I love coming up with new taste combinations by "cleaning out the refrigerator," mixing together bits and pieces into a new dish. I often do this on Fridays - my husband and I like to kick back by talking about our week over a bottle of wine and whatever meal I throw together. It is almost always pasta - it's easy and serves as a great base for these "end of week" creations.
This is what jumped out of the fridge last night: one red pepper, part of a tomato, some creamy tomato sauce I had made the night before (tomato sauce, sour cream and goat cheese pureed in the food processor), some olives, mint, lime wedges  and one spicy thai chili pepper. I had garlic, onion and some thawed shrimp on hand. So I roasted the garlic, onion and pepper in the oven (brushed with a little olive oil and sprinkle of seasoned salt), then squeezed some lime over the tomato, shrimp and some chopped olives and placed this on the same baking sheet, which I popped back in the oven until the shrimp was cooked through. Then I immediately mixed in the chili pepper and mint. I added it all to the warm pasta and then stirred in the creamy tomato sauce - viola! Not bad for a thrown-together dinner - the chili pepper really gave some nice spice - subtle, not overpowering. It paired well with an unoaked, interesting Italian white - Visionario Bianco Delle Venezie - a lush, creamy start with a citrusy finish.

A friend and mentor suggested that I celebrate Julia Child's 100th birthday last week (Aug 15) by enlightening folks to the striking similarities between Julia and Mrs. Elizabeth Goodfellow, another great (although much less known) culinary talent. Her idea was to include a different quote from and/or about the two women every day last week that mirrored each other. What a fantastic exercise it turned out to be! Since I spent three years researching and writing about Mrs. Goodfellow for my book, I had a huge amount of material to choose from, and gained more insight about Julia Child in the process. I also realized many connections could be made between Julia and another cooking master - prolific 19th century cookbook writer Eliza Leslie - Mrs. Goodfellow's most famous student (which I blogged about last week - see post below).
Last week I had posted the quotes and comparisons on my website's "About Mrs. Goodfellow" page, and have now moved them to this blog entry - I apologize for the length!

Remembering Julia
Over a century before Julia Child charmed us with her effervescent style of culinary instruction, scores of lucky Philadelphia-area girls benefitted from an equally knowledgeable, ethusiastic cooking teacher - Mrs. Elizabeth Goodfellow. To honor and celebrate Julia Child's 100th birthday on August 15, I will feature a different thought every day this week that highlights the similiarites between the two women's philosophies and how they both changed the way America views food and cooking.

Learning to cook
 When learning about cooking and all its various techniques, it is essential to stay organized, focused and engaged, skills Julia Child and Mrs. Goodfellow perfected and passed on in their teaching. While Julia was a bit of a comedian ("a natural clown" her husband Paul Child lovingly called her), Mrs. Goodfellow was much more reserved - no big surprise with her Quaker 18th century upbringing. But both women were determined to share their culinary knowledge and felt strongly the best way to do this was through keen observation and hands-on training. 
“...no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.” ~ Julia Child, My Life in France
"It requires a head even to make cakes." ~ Mrs. Goodfellow

The art of cooking
 Both Julia Child and Elizabeth Goodfellow had a thorough appreciation for cooking as an art form, viewing a completed recipe as not only wholesome and delicious, but also as a creative outlet and source of pride. Dough and pastry can be molded and shaped into beautiful, luscious desserts. Infusing flavors into a recipe is akin to painting a picture, with the finished dish a work of art. Julia got first-hand experience with this realization after pouring six
 years of hard work and research into her culinary masterpiece, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Many years prior, Mrs. Goodfellow was striving to drive this point home to the young girls who were her cooking school
students.
“There are only four great arts: music, painting, sculpture, and ornamental pastry." ~ Julia Child, My Life in France.
"Young ladies learned the art of cooking at Mrs. Goodfellow's, 'it being the last touch of their education preparatory to entering society,'" ~ Famous old receipts used a hundred years and more in the kitchens of the North and the  South (1908 cookbook compiled by Jacqueline Harrison Smith)

