge – with rum of course.

“After I started making the cakes and using rum,” she says, “it seemed natural that I’d start making other things and adding rum.”

And so Nana Dee’s also offers chocolate peanut butter pecan rum fudge, chocolate rum fudge, butterscotch pecan rum fudge and all sorts of other rum fudge flavors.

“Whatever someone wants,” she says, “I can make.”

Batchelder notes that the cake pairs well with a cup of coffee, French vanilla ice cream and whipped cream.

“You can also add fresh berries like raspberries or blackberry to the center,” she says “and then top them with freshly made whipped cream.”

Because the demand for her rum desserts grew, mother and daughter decided to start selling their rum goodies under the name of Nana Dee’s Rum Cakes – Nana being what Batchelder’s grandchildren and great grandchildren call her. And so the business grew. The two recently boxed up 25 cakes to send to a customer in Virginia for Valentine’s Day.

There are secrets to making these moist rum cakes and rich chocolaty fudge which Batchelder won’t reveal.

“The standing joke with Nana Dee is this,” says her daughter, “if she truly gives you the exact recipe, she’d have to ‘kill’ you afterwards.”

But Batchelder will say that part of the secret is using superior ingredients.

“I use a special top quality rum,” she says. “I won’t tell people what it is but I had a friend who tried to make the cake with 151 proof rum and the cake never rose. And she asked me what happened and I said you didn’t use the right rum.”

With business booming, the two women say they’re baking morning until night. They use the commercial kitchen at Skip’s Restaurant in New Buffalo which is just down the road from where they live.

“And now we’re trying to decide whether to expand to pies,” says Denise Batchelder. “If we did we’d start off with a sweet potato pie with vanilla rum.”

But in the meantime, mother and daughter appear to be having a great time.

“Morning, noon or night,” they both spontaneous say in unison, “Nana Dee’s Rum Cake is just right.”

To find out more or to order a cake or fudge, call Nana Dee’s Hotline 269-469-1473.

Recipes

Nana Dee’s Basic Fudge Recipe

16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

8 ounces milk chocolate

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Melt chocolate and milk over low heat, stirring so it doesn’t burn. Remove from heat and add vanilla. This would be the time to add about a ¼ of a cup of rum if you want. Nuts can be added at this stage too.

Nana Dee’s Fudge Rum Cake

1 package (four ounces) chocolate pudding and pie filling

1 package of devil’s food cake mix

½ cup semisweet chocolate pieces

¼ cup dark rum

½ cup chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts or whatever nut you like)

Heat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour 13x9x2 baking pan.

In large sauce pan, cook pudding and pie filling as directed. Blend dry cake mix through into the hot pudding, beating by hand or mixer 1 to 2 minutes. Add rum. Sprinkle batter with nut and chocolate pieces.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Test with a wooden tooth pick inserted in the center, if it comes out clean, cake is done. Serve warm or cooked with whipped cream.

Red Brick Coffee House

2011-03-01T19:15:00.000-08:00

Pizzelles, an Italian waffle cookie made using a special machine, are one of the defining treats of Italy while kolaches, sweet dough wrapped around a fruit or nut filling and then sprinkled with powdered sugar, are traditional Polish cookies with variations found throughout Eastern Europe. Trifles, layers of fruit, lady fingers and pudding, are commonly served in Great Britain for dessert.

But those visiting the Red Brick Coffee Shop in Lawrence, Michigan will find these sweet culinary treasures and more.

A one stoplight town, Lawrence doesn’t have a grocery store and just recently acquired a bank after their only bank closed down several years ago. Many of the fine old brick buildings on the four corners where Red Arrow Highway and Paw Paw Avenue intersect (let’s call it Lawrence’s downtown) are empty, their palladium style windows blank and their painted signs fading with time and wear. But when Claudine Damaske, a pharmacist who was raised in Lawrence wanted to add coffee shop owner to her resume, she decided to do so in her home town.

“I figured we needed some place to sit and have a conversation,” says Damaske. “And so I decided to give it a go.”

Damaske bought the bottom floor of an old co-op building that dates back to 1902, which sits on the northwest corner of Red Arrow and Paw Paw. Upstairs from her is a Mason’s Lodge with elaborately decorated ceilings and next door to her is an extravagantly painted shop that sells beads and clothing. For her coffee shop, Damaske polished up wood floors added tables, comfy chairs and couches, free Wi-Fi as well as counters and display cases which quickly became filled with the goodies made by Sue Blum, a veteran baker, who runs a business out of the Red Brick called Blum ‘n Good Cake & Pastries.

