Austen Family Cooks/Recipe:Individual Ham Loaves

This was my first Easter as a carnivore in nearly a decade.As always, I spent the day at my Grandparents' house, amongst family.The spread, what less lucky folk would call a meal, was sinfully amazing:I savored its every facet. The centerpiece was my Grandmother's Individual Ham Loaves. If you have never experienced ham loaf, don't be scared off by the mundane name. It is a true delight.I suggest that you rectify this oversight as soon as practicable by preparing the below recipe. Enjoy!!

INDIVIDUAL HAM LOAVES

2 POUNDS GROUND HAM
2 POUNDS GROUND PORK
2 EGGS
1 CUP CORNFLAKE CRUMBS
1 8-OUNCE CAN CRUSHED PINEAPPLE
1 TABLESPOON CHOPPED ONION
1/3 CUP BROWN SUGAR, PACKED
3/4 CUP MILK
SALT AND PEPPER

FOR COATING:
1/2 CUP CORNFLAKE CRUMBS
1/2 CUP GRAHAM CRACKER CRUMBS

Combine all ingredients and form into 12-15 small loaves. Roll loaves in a combination of 1/2 cup cornflake crumbs and 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Finally, the Recipe is Revealed....with Awkward Photos

By the time that I finished preparing and consuming my yummy family recipe Monday night, I was, alas, too tired to write about the meal.I made one of my all-time favourite dishes, Potato Soup with Riffles. My Great-Grandmother was the Queen of the Riffle, which is a teensy, flour-and-egg dumpling. Riffles make an excellent, simple and hearty milk-based soup by themselves. They are also an interesting texture and flavour addition to potato soup.

Monday's cold inspired me to a brief period of retreat and hibernation. I wanted nothing more than to cozy up, with a bowl of warm goodness.This filling yet basic dish, which is a long-standing family tradition, really filled that need.

POTATO SOUP WITH RIFFLES

You will need

5 MEDIUM POTATOES, DICED

1 TABLESPOON SALT

1/2 TEASPOON PEPPER

2 TABLESPOONS BUTTER

3 TABLESPOONS ONION, CHOPPED

2 CUPS MILK

FOR THE RIFFLES

3/4 CUP FLOUR

1 EGG

PLACE POTATOES IN A SAUCEPAN, WITH SALT, PEPPER, BUTTER AND ONION. ADD WATER TO BARELY COVER THE POTATOES; COOK UNTIL TENDER. MEANWHILE, TO MAKE RIFFLES: PLACE FLOUR IN BOWL AND ADD EGG TO THE CENTER OF THE FLOUR MOUND. MIX LIGHTLY WITH FINGERS UNTIL CRUMBLY. DRAIN POTATOES AND ADD MILK. WHEN MIXTURE COMES TO A BOIL, ADD RIFFLES AND SIMMER, COVERED, UNTIL DONE--ABOUT 5 MINUTES.

YOU MAY ALSO ADD ANOTHER TABLESPOON OF BUTTER AFTER THE POTATOES ARE DRAINED.

SHHHH......Cooking in Progress

I have been unexpectedly inspired by the weather's current nasty turn. It is mid-Winter chilly, just in time for the start of America's favourite warm-weather sport,baseball.Peering through the windows today, at various times, one could find freezing rain, snow or hail.
My flat was a brisk 61 degrees when I walked through the door a couple of hours ago: the result of the heat being, ever so optimistically, turned off. Clad in pajamas, I cozied up in my favourite reading chair, family cookbook on my lap, with the intention of finding a yummy and warm family favourite to write about. I had no plans to actually, well, cook. I have already had a long, crammed day. Relaxation was, I thought, my ideal.
However, luck of the highest order smiled on me when I saw the recipe. One mental scan of the contents of my larder and, ten minutes later, I am about to hit the kitchen in my fuzzy Eeyores and dice and crumble my way to an Austen family classic. Stay tuned!!

Austen Family Cooks/Recipe: Sauerkraut Balls

This is the most-requested appetizer we make--especially when my Aunt Lauree prepares them. When I was a little girl, it was a treat to roll the balls into the bread crumbs. My fingers always became yellow-coated with egg yolk before swelling to three times their slender size with bread-crumb residue. While it is not season-specific, it seems to surge in popularity during the colder months. This weekend is the perfect time to make sauerkraut balls, as Winter takes its last, extinguishing gasp.

