Hello again! This column of the Opinionated Cook features some ideas and recipes for that popular RVers pastime, the potluck. In between the recipes there are a few food/kitchen hints, tips, web site suggestions for products and recipes, and some maybe-not-very-important-but-fun-to-know-anyway food facts .
POTLUCK.....
RVers know that the potluck is a great way to share cooking chores and socialize at the same time; this feed and chatter is a staple at almost every RV gathering. Most people have their favorite stories of potlucks past ; memories of the food and the people - good and otherwise - that we associate with this tradition can trigger an immediate recollection of those feasts with family, friends and neighbors in the parish or grange hall or RV park.
The small farming community where I grew up put on a yearly harvest festival that included - among a lot of other activities - a parade, a talent show, and a community-wide Friday-night potluck in the I.O.O.F. hall. The long tables were covered with white paper donated by the local butcher shop, all the churches brought in their folding chairs, the Women s Club loaned their giant coffee urns, and volunteers scrubbed the musty old lodge kitchen until it shone, and stood at the ready to heat whatever needed to be heated or cool whatever needed to be kept chilled. In the late afternoon the food - all scratch , never store -bought - started to arrive, arrangements were made for heating or chilling, the non-perishables set out - You kids stay out of those doughnuts; they re for the supper! - and the personal reputation-making specialties of a couple hundred women (and a few of the men, too) were lovingly arranged with other dishes of their kind - all marked with a piece of adhesive tape with the owner's name on the bottom of the dish - on the crowded tables. The lines of plate and cutlery-carrying locals - every family brought its own - snaked out the door and up the street along the bridge over the creek; they shuffled along, filling their plates, laughing, admiring the food and talking ever louder against the rising noise level in the high-ceilinged hall. Leave me some of Edna's potato salad, that one with the bacon in it. Oooh, are those Eileen's enchiladaso James, if you're not going to eat all that, don't pile up your plate! Bobby, don't fill up on those jello salads; you remember what happened last year! I'll bet Mrs. M.... brought that little dish of wienies and cornbread again! And just look at those five kids of hers eating like the locusts out of Egypt! Is all Pearl's cake gone already? And Lucia's doughnuts, too? One had to move fast to get the favorites and avoid getting stuck with the abandoned offerings that nobody recognized or would venture to try. Then the warm smell of coffee filled the hall, and the din quieted enough to allow conversation. The little kids fell asleep on parents laps, the kitchen crew emptied the tables of left-overs , and some of the men - my grandfather among them - went out to their pickups for fortification before starting a few games of Pedro in cleared spots among the wreckage of the potluck. The chairs were folded - except for the card players, who promised to fold up their chairs when the game was done - and casseroles and dishes and platters, now empty, were picked up and taken out to cars or pickups along with the kids - usually wet and muddy from playing in the creek - and, family by family, they went home, full, talked out , and already looking forward to next year.
THE RECIPES
These recipes produce substantial fare, and serve from 8-12, depending on appetites and what else there is to eat. If your potluck group is small, cut the recipes in half, or make one dish for the potluck and one for the refrigerator. If your RV doesn t have an oven - or you don t want to fire it up - the RV park's clubhouse may have one; most do. If the ingredient is marked with an asterisk * , a suggested source is listed in the web site section of this O.P. column.
Edna's Potato Salad
(Some years ago, I recreated this potato salad from what I remembered; few of the pot luck dish contributors in my home town ever used a recipe, and Edna passed away many years ago. It s a German-style warm potato salad, is best made early in the day, put aside to strike through - refrigerate if it's out for more than a couple of hours - then heated and allowed to cool to warm before adding the final touches and serving.)
12 ozs, bacon *
1 medium red onion (about 3 across)
8-10 small or medium red potatoes (about 2 - 3 across; use 10 potatoes if using the smaller ones. Smaller ones cook more evenly.)