And so the coffee shop, besides offering lattes and cappuccinos, house made soups and sandwiches also features Blum’s goodies such as milk, dark and white chocolate turtles and cherries, cannoli -- a Sicilian pastry dessert stuffed with cream, cakes, tiramisu (another Italian delicacy, this one dipped in coffee, layered with cake, a whipped mixture of yolks and mascarpone), pies, brownies, tarts, cupcakes, granola bars and fudge.

“I’m game to try baking anything someone might want,” says Blum noting that she first started making pizzelles after a customer, who had recently moved to Lawrence from Chicago, requested them. “He even lent me his pizzelle machine until I learned how to do them and decided to get my own. Then I started making cannoli because you use the same machine as the pizzelles.”

Blum, who grew up in Grand Rapids and took her first baking class in 1983, has worked in several bakeries since then. She and her husband moved to Lawrence, his home town, to live in the house that he grew up in.

Here are several of her recipes:

Coconut Cream Pie Filling

¾ cup sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

3 cups milk

4 beaten egg yolks

1 tablespoon butter

1 ½ teaspoon vanilla

1 cup coconut

2/3 cup toasted coconut

In a Teflon type saucepan combine sugar and cornstarch. Add milk. Cook while stirring over medium heat until mixture is bubbling and thickens. Cook for 2 minutes while stirring. Remove from heat. Slowly add 1 cup hot mixture to eggs (it’s called tempering), then add this mixture back to saucepan. Bring mixture back to bubbling. Cook 2 minutes more. Remove from heat. Stir in butter, vanilla, and coconut. Cool pudding completely before pouring into a backed pie crust. Top with homemade whipped cream. Sprinkle with toasted coconut.

Whipped cream

2 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a chilled mixing bowl combine cream, sugar, and vanilla. Beat with chilled beaters ( low speed at first ,gradually raising speed till on high speed). Beat till peaks form. Do not over beat or you may have butter.

Raspberry “Zingers”

White or yellow cake mix

18 ounce jar raspberry preserves

4 cup vanilla frosting tinted pink

2 cup coconut

Bake cake in a 9 x 13 “ pan and partially freeze so cake is easy to handle. Split cake lengthwise. Remove top of cake and set aside. Fill cake with raspberry preserves. Replace top of cake. Cut cake into 32 squares. Refreeze. Each frozen square is iced frozen on all sides with small spatula ( not bottoms) while holding in the palm of your hand. This may seem awkward at first , but it gets easier with practice and these goodies are worth it! Pat coconut into sides and top of squares. Place finished squares on cupcake papers and serve. May be done ahead of time.

Sidebar: Ma’s Pie Crust

A quarter of a century ago, Sue Blum’s mother-in-law passed down a family recipe for pie crust, one made with milk and an egg yolk.

“Most pie crusts get dry when you roll them out,” says Blum who uses it for her cream pies and tarts. “But this one stays moist because of the ingredients. It’s perfect for making lattice topped pies as it cuts very easily and doesn’t fall apart.”

Faye Blum’s Pie Crust

3 cups flour

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons shortening

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg yolk

¾ cup milk

Cut in shortening to flour till small crumbs form. Mix egg and milk separately. Add salt. Fold into flour mixture. Hand knead until soft.

Cookies and Hospitality Benedictine Style

2011-02-24T17:59:00.000-08:00

In1157 Benedictine Abbess Hildegard, a scholar who corresponded with popes and royalty and authored tomes and treatises on natural science, medicine, theology, metaphysics and music, wrote “Physica: Liber Simplicis Medicine,” a book on healthy living and eating. In it, Hildegard included a recipe for what can best be described as a healthy cookie made with honey, ground almonds and spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.

Bridging the time – and geographic span across both a millennium and between Germany and Ferdinand, a small Germanic town in Southern Indiana, the Benedictine sisters at the Monastery Immaculate Conception use the 12^th century abbess’s recipe, making spice cookies. Called, of course, Hildegards, and baked in their Simply Divine Bakery and sold in their For Heaven’s Sake Gift Shop and online (sisters are very modern these days and the monastery even has a blog).

“Saint Hildegard did a lot of work with herbs,” says Sister Jean Marie Ballard who oversees the bakery at the monastery which during the holiday season is a very busy place. “And her book is all about her philosophy of herbal medicines and foods,”

The grand Monastery Immaculate Conception sits atop a hill in the wooded and softly rolling hills of Dubois County, looking like a European castle. The Sisters of Benedict founded their monastery back in the 1860s and though they have embraced technology and modernity, they also still harken back to traditions too. And in their bakery, this heritage is apparent in the cookies they make and sell.

