Making Recipes from the Heart and other romance

As the summer clouds lit by the setting sun are simply gorgeous this time of year, the view inspires us to reflect on the last year which seems to have lasted for four.

When I was in high school, we traveled in packs, at first transported by our moms, then by bike, and eventually, the moment 16 arrived, by borrowed car. And wherever we landed, no matter how many of us were there, that is where we would eat dinner.

The food itself didn’t matter so much; it was always good because we were hungry, and you could taste the love the moms that was put into it.

At the bicycle stage, we would sometimes choose to go Dairy Joy in Weston for hamburgers, fries and a cone of raspberry sherbet. When we got to the car stage, we skipped stopping at our homes and went for New London Style Pizza in Concord.

All of it was good, for the company you keep makes food taste great!

I can still get pizza and raspberry sherbet. The moms, though, have mostly all passed away. Even if the meals they made were old-fashioned and out of style, I still miss them and the love that was cooked in.

Some of the most memorable meals are not the ones that are amazing, but the opposite – meals that were made from an old family recipe handed down from grandmother to mother. Or, when no recipe was used – not sure if that would have helped – but often it was just a memory, a little of this and a lot of that.

And that was the exciting part. We were a rambunctious group and more than once someone’s mother offered to hit me on the back of the head with a spoon saying, “You’re not too old for me to paddle you!”. All because I dared to ask what it was we were eating.

With all family dishes, if we are lucky enough, we get a box of recipes passed on to us. Within the box there are a few winners of course, yet realistically what was good 50 years or more ago might not be so good anymore.

Ingredients themselves have changed. The flour my mom used had a week of shelf life; today with all the desiccants, flour lasts forever. Milk and butter taste different, we have access to better and more varieties of chocolate, seasonings, even fresh fruits and vegetables. And now the end result of our cooking is different.

We modify ingredients and recipes to match our taste buds of today, all the while paying homage to our moms. What is passed on from these recipes is the love and caring our parents shared through food brought to the table.

It is not the flavor of the food that I miss, it is the memory of being at the table together and the love we were fed.

This homemade meatloaf with Worcestershire sauce and oatmeal recipe calls for adding pinhead oats to a blend of beef and Italian Sausage herbs and spices. The flavor is brightened by Worcestershire Sauce, Hawkshead Black Garlic Ketchup and the pinhead oats provide good texture without being gummy – a satisfying and really delicious combination.

Oatmeal and breadcrumbs have long been used in meatloaf as extenders and to keep the meat moist. Using breadcrumbs will yield a soft, tender texture, while the pinhead oats produce a firmer more interesting loaf.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can adjust and modify and not be perfect with the quantity and it is still good! The quantity in this recipe is good for a gaggle of actors. Making less is easy as the ratio of ingredients is not critical.

This sugar is at the top of my list to always have on hand. Use it once and you will see that this is how you want sugar to be. It has flavor, it has personality, it is alive! Use this for everything all summer long!

From one of my all time favorite cookbooks! And the restaurant made famous by VISA tv ad. This recipe is adapted from the Fog City Diner Cookbook by Cindy Pawlcyn (Ten Speed Press)

Pale, delicate, and large-grained -- Demerara cane sugar is the English version of turbinado sugar. It gives an appealing sparkle to the tops of cookies, simple cakes or bread puddings, eliminating the need for frostings or drizzles. Since it has just a hint of molasses flavor, it's also a good choice for hot breakfast cereals, yogurts, or a steaming cup of morning coffee or tea.

Made from sugar cane grown in rich, volcanic soil.

I make this recipe all the time. The combination of the igredients adds a lot of moisture, so baking times are a bit longer than you might expect. Banana Bread is a recipe that becomes your own as you make it.

I like to toast my slices and then slather them in butter.

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Shepherd's pie is one of those dishes that I love so much that I am constantly tweaking the recipe every time I make it to make it better.

It doesn't mean that the previous version, which was absolutely fabulous, was bad; it just means that the dish is an old friend, and we are constantly jiggling how we bond together.

From broad brush strokes to little pokes and dashes of this and that, helps to find our way, changes the taste, yet keeps the core the same.

It is the dish that I have had on my birthday for over 20 years now. It's simple like me, it's calming, it's home, it's friendly, it's fulfilling, and it's wonderful as a leftover.

What more could you want from a friendship that is virtually impossible to screw up? It is just plain right.

With a great history and many variations, this is so hearty and tasty and easy to do.

No flour or dairy needed. We like to add salt and pepper when serving. We have found some like it really salty and others don’t want any salt at all.

If planned correctly (pre-make the mashed potatoes) you can finish this over an open fire when camping.

Delicate yet not very flavorful, rice bran oil just may be the world's healthiest edible oil. Rice bran oil comes from the most nutritious part of the rice grain, loaded with monounsaturated fats & polyunsaturated fats, as well as vitamin E.

With a smoke point of approximately 485°F (252°C), rice bran oil performs well at high temperatures and is comparable to or higher than many common cooking oils, including peanut and grapeseed oil. This high smoke point helps reduce oil breakdown during cooking. Its relatively light viscosity may also result in less oil absorption in foods, which can help reduce overall fat intake. Many chefs report needing less oil compared to heavier oils.

Eating Feuilletine Flakes by the handful is like the best cookie ever, but not quite. By adding luxurious hazelnut creme from Andrea Slitti and a bunch of fabulous chocolate you get a cookie that has just about everything you might want, since it is like a great candy bar!

Also known as Paillete Feuilletine (tm), these Crepes Dentelles crumbs are hard-to-find pastry crunch and are normally only found in commercial kitchens.

As Tina said in Food & Wine Magazine,

"Add these buttery, toasty-sweet shards to ganache, frostings and truffles for a super crunch."

Called for in classic French recipes, these pastry flakes are a common ingredient when making Praline Feuillete or filling for Praline.

This time consuming, therapeutic, recipe is one of my all time favorites. Easy to make, (after you make it a couple of times) each segment takes time; Stirring, using an electric mixer and even artistic knife skills are involved. The result is grand! And, since everyone likes cheesecake, they will not only be impressed, they will be filled with the joy of cheesecake.

When we first made this we were a little bit on the "eh" side. Then overnight, it chilled and it was delish! Given how easy it is to make it is a nice go to recipe for cheeseckae.

With just four ingredients, the only skill you need is to mixing (and a little melting) to make this drop dead delicious cake!

The best thing about this cake is that it is totally forgiving. Getting it perfect might not be possible, as there is no perfect. It is chocolate, butter, sugar and eggs! You can make it, most likely, right out of what you have in your pantry.

Remember to use only really good chocolate to have the best success in this extra rich chocolate cake recipe.

Professional pastry chefs are using ChefShop Grande Brut because it does several things well at once: deep flavor, smooth texture, rich color, easy blending, low acidity, and real versatility across applications. It is a many-trick cocoa powder.

We stock it now because after working with it ourselves, we found it spectacular! It makes a giant difference!

ChefShop Grande Brut contains 22% to 24% cocoa butter. That is significantly higher than most cocoa powders on the market, and it is one of the main reasons we chose it. That extra cocoa butter is not a minor detail. It changes how the cocoa tastes, how it blends, and what your finished desserts actually feel like.

Most people focus on cocoa percentage (and with cocoa powder it is always 100% as it has no sugar) and overlook fat content entirely. It is the balance between cocoa mass and cocoa butter that matters. Cocoa butter is the natural fat in the cacao bean, and it shapes everything about how cocoa performs in a recipe.
Shop now for ChefShop Grande Brut Cocoa Powder here!