Taking Notes 
Julia Child’s love affair with food was sparked by the excitement of new flavor combinations and culinary experiences while living in France. She was so intrigued and interested that she enrolled as a cooking school student at the renowned Cordon Bleu. Her strong thirst for learning helped her persevere through the classes. She managed the language barrier and foreign techniques by working hard and immersing herself completely in the world of French cooking. How lucky for us that she stuck with it and ended up sharing the knowledge and skills she gained through her informative cookbooks and animated television programs!
Over 100 years before Julia another young woman followed a similar path … her name was Eliza Leslie. She was also a hard-working, attentive pupil who attended two courses of instruction at Mrs. Goodfellow’s Cooking school in Philadelphia and wrote down everything she learned in a little notebook. Miss Leslie ended up writing a total of nine cookbooks between 1827 and 1857 which grew into an amazing 72 different versions through reprints and updates. Through these cookbooks she became revered and respected for her advice regarding cooking, etiquette and domestic skills, not only sharing all she had learned from Mrs. Goodfellow, but also the knowledge she obtained from her own observations.
“….you learn about great food by finding the best there is, whether simply or luxurious. Then you savor it, analyze it, and discuss it with your companions, and you compare it with other experiences.” ~ Julia Child, Mastering
the Art of French Cooking
"The author was really a pupil of Mrs. Goodfellow's, and for double the usual term, and while there took notes of  everything that was made, it being the desire of the liberal and honest instructress that her scholars should learn in reality." ~ Eliza Leslie,
Miss Leslie's new cookery book
For more musings on Julia and Eliza Leslie, see: http://www.beckyldiamond.com/beckys-blog.html 

Focus on Freshness
 Julia Child is often credited with ushering in the fresh food movement in the United States and re-introducing “home cooking” to American households. As Betty Fussell says in her book, Masters of American Cookery, “she makes food a living thing that shares inthe pleasure of her company.” Once when demonstrating the technique of egg poaching during a taping of one of her television shows, she explained in her sing-song voice, “Swing the shells WIDE open and DROP them in….if you happen to live near a hen, you can have fresh eggs like this instead of a nasty stale egg like THIS (holding up another egg in a saucer) where the white is relaxed and the yolk is practically naked.”
Mrs. Goodfellow also paid strict attention to quality and detail, using only pure, natural ingredients in her teaching and taking advantage of the season’s bounty. She stressed to her students that the key to a successful, tasty recipe is using superior, unadulterated ingredients. She would have no doubt been fascinated with Julia’s animated manner of instruction, and thrilled to know that this focus on freshness has come full circle today with the explosion of artisan cooking, farmer’s markets, and buying local.
“You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces - just good food from fresh ingredients.” ~ Julia Child
“These buns were first introduced by Mrs. Goodfellow; and in her school were always excellently made, nothing being spared that was good, and the use of (baking) soda and other alkalis being unknown in the establishment.” ~ from Eliza Leslie’s recipe for Spanish Buns in Miss Leslie’s New Cookery Book (1857)

Technique
 When Julia Child’s television show hit the airways in the 1960s, many U.S. kitchens sported shiny modern appliances and all sorts of culinary gadgetry. This, combined with the characteristic American pioneer spirit made Julia Child quite confident that we could master cooking methods through self-education."Train yourself," she advised. "Where good materials are available, technique is all that matters, technique that can be taught and learned American style by  doing it yourself."
Mrs. Goodfellow, on the other hand, needed to do some hand-holding when teaching her young students. Most were from wealthy, upper-class families and had zero cooking experience when they arrived in her school. Plus, she didn’t exactly have state-of-the-art cooking equipment at her disposal. Her stove was an open-fire with attached brick bake oven. She had no refrigerator and probably not a sink with running water. Oh, and no electric mixer or food processor either. Yet, she still turned out scores of successful graduates every year … these ladies went on to share the methods and recipes learned from Mrs. Goodfellow, perhaps helping friends and family become  self-taught cooks.
"Once you have mastered a technique, you barely have to look at a recipe again.” ~ Julia Child, Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking 
“Under (Mrs. Goodfellow’s) able training many of our exquisite yet practical ancestors gained a thorough knowledge of cooking – from soups and the `Staff of Life’ to plum-pudding and Queen cakes.” ~ From Colonial Receipt Book: Celebrated Old Receipts Used a Century Ago by Mrs. Goodfellow’s Cooking School, compiled and edited by Mrs. Frederick Sidney Giger (1907).