As Hildegard grew her own herbs, in the summer, on the monastery’s 190-acres, they grow peppermint to use for their buttermint cookies some of which are coated with dark chocolate.

But delicious as these are, the monastery’s best selling cookie is the springerle and they make and sell about 2700 dozen during their peak months – October through February. That may not sound like a lot, but the cookies are handmade by a group of the sisters using hand presses brought by a sister from Germany over a century ago.

“It’s a very time consuming process,” says Ballard. “They take a long time to make and five of us often work on them at a time.”

Traditionally, springerles are made with anise oil but for those who don’t like the licorice flavor, the sisters created almerles using the same recipe but substituting almond oil for the anise, though the anise flavored ones remain their best seller.

Leading the baking of the springerles is Sister Barbara Jean who grew up in the predominantly German areas of Ferdinand and nearby Jasper.

“She’s been making them since she was young,” says Ballard, “and so she is the expert as they’re not easy to make.”

Cookies are only one reason. The monastery, with its Byzantine-Romanesque buildings including an 87-foot-high domed church, is one of the largest communities of Benedictine sisters in this country. In 1867, four nuns of the Benedictine St. Walburga Abbey in Eichstaett, Bavaria, arrived here to educate the area's many Catholic immigrants enticed here by the dense forests that reminded them of their native land.

Take a tour of the monastery complex nicknamed the Dome, built in 1920, with

Extending hospitality is a Benedictine tradition, one dating back 1500 years to the founding of the order. Imagine Saint Hildegard, all those centuries ago, serving her cookies to tired travelers looking for spiritual solace and the chance for something good to eat.

It has long been a tradition in the monastery to make these cookies using Hildegard’s recipe which was recorded in 1157.

Saint Hildegard’s Cookie

Cream together:

1/2 cup softened butter

1/2 cup honey

1 egg

In separate bowl, mix together:

2 cups flour (spelt, whole wheat, or 1/2 cup garbanzo flour plus 1 1/2 cups wheat)

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 tsp dulse or kelp (optional, but this adds valuable trace minerals)

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 tablespoon ground fenugreek (optional)

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped almonds or walnuts (optional)

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour liquid ingredients in well and mix into dry ingredients.

Chill in refrigerator to cool, to make it easier to work with (optional). Form into walnut sized balls.

Place on greased and floured cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.

To order cookies, call 812 367-1411 or visit www.thedome.org

Roads to Freedom

2011-02-07T19:57:00.000-08:00

My good friend Kendal Miller, who is one of the greatest photographers, hit the road for me to take some photos for a story I'm writing for the Northwest Indiana Times on the five Underground Railroad Trails in Ripley County, Indiana. Ripley County has quite a history including an old tavern, built in 1830, that had a trap door, secret room and tunnel that ran out towards Otter Creek where escaping African Americans could hide as they made their way up north to freedom. The building now houses Napoleon's Restaurant in Napoleon, Indiana which is on the Fried Chicken Trail (love Southern Indian fried chicken). Another interesting thing about Napoleon is that the woman who invented the fire escape lived there and she had her prototype installed on the outside of the flour mill in 1895 so that the locals could try it. Didn't hear about anything bad that happened, so I guess her experiment was successful. Anyway here are some photos Kendal took. If you want to see more of her stuff, visit her Website at http://www.photographybykendal.com

Hell's Expedition

2010-12-26T17:49:00.000-08:00

Our paddles dip into the water, propelling us forward past an alligator sleeping in the shallow waters along the side of the riverbank.

“That’s a big one,” says our guide, Tom Herzog, a retired teacher from Wisconsin who moved to Carrabelle, a small dot of a town on the Gulf of Mexico in northwest Florida, in order to indulge in his love of the outdoors and gives guided tours for the creatively named Expeditions in Hell. “But don’t worry you’re perfectly safe in the kayak.”

“But what if I fall out?” I ask. But Herzog just paddles on as we move downstream on the Crooked River in Tate’s Hell State Forest, 202,000 acres of cypress swamps, hardwood forests and wetlands named, so the story goes, after Cebe Tate who spent seven long days and nights lost here back in the 1800s finally emerging to say that he’d been in hell.

A kayak down the Crooked River is one of several stops I’m making on a journey in Northwest Florida following two lane roads that lead to destinations not typically found on a tourist’s itinerary.

