I came home from a business trip and found these boxes on my porch.

No note. No postage. Obviously I’m not important enough to be sent anthrax (though I *am* still hot enough to be roofied thankyouverymuch), so I opened them right away.

My grandmother has been gone for at least fifteen, maybe twenty years, and I still get little presents like this. It’s kind of awesome. My mom must have gone through her garage/attic and found these; the boxes were full of more(!) recipes, service-ware, depression glass, canning equipment and silver. That’s right bitches. Silver.

How’s that against the price of Euro? In your face EURASIA.

So I’m inspired. Sunday Suppers are being revived tomorrow. I’ll be cooking from my new old recipes and serving on my new old silver. If I can google how to polish silver.

Also, for those internet friends that aren’t real-life friends, Fu-Dog ate his final rack of ribs (true story) this winter. So this post is also the introduction of our new (terrible) pup Ovie! (short for Overlook Boulevard Fitzhaurer…old money…from the kind of family that had fucking buckets of silver).

I hope I still remember how to mold gelatin. Kidding. I do.

fyeahstrangefinds:

Sushi USB Flash Drives (Source)

My grandmother had plastic fruit and butterfly magnets in her kitchen. I would sit on the floor and reorganize them for hours while she cooked. These remind me of them.

Week 11: No Seriously. Anchovy paste? Sign me up.  Caesar dressing? Love it. Anchovies out of a can and on my homemade pizza? Fucking disgusting.

MENU PLANNING
The time had come to put some vegetables in gelatin. If you are an avid reader, you know that I’ve been avoiding it. Now, I know that a tomato is a fruit. But it isn’t. When you put that shit in gelatin, you’ve jumped head first into vegetable/Jello territory. Tomato Aspic was happening whether my guests knew it or not. They did not know it.

I thought I’d owe it to the gang to serve something else substantial and delicious if the first course was going to be terrible. Everyone likes pizza. Except my Aunt Sam, who hated bread before Atkins, and wasn’t coming anyway. Seriously, though, who hates bread?

Next I chose the tossed spring salad (which was really a slaw) because I feel like every pie needs a side salad. I decided to end with a delicious looking cake, mostly because I wanted my friends to forget about the aspic.

COOKING
I started the pizza dough Saturday night. I like my dough a little saltier, but it was a basic and good recipe. When I put the pies together on Sunday, I only made one exactly according to the recipe—I left the anchovies off of the remaining three. Thank god.

Making the aspic was interesting; you start by making a simple tomato sauce. After it’s simmered for a while, you strain it, add the gelatin, and pour it into the molds. I added a few slices of celery for good looks.

I gave my mom and the spices pamphlet and a grater. She made the slaw.

I baked the cake earlier in the afternoon. I mixed up the yellow banana batter and a light chocolate batter, then added them in alternating scoops to a bundt pan. The banana batter was insanely delicious. You should make this cake. Once it had cooled, I made the fudge frosting. It was way too thick when made according to the recipe, so I used an old Paula Deen trick and whipped in a stick of butter. Angels sang.

EATING
Unmolding the aspic was a disaster. When I used hot enough water to get them to release, it melted all the edges. I would not recommend using individual tart pans for gelatin. It was super hilarious on the presentation side, however, which pretty much made it worth it. The recipe called for a piece of lettuce and a scoop of mayo. Yeah.

Here I am trying to explain what the hell aspic is…

The rest of the table looked nice.

So, I have to admit, the aspic wasn’t terrible. It kind of tasted like a virgin bloody mary, which gave me an idea for some really amazing jello shots. I try to look for the silver lining in everything. The slaw tasted better than it looked, but it wasn’t really note-worthy. The pizza with the anchovies was inedible. I mean, really, really, fucking gross. The rest of the pies were good—I wouldn’t replace my usual pizza recipe with this one, but it was solid.

The real star of the show was the horoscope cake. The marbling effect must be thought to represent some star sign, otherwise I have no idea why it’s called that. Anyway, my marbling didn’t look like anything, other than delicious. This cake was the money. The best of all the suppers, for sure, and probably my new favorite of all time. It’s almost worth eating aspic and anchovies just to get to it. Or not.

