Retro Recipe to Remember Mom

I'm thinking about my mom today, born in 1908 in rural Montana. She was the youngest of six, a first-generation American. She and her family were sugarbeet sharecroppers and lived in a railroad boxcar. Humble beginnings. 

English was her second language, and she dropped out of school in the 6th grade. But, she was a phenomenal baker. These rolls were her specialty. 

Mom started baking these sweet rolls when they appeared in a Pillsbury bake-off cookbook as a 1955 Grand Prize Winner. Pillsbury has updated the recipe, and the link for that is here. However, I'm going to share the original with you below.

Photo Credit: Pillsbury

Ingredients

• 2 packets of active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1/3 cup butter
• 3/4 cup hot scalded milk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 unbeaten eggs
• 4 to 4 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• nut filling (below)

Instructions

1. Soften the yeast in warm water; set aside.
2. Combine the butter and scalded milk in a large mixing bowl. Cool to lukewarm.
3. Add the yeast/water, sugar, salt, and eggs.
4. Stir in the flour to form a stiff dough. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
5. Prepare the nut filling.
6. Roll out dough on a floured surface to a 22x12-inch rectangle. Cover half of the dough, along the long side, with the filling. Fold the remaining dough over the filling.
7. Cut crosswise into 1-inch strips. Twist each strip 4 or 5 times. Then hold one end down on a greased baking sheet and begin to wind into a spiral. Tuck the end under. Repeat with the remaining strips. 
8. Cover and let rise in a warm place until light and doubled, 45 to 60 minutes.
9. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. 

Nut filling - Cream 1/3 cup butter. Blend in 1 cup of sifted confectioners sugar. Add 1 cup walnuts, ground or chopped very fine.

How to Make Herb-Infused Oil

"Sometimes less is more." —Robert Browning

Browning penned that phrase in his 1855 poem "The Faultless Painter", a melancholy verse of love and loss. It was repeated again by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in describing post World War II architectural style.

And it also could describe our relationship with fresh herbs.

• Some recipes cry out for huge handfuls of parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. But other times, we need something a bit less assertive. Something more subtle and nuanced.
• Then again, sometimes we find ourselves with a dearth of fresh herbs to use up (before they perish), and what to do?

Both of these dilemmas cry out for the same resolution--the creation of herb-infused oil.

I love rosemary-infused oil—a drizzle on hot cooked pasta is absolutely heavenly. Tarragon oil is wonderful as a finishing touch on a chicken salad, and basil oil on a slice of artisanal bread is almost like being in Tuscany.

Making your own herb-infused oil is easy—just be sure to always use sterilized jars and bottles and make sure that your fresh herbs are clean, dry, and free of any chemicals.

Herb-Infused Oil

Equipment you will need

• Slow cooker (crockpot)
• Small mixing bowl
• Fine-mesh strainer
• Funnel
• Clean bottles or jars with air-tight lids

Ingredients (for each infusion)

• 1 cup mild olive oil
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup packed chopped fresh herbs (reduce to 1/4 cup if infusing rosemary)

Instructions

Place the oil and herbs in the crockpot. Leave uncovered and cook at 'High' for one hour.

• Turn off the heat and allow the oil and herbs to cool for about 1/2 hour.
• Pour through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl.
• Allow to cool completely and then decant into bottles using the funnel to avoid drips and spills.
• Store in the refrigerator for up to one week. (Note that olive oil becomes cloudy under refrigeration but will be clear again once at room temperature).

How to Use Herb-Oils

Basil, originally native to India, has been cultivated there for more than 5,000 years. Depending on the species and cultivar, the leaves of basil may taste somewhat like anise, with a strong, pungent, often sweet smell.

Sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) is often featured in Italian cuisine. Thai basil (O. basilicum var. thysiflora) plays a major role in the cuisine of Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Taiwan.

Basil oil is wonderful as:

• A dip for crusty French or Italian bread
• Drizzled over fresh tomatoes
• The oil in which to sauté bread cubed for croutons
• The oil in which to prepare an omelet

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is an aromatic evergreen shrub with pine-like needles and white, pink blue, or purple flowers. It is native to the Mediterranean area, but hardy in most cool climates.

Rosemary oil can be used to:

• Drizzle over cooked pasta
• Sauté shrimp
• Add to mashed potatoes

Tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus) has narrow, pointed gray-green leaves with distinctive anise or licorice flavor and is one of the 4 fines herbes of French cooking.

Tarragon oil can be:

• Drizzled over cooked, roasted asparagus or cooked carrots
• Used to garnish fresh pea soup
• Stirred into chicken salad
• Used to sauté fish fillets

Chives (allium schoenoprasum) are a member of the onion family—a perennial plant native to Europe, Asia, and North America. Unlike other "onions," you do not harvest by pulling the bulb from the ground. Simply snip off the green tops and leave the bulb in the ground. They will regrow year after year. In fact, they will multiply. The pink blossoms are also edible. My favorite way to use them is as a pretty garnish on a salad.

You can use chive oil to:

• Make an omelet
• Sauté bread cubes for croutons
• Garnish soups
• Brush on any grilled meat or fish

Is Spinach Quiche an Oxymoron?

In 1982 Bruce Feirstein authored "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche", a bestselling book satirizing stereotypes of masculinity.  It popularized the term quiche-eater, meaning a man who is a dilettante, a trend-chaser, an over-anxious conformist to fashionable forms of 'lifestyle', and socially correct behaviors and opinions, one who eschews (or merely lacks) the traditional masculine virtue of tough self-assurance.

A 'traditional' male might enjoy egg-and-bacon pie if his wife served it to him; a quiche-eater or Sensitive Guy would make the dish himself, call it by its French name quiche, and serve it to his female life partner to demonstrate his empathy with the Women's Movement. And then he would wash the dishes.

The antithesis of "quiche-eater"? Well, it's Popeye, of course. Long before Superman, Batman, or even Captain Marvel there was Popeye--a squint-eyed cartoon-character sailor with enormous forearms. Despite his grumpy-looking exterior, he was kind of heart and engaged in fighting only when forced into righting a wrong. And, he gained his super strength from eating spinach.

So, is spinach quiche an oxymoron?

Photo Credit: Image by hcdeharder from Pixabay 

Speedy Spinach Quiche

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 10-ounce package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained well
• 1 9-inch unbaked pie crust
• 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup grated Cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup low-fat or non-fat cottage cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

 

Instructions

Melt the butter in a heavy medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent, about 8 minutes. Add spinach and stir until spinach is dry, about 3 minutes. Cool slightly.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Sprinkle both cheeses over the bottom of the unbaked pastry shell. Top with spinach mixture. Beat eggs, cottage cheese, salt, pepper, and nutmeg in a large bowl to blend. Pour over spinach. Bake until filling is set, about 50 minutes. Cool slightly. Cut into wedges and serve.