Monthly Archives: November 2013

Pumpkin Pie

Posted on November 28, 2013 by pauldelancey

American Dessert

PUMPKIN PIE

INGREDIENTS

2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon cardamom, ground
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves, ground
3/4 teaspoon ginger, ground
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 15 ounce can pumpkin mashed or puree
1 12 ounce can evaporated milk
2 8″-to-9″graham-cracker pie shell or 1 9″ deep dish graham-cracker pie shell
whipped cream for topping

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Add eggs, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, salt, and sugar to large bowl. Beat eggs with whisk. Add pumpkin. Mix with whisk. Add evaporated milk. Mix again with whisk. Pour mixture into pie shell. Put filled pie shell in oven and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees. Bake an additional 40-to-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the pie’s center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve with whipped cream. Yum.

TIDBITS

1) Pumpkins are grown on every continent except Antarctica.

2) Morton, Illinois is the Pumpkin Capital. Go visit its Pumpkin Festival in mid September.

3) Pumpkin seeds have been used to remove freckles.

4) Linus from the comic strip Peanuts believed in the Great Pumpkin. See the lyrics for “I’m dreaming of the Great Pumpkin” and other pumpkin songs.

6) In 2009, motorcyclists in Nigeria wore dried pumpkin shells on their heads to circumvent laws making them wear helmets.

7) Irish lore says Stingy Jack was too miserly to get into Heaven. But Jack had tricked the devil so he wasn’t welcome there either. Jack roamed the darkness between Heaven and Hell with a lit, carved pumpkin. This is probably the basis for pumpkin carving on Halloween. That and freckle fear.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, history | Tags: American, Antarctica, cardamom, cloves, dessert, freckles, ginger, graham crackers, Great Pumpkin, Halloween, heaven, Hell, Illinois, Irish, Morton, motorcyclists, Nigeria, nutmeg, Peanuts, pie, pie shell, pumpkin, Pumpkin Festival, pumpkin pie, salt, seeds, sugar | Leave a comment

Bacon Roses

Posted on November 26, 2013 by pauldelancey

American Breakfast

BACON ROSES

INGREDIENTS

1 pound sliced bacon

SPECIAL UTENSILS

1 box wooden toothpicks
1 or 2 baking pans (must have raised sides to keep bacon grease from spilling into oven)

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll up bacon slice. Put 3 or 4 toothpicks into the bottom of the bacon roll so it stands upright like a spaceship. Repeat for remaining slices. Put bacon spaceships upright in baking pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Serve and enjoy. This dish is particularly good on the mornings of those romantic days such as Valentine’s Day or your anniversary and you’ve suddenly realized, Oh my gosh, I forgot to get flowers.

TIDBITS

1) Bacon is great for you. It will make you live longer. For proof, click http://newrisingmedia.com/all/2013/9/30/study-shows-eating-bacon-will-make-you-live-longer.

2) Bacon inspires artists. For Nick Offerman’s slam poem for bacon click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSVO5VloDlc. Read Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 1 and The Merry Wives Of Windsor to see how bacon inspired the Great Bard.

3) I am running for president on the Bacon & Chocolate Party ticket. My running mate is Candace C. Bowen. Click on https://www.facebook.com/BaconChocolateParty for more information.

4) Bacon conquered the Wild West. Settlers from the East carried bacon, coffee, beans, and flour with them. Wagon trains carrying too little bacon turned back or met with horrible fates.

5) Making bacon by preserving and salting pork bellies began with the Chinese around 1500BC. The earliest account of bacon and eggs for breakfast dates back to 1560. China is the world’s most populous nation. Coincidence? Perhaps.

6) George Orwell wrote about bacon in 1931. He wrote Animal Farm fourteen years later, possibly to justify the killing of pigs to make bacon.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, history, politics | Tags: American, Animal Farm, bacon, Bacon & Chocolate Party, bacon roses, breakfast, Candace C. Bowen, Chinese, Facebook, George Orwell, pigs, roses, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Wild West | Leave a comment

Fried Doughnut Bites

Posted on November 25, 2013 by pauldelancey

American Dessert

FRIED DOUGHNUT BITES

INGREDIENTS

1 large egg
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (1 cup more later)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (plus a bit more later)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup vegetable oil
flour to dust hands
1 cup confectionary sugar

PREPARATION

Use whisk to mix egg, sugar, milk, and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. Add flour, salt, baking powder. Mix again, this time with fork. (You’ll go crazy getting the flour out of the inside of a whisk.)