SAUERKRAUT BALLS

1/2 pound bulk sausage

1/4 cup onion, chopped 14-ounce can of sauerkraut, drained and snipped

2 Tablespoons bread crumbs (not fine)

3 ounces cream cheese

2 Tablespoons parsley

1 teaspoon mustard

1 dash garlic salt

1 dash pepper

2 eggs, well beaten

1/4 cup milk

3/4 cup bread crumbs (not fine)

Flour for coating

Brown sausage and onion;drain. Add sauerkraut and bread crumbs to sausage mixture. Combine remaining ingredients and add to sauerkraut mixture. Chill. Shape into balls and coat with flour. Roll the balls into a mixture of eggs and milk; and then into 3/4 cup bread crumbs. Deep-fry in hot oil until golden brown.

Painting:La jeune cuisiniere by Francois Moreau

Traditions Old and New

One of my favourite mother-daughter rituals extends back through the years of my childhood, back to a long-dissolved time when memory ,as such, conscious or concrete, didn't exist. It has held a place in my life's routine for so long, however brief its annual appearance, that it simply is, as it has always been.Other shards of memory flicker through like film running at the wrong speed: the smell of her perfume, which in my mind is always Emeraude, stopped up in its green bottle; eating Jiffy snack cake and drinking hot chocolate, sitting on the floor and dining on the coffee table, as a special treat; watching baseball with my Grandpa on TV, in order to spend time with him after my Grandma exiled him to the bedroom; watching the Miss America and Miss USA pageants in their gaudy, tacky fun, a routine that we mutually stopped some time in my late teens.
The ritual that has outlasted them all, to this day, and with grace and good fortune will stand unbroken for many a year to come, till the as-yet generation has joined us in our revelry, is, of course, the yearly Oscars telecast.We enjoy, as a rule, most of the shows that make up Awards season, from the Emmys to The Golden Globes and BAFTA's. The People's Choice Awards are an exception; apparently we are not of the same mind as 'the people', whoever they may be.
By the time that The Hollywood Foreign Press throws their shindig, we are really geared up. That night is kind of a dry run for what comes a few weeks later. I would aver that the Oscars is like our Super Bowl but that would be markedly sexist and, as I really love football, untrue. Yet we anticipate it with the same sense of fervor and planning, down to the Awards Day Menu, which is usually every bit as fattening, casual and decadent as any Game Day tailgate party.No Oscar glitz and glamour filters down to the cuisine. Nachos, potato-skins,wings or corn dogs, brownies, the sort of caloric gore-fest that you save up for.
The point of watching the awards isn't just as an excuse to chow down on junk food. Other things factor into the celebration as well. Namely, clothing choice and, of course, who wins and who loses. As an ex-acting student and board-treader, the latter always fascinates me, as it would anyone, really, who finds psychological interest in that over-blown popularity contest. The fact that, on occasion, a nerd or new kid in town prevails usually keeps that facet of the spectacle fairly fresh.
Then, the clothes! Ah, we love the fashion and, if you pay attention, you can walk away with a translatable beauty idea or two. We also, from time to time, enjoy bringing out our Mean Girl schadenfreude by watching someone take a sartorial fall from grace. Yes, no one wants to watch a bunch of lovely starlets in stunning, tasteful haute couture forge an unbroken chain of style-perfection. A little bit of ugly keeps us coming back year-after-year.
Above all, watching the telecast year-in, year-out, even when it stales into boredom or predicability, is just another way for an exceptionally close mother-daughter duo to keep up their bond. The last 3 telecasts have been slightly different:we no longer live in the same city and, as it happens on a Sunday evening, a visit is not practical. We still spend the evening together, watching the show separately but simultaneously, taking notes on anything that catches our fancy, makes us laugh or annoys us, syncing our impressions during the commercials, via phone.
This year the routine was altered further, unexpectedly:my live-in boyfriend, The Chef, off from work early, joined me.He will appreciate me noting that he does not, never has and never will, give a rat's ass about the Oscars. He watched because he was off, he was home, and, as I will not hesitate to mention to anyone reading this, because he has a huge, unapologetic, non-sexual man-crush on this year's host, Hugh Jackman.
He was off, he was home and, while not watching Mr. Jackman in awe and wonderment, he cooked dinner with the ease and skill that I swear only he alone possesses. So, this year's meal was actually, in fact, a meal, instead of a series of appetizers. I contributed dessert, we opened a bottle of wine, mom was on the line and, as fate would have it, a brand-new tradition was born. Here's hoping that the handsome, golden-voiced Aussie hosts next year as well.