Baked Acorn Squash the American Way

Preheat your oven to 300-350 degrees.

Cut squash in half with a really sharp, pointed knife. You will need a hard surface to do this so, maybe put a clean dishtowel or brown paper bag on the floor, put sharp point of knife into the side of the squash and push down. You should be able to split the squash by pulling the knife blade toward you whilst holding the squash firm. Please do not chop off any fingers or toes.

If your squash is pretty big, so you might want to cut it in quarters.

Scoop out seeds and throw them away.

Place squash on a baking tray and bake in oven for thirty minutes.

When squash is tender and nearly completely cooked, put LOTS of butter (about two or three pats) into the hollow of the squash halves (or quarters) and sprinkle each with 1 heaping spoonful of brown sugar, or two big spoonfuls of maple syrup (which would be a recipe following the American Indian tradition).

Bake for another ten minutes.

Eat by scooping out the soft orange flesh from the inedible green husk.

You can also use cooked squash instead of banana in any banana bread recipe. Squash is super healthy, and like carrots are packed with carotene and anti-oxidants, vitamin A and are low calorie (except when you add butter and brown sugar).

Raw Food. Better than Hellman's Mayonnaise

Make this mayonnaise using a food processor if you have one. If not, use an electric hand blender. If you don't have an electric hand blender, roll up your sleeves and get beating!

Put in a large bowl (or processing container):

1 egg
1 teaspoon dry mustard (or else 1 teaspoon prepared English mustard/2-3 teaspoons Dijon mustard but which you should add as flavouring at the end)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup olive oil (if you don't have a cup measure, use a standard mug for which 1 mug=1cup)

Blend until thoroughly combined.
Whilst the blender is still running, very, very slowly add:

1/2 cup / 1/2 mug olive oil

And then:

The juice of 1 lemon.

Keep blending. Then very, very slowly add another:

1/2 cup / 1/2 mug olive oil.

Blend until thick and creamy. You may have to start and stop the blender to stir down the mayonnaise.

Gravalax or Salted Salmon with Dill
This recipe comes from my friend Fabio.

Get a whole salmon fillet skin on. 

In food processor mix 2.5% of its weight in salt and 2.5% in sugar, plus a whole pack of fresh dill.
 
Cover the meat with the dill-salt-sugar mix and place between two boards. Place a heavy weight above it, with a slight slope to allow the liquid to drain in sink. Leave that way for a day and a night then slice thinly.
  
Serve it either with FAGE greek yogurt or with a sauce made with mustard (3parts), honey (1 part) and fresh dill (2 parts)

Simple White Sauce, also called a Roux, for gravies, sauces, casseroles, macaroni and cheese.

This is a basic sauce used to thicken soups, gravies and to make, well, sauces, of course, for any meat or vegetable, or the base of a sauce for a casserole, or macaroni and cheese

Butter, meat fat or olive oil
A few tablespoons flour
Milk or vegetable or meat stock
Seasoning (salt and pepper)


Melt a tablespoon or butter in a saucepan, or you can use the hot fat from a roast, or even some olive oil heated first in a pan.

Make sure the fat is hot, but not burnt. If the butter burns, throw it away and melt it again.

Sprinkle a spoonful of flour over the hot fat and stir. It should begin to thicken to a runny paste. If you are using all the juices from something like a roast chicken, then you will probably need to sprinkle a few spoonfuls of flour over the fat.

When the paste has thickened and it is no longer lumpy, slowly add the milk or stock. Keep stirring until the sauce has thickened to the desired consistantcy for whatever you are cooking. It can be used as a gravy, the base for a casserole, a thickener for soup.

Add cheese to make a cheesy sauce for macaroni and cheese.

Add meat and vegetables, place in a casserole dish, top with some breadcrumbs and grated cheese, and bake in the over for a yummy casserole.

Classic Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Tomato Soup
Adapted from The America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook

For the Grilled Cheese Sandwiches:

3 ounces cheese (preferably mild cheddar) or combination of cheese, grated on large holes of box grater (about 3/4 cup)

4 slices (1/2 inch-thick) from white sandwich bread, such as Pepperidge Farm Toasting White
2 tablespoons butter (preferably salted), melted

1. Heat heavy 12-inch skillet over low to medium-low heat. Meanwhile, sprinkle a portion of cheese over two bread slices. Top each with a remaining bread slice, pressing down gently to set.

2. Brush sandwich tops completely with half of melted butter; place each sandwich, buttered-size down, in skillet. Brush remaining side of each sandwich completely with remaining butter. Cook until crisp and deep golden brown, 5 to 10 minutes per side, flipping sandwiches back to first side to reheat and crisp, about 15 seconds. Serve immediately.

