Category: Food and Recipes

Menu planning is not meal prep or mise en place; it’s asking yourself what do I want to eat or cook this week? Monday mornings are usually my menu planning day for the upcoming week. To me, the hardest part is cooking is thinking of what to make. I hate not knowing at 4:30 pm what I am going to make. Cooking can be stressful, and I think this one of the reasons why for most people.

Menu planning helps me get a handle on the week and takes some pressure off on long workdays. Menu planning means not only picking out what you are making but looking at your schedule and plan accordingly. 

Some nights I can come into my kitchen at 5 pm with my planned dinner in mind, put on some music, pour myself a glass of wine, and start cooking. By 6 pm dinner is ready and I enjoyed my time in the kitchen with a nice dinner as an end result. 

When our boys were younger, I didn’t have the luxury of a calm and zen-like cooking experience. I needed to know what I was making, can I prep anything ahead, and how long will it take. Did we have a school event after dinner, did one of us have a meeting after dinner, or was I tired as hell? All things to keep in mind when planning.

How do you plan your meals around your schedule? It may take a bit of time to actually sit down, look at your calendar and do the meal planning, but the time spent will save a lot of time in the end. 

Plan on how many nights you will realistically cook. I’m not talking about making everything from scratch dinners, but how many nights are you not getting take-out or eating out. I know during this pandemic we are eating at home more, but when you can go back to eating out, I’m sure you will. Taking a look at the actual nights you will be cooking can help save on a tremendous amount of food and money wasted. 

To start planning, don’t overwhelm yourself and make it harder than it needs to be; you will get discouraged, and everything will go to hell in a handbasket. I plan five dinners for a week. This way, you can be flexible if something comes up. 

Plan one meal that you know inside and out. Chose another meal that will leave you with planned leftovers. Consider one new recipe that you’ve wanted to try. Make one thing that is fast and easy and finally have on hand a couple of emergency meals because life throws you curve balls. 

A meal you know inside and out can be anything you and your family like. A dish like this is perfect on a regular weeknight. A familiar dish is like an old friend, one that you are happy to have around.

A meal that leaves you with planned leftovers could be a pot of sauce that you make on Saturday or Sunday. You can have spaghetti and meatballs at the start of the week, then have meatball or sausage and pepper subs on a night with limited time. You can go further and use just the sauce for pizza, chicken or eggplant parmigiana, or a pizza burger. Another example is a pork roast made on Sunday; then, later in the week, you can make Cubano sandwiches, pork fried rice, pulled pork, etc., on a busy night.

A fast and easy dinner can be burgers on the grill, reheating a rotisserie chicken from the store, hotdogs, soup, and sandwiches. These are great on nights that you have to run out again to a meeting, class, or function. 

Emergency dinners come in handy well on nights you didn’t plan on cooking. Cook up some dry pasta and have it just with butter & cheese or pesto from your freezer. Don’t forget about frozen pizza, frozen chicken tenders, or fish sticks. Meal planning doesn’t mean you have to suddenly change your diet to something really healthy or eliminate the things your family really likes. You just have to have it on hand to count on it in a pinch.

If you have seen a recipe on your Facebook newsfeed or on TikTok and want to try it, go for it on a night you have nothing else going on. Make sure to read the whole recipe before you start since it’s new and you have no surprises come up halfway through the cooking. 

After you decide what you will be making, it’s time to make a grocery list. Going to the supermarket with a grocery list will increase your shopping speed and cut down on impulse buying. When I make a list and scribble things down randomly, like ingredients for new recipes or items I don’t buy, I often go over the list a million times and still forget something. What I did, especially when my kids were young and especially if they were with me, was to divide my list into parts. 

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I know you may be thinking, but how do I decide what to make in the first place? If I am stuck, I go online to spark an idea, and then other meals fall into place. There are lots of websites to help. When I am stuck, not motivated, or inspired I will search for something like comfort food recipes, boneless chicken recipes, pasta recipes, leftover pork recipes, new trending recipes. There are so many sites with stuff like…50 comfort foods you should be making, 35 not boring boneless chicken recipes and breakfast for dinner ideas, and tons more. 

If you are a fly by your pants’ seat kind of person, menu planning may drive you crazy. If you are super busy and don’t want to waste time planning, you will have to stop and decide what to make or what you need. If you made a mental note of how many times a week this happened you may be surprised. 

Hurray if you decide to start menu planning, please believe me that it gets easier. After a week of cooking, note what dinners were easy breezy, which ones your family liked or didn’t like and which ones were an ass ache. If you see a recipe on your newsfeed, save it to your notes so you will remember. If something sparks an idea, but you aren’t menu planning, save that to your notes as well.

Hey, listen guys I know that everyone doesn’t enjoy cooking, but everyone does have to eat. Isn’t it worth a shot trying to make your shopping or cooking go a little more enjoyable or at least more efficient? 

Cubano Sandwiches

For the roast pork:

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp orange juice
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp ground cumin
2 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 lb pork tenderloin

For the Cuban sandwich:

Four 8-10 inch rolls, halved longways
1 stick of butter softened and divided
1 cup yellow mustard
1 pound sliced honey glazed ham or ham of your choice
4 large dill pickles, thinly sliced crosswise
Roast pork
8 oz Swiss cheese slices

Make the roast pork: Preheat the oven to 450° and line a sheet pan with foil. In a mini food processor, combine all of the pork ingredients, except for the tenderloin, and purée until smooth. Transfer to a medium bowl and add the tenderloin, tossing to coat. Cover in plastic and let marinate on the counter for 30 minutes.

