And the final tally is... 382 recipes

Over the weekend I compiled the Index for the new cookbook. The totalis 382 recipesin the following categories. After each category I've listed a few samples of the recipes included. We have one more proof-reading to go and then it's off to press!

From "Fry Bacon. Add Onions: The Valentine Family nd Friends Cookbook":

BEANS, CORN & OTHER VEGGIES – 18 recipe

Great-aunt Mary’s Baked Beans, Chewy Lima Beans, Scalloped Corn

BEEF, PORK & OTHER MAIN DISHES – 19 recipes

Hassenpfeffer , Liver Dumplings, Piroghi , Soltz (Sultz)

BREADS, BISQUITS & MUFFINS – 23 recipes

Amish Friendship Bread, Great-Aunt Mary Dippold’s Keuchels, Mom’s Home-made Bread,

CABBAGE & SAUERKRAUT – 5 recipes

Dad’s Sauerkraut Casserole, Gram’s Sauerkraut , Great-Grandmother’s Cooked Cabbage

CAKES, CHEESECAKES & PANCAKES – 31 recipess

Anne’s Apple Puff Pancake, Great-grandm.Woelfel’s Moultasha, Great-grandm.

CANDY & BROWNIES – 9 recipes

Aunt Helen’s Penoche, Mom’s Home-made Easter Eggs, Tino’s Truffles

CHILI – 5 recipes

Lisa’s Cincinnati Chili, Tasha’s Chili

CHOWDER – 6 recipes

Aunt Rosie’s Best Salmon, Emily’s Chicken, Potato, and Corn

COOKIES – 27 recipes

Gram’s Pecan Tassies, Maple Syrup Cookies / Lemon Icing, Mom’s Ginger, Wayne’s No-Roll Sugar Cookies

DIPS & SPREADS – 10 recipes

Amy’s Beer, Gram's Lulu Paste, Linda’s Delicious Buffalo Chicken

DRINKS – 11 recipes

Matt's Bourbon Slush, Skip and Go Naked, Jack's Wild Grape Wine

MEATLOAF & GROUND BEEF MAIN DISHES -15 recipes

Aunt Mary Rita’s Cabbage Rolls, Meatloaf-stuffed Meatloaf , Pigs-In-A-Blanket

PICKLES – 14 recipes

Jack’s Old-Fashioned Crock Dills, Gram’s Strip Pickles, Pickled Peaches, Sweet & Sour Pickles with Peppers

PIES, CRISPS & TARTS – 27 recipes

Apricot-Apple Crisp w/ Maple Cream, Caramel Peachy-Pear Pandowdy, Gram Werner’s Apple Dumplings, Rhubarb Crisp, Succulent Honey-White Peach Pie

POTATOES & GRAINS – 15 recipes

Aunt Rosie’s Hot Potato Salad, Gram’s Potato Pancakes, Potato-Onion Dumplings, Oven-Browned Potatoes

POULTRY MAIN DISHES – 21 recipes

Gram’s Chicken Casserole, Excellent Fried Chicken, Walter Struble’s Smoked Turkey

RED BEETS – 6 recipes

Oven-roasted Red Beets, Pickled Red Beets & Eggs, Tangy Red Beets & Cabbage

RELISHES & SAUCES, SPICY – 22 recipes

Adam’s Hot Pepper-Garlic Jelly, Dad’s Tomato Marmalade, Mom’s Fruit Relish, Pauline’s Green Tomato Relish

SALADS – 7 recipes

Gram’s Dandelion, Great Aunt Annie’s Carrot

SAUSAGE & JERKY- 12 recipes

Jack’s Smoked Sausage, Jack’s Venison or Beef Jerky, Smoked Liver Pudding

SAVORIES – 5 recipes

Anne’s Deep Frying Batter, Cheese Yummies

SEAFOOD & FISH – 13 recipes

Anne’s Seafood Lasagne, Gram’s Salmon Cakes, Haddock in Cream

SLAWS – 4 recipes

Kohlrabi Slaw, Mom’s Freezer Cole Slaw

SOUP – 29 reipes

Aunt Tressie’s Nibblies, Mom’s Chicken Noodle w. Homemade Egg Noodles, Sauerkraut Soup, Yellow Bean & Ham

STEW – 7 recipes

Jack’s Turtle & Sauerbraten 2

SWEETS – 9 recipes

Caramel Pudding & Caramel Sauce, Lemon Velvet, Fruits of Winter Conserve

Much to my delight this project has gone really fast. I look forward to seeing the final product.

Thanks for reading....

Pennsylvania Dutch Hot and Sour Soup

After I posted my blog on soup last week I got this message from Bonnie Jundzillo Wohlford. She is the daughter of my cousin Jean Jundzillo who contributed many recipes to the new cookbook. Bonnie had this to say about my latest recipe: 

I made the PA dutch hot and sour soup last night...I have to say it was SOOOOO good... I had my doubts when I was putting it together...lol but after it all came together I couldn't believe the flavor it had!! My husband ate two bowls of it... and he usually only does one! He gave it a 3 and half star out of 4! I'm giving it a 4...it was perfect! Thanks for sharing....

 So, because Bonnie gave the soup such a good review, I'm posting the recipe again.....