Heat 1 cup vegetable oil in skillet to 375 degrees. Drop dough balls of about 1-to-2 teaspoons in size into heated oil. (Dust hands with flour between making each dough ball. The flour keeps dough from clinging all over your hands.)

Fry dough balls for 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown. Be sure to taste a few dough balls before serving. Don’t want to serve ones that aren’t done. Turn frequently when cooking. (No, don’t turn yourself around. You’ll get dizzy. Turn over the dough balls.)

Put cooked doughnut bites in paper towels to absorb grease. Roll in confectionary sugar if desired. Most people will want this last step.

TIDBITS

1) This dish was originally supposed to be called “Fried Doughnuts.” However, doughnuts made this way don’t look like the round doughnuts with the whole in the middle.

2) It’s also why members of my family helpfully, even gleefully suggested the following names: Doughnut Crumbles, Fat Balls, and Fat Bombs.

3) The family was unanimous in liking them, though.

4) I think a great slogan for a doughnut shop would be, “Our doughnuts are made from real dough.” Might make you think what donuts from donut shops are made from.

5) Law enforcement officials like to eat doughnuts on stakeouts because they can eat them and still keep a hand free for emergencies and both eyes on the place they’re watching.

6) Doughnuts were considered real treats on cattle drives during the Old West

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, humor | Tags: American, baking, bites, confectionary, dessert, doughnut, fat bombs, fried, milk, Old west, sugar | Leave a comment

Great Arctic Eats, Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada

Posted on November 24, 2013 by pauldelancey

Say you want great arctic food near the Arctic Ocean? Go no farther than Inuvik, Canada. The highest rated restaurant according to TripAdvisor is Cafe Gallery with its banana bread loaf and great coffee. Arctic foodies still talk about the sandwiches once served there. Stampede Cloud 9 Cafeteria for the best burgers in town and wonderful poutine, a Canadian specialty. By all means head over to Tonimoes to savor its muskox ragu and fresh arctic char. If you and your date cannot decide between pizza and Chinese, why not try Roost? China Express serves the town’s best all-Chinese food. Don’t forget Northern Quick Stop which offers the best KFC and Pizzahut delicacieswithin a 1,000 kilometer radius.

Inuvik’s restaurants

People liking to sleep in or sleep it off will want to take advantage of Inuvik’s 720 hour night. After awaking nice and refreshed, you might want to take in the annual Sunrise Festival, consisting of exciting dog-sled races and community bonfire. Don’t miss the spectacular fireworks display. Mark your calendar the best you can for the Muskrat Jamboree, held in March or April. See the dogsled and snowmobile races, before dancing the night away. Patrons of the arts will want to come for the town’s Great Northern Arts Festival which boasts among other things, an outdoor carving village and an Arctic fashion show.

As always, good eating, good traveling.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: Arctic eats, international | Tags: Arctic, arctic char, Canada, dog sled, dog-sled races, fashion show, fireworks, Great Northern Arts Festival, Inuvik, Jamboree, muskox, muskrat, Muskrat Jamboree, Northwest Territories, recipes, Sunrise Festival | Leave a comment

Peanut-Butter Pie

Posted on November 22, 2013 by pauldelancey

American Dessert

PEANUT-BUTTER PIE

INGREDIENTS

4 ounces cream cheese
1 cup confectionery sugar
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons evaporated milk
1 cup whipping cream
1 8″ ready graham cracker pie crust

SPECIAL ITEM

electric beater

PREPARATION

Add cream cheese to large mixing bowl. Use highest setting on electric beater to fluff cream cheese. Add confectionery sugar. Fluff mixture with beater set to highest level. Add peanut butter and evaporated milk. Fluff once more. Add whipping cream. Combine with electric beater set on blend or mix.