I began the trip the day before at Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park, a bit of old Florida with a 1930s lodge that served yummy but calorie heavy Southern food such as fried oysters and soft shelled crabs with sides of macaroni and cheese and hush puppies, swimming platforms set in the crystal clear waters and old fashioned launch boats that meander up the river. The boy sitting next to me on our canopied launch announced that during his last trip he had counted 50 alligators and though I doubted him at first, by the time we had spent 15 minutes going upstream on the Wakulla River, I was beginning to think he might have underestimated the number.

Both the Crooked and the Wakulla Rivers are similar with their jungle like shorelines teaming with the twisted limbed live oaks dripping with Spanish moss, a plethora of birds including herons, white egrets and red winged black birds, brightly colored flowers and alligators in various stages of repose – eyes closed, eyes barely open and eyes bright and seemingly sizing up whatever passes by as possible meal time fodder.

Le Grand Bal du Nouvel An!

2010-12-12T17:29:00.000-08:00

For the last decade the place to be on New Year’s Eve in Montreal, Quebec is the Place Jacques-Cartier, an early 19^th century market place in the city’s Vieux Montreal (historic old Montreal) district of the city. Here during the Extravaganza Old Montreal which starts December 4^th and ends on December 31^st (the Quebecois sure know how to throw a party), the New Year is ushered in at Le Grand Bal du Nouvel An!, an outdoor ball featuring music and at midnight, a fireworks display that lights up the waters of the Fleuve Saint-Laurent (Saint Laurence River).

Think the Canadian version of Times Square, where up to 40,000 people are expected to gather, all dressed for the cold weather and some wearing outlandish hats, in the original city, parts of which date back to the 1600s and just a short walk from the bustling and very modern downtown. The rock band Bernadette will perform in the square which is near such architectural icons as Montreal City Hall, a classic example of the Second Empire style popular under the reign of Napoleon III. Warm up by stopping at one of the nearby cafes and restaurants including the delicious Mondavie, a restaurant, wine bar with live jazz housed in an 18^th century stone building with beautiful views of this historic area. The take a horse and carriage ride along the cobbled streets past ancient cathedrals and building bathed in the soft glow of pastel lights.

For more information, call toll free 877-266-5687 #870 or visit www.tourisme-montreal.org/What-To-Do/Events/grand-bal-du-nouvel-an

Getting in Touch with My Inner Goat Herder

2010-11-24T13:52:00.000-08:00

I hadn’t been in Vermont long before I decided that what I really wanted to do was get a few goats and start making goat’s milk cheese.

There’s just something about this area with its Green Mountain backdrop and historic buildings dating back to the 18^th century. It’s a great place for a serious foodie and seems like everyone is raising organic produce, cattle, pigs and chickens, hand dipping chocolates or making their own microbatch artisan cheese. And goats, Molly Pindell, owner of Sage Farm Goat Dairy, a 27-acre farm where her herd of adorable Alpine goats munch on sweet grasses and flowers, are friendly and loyal. Think dogs with horns.

So as Molly shows me her goats and then takes me into the creamery where she starts packaging pyramids of ash rind goat cheese, I think how great would this life be? Cute goats, great cheese. A chance to get back to the land.

Of course, I was raised in an industrial city in Northwest Indiana near the Chicago border and didn’t see my first real cow until I was about six years old. By then I’d seen gorillas and lions and tigers and bears, but cows? Well, they didn’t have any of those at the city zoo. And hadn't my Romanian grandparents emigrated here because they couldn't stand the harsh rigors of farm life in the Transylvania Alp area of Romania where they were from.

So on second thought, milking goats everyday early in the morning when it’s cold and snowing may lose its appeal pretty quickly and having to wear a hairnet much of the time -- well.....better just to buy goat’s cheese at great places like the one Pindell runs with her sister Katie.

http://www.sagefarmgoatdairy.com

Dia de los Muertos

2010-10-30T17:17:00.000-07:00

Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead is one of my favorite holidays and last year I celebrated it at Xcaret, the wonderful eco park just south of Playa del Carmen. There were vendors selling the most delicious gooey center macaroons, Yucatan style pork wrapped in banana leaves and cooked underground over hot coals, fresh salsas, guacamole and gorditos filled with spicy meats and sweet cheeses.

The celebration honors those who have departed and are said to come back, at least in spirit, on this holiday. to honor the dead, elaborate and brightly colored tableaus like the one above are designed. There's a mystical quality about Dia de los Muertos but nothing somber or scary. The idea is about love and remembrance, much different than our Halloween. We watched pageants, feasted, wondered around and finally ended up at the entrance of the cemetery at Xcaret, a display of tombstones and mausoleums which have been reproduced from actual cemeteries through Mexico.