_______________________________________________

I love Hot and Sour Soup but I don't really like tofu or bamboo shoots, I often pick them out of Chinese Hot and Sour Soup. So last night I decided to make a Hot and Sour Soup of my own. I call this Pennsylvania Dutch Hot and Sour Soup because it involves a few things that are standard in PA Dutch cooking --- cabbage, vinegar, pork and onions. So here's what I did:

Pennsylvania Dutch Hot and Sour Soup 

• In my big Dutch oven I browned a pound of ground pork, breaking it up into fine pieces as it browned and draining out the fat as it formed.
• Cut a pound of boneless, skinless chicken thighs into small pieces and added them to the pork with 2 medium onions sliced in half lengthwise and then sliced fine. Let this cook until the chicken is becoming opaque.
• Take a head of cabbage and slice it in half. With a large, sharp knife cut fine slices of cabbage like you would for sauerkraut. Add 2-3 handfuls to the pot and stir cooking until the cabbage begins to be translucent. Add 12 oz. of sliced brown (Crimini) mushrooms.
• When the cabbage looks nearly done add two cans or one box of chicken broth and lots of pepper (about 1 tbsp.) Bring to a boil and add ¼ c. cider vinegar and 2 tsp salt.
• Mix 2 tbsp corn starch with ¼ c. water and pour carefully into the broth, cook to thicken. Beat 2 eggs with 2 tbsp cold water. When broth is thick and bubbling, drizzle the egg into it moving the mixture back and forth over the surface of the stew as you pour. 
• Turn off heat and let sit 5 mins. for eggs to set.

When I ladled it into the bowl I floated a little bit of dark sesame oil on the surface and added some chopped, fresh cilantro. It was so delicious --- very chicken-y and smooth. I actually wound up adding a couple shakes of Mongolian Fire Oil because it wasn't quite hot enough for my tastes but that's a personal thing. 

There is a big bowl of it in the fridge and I am looking forward to lunch. I may add a bit more vinegar and I also have a package of frozen pea pods I've thought about putting in. But, anyway, this is a very nutritious soup with lots of veggies and not a lot of carbs.

Afterword: Treat Yourself to the Best

The new cookbook is nearing completion. Today I wrote the Afterword to the book:

           In my 2006 short story collection, My Last Romance & other passions, there is a short story called “Treat Yourself To the Best”. It is about a young woman from a north central Pennsylvania rural town who moves to Philadelphia and meets and marries a guy from a well-bred suburban family. She genuinely loves her family but whenever she takes her husband back there to visit she is both a little embarrassed by her lively, exuberant, boisterous family and astonished that her elegant husband loves being with them so much. In the story, she returns with her husband for a sausage-stuffing party in their barn. The barn itself has always embarrassed her because it is one of the Mail Pouch Tobacco barns that were once so ubiquitous in Pennsylvania. The signs on the barn reads, “Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco: Treat Yourself to the Best”.

           Fifi, the heroine of the story, cannot quite understand why Tim, her husband, is so fascinated by her family and so enthusiastic about participating in their activities --- such as stuffing sausage. I wrote the story because, once I left Pennsylvania, I was always aware of how much people loved it when I would tell about the things that, to me, where normal parts of life --- making huge crocks of sauerkraut, pickling and preserving whatever the garden yielded, spending hours on old logging trails filling buckets with blackberries or in fields picking wild strawberries. To me that was just what people did. I was unaware of the fact that there were people who had never spent warm spring days kneeling in the yard digging up dandelions for that night's dinner.

           I'm sure there are other cultural heritages that incorporate whatever bounty the world has to offer but among Pennsylvania Dutch people making good use of nature and finding ways to use it and preserve it is a long standing tradition.

           Most Pennsylvania Dutch families evolved from immigrants who were peasants in “the Old Country”. They learned, out of necessity, to use everything they could to feed their families and they devised ways of preserving those things through the long, harsh winters. Pickling, preserving, smoking, canning were necessary to get a large family through the bitterly cold winter months. As I worked on this cookbook I was continually aware of how so much of the food that was part of family tradition was also making good use of commonly available food sources that were abundant and cheap. My Gram Werner used to say that the reason pigs were so valuable was because you could use every part of them except the squeak. In the cold hill country of Pennsylvania, where maple trees grew in such abundance, maple syrup was a frequently used sweetener. Cows were kept for milk, cream, butter, cheese and sour cream. When I read these recipes now some seem so rich and loaded with calories but back then people needed those rich, calorie-laden foods to see them through long days in the fields or the factories or lumbering in the forests.

           Contrary to opinion the term Pennsylvania Dutch does not just refer to the “plain people”, the Amish, Mennonites, etc. Many of the families who fled to Pennsylvania from Germany and Bavaria in the nineteenth century were Catholic, too. They came to this country seeking both freedom of religion and the hopes of a better way of life. Gram told me that her parents worked on a big estate on the edge of the Black Forest. Her father was a blacksmith and tinker and her mother was a housemaid. They wanted to marry and raise a family but there was little hope of that for them in the old country so they, like thousands of other immigrants left the world of their forefathers and set off to the new world. With them they brought their dreams and hopes as well as their traditions and customs. That included making good use of everything they could find. Whether it was making quilts out of worn out garments or making sausages out of the less-useful parts of their pigs and cows, they found a way.

