Chip Dip

Christmastime gives me so much 'Mom' material I can barely keep up.  This isn't necessarily just a Christmas recipe, but one my family always had on Christmas Eve.  We call it Pond Family Chip Dip.  Or just Chip Dip, but I guess a more appropriate name would be Onion Dip.  Not French Onion, just Onion Dip.  My mom always made it in mass quantities partly because we always had a crowd, but partly because it was always everyone's favorite.  It's only appropriate that I made it today in her mixer and the photo above shows it in her Chip Dip bowl.  I don't know that this bowl saw any other kind of dip than Chip Dip.

It originated from my Dad's side, as his Mom, our Mimi, as we called her, would make it.  My Dad's Brother carries on the tradition as well, but makes it a bit different than my Mom.  My Uncle's is a bit sweeter and my Mom's is a bit more oniony.

There is of course no real recipe of how my Mom made it and adapted it.  Fortunately the Christmas before my Mom died I happened to wake up early.  My Mom was always the first one up and especially on Christmas Eve there was a lot of action going on in the kitchen.  I think by the time I got up she had already made her potatoes and crust for her quiche and numerous other recipes I have yet to post here.

I remember sitting at the counter by the Kitchen Aid while she was making Chip Dip.  As I sat down with a cup of coffee, she asked me, "Want to learn how to make Chip Dip?"  So I sat and watched and took it all in.  My Mom didn't measure.  As I think I've written here before, she was certainly not a measurer.  There was a lot of squirting from the ketchup bottle, pouring of the Worcestershire and sprinkling of my mom's favorite ingredient, Seasoned Salt.  Then she would just continue to taste it.  She had probably made it hundreds of times, so certainly didn't need a recipe.  Then she would turn on the mixer and just let it whirl.  My Mom used that Kitchen Aid Mixer for everything.  She would whip this dip for probably 15-20 minutes to get in a creamy consistency.  Maybe that's why her first mixer went kaput at some point.  She definitely put it to good use.

It was over a year before I tried it on my own.  There was a lot of tasting involved to figure out how to get it just right.  I had to test the color, the consistency and of course the flavor, but I think I got pretty close.  After getting the approval of my Dad I think it must be as close as any of us will ever get it.  Although I think that my Mom would laugh at this recipe and that it only lists to use three packages of cream cheese, I don't think she ever made it with less than ten since we always had at least 20 people over for Christmas Eve.  Try it for yourself.  Maybe it'll be a Christmas tradition in your family too....

Trish's Tips:  My Mom never took the time to bring the cream cheese to room temperature, but it really does help to keep the lumps out.  Taste as you go and make it your own.  Add more onion or more Worcestershire if you like a sharper flavor and more ketchup if you like it sweeter.

Pond Family Chip Dip

Ingredients:

3 - 8 oz. packages of cream cheese (1 1/2 lbs total)
4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3 TBL plus 1 tsp Ketchup
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
1/4 cup grated onion with juice (about 1/2 of small onion)
1 TBL milk (optional)

Directions:

Grate Onion on small side of box grater.  It should be just a pulp with no visible chunks of onion.  Put cream cheese in mixer.  Beat until soft.  Turn mixer off, scrape sides of bowl and turn on low.  Slowly add Worcestershire, Ketchup and seasoned salt.  Mix until smooth.  Add milk if needed for smoother consistency.  You may need depending on how juicy your onion is.

Cocktail Nuts

Cocktail nuts always remind me of my mom.  She was a member of a very exclusive Yahtzee Club in my neighborhood growing up where the neighborhood ladies would get together and play Yahtzee once a month to the wee hours.  My siblings and I could never sleep that night and would watch TV in my parents' room to the hoots of the Yahtzee ladies.  They always had a good time.  I always remember as a kid loving the one time a year that my mom hosted because that meant hors d'oeuvres for dinner.  It was my favorite dinner then and is my favorite dinner now.

The Yahtzee rules entailed that each member would only host once a year, but on that day of the year the hostess did everything, all the food, drinks, etc.  I remember my mom deciding what to make and getting it all prepped the day of.   She would set up card tables in the living room and on each table were a bowl of M&M's and a bowl of nuts.  I think she would make sure not to set those tables up too early because the M&M's were quite a draw for us as kids.   As an adult, the nuts are more of a draw for me.

These aren't the cocktail nuts that my mom would have, but I think she would have liked them.  They are a little bit sweet and a little bit spicy.  I brought them to a Christmas Party that I went to this weekend and they were a hit.  I used my favorite nuts: walnuts, pecans and almonds, although I still found myself picking out all the pecans.  Use your favorites.  They would also be a great homemade gift and are pretty simple to make.  Enjoy!