Transfer the tenderloin to the prepared sheet pan and pour the marinade over top. Roast until the pork has reached an internal temperature of 140° on an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and let rest for 5 minutes, then carve into ¼-inch slices on a bias.

Meanwhile, prepare the sandwiches: Rub the outer side of the top and bottom of each loaf with 1 tablespoon of the softened butter and arrange, butter-side down, on a cutting board. Spread 2 tablespoons of yellow mustard on the inside of each piece of bread. On the bottom half of each loaf, layer a quarter of the ham, followed by a quarter each of the pickle slices, roast pork and cheese. Season with a pinch of salt and close with the top half of the bread. Repeat with the remaining loaves and fixings.

Heat up a panini maker according to the directions. Then, working in batches, press the sandwiches until golden brown and the cheese has melted, 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer to a board and cut each one in half on a bias, then serve.

Porchetta is a beautiful thing to see and an even more delicious thing to eat. Porchetta is an Italian Pork Roast. Not just any pork roast, but a pork on pork roast stuffed with lots of garlic, herbs, fennel, citrus zest, sometimes dijon mustard, definitely red pepper flakes and the most important ingredient of all is love.

Porchetta is popular in the whole country of Italy, but porchetta originated in central Italy. Once only considered a celebratory dish is now served as common street food. It can be served in a panino or sandwich or as a filling for pizza Bianca. It is also eaten by families as part of a picnic.

Porchetta found its way to America in the early 20th century. Italian immigrants especially from Abruzzo referred to it as Italian roast pork or just roast pork. Luckily for us, they brought this masterpiece of a dish with them.

Porchetta is popular in NY, Philadelphia, and the surrounding area in the form of a sandwich on an Italian roll with broccoli rabe and sharp provolone. Porchetta is also a tradition in Bridgeport, CT. Porchetta sandwiches were served in taverns that date back to the first wave of Italian immigrants. Now porchetta is popular everywhere in our country and is widely popular in Ontario as well.

So what is it anyway you may be thinking? Modern porchetta is a pork roast that has been butterflied open and rubbed with garlic, herbs, red pepper flakes, lemon, fennel, and whatever else the cook wants to put in. I say modern because porchetta’s used to be stuffed with different parts of the pig. Nose to tail eating at its finest.

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The porchetta is then rolled up in a slab of pork belly. The cook ties both pieces of pork together tightly. It is roasted until the outside of the porchetta has crunchy cracklins and the inside is up to temperature and is tender, juicy, and flavorful.

The porchetta is cooled so it can be sliced thinly for sandwiches, or can be served hot, sliced thicker, and eaten as a main course at a Sunday dinner or celebration.

I’ve been wanting to make porchetta for years and finally made one last Christmas Eve. I took the year off from our traditional seafood Christmas Eve to give it a try. The roast itself cost an arm and a leg, luckily the butcher was a nice and butterflied the roast for me. Free of charge…what a guy!

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I decided that instead of making traditional porchetta I was going to make one wrapped in high-quality bacon. The thought of rolling it in pork belly would be legit, but over the top, not only in expense but silly for only 4 people. I felt more comfortable trying it with bacon since it was my first go at it and not expensive.

I found the freshest herbs and fennel I could find and wanted to follow a recipe to the letter. I wanted to get the real flavor, the real thing. As I looked at different recipes they were all freakin’ different! Which one should I pick or trust?

Below is a link to the Bacon Wrapped Porchetta recipe I used. I added the zest of one large orange to mine, which isn’t in the recipe but I think a key ingredient.

https://www.food.com/recipe/bacon-wrapped-porchetta-512583

I read many blogs and articles about porchetta before I made it and decided on one recipe. True to form I added a couple of ingredients that were in most recipes but not others. This is the story of my cooking life. No one writes one complete recipe as I have it in my head, so I make up my own.

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I must say that it came out like a work of art. It was one of my proudest cooking achievements to date. When we tasted it we were all like, “Oh my God! Oh wow! Holy shit, this is good!” It was that good. Would I make it again? Sure, but for more people next time. We ate it for a couple of days, froze the rest and when we defrosted it we had it as sandwiches, it was still amazing.

For Marty’s birthday dinner the other night I wanted to make something special. Something I don’t make very often. The porchetta wasn’t an option, but I did a plan. After I looked at what I had in the freezer and refrigerator I decided to make a weeknight porchetta.

I was going to make a prosciutto-wrapped pork tenderloin using all the herbs and flavors that I used in my traditional porchetta. It literally took less than 20 minutes to prep it and about 35 minutes in the oven. I crisped up the prosciutto under the broiler for a minute and let it rest. Later I looked if there were any recipes for weeknight porchetta and sure enough there were. Of course, none were exactly how I made it, but close enough to share with you guys so you get the idea and if you want to make your own.

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Here is the link to the Weeknight Porchetta recipe that is close to the one I made. I added lemon zest to mine because I didn’t have an orange, I think the citrus adds another layer of flavor.

https://www.kitchenkonfidence.com/2015/02/porchetta-pork-tenderloin

While this weeknight porchetta wasn’t as grand as the holiday one, it came pretty damn close with little effort or money. It sliced beautifully and was so juicy and flavorful. I served it with mashed potatoes and maple-glazed carrots. It was a hit! Marty and my son Noah loved it, so I was very happy. It was such a successful birthday dinner. Yay, it’s what I live for!

The good news is if you have never had or even heard of porchetta you can make this weeknight version and it will be so close in taste, it will be like having the real thing!

By the way those mashed potatoes I served with the Porchetta, the leftovers are being transformed tonight into Loaded Potato Soup.

