Spaghetti with Scallops

from Bonnie Stern in Canadian Living @ 1985

1 Tbsp salt & 1 Lb Italian Spaghetti

1/2 best quality olive oil
6 med cloves fresh garlic, finely chopped
1/4 tsp dried red pepper / crushed chilis

1 lb sea scallops, quartered
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 chopped fresh parsley

1/3 c toasted fresh fine bread crumbs

Cook spaghetti until tender with 1 tbsp salt.

In large skillet, heat oil gently (medium low).  Add garlic and red pepper; cook 5 minutes without browning.

Add scallops, salt, black pepper and parsley. Cook 2 minutes until scallops are opaque.

(Meanwhile toast breadcrumbs in separate, dry frying pan on medium-high heat.  Do not burn!)

Drain spaghetti and shake out excess water. Place in deep serving dish. Top with bread crumbs.  Pour scallops and sauce over. Toss until sauce coats all noodles.

Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

Fudge Nougats

These are not real fudge, more of a square, but they are chewy and yummy and, above all, chocolate.  If you use a small pan (8'' x 8") it makes these quite thick, so best to cut them into 1/2-inch bits.  And then eat more :-) 

Mom sent me the recipes, though I had them on my list anyway. The orange zest is new, but yummy.  Peppermint extract has been known to find its way into these too, specially when I was on a peppermint kick a while ago. 

(Mom writes: "How many hundreds of these have I made?"  Many, Mom, many!)

Ingredients

• 1 cup  sugar
• ¾ cup  flour
• ½ cup  butter
• 1 can 15 oz sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup (6 oz ) semi-sweet chocolate pieces
• Zest of one orange
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• ¾ cup chopped pecans (originally walnuts, which are known as "Death to Barbs"
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup miniature marshmallows

Instructions

 

In saucepan, combine sugar, flour, butter and condensed milk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly; boil 1 minute.

Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients except marshmallows; mix well. Fold in marshmallows. Spread in buttered 12 x 8 inch pan. Cool.

Peanut Butter Nougats

Substitute 1 cup chopped peanuts for the pecans or walnuts.  Add ¼ cup peanut butter with the chocolate pieces.

THE Shrimp Dip

This is the ne plus ultra family recipe.  It has been shared more broadly than we can ever know - certainly across Canada, to spots in the States, to England, and I think even South Africa.

Originally made with Campbell's FROZEN Cream of Shrimp soup (who knew?!), we now stock up on Cream of Shrimp soup whenever anyone travels to the States. 

I think the original recipe came from the label... (Edit: Not that Mom is aware. )

Ingredients

• 1 can cream of shrimp soup
• 1 pkg cream cheese, softened at room temperature (8 oz.  the white Philly stuff)
• 1 clove garlic, crushed (at least one! Mom makes it with more, but everyone has to have some dip!)
• 1 small tin of cocktail shrimp, drained

Instructions

Blend the cream cheese with a Kitchen Aid, Mix Master, beaters etc. until soft.  Add soup, undiluted, and garlic. Blend well.  (Edit: Mom says she adds a bit of soup to start the cream cheese blending more easily).  Fold in the shrimp by hand with a rubber spatula.

Transfer to individual serving bowls, or one large one if you trust there are no double dippers around.  Refrigerate a few hours to let the flavours blend.  (Edit: Mom says she will often make it in the morning for that evening.) Serve with Ruffles potato chips for ultimate shrimp scooping*.  Serves fewer than you'd like, so I recommend doubling the recipe.

*I don't do seafood so I just dip my chips in, avoiding the shrimp *grins*

Birthday Macaroni

Way back through the mists of time, my mother made macaroni and cheese.  Like many things, it was partly economic necessity, partly good wholesome comfort food.  

I still have a memory of watching how she did it, the best way to learn to cook.  My Friend Janice (tm)  grew up with the exact same dish, one city away.  My suspicion is it was in a newspaper supplement, or the "red cookbook," Good Housekeeping.

At the time, Velveeta cheese food product was what most considered "cheese".  It did melt in a way that gave any sauce a smoothness that can't be duplicated. I don't use it.

When Katy was very little and we were at Mom and Dad's cottage, she asked for macaroni for her birthday meal.  We bought multicoloured noodles - from the natural foods store, so the colour was derived from vegetables - and though the choice of noodles was meant to be healthier, they were also bright and festive. And hence, "Birthday Macaroni." 

NOTE: The crumbs must be corn flakes!

2013 Update:  Elle asked me to make her some Birthday Macaroni during a particularly stressful final year of her degree.  When I told her My Friend Janice (tm) had grown up with the exact same recipe, Elle nodded. "It's a good one; I've found it on the web even." 

Then a pause.  "Oh! It was the one on your blog!" HIGHEST PRAISE!





TOOLS

Large soup/stock pot
Long-handled spoon (wooden's nice, and cheap at the dollar store)
Wire wisk
Grater, with those big holes for shredding

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound of macaroni noodles, Catelli Smart or mixed vegetable-based
• 1/2 cup butter, melted and separated into two 1/4 cups
• 1/4 cup chopped onion (perhaps left over from making Speedy Tomato Vegetable Soup and / or Cheese Dreams?)
• 1/4 tsp oregano or basil, dried
• 1/4 cup flour (needless to say, Canadian all-purpose is what I use, but U.S. all-purpose is softer than ours... more of importance when making bread than a white-sauce roux but worth pointing out) 
• 2 or so cups of milk
• 1 can tomatoes, crushed or diced type  (preferably 19-oz can, but the 28-oz are the ones sold in case lots and usually more readily to hand.  Or use half of a large can in Speedy Tomato Vegetable Soup!)
• Cheese, grated*
• Pinch of dry mustard
• Black pepper
• 1/2 cup to a cup of crushed Corn Flakes cereal.  Kellog's makes the crunchiest.