Trish's Tips:  Make sure to really let the nuts glaze and cook for the last part.  If not the sugar won't fully dissolve in the water and evenly coat and you will get more of a grainy texture.  Either way it will still be good, but will clump together more.  I made this mistake once.

Spiced Nuts
Adapted from Emeril Lagasse

Ingredients:
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 C unsalted mixed nuts, such as walnuts, almonds and pecans
4 TBL unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6 TBL brown sugar
1 tsp salt

Directions:
Line baking sheet with aluminum foil.  Put aside.  Mix spices and reserve.  Heat the nuts in a dry skillet over medium-high heat and cook, stirring frequently until they begin to toast about 5 minutes.  Add the butter and cook, stirring, until the butter melts and the nuts begin to darken, about 1-2 minutes.  Add the spices, the sugar, 1 TBL water and the salt and cook, stirring, until the sauce thickens and the nuts are glazed about 5 minutes.

Remove the nuts from the heat and transfer to the baking sheet, separating with a fork.  Let the nuts stand until cooled and the sugar has hardened, about 10 minutes.  Store in an airtight container.

Sugar Cookies

It's definitely that time of year.  My mom always had a huge list of cookies she would make, mostly to please each of us, her kids.  And with five kids each with different 'favorites', that meant a lot of cookies.  But we always had a crowd for Christmas so they definitely never went to waste.  These are Rachel's favorite.  My dad loves the peanut butter ones with the kisses, although actually he hates the kiss part and always rips that off.  You would open the tupperware container to a half full bin of cookies with several abandoned kisses.  La's favorite are definitely the buckeyes or peanut butter balls as we call them and often puts herself on a 'cookie quota' for fear of eating them for breakfast.  I guess mine always changed, my mom would always call and ask what she wanted me to make before coming home.  So we had our traditions, but also would throw in some new ones.  But she always made these.  Sometimes she would wait for all of us to come home before she baked them so we could all do it together, but either way they were always a staple on the cookie platter.

The original recipe is from a neighbor of my parents and it makes a ridiculous amount of cookies.  Sometimes we would start making them and just leave part of the dough in the freezer.  Too much to tackle.  That's probably why we would often have Valentines Day Sugar Cookies as well.  A way to use up all of that dough.  Those pink hearts are pretty cute though.  I've halved the recipe here for you.  I made the whole huge batch last night and thankfully had lots of friends to help.  My mom used to laugh how she had to make us do things like decorating the tree and making cookies, but somehow we all grew into loving it.  I think mostly we were just hard-to-please teenagers.  But even as we got older and were excited about making the cookies, at some point we would get bored of it and abandon my mom.   So half of the cookies would be cutely decorated with sprinkles and the whole bit, and the other half would be just a slab of frosting.  My poor mom.  The whole decorating thing got old and we just left her to the rest.  She would be left with probably 50 cookies to frost on her own.

Although these aren't my absolute favorite Christmas Cookie, for me they are so nostalgic.  They are of course a great recipe.  A little bit of citrus makes them a bit different than your standard sugar cookie.  And of course they are buttery with creamy frosting, but more than anything I just can't imagine Christmas without them.  And my mom would be happy to know this year that I stuck it out to the end although there was some talk about just having 'cookie dippers' rather than frosting the last few.  Some things never change I guess!

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

Cookies
1 1/3 Cup Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
1 tsp Orange Peel
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs
2 TBL Milk
2 tsp Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice
4 1/2 Cups Flour
1 TBL Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt

Frosting
1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Cups Powdered Sugar
1 TBL Milk

Directions:

Cookies
Mix flour, baking powder and salt in medium sized bowl.  Set aside.  In mixer, cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs and beat until fluffy.  Stir in milk, vanilla, orange peel and orange juice.  Slowly add dry ingredients.  Mix and divide in half and chill for at least an hour.

Preheat Oven to 375.  Roll and cut out dough to desired thickness.  Bake for 6-10 minutes depending on size of shape and thickness of dough.  Cookies are done when center no longer looks wet.  Or if you like them more crispy cook until ends start to turn golden brown.  Let cool before frosting and decorating.

Frosting
Mix all ingredients in mixer until smooth.  Make sure to let cookies dry before packing up.  Best to pack in layers in air-tight container.  Put wax paper between.