Today is Marty’s birthday. We decided ahead of time that since our birthdays are less than two weeks apart, we would just give each other birthday cakes.

Neither of us needs or wants anything thing right now, so why spend money just for the sake of buying something. If I want some new summer clothes especially if  I am a size or two smaller, I will get them then. The same thing goes for Marty for something he wants.

Up until a couple of years ago, I hated to bake. I could bake well before we went gluten-free, but I never really enjoyed it. After going gluten-free baking became my nemesis. Baking is an art and a science in itself, but gluten-free baking? Oy Veh!

I think part of why I don’t like baking is that it is too exact and you can’t just throw a Hail Mary and hope for the best. You have to actually follow a recipe. Yup, that’s the problem for me.

I have gotten better at this gluten-free baking thing because I have found some gluten-free flours that produce consistent results. I still have to follow a recipe, but knowing whatever I am making will come out well is worth it. I decided if I wanted to be a well-rounded cook I needed to learn to bake well.

I usually make one of two different kinds of cakes for Marty’s birthday every year. A pineapple upside-down cake which was my father’s favorite cake too, or a black forest cake. Last year I made a mini pineapple upside-down cake. 

I think Marty secretly likes these cakes for his birthday is because neither of our boys would eat them…they have fruit in them! So besides a small piece for me, he gets the cake to himself.

Last year I made mini pineapple upside-down cakes. It just doesn’t make sense to make full-size cakes for just the two of us. Yesterday I made two different versions of mini black forest cakes.

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I was using a recipe for a chocolate cake for two. I didn’t have a 4 or 6 inch round cake pan so I improvised. Already I could be setting myself up for disaster.

For the mini cakes, I used soufflé ramekins. Ramekins are made of porcelain which takes longer to heat up and slower to cool down than a regular metal baking pan. I already had a 50% chance of screwing the cakes up.

Before I made the cherry filling, whipped cream, chocolate bark, or toasted any almonds I made the cake to see if it would even come out.

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I followed the recipe, poured the batter into three ramekins, and put them in the oven. I kept peeking in the oven door and was relieved they were rising! I still waited on the other components until I was sure these would work.

I took the cakes out and let them cool. They came out of the ramekins easier than I thought. Yay! Now onto making the other parts of the cake.

I always keep a jar of pitted fresh cherries in my pantry along with a can of pineapple rings. I make my own cherry pie filling and don’t use the canned one even though it’s easier and prettier. 

Cherry pie filling is cherries, sugar, corn starch, and almond extract. Everything is thrown into a pot and stirred until it gets thick and glossy, less than ten minutes from start to finish.

Whipped cream is so easy that even a monkey could make it. Heavy cream, sugar, and pure vanilla extract that’s it whipped up with a mixer or a whisk. My grandmother Mema always bought Cool Whip. I ate it when I was a kid, but when I was researching food additives when Noah was little I stumbled upon this little fact…Cool Whip is a non-food item. A non-food item contains no real food. Yuck! 

Non-food items are also referred to as twentieth-century American plastic food. Here’s a quick list so you get what I mean.

• Cool whip
• Velvetta is not cheese, it is a cheese food product 
• Imitation blueberries in muffins
• Miracle whip
• Imitation vanilla flavor BTW…it’s made from paper pulp waste
• Chocolate flavored chips 
• Cream filling found in sandwich cookies 
• Powdered lemonade 
• Caramel that isn’t caramel
• Frozen dairy dessert is not ice cream and does not melt
• Butter spray for popcorn 
• Yoo-hoo isn’t chocolate milk, it’s a chocolate drink
• Sunny-D isn’t orange juice
• Pancake syrup isn’t maple syrup

I do have to say that I have consumed every one of those things on the list. One thing I am is not a hypocrite…I like a few of them. Especially a Yoo-hoo with a hotdog and the filling in an oreo. Shhhhhh I also like Velveeta.🤭

I am not sure if anyone remembers that I wrote about a book I read when Noah was a baby called, “Can you trust a tomato in January?” I wrote that I looked for it online but could t find it.

As I am literally writing this and the mail came. My friend Lindsey found the book I wrote about and sent me a copy! This is such a great gift and it came at exactly the right time! Thank you Lindsey so much, I really appreciate your thoughtfulness! ☺️

Ok, back to Marty’s birthday cakes. The only thing I still had to do was toast some almonds and make chocolate bark. It’s more impressive than it really is. It helps cover up my poor cake decorating skills and has a mini wow factor. 

I found a jar of maraschino cherries in our bar fridge for a garnish. Yes, I love maraschino cherries. It surprises people that I like them because they are so artificial, but I am not a food snob. Give me a good cocktail with a cherry in it and I will be your best friend. 

So I am pleased with the way his cakes came out. We had the cakes after dinner and they came out better than I could have imagined! The cake was moist but firm enough to hold up to the three layers even when Marty cut it. He loved both of them and kept saying how delicious they were. Yay!!!!! 🥳 

When we moved to Vermont from hectic, overcrowded NJ over 30 years ago I knew there was going to be some big trade-offs. I kind of knew back then that food was going to be a big one.

On this blog journey, I’ve already written about some of my favorite food memories. But there are more, many, many more!

We still had the chance to go back to my hometown until 2002, when I suggested my mother move up here after my dad passed two years before to be closer to her family. Hindsite is 2020.

We didn’t have to go gluten-free until 2010, so whenever we went back we ate all of our favorites that you just can’t get in Vermont. It’s torture whenever we go back now because everything we loved has gluten in it.

One of my favorite food memories is a pickle. I am not talking about a dill pickle, or a bread and butter. I am also not talking about the garlic ones you can get in a real deli that are in a big barrel. I am talking about Reo Diner pickles.