There's a long line as we made our way up a winding hillside path lit by candles that cast shadows on these works of art that like the tableaus are colorful and intriguing.

It's typical on these evenings for people to paint their faces white with dark hollows and lines so they look skeletal as Caterinas (those diva like skeletons often wearing fancy hats and long sequined gowns) and skeleton figures are also part of the pageantry during the holiday. And of course, there are skulls everywhere -- blue skulls with silver glitter and assorted glittering jewels or carmine with gold glitter and rainbow hued sequins made out of hallowed gourds, green skulls with painted flowers made of clay and the ultimate -- candy skulls made of sugar or chocolate.

Mexican Sugar Skulls

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. meringue powder

1 tsp. water

Plastic skull molds (each skull takes about ½ cup of sugar)

Sequins, color frosting

Mix together sugar, meringue powder and water with your hands until it feels like damp sand.

Pack into molds, carefully turn out onto a flat surface and let hard 23 hours before decorating.

A Taste of Bavaria in Southern Indiana

2010-10-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

A while back I wrote an Images of America book by Arcadia Publishing called Jasper and Huntingburg. It’s about these two small towns that are only five miles apart located in Southern Indiana.

They’re both very pretty towns and my book tells their story in old images. While researching the book I spent a lot of time down there and I have recounted in previous columns about some of the foods I’ve run across including ribble (a form of spaetzle) soup, turtle soup and brain sandwiches (which they sell at a Jasper restaurant called The Headquarters).

Though there are great restaurants in the towns, my favorite is a German restaurant called The Schnitzelbank which first opened under this name in 1933. But even before that, the site had housed eating and drinking establishments that stretched back to before 1908.

Jasper is a very German town, by some accounts almost 90% of the population is of German descent and several times when I was there I would over hear conversations being conducted in German. Both Jasper and Huntingburg had breweries and after prohibition, the local farmers continued making their own moonshine called Dubois Dew (Dubois pronounced with the s sound on the end is the county name). The Schnitzelbank Restaurant is much more sophisticated now then its early origins when it was dubbed The Last Chance Saloon or The First Chance Saloon depending on whether you were approaching it or leaving it. The wait staff wear dirndls and lederhosen and all the food including the sauerkraut and mashed potatoes are made daily on site.

I enjoy eating there so much that I was happy to see that they have recently published a cookbook called Ein Prosit: A Collection of Fine Family Recipes and Spirits. And after looking through it and noting the various schnitzel recipes, I would like to do a story on schnitzels—so if anyone has any old family recipes, please let me know. The book contains recipes for numerous schnitzels including Berner Schnitzel, Jager Schnitzel, Schwein Schnitzel and Weiner Schnitzel. Having only heard of the later before, I was surprised that there were that many different types of schnitzel. If there are even more types of schnitzel, please let me know. In the meantime, here are some Schnitzelbank recipes.

Bavarian Meat Loaf

One and three quarters pounds ground beef, finely ground

Seven ounces ground pork, finely ground

Nine ounces bacon, ground

Salt

One pinch nutmeg ground

Four teaspoons black pepper

Water as need for mixing loaf

Two tablespoons butter

One medium onion, minced

Knead ground beef until smooth, add ground pork, bacon and spices and mix thoroughly. While kneading, add enough water to keep mixture smooth but not too thin, Spread butter evenly in roasting pan and evenly sprinkled minced onion inside of butter pan Form meat into a loaf and place in open pan. Brush top with water. Bake meat loaf in preheated oven about one hour at 350.

Anyone interested in purchasing the book call go to the restaurant’s website www.schnitzelbankgr.com or call 812-482-2640.

The Kimmel House: A Country Mansion and Restaurant

2010-10-17T19:54:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things is to take a drive down a country road in Indiana. You never know what you'll find and last week as I was working on the Tombstone Trail story for the Northwest Indiana Times (that's another post) I drove south of Ligonier down State Road 5 through a series of small villages and came upon this wonderful 19th century Italianate home, now a bed and breakfast called the Kimmel House after the original owners. There's also a restaurant in the home open to the public and though I got there a little too late, I'm going to try to make it down again before the fall leaves are all gone.