Soup Season

As the name of my blog would suggest, there really isn't a soup season.  But I don't think anyone will argue that when the weather drops like it has in the last couple of weeks in Chicago, soup sounds pretty darn good.  Especially Tomato Soup, maybe with a grilled cheese?  Other than mac 'n cheese, I can't think of a better comfort food.  I would say soup is definitely up there as the top things that my mom was great at making.  That and bread, which probably comes as no surprise to anyone reading this as those are the only posts I have made, although I will argue stew isn't really the same as soup.  All right, a bit of a stretch I know, but worth a try.

This recipe isn't one of my mom's, although I think she would have liked it.  It's one of Giada De Laurentiis' and my mom had all of her cookbooks.  She didn't always, okay never, cook from them verbatim but used them as inspiration.  She may have said, "I'm making tomato soup"  to which I would ask, "who's recipe?" to which she would answer, "a combination of Giada's, Barefoot's and Tyler Florence".  That translated meant that she would used aspects of each recipe and combine them to make her own creation.  And it was always good!  Hoping I can pick up that talent at some point.

I also think this time of year is very fitting for this recipe because it would be perfect for a Holiday Open House.  The deep red color with the rosemary garnish is particularly festive.  And, of course, soup is always great for entertaining.  In fact this is already on the menu for a baby shower that I am co-hosting in January.

I think the thing that I like best about it is that although it's a tomato soup, it's much more filling due to the beans than your standard tomato soup.  The white beans add a creaminess factor that you would otherwise have to add cream to get.  So it's also on the healthy side as you get the fiber and protein from the beans without all of the fat from the cream.  My mom probably wouldn't have liked that part of it, in fact I'm pretty sure she would have still added cream to it, and you should try that too.  It probably would be even better than it is here.  Try it and let me know what you think!

Trish's Tips:  Make sure to cut the carrot smaller than the onions or let simmer for longer than 30 minutes.  If not, they don't do well in the puree stage and you will end up with chunks of carrot.  You could also use a food mill to puree.  If you are using a blender BE CAREFUL! The steam can literally blow the top off of your blender.  I suggest filling only halfway, then removing the cap from the little whole and covering with a towel while you blend.  This enables the steam to get out.  This soup has a little bit of a kick.  If you are a bit wimpy when it comes to spice, decrease the amount of red pepper flakes or leave them out all together.  (By my use of the word 'wimpy', can you tell that I love spice?)  I certainly wouldn't describe this as spicy, but it does have a bit of a kick to it.

Hearty Tomato Soup with Lemon Zest & Rosemary
Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients
2 TBL olive oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 carrots, (about 1 cup) peeled and chopped (better to chop smaller than the onions)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1- 15 oz can cannelini or other white beans, drained and rinsed
1 - 28 oz can crushed or diced tomatoes with liquid
3 cups chicken broth
1 bay leaf
2 tsp minced fresh rosemary, separated (1 tsp for mixing in and 1 tsp for garnish)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
Slices of fresh mozzarella or goat cheese to top with
Zest of one lemon

Directions
Heat a large pot over medium-high heat.  Add the onion, carrots and garlic and cook until the vegetables are tender but not browned, about 5-10 minutes.  Add the beans, tomatoes, broth, bay leaf, 1 tsp rosemary, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.  Bring the soup to a boil over high heat and then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes, covered.

Puree the soup in a blender in batches, being careful to remove and discard the bay leaf.  Return the soup to a soup pot and keep warm over low heat.  Taste and season as needed.

Serve topped with cheese and a bit of lemon zest and remaining 1 tsp rosemary.

Rye Bread

I've wanted to make my mom's rye bread for about a year now, but haven't built up the courage to do it.  Mainly because as you've probably read in my previous blog post, I am not exactly a pro with bread.   Especially one that doesn't come with explicit instructions on how long to 'knead' with the dough hook in my Kitchen Aid Mixer.  My mom thought that was ridiculous that I didn't do it by hand.  You know, the ONE time that I had made bread.  What finally pushed me over the edge was that we have all been craving it since the last time she made it.  It's just not like any other bread.  When other people think of rye bread they think of the marble kind you can buy to make sandwiches with.  But this one's different.  It's dense like a homemade wheat bread but with a bit of a sour taste like sourdough and the distinct flavor of rye.  So I just couldn't take it.  If I wanted it I just had to make it.  People needed me to make it.  So that was what pushed me to finally do it.  That and my sister, you know the one who bakes, was visiting.  So let's call this a team effort.