The Reo Diner was and still is in Woodbridge, NJ, the next town over from where I lived. I went there a lot. I went with friends, my parents, and Marty. There were so many fantastic diners to go to, but this one was a sober, day time diner for real food.

We went to diners closer to where we lived when we went out at night, after drinking and dancing. We went to other stand-bys like White Castle, Stuff Your Face, The Steak Out, and our choice of a million other places. All good drunk food. Good during the day, but better when you were shit faced.

Drunk food at a diner for me was either was french fries with brown gravy or disco fries which is the same thing but with cheese. Or runny over-easy eggs with the all-important home fries to soak up all the booze so you wouldn’t have a hangover in the morning.

Going to the diner during the day meant a pizzaburger deluxe or a happy waitress special. An open-faced roast beef or turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes. During the day at the Reo Diner, I remember the pickles they had out on the table that you could munch on while you were looking at the massive ten-page menu. How they can offer those many choices is mind baffling!

The pickles…different from the ones I mentioned earlier. They were crunchy cucumbers with salt and garlic. That’s it. Not a hint of vinegar. The memory was rooted so deeply in my mind that I was able to duplicate them.

I’ve been wracking my brain trying to remember how I learned this pickle making technique. At first, I thought it may have been from Annie, but it wasn’t. I thought I saw it in an Amish cookbook my father had, but nope. I searched the internet and I could not find it.

I’ve been making these pickles for 20 years and have no recollection of how I learned, but it really doesn’t matter does it? The point is that I can tell you about them and show you how I make them. When you are knee-deep in cucumbers from your garden, I hope you will remember these pickles. I use smaller pickles or sometimes European pickles because I can’t digest the seeds of regular cucumbers. If all else falls I scrap some out before I put them into the garlic brine.

These are refrigerator, revolving door pickles. I say revolving door because they are fresh without any preservatives, not even vinegar. They are stored in the refrigerator in the briny garlic liquid they were made in. They last about 5 days so you really should only make as many as you think you will eat. In the summertime, oh hell now too whenever I open the refrigerator I get out the jar and have a couple of spears. As soon as one jar is gone, I make another batch, hench the revolving door pickles.

Refreshing and ice-cold describes these pickles in the summer. They don’t need a fantastic sandwich or burger to accompany them, they are just to be eaten. Just like on the table at the Reo Diner.

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To start these pickles you should choose firm cucumbers that are all about the same size and ones that will fit length-wise in a mason jar or container that you can store them in. You will also need a large bowl, some fresh garlic cloves, kosher salt, and ice.

Cut the pickles into spears, cut cucs longways in half and then cut again to make the spears. Place the spears in a large bowl. My recipes are usually straightforward, pretty much like me, I don’t like to fool around with ridiculous measurements.

For each cucumber used, you will use the same amount of garlic cloves and tablespoons of kosher salt. This is the way that I like my pickles seasoned. If you get it wrong and think it’s too garlicky, too salty, or not enough garlic or salt, the beauty is, you can always correct it.

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Next, you finely mince your garlic and sprinkle it on top of the cucumber spears. You cover the spears completely with ice, mounding it up. Finally, you sprinkle the kosher salt on the ice just like you do putting salt down on an icy driveway. Where I learned this from I will never know, I don’t think I dreamed it up.

Leave the bowl out on a counter at room temperature. By the time the salt melts all the ice, the pickles are done. This is when you can taste your garlic brine. If it’s too salty you can drain some of it and add more cold water. No big deal. The same is true with garlic, if it’s too over the top take some out of the brine, drain some of the brine and add some cold water. Not enough salt or garlic, add more a little at a time. You do have to have the salt to preserve the pickles in the jar, just like fresh mozzarella or feta cheese.

That’s it. That is the recipe. I took step by step photos to demonstrate what in the hell I am talking about. You may have to tweak the recipe a few times to get it how you like it and don’t do like me, write it down! It takes the guesswork out the next time you make a batch.

I went online and looked at some of the Reo Diner food photos. I did see a couple of lame-ass jarred pickles on the plates. If anyone from NJ has been there recently, please report back to me about the pickle situation.

Yesterday morning I saw a recipe for eggplant rollatini which was perfect because I just bought an eggplant on Monday. 

I made the cheese filling and marinara sauce right after we finished work in the production kitchen. 

We are extremely blessed during this pandemic that we are in production almost every day trying to keep up filling our wholesale customer orders. 

After lunch, I started to make the rollatini. I peeled the eggplant and began slicing it longways and boom. The damn thing was all brown and rotten in the middle even though the outside seemed ok.  I HATE WASTING MONEY LIKE THAT!

Flashback to Monday in the grocery store with Marty “Those eggplants don’t look good.” He told me. “Look this one that’s wrapped up like a baby is fine,” I said confidently. One box had loose eggplant and a new box had them wrapped individually with paper. 

So when I cut into that brown eggplant I was like, “Oh shit he was right.”Grhhhh! I hate being wrong, especially about food. 

Yesterday was a planned day off from working out so I decided to make cheese manicotti instead since I already had the filling and sauce made.

I got out my pasta maker, made some pasta dough (gluten-free), and rolled out sheets. I parboiled them because gluten-free pasta becomes brittle if it dries. I’ve done this with my fettuccine and it works. 

I laid the cooked pasta squares on a sheet pan spraying the layers with pan spray, not olive oil like I do my pasta. You do know what’s going to happen right????? At this point, I didn’t. 

