food

I made a dish this past weekend that used a recipe that has been in my family for many years. It’s a dish I helped my mom with many times as we often took it to potlucks. As I set out to make it, I realized I couldn’t picture mixing it in anything other than my mom’s (and now mine) yellow, Pyrex bowl. The bowl seemed almost as much a part of the recipe as the ingredients themselves!

From what I can tell from a few online sites, these bowls were manufactured in the 1950s. They are still the bowls I use more than any others.

Here’s the original recipe:

Stuffed French Rolls

1/2 dozen hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 pound. cheddar cheese, shredded
1 t salt
1 c vegetable oil
1 c tomato sauce
1 large onion, chopped
7 ounce olives, chopped
24 small french rolls

Combine all ingredients and let sit for several hours.

Scoop out insides of rolls. Fill cavity with mixture. Wrap in foil and steam in heavy covered roaster for 3 hours at 200°.

My main job as a kid was scooping out the insides of the rolls. As I got older, I filled and wrapped the rolls as well. When I decided to use this recipe for a party I had this past weekend, I wanted to find an easier way to use the filling without all the effort of stuffing and wrapping rolls.

My solution was to pull out my mini-muffin pan and buy some puff pastry. I cut each sheet of pastry into 24 squares, pressed them into the muffin pan, and filled each little puff with a dollop of the filling. Then baked at 400° for 12 minutes or so. Perfection!

The other change I made was to cut way, way down on the oil. I think I used about 1/8 of a cup; just enough to make everything come together. The recipe made enough for 72 little puffs: perfect vegetarian appetizers.

I made baklava yesterday. It’s the first time I’ve made it in two years, maybe three. My mom and I always baked a batch at Christmas time to give to various friends and neighbors. I didn’t make any last year as mom had just died* recently and I had been gone part of December and I didn’t have the heart or the time for it.

As I was putting it together yesterday, I realized that this is the first time I’ve made it without my mom’s help/supervision. I was a bit rusty at it, but I believe it is edible. I do think I’m going to have to calibrate my oven temperature, though, as it seemed to take too long to bake.

Walnuts and pistachios are common in baklava, but mom and I always made ours with a half and half mixture of pecans and almonds. Also, all the sweetness comes from drizzling honey over the baklava rather than a sugar syrup.

It didn’t turn out perfectly, but the piece I ate was certainly enjoyable. I’m going to be comfortable handing it out to my neighbors, at least.

*Is “died” too harsh a word here? I always feel a bit odd using euphemisms like “passed away”.

Tuples and Attributes

Vintage Pyrex

Baklava