1/2 cup parsley
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3 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 - 2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons celery seed *
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard*
2/3 cup cider vinegar *
1 cup water
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3-4 hard-boiled eggs
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Scrub potatoes and cut out any ugly parts, but don t peel them. Microwave or boil whole until not quite tender. (I microwave them and stir them around a few times during the process so they ll cook evenly. This will take about 10 minutes or so, depending on your microwave, the container you have them in and how often you re-arrange them. Remove when still a bit hard, and let sit for about 10 more minutes; they'll soften. The potatoes should be just able to be pierced-with-a-fork tender; they'll finish softening in the 20 minutes of baking time.) Blend the flour, sugar, salt, pepper, and celery seed together on a piece of wax paper and set aside. Chop parsley and set aside. Cut the bacon in strips about 1/4 wide. Fry until just frizzled and a little crisp. Remove bacon pieces to a small dish. Remove from the heat, and pour out all but about 4-5 tablespoons of drippings. Chop onion into pieces about 1/2 or less, and saute in the bacon drippings over medium heat. Stir the flour mixture and the mustard into the onions and drippings and cook, stirring, for about 3-4 minutes over medium-low heat just until the mixture is light brown. Add the vinegar and 1 cup water and cook and stir until the mixture is thick. Taste for seasoning, but be careful of adding more salt; the bacon has to go in yet! Cut the warm potatoes into chunks about 3/4 and put in a bowl. Add the bacon, the dressing, and the parsley and stir to coat all the potatoes evenly with the dressing. Put in a 9 x 13 x 2 Pyrex baking pan or other 3 quart baking dish and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. When salad has cooled to slightly warm , put it in a serving bowl ( or use the baking dish or Pyrex pan to save washing more dishes ), garnish the top with hard-boiled egg wedges - cut each egg in quarters - and serve.
o The darker the salad green , the more nutritious it is.
o To avoid the green ring around hard-boiled egg yolks, start eggs in cold water to cover - add 1/2 teaspoon salt to the water - to stop any white leaking if the shell cracks during cooking - and bring to a full (rolling) boil. Remove from heat, and keep covered for about 15 minutes. Remove eggs, cool - and refrigerate.
o Depending on what kind of dish the pasta is going to be used for, add a couple teaspoons of butter or olive oil to the cooking water - this keeps it from sticking together.
Faux Lasagne
(Use a 9 x 13 x 2 Pyrex baking dish or a deeper baking dish to avoid this one-layer lasagne spilling over when it bakes. Leave about 3/8 or so at the top of the baking dish. This will serve about 8-10 at a potluck.)
3 cups (dry) pasta - (rotelle/rotini (corkscrews), medium elbow macaroni, penne (hollow, diagonal-cut tubes; get the small kind), small rigatoni, or other pasta that isn't a noodle shape - too drippy . (I use rotini or little penne.)
2 teaspoons olive oil (or other bland oil)
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4 links of Italian sausage, hot or mild
1 small onion or 1/2 medium onion (about 1 cup, chopped)
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or pressed
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1 14/15 oz. jar spaghetti/pasta sauce * ( Jar sizes vary from about 14 oz. to 29 oz.; a 14 oz. jar yields about 1 3/4 cups sauce before adding in the sausage, onion, garlic, parsley. If you like a little more sauce, get the larger jar, and use the amount you like. See the note about doctoring up the sauce in the recipe directions below.)
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3-4 very small zucchini (about 2 cups, thinly sliced on the diagonal)
1 16 oz. carton cottage cheese (2 cups) (non-fat, low-fat, whatever)
3 cups Monterey Jack cheese, grated
***
1 cup Parmesan * (or Romano) cheese, grated
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I've never met a food or recipe that I didn't mess with , and that includes doctoring up the jar sauce. You don't have to do this if you don't want to, but even the better jar sauces are usually flat . Pour the sauce from the jar into a bowl, add 1/2 cup red wine, 2 teaspoons sugar - or more, depending on the acidity of the tomatoes used for the sauce - 1 tablespoon balsamic or red wine vinegar, and 1 teaspoon oregano * or Italian herbs . * Stir all together, but don t taste until it cooks a little with the sausage/onion/garlic; then adjust seasonings, if necessary.
Remove the sausage from its casings and brown with the chopped onion and garlic in a large skillet over
medium-high heat. Remove sausage mix from skillet, and drain any accumulated grease. Pour doctored-up sauce into the skillet, add the sausage/onion/garlic back in and cook for about 20-30 minutes over medium-low heat; the mixture should bubble gently and cook down some. Taste for seasonings and adjust if necessary.
Wash, trim and slice the zucchini thinly on the diagonal. Grate the jack cheese onto a piece of wax paper. (Wax paper is one of the greatest multi-use kitchen inventions ever.)
Bring about 3-4 quarts of water to a boil; add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 2 teaspoons olive (or other bland) oil. Cook the pasta at a rolling boil for about 5 minutes; it should still be a little chewy in the center when you test-bite a piece. Drain the pasta thoroughly, then spoon it into the sauce mixture in the skillet. (Or, if the skillet you used is too small to hold this, put the pasta back in its pot and pour the sauce into that.)