Spoon the mixture into the pie crust. Put pie in freezer. Check pie after 30 minutes to see if the filling has set.

TIDBITS

1) π, everybody’s favorite transcendental number, equals approximately, 3.14159.

2) Indeed Cal Tech used to have a cheer that went:
Tangent, secant, cosine, sine
Three point one four one five nine.

3) Cal Tech is renowned for the scientific prowess of their alumni. It is not nearly as well respected for its football teams. However in 1968, Cal Tech’s footballers did defeat my school, UC San Diego.

4) After that humiliation, the UCSD student body voted to not offer anymore football scholarships, partly because UCSD wanted to concentrate more on academics and intramural sports, partly to save money, and mostly because we could certainly field a team that could lose to Cal Tech without giving scholarships to the players.

5) The students were wrong. Without scholarships, not enough prospects showed up next year to field a team. UCSD dropped football. And so it goes.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, humor, recipes | Tags: academics, Cal Tech, football, intramural sports, pi, San Diego, scholarships, transcendtal, UC San Diego, UCSD | Leave a comment

Bosna (Austrian Sandwich)

Posted on November 20, 2013 by pauldelancey

Austrian Entree

BOSNA

INGREDIENTS

12 bratwursts
6 wide rolls
½ yellow onion
1 tablespoon curry
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons ketchup

PREPARATION

Grill bratwursts at low heat for about 5-to-10 minutes or until they start to brown. Turn once. Toast rolls in toaster or panini grill. Slice onion into rings. Place onion rings and sprinkle curry evenly over bottom halves of rolls. Spread mustard and ketchup evenly on top halves of rolls. Assemble roll bottom, 2 bratwursts, and roll top for each sandwich.

TIDBITS

1) For those people who always complain that family vacations are boring, that trips to the Grand Canyon are so old school, may I suggest an exciting tour based on the ingredients of this recipe?

The National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin. Come visit the alluring world of mustard.

For the world’s best Dijon mustard, go to Dijon, France and take in the Amora Mustard Museum.

1st German Bratwurst Museum in Holzhausen, Germany. Bratwursts were first mentioned in 1404 and in 1432 became one of the first foods to be regulated. Save your money and fly there.

Vidalia Onion Museum in Vidalia, Georgia, where you can you learn the story of this illustrious sweet onion. “Please do not pick the onions.”

Currywurst Museum in Berlin, Germany. Germans love their currywurst. Indeed, Germany is a great place to do a food-museum trek.

National Bread Museum in Seia, Portugal, where you not only get to see the wonders of bread history, but you get to eat bread made at the museum’s fine restaurant. The museum even has a room dedicated to entertaining children. Does this mean food fights for the kids? They didn’t say.

See these museums without delay. The Yokohama Curry Museum closed its doors in 2007. Do you want to go through life regretting not seeing The National Mustard Museum or the National Bread Museum? I think not.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, international | Tags: Amora Mustard Museum, Austria, Austrian, Berlin, bosna, bratwurst, curry, currywurst, Currywurst Museum, Dijon, Dijon mustard, entree, food fights, Georgia, German, German Bratwurst Museum, Germany, Grand Canyon, Holzhausen, Middleton, mustard, National Bread Museum, National Mustard Museum, onion, Portugal, Seia, Vidalia, vidalia onion, Vidalia Onion Museum, Wisconsin, Yokohama, Yokohama Curry Museum | 1 Comment

La Mitraillette (Belgian Sandwich)

Posted on November 19, 2013 by pauldelancey

Belgian Entree

LA MITRAILLETTE

INGREDIENTS

1 yellow onion
1 tablespoon butter (2 more tablespoons later)
2 pounds ground beef
5 Yukon gold potatoes or medium potatoes (if you wish to make your own French fries)
1 cup French fries (if you don’t wish to make your own French fries)
2 baguettes
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup mayonnaise

PREPARATION OF FRENCH FRIES (or used already made French Fries)

Cut potatoes into strips 1/4″ to 1/2″ wide. Soak potato strips in cold water for 30 minutes. Drain. Pat strips dry. Put oil in deep fryer. Heat oil to 340 degrees. Put potato strips in fryer. Fry strips at 340 degrees for 5-to-10 minutes or until they become crisp and turn golden brown. You will most likely need to cook in batches. Remove fries. Put fries on paper towels to remove grease. If you are using already-made fries, put fries in pan and fry on medium heat for 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Stir occasionally.