After I got done writing my anti-Valentine blog post I started making my manicotti. In NJ we pronounce it mon-a-gut. “You gotta problem wid dat?” Said in my Jersey accent.

I got out the sauce and cheese and set myself up a rolling and filling station. I uncovered the pasta squares and the MF things all stuck together. 

“Are you kidding me right now?” WTF! It was almost 6:30 pm. So now I had to do what good cooks do and think on their feet. 

I decided to carefully get the squares apart as best I could under warm running water. Plan C was to make lasagna. Why not? It’s been a couple of years since I made just regular cheese lasagna. 

I didn’t tell Marty who was sitting in the living room. I didn’t talk out loud to myself and continue to curse the stuck pasta sheets, I put my head down and got to work. 

I was pretty happy how I had just enough sauce, cheese, and pasta. I popped it into the oven and was pretty sure it was going to be good. 

While the lasagna was baking, I was thinking about how the entire day was a complete train wreck. 

First thing in the morning I walked over to my neighbor’s house to feed his cat that I was cat sitting. I took off my boots, which I am tired of putting on and off constantly. Next, I stepped in warm mushy cat puke with my clean socks I just put on. After I fed the cat I threw my socks in his garbage and walked home in my boots without socks. This was all before my morning cup of coffee.

Later on in the day, I knocked over the dog’s water bowl that was just refilled to the tippy top. All the water ran into the center of my kitchen since all the floors are slanted. The character of an 1832 house is not always charming.

The water quickly ran onto my kitchen runner rug in front of my sink and island. When I raced to get paper towels I got both my second pair of socks soaked. 🤦🏻‍♀️

The saving grace of the entire day was when I took that lasagna out of the oven. You could almost hear a choir of angels singing. It looked and smelled luscious. I let it cool a bit to let the cheese set up while I set the table. 

Let me tell you what! It was the best damn lasagna I ever made and I’ve been making lasagna for 40 years! The crazy thing is, the filling was almost like the ravioli from Spiritos I’ve been trying to duplicate for decades!

I said the best lasagna that I ever made, not ate.  I will leave that honor up to Marty’s best friend Paulie’s mother Mrs. Moramarco. Her lasagne was another food memory that will go down in history. Marty and I don’t think it will ever be topped. It was pure perfection! 🙌🏼

So the title of this blog post could have been “Third time’s a charm, but after we finished eating, I announced, “That was a delicious mistake!”

Ten or fifteen years ago the old me would have gotten so pissed off when the pasta sheets stuck together I would have thrown everything away. I guess I am either getting more patient as I get older, or I just know how to fix a kitchen disaster. I think a little of both.

Today I wanted to start a recipe series titled, “Bringing Back Old School Favorites.” I know the title suggests different things to different people. The old school favorites I am referring to are dishes that have been labeled as outdated according to the fine-dining world. Not extinct, but hard to find, that is until recently.

Back in 2013, I watched Chef Emeril Lagasse make a dish called Steak Diane. As he talked about it he explained that this was a dish served tableside in fine dining restaurants in the 50s & 60s. I watched him prepare it. It looked intimidating. You had to set the sauce on fire!

I went to a few fine dining restaurants growing up, for my sixteenth & eighteenth birthdays in NJ. I never got to go to one in “the city,” New York City that is. My father hated the city. I did get to go to a famous one in New Orleans. I was with my parents on a family vacation, we were headed back to NJ from my Aunt’s in TX and stopped in NOLA for a couple days. I was eighteen and could drink legally there! 🍹🍹🍹 That’s another blog post story!

Let me set the stage of “old school” fine dining…these restaurants were called “white tablecloth” restaurants that required men to wear a shirt, tie, and jacket. They offered valet parking. People loved this because they just drove up to the door, put the car in park, and headed straight into the restaurant. The valet driver would give you a tag that matched with your car so it will be easy for them to retrieve after dinner. The valet driver would then park your car and keep an eye on it while you dined, or took it for a spin I am sure if it was a fast car. When he returned your car, you tipped him.

There was a coat check girl when you entered. You gave her your coat and she gave you a tag matching with the one on the hanger of your coat. One of the other duties of the coat check girl was to dig out a tie or jacket to loan a diner who came underdressed. After dinner, when you retrieved your coat, you tipped her. There was no such thing as coats thrown over the back of a chair or an empty chair.

Waiters usually wore black suits or tuxedos. There were waiters and a Maitre d’ or Captain. The waiters were all part of a magical experience for their diners, to treat them to the lap of luxury. The waiters held the chair out for ladies to sit down. They took the orders, made recommendations, and provided table-side service to their tables.

Other waiters served the food, brushed the crumbs away from the table in between courses, and refolded your napkin when you came back from the restroom.

There were water boys who also doubled as busy boys. Their job was you make sure your water glass was never empty and to take away the dirty dishes.

Now the Maitre d’ or the Captain was the head honcho. He took reservations, sat people, opened and poured the wine, oversaw the waitstaff. He also went around and checked in with diners making sure everything was to their liking. He was the guy in charge.

Fine dining restaurants today still have all of those things, but old school dining had tableside service.

Tableside service refers to dishes that were prepared right at your table. Waiters became part of dinner theater, chefs loved it because it took off pressure in the kitchen.

The waiters would wheel up their carts and amaze and dazzle diners with all sorts of magic. They could make an emulsion appear right before their very eyes! They were masters of the art of flambéing and made it look spectacular and dangerous.

Each waiter in a restaurant was given the exact same ingredients on their carts for each of the dishes, but each had their own special way of preparing the dishes. These dishes came together quickly and made with precision.

One of the dishes prepared table side was Steak Diane. What exactly is it beside delicious?