           When I was a kid my Dad would sometimes buy a few chickens, feed them for a few weeks to fatten them up, and then butcher them to freeze for the winter. Some of the hens would have unlaid eggs inside of them when they were being dressed out. He would scoop out the tiny eggs, butter yellow and about the size of marbles before the shell was formed, and put them in a bowl. Then my mother would cook up one of the chickens in a kettle of water with carrots and celery and, when the chicken had yielded a rich broth, she would bring it to rolling boil and drizzle in the tiny eggs. This yielded a soup that was unbelievably rich and delicious. I can only remember having it a few times but I still remember the taste. I know I'll never have it again but the memory is wonderful to me.

           It has taken me the better part of sixty years to realize how fortunate I was to grow up the way I did. It is why I wanted to write this book, both for my nieces and nephews and their children, and for everyone else who remembers or dreams of a way of life that has become all too rare. This is the story of my family but it could be the story of any immigrant family's first, second and third generations. It could be the story of your family as well as mine.

           We didn't have a barn that read Treat Yourself to the Best, but we had a combination playhouse and tool shed with a huge, colorful Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign on it. My Dad painted it himself and actually made up the design. One of our neighbors, Bill Weis who lived cross the street,used to tease Dad that it was the hex sign for fertility. He said that because we were a family of ten but he was actually quite correct. Fertility means abundance and fruitfulness and those are qualities that filled our lives --- with love, and imagination, and creativity, and the homely goodness of delicious food, well-prepared. May future generations be as blessed. 

Thanks for reading.

Wild Hearts: The Rewrite

I wrote the original version of this post in 2001 after the incident described in the story. I am rewriting it to include in the family cookbook...

    In 2001 my Dad was 82 years old and living alone in our family home after the death of our mother in 1996. One of my friends always says he counts it a good thing to have a character for a father. If that is true I was  abundantly blessed. My Dad could be cantankerous and contentious but was never boring. He loved living in the Allegheny Highlands whose miles and miles of woodlands he hunted, fished and camped since boyhood.
    After Mom died, Dad spent a lot of his time hanging out with a group of old buddies he’d known since childhood, most of them widowers as well. One of them, called Woodley, was 98 years old and nearly blind when this story took place. Woodley had been a barber all his life and Dad, who had a head of thick, curly hair until the day he died at the age of 89, had been a customer of Woodley’s for years. I remember well the last time Woodley cut his hair, it was long past the time when Woodley’s eyesight was up for hair-cutting and Dad came home looking pretty lop-sided. My mother took one look at him and said, “Good God, Jack, you look like Ziggy Stardust.”
    So it was a bitterly cold Saturday morning in February and I was here in Gloucester getting ready to go to a painting class when the phone rang and I got the frightening news, Dad and Woodley had been missing since the previous afternoon and no one had a clue where they were.  It was cold enough here but well below zero in Pennsylvania. Both Dad and Woodley grew up in the woods and always loved it. One of their favorite past-times was driving the hundreds of miles of backcountry logging trails that thread their way through those rich timberlands.
    Around three o’clock Friday afternoon Dad bought a dozen donuts and headed for Woodley’s house. When he did not return home that evening my brother Wayne started making phone calls. By midnight the State Police, the area rescue units, friends, family and countless others with flashlights and pickup trucks were combing the Allegheny Forest.
    It was a very long and fruitless night for the searchers and an even longer night for the the two being searched for. What happened was they had headed off down a logging trail through the forests of Elk County. As they were driving down a steep grade a wheel went in to a hole. Failing to dig it out they were stuck spending the night in the woods, running the heater just enough to keep from freezing, talking, and wishing they hadn’t forgotten the donuts.
    Throughout the night, as the searchers, criss-crossed the county,  Woodley dozed on and off but Dad stayed awake. Later he told stories about the night. Woodley, he said, would wake up suddenly and start giving him driving directions. “Take a turn right up there, Tino,” he’d say, “right by that McDonald’s.”
    “McDonald’s?” Dad replied, “what do you say I pull in there and you run in and get us some pancakes?”
    It’s easy to laugh about it now but those long hours waiting for news were terrible. Minutes dragged. Hours rushed by. You try to steel yourself or find consolation. You think, “If he has to go let it be quick rather than his being hurt and hungry and freezing somewhere.” You try to force bravery and nobility on yourself - “it would be better for him to go in the dense beauty of the woods that he loved than in the cold sterility of a hospital ward.”
    Comfort was hard to come by. But somewhere in the reckoning of all that a realization dawned. This happened because he was who he was. His love of the beauty of his world was fierce and tenacious. He was true to the wildness in his heart.
    It was my sister Beth who discovered their return. She drove up from Pittsburgh to help with the search and stopped by Woodley’s house to find Dad making coffee while Woodley soaked in a hot bath. They had returned home on their own - unaware of the ruckus their disappearance caused.  Mid-morning two young hunters in a 4x4 came across them and pulled them out with a winch. They drove to Woodley’s house unaware of the massive search effort. They were embarrassed by the fuss.
    “My God,” Dad said, “they act like I’ve never spent a night in the woods before.”
    Days later, when he was rested and a little humbled by the rescue efforts, we talked. He talked about the still, quiet beauty of the frigid night. Stars as big as sparkling plums. Moonlight slipping round snow laden fir trees trailing sparkles across frosted branches. He spoke of the mysterious call of night birds. Of the fine fairy dust of snowflakes shimmering through the dark.
    “I’m sorry I caused so much trouble,” he told me “There’s no way I can repay everyone. But, I have to tell you one thing; I never thought at my age I’d get to spend another winter night in the woods. It was just so beautiful.”
    That is how I think of him now --- somewhere in the deep, verdant beauty of the country that he loved.