North of the Border Tapas

2010-10-09T15:47:00.000-07:00

My friend Jenny Novakovic, who is originally from Chihuahua, Mexico and now lives in St. Joseph serves tapas at home when she is entertaining. And she also teaches classes in makes tapas at Perennial Accents in St. Joseph. Tapas can be many things – tiny bowls of soup, thin slices of ham drizzle with high quality olive oil, a bowl of olives, a plate of Spanish cheeses, salads or just about anything that can easily be eaten. Novakovic says that she often just begins cooking with the ingredients she has on hand and then later writes down the recipe of what she has prepared, loves to entertain and finds that tapas are perfect for just that.

The following are tapas recipes that she created.

Butterflied Prawns in Chocolate Sauce

8 large raw prawns

1 tbsp. rum

About ¼ cup of orange juice (preferably freshly squeezed)

½ oz. unsweetened dark chocolate, chopped

1” piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped

1 small red pepper

Olive oil (about 2 tbsp)

Cayenne pepper (optional)

Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Seasoned flour (salt and freshly ground pepper)

If the prawns are still with the shells, clean them up and peel making sure that you leave the tails intact. Make a shallow cut down of each prawn and carefully discard the intestinal track (if it’s still there).

Turn over the prawns so the undersides are uppermost, and then carefully split them open from the tail to top using a small sharp knife. Make sure you don’t cut them all the way through

Press the prawns down firmly to flatten them out and coat them with the seasoned flour. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, heat the sherry and orange juice at low heat. When warm, remove from heat and stir in the chopped chocolate until melted. Set aside. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. When hot add the garlic, ginger and pepper over moderate heat for about 2-3 minutes to release flavors then remove from pan and set aside.

Add the prawns (cut-side down) to the pan gently pressing them down so they take the open shape as they cook; cook for 2-3 minutes until golden brown and pink on the edges. Turn and cook for another 2 minutes

Return the garlic, ginger and pepper you’ve reserved to the frying pan. Pour over the chocolate sauce. Cook for 1 minute turning prawns to cat them into the glossy sauce. Season to taste and serve hot.

Tip:

You can remove the prawns from the pan and cook the sauce then serve it on the side as dipping sauce (variation to the dish and helps to keep hands clean!)

Spicy Chicken Wings

8-10 chicken wings

2 large garlic cloves finely chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp cayenne paprika

1 tsp (or tbsp depending on the desired heat) of cayenne pepper

1 tsp dried Mexican oregano

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

3 limes

Directions:

Preheat the oven at 350F.

Using a small sharp knife, make small cuts into the chicken wings so they absorb the flavors. Insert garlic into the meat. In a plastic bag, stir together the paprika, olive oil, cayenne pepper, oregano, salt and pepper.

Add the chicken wings and toss together until all wings are coated.

Refrigerate for 1-2 hours (if you leave them overnight they really soak the flavors and taste better but if don’t have the time, 1-2 hours should be sufficient).

Place them on a cookie sheet making sure there are no overlaps and bake them for about 25 minutes or until fully cooked, making sure that you turn them around when the top gets crispy.

When ready to serve, squeeze lime on top of the wings.

Tip:

This dish can be served any time of the year (baked in the oven) but during the summer as a great addition to your barbecue repertoire

Brookston Cooks!

2010-10-05T19:31:00.000-07:00

An adorable small Indiana town with lots of sass, no make that salsa coming from the kitchen of Two Cookin’ Sisters on Prairie Street. The brightly painted store with flower pots overflowing with blooms is stocked filled with Indiana products including the Sisters own line of jams, jellies, pickles, relishes, salsas, nuts and granola. Besides that, pick up such Hoosier foods as Wolf’s Chocolates made in nearby Attica, B&B Pit Cooked Pork with Barbecue Sauce from Evansville, the delightfully named Moots Creek Cranberry-Orange Sauce and their Craizinutapple Butter, honey from Wildcat Apiary, Grandma’s Garden Pomegranate Jelly and a selection of Victorian House Scones mixes.

Sweet Potato Biscuit

These directions are for 1 bag of Original Recipe Biscuit mix from Victorian House Scones which provided the recipe below.

BAKING DIRECTIONS

You will need: 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, 3/4 cup cooked/mashed sweet potato,

1/4 cup (+ maybe 1 or 2Tbsp.) buttermilk , 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix 3/4 cup cooked/mashed sweet potato with enough buttermilk to equal one cup. Mix and set aside.

Pour contents of bag into mixing bowl with 1/4tsp. nutmeg. Cut in 1 1/2 sticks chilled butter until mixture is fine and crumbly.

Stir in buttermilk/sweet potato mixture. Dough will form a soft ball. Turn dough out onto floured board, and knead gently 3-4 times. 1 – 2 tablespoons of extra buttermilk may be needed to form a soft ball.

Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a flattened circle, 6-7” in diameter, approximately 3/4” thick.

Using a sharp knife, cut circle into eighths (or quarters if larger biscuits are desired). Dough may be frozen at this point for later use.

Place biscuits on parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake in preheated oven at 425 degrees for 13-18 minutes (time will vary with biscuit size). Top should be light golden brown when done.

http://bigsistersalsa.com/

Fire Dancers

2010-09-08T19:52:00.000-07:00

The last few times I've been in Riviera Maya, I've seen a lot of fire dancing. I figured it was a Yucatan/Mayan type of cultural thing and was asked my friend Adriana Arriola Moya who lives in Playa del Carmen about the significance of the dancers -- usually men dressed in feathers with painted faces who play with fire and sometimes walk on it as well. While the Mayan fire dancers at Xcaret and the ones we saw at Yaxche during a Day of the Dead feast are part of the celebration of Yucatan's Maya customs, the rest, she tells me are more just for tourists and though she is too sweet to add "like me" I get it. No matter. I love watching the dancing and am including some photos here as well as recipes from the wonderful meal we had Yaxche in Playa del Carmen.

Lime Soup

1 whole chicken cut into pieces or 2 whole chicken breasts

10 cups of water

2 tablespoons chopped oregano

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 onion chopped into 4 pieces

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons corn oil

2 medium peeled tomatoes, cut into pieces

1 chopped green pepper

6 slices of lime

6 tortillas chopped in slices and fried

Cook chicken in water with oregano, garlic, onion and salt to the taste for about an hour. Once cooked take the chicken out, let it cool down and shred it. Strain the broth. Put the onion in corn oil, add tomatoes and sweet pepper and marinate before adding the broth and 3 slices of lime. Sauté for 10 minutes.

Add the shredded chicken, the rest of the limes and tortillas. Serve it immediately (if not the tortillas won't be crispy anymore).

Tikin Xic

Grilled Fish

6 pieces of fish fillet (grouper or any white fish)

18 oz achiote paste (can be bought in any Mexican grocery store)

2 whole white onions, sliced

2 whole green peppers, sliced

3 tomatoes, sliced

6 epazote sprigs (optional if not available)

6 banana leaves (or use corn husks which can be purchased at Mexican grocery stores)

Serving suggestions:

Add a serving of mixed, fresh vegetables on the side of each plate.

Marinate the fillet with achiote for about 5 minutes. Put the fillet over the banana leaf or corn husks, add epazote, onion, green pepper and tomato. Wrap and put it on the grill. Cook each side for 4 minutes. Serve with vegetable on the side.

The Summertime Market

2010-08-29T15:51:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up, the milk man still arrived early each morning, leaving bottles of milk in an insulated box by the backdoor. I can’t remember when that stopped and we started buying milk from the store but at first it still came in bottles and then, later, the plastic containers that we know so well. But just like Coca Cola products which I think taste better in bottles than plastic, I still feel the same way about milk. So when my friends Mike and Susan told me about a place on Blue Star Highway in Douglas called The Summertime Market that sold organic milk in bottles, I decided to take a drive.

I arrived at the market as Christine Ferris, owner of Christine Ferris Catering, was serving samples of her salads including chicken pesto (made from the organic grass fed chickens for sale inside) and egg salad, again made from organic eggs sold there. After sampling the chicken pesto and buying a container to take home – my daughter loves pesto salads – I wandered through the produce area where signs told me the name of the local farms that provided the stacks of beets, carrots, sweet cherries, blueberries and more on display as well how many miles the food had to travel to get there. That’s because all produce and most of the other products are produced within 30 miles of The Summertime Market with the exception of the soda pop and artisan waters which come from the other side of the state.

Inside there were grass fed meats and wild game sausages, organic cheeses, vintage candy, gelato, natural honey and, bottles of milk from the HilHof Dairy in Hersey, Michigan. The milk is pasteurized but not homogenized so the cream rises to the top. You can either skim off the cream and use it for coffee or shake the bottle.

The next day, I had just returned from an errand when my son Evan asked where I had bought that milk in the bottle? Expecting him to be disdainful of the taste, I told him and asked why. He replied that it was the best milk he’d ever had but then it was also the first bottled milk he’d ever had as well.

The Summertime Market is located at The Bridge just north of Douglas on Blue Star Highway. 269-887-8569 or wwwsummertimemarket.com

Here is a recipe for a sauce made from fresh cherries to use on meats or ice cream from their Website.