I call these cookies "chunky" not for the chips, but the cookies themselves. Baked in a pan, they are substantial, like brownies, and delightfully crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. (Hint to keep them soft- slip a slice of apple or piece of bread inside the storage container). They are made using whole wheat pastry flour and call for a little less sugar and chocolate chips than other recipes, so they are *kind of* healthy, although kids do not notice the difference :)
What really makes them special is the addition of freshly grated nutmeg ...Mrs Goodfellow would have loved them! Everyone comments on the unique taste. I originally got the recipe from a neat little cookbook, called Recipes from the Moon, the "Moon" being The Horn of the Moon Cafe, described as Vermont's pioneering vegetarian restaurant.
Here's the recipe:
Chunky Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies
1 stick butter at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 cup (6 ounces) semisweet choc chips
1/2 cup (2 ounces) chopped walnuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 375F. Spray a 9-in square baking pan with cooking spray and set aside. Cream butter and sugars together in a large bowl until fluffy. Stir in beaten egg and vanilla until well blended.
Sift all the remaining ingredients, except choc chips and walnuts, in a separate bowl. Add to the butter mixture and stir well. Blend in the choc chips and nuts until evenly mixed through the dough.
Press dough into pan, using hands or buttered spoon or rubber scraper to smooth evenly if necessary.
Bake for 15-20 min and cool on a wire rack when done. Cut into squares.
(Recipe can be doubled and made in a 13x9 pan).
Enjoy!

Julia Child’s love affair with food was sparked by the excitement of new flavor combinations and the culinary experiences she discovered while living in France. She was so intrigued and interested that she enrolled as a cooking school student at the renowned Cordon Bleu. Her strong thirst for learning helped her persevere through the classes. She managed the language barrier and foreign techniques by working hard and immersing herself completely in the world of French cooking. How lucky for us that she ended up sharing this knowledge through her informative cookbooks and animated television programs, especially since even this bubbly, vivacious personality had doubts at one point. I know, hard to believe, but as she says in her autobiography My Life in France, “Upon reflection, I decided I had three main weaknesses: I was confused (evidenced by a lack of facts, an inability to coordinate my thoughts, and an inability to verbalize my ideas); I had a lack of confidence, which caused me to back down from forcefully stated positions; and I was overly emotional at the expense of careful, 'scientific' though. I was thirty-seven years old and still discovering who I was.”
 Thank you Julia for sticking with it! The authoritative, exuberant presence she gained through her years in the kitchen is evidenced by a wonderful quote from Mastering the Art of French Cooking: “….you learn about great food by finding the best there is, whether simply or  luxurious. Then you savor it, analyze it, and discuss it with your companions, and you compare it with other experiences.” 

Over 100 years before Julia another young woman followed a similar path … her name was Eliza Leslie. She was also a hard-working, attentive pupil who attended two courses of instruction at Mrs. Goodfellow’s Cooking school in Philadelphia and wrote down everything she learned in a little notebook. This included  not only recipes and cooking methodology, but also Mrs. Goodfellow’s words of wisdom on household management and deportment. Just like with Julia, we are the beneficiaries of the expertise she gained through this thorough note taking. And also same as Julia, Miss Leslie's path was not always a straightforward one. Her whole life she actually longed to be known for her literary writing, but what she became famous for was writing a total of nine cookbooks between 1827 and 1857 which grew into an amazing 72 different versions through reprints and updates. Although her first cookbook, Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes and Sweetmeats was very successful and went through several editions, she described it as "most un-parnasseau," and says, "truth was, I had a tolerable collection of receipts taken by myself while a pupil at Mrs. Goodfellow's celebrated cooking school in Philadelphia. I had so many applications from my friends for copies of these directions, that my brother suggested my getting my getting rid of the inconvenience by giving them to the public in print." Even though she spoke of this first cookbook in such humble terms, it was through this and her other cookery books that she became revered and respected for her advice regarding cooking, etiquette and domestic skills - not only sharing all she had learned from Mrs. Goodfellow, but also the knowledge she obtained from her own keen observations. As she says in Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book: "The author was really a pupil of Mrs. Goodfellow's, and for double the usual term, and while there took notes of everything that was made, it  being the desire of the liberal and honest instructress that her scholars should learn in reality."

