You Can't Get the Same Dish
Twice Around Here!

Years ago I had an elderly friend named Mrs. Sherman.  She lived in a rural area of West Milford, NJ.  Mary was a descendant of an old and prosperous New Bedford whaling family.  Her little summer house turned year round residence was stuffed with magnificent 18th and 19th century antique American made furniture.  The newest stuff was high style Victorian, and the oldest was late 18th century.  Mary's ancestors, to judge from her antique furniture, were very successful at the whaling business!  For many years  she showed some kind of terriers in confirmation dog shows, but by the time I met her the dogs were just lovely memories.  

Mrs. Sherman liked to cook.  At one time she'd had a husband of whom she was very fond, but he had passed on before I met her.  She used to chat about him and her face would always be smiling when she talked about Bill (I think his name was Bill, this is more than thirty-five years ago.)  

Mary liked to cook new recipes.  She begged hostesses for recipes for dishes she enjoyed at their homes, cut recipes out of magazines and newspapers, found recipes on the backs of grocery boxes and cans, plucked them from cook books.  Mary would buy the ingredients and prepare the recipe.  If it was a success she would then put the copy of the recipe in her box of successful recipes and never make it again.  If the recipe did not work, Mary would prepare it over and over again, day after day, until she got the recipe just right.  Then she would put the recipe annotated with her comments into the "recipes which work"  box and never make it again.

She said Bill used to be sad when a recipe turned out perfect the first time because if he liked it, he'd never enjoy the dish again, as Mary would be off testing new recipes.   Mary would mimic Bill asking for a repeat on some recipe which he had particularly liked.  The she would demonstrate how she would decline his request.  Mary  thought it was funny!   She had absolutely no interest in repeating a successful recipe.  

At my house we often don't get repeat dishes for a different reason.  A lot of my cooking reminds me of the TV show "Chopped". Instead of a basket I find myself staring at length into the open refrigerator trying to figure out what to do with the disparate odds and ends, just like on the TV show.  No matter how successful my creation is, no one photographs me or hands me a check for $10,000, and most likely I can never quite recreate that exact dish again because the planets don't align perfectly and there is NEVER the same exact conglomeration of odds and ends present which need to be used.  

One of my favorite ways to use up lots of little dabs of vegetables, pasta and meat is called "All Good things Soup" which was a creation of Barry's Mother, Annie Block.  

Annie Block's recipe for 
"All Good Things" soup. 

 

This is more a process than an exact recipe;

Annie had a big plastic container in her freezer.  At the end of every meal if there was something left over, like a few mashed or fried potatoes, some carrots bits, a few kernels of cooked corn, a little stewed tomatoes, any other cooked vegetables, a slice of meatloaf (she'd cut this up in little bits before adding it to the container),  she'd put the meat bits, the vegetables and their cooking water in the container to freeze.  When it was full to the top she was ready to make soup. 

How to Make Annie Block's "All good things soup".

1. Take the ends and bones from a roast or you can buy a piece tough beef for soup meat and brown it on all sides a little cooking oil.  The cheaper and stringier the meat, the more authentic your soup.  When Annie’s son Barry talks about this soup he always remarks happily about the “stringy” beef in the soup.  

 

 I use a pressure cooker which is fast but you can put the meat, bones,  trimmings in a stock pot of water and simmer on low heat partly covered on the back burner of the stove for a few hours as Annie did, until the meat is tender and falling apart.  CHECK LIQUID LEVEL EVERY HALF HOUR AND GIVE THE BROTH A GOOD STIR.  IF LIQUID LEVEL DROPS, ADD MORE WATER.  Set the covered stockpot outside the house and next day remove the caked fat on top and discard the fat.  (Obviously you chill stockpot and contents outdoors autumn, winter and very early spring in North Jersey!)  If you make this soup in warm weather, you have to chill the contents of the stock pot over night in the refrigerator.

 

2. Next day, heat until the broth liquefies and remove and cut meat off the bones and chop in small bits.  Return meat to liquid in stock pot, discard fat, gristle and bones.

3. You should have a good size stockpot half filled with the broth, if not enough liquid add water.  Add 2 bay leaves, granulated garlic (or cook real garlic with the onions, see below) and a bit of Maggi or Gravy master for color if you like a deeper brown soup. 

4.  Wash, pick over and pour in a package (1 lb) of dried barley and cook on low in the broth in stock pot until barley is tender and fluffed up in size. 

5. As soon as you start broth heating, chop and caramelize in olive oil a couple of large diced onions and some sliced mushrooms if you have them.  When really golden brown and flavorful add sauteed onions to stock pot.

7. Chop and caramelize a couple or three big carrots diced 1/4" in olive oil and when deep golden brown add to stockpot.  You could cook at same time as the onions if you have a really big cast iron pan to save time. 