Fresh Cherry Reduction Sauce

1lb. fresh pitted cherries

1 cup ruby red port

1/2 cup of sugar

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

Place cherries in saucepan and add port, sugar vinegar and honey. Cook over high heat, stirring slowly, until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for approximately 12-15 minutes, or until the cherries are soft but still retain their shape.

Dinner at the Grand Hotel

2010-08-22T19:33:00.000-07:00

Life is full of tough decisions and tonight's was whether to order the dark chocolate molten lava cake with Franangelico and cream sauce, the Grand Pecan Ball (ice cream with the Grand's house made fudge sauce topped with pecans) or the Blood Orange Angel Food Cake with Caramel Cream sauce. Chose the later...good decision.

La Cueva del Chango

2010-08-16T19:59:00.000-07:00

We left our home in Michigan at 3:30 in the morning, arriving at O’Hare at 5:30 to catch an early plane to Cancun. From there we traveled south on Highway 307 to Playa del Carmen where we met Adriana Arriola Mora who took us to La Cueva del Chango (Monkey’s Cave) located on a quiet street near Shangri La Beach just a few blocks from the bustling and famed Avenida 5.

From mausoleums to museums to restaurants, nobody seems to have more fun with whimsical and creative décor than people in Mexico and La Cueva del Chango is no exception. We walk through a large door leading into the outdoor garden, past a fountain, a large wooden trove filled with green oranges (it’s that time of year), underneath the open air roof topped main eating area with trees growing in its center and wooden monkeys vying for space with boldly colored art, basket woven light fixtures and potted plants, past the large tiled kitchen and into another garden area where we sit and order lunch.

The lush greenery paired with the riotous décor including colored bottles planted into the plaster walls creates a jungle fantasia and the food is as good as the ambience. For dessert I order one of my favorites – crepas con cajeta or crepes with a goat milk caramel that has a sweetness and just a little tang. I easily forget how tired I am sitting in this Mexican garden and tasting this sweet dish while sipping my Mexican coffee accented with sugar and cinnamon. When I get home, I find this recipe by Rick Bayless and decide to make the crepes at home.

Crepas con Cajeta

For the crepes:

1 small cinnamon stick

3 cloves

1 cup whole milk
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil as needed

For the goats' milk caramel:
2 quarts goats' milk
2 cups granulated sugar
2-inch cinnamon stick
1/2 teaspoon baking soda, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water

For the pecans:
1/4 pound unsalted butter
1 cup pecans, chopped

For the plantains:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 plantains, peeled and sliced

For the dish:

Diced papaya

Blackberries

Raspberries

For the crepes, in a spice grinder, pulse the cinnamon stick and the cloves until finely ground. Transfer to a blender, add the milk, eggs, salt, sugar, vanilla, and flour and blend until smooth, about two minutes, scraping down the sides of the blender. With the motor running, add the butter and blend until the mixture has the consistency of heavy cream, about one minute. Transfer to a medium bowl and set aside for two hours.

For the goats' milk caramel, in a large saucepan, bring the milk, sugar, and cinnamon stick to a simmer, stirring frequently.

Remove from the heat, add the baking soda, and stir to combine. When the bubbles disappear, return the pan to medium heat. Bring to a brisk simmer, stirring frequently, until the mixture begins to turn golden brown, about one hour. Continue to simmer until the mixture thickens to the consistency and color of maple syrup, about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat, strain through a fine mesh sieve, and set aside keeping warm.

For the pecans, in a medium sauté pan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the pecans and sauté until toasted and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and using a slotted spoon, transfer the pecans to a medium bowl. Reserve the butter and pecans separately.

For the plantains, in a medium sauté pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the plantains and sauce until golden brown, about five minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside keeping warm.

To finish the crepes, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Heat a seven-inch skillet over medium heat and brush lightly with the oil. Pour 1/4 cup of the crepe batter into the pan, swirl to coat, pouring out any excess. Cook until the edges begin to dry, about one minute. Using a thin spatula, flip the crepe and cook for one minute. Transfer the crepe to a parchment-lined sheet pan, keeping flat. Repeat with the remaining batter and set aside keeping warm. Brush the top of each crepe with browned butter and some goats' milk caramel. Fold each in half and gently press down to spread the filling. Brush with butter and fold in half again. Arrange the crepes in an ovenproof dish. Cover with aluminum foil and place in the oven until warmed through, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside keeping warm.

To serve, place two crepes in the center of the plate and spoon some of the goats' milk caramel on top. Arrange some plantains, papaya, blackberries, and raspberries on top, sprinkle pecans around the dish, and garnish with mint.