Steak Diane is a tableside flambéed dish. The steak is pounded thin and often brandy, cognac or Madeira is poured over it, as well as a sauce of such ingredients as butter, mushrooms, mustard, shallots, cream, Worchester sauce, and meat stock.

Flambé is a cooking procedure where alcohol is added to a hot pan to create a burst of flames. The word means “flamed” in French. Wikipedia

According to a 1948 citation, the dish was invented at the Drake Room, at 56th Street and Park Avenue in Manhattan’s Drake Hotel, and was named after chef Beniamino Schiavon’s small daughter.

Others say it was supposedly named after the Roman goddess, Diana or Diane.  Diana was the Goddess of the Hunt and also the Goddess of the Moon.  Steak Diane was originally a way of serving venison.

So why did Steak Diane become an outdated dish and taken off menus? Diners began eating healthier fare and demonizing the saturated fats found in butter and beef.

Restaurants were mandated to install expensive sprinkler systems. Tableside cooking in the dining rooms scared owners they would soak their guests if the sprinkler system went off. Steak Diane’s star began to fade and died a peaceful death around 1979.

The first time I made Steak Diane was in 2014. I was intimated as hell. I looked in all my cookbooks and read how each of them made the dish. They were all similar, but also different from each other. They all flambéed in the recipes. I noticed that recipes I found on the internet didn’t use thinly pounded steak anymore. Steak cuts like flank steak, filet, skirt steak, sirloin, and flat iron steak could be made medium-rare or medium how people like their steaks done now and not well done.

My first try and the recipe went off without a hitch. I put my big girl pants on and pulled off my first flambé! It was as delicious as I imagined Emeril’s was! I shared the dish on my Facebook page and people didn’t know what Steak Diane was, especially the younger generations. Now they did and I thought it was pretty exciting to share this long lost dish.

Since then I’ve made Steak Diane dozens and dozens of times. I actually taught my cooking class how to make it. When I pan seared the steak in my cast iron pan, I thought the fire department would be pulling up any second because the room filled with smoke.

We quickly opened the doors to vent the smoke out. I am sure the place smelled like steak for days! I made the on the spot decision to not ignite the cognac. I showed my class that if they are afraid to set the alcohol on fire, turn off the flame, add the alcohol and turn the flame back on low to cook out the alcohol. It does taste the same, but having it burst into flames is way more fun!

I usually cook alone in my kitchen, but one night Marty walked in just as I ignited the pan. “Holy shit what are you doing? You are going to burn the house down.” I told him, “Settle down there sparky I have this under control.”

I looked online today and found a shit load of Steak Diane recipes. It seems since 2017 the dish is making a comeback. Gordon Ramsey’s recipe uses small sirloin steaks. Guy Fieri uses filet mignon. Emeril uses pounded filet mignon. I just saw that the Cheesecake Factory has Steak Diane on their menu.

I hope you will try my recipe, please don’t flambé if you don’t want to. Don’t be intimidated, it’s only a steak. I like to serve mine with lots of different potato side dishes and a salad.

Steak Diane

1 lb steak of your choice: flat iron, skirt, tenderloin, filets, rib eye etc.
Kosher salt and freshly grated black pepper
4 Tbsp butter divided
4 Tbsp finely minced shallots
3 Tbsp cognac
1 cup beef broth divided
2 tsp dijon mustard
2 tsp Worchestershire sauce

Serves 2

It is important to have everything ready for the sauce before you cook the steaks.

Take the steak out 30 minutes before cooking trimming off any excess fat. After the steak has come to room temp season with kosher salt and pepper on both sides.Preheat a large skillet or cast iron pan. Add 2 Tbsp butter and let melt. Once the butter is bubbling, add seasoned steaks and cook. The amount of cook time will be based on the thickness of your steak and how you like it cooked. For example I use flat iron or skirt which are thinner cuts, I cook 3-4 minutes on each side for a perfect medium rare then let rest on a plate. Turn off pan. Thicker cuts may take 7-8 minutes per side again depending on how you like your steak. 

After the steak rests a minimum of  5-7 minutes slice thinly according to the cut of your steak. For example my flat iron or skirt steaks are sliced against the grain. Filet mignons should be kept whole. Rib eyes may be kept whole if each person is getting one whole steak or thinly slice if the steak is larger.  Arrange on a serving plate.

Turn the skillet back on to low and add the remaining 2 Tbsp butter and shallots. Saute until just translucent, about 1 minute. Increase the heat to high and add cognac carefully and let cook for 30 seconds. If your pan does ignite don’t panic the flame will go away as soon as the alcohol is burned off. If you are really afraid relax. Turn the heat off, add the cognac, then turn to high and cook for 30 seconds. Add ½ beef broth and use a wooden spoon to scrape up any brown bits stuck to the pan. Sir in mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Cook stirring often until the liquid is reduced about 2-3 minutes. Add the remaining ½ cup of broth and continue to boil, stirring often until the sauce thickens about 3-4 minutes more. Adjust the seasoning according to your taste. 

To serve spoon the sauce over the steak. Serve any leftover sauce tableside. 

*If you want to be a hotshot tip the pan to flambé like the old school waiters but be careful!

When we sat down for our morning coffee, Marty said, ” I have something I have to tell you.” My quick response was, “Oh God what did you buy?” 

He said that he didn’t buy anything, but he’s been thinking about something since last night. He had to be honest with me. Now I really didn’t know what he was going to say.

He said, “It’s about your dinner last night. I just don’t think that it was good and I didn’t enjoy it.” The meal he was talking about was chicken and dumplings.

