Although it’s not harvest time yet, I’m getting myself prepared!  One of my favorite root crops is the lowly rutabaga.  This is a vegetable that is not especially well known, or appreciated.  Seen mostly in northern climates, the rutabaga may be referred to as a “yellow turnip”, partly because they may be mistaken for a turnip in areas of the world where turnips are not grown. They are also called “wax turnips” possibly because they are often sold covered in a wax coating to help preserve them during shipping and storing. 

Once cooked, you’ll see why the rutabaga is a desirable root crop in the waning days of autumn.  The color is beautiful!  Cubed and added to stews or pot roasts, the rutabaga brightens and gives the meal a decidedly up-beat flavor and color.  A turnip just doesn’t do the same!

My family always made a “Harvest Dinner” in the fall when the garden was done.  Very simple, but filling and delicious, we just threw whatever we had in a big pot and put it on the stove to simmer.  Our ingredients included a big ham bone, lots of onion, potatoes, carrots, and of course, a big rutabaga.  After school, we’d come home, walk in the house and know immediately what was for dinner.  There is no mistaking the aroma of rutabaga! 

Besides our traditional Harvest Dinner, I’m wondering if you good people have cooked rutabaga in different ways.  Possibly some side dishes that are a little unusual, or in salads perhaps?  I look forward to your ideas!

If you’ve never tried Gruyere cheese, you need to give yourself an excuse to run out and buy some.  I have a love affair going on with this particular cheese because it is nutty and buttery, and is a perfect cheese to have with wine, one of my other favorite things! 

Gruyere cheese is actually a kind of Swiss cheese, but I prefer the more flavorful Gruyere to the Swiss cheese that most of us know.  As a matter of fact, if you have a casserole dish you make that calls for Swiss cheese, try replacing it with Gruyere and you’ll see what I mean.  You’ll probably change all your Swiss cheese recipes to Gruyere!

One of my favorite recipes in which I use Gruyere cheese is a classic French Onion Soup.  I just make a regular recipe for the soup, but then cube up some Guyere cheese, put it in the bottom of oven-proof soup bowls, pour the soup on top, cover and put in the oven on low heat, about 300 degrees, for 1/2 hour or so.  Then, take the bowls out, put a slice of rye bread on top and cover with some grated Gruyere cheese, return to the oven until the cheese just melts on top of the bread.  That is one exquisite bowl of soup!

If you’ve cooked with Gruyere cheese and have a favorite recipe that you’d like to share, I’d love to read it!  Or, if you have recipes that use Swiss cheese, maybe you’d be willing to switch to Gruyere cheese and let me know how your recipe turns out.  Either way, I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Believe it or not, stuck away in my big freezer, I found several bags of French cut green beans left over from Thanksgiving.  It’s time to clean house and I would like a way to cook up those beans other than the classic green bean casserole that we all know and love, but have had enough of. 

I did stumble across an old scrap of paper with a soup recipe scribbled on it that looks pretty interesting.  The instructions aren’t really detailed, but the ingredients are simple.  The recipe for French Cut Green Bean Soup goes just like this:

Take a bag of frozen French cut green beans (about 4 cups), about 3 medium size potatoes, diced up, 1 good size carrot, sliced, 1 medium onion, diced up, 1 to 2 teaspoons of salt depending on how salty you like your soup, and put this all in a pot, cover with cold water.  Simmer until all the veggies are tender.  Then, mix together in a bowl, 2 tablespoons each flour and butter.  Add 1/2 cup of cream or half ‘n half and mix together.  Then put that mixture into soup and stir well.  Return soup to a gentle bubble for a minute, then turn off heat.  Then, add 2 cups or more of buttermilk, until you like the way the soup looks.  The buttermilk is the trick to this really good soup.

Like I said, this recipe was just scribbled on a piece of scrap paper, so that’s as precise as it gets! 

If you have any recipes you’d like to share that use French cut green beans, even if it’s just an old scribbled recipe that you dug up somewhere, I’d love to hear from you!

This may seem like a pretty unusual question, but I actually do have some salt pork in my refrigerator.  A friend of mine loves collard greens and uses salt pork when she fixes her family’s favorite recipe.  She ran out of collard greens before she ran out of salt pork and asked me if I wanted to use up her extra salt pork.  Well, never one to turn down a challenge, or free food, I said “Sure!” 

Now I have a nice package of salt pork and would like to make something really good with it.  I would also like to stick to a more traditional recipe, one that the settlers might have made with salt pork, since it is sort of an “historic” ingredient.

I’ve been looking at old cookbooks and it looks like salt pork was used a lot in bean or potato soups and chowders.  Comparing those recipes with more modern ones, it seems at some time a switch to using ham occurred.  I’m wondering if I could take a more modern chowder recipe and just replace the ham with salt pork?  What would be the difference?

I would really love to hear from anyone who has an old soup or chowder recipe that was passed down through generations.  That would be the best… a real tried-and-true recipe!  Looking forward to your input!

