Jeffrey's Grilled Portobellos

Jeffrey’s Grilled Portobellos

4 large portobello mushrooms

2 garlic cloves, cut into slivers

1 oz Romano or other firm cheese, finely slivered

1 sprig fresh rosemary, leaves stripped from stem

2 TBSP pine nuts

1/2 cup plus TBSP balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp coarse salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 & 1/3 cup EVOO, more as needed

12 fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced

Trim the stems off the mushrooms. Wipe the caps clean. Make a series of deep slices in the caps, and insert pieces of garlic, cheese, rosemary, and pine nuts.

Combine 1/2 cup vinegar and the salt & pepper in a non-reactive bowl. Whisk until the salt is dissolved. Whisk in the oil and basil. Pour some of the mixture into the bottom of a non-reactive baking dish and arrange the portobellos in it, gill-side up. Swish the mushrooms around to coat the bottoms. Spoon the remaining marinade over the mushrooms. Marinate in the refrigerator, covered, for 30 minutes to 3 hours.

Heat grill to high.

When read to cook, remove the mushrooms from marinade. Which the remaining 2 TBSP vinegar into the marinade. Arrange the mushrooms onto the grill, directly on the grate, gill-side down. Grill for 3 minutes, then invert and spoon on remaining marinade into gills. Continue grilling until the caps are browned and very tender, 4-6 minutes, rotating them 45 degrees after two minutes to give crosshatch marks. Serve at once.

Jeffrey's Pesto

Jeffrey’s Pesto

40 fresh basil leaves

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1/4 cup pine nuts

2/3 cups finely grated parmesan cheese

2-3 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

salt & pepper

Rinse basil and pat dry with a paper towel. Put basil, garlic, pine nuts, and parmesan into a food processor and blend for about 30 seconds, or until smooth. Pulse while adding EVOO. Season with salt & pepper. Toss with freshly cooked pasta!

French Camp Chili

French Camp Chili

1 small onion, chopped
1 pound ground hamburger meat, browned & drained
1 can tomato soup & 1/2 can water
1 can diced tomatoes, including liquid
1 can kidney beans
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp sugar
2 whole cloves

Mix all ingredients together and heat through. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Serves 5.

French Camp Honey Mustard

French Camp Honey Mustard

1 cup mustard
1/2 cup pure honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 squirt Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dried parsley flakes

Mix well and add a little more honey if too sour or a little more mustard if too sweet!

French Camp Bread

French Camp Bread

Somewhere around the turn of the millennium, I bought a packet of recipes at the Council House Cafe in French Camp, MS. We would drive down from Starkville occasionally just to eat lunch there. So, when they made the recipes available, I instantly bought them. But along the way, the original packet was lost and I had only added about half of them to my electronic files. Those four or five have been on this blog for ages. Today, many years later, that missing packet has turned up. And this recipe for the magical bread, that I KNEW existed but could not locate, is now available to me again!

2 to 2.5 cups flour

2 TBSP sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 package active dry yeast

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup water

2 TBSP butter

Mix 3/4 cup flour, sugar, salt, and undissolved yeast. Heat milk, water & butter to lukewarm. Slowly add dry ingredients and beat for two minutes. Add 1/4 cup flour and beat two more minutes. Stir in enough flour to make a soft dough. Pour out onto a floured board and knead two or three minutes. Put in a bread pan and let rise for about an hour. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes.

14 Layer Chocolate Cinnamon Torte

14 Layer Chocolate Cinnamon Torte

This was passed on from a friend in 1991. It was the groom's cake at our wedding in 1992, made by the bride!

Filling*
3 squares semisweet chocolate
4 cups heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup baking cocoa

Cookie Layers*
2 cups sugar
1.5 cups butter, softened
2 eggs
2 TBSP ground cinnamon
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour

*Make extra of both

1. Cut 14 sheets of parchment paper into 9 inch rounds
2. Into large bowl, measure sugar, butter, eggs, cinnamon, & 2 cups flour
With mixer at low speed, beat ingredients until well mixed, constantly scraping bowl with rubber spatula.
Increase speed to medium and beat mixture three minutes or until VERY light and fluffy (occasionally scraping bowl).
With spoon, stir in remaining flour to make soft dough.
3. Preheat over to 375 degrees. Speckle pan with water.
Put parchment paper circles on pan. Spread 1/3 cup of dough with metal spatula into very thin layer onto each circle (spread as close to edge as possible).
Bake layers 8-12 minutes or until lightly browned around edges.
(BETTER TO UNDERCOOK THAN TO BAKE PAPER ONTO COOKIE.)

4. Remove pan to wire rack.
Cool five minutes.
With pancake turner, carefully remove cookie (still on parchment paper) to wire rack to cool completely. (allow pan to cool before putting on new parchment paper circles)
Repeat until all dough is baked.

Carefully stack cookies, cover, cool, dry.

5. Early in day, or day ahead, melt chocolate (buy LOTS), and make curls, and chocolate  dipped strawberries. Pour melted chocolate in pan, refrigerate until hardened, curl with spoon. DO NOT touch curls at all, used a toothpick or tool to handle. In a large bowl with mixer at medium speed, beat cream and cocoa until soft peaks form (add sugar to taste).

6. CAREFULLY peel paper off one cookie.
Place on flat cake pan.
Spread with about 1/2 cup whipped mixture.
Continue with all cookies.

7. Decorate and refrigerate for at least three hours (cookies soften).
DO NOT FREEZE ANTYHING.
Make it pretty!


(After miraculously finding the hand-written copy from 1991, and reconstructing the recipe from the moisture-smeared text, I found this version already online, which I'm linking for reference.

Old Fashioned Pound Cake

Old Fashioned Pound Cake

Isabelle got this one from a friend at the Piggly Wiggly and it is pretty much perfect for a basic delicious pound cake!

1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream butter & sugar. Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each. Alternate adding cream with flour until well mixed. Add vanilla. Pour into a bundt pan and bake at 350 degrees for at least 85 minutes. Test with a skewer, and cook until it comes out clean. This will often require an additional 10-20 minutes of baking.