PREPARATION OF SANDWICH

Dice onion. Put onion and 1 tablespoon butter in frying pan. Sauté at medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Stir frequently. Remove onion. Make 8 small beef patties. Fry patties on medium high-heat for 5 minutes or until meat is no longer pink. Flip patties occasionally.

While beef is cooking, cut baguettes in two along their width. Cut open demi-baguettes. Spread 2 tablespoons butter on the inside of the baguette pieces. Toast the baguettes pieces butter side down in frying pan on medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Assemble sandwiches with bottom halves of baguettes, onion, ground beef, French fries, ketchup, mustard, and top halves of baguettes .
TIDBITS

1) “La mitraillette” means “the machine gun” in French. Machine Gun Kelly was a famous gangster. Gene Kelly was a renowned dancer. Gene Krupa was a great band leader from the Big Band Era.

2) E.R.A. stands for Earned Run Average and equals (earned runs/innings pitched) * 9. Yay!

3) You should make sure your ground beef turns brown in this recipe. The ground is beneath your feet. Most people and tyrannosaurus rexes have two feet. And so it goes.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: baguettes, Belgian, E.R.A., entree, French, French fries, fries, Gene Kelly, Gene Kruppa, gold, ketchup, Machine Gun Kelly, mayonnaise, potatoes, sandwich, Yukon | Leave a comment

Zapiekanka, Polish Sandwich

Posted on November 17, 2013 by pauldelancey

Polish Entree

ZAPIEKANKA

INGREDIENTS

1 baguette
1/3 onion
1 red bell pepper
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 pound sliced ham or deli-meat of choice
1 cup grated cheese of choice
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup mayonnaise
no-stick spray

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cut baguette in half and slice each half open. Cut onion and red bell pepper into thin slices. Add onion, bell pepper, turmeric, pepper, and butter to frying pan. Sauté on medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until onion is soft.

Add onion/bell pepper mixture, ham to baguette pieces. Top pieces with grated cheese. Spray baking tray with no-stick spray. Put tray in oven. Bake at 325 degrees for 5 minutes or until bread is crispy and cheese is melted. Remove tray from oven. Squirt, or spread, ketchup and mayonnaise over each piece.

TIDBITS

1) In 1857, native Indian soldiers, sepoys, in the British army believed the new gunpowder cartridges were greased with cow fat and pig fat. This grease insulted the religious beliefs of the Hindu and Muslim soldiers who had to bite the cartridges before using them. This mistake in greasing by the British sparked a major native rebellion.

2) The rebellion resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, embittered the Indians toward the British, and greatly widened the rift between Hindus and Muslims. This gulf persisted resulting in the bloody religious riots of 1947 and three wars between India and Pakistan. Today, these two countries have nuclear weapons pointed at each other.

3) If only Britain had greased its cartridges with olive oil. Today, we also have vegetable oil. A fragile peace prevails over the world.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, history, humor, international | Tags: 1857, army, baguette, British, cartridges, deli-meat, entree, greased, ham, Hindu, India, Indian, ketchup, Muslim, nuclear weapons, Pakistan, peace, Polish, sandwich, turmeric, zapiekanka | Leave a comment

Bruna Boner (Swedish beans)

Posted on November 16, 2013 by pauldelancey

Swedish Entree

BRUNA BÖNER
(Swedish beans)

INGREDIENTS

1 pound bag pink beans
6 cups water
4 teaspoons, or half-stick, butter
8 ounces brown sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 tablespoons corn starch

PREPARATION

Put beans in large pot. Add enough water to cover beans with a few inches to spare. Let soak overnight or at least 10 hours. The beans will be crunchy if not sufficiently soaked. (You do not want to wake up, twenty years later, in the middle of the night screaming, “Why? Why did I not soak the beans long enough?”)

