‘Food’ Archives
Food Obsession: WHAT DID I TELL YOU?
By Jane Thomson I said to read the whole recipe before making the dish. Here are a couple of recipes that are easy to make if certain very specific instructions are followed. They are in caps here, but such details don”'t always hit you in the eye when you give a recipe the once-over. BEER BREAD ”“ this quick bread goes with anything and is good toasted. I got the recipe from Mary Gardner, who lives upstairs in my building. She is a frequent host; also an author and teacher at the Loft Literary Center. Among other books, she has written Outlaw Biker ”“ My Life at Full Throttle with her friend, Deadeye Hayes. Turn oven to 350 degrees. Grease an average-size bread pan very well. 12 oz. beer AT ROOM TEMPERATURE ¼ cup sugar 3 cups of “SELF-RISING” flour: no substitutions; no mixtures Mix sugar with flour, mix in beer, pour mixture into bread pan. Bake for 45 minutes; cool on rack, turning out of pan after about 15 minutes. [...]
Food Obsession: PANCAKES
By Jane Thomson More pancakes and less prose (could this be on a t-shirt?) Pancakes, combined with fruit and either milk, eggs, yoghurt or sausage make a decent meal. It”'s only when you take in “all you can eat” that they become a weight hazard. Any of the pancakes below would be good with syrup, honey or tart/sweet fruit jelly. WATKINS OATMEAL PANCAKES ”“ (This must refer to the Watkins company that sold household items, including vanilla, door to door. Perhaps they are still in business.) 1cup rolled oats ½ cup of whole wheat or unbleached white flour 1 ½ cup buttermilk or low-fat milk 2 eggs, beaten 2 tsp. baking powder 2 tsp. vanilla 1tsp. cinnamon (more…)
THIS IS GOOD OR I”'LL EAT MY CHRISTMAS TREE
By Jane Thomson My first recipe is from 97 ORCHARD , an Edible History of Five Immigrant Families, by Jane Ziegelman. This book interests me because my father grew up in a New York tenement (the word just meant “rental building” at the time; I don”'t know how shabby his family”'s apartment was, but I suspect it was not spacious). The building at 97 Orchard is on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and is now the Tenement Museum. It was built about 1860 and was abandoned after 1935. It has been preserved and restored. The first time I visited the building about 20 years ago, it was left just as it had been found. The tour started in the narrow dark front hall with a dingy frieze painted on the wall, a tin ceiling and rickety stairs going up to the next of several stories. We were then taken to an apartment composed of two small rooms with one window between them and one window to the outside. There were layers of old wallpaper peeling, and numbers on the wall [...]
