Thursday, March 30, 2023

WHIP UP A MEAL FROM NEXT TO NOTHING!

 


 

From Linda Lee Greene Author/Artist

 

Christopher Kimball of the MILK STREET TELEVISION cooking show, recently asked his friend Alex Aïnouz, a Parisienne, to tell the audience about the recipes a typical French home cook prepares for his/her family during any given week. Aïnouz replied, “We cook what is available; we don’t cook recipes.” Come to think of it, our ancestral mavens of the cook stove, and hearth, and fire-pit have been cooking that way since fire was discovered. Well-stocked pantries and freezers are contrivances of the modern world.

The conversation between Kimball and his French friend took me back to memories of my dear mother. While Mom was a darn good baker of pies, cobblers, biscuits and bread, she wasn’t as skillful a cook, otherwise. She fried her meats to near leather and creamed just about everything: creamed peas, creamed corn, even creamed canned tomatoes, a method of preparing vegetables that never pleased my taste buds. “Al dente” was not only a term Mom never heard, but the concept would have been completely foreign to her, for she boiled her vegetables until they were as soft as mush. In another way, though, she was masterful in the kitchen. I can’t tell you how many times I witnessed her pulling together a meal on a dime from a seemingly empty fridge and pantry, because, as was common back in those friendlier old days, someone unexpected stopped by at right about meal time.

Mom began life as a farm girl during the early decades of the twentieth century. Her experience in the kitchen was typical of budding cooks in most farm kitchens back then. There was the benefit of her mother’s enormous garden, which was replete with vegetables and various kinds of berries, its harvest canned and stored in the cellar at season’s end; there were chickens in their dozens in the yard, on the porch, in the barnyard, and gathered among the apple and peach trees in the orchard. Every morning, the hen house was a veritable egg-banquet in the offing, and out in the smokehouse, sides of brined pork and beef suspended from poles, the products of the farm’s stock of pigs and cows. Never ever was there a sparse larder. All that was required to pull together a meal when company came around was to gather up some eggs, wring a chicken’s neck, break open a canned jar of corn, cook up a “mess” of green beans afloat au jus in hunks of ham or thick slices of bacon, and throw some wood in the oven of the cook stove and bake a loaf or two of bread, a blackberry cobbler, and a peach pie.

 My mother was nineteen when she and my father married, and as soon as they could pull it off, they high-tailed it to the big city and never again entertained the prospect of farm-life. Thereafter, for the most part, the local grocery store was the equivalent of my grandmother’s garden and smokehouse. Nevertheless, no matter how long it had been since Mom’s last trek to the grocery store, she could whip up a meal from thin air. Macaroni and cheese with sliced ham sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches and Campbell’s tomato soup were her staples; or gravy and biscuits and fried potatoes; or bean soup and cornbread, or my enduring favorite: fried bologna sandwiches and sliced tomatoes on the side. Of course, people in my corner of the world call them “Fried Bologney Sandwiches.” Mom followed the traditional recipe of fried bologna, American cheese and mayo slapped between slices of white bread, but I like to tinker with traditional recipes. Be advised that my version of a fried boloney sandwich is hearty and filling. I can only eat half of one. It’s a good sandwich to split with a friend, or to save the second half for tomorrow.©

 





 

LINDA’S FRIED “BOLOGNEY” SANDWICH

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 slices of your favorite bread
  • 2 slices of bologna
  • A few tablespoons of a butter and olive oil blend such as Olivio or Countryside Creamery Butter with Olive Oil and Sea Salt  
  • 1 slice of sharp cheddar cheese
  • A dollop of ketchup
  • 2 eggs

DIRECTIONS

                                                            


1.        Put 1 tablespoon of the butter/olive oil blend in a frying pan (preferably an iron skillet) and heat to medium high.

2.       Cut short slits in the bologna around their entire perimeter. This prevents the bologna from cupping while frying.

3.       Place the bologna in the skillet.

4.      Brown both sides of the bologna. When done, scoop them onto a plate with a spatula.

5.       Quickly crack the eggs into a bowl and whip them as if you were preparing them for scrambling.

6.      Lower the flame under the skillet to low. Add another tablespoon of the butter/olive oil blend to the skillet.

7.       Dip both sides of the bread into the whipped eggs and place them in the skillet. Cook both sides to a French Toast golden brown.

8.      While the second side of the bread slices is browning, place the two slices of fried bologna on top of one slice of the bread.

9.      Add the cheese to the top of the bologna.

10.    Drop a dollop of ketchup on the top of the cheese.

11.     Place the second browned slice of bread on top to form a sandwich. Flip the sandwich with a spatula and cook until the bread is slightly charred and the cheese is melted. The charred consistency adds a satisfying crunch to the sandwich.©

***



Multi-award-winning author Linda Lee Greene’s GUARDIANS AND OTHER ANGELS, which is a novel that blends historical fiction and an intimate study of her ancestors, receives rave reviews:

5 stars Wonderfully Written!

“This was a thoroughly enjoyable book. I loved the Americana. [It] reached out and touched my heart, mind and soul. [It] provided tremendous insight into what many American families endured during the first half of the 20th century. It captures you and draws you in. This is most certainly a five-star novel.”

GUARDIANS AND OTHER ANGELS is available in eBook and/or paperback. Just click the following link/URL and it will take you straight to the page on Amazon on which you can purchase it.

Purchase link: http://goo.gl/imUwKO

#ChristopherKimball, #MilkStreetTelevision, #CookingShows, #Recipes, #FarmLife, #FriedBolognaSandwich, #GuardiansAndOtherAngels, #LindaLeeGreene

 

 

 

6 comments:

  1. Such a wonderful post, Linda! Thanks for sharing it.

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    Replies
    1. It was my pleasure, Marina. Thanks so much for dropping by and commenting.

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  2. I love fried baloney sandwiches. They were a staple in my house too. I’ve even created my own gourmet version. Thanks for the memory.

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    Replies
    1. You are so welcome, Catherine. I really appreciate your comment. How about sharing your gourmet version of the sandwich?

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  3. Ah, the good old days! Love those kinds of lunches growing up! Thanks for sharing, Linda! Cheers!

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  4. The good old days were the best days, I often believe. Thanks so much for dropping by commenting. xo

    ReplyDelete