* This is where the art comes in.  Use at least 2 cups of any medium or strong Cheddar.  Bits of others added in make it interesting, such as Jack or Asiago.  Strong flavours like blue or Roquefort will make things perhaps more interesting than you'd like.  Cheez Whiz or Velveeta if you must.  Leftover slices from Cheese Dreams will make it creamier.

INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the oven.  I am never quite sure to what.  Try 375F.

Cook the noodles in tons of water, loads of water.  Bring a huge pot to the boil, and sprinkle in the noodles with one hand, stirring them into the water with a wooden spoon with the other.  The goal is to keep each bit of past swimming alone, so they don't glom onto each other and stick. They are starches after all!   Tip: Don't cover the pot with a lid! It will boil over no matter how much you swear you'll keep an eye on it!

Meanwhile, in a pretty big pot (like a Dutch oven) over medium heat, heat the first 1/4 cup of butter with the onions and the herb. When the butter's bubbly, stir in the flour with the whisk.  Add the milk, stirring till it thickens slightly.

Check the pasta.  Drain.

Use the spoon to stir the tomatoes and the cheeses into the sauce.  It should be thickish, and if the heat's not too high, it won't curdle.  If it does, take it off the stove, whisk the bejeezlies out of it and use it anyway!

Pour the pasta into a serving dish that is bigger than you think you need, cos you need tossing room.  Pour the sauce over it and fold it in. 

Sprinkle crumbs all over the top, covering completely.  Pour the butter over evenly as possible.

Bake about 25 minutes. Let sit up to 1/2 hour.   Serve with salad, or veggies and dip, or just a big glass of milk and the salt shaker!  Serves 4 with leftovers.


TIP  To reheat the next day, either add 1 Tbsp of milk, and reheat in the oven or in a saucepan on the stove.  If microwaving, do it on medium or lower power power, because of the cheese (makes it separate and stringy).



And before you ask, No; though I put (smushed) tomatoes in mac and cheese, I do NOT put ketchup on Kraft dinner!

Speedy Tomato Vegetable Soup

Margo Oliver was an iconic Canadian food journalist, who published in the Weekend magazine we'd get with the newspaper on, well, the weekend!

I googled Margo Oliver, and found a delightful blog of recipes clipped and saved by a soul as busy as I have been over the years ...

I copied this recipe into the "green cookbook" a good twenty-five years ago, but hadn't made it in at least a decade. A cold rainy day not long ago called for soup, and this came back to mind. It's so basic, so quick and so good.

Yes, the photo is of an Andy Warhol painting; many don't know what Consommé is, so how better to show it?

See below for an even simpler, very elegant clear soup to serve at dinner parties (yay! people are having dinner parties again!)


Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 stalks celery, sliced medium (cut the stalks lengthwise first if they're wider than an inch)
• 10-oz can consommé (that's the small, "normal" size)
• 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 tsp. salt (or none, this is an old recipe when salt went into everything)
• 1 c. canned* tomatoes (I buy diced or crushed; if whole, crush or cut them in the can with a potato masher or knife)
• 1/8 tsp. black pepper
• 1 bay leaf, crumbled (I just break it into two or three pieces)

*(one cup of tomatoes isn't a lot, and we usually have the big 28-oz cans, so I usually use the whole big can anyway... and two consommé cans... and more vegetables :-)

Instructions

Heat butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, stir 2 minutes. Add celery, stir one minute. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer until vegetables are tender, 10-15 minutes. Serves 3. Doubles readily.

Bonus! SUPER EASY ELEGANT SOUP FOR DINNER PARTIES

• Consomme, 1 can
• Tomato juice or V8 juice, 10 oz.
• Lemon, scrubbed clean in cold water then sliced ever-so-thinly

Empty can of consommé into a saucepan. Pour tomato juice or V8 juice into the empty consommé can, then add that to the saucepan. Heat on medium-high, but don't boil.

Ladle into soup bowls and float a lemon slice on each. Serves 4 as an appetizer.

Cheese Dreams

A Christmas morning tradition now, I grew up with these as a various-meals concoction.

Originally, they were made with hamburger buns, but Mom switched to English Muffins, and that's much better. I have made them at Pathfinder and Brownie camps, mostly without onion. They're now a tradition with my old Brownie group!

Long experience and fiddling has shown that cutting the toppings into smaller bits means less struggling to cut in half, and to bite. These are to be eaten by hand and served warm. Cut with a large pizza cutter.

Ingredients*

• English muffins, regular or extra crispy, but not whole wheat. Split
• Bacon (streaky), preferably maple smoked
  
• Ripe tomato, sliced moderately, then cut into quarters.
• Process cheese slices, regular thickness
• White onion, sliced moderately and chopped into 1/2 inch bits

*How much of each? People will eat more than they think. So go for at least 2 Cheese Dreams per person.
*Each Cheese Dream takes 1 slice of cheese, 1/2 English muffin, 1 slice of bacon, 1/2 slice tomato, 1/2-1/4 slice onion

Instructions 

Cook bacon until almost done but still soft, then cut into thirds. Place English muffin halves cut side up on wire rack on cookie sheet. Cover each with cheese slice. Top with combination of toppings, but in this order from cheese up:

• tomato
• onion
• bacon

Broil at least 6 inches from broiler 2-3 minutes. Watch them; they'll burn easily.