I have to admit here, I’ve never been a fan of cream style corn.  It’s too sweet for my taste.  But, my husband loves cream corn so I try to find ways to serve it.  There aren’t many ways I’ve been able to “hide” the taste of the corn, and when I do manage, it doesn’t make my husband too happy.  I guess I can understand, after all he would like to be able to taste his beloved cream style corn!

My quandary remains then to find ways to use cream style corn in dishes without having to make a second meal for myself.  I will tell you that I have tried one dish that’s surprisingly pleasing to both of us.  This is a corn chowder using both frozen corn and cream corn.  I just make sure there’s enough bacon, salt, black pepper, Dijon mustard, and Worcestershire sauce to mask the sweetness of the cream corn.  It turns out pretty well.

Other than cream corn in corn chowder, have you used it in some casseroles or other side dishes with success?  If you’re not a great cream corn fan, I’d love to hear how you, too, have “hidden” the cream corn in some of your dishes.  And, if you are a fan of cream corn and really crave certain dishes, I’d like to hear from you, too, so I can make something nice for my husband, even if I don’t eat it!

My Grandma always had ginger ale in the house, which is why I always have it in my house, too!  She said it settled upset stomachs and I think it tastes great.  Whatever reason, ginger ale fills a little corner of my pantry all the time.  So, aside from drinking it, is there any other use for ginger ale?

Of course, one of the best uses for ginger ale is to make punch.  Everyone has at least one favorite party punch recipe, and mine just happens to include ginger ale.  It’s so simple I hate to even let people know how to make it, lest my culinary skills, or lack thereof, become exposed for what they are!  Nonetheless, here is the recipe:

1) Make ice cubes out of orange juice, enough to fill a punch bowl about halfway.
2) Chill punch bowl.
3) Wash fresh mint leaves.
4) Fill chilled punch bowl about halfway with orange ice cubes.
5) Pour in ginger ale over orange ice to top of punch bowl.
6) Float mint leaves on top and serve immediately.

See, it’s super simple, pretty, and delicious. Spike it if you like with a splash of vodka in your cup before you fill with punch, stir and sip.

If you have any other ideas for using ginger ale, I’d love to hear from you!

Have you seen the word “shallot” used in a recipe and just don’t know what they are?  Have you confused them with scallions?  I did at first but now know the difference.  I finally got brave and decided to try using shallots to see why so many people like to cook with them.

Shallots offer the best of both worlds when you want an onion and garlic flavor.  They are milder than most onions, and they don’t leave your breath a disaster zone like garlic.  Shallots are perfect when you’re making a savory sauce using wine.  They carmelize just like onions, but you have to be sure and saute them on a lower heat because they are quite delicate.

Now, when to use them and what to make with them.  I don’t think they are suitable for every purpose.  For instance, I wouldn’t cut up a bunch to use in my chili or spaghetti sauce.  But I would saute them in a base for any nice cream soup.  Also, any sauce for salmon, or really any grilled fish would be good. 

Have you made any dishes that would sing praises to the Shallot?  I’d like to find more ways to use them, but I’m running out of ideas.  Help!

Almost every tomato based recipe that I turn to when relying on my old favorites, uses tomato sauce or diced tomatoes.  Very few have tomato paste listed as an ingredient.  Why is that?  I typically use only tomato sauce in my spaghetti or marinara sauces, but now I’m wondering why I’m paying for water.  Can’t you just use tomato paste and add a little extra water to make it like tomato sauce?

I’d really like to kick the tomato sauce habit for two reasons:  1) I’m paying more for tomato paste than an equivalent amount of tomato paste; and 2) I have a really beautiful new tomato paste in a tube that I’m itching to use.  I got it as a gift from one of those neat gourmet shops.  It’s so pretty and smells so good that I think I’m a convert. 

Have you switched to using a good tomato paste instead of cans of tomato sauce?  Does it take some thought to adjust your recipes, or is it just a “try it and see” sort of thing? 

I’m looking forward to reading your responses! 

I grew up with parents who loved to cook.  Often, they would create very unusual meals because they liked to experiment with out of the ordinary ingredients.  At least, these ingredients were not typically seen in our neck of the woods.  If it wasn’t meat and potatoes, you didn’t eat it in most homes in our town.

One of the odd ingredients I remember was capers.  You know, those little tiny green things that come in jars?  My parents actually made Steak Tartare back in the day when it was considered safe, and cool, to eat raw beef.  This specialty dish always had a generous dose of capers both mixed in and sprinkled on the top.  Steak Tartare is not a dish that is recommended anymore, so I started thinking about those fun capers and was wondering how I could use them again, for old time sake.

In doing a little asking around, I found several people who said basically, “If you want a lot of zip, add capers.”  They went on to say that capers add a piquant flavor that’s hard to beat in dishes that could be bland without them.  Does that help?  Maybe a little. 

Seems they’re on to something.  I found several recipes for egg salad and deviled eggs that call for adding capers.  Egg dishes can be pretty bland without a good dose of spice, so capers would be a good match.

What else have you used capers for when cooking?  Have you ever used them just sprinkled on top of a salad?  If so, how did that go?  And, are you of the belief that you have to rinse them before using?  I’d be happy to hear from you if there are some ways that you like to use capers in your recipes.