For more on remembering Julia and the similarities between her and Elizabeth Goodfellow see:
http://www.beckyldiamond.com/about-mrs-goodfellow.html

Tacos are usually kid-friendly fare (my son who is a picky eater loves them), so when planning the dinner we hosted last night for our friends who also have two kids, I decided on "build-your-own tacos" for the dinner's theme. It worked out perfectly, with something for everyone. Along with the "traditional" type with ground meat (I used turkey), I found a great spread of taco recipes from last year's Aug/Sept issue of Fine Cooking magazine, which included Tex-Mex Grilled Shrimp (see photo), as well as Grilled Tamarind Chicken Tacos. Both were an interesting mix of just a few ingredients - pineapple juice, soy sauce, lime and garlic for the shrimp and a marinade of tamarind soda, soy sauce and garlic followed by a rub of coriander and chile powder for the chicken. Unfortunately I couldn't find tamarind soda in my local store so I had to substitute lemon-lime. Just as a little background - as per Wikipedia, "the tamarind is indigenous to tropical Africa, particularly Sudan. In the 16th century, it was heavily introduced to Mexico, and to a lesser degree to South America, by Spanish and Portuguese colonists, to the degree that it became a staple ingredient in the region's cuisine. The tamarind is best described as sweet and sour in taste, and is high in acid, sugar, B vitamins and, oddly for a fruit, calcium."  (Everyone loved the chicken with the sub, but I definitely want to try the recipe again with the tamarind soda - will have to look for it at Whole Foods).  
My husband grilled the chicken and shrimp as well as some red pepper, onion and squash. My friend made a delicious Mexican salad that included avocados, greens, pepper, corn and tomatoes, and I made a black bean and corn relish, and put out a variety of taco fixins, including lettuce, salsa, taco sauce, shredded jack cheese, queso fresco, green chiles and crushed pineapple.
We started out the evening sitting on our back patio enjoying chips, salsa and guacamole (I love this easy recipe from Emeril's There's a Chef in My Family cookbook- http://www.emerils.com/recipe/6592/), along with beer and mojitos I made with spiced rum which actually turned out pretty good - not as sweet. Perfect for a summer evening!

Salad greens with fresh peaches, cucumber, sweet corn, mint and goat cheese crumbles. Topped with lemony mustard dressing. Yum!

Growing up in South Jersey, blueberries were as much a part of summer as swimming, catching fireflies and eating watermelon. My mom would buy them by the "flat" (12 pints) and then freeze a good portion of them so we could have treats such as blueberry pancakes year round. But, my favorite summer dessert from childhood was "blueberry buckle," a recipe my mom got from her mom and we all devoured, sometimes plain, sometimes topped with whipped cream or a luxurious scoop of vanilla ice cream.
So what is a buckle anyway?
According to the "Good Housekeeping Great Home Cooking: 300 Traditional Recipes" cookbook by Susan  Westmoreland and Beth Allen, a buckle is a rich one-layer cake made with fresh fruit (often blueberries) and sprinkled with a streusel topping before  baking.
Carroll Pellegrinelli expands the definition in a neat article about the differences between fruited desserts - "The Betty, Buckle, Grunt, Pandowdy, Slump, Cobbler and the Other 3 Cs" - explaining that buckles can be made in one
of two ways. The cake batter is either spread on the bottom of the pan and the fruit layered on top, or the berries are simply stirred into the batter. But no matter how the fruit is incorporated, the cake is always topped with a cinnamon-sugary crumble mixture (my favorite part!).
The dessert's name comes from the fact that as the cake bakes, it rises, puffs up and then "buckles," creating a
luscious golden cake with juicy blueberries bursting through the crispy topping. Unlike slumps, pandowdies and crisps, buckles did not commonly appear until around the mid-20th century. The most well-known mention of a buckle appears in Elsie Masterton's 1959 Blueberry Hill Cookbook.
I made some today for my daughter's Girl Scout Camp Dinner tonight. The camp's theme this year is the four seasons, so we all choose various seasonal fare to contribute ... to me, this cake screams "summer" like no other.
Here is the recipe - it is so easy and delicious, enjoy!
Blueberry Buckle
3/4 c. sugar           
2   cups flour
1/4 c. butter          
2  tsp. baking powder
1  egg                      
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk 
2 cups blueberries

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x9 square pan.
Mix sugar, butter and egg thoroughly. Stir in milk.
Blend dry ingredients together;  stir into wet ingredients.
Carefully mix in 2 cups of well-drained blueberries.
Spread batter in the pan.
With a pastry blender mix together  1/2 c. sugar,  1/3 c. flour,
1/2 tsp. cinnamon and 1/4 c. soft butter and sprinkle on top.
Bake 45 - 50 min.
(Best served warm topped with vanilla ice cream!)