Drain the water. (This gets rid of any dirt on the beans.) Add 6 cups water. Cook on medium heat for 40 minutes. Stir every few minutes. Add more water if the water no longer covers the beans. Covering the pot with a lid also keeps water from evaporating.

Add butter. Cook on low-to-medium heat for 40 minutes. Stir every few minutes to avoid burning. Add more water if the water no longer covers the beans.

Add sugar. (If the brown sugar comes out of the box as a brick, saw it in half.) Cook on low-to-medium heat for 40 minutes. Stir every few minutes to avoid burning. Add more water if the water no longer covers the beans. (Engrave this advice in your memory.)

Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup vinegar, teaspoon by teaspoon, according to taste. If needed, thicken beans by adding cornstarch.

TIDBITS

1) This recipe comes from my grandmother Anna Erickson who was born in Murrum, Sweden, in 1889. I miss her.

2) Her family came to America through Boston, having heard of the hardships of Ellis Island in New York.

3) She grew up in Shickley, Nebraska. She later went back with my mother to visit. The whole town went to an outdoor movie, but was distracted by a rather lengthy meteor shower.

4) I grew up with this sort of Swedish food. Where the weird, modern Swedish pizzas came from I don’t know. It’s also strange that Bruna Bonër, or Brown Beans, uses pink beans. Wacky Swedes.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, history, international | Tags: beans, Boston, bruna böner, butter, Ellis Island, entree, Erickson, meteor, Murrum, Nebraska, New York, pizzas, Shickley, sugar, Sweden, Swedes, Swedish | Leave a comment

Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Posted on November 14, 2013 by pauldelancey

American Entree

CREAMY GARLIC MASHED POTATOES

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 pounds new or small potatoes
4 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

PREPARATION

Peel potatoes. Cut each potato into eight pieces. Put potato pieces into large pot. Add enough water to cover potato bits. Bring water to boil on high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes or until potato is tender. Drain potatoes.

While potato is cooking, mince garlic cloves. Put garlic and butter in pan. Sauté at medium-high for 5 minutes. Stir frequently.

Add whipping cream, garlic, salt, and pepper to pot with potato pieces. Mash potatoes with potato masher. Use whisk to further blend ingredients together. Serve hot. (But of course, alll chefs are hotties.)

TIDBITS

1) Butter might promote fertility in women.

2) Cholesterol in butterfat helps develop children’s brains and nervous systems.

3) Butter contains arachidonic acid. I have no idea what arachidonic acid is. Clearly, I didn’t eat enough butter when I was a kid. However, I do know a spider is an arachnid.

5) The best, or at least most enjoyable, horror movie about spiders are: Tarantula (1955), Earth Versus the Spider (1958), The Giant Spider Invasion (1975), Kingdom of the Spiders (1978), and Arachnophobia (1990).

6) The best spider-horror movie with a cameo appearance by Clint Eastwood is Tarantula.

7) The most fun spider movie is Charlotte’s Web. It features a talking spider and a talking pig. There is another great movie about a talking pig is Babe. Hollywood thinks pigs are cuter than spiders.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, international, recipes | Tags: American, arachidonic acid, arachnid, Arachnophobia, Babe, butter, butterfat, Charlotte's web, chefs, cholesterol, Clint Eastwood, creamy, Earth Versus the Spider, entree, fertility, garlic, Giant Spider Invasion, Hollywood, hotties, Kingdom of the Spiders, mashed potatoes, pig, potatoes, spider, talking pig, tarantula, whipping cream | Leave a comment

Monthly Archives: November 2013

Pumpkin Pie

Bacon Roses

Fried Doughnut Bites

Great Arctic Eats, Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada

Peanut-Butter Pie

Bosna (Austrian Sandwich)

La Mitraillette (Belgian Sandwich)

Zapiekanka, Polish Sandwich

Bruna Boner (Swedish beans)

Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes

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Paul’s archives

Monthly Archives: November 2013

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