GUEST COMMENTS
Not enough Jello is flavored like vegetables. You have appropriately sought to remedy this. —Mike O

Aspic should stay in the 30s. —Kara

If the aspic were a blow job, it was not performed by a gay man. Rather this was more like a first blow job. It had potential, there were elements hinting toward a bright future…not enough lip, too much teeth. —Michael K

Anchovies=FAIL —Teela

Second best tossed salad I’ve had today. —[privacy protected]

The salad reminded me of something my grandmother would make. —Regan

The food got progressively better..wine? —Teela

I think a BJ is third base. —Angie

The pizza dough was fantastic. —Michael K

The only side effect of my sex life is orgasms. —Bridget

The pizza was great, I’d make it myself and have it again. —Regan

The anchovies were awful, but dessert was awesome! —Mom

The horoscope cake was perfect. I’d pay for it and wouldn’t be disappointed if I had. —Michael K

Loved the chocolate cake. I’m pretty much a fan of anything chocolate. Which is why I like myself a lot. —Teela

Now that I’ve been invited to one of these I will begin reading the blog again. I had stopped several weeks ago in protest. Just kidding. I never read it. —Mike O

WEEK 10, The One Where Brendan Didn’t Get the Memo
In honor of Katie McHugh’s birthday, Sunday Supper was a Saturday cocktail party. I forgot to tell Brendan that, so he wasn’t here to shoot it. Then my phone broke. These are the only images that remain. Which might be for the best, if you consider how many highballs the girls and I consumed.

MENU PLANNING
Katie is a reeeealllll classy girl. For her party, she only asked for the Rum and Gingerale Highballs. Understanding that she and everyone else attending were sloppy drunks, I filled out the menu with some fancy finger food. It kind of worked. My grandmother left me about 1000 photo references for assorted canapes. Most of them had titles or suggested ingredients, but none really had recipes. The focus here is on presentation.

COOKING
Technically, the only thing I cooked was Jamaican Lamb. The recipe came from the 1934 pamphlet “How to Cook with Spices.” Everything else was basically some cream cheese mixture on a vegetable or toasted bread. In my ten weeks with this experiment, I knew that some of the cream cheese should be colored to enhance presentation. And I piped the fuck out it. If I didn’t already know how good I am at this, I would have been impressed. Everyone else was. Trust me.

I also spent a ton of time setting up a mix it yourself bar—I even thrifted a vintage two-tier sewing table and glassware. Too bad I didn’t take any pictures of it and Brendan can’t keep my schedule straight. It was awesome. I served the ice in a 1960s atomic-penguin ice bucket. You heard me.

EATING
Everything was good, especially after a few drinks. Due to the adult nature of the conversation, I will not be posting any guest comments. I can’t believe I hang out with these women.

Actually, I was at the beach for Seafood and Wine Fest, so I didn’t host a proper supper. I didn’t get kicked out this year.

I did make one huge batch of the best cinnamon rolls you’ve ever tasted. I guess, technically, they’re sticky buns. I don’t care what you call them, they are AMAZING. Thanks Grandma.

I tried baking them and steaming them (per the recipe), and steaming them was much better. Even the crust from a cast iron pan couldn’t beat the light texture of the steamed buns. Heaven.

Make these. Today. You can do it all by hand, I did. Easy and pretty fast. I substituted dry yeast for the cake of course. I’m a modern girl.

Here are all the recipes from the last few posts. Enjoy.

Good luck finding Cream of Onion Soup at your grocery store. Use the powdered stuff. Or don’t make these dips. Why would I care?

These are Chex Mix. Except my grandmother made them with BACON FAT. My grandmother owns you.

This Chili is so much more awesome than it looks—super simple. I made it in a slow cooker and let her ride all day. It’s my new standby. I had many a requests for the recipe. Super Easy, Super Delicious.

Ehh, these were okay. Not really worth the effort.

The most amazing cupcakes in the world. I feel a little guilty posting them here for everyone to see…One of my grandmother’s most famous and delicious recipes. Make sure you simmer the pumpkin and the spices together until thick and bubbly, even though the recipe doesn’t call for it. Trust me. Serve with cream cheese icing.

Mine didn’t rise. Perhaps I need to reread chapter 3.

Surprisingly good.

I don’t recommend this.

Did you see the pictures of mine? I’m very literal.

I’m only kind of serious about that headline. Serious being the operative word. I’m behind in blogging but not in cooking, you’ll all be happy to know. It turns out that CakeGelatinWine has followers—and not just the kind that show up at my house for free averagely prepared food—real followers. Too bad for them, I’m not a real blogger. Go read Rachel Ray’s blog if you want to know about average food on a regular basis.

Here are some of the things I’ve cooked/created/destroyed in the last couple of weeks. I’ll try a little bit harder to blog every week. Little being the operative word.

WEEK 7
Sunday supper was on Thursday of week 7 due to a work deadline—which it turns out was pushed back multiple times over two weeks—so I didn’t really need to move supper. Incidentally, my colleagues from the new agency will be invited to dinner this week, but I will not serve food to them until next month.

We kept it small for our first seafood adventure. I thought it was good, Katie hates fish, the shredded (seriously) au gratin potatoes were basically raw, and I fucked up the cake and threw it out. Mostly, we just drank wine. Here are Brendan’s shots and some recipes anyway…

______________________

WEEK 8: We’re getting better at this.
You think you know, but you have no idea. This is what happens when we stop fucking around and start molding real jello salad with grapes cut into fancy shapes.