8. When barley is soft, if you don't have the big container of thawed over night frozen bits of leftover vegetables and chopped up meat scraps, leftover spaghetti and diced leftover meatloaf to add to the stock pot, add a can of canned corn or frozen corn with the liquid, some diced potatoes, diced turnips, canned tomatoes or any combination of vegetables cooked or raw that you wish and cook on medium heat STIRRING FREQUENTLY until all vegetables are tender.  

9.  Serve hot.  Very good with home made corn sticks with honey butter and maybe a little left over cranberry orange relish (Great Aunt Laura's recipe) for some zip. 

At the end of the summer just before frost we put all our excess garden tomatoes individually in the freezer.  They freeze over night into something akin to bright red, odd shaped billiard balls, and they are as hard as billiard balls too.  After the tomatoes are frozen rock solid they  are corralled in a plastic bag   When making All Good Things Soup  I take out a half a dozen rock hard tomatoes the second day of soup making (the first day the broth is made and chills over night to get the cake of fat to rise to the top for ease in removing every scrap of fat).  When the tomatoes thaw in the bowl I rip out the cores and throw the tomatoes and their liquid into stock pot, shredding the tomatoes coarsely by hand. 

Annie's process usually ends up making about 6-7 quarts of soup.  The cooled, finished soup is  put in plastic quart containers.  Some is frozen,  some is used for dinner  and one quart goes to my Mother.  Annie Block’s “All Good things” soup is thick, filling, healthy, and very cheap to make.  It’s peasant cooking at its best.

 

This soup got it’s name because people would say to Annie, “What kind of soup is this?”  Annie would invariably answer, “All good things soup” and that’s how it got its name.  When Annie made this soup in summer, and the garden was full of fresh dill, she would use copious amounts of chopped dill in the soup, adding the fresh dill just before serving.  I don’t know if she thought that it made the soup taste better, or she was just so overwhelmed with the huge crop of dill she did it to get rid of some of the dill.

 

The Blocks were of Eastern European ancestry, Polish, Russian, Lithuanian, depending upon where the rather fluid borders were the year you were born in the old country.  Those three countries use a lot of dill in cooking because it does well under harsh conditions.  That’s also why they cook a lot of rhubarb, a fruit which thrives in Siberia where the temperature can get to 70 below Fahrenheit in winter, and yet in the spring the rhubarb pops up when the weather warms, as the self seeding dill spreads through the garden.  

If you want to serve this for company, a small bowl for a first course, or a large plate of soup for whole meal, you can dress it up by plopping a blob of Greek yogurt in the center of the bowl and sprinkling that with chopped fresh dill or chives.  The soup is supposed to be very thick with the vegetables and meat, almost like a stew.  The ingredients keep the yogurt from sinking.  

The Meyersville Grange
and the
Cooking Contest

The Meyersville Grange fund raiser Soup & Pasta cooking contest is held the second Friday of each Month from October through April.  It’s open to the public and there are two ways to get into this entertaining event.  You can pay $8. which entitles you to samples of all the soups and pasta dishes which you choose, Italian bread and butter, and your choice of beverage.  For a modest extra $2. per serving you can enjoy home made desserts.  Or, you can cook up a big pot of soup or pasta at home and bring the pot wrapped in towels (to keep in the heat) to the Grange and it is your ticket for admission.  

Occasionally there is a pressing need for money for a particular project.  In this case the Grange has been known to sponsor a second soup / pasta contest during a month.  This is a painless fund raiser and very popular with attendees.  It’s a lot more fun than just writing a check. 

For my first visit to the soup / past contest I brought Great Aunt Laura’s recipe for Swedish Yellow Pea soup.  It’s a great winter soup, sturdy, travels well, isn’t too challenging to make, and it is delicious.  I was always fascinated by Laura’s soup because of its pretty yellow color.  All the Dutch members of my family made a similar soup but they used green split peas.  The color was not so appealing as Laura’s creamy cheerful yellow soup which iss punctuated with tiny bits of bright orange carrot and brown ham. 

There was home made pea soup for sale in A and A Specialty Market (They have great fresh prepared food!) in Lincoln Park yesterday, it was $9. a quart.  We made five quarts at home the same day!  Costs a lot less than $45. to make it, and that's counting buying the smoked pork neck bones for $8..  If there’s a ham bone and some scrappy ham ends, the price is almost nothing for the sack of yellow peas, carrots, potatoes, onions.  Let's see, a dollar for the dried peas, a dollar for carrots, $1.50 for potatoes, $1.50 or so for onions.  Of course you have to add something for the energy for cooking but pressure cooker cuts the time, you use soap and water to wash up the dishes, pots, pans.   So $13. plus cooking and clean up costs.  Round it to about $15. and that is $3. per quart instead of $9.   That’s a big difference!   If I’d had a ham bone the soup would have cost only five dollars to make, a dollar a quart!  With home made soup the cook knows exactly what went into the dish, there’s no odd additives with unpronounceable names and potential unpleasant side effects.