The Great 2010 Vegetable Soup Challenge

So I made this New Year's “goal” to get back to eating low-carb, nutrient-dense food. I'm happier and healthier when I do that. Part of my plan includes making a big pot of vegetable soup once a week and keeping it handy for quick, hot, nourishing meals when I am hungry and busy and, therefore, inclined to grab something less healthy. The idea is this: the soups will be either broth or tomato based, not creamy, can have meat, poultry and/or fish, and should be loaded with vegetables. And I will experiment with different combinations and record the ones that are “keepers”.

So far I have three soups I'm sufficiently pleased with to put in the new cookbook. The first one I've been making for years. It is an Italian sausage soup which includes red peppers, onions, eggplant, and mushrooms. The second one is a delicious Cabbage and Green Bean Soup but last night's creation topped both of them.

I love Hot and Sour Soup but I don't really like tofu or bamboo shoots, I often pick them out of Chinese Hot and Sour Soup. So last night I decided to make a Hot and Sour Soup of my own. I call this Pennsylvania Dutch Hot and Sour Soup because it involves a few things that are standard in PA Dutch cooking --- cabbage, vinegar, pork and onions. So here's what I did:

Pennsylvania Dutch Hot and Sour Soup

1. 
   
   In my big Dutch oven I browned a pound of ground pork, breaking it up into fine pieces as it browned and draining out the fat as it formed.
2. 
   
   Cut a pound of boneless, skinless chicken thighs into small pieces and added them to the pork with 2 medium onions sliced in half lengthwise and then sliced fine. Let this cook until the chicken is becoming opaque.
3. 
   
   Take a head of cabbage and slice it in half. With a large, sharp knife cut fine slices of cabbage like you would for sauerkraut. Add 2-3 handfuls to the pot and stir cooking until the cabbage begins to be translucent. Add 12 oz. of sliced brown (Crimini) mushrooms.
4. 
   
   When the cabbage looks nearly done add two cans or one box of chicken broth and lots of pepper (about 1 tbsp.) Bring to a boil and add ¼ c. cider vinegar and 2 tsp salt.
5. 
   
   Mix 2 tbsp corn starch with ¼ c. water and pour carefully into the broth, cook to thicken. Beat 2 eggs with 2 tbsp cold water. When broth is thick and bubbling, drizzle the egg into it moving the mixture back and forth over the surface of the stew as you pour.
6. 
   
   Turn off heat and let sit 5 mins. for eggs to set.

When I ladled it into the bowl I floated a little bit of dark sesame oil on the surface and added some chopped, fresh cilantro. It was so delicious --- very chicken-y and smooth. I actually wound up adding a couple shakes of Mongolian Fire Oil because it wasn't quite hot enough for my tastes but that's a personal thing.

There is a big bowl of it in the fridge and I am looking forward to lunch. I may add a bit more vinegar and I also have a package of frozen pea pods I've thought about putting in. But, anyway, this is a very nutritious soup with lots of veggies and not a lot of carbs.

Last night I got out my copy of Brother Rick Curry's The Secrets of Jesuit Soup-making, one of my favorite inspirations for making soup. He has several recipes in there that look like they could be the start of something good. I'll keep you posted...

Thanks for reading.

If you like booze & chocolate....

Just a little teaser from the cookbook.....

My Version of Whiskey Fudge Cake
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 9” cake pan with parchment. Sift together 1¼ c. cake flour and 1 tsp. baking soda.  In a double boiler or a glass bowl in microwave, melt 10 oz. bittersweet chocolate cut into small pieces, melt and keep warm.

With the paddle of an electric mixer, cream 1½ sticks very good quality butter until light. Gradually add 1 cup sugar and continue to cream until fluffy. (It is very important that this mixture is light and fluffy.) Beat in 4 egg yolks, one at a time. Add 1/3 c. slightly warmed whiskey (or brandy), and 1 tbsp vanilla. Stop the machine and scrape in the melted chocolate. Continue to mix until well-combined. Remove the bowl from the machine and fold in flour mixture gradually. With a clean whisk and bowl, whip the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/4 cup of sugar and continue to whisk until shiny and firm, but not stiff. Stir 1/4 of the whites into the batter to lighten, then fold in the remaining whites.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 1 hour. Cool thoroughly and frost.

Frosting: Place 8 oz. excellent quality semisweet chocolate in a glass bowl with 1 tbsp. butter. In a saucepan, heat 1 c. heavy cream slowly over medium heat until boiling for about 4 minutes (do not stir). When cream begins to bubble and climb the sides of the saucepan, pour it over the chocolate in the bowl. Again, do not stir. Let the chocolate soften. After 2 or 3 minutes, whisk or beat the softened chocolate until completely melted and smooth. If chocolate has not melted, place over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave for a few seconds (glass bowl only) and whisk til smooth.