The celery slaw was remarkably good; contrary to the name, the biscuits did not rise; I served leftover cake; the meal in one pan should not be repeated. Oh, and the Jello was fucking insane. To look at, at least, I didn’t taste it.

Kari came over early and helped me make this gelatinous beauty. The fleshy bits in the salad are pears, which you’ll notice we also featured as a garnish. We made a nice little pimento, nut, raisin cream cheese and decoratively stuffed them.  Other ganstas can’t even step to us.

Love joined us again. She doesn’t eat much, which I appreciate.

This is the no-egg mayonnaise for the jello salad. You have no idea how often my grandmother did this.

A meal in one pan: very appropriately the recipe in on one card. It is a single list of ingredients with no measurements, method, or cooking direction. I’m pretty sure this is what it was supposed to be. I wouldn’t really recommend you making it anyway. The meatloaf from week 1 was way better.

If you’re still reading, you remember that during week 7, I ruined the red velvet cake and had to throw it out. There was an unfortunate chemical taste related to the fact that I added 3 times as much baking powder as it called for. I may or may not have been sober. Regardless, I made it again Friday night and served the leftovers on Sunday.

Seriously, it’s not like I have 5 stars. Sometimes leftovers happen. Plus, it was good.

I am now starting the monumental task of rescanning all the recipes for the last 3 weeks. Standby.

When I invited folks for week 6, I forgot that it was Superbowl Weekend. Probably not the best week to invite all of my parent friends over. Fortunately, they also figured that out and about 8 people canceled Sunday morning. We had a lot of extra food.

MENU PLANNING
Not only was my guest list changing due to the game, so was the timing. I thought pulling together dinner by 6pm was hard last week—and now I was faced with a 3pm kickoff. Shit.

I ran through all my recipes for things that would come together quickly, as well as being crockpot friendly and good at room temp. I didn’t trust myself come halftime to remember that some mayo-based salad needed to refrigerated. I had a specific request for Chili, and I thought Mac and Cheese and Chicken were good bets for a game day crowd and/or kids. Add a few snack items into the mix and I thought we were set—until my trusty side-kick Derek gasped at the lack of gelatin. Jello shots with a vintage twist saved the day. WHO DAT!

COOKING
This week, for the first time, I farmed out some work. Early in the day I rattled off some recipes to my parents (2 onion-based dips and snack mix) and to my good friend Matt (Irene’s Pumpkin Cupcakes). They came through big time, leaving only the main dishes for me to complete.

The first challenge, involving both dips and the mac and cheese, was the fact that no store in the greater Portland metro area stocks Campbell’s Cream of Onion Soup. Seriously. My mother and I each developed our own solution; she used a combination of sour cream and onion soup packets for the apps and I whipped up an onion and cream roux for the pasta. I also added a little bacon to that dish, and substituted some of the cheddar for goat cheese (simply because I had some to use up).

The second challenge was the fault of the goddamn OLCC. For those of you out of staters, the OLCC regulates alcohol sales in Oregon. In some blue law hold over, very few liquor stores are open on Sunday. I didn’t have the time or desire to drive and find one of those, and anway Derek, the alcoholic gelatin fairy, had another bright idea. (Back story: In a failed attempt to lure me back to creative hell, my former CEO sent me a disgusting bottle of ginger flavored vodka. In all the time that we worked together, he never even noticed that I was a gin girl. Asshole.) Since the jello shots were only our own nod to Ada Irene’s love of jello, who cares if we fuck it up? We decided to create our raspberry gelatin cocktail with the please-come-back-vodka. We threw in some pineapple tidbits for style.

The chili and the chicken (drumsticks wrapped like pigs in a blanket) were straight forward, but seemed simple and bland, respectively. I made some bacon cheese bread on Friday, so I served that with the chili. I only wrapped half of the drumsticks according to the recipe, which was still plenty. I just baked off the rest in regular barbecue sauce.

EATING
The chili was the big winner of the night. It was the same recipe that my grandmother taught my dad how to prepare way back when he was a Royal Ranger—only they cooked it over the campfire in an empty coffee can. Everyone rated it a 9 or 10 and it is now my standard potluck selection.

The mac and cheese earned 8s from the people who ate early and 5s and 6s from those that ate it later in the night. It was clearly better fresh from the stove than after sitting in the crockpot.

Both dips were great, though they were remarkably similar for one being a clam dip and the other filled with hot peppers. The TV Snacks were Irene’s chex mix recipe, and of course, it was baked in bacon fat. So good. So greasy.

The chicken was good; the dough became soggy on the bottom, which was received differently by different guests. It was a lot of prep for not a lot of benefit.

(Here’s a photo of the whole spread that Katie took before Brendan arrived.)