Thankfully, at least we had something to start with as my aunt had the original recipe.  We started with a loose, and when I say loose, I mean LOOSE family recipe.  I think most family recipes are like that.  Passed down written in cursive from some far off relative with basically just ingredients, and no real instructions.  Maybe we are just spoiled now with how recipes are written, with each exact detail step by step.  Real cooks just throw it all together and it tastes good.  But okay, I'll admit it; I'm not a real cook and certainly not a real baker!  So I need a recipe.  So, with the help of my sister, La, I decided to document it.   The problem was my mom had adapted it so much herself.  And we all kept saying 'if only she had written it down!' but really I don't think even my mom knew the recipe.  She just poured the flour and the water and went by touch, texture, smell.  Which after years of practice I hope to be able to too.  But for now I'm a measurer.  Who am I kidding; I will always be a measurer.

My only experienced with this bread (other than eating it) was watching my mom make it from a distance.  Not the involved student I wish I would have been, but probably while lying on the couch like a lazy teenager watching "Guiding Light" or something.  My mom would pull out this enormous silver bowl and then plop the dough on the counter.  There was a ton of it, and she would knead it for what seemed like forever, then let it rise for forever, then put it neatly into 4 loaf pans and let it rise again... for forever!  But, my mom definitely didn't follow the rules of letting the bread cool, cause as soon as it came out of the oven she would pretty much let us cut into it.  It seemed like such an involved process, but what I learned in doing it myself was that it really is quite easy.  Okay, okay, no bread is easy, but as bread goes, pretty easy.  Definitely a lot of waiting around, but it maybe took 30 minutes of actual work before the first rise, then 10 minutes of work before the second rise.  And the whole kneading thing was not nearly as intimidating as I had made it out to be.  I think that I was still bruised from my bad pizza dough incident.  The only real pain in the butt is cleaning your counter from that sticky dough mess.  (Take a tip from my mom and scrape it with a spatula.)

Batch 1 of the bread was good.  Very good.  Just not my mom's bread.  We added molasses as my mom did to the family recipe, but we were a bit heavy-handed.  And it just didn't taste rye-y enough.  I have to admit I was disappointed it didn't turn out right away.  Granted it was only our first try and only my third time making bread, but at least it did turn out.  And we were close.  Very close.  And the second batch was perfect!  Well almost, I didn't have butter to smear on top so we used olive oil, but then it absorbed, so La decided to put some on after it rose.  Big mistake.  It smushed down and didn't re-rise.  So it was good, just flat.  It was the size of a loaf of banana bread.  So day 3/batch 3 of being a human bread making machine I was getting a bit cocky doing it without La, and realized that I didn't quite have that kneading thing down.  But it still turned out.  This time perfectly.  As soon as we cut into it, (right out of the oven, not because we were impatient, just 'cause you know, we gotta test the entire process), and we slathered a thick slab of butter, and ate it with smiles on our faces, we knew we had nailed it.  Feel free to modify it to your liking.  Less rye, more white, add some flax seeds or oatmeal, more molasses, cook on a stone instead of in a loaf pan.  For my family, you better believe there will be no modifications because bread that tastes like my mom's needs no modifications.  And this one does, if I do say so myself.

Trish's Tips:  The only change that we did make from my mom's is to grease the pans with butter instead of Crisco.  Something about shortening is just so unnatural to me, but it will yield a bit more of a crispy crust.  Try adjusting this recipe to make it your own as my mom did.  The original recipe did not have molasses and only had half the rye listed here.  Also delicious as toast with peanut butter, which I know sounds weird, but is seriously good.

Rye Bread

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients:

2 C Warm Water

1 ½-Tbl yeast (2 packets)

2 TBL sugar

3 to 3 1/2 C Rye flour

3 Tbls Olive Oil plus more for bowl

1 Tbl salt

2 ½-4 ½-C white flour

1/4 C Molasses

2-3 Tbl Butter for greasing pans

Directions:

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water in a large bowl.  Stir in sugar.  Let stand 5 minutes or until foamy.

Add Rye Flour, 3 TBL Olive Oil, Salt and stir to mix.  Mixture will be wet.  Add 1-1 1/2 Cups White Flour, ½ Cup at a time, mixing with a wooden spoon until mixture is kind of dry.  Add molasses.  Stir until well mixed.  Add an additional ½ C to 1 C flour as needed.  Mixture should still be fairly wet, but will hold together. 

Pour out onto floured board or countertop.  Sprinkle with more flour and knead until elastic.  You will probably need to add about ½ C - 1 Cup flour.

Pour a couple of tablespoons of Olive Oil in the same bowl used to mix dough.  Put dough in bowl and flip dough so that both sides are coated with oil.  Put clean towel over top and let rise in draft-free place until doubled in size, about 2-4 hours.