Our "Dinner Unknown" last night was a huge success!! The premise: three families get together for dinner, pooling together a variety of ingredients to see what interesting dishes we can create. The only real "assignment" was that we each bring at least three different types of vegetables and two meats or fish. The host family would have appetizers as well as basic items on hand such as garlic, onions, lemons, etc. We were told we could use their kitchen stove or outside grill and/or smoker.
Some of our "before" spread in shown in the accompanying photo. We had so much neat food that we couldn't even use it all. The list included beets, potatoes, corn, carrots, tomatoes, leeks, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, peaches, basil, parsley, Thai peppers, kale, bread, chicken, salmon, clams, shrimp, sausage and chicken. Our hosts made smoked trout with wasabi (delicious!) and stuffed mushrooms to nibble while we worked, as well as hummus and vegetable dips with crudités and crackers. Drinks before and during the meal included beer, an Argentian Malbec, a delightful Vino Blanco from Spain and a dry French Rosé.
Our plan of action was to spread everything on the counter and then everyone throw out suggestions as to what we could make. We decided to roast the beets in foil on the grill and then chop and toss over their greens which we had sauteed with a little garlic and oil. One person thinly sliced the potatoes and baked them with some butter and salt and pepper. He also made a tasty Thai basil chicken. Another made a yummy seafood stew with grilled corn and potatoes. The leeks and sweet potatoes were grilled together, and the peaches were basted with with a balsamic-brown sugar combination and also grilled, a nice complement to the yak t-bone steak. Rounding out the meal was some sesame semolina and french bread.
For dessert I had made Indian pound cake and jumbles and my friend made chocolate chip pound cake and some pudding cups.
We all agreed it was great fun and plan to do the same thing again in the fall, with a autumnal harvest theme. Hopefully it will become a seasonal tradition!

Potatoes, seafood stew and beets:

This was the loot I picked up at the Lower Makefield Farmer's Market today - all for $35. Eating healthy, fresh and local is not only tasty, but often reasonably priced too! Included in today's "take:" Raspberries, blackberries, peaches, a mix of summer squash, and dark green hierloom, yellow and red cherry tomatoes from Shady Brook Farm; cucumbers, red and gold beets and a watermelon from Charlann Farms; red and green leaf lettuce, garlic, onions (one red, one yellow, one white), and tomatoes (one yellow, one red) from Promised Land Natural Farm, and an assortment of fresh rolls from The Village Bakery.
I will bring some of this to our friends' house on Saturday for our "Dinner Unknown" - stay tuned for more on that - I will blog about it on Sunday!
For tonight, I combined some of the watermelon and cucumber to make a refreshing salad, adding a little lime juice, some feta cheese, a few shakes of Jane's Crazy salt and some fresh basil leaves from last week's market trip:

While looking through some of my son's old books, we stumbled upon the wonderful Pancakes, Pancakes by Eric Carle. Reading through it and looking at Carle's always-creative pictures gave him a craving for pancakes. So, we decided to make pancakes for dinner - and he wanted to follow the "recipe" in the book exactly. I knew this would make the outcome iffy, but I figured we would give it a try - especially since he was so excited about it (I also thought we could always make another batch if it didn't turn out), and I never like to turn down the offer to have kids help in the kitchen. As he eagerly gathered the ingredients, I gently broached the possibility that they might not turn out too well (just so he wouldn't end up disappointed) - in the book just flour, egg and milk are used. I told him some baking powder would make them rise and a little sugar and salt would improve the taste, but we perservered, even melting butter in my cast iron skillet to cook them just as in the book (the only thing we didn't have was an open fire to cook them over....my ancient Vulcan electric stove had to suffice).
Well, although it was great fun, the rubbery result unfortunately wasn't too appetizing! He was a real trooper through - he tried them and wasn't discouraged at all. I suggested trying to make another batch, which we did a bit later ....this time my daughter helped. I tweaked the original recipe, adding 1/4 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of baking powder and 1 tsp sugar - and this time used my griddle and some cooking spray. She gave this version a thumbs up! Of course it could have been because she also added some chocolate chips! In any case, the kids got to experience first-hand that recipes don't always turn out as expected .... which is ok (especially when you have a backup plan!)