Black Forest Cake
I once made this for a friend’s birthday. She took one bite of it and immediately took it into her bedroom to hide it so she wouldn’t have to share it!
Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. In a bowl, combine 1 3/4 c.flour, 1 tsp. baking powder and ½ tsp. salt. In double boiler or microwave, melt 3 oz. semisweet chocolate over low heat, then let cool. In another mixing bowl, cream 1/4 c. butter and 3/4 c. sugar until light and fluffy. Add 1 tsp. vanilla. Add 4 eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add melted chocolate and gradually add the flour mixture. Pour batter evenly into the prepared pans. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. When cool, cut each layer horizontally with a long serrated knife, to make 4 layers.
Filling & Topping: Beat 2 c. whipping cream until very stiff. Gradually add in 2/3 c. confectioners sugar. Divide into quarters. Drain a can of tart red cherries.

Place first round of cake on a plate. Sprinkle 2 tbsp. kirsh over the cake, add a layer of whipped cream, dot with red cherries. Repeat twice. Place fourth layer on top and frost with the last of the cream. Decorate with chocolate shavings and maraschino cherries with long stems.

Yummyliciousness from the new coobook....

Years ago cooks created or adjusted recipes to accommodate what they had on hand. A bounty of fruit, or a little bit of this and a little bit of that often inspired uniquely wonderful dishes. The following two recipes are for using fresh, under-ripe fruit. Both of the crisp and the pandowdy are designed to use firm, fresh fruit in delicious ways. For soft fruits like plums, peaches and apricots, it is best if they are slightly under-ripe. Berries & rhubarb can also be used.
 
Apricot-Apple Crisp with Maple Cream
5 whole fresh apples and 5 firm apricots (not over-ripe)
1 c. flour
½ c. sugar
½ c. light brown sugar, firmly packed
½ tsp. each ground cinnamon and nutmeg
¼ tsp. salt
1 stick butter (½ c.)
½ whole lemon
½ c. real maple syrup, divided
1½ cup whipping cream
3 tbsp. light corn syrup
In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, light brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt using a fork. Cut butter into small pieces and gradually add to flour mixture until evenly mixed.
Peel fruit into a bowl. Add the zest from half a lemon. Squeeze juice from lemon half and stir in with fruit and zest. Add 2 tbsps real maple syrup to fruit, stir well.
Pour fruit mixture into a small pan (8” or 9” square) and cover evenly with crumb topping. Cover with foil and bake at 350º for 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 20 to 30 minutes or until crisp and brown on top.

Maple Cream Sauce:
Pour whipping cream into a saucepan. Add 5 tbsps real maple syrup, 3 tbsps corn syrup and stir over moderate heat until thickened and reduced by about one-third, approximately 15 minutes. Refrigerate mixture until it is cold and thick, or set the saucepan into a small bowl of ice (the ice will melt and turn into ice water). Stirring your mixture, it will cool and thicken in about 15 minutes. Drizzle sauce over crisp. Serve warm.

Caramel Peachy-Pear Pandowdy
Sauce: 1 c. brown sugar, ¼ cup flour, ¼ tsp. cinnamon, ¼ tsp. salt, 1 cup water, 2 tbsps butter, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 tsp. lemon juice.
Blend brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt in a saucepan, then stir in water and cook on medium heat until sauce mixture thickens slightly, then stir in butter, vanilla, and lemon juice. Set aside.

Batter: 1 c. raw quick-cooking oatmeal, 1 tbsp. brown sugar, 2 tsp. baking powder, ¼ tsp. salt, 3 tbsps butter, 1 beaten egg, 1/3 c. milk.
Prepare the drop batter by blending oats, sugar, baking powder, and salt, then cut in the butter until all is finely mixed, add egg and milk, and stir with a fork to make a drop batter, but do not over mix. Set aside.
Peel and slice enough peaches & pears (or tart apples, or firm plums) to make 6 cups, arrange fruit slices in a buttered 9-inch square baking pan, and pour sauce over the fruit.

Drop spoonfuls of batter over the fruit/sauce mixture. Do not stir. Bake in oven at 375°F for about 35 minutes or so. Serve warm plain, or garnish with freshly whipped cream.

One New Review and Two Emails from "Each Angel Burns" Readers

There is nothing writers love more than getting emails from readers telling them how much they enjoyed their books. A reader from Virginia sent the following which she said she is also posting to Amazon. I was especially appreciative of her comments on the theme of "sacrificial love" because that was very much in my mind as I was developing the story, just like the power of redemption was the subtext of "The Old Mermaid's Tale". I have such intelligent readers --- it is gratifying, indeed:

I enjoyed this book over the course of two snowy days in Virginia. I had just visited Maine and Massachusetts where this novel is set, so I was ripe for the accents of these characters.

The book revealed a lot to me about Catholic spirituality. It is the first book I’ve read with a specifically Catholic ethos. Issues of faith, enacting one’s values, the meaning of virginity, sacrificial love, friendship, loyalty are all given scope here. When these characters move from their inner commitments, their manifestation is love rather than deprivation. I lived along with each character (and there are many), and gradually understood their actions. Tender love making is a joy to experience and to read. That too is part of this novel. Ms. Valentine’s atmospheric novel raises many ideas and I think they will keep perking inside me for a good while.

And I received 2 emails with the following comments:

Kathleen –

I finished your new book and loved it.  With each turn and new scene I became more and more involved. I was sorry when it ended.