It’s simple to make split pea soup.  Cook the bones or end of the ham in water the day before, chill over night and skim off the layer of hardened white fat which forms over night.   On TV cooking shows chefs rarely skim off the fat or chill the food the day before and remove the cake of fat from the top. 

When I was young and had more energy I used to make our own bar soap from the fat.  People raved over it because it kept their hands from chapping over the winter as the soap was loaded with lanolin. 

Great Aunt Laura’s
Swedish Yellow Pea Soup Recipe

Laura Sauerland Meyer, my Grandmother Emily’s half sister

(a recipe for a quick pea soup follows if you are short on time) 

This is a two day process.  Laura made the broth the first day by simmering the end of the ham and the ham bone in a stock pot for a couple of hours on low heat.  Then she would remove the ham bone and put all the ham bits in a bowl in the refrigerator.

Laura would chill the broth over night and next day remove the cake of white fat from the top of the broth and discard it.

If she wanted to store the broth for a few days before making the soup, she would leave the fat layer in place until ready to use the broth as this sealed out the air and kept the broth from spoiling.

Ingredients:

End of the ham plus the bone or 4-5 pounds of smoked pork neck bones or smoked ham hocks. 

1 pound bag dried, split yellow peas (Yes, you can use green if that’s what’s in the pantry.)

3 Tablespoons olive oil divided, more if you need it

2 large onions diced ½”

4 big carrots diced ½”

3 lbs. potatoes, peeled and cut in quarters

Fresh ground pepper

Granulated garlic

Optional: ½ pound low salt deli ham diced ½”

Directions:

1. Put peas in a colander, pick over for stones or stems and then rinse peas under running water.

2. Put broth and peas on heat, cover.  Bring to a boil and then lower heat to simmer and cook until peas become mushy.  Replenish water if water level drops during the cooking process.  You want them to be soft enough that if you press them against the side of the pot with a spoon they collapse without resistance.
3. Sauté onions in 1 ½ Tbsp. olive oil until caramelized.  Pour caramelized onions into the pot of cooking peas.

4. Sauté carrots in 1 ½ Tbsp.  olive oil until very tender and beginning to turn golden.  If carrots begin to brown too much just add a cup of water and finish them by boiling.  Set the cooked carrots aside.5. Boil the potatoes in water until very tender.  Reserve potato cooking water.

6. Process the peas, potatoes and onions in batches in a blender until creamy smooth.  You will have to add some potato water to achieve a silky, liquid consistency.
7. Add the tender cooked carrots and the ½” diced ham bits.  When using smoked ham hocks or smoked neck bones for the broth, you can toss in a half pound of ½” diced low salt ham from the deli if you like more ham in your soup.This soup is ready to eat, but it is even better tasting if it sits a day in the refrigerator.  It will set up firm in the refrigerator over night, but heating it gently on low heat will liquefy the soup.  Stir when heating to keep from burning!  Laura’s recipe will make 5-6 quarts.  This yellow pea soup freezes well.  Laura’s technique gives you a very low fat, flavorful soup.  No salt is necessary as the ham makes the soup salty enough.

Pea Soup La Cena 
(A quick split pea soup)

 Recipe is courtesy of La Cena Fine foods Ltd., Saddle Brook, NJ.

Ingredients:

1 smoked ham hock

1 large onion coarsely chopped

2 quarts boiling water

1 pound La Cena yellow dried split peas

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Rinse ham hock. Add with chopped onion to the two quarts of boiling water. 

2. Rinse split peas, drain and add to the boiling water.

3. Cover, boil moderately fast for 1 ½ hours.

4. More boiling water may be added as necessary during cooking if necessary.

5. Stir occasionally to prevent scorching.

6. Remove ham hock and rub remaining ingredients through sieve.

Serve very hot.  Bits of the ham from the hock may be used as garnish.

Serves 6-8.

I would not salt this soup as the ham hock will provide sufficient saltiness.

Background:

 Laura was a nurse. She trained in what was then called "The German Hospital" in Manhattan, NY and worked there as a skilled nurse after graduation.  Later the hospital was renamed, "Lenox Hill Hospital.  Laura and her husband Uncle Emil Meyer lived happily near by in a brownstone in that bastion of German culture, Yorkville.  Besides her career as a nurse, Laura rented the spare bedrooms in the brownstone to German travelers or immigrants to earn extra money.  One tenant was a German artist who did a magnificent pastel portrait of Laura to show American clients the fine quality of his work.  We have that beautiful picture to this day.  Uncle Emil was a physical culture specialist which apparently (this was before my time) meant he had some metal boxes larger than modern clothes dryers in the  lower level of the brownstone and he "baked" chubby people in these contractions to help them lose weight.   Laura and Emil were a happy couple but sadly Uncle Emil barely lived to see their twenty-fifth anniversary.  After his passing Laura continued to live in the magnificent brownstone with the huge moose-head taxidermy mount (my favorite thing in the whole house besides the huge white conch seashells in the garden!) hanging on the first floor landing.  When she retired, Laura sold the brownstone and to my eternal regret, donated the moose-head to the Salvation Army.  She moved to her brother's cozy cottage in Oakland, NJ and had a beautiful, light filled bedroom added to the house for herself. 
 