Put the pasta/sausage/sauce mix into the baking dish and spread evenly. Sprinkle the grated jack over this. Arrange the zucchini slices over the cheese - pat all this down with the back of a spoon - and then plop tablespoonsful of cottage cheese - use as much of the carton as you like - over the zucchini. Sprinkle the Parmesan over the top of the lasagne , and bake for 40-45 minutes at 350. Let stand about 15 minutes before serving.
Note: A vegetarian option is to omit the sausage (in this case, saute the onion and garlic in a little olive oil before adding the sauce) and use 1 package of frozen, chopped spinach (or, stir several handfuls of fresh spinach leaves into the onion and garlic ; they ll cook down quickly.). Thaw the spinach, squeeze out as much liquid as you can (press through a strainer or use your hands), then spread the spinach over the zucchini.
o A 14/15 oz. can yields 1 2/3-1 2/4 cups of whatever
o When microwaving, use a round dish to cook food more evenly, and place the most dense part of the food, e.g., the stems of broccoli, near the outside of the dish.
o Old recipes often specified butter the size of a walnut or butter the size of an egg ; these are about 2 tablespoons and 1/4 cup, respectively.
o To keep your mixing bowl from sliding around while you're working, put the bowl on a pot holder or kitchen towel.
Black Bean Salad (Note: The beans need to be soaked and cooked a day before you serve the salad. The vegetables are added a couple hours or so before serving so they don t get soggy. See directions. Serves 10-12)
2 cups dry black beans (1 pound package)
2-3 bay leaves
1 small red onion or 1/2 medium - about 3/4 cup, finely chopped
3-4 ribs celery about 2 cups, sliced about 1/8 thick
1 red pepper, chopped or cut into small pieces
(I cut the red pepper into quarters , seed it , and put the pieces - skin side up, of course - on a piece of foil under the broiler until the skin is charred. Then fold the foil over the pepper to make a loose packet; the skin will peel off easily after about 5 minutes of sweating . This is a little more trouble, but makes a much nicer presentation; pepper skins can be tough.)
2-3 carrots, grated (about 1 cup or so)
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 8 oz. bottle of Newman's Own Balsamic Vinaigrette ( Newman's Own dressings also come in a 16 oz. bottle; this is a better value than the 8 oz., and you can use a little more dressing if necessary. Just don't drown the salad; the ingredients should maintain their separates tastes and textures.)
Pick over beans and rinse in at least two waters . Drain. Put beans in glass or stainless steel bowl and cover with water - about 1 over the top of the beans. Add 1 tablespoon cider vinegar. Soak for 4 hours. Drain and put into a pot with two or three bay leaves. (Do not add salt; this can toughen the beans.) Add water to cover beans by about 1 1/2 . Bring to a boil, then lower heat to low and cook - adding a little water if they look dry -until beans are tender, but not mushy; follow package directions for cooking time. Drain beans - take out bay leaves - and put beans in a glass or stainless steel bowl. Shake the bottle of dressing well, pour 1/2 bottle (or 1 cup, if you re using the larger bottle) over the still-warm beans, stir up to coat, then cover tightly and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, chop/cut/grate onion, parsley, celery and carrot, char, peel, and cut up red pepper and stir all vegetables into beans. Shake up and add the rest of the bottle (or another cup) of dressing to the salad. Stir up gently, taste for salt, cover, and chill for a couple of hours or more. Take out of the refrigerator about 20-30 minutes before serving, and stir up well. I serve this in a pretty glass bowl lined with romaine or red lettuce leaves.
Note: I'm sure to get a question about substituting canned black beans for the dry beans used in the recipe. My opinionated answer is this: To me, canned beans are mushy and metallic-tasting, and often float in a brine full of additives and sodium. The S&W brand is better than others, but all canned beans are a poor value compared to a like amount of dry beans. Yes, it takes a little more time and trouble to soak and cook beans for any dish, but the taste, texture, and nutritional value of the dry beans is far superior to their canned counterparts.
All invented/introduced/opened before 1920...tuna in cans (San Pedro, CA, 1903), hamburgers and hot dogs on rolls and ice cream in waffle cones (1904 World's Fair in St. Louis), first pizzeria in U.S. (1905, -- NY), Kellogg's corn flakes (1906), first self-service grocery stores in U.S. ( 1912, CA), Pyrex baking ware (1915), canned tomato sauce (1918).
Easy Potato Casserole (Use the 9 x 13 baking dish; serves 8-10, if the potato lovers don't get in line ahead of everybody else! This dish is not for the cholesterol impaired , unfortunately!)