For a little variation:
        *Sprinkle the filling with chopped onion.
        *Add a few slices of fresh tomato.
        *Cook one slice of bacon until crisp and crumble over the filling before grilling.
        *Add some sliced ham.


There is nothing better than a grilled cheese sandwich, than a grilled cheese sandwich and a steaming bowl of creamy tomato soup.

For the Tomato Soup.

Open one can of Campbell's (no other brand will do).
Spoon into a saucepan.
Add one can of whole milk.
Whisk until fully blended while heating over a medium heat.
Pour into a bowl.
For extra buttery creamy deliciousness, add a pat of butter to the soup and let melt.

Dip sandwich into the soup and enjoy the cosy warmth that trickles down to your toes. Yum.

Cupcake Tree, A Song Written by Yvor Smitter

 This song was written by my father, Yvor Smitter. He used to sing it to me when I was a little girl and when I was a teenager after Leila divorced him and he was living in California, working as a geologist for the California Division of Mines and Geology, he sent me a copy of the song on a record he had recorded. In this recording someone else is singing the tune, but I have a different recording on another record with Yvor playing the harmonica. I'll try to figure out how to upload that version as a recording on youtube. Victoria uploaded this recording and copied in photos of Yvor that I have in my Facebook albums. He was a kind and gentle man, playful and adventurous. He loved boyish tricks and as a geologist he easily got his hands on explosives used in mining the California hills. I was told this story by his old friend, James Holwerda: one afternoon Yvor drove out into the hills of the Sierra Nevada forest in his pickup truck. He stopped on the side of a quiet track, heaved a box of dynamite out of the back and walked into the forest. He found a tall pine tree and taking the dynamite out of the box, he strung several sticks round the base of its trunk.  He rolled out a long, long length of fuse, lit the end then waited. Kaboom! The tree shot into the sky like a rocket, turned and then plumetted like an arrow back into the ground. I can just hear him say, "That was mighty fun" or "Boom! It made a mighty big noise". When I was seventeen I went to California and saw him again for the first time since I was eleven. He took several shot gun shells from his rifle, emptied the gunpowder into a pipe and buried it in the road outside his little apartment building. Again, just for fun, he lit the fuse and we waited for the explosion. He found such simple pleasure in the loud Bang! and in seeing how big a hole it would make. Six weeks later he died. Funny ol' Daddoo. I miss him and wish he could have met you children. I'm glad though that you can get to know a glimmer of him through this little song.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5n1c8ThvNE

New York Cheesecake

This recipe is based on one published in the 1990 edition of The Serendipity Cookbook. The recipe as it was published then included enough ingredients to make at least two very large cheesecakes. I've also changed the recipe for the crust to be a graham cracker crust rather than the original ground walnut crust because unless you have really, really fresh walnuts, they always taste a bit stale to me.

So here is my recipe for one deep nine inch cheesecake.

First, you need a twelve inch springform pan, the straight sided sort of pan with a clippy hinge that spreads the sides out when you open it and with a removable bottom. I've made cheesecakes in regular deep sided pie tins too, but pie tins are not usually deep enough, so if you are using those you should make crust enough for two pies and be okay with two smaller, less deep cheesecakes that you are happy to cut slices straight out of the pan (because you won't be able to remove their sides as you can do with springform pans).

Ingredients: The Filling

2 pounds cream cheese, softened at room temperature (yup, unbutton the top button of those blue jeans right now)
2 cups white sugar
6 large free range eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 cups sour cream
1/3 cup lemon juice (from fresh squeezed lemons is best)

Ingredients: The Crust

14-16 double Nabisco Sugar Honey Graham Crackers
4 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 stick/4 oz melted butter

Crush graham crackers in a bowl, add sugar, and cinnamon and mix well.
Add the melted butter and mix thoroughly.
The mixture should hold together when squeezed in the hand, but crumble easily.
With fingertips, press the mixture into the bottom and sides of a buttered springform pan as evenly as possible.

Prepare filling: in a large bowl, beat together cream cheese and sugar until mixture is really soft.
Add eggs and vanilla and keep beating.
Add the sour cream and beat thoroughly.
Whisk in the lemon juice.

Fill a shallow pan with boiling water and place at the bottom of the oven to humidify the air and keep the cake from cracking.

Pour the batter over the crust.
Bake at 300F/150C for one hour. Turn off the oven and let the cake set in the oven for a further hour.
Cool, at room temperature, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Garnish with fresh fruit of the season, or with sliced curls of lemon or orange peel.

This cheesecake freezes very well.