And:

Just finished your book last night. I want a Gabe and a Zeke. I'll be posting a review to Amazon. I loved the ending.

Thank you all. It means a lot...

I Got A Valentine!

Jack Mark Valentine

Four Very Old Recipes from the New Cookbook

Working on the new family cookbook I am struck by the fact that some of these recipes are well over 100 years old. I decided to share a few:

Great-Grandmother Werner’s Cooked Cabbage
Gram always said that her mother-in-law, Great-grandmother Werner (left with Great-grandfather), was the kindest, sweetest person she ever knew. She loved her like her own mother. This is how she taught Gram to make cabbage.

Cut up 2-3 lbs. white cabbage and 1 small onion. Melt ½ stick butter in a frying pan and put the onion and cabbage in. Stir gently making sure it does not scorch or burn. Sprinkle with caraway seeds, 1 tbsp. sugar, 1 tbsp vinegar, salt & pepper. Add splashes of water as needed to keep cabbage moist as it cooks. When cabbage is nearly done sprinkle with 1 tbsp flour and stir in to thicken the broth. Serve with more butter.

Great-grandmother Woelfel’s Moultasha
“Moultasha” means “mouth pockets”. Since Great-grandmother has 5 hungry sons and 3 sturdy daughters to feed I’m sure she made a lot of them. Gram remembers her mother making these and said, “I never saw this recipe in any cookbook.” This recipe is copied as Gram wrote it.
Grease a glass baking dish 12 x 12”. To about 2 c. leftover mashed potatoes add an egg and about ½ c. flour salt. This will be a sticky dough. Pinch off about enough dough to make a small pancake, roll out with a little flour. Add a few chopped apple, 1 tsp sugar and cinnamon, fold over, seal edges, put in baking pan. Continue folding one against the other in the baking pan till all the dough is used. Beat together 1 ½ c. milk with 1 beaten egg. Pour over and bake 40 minutes to one hour. If time is short you can roll dough and make 2 rolls like a pie and put apples and sugar, cinnamon in, lay roll lengthwise. Pour milk and egg mixture over and bake. Serve with anything instead of potatoes or pasta.

Raw Potato Dumplings
Gram (left in 1920) made these sometimes to go with leftover roast or turkey when there was lots of gravy to be used up. This is a real old country recipe.

Grate 7-8 raw, peeled potatoes and 1 small grated onion. Add some dried parsley, salt and pepper and 2 eggs. Tear up half a loaf of white bread and work it into the potato mixture by hand until the mixture holds together by the handful. Bring a large kettle of water with a little salt to a rapid boil. Shape the potato dough into balls. Roll in flour and drop into the boiling water. Let cook 45 minutes.

If you have more dumplings than you need the next day you can slice them and fry them in butter with sliced onions. Very delicious!
You can also make little meatballs from ground pork and saute them in a pan then shape the potato mixture around them before you roll them in flour and drop them in the water.


Great-grandmother Woelfel’s Schmarn
This is really not a bread. “Schmarn” means pancake and Gram remembers her mother making these for breakfast. Wayne was always very partial to them. I am copying it her exactly as Gram Werner wrote it.
Mix 1 c. flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 ½ c. milk a little at a time till smooth. Then add 5 eggs and beat with the rest of the milk. You can add more milk, dough should be very runny. Heat a “non-stick” frying pan with 2 tbsp shortening added. Let pan get very hot then pour in the dough. Let cook a few minutes, then with a pancake turner, keep turning and sort of chopping up till edges are brown and sort of fringed and baked through. Makes 4 servings. Good with syrup.

There's lots more in the book. I'm up to 160 pages now!!! My sisters Anne, Lisa, Chris & Beth have sent new recipes. Brothers Wayne and Matt have added to the book and nieces Amy, Emily, Erica, and Tasha as well as nephews Adam and Mark! I'm so delighted!


Thanks for reading.

New Amazon Reader's Review for "Each Angel Burns"

From "Cozy Bookworm":

Love and mystery- my favorite combination!, January 27, 2010

I savored this novel and did not want it to end. I felt close to the characters yet was continually surprised by what happened. Maggie is an enviable heroine and Gabe is a dream come true handyman, complete with Zeke the dog. Refurbishing the old monastery, given to Maggie from her demonic husband, Sinclair, provides an intriguing backdrop for the story. Gorgeous Father Pete has loved Maggie but loves his vocation more. The young artists assisting Maggie with her sculptures add some gastronomical bits to the story which made me wish for some lobster in my neighborhood! There were many more interesting characters--the guys from the Arm Pit bar and their interesting "club" and Josef the Amish man. There were times when I was unsure where the story was going but it was very satisfying indeed.


Thank you, Cozy Bookworm!

Some Common Misconceptions About Writing

Because I am a writer, have participated in various writers forums and groups and also work with writers to edit, design, publish and market their books I frequently hear comments made about the process of writing that are erroneous. Some are just misconceptions and some qualify as grand delusions. The most common of these is that you can write a book and live off the profits. If only that were true.

Some years ago I was in a writer's workshop in which the instructor asked why we wanted to write. Most of the people gave the usual responses: I have a story to tell, I love to write, etc. but one guy quite frankly stated he had heard about how much writers made so he was going to write a book, sell it to Hollywood and then take it easy. He didn't last long in the workshop.

