RECIPE REQUEST!!!

Last evening, we hosted Heavenly Hash.  Heavenly Hash is a dinner group that hides, within its cutsey clever title, sheer terror for poor cooks with self-esteem issues.  As you know all too well, that would be me.  BC, by contrast, loves Heavenly Hash.  And why not?!?  No, I can't go there.  I'm trying to become a better, more charitable, more understanding, more accepting person.  Let's just say that sometimes the Division of Labor divides along gender lines.  Not always equally.  Not always fairly.  Nor always...  No, I'm not going there. 

However, this year was a bit calmer than normal because last December, while in the throes of Christmas spirit, generosity, and loneliness, we invited the neighbors for dinner.  We found the perfect menu, which means that most of the dishes could be prepared the day before and simply heated the day of.  It doesn't mean you won't ruin the asparagus.  It just means you'll be a bit calmer about it.  So, I told BC, "We'll serve the very same thing for Heavenly Hash and I won't be nearly as worried because we've already done it once."  Generally, when we've already done it once, I'm much less likely to grab for a last-minute Zanax too near the last minute...which can leave me a bit giddy and ruining more than just the asparagus.

The new favorite perfect menu goes like this:  Regal Romaine, Grilled Peppered Steaks, Twice Baked Garlic Potatoes, and Roasted Asparagus.  Obviously, other HH guests bring appetizers and dessert, which is also a good way to lessen the tension.  This lovely menu comes from my all time favorite cookbook, "Women of Great Taste", put out by the Wichita, KS, Junior League.  Let's give credit where credit is due.  This wonderful book, first printed in 1995, is an absolute go-to godsend for uncertain cooks who don't mind the process if the result is edible.

And...for the second time IN A ROW, I received a request for a recipe.  That just does not happen to me.  But, now, since it has, here's a copy of Twice Baked Garlic Potatoes which I'll be sending them this afternoon.  Trust me...these are good.

INGREDIENTS:
1 Head Garlic
1 T Olive Oil
8 Baking Potatoes
1/2 cup Butter
Milk
6 oz. Softened Cream Cheese
1/4 cup Minced Fresh Parsley
1/4 cup Thinly Sliced Green Onions
1 t Salt
2 cups Grated Cheddar Cheese
Paprika

PROCESS:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Cut off and discard top of garlic.  Place garlic on piece of foil, drizzle with olive oil and wrap tightly.  Bake potatoes and garlic for one hour.  Cut potatoes in half lengthwise, scoop out into a bowl and reserve shells.  Unwrap garlic and squeeze cloves into potatoes.  Mash potatoes and garlic with butter and enough milk to moisten.  Blend in cream cheese, parsley, onions and salt.  Spoon mixture back into potato shells.  Sprinkle with cheese and paprika.  Bake until cheese melts, 25 minutes.

THE REAL STORY:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Do what with the garlic?  I'm not sure I know how to do that.  I'll just put minced garlic from a jar into the potatoes as I mash them...and I think I'll bake an extra potato or two so that I can pile the mashed part high.  There...that looks nice.  I'll also stop right before the cheese and paprika, cover them and put them in the garage refrig until tomorrow, at which time I'll take them out, sprinkle on the cheese and paprika, and pop them into the oven.  I do think I'll watch them a bit closer than I did in December, so the cheese doesn't overcook and form a rather hard shell over the potatoes.  And...voila!  They're so perfect I'm nearly crying from happiness.

And, BTW, this recipe will serve 16.  Govern yourselves accordingly. 

   

LIBRARY MAGIC

A few weeks ago, Collin, whose snaggle-toothed grin does indeed stretch from ear to ear, received his first library card.  It's from Riverside County, California, and more valuable than...than all the tea in China! 

His momentous event immediately took me back--not to my first library card (I don't think we had such a thing back in the day), but to my first library.  Dodge City Public Library which, thanks to Andrew Carnegie, was built in 1905, and existed as a veritable institition by the time I came along.  It was a nearly square little red-brick building perched on the corner of Second and Spruce.  Its crowning feature was a beautiful, but notoriously leaky dome.  Inside was all cream colored plaster highlighted by elegant dark wood trim.  Chest high shelving hugged the exterior walls while heavy tall stacks held center court in the large browsing room.  The design was an open plan, more or less, with fat plaster pillars supporting the roof as well as hinting at divisions of subject matter, age, serious study, subdued conversation or surreptitious hand-holding.  (Only in the reference section.)  I remember a fireplace or two, but never a fire.  Smallish stained glass windows were scattered here and there, contributing to the slightly sacred feel of the space.  And always and everywhere was the unique scent of books...new books, old books, leather bound or heavy cardboard covers.   Hovering near every over-stuffed chair and dusty corner was the magical sense of anticipation that wafted from the first page of every freshly opened book.  Where would the magic carpet fly and who would I be when I stepped off? 

That's exactly what I wish for Collin.  I wish him quiet afternoons tracking through a long ago Kentucky forest with Daniel Boone.  He'll definitely need an extra coat and a furry dog when he explores the far northwest territories of Canada, but he'll warm up quickly near the equater as he sails to Africa.  He can fly to the farthest solar system, descend through the deepest ocean, climb the highest mountain, and still be home in time for dinner. 

Mastercard has it wrong.  This little green card?  It's the priceless one!

        

ONLY NEAT CACTUS NEED APPLY

Ya heard me, Pardner.  I like my Golden Barrels the same as I like my whiskey.  NEAT!*

Unfortunately, BC, my yard boy, is in Philadelphia for the week, which means I'm in charge of this little plot of rocky ground.  As I scouted the area today,  I looked at our Golden Barrel and thought...that sucker is not good.

It's homely, it's prickly, and it's messin' with my mood.  So...let's just  get rid of the little brown buggers.  "Ouch!"  Maybe we need some pliers.  And...that's when I discovered this...

Hiding under each of those stickery little clumps is one great big, soft, fluffy, cotton ball.  How cool is that?   I gave it a careful, teensy touch and it's just like the fat Walmart cotton ball I used on my face this morning.  So I plucked and I plucked and I plucked...

Very carefully as these thorns mean business, until it suddenly occured to me that I could be killing this thing.

Yard Boy BC would be one unhappy camper if he returned from Philly to find his Golden Barrel, lovingly (so to speak) cultivated for eight years had taken the count.  So...I'll check it tomorrow and if it's still fat, plump, green and kicking, we'll continue the project.

*NOTE:  Just in case any of you were horrified at that comment, I really don't like my whiskey neat.  I'm more of a '60s Whiskey Sour sort of person, although I don't think anyone today would know how to make them in that '60s sort of way.  It did sound like something a Dodge City girl should say, though, didn't it?