Let me stop right there and for the record tell you guys that we are not food snobs. If I wasn’t gluten-free, I would still be eating Kraft macaroni and cheese, ramen noodles, Doritios, pizza bites, ding dong‘s, devil dogs, Twinkies, ho hos, and White Castle hamburgers.

We have some gluten-free versions of things that we love and are always on the lookout for it. Pringles and pop tarts are at the top of the list. Marty hit the jackpot today at the dented food store!

We have frozen food like everyone. We have things like frozen cauliflower pizza crusts and gluten-free breaded chicken tenders. My pantry always includes gluten-free Bisquick, canned beans, corn, Bob’s red mill muffin mix, and a gluten-free box cake mix for a last-minute dessert.

Ready to eat and quick to prepare food is necessary for busy families. Often if I’m using something like the breaded chicken tenders I will try to serve it with something that I’ve made. But sometimes those tenders are served with frozen french fries or tater tot‘s.

Ok, back to Marty telling me why he didn’t care for our dinner last night. Before I got defensive I stopped and listened. “You’re a much better cook than what you made last night.” He continued, “Now I know why kids don’t like their vegetables.” I knew exactly what he was talking about.

The cheapskate in me wanted to use up a bag of frozen 4-way. 4-way is known in the professional kitchen world as a mixture of peas, carrots, string beans, and corn. I had a bunch of 4-way on hand. I used to add it to the homemade dog food I made for Klaus. When we found out he was allergic to corn, that was the end of the homemade food and we started him on zero-grain dry food.

Marty continued by saying, “The four-way didn’t have any flavor at all, and everything was the same texture.” Not a good one at that. “It would’ve been better with just some fresh carrots along with the fresh onions and celery.” True.

OMG, he was right! I started making up the excuse about wanting to use up the 4-way and stopped. I agreed with him 100%. I am much a better cook than that.  It was kind of embarrassing.

A million things started running around in my head.  I just wrote about seasonal eating and did the opposite. I totally didn’t practice what I preached. I’m such a hypocrite!

My chicken and dumplings would’ve been so much better if I would’ve only put whatever fresh veggies I had on hand, along with the onions and celery. The fact of the matter is that I didn’t. It was a mediocre meal, totally edible, but I made the wrong decision going against everything I believe in for a $3 bag of 4-way.

I have to thank Marty so much for bringing this up. He believes in me and knew this was not me or my cooking.

So this is my first imperfect situation after yesterday’s post about perfectionism. This was my chance to see if I could cut myself some slack or would I beat myself up for the rest of the day. 

My reaction to criticism was excuses. Clearly, a pattern when I do something wrong. However, when I am critiqued at dance, that’s different. I take the criticism like a champ. I’ve asked for it because I wanted to become a better dancer. I’m not saying it’s easy, I used to go home after dance and want to cry. Beat myself up. Well, suck it up buttercup, you want to get better right? Then knock it off and practice your ass off.

Today my first reaction to Marty’s criticism was to make an excuse. At dance, I try to never make up an excuse when my technique is sloppy or wrong. For example, “My arms are wrong because I was lifting heavy things yesterday.” “I wasn’t shimmying because I didn’t sleep well last night.” Save it, sister, if you want to get better you have to listen, make corrections, and practice. Hmmm? The same thing goes for cooking! An ah-ha moment!

I did cut myself some slack today. That meal was a complete cop-out. Did I learn something from it? Hell yes! Don’t use shitty ingredients just for the sake of using them. Cook with love. I should’ve thrown that 4-way out when I stopped making the dog food. It was freezer burned anyway.

The perfectionist in me actually accepted the fact that what I made wasn’t up to snuff. It wasn’t up to the caliber of cooking that I normally do, the kind of cooking that I enjoy. The real shame is that I took the time to roast the chicken, made a delicious gravy with the drippings from the pan, and ruined it by throwing in that damn 4-way.

Tonight I used the rest of the roasted chicken and made Singapore Street Noodles. Everything was fresh, crunchy and spicy! My lips are still tingling from it!😋

We moved from Elizabeth to Iselin when I was nine years old. My father’s family were shocked that we were moving to the “country.”  To them, it was the country because they all lived within a three-block radius. Most never left their neighborhoods.  

My parents put in an offer on a house in “the neighborhood.”  Houses didn’t come on the market that often since no one left, but their offer was rejected. I don’t know if that was true or the excuse they used to move away. 

Iselin back in the early 70s wasn’t actually the country, However, the spot where “Metro Park” is now was a farm.  Hard to believe! I remember my parents taking me to that farm for a pony ride. I’m not sure if it was a pony or a horse, but I did know his name was popcorn.

A year later the farmer, became a very rich farmer, maybe a millionaire when he sold his property.

Metro Park is one of the busiest train stops for NJ Transit & Amtrack. It was built up and became overcrowded overnight. Dozens of office buildings, hotels, and other businesses are located in Metro Park as well.

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At our new house, we lived next door to a widow named Annie Farkas.  Our house was a cape cod style, and hers was a bungalow.

Annie was the first adult outside my parent’s circle that told me to stop calling her Mrs. Farkas! “Just call me Annie,” she told me. 

Annie became a special person in my life. I didn’t realize how important she really was until I was an adult. 

Annie was a Hungarian woman with dyed reddish-brown hair and a loud, almost piercing voice. She must have been hard of hearing, but it never bothered me. I could hear her call to me easily when I was outside playing.

Annie was a fantastic cook.  There was always delicious smells coming from her back door.  

When she called me in the yard, she would ask if I wanted to help her in the kitchen.  There was no gate to her yard, so I had to go through the house and out the front door. 