The jello shots were delicious. I guess even bad vodka tastes good in that much sugar. I am finishing up some leftovers as I type this. They weren’t very strong, so we had to eat a lot of them.

The cupcakes were my personal favorite of the evening—they sent my father and I straight down memory lane. Grandma Ross used to make these a lot. In fact, when giving Matthew the recipe, I included a few steps that she taught me and I noticed (per usual) she had left out of her notes. Matthew was the only friend with kids that didn’t bail, and his daughter Morgan took a lot of pride in helping prepare dessert. Matt let her skip her nap to mix up the batter and she and I made the cream cheese frosting together at my house. Then my dad ate the first one in front of her before she had finished dinner. He choked a little on the wrapper, which we all figured was Karma biting him in the jugular.

Oh, the Saints won the Superbowl and W+K had 4 ads that didn’t suck. Dom and Chuck’s EA spot would have been stronger had the TV gods not forced them to change the tag line from “Go to Hell” to “Hells Awaits.” I still love all those Wieden kids.

GUEST COMMENTS
The jello shots were the best idea that I’ve had all year. I have no idea if the pumpkin cupcakes were good, at that point it was all just munchies to me. —Derek

When are all the other children coming? —Morgan

ya know, those cupcakes really took me back. They tasted like gramma could have them herself. —Dad

Of course the desserts were the best. I think they were really virgin jello shots though, so thank god, cause of that one I gave to Morgan. —Katie

I was there, too. —M. Carroll (after multiple cheers to Morgan for making the cupcakes)

They’re not ready yet. —Morgan, to my father, as he crushed her culinary dreams
This one is. —Dad

The whole thing was so fun for me. It was my favorite people all in one spot being silly. Days like yesterday make me like my life. —Derek

Fuck, I am really rocking this Peggle game! I just rocked it! —Mom

Your family is like the foul-mouthed, perverted, drunken family I never had. —M. Carroll

*Recipes will be posted tomorrow, I haven’t had the chance to scan them in yet.

perspective.

kateoplis:

Telegraph: A resident prepares mud cakes at the zone of Cite-Soleil in Port-au-Prince. The cakes, made of mud with a bit of salt and vegetable oil spread, are a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs.

romeojulietsierra: negevrockcity

It was in-laws week at Sunday Supper, so we kept it sober and family friendly. We also ate two-hours earlier than usual—not that there’s anything wrong with that.

MENU PLANNING
The Fitzgerald’s know how to put together a solid family meal—things that even the kids like—I tried to come up with a menu keeping simplicity in mind. Barbecued chicken is always a crowd pleaser, so I started there. Potato Puffs seemed more exciting than regular mashed; my Mother-in-Law loves jello salad, so I dug around for one that I thought everyone could handle (still no veggies or marshmallows, though that trick is becoming more difficult each week). Spoiler: the kids just ate some pasta.

I needed one more side dish. Now, perhaps it is my ultra sensitivity to Native American slurs, but the Squaw Dish struck me. Maybe it was because it looked so good…but it was probably because of the derogatory term used to lump all indigenous North American females, regardless of tribe, personality, talent or history, into the same generic, faceless underling. (“the universal ‘squaw’ - squat, angular, pig-eyed, ragged, wretched, and insect-haunted” (Steele 1883)). Either way, it rounded out the menu, and hopefully, would lead to some enlightened conversation.

COOKING
This was, without a doubt, the easiest of any Sunday Supper to pull off. The most difficult part of the meal was balling the potatoes and frying them, which I made my dad do anyway. Everything else was done and in the oven/fridge at least an hour before guests arrived. Sweet. The only major change from the original recipes were omitting the flour from the potatoes (not needed) and reducing the baking time on the chicken from 2 (!) hours to 1. Oh, and I decided not to make the cranberry drop cookies because I was tired and didn’t want to. Whatever.

EATING
Both the chicken and the corn needed slotted spoons due to the insane amount of grease they produced, but both were delicious. Like every week, I hated the jello salad, but everyone else LOVED it. This was the best liked of all the gelatin yet. The potatoes, which I thought would be a sure thing, were not. They were super bland and tasted like Crisco. I’d use the method again, but not the recipe. Ari didn’t care either way, he just wanted to freak out Fu-Qua and eat a ton of olives. Seriously, look at Fudog’s face, hilarious.

GUEST COMMENTS
Those could be renamed little let-down balls. —Brendan

The chicken was FANTASIC! And that’s coming from someone who hasn’t eaten chicken since she got prego…the first time!! —Marlo

The corn would go perfect with Prime Rib. I’m not normally a jello salad fan, but I had 2 servings. —Jerod

I’m pretty sure I saw Jesus in the corn. —Brendan

The cookies were the best cookies I’ve never had. —Ricky

RECIPES