Greetings from Karen and Stephen !

Food and family are heavily intertwined.  So many family memories revolve around the every day meals at the kitchen table, holiday dinners with extended family, growing food, shopping for food, hunting and fishing to put food on the table in hard time, gardening, preserving, preparing food are all activities wrapped in family memories

Old family recipes bring back happy (or sometimes not so happy!) thoughts of living relatives or long gone family members and friends.  Recipes help keep your dear departed ones, and ancestors you weren’t around to meet, alive in your thoughts. 

Sometimes, when your dearly departed didn’t teach you to make their recipes, you think, when it’s too late, “I wish I’d asked Grandma Emily which recipe she used for those wonderful hard doughnuts with the powdered sugar that she made for my birthday every year.” or, “Why didn’t I ask Mrs. Kocon for the more of her cookies recipes when her Apricot Triangle Cookies and her Nut Crescents were so delicious?”  

If your relatives and friends prepare things which you like, ASK FOR THE RECIPES NOW!  Of course if your relative cooks like Mimi Sheraton’s Mother did, you'll have to spend time watching, making notes, and figuring out how much “butter the size of a walnut”, “a wineglass full of milk” or “enough flour until the dough feels right” are and translate those terms into standard measurements! 

When your relatives or elderly friends break up their households because of down sizing, moving to senior housing, or the old homestead is being emptied and sold off due to the death of the last family member, you’ve got to act fast!  Get in there and grab the cook books and recipe collection!  Don’t be shy about it.  You can always make copies for others, but if you don’t grab the cook books and the recipe collection, they will be lost forever. 

I still mourn the fact that my dear Mother-In-Law Mary Kinnane’s recipe collection was tossed into the dumpster by her two sons when Mary went to a nursing home.  WHAT A TRAGEDY!  I have Mary’s recipe for blackberry jam cake with caramel icing (excellent!), her recipe for stuffed celery with anchovy paste (tastes loads better than it sounds!), her deviled eggs.  Mary made THE BEST fried okra I’ve ever tasted,  and have never been able to reproduce it satisfactorily.  She made a great turkey pie after Thanksgiving, a two crust pie with leftover gravy, stuffing, chopped up turkey and sliced hard cooked eggs.  Mary was a great cook as long as you kept her away from meat. Being old school Southern from a time when there was no refrigeration or just an ice box, she tended to COOK HER MEAT UNTIL IT WAS REALLY DONE.  At meals, or parties, I filled up on the vegetables, the hors d’ oeuvres, and the dessert, giving the meat a wide berth! 

Mary was a person of great character, smart, funny, good sense of humor, excellent work ethic, social, generous, quirky, loved antiques, liked to cook, enjoyed her family and her dogs.  When I make one of the few recipes of Mary’s which I have, so many happy memories come flooding back to me.  I’m still peeved at Joe and Michael for dumping their Mother’s recipe collection! Talk about holding a grudge!

There is nothing like preparing an inherited recipe to make you think of the cook who gave it to you!

I’m lucky!  I have my Great Grandmother’s White House Cook book with some of her hand written recipes tucked inside it including one in the original German.  I have her daughter (my Grandma Emily)’s cook books which she annotated, “no good”, “very good”, “too much sugar”, “cook longer than it says.” Grandma also cut inspirational thoughts from the newspapers (newspapers used to have that sort of thing!) and taped them in the blank spots in her cook books.

I have Grandma's half sister Laura Meyer’s recipe collection.  There was a copy of my Mother’s World War II era big thick “everything” cook book but when Mom's original book fell apart I gave her my copy which was identical.  My first cook book was, “The Joys Of Jell-o” which shows you I was ill prepared to embark on a lifetime of cooking!  I still have that Jell-o cook book today, more than fifty years later. 

The very first meal I ever cooked as a newly wed at nineteen was a baked casserole with Spam, noodles, sautéed onions and cheese sauce, and it went over big.  I still think fondly of that dish, how nice it looked (for a casserole, not one of cooking's glamour foods) and how good it tasted, how satisfactory it was.  I’ve since given up Spam due to the high salt content.  Old age will do that to you!

Karen Kinnane