"Oh, Kaye!" Cooking, Baking (a Little Football) and All That Jazz

It wasn't until very close to my day to play "Oh, Kaye" that I realized I'd be posting on Super Bowl Sunday. 

 Oy. 

 I admit, I'm not a huge football fan. Oh, I used to be, and Super Bowl Sunday parties were very much a part of my social life. But not so much these days. Learning that the NFL is a non-profit organization hasn't done much to help me love it again either. 

I am, however, a fan of food.  And food is a big part of Super Bowl parties, right?

So.  I guess it's appropriate that I've chosen recipes as my topic of the day. 

These recipes aren't normal fare for football, but oh well.  Football isn't really normal fare for what it once was either, so it seems.  (tax exempt. really??).



But first - - - - 



  

Any excuse to use these videos - Don't you love 'em?!

(I recently read Sam Wasson's FOSSE, and I can't seem to get him out of my mind.  Along with the fact that the NFL is a non-profit organization)

Now that we've pretty well handled all the "All That Jazz," back to the cooking and baking . . . .

This is probably where I should admit I'm not much of a cook.  

The type of cooking I do enjoy consists of tossing a lot of stuff into a pot, like soups, stews, chili, spaghetti - you get the idea.  A little of this, a little of that - maybe a little more of this, etc.  Nothing ever tastes like it did the last time, but still tastes pretty good - or so we hope.  I seem to lack focus.  Or something.  I  just feel the need to tweak; to add and/or subtract from the original.  For this reason it strikes a lot of people (including myself) as odd that I love to bake as much as I do.  

You don't get to do a lot of tweaking while you're baking.  Oh, you may get away with a little, but take that tweaking too far and you're gonna end up with a disaster on your hands sooner or later.  Mother and I can attest to that as we threw away a very messy, expensive version of a Harvey Wallbanger Cake many years ago.  WHY we felt this recipe needed more Galliano, I have no idea (especially since I remember drinking way too many Harvey Wallbangers watching a Super Bowl game a very long time ago).   I have made it since, following the recipe to a "T" and it was delicious.  There are a lot of recipes for it on-line, including one at allrecipes.com, if you're interested.

But there is one recipe I love that I will fix for special occasions.  It's pretty labor intensive, not to mention the "fat factor," but I love it.

I remember running across this recipe at our friend John's house.  He was always cooking wonderfully elegant meals, entertaining with ease and panache and I always just sat back and enjoyed the fruits of his labors.  

If there's one single thing I miss about living in Atlanta it would be John's parties.  

While John cooked and prepped for throwing the most perfect parties ever (from glam New Year's Eve parties to Super Bowl Parties),  I would look through his stacks and stacks of cookbooks and Gourmet and Bon Appétit and scribble down recipes.  Some I would actually try.  

One I did try and am still using is Joan Hackett's Country Pâté (I have recently seen this exact same recipe in a column written by a well known chef.  Tacky old soul takes credit for creating it, even though he was nowhere on the scene back when this recipe first appeared).

I've guarded this recipe with my life. I've made about a beezillion copies of it in case one (or 20) copies might get lost. It also now resides on my computer (in several places). Then, just to be "for sure, for sure," I bought a copy of an old cookbook which I learned had the recipe in it. THE BEST OF BON APPETIT published in 1979.  1979!  See how long I've been guarding it?  I was so happy to finally discover that it's actually in a cookbook.  There's just something about having a cookbook open on my kitchen counter while I'm cooking.  I find those food stains and splatters comforting for some odd reason.

 Here's the recipe:

Joan Hackett's Country Pâté

20- 25 servings

    4-6 bay leaves
    6 thin slices bacon

    3 tablespoons butter
    1 cup chopped parsley
    ½ cup chopped green onion
    ½ cup chopped onion
    3 garlic cloves, minced
    2 shallots, minced

    2 pounds sweet Italian sausage
    1 1/4 cups beer
    1 teaspoon fennel seeds

    1 tablespoon butter
    1 pound ground veal

    1 thin slice bacon, chopped
    2 cups crushed herb stuffing mix
    2 large eggs, lightly beaten
    Salt & freshly ground pepper
    ½ cup shelled pistachio nuts

Put bay leaves in single layer in 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.  Line length of pan with bacon; set aside.

Half fill a large roasting pan with water and place in oven.  Close oven door and preheat to 350.

Melt 3 tablespoons butter in large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add ½ cup parsley, green onion, onion, garlic and shallots and saute about 2 minutes.  Remove to large bowl.

Place sausage in large skillet; add 1/4 cup beer and cook over medium heat, mashing and turning with spatula, just until sausage starts to lose pink color but is only partially cooked.  Stir in fennel.  Remove from heat and add to parsley-onion mixture.

In same skillet melt 1 tablespoon butter.  Add veal and saute until partially cooked, about 2 minutes.  Add 1/4 cup beer and cook 1 minute more.  Remove from heat and add to bowl. 

Place chopped bacon in same skillet and saute about 2 minutes.  Add stuffing and blend thoroughly.  Stir in remaining 3/4 cup beer and cook 1 to 2 minutes more.  Remove from heat and stir into onion-meat mixture.  Add eggs, remaining ½ cup parsley and salt and pepper to taste; blend thoroughly.  Mix in pistachio nuts (or leave them out if they don't appeal to you).

Carefully pack mixture into loaf pan, pressing down firmly.  Wrap entire pan in heavy duty foil (or doubled regular foil) as if wrapping a package.  Place carefully in roasting pan and bake 1 hour.  Very carefully remove from roaster and weight pâté for 3 to 4 hours by placing another loaf pan filled with heavy objects (such as books or canned goods) on top of a cookie sheet on top of wrapped pate loaf.

Remove weight and refrigerate pâté several hours or overnight.  To serve, remove foil, loosen completely with knife and unmold onto serving plate.  Pat off excess fat with paper towel.

And, ta da, here 'tis - 

And here's the recipe for that pretty torte pictured above, with thanks to my friend Gigi Markyna for sharing it with me many years ago -

Fruit Torte (Obsttorte) 

Grease torte pan carefully, flour.

Beat 3 eggs on high speed till very foamy.

Add 5 Tbsps. warm water while beating.

Add 1 cup sugar - beat vigorously.

Turn mixer to slower speed and add 1 cup of flour, and 1 tsp. baker powder
add 1 tsp. vanilla flavoring (or almond, or rum)


Pour into pan and bake at 350 for 15 or 20 min., till top is lightly golden.  

Remove to cooling rack immediately.


When completely cool, arrange fruits of your choice as desired.

Use Dr.Oetker clear glaze over the top (found in the baking section of your local grocery).

Top with whipped cream, if desired.

How 'bout you, Reds - do you have a favorite recipe you do for special occasions where you just forget about calories, fat, carbs and all that jazz?  

And, are you all watching the Super Bowl today?