Just before starting this step prepare loaf pans by greasing pans with butter.  Dump dough onto floured work surface.  Knead every so gently to get the dough into the shape of 2 small loaves in order to fit in the loaf pans.  The dough will deflate but be careful to not over-knead.  Shape into 2 small loaves and place each in pan.  Gently smear soft (but not melted) butter on the top and sides of the loaves.  (Be generous.)  Let rise in a warm, draft-free place with a towel draped over the top of the pans for an additional 2-4 hours or until the dough rises to the top of the loaf pan. 

Preheat oven to 350 and bake for 25-35 minutes or until done.  The bread should sound hollow when tapped.

Let cool on cooling rack or if you don’t have one, just turn on its side to allow optimal air circulation for cooling.

Stew in Summertime?

Sounds weird right?  Well it is... a little.  Stew In Summertime is a tribute to my mother who made her own rules.  She was known for eating pie for breakfast, feeling that potatoes were the most nutritional vegetable (potassium, people!), and making beef stew in the middle of summer.  She taught me a love of cooking, the art of entertaining, and the how-to's of bread making, homemade soups and the secret to her famous chip dip.  Just a few months before she died I called her maybe 15 times as I made my first attempt at homemade bread.  She walked me through all of it step by step as I asked what I thought were hard questions, like what does 'warm' water mean, how long do you knead the dough and what the heck do they mean by 'elastic'?  She was incredibly patient, one would have to be getting that many calls over the same thing, especially when it came so easy to her.   These last few months I've thought how I'll make my next 'homemade bread', whatever that may be, without her.

'Stew in Summertime" the blog is a way for me to continue cooking and learning even though I have do it without her.  She taught me a lot, but there is still much to learn.  Through this blog I'll share some of the recipes and tips that I learned from her and also bravely try the recipes she didn't get a chance to teach me.  And I will try to crack the code on the recipes she made frequently, but never really wrote down.  She was known for saying 'we could make this', after trying a recipe at a restaurant, and although it wouldn't always taste the same, it would often taste better.  That is yet another thing I wish I had learned from her.

As I was driving home to Michigan to see my family the summer before she died, I asked her what she was making for dinner and she told me, "Beef Stew".  Since I had just left 75 degree weather,  I joked with her and asked if it was a 'blustery cold day' that June day.  Which in my defense is not that out of the question where I grew up in Marquette, Michigan.  Knowing my sarcastic sense of humor, she laughed and said, "well, it is kind of cold here".  It didn't really matter either way, because it was good!  I can almost see her big blue Le Creuset almost bubbling over with the deliciousness.  It smells like home to me.  Here's my version.

Trish's Tips:  Sometimes I leave the potatoes out and serve over mashed potatoes instead.  I think it makes it a bit more dressed up for a dinner party.  I also love the addition of mushrooms here, but feel free to leave them out if you like it more traditional.  Slow cooker?  I go into phases where I love mine and sometimes I think it's more work to pull it out.  If you love yours first do all of the sauteing in a pan, through the deglazing part, then throw all the ingredients in the slow cooker and cook on high for 5-6 hours or low for 9-10 hours.

INGREDIENTS:
Olive Oil for sauteing meat and veggies
24 oz beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 TBL all purpose flour
8 oz cremini mushrooms, quartered
5-6 carrots diagonally cut in 1-inch pieces (about 1 1/2 cups)
3 cups peeled potatoes chopped into 1-inch pieces (about 4 medium Yukon Gold)
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
3-4 stalks celery, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)

2 cups beef broth

1 1/2 cups red wine

2 (14.5 oz) cans stewed tomatoes, undrained
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves

3 sprigs of fresh thyme

Kosher salt to taste
Freshly ground pepper to taste
3 to 4 TBL chopped fresh parsley

Put Beef in a medium sized bowl and add 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.  Toss to coat.  Dredge beef in flour.  Heat 2 TBL oil in a large Dutch oven over med-high heat.  Add beef and cook until browned, but not cooked through on all sides.  Don't crowd the pan, cook in batches if necessary.  Remove beef from pan and put aside in bowl.  Add more oil if needed.  Saute mushrooms until browned.  Remove mushrooms and add to the beef.  Saute carrots, celery, and onions until carmelized to your liking.  Add garlic and saute for 1 minute or until garlic is fragrant.  Deglaze plan with beef broth.

Add wine, beef, mushrooms, potatoes, bay leaves, thyme, tomatoes and 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.  Then uncover and cook for 30 minutes or until beef is tender and vegetables are cooked.  Discard bay leaves.  Serve with chopped parsley on top for an added bit of freshness.