It is true that some writers do make a lot of money on their books but they are the exception not the rule. The majority of fiction writers, even fairly successful fiction writers, still work other jobs as teachers, lawyers, editors, etc. for a long time. I've heard it said that it is not until a writer publishes their fifth book that they can “quit their day job” so to speak. Of course there are exceptions. Some people come up with a winner the first time out but they are rare.

I was thinking about this because I've been following Anne Rice's posts on her Facebook page. I've recently become enamored of her new focus on Catholic-themed books and love hearing her discuss them. It's a touchy subject and because there is a strong anti-Catholic/Christian element in contemporary society and I think she is very brave to abandon her former, highly successful paranormal subject matter (although, if you pay attention, most of that had powerfully moral/spiritual themes). But she has recently discussed two things I think more people should know about.

One is that a writer of her stature has a lot of influence in the publishing world. This is something fledgling writers often complain about, that established writers are too self-centered or whatever to help beginners. Ms Rice has recently talked about her efforts to find a publisher interested in a book her own father wrote. The book, The Impulsive Imp, is a charming children's tale and was recently published by Amazon's Book Surge but Ms. Rice said that for years she could not get a publisher interested in the book. Now if Anne Rice cannot get her own father published, what do unknown beginners expect? Writing is wonderful but publishing is another matter. I get inquiries all the time from writers who want me to help them get their books published and I've got a lot to learn about that business myself.

The other discussion on her page that fascinated me was about reader's misconceptions about her books being made into movies. She wrote that a lot of readers asked if she would allow her books to be made into movies and she wanted to set the record straight --- that it was more a matter of her getting an offer from a film production company to option her books and turn them into movies. This is something I know a little more about because of the experiences of friends who are writers. Most writers hope to get their work optioned but even getting an option does not mean a film will be made. Even if you get the offer all that means is the production company is purchasing the OPTION to make a movie --- they may or may not do it. And, if they do it, they may or may not take your opinions on how the movie should be made or who should be in it into consideration.

It has long been said that everybody can writer but writers can't NOT write. I think that is true. Writing is something most of us do because entering into that world we create and populating it with characters and scene and story is a delicious experience. But how our creation fares in the world is out of our control. We write because we love the experience of writing or because we have something we feel the need to put out into the world. What happens beyond that is not within our control. But we do it anyway.

Thanks for reading.

Article about The Old Mermaid's Tale on Candian Web Site

This article was posted on the Canadian web site TheGreatLakes.com over a year ago but this is the first I have seen it. How nice....

Mermaids, Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Folklore Fill Novel

Gloucester, MA  November 24, 2008 -- Waitressing in an Erie diner was a necessity for Kathleen Valentine while she attended college at Behrend-Penn State. Now, nearly forty years later, that experience is the background for her first novel The Old Mermaid's Tale (http://www.oldmermaidinn.com), released by Parlez-Moi Press.

Set in the fictional town of Port Presque Isle, Pennsylvania in the early 1960s, The Old Mermaid's Tale is the story of Clair Wagner, an Ohio farm girl attending Chesterton College. Valentine admits that Chesterton is a thinly disguised version of Behrend-Penn State and that the streets and businesses of Port Presque Isle will be familiar to those who know Erie. The author said she originally wrote the book using Erie as the setting but revised it to a fictional town so she could expand the story line.

"What I really wanted to do," Valentine says, "is tell the story of Lake Erie and its importance in the lives of the people who live near it. I live in Gloucester, Massachusetts now and there are many books about the maritime world here like Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm. But I wanted to write about the maritime world of the Great Lakes, especially Lake Erie."

Valentine, who grew up in St. Marys, Pennsylvania, spent several years researching the maritime history of the Great Lakes. The book begins in 1960, shortly after the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway to international commerce. Clair Wagner, like the author, works in a waterfront diner to pay for college. As she becomes acquainted with the seamen who frequent the diner her intrigue with Lake Erie and its history of great storms, shipwrecks, maritime legends, and folklore grows. Though the novel vividly portrays the lives of the mariners it is, above all, a love story.

Clair's first romance is with Pio, a handsome young Italian fisherman who works on lake barges to earn money in order to buy his own, ultimately doomed, fishing tug. Clair has a brief romance with Gary, the charming son of a wealthy shipping tycoon, during which she is introduced to the working face of the commercial waterfront. Then she meets Baptiste, a mysterious Breton mariner injured in a shipwreck who now earns a living as a musician in waterfront taverns. Author Ingeborg Lauterstein, in a blurb on the books cover, calls The Old Mermaid's Tale "grand storytelling in the style of Fielding."

Valentine's research began when she was a girl in the 1950s and spent summer vacations on Presque Isle with her godparents who lived in Erie. "The history of shipwrecks and lost vessels is as exciting and perilous as those on any ocean. In the period that I lived there I found Erie romantic and mysterious," she says. "My godfather loved the Lake and he started my love of its history."

In fact, she dedicated the book to him, Erie resident the late Norman A. Reider.

Along with the theme of Great Lakes shipwrecks, Valentine has woven in a sub-theme of folklore --- Great Lakes folklore, Native American Folklore, and Breton folklore from the Cote du Nord. And mermaids.