I would tell not really ask my mother that was going over to Annie’s to help her.  She never said no. If she knew how much I loved going over there it could have been used as something to take away when I was punished. I was a smart cookie and didn’t tell her that Annie was teaching me to how to cook. 

Annie had me pullover a kitchen chair so that I could see. I would watch everything she was doing and she let me help. 

I always wanted to help when my dad did projects around the house. I would ask him, “daddy can I help?” and he always replied, “nope this is a one-man job.” It really hurt my feelings and could never figure out why I wasn’t allowed to help.

At Annie’s house, I learned how to make soups, casseroles, pierogies, stuffed cabbage, stuffed peppers, and all kinds of other things.

At Easter, Annie asked my parents if I could go to her Hungarian church in Perth Amboy and help the ladies prepare food. This was work to my mother, not fun, so of course, I was allowed to go.

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I remember Annie’s little blue and white car stuffed with brown grocery bags and dozens of aluminum, disposable pans. 

When we got to the parish building I helped Annie bring in all the supplies.  I had no idea what we would be making, I was so excited! 

When we walked in,  all the old ladies stopped what they were doing and looked at me. They smiled and went back to work. 

In the mind of a 9-year-old girl, it seemed like there were 100 women all sitting down at long tables making stuffed cabbage and pierogies.  I wondered what I would be doing. 

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Annie sat me down and got me set up.  First, she had me work in the stuffed cabbage section.  Everyone was speaking Hungarian while working, I was concentrating so it didn’t matter.

I felt shy at first, afraid to mess up. Ah, but then I started picking up speed.  A couple of ladies looked at me and called over to Annie. I didn’t know what they were saying. I started to panic. Then I saw Annie smile and wink at me. They told her I was a “ chip off the old block.”  they thought that I was her granddaughter.

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Later, I helped at the pierogies section. My small fingers had no trouble filling and closing up my pierogies. At the end of the day, there were mountains of food placed in take-out style aluminum containers. I had no idea who would be eating it all.

It was a great day! It was at this point that not knowing my nationalities since I was adopted began to bother me. Sitting with all those Hungarian women made me feel like I was part of a nationality. (I am not Hungarian I found out since.)

When we got back Annie told me to wait a second before I went home. She went to her house and she came out with her small Hungarian cookbook from the church. She gave it to me so I could remember how to make the stuffed cabbage when I was older.

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As we settled into our new town I begin making friends, joined the cheerleading squad, rode my bike everywhere. I wasn’t home as much anymore. During that point, Annie got older and wasn’t cooking as much anymore. Then I became a teenager and waved over the fence when I saw her. Every once in a while, I would stop by to say hi. 

I think she passed away when I was in my late teens or early 20s. I actually remember taking her death pretty hard but did not go to her wake or funeral…I found out about her death afterward. 

Yesterday in the production kitchen, I was trying to decide what I would make for dinner this weekend. It shocked the shit out of me that Marty said, “Why don’t you make stuffed cabbage?” What? I didn’t even think that he liked my stuffed cabbage. After making some deliveries, I stopped and picked up the ingredients and started making my stuffed cabbage early this morning.

You will see from the demo photos I’ve included steps that I have added over the years. Annie’s recipe is concise and sweet. I think they expect you to know already how to cook.

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I got out Annie’s cookbook, stained from my use, and looked at the recipe. I noticed that the recipe had no quantities for any of the seasonings. It was just all to your taste. I even added more tomato sauce to my recipe because I liked a lot of sauce. I eyeballed the recipe just like she did and said a little prayer to her. Writing this blog post made me realized that Annie was the first person who not only taught me how to cook but let me!!!

Yes, this blog post made me cry.

Annie’s Stuffed Cabbage

1 lb chopped beef and pork
1 cup long grain rice soaked and drained
1 medium onion chopped and sautéed in 1 Tbsp butter or lard
1 14 oz can sauerkraut
1 28 oz can tomato sauce or puree
1 medium head of cabbage
Salt, pepper & paprika to taste

Core the head of cabbage and parboil it. Mix the first four ingredients in bowl. Take one cabbage leaf at a time, cut off heavy vein. Fill leaf with 2 Tbsp mixed ingredients and roll loosely. Fold one side of leaf as you roll and tuck in other with finger.

Put cabbage rolls in deep pot lined with sauerkraut. Place in pot folded side down. Pour on tomatoes and enough boiling water to cover. Cook for an hour or until rice is tender.

Some folks put sauerkraut on top also, or shred remaining cabbage and put on top cabbage rolls; others omit sauerkraut entirely.

Seasonal eating…I learned about this a couple of decades ago when I read the book “Never eat a tomato in January.” I like the way the author wrote the book and made me laugh. I realize now that his style of writing was very much like my own. He let readers understand seasonal eating in a non-intimidating way.

I looked for the book online and can’t find it. I borrowed it from someone or the library I just can’t remember. I don’t remember so many details of things when my kids were small. I must have had my head up my ass most of the time worried about raising them. There is a sweet children’s book “I will never eat a tomato,” but that isn’t the one I’m talking about.

Basically, eating fruits and vegetables that are in season will always taste better, no matter what. Think of greens, peas, and asparagus in the spring, a ripe and delicious tomato, or a juicy piece of watermelon in July & August. Pears and apples in the fall. Turnips, squash, potatoes in the wintertime.

People look forward to going apple or pumpkin picking with their families. Sometimes people are merely acting out how they want their lives to be like or supposed to be. I’ve seen my share of kids having meltdowns with stressed-out parents in the orchards or pumpkin patches. It happened to my family and I was super disappointed. My