6-8 medium baking potatoes, all pretty much the same size (about 8 cups mashed potatoes)
1 bunch green onions ( Thin onions and their tops are more tender; you should have about 1cup + sliced onion, so use two bunches if necessary.)
3-4 cloves garlic (or more, but be sure that the garlic is very finely chopped.)
2 8-oz. packages cream cheese or Neufchatel; take this out of the refrigerator about 1/2 hour before starting the recipe. (Neufchatel is lower in fat than the cream cheese, it tastes fine, and any fat savings in this dish is a plus! The non-fat cream cheese looks and feels pretty much like RV roofing caulk - with probably about the same taste!)
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter
salt/pepper
Clean green onions - and the tops - and slice thinly. Chop garlic finely. Heat butter in small skillet, add onions and garlic, saute over low heat for about 2 minutes; set aside. Lightly beat eggs. Peel potatoes and cut each one into (lengthwise) quarters, then cut each of the quarters into three pieces. (This does sound a bit silly, but cutting the potatoes this way ensures more even cooking with less water.) Put potatoes into a big pot, add about 1 quarat water, cover pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and cook potatoes - watch to see that they don t stick and burn - just until they break apart easily; there should be little, if any, water left. Mash the potatoes with a masher or use a mixer; small lumps are OK! Fold in the cream cheese and onion/garlic/butter. Allow mixture to cool to kind of lukewarm- you don t want scrambled eggs - then stir in the beaten eggs. Stir all together well, add salt and pepper to taste, spoon into baking dish and smooth the top. Bake at 350 for about 35-40 minutes; test the center to make sure it's hot through. The dish should be slightly puffed and golden brown. (I have finished this dish with a sharp white cheddar grated over the top before baking; it s good, but you can almost hear your arteries clogging up.)
WEB SITES FOR * PRODUCTS AND OTHER STUFF
I order herbs, spices, and some seasonings from Penzey's; the prices, quality, and selection are excellent. You can request a catalog from the site - www.penzeys.com - or call 1-800-741-7787.
Applegate Farms - www.applegatefarms.com - and Yorkshire farms - www.yorkshirefarms.com - both produce good nitrite/nitrate-free bacon. I buy from a local Whole Foods store, but the sites could tell you a supplier in your area.
Muir Glen produces a good line of canned/ jarred tomato products, including pasta sauces.
Parmigiano Reggiano is expensive and hard to grate, but the flavor can make a dish where the cheese is a featured flavor.
I use Heinz cider vinegar because it s made from apples, not grains .
I think French s Dijon-type mustard is better than Grey Poupon.
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Crockpot cooking fans might want to look at http://pages.ivillage.com/misc/momof3add/crockpot.html - this is a crockpot collection link page to more crockpot/slow cooker things than most folks can imagine. Another crockpot recipe source is http://saraskitchen.faithweb.com/index4.html
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Grilled Sausage with Honey/Mustard Sauce (If your potluck involves a barbecue , e.g., a tailgate party, RV club gathering, etc., you might enjoy this easy recipe suggestion...
If the sausage is the only main dish , plan on about 5 -6 per person, less for kids. Use a cured (usually pre-cooked) sausage like kielbasa (Yorkshire Farms and Applegate Farms have good ones), linguica, andouille, bratwurst, whatever you like, or any kind of fresh (not cured and uncooked; be sure to cook this through until no pink shows) sausage like Italian sausage or any other. Poke a couple of holes in each sausage casing with just the point of a knife, and grill until done; don t overcook, as they dry out quickly. When the sausage is done, put it in a pan large enough to cut the sausage up and stir it up with the sauce without throwing it all over. Cut the sausage into pieces about 1 or so, fold in the warm sauce - enough to coat each piece of sausage thoroughly, but not more; refrigerate unused sauce - stir up, and serve.
Sauce (Recipe can be doubled or cut in half.)
1 medium red onion (about 1 cup or more)
1 9 oz. jar Dijon-style mustard * ( a little more than a cup)
2/3 cup honey (or more to taste)
2-3 tablespoons cider vinegar *
1/3 cup white wine (optional)
a little salt, if necessary
pepper
Chop the onion finely and put into a skillet or saucepan. Cook - no oil is necessary - until it s wilted , then stir in the mustard, honey, cider vinegar, pepper, and white wine (optional, but good). Heat through, taste and adjust any ingredient. Add a little salt if necessary, but remember that the sausages are already salty, so go easy!
As my Mama used to say, "Everybody get an even start; when it s gone, it s gone!"