"Many people are fascinated by mermaids and the archetype of the mermaid is very special to me. Mermaids inhabit water, of course," Valentine says, "which archetypally represents sexuality. In literature mermaids are both destructive, luring ships into dangerous waters with their songs, and heroic in saving the lives of drowning sailors. In my story Clair is a young woman just coming into her awareness of her own sexuality and to what that means to the mariners she becomes involved with. While Tessie, the aging proprietor of the Old Mermaid Inn, served as a mermaid in both aspects to the men in her life. Tessie's story of what it means to be a mermaid gives the novel its title."

She adds, "I've been pleasantly surprised by the reactions of the men who have read my book. They say they fall in love with Clair. They all want to meet a mermaid like Clair."

Valentine is the author of My Last Romance and other passions (http://www.mylastromance.com), a collection of short stories released in 2006 and numerous short stories in various publications. She is currently working on a new novel, Each Angel Burns, (http://www.eachangelburns.com)a mystery about faith, enduring friendships, and miracles.

The Old Mermaid's Tale ( ISBN-13: 978-0978594060 ) is 296 pages long and is available to be ordered through local bookstores or online at Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Old-Mermaids-Tale-Kathleen-Valentine/dp/0978594061/). Readers may also visit the book's web site at http://www.OldMermaidInn.com or the author's web site at http://www.KathleenValentine.com, both of which have links to the first chapter

My Brother's “Recipe Book”

While working on the new version of the family cookbook I was reminded of my brother Jack's “recipe book”. Jack was a hunter, fisherman and gardener and grew much of the food that his family ate. He loved to walk the woods with a big LL Bean basket on his back and pick berries, wild grapes and other treasures to bring home and make into relishes, preserves and wine.

He once gave me a bottle of the most absolutely delicious wild grape wine. Wild grapes grow on vines that climb up some very tall trees, way out of reach of most people. When I asked how he was able to get enough he said, “Oh, it's easy. I just lasso the top of the tree, tie the rope to the bumper of my truck and back up until the tree bends down far enough for me to reach them.” That was Jack all right.

He made outstanding sausages and was always experimenting with new flavors and combinations of meats. And he kept track of everything he made in this beaten up little cardboard notebook that looked like it had spent a lot of time in kitchens. Jack died in 2002 and I still miss him like crazy but I also love to think about the kind of guy he was. They don't make them like that anymore, as the saying goes. So when I started working on the family cookbook I started thinking about all those recipes of his. I called his daughter Amy and asked her about his “recipe book” as he always called it. She said she thought it was still in the bookcase at her mother's house and she agreed with me it would be a wonderful thing to be able to preserve and share some of his recipes. That's Amy in the picture watching her Dad make sausage.

About a week ago I called to see if she had located it and she said that her mother said she didn't know where it was. Amy was upset and so was I. It was hard to think of his recipes being gone but even worse to think that notebook, which he put so much energy into, was gone. Amy said she'd try to find herself.

Last night I was sitting here working on the cookbook --- that is all I do these days --- and the phone rang. It was a Pennsylvania number I didn't recognize but when I answered the phone it was Amy. She was in her car calling from her cell phone. “I've got it!” she exclaimed, “I've got my father's recipe book. I'm going to go straight home and scan some pages and email them to you.” She sounded so happy!

About an hour later an email arrived with six scanned pages and I was both crying and laughing as I downloaded them. There was that battered, stained, scribbled-over bunch of pages I remembered in that handwriting that was so familiar. It was just so wonderful see them and all the memories they brought with them.

So the cookbook will have four sausage recipes from Jack as well as his recipes for venison jerky, hamburger relish, dill pickles, and his spaghetti sauce. I'm just so pleased we'll get to share them. Amy told me she absolutely loved having that book and she just laughed as she was looking at some of the crazy stuff he recorded in it --- including how to make turtle soup and how to prepare ruffed grouse.

There's something awfully intimate about a book like that, it's almost more personal than a diary. The history of a life in food. As I retyped the recipes and fit them into the text of the book I felt a closeness to Jack that I haven't felt in a long time. And I think his daughter is feeling it too. It's really beautiful. I'm so happy that his book will stay with us.

Thanks for reading.

My Mother's Cookbooks II

Working on this new version of the family cookbook, I got out several of my Mother's favorite cookbooks and discovered a couple of surprises. Very welcome surprises.

The cookbooks in the picture above are five that my mother used all the time. You can tell this by their battered condition and the stains on the pages. That's the second Valentine cookbook on the top left and her church's Sodality cookbook below it.

Tucked in "Old Time Pickling and Spicing Recipes" I discovered a handwritten recipe for Pumpernickle. I think that is my Grandmother Werner's handwriting but am not sure. It looks good though.

 

Recipes written on the fly leaf of "Food That Really Schmecks" and one recipe for "Foolproof Pie Crust" has my mother's name written in the corner but it is not her handwriting. Someone clearly gave it to her and she taped it in her cookbook.

 

In the section on sauerkraut in "Food That Really Schmecks" she taped an article on making sauerkraut from the Philadelphia Inquirer, November 13, 1977.

And this is the second edition of the Valentine Cookbook. Some of the pages are so stained you can barely read them and one page in the cookie section has a petrified clump of something I swear is her molasses cookie dough.

Many of the recipes in these books have notes written next to them "don't add as much butter", or "very good but needs more pepper". I've really enjoyed going through these books... it's kind of like spending some time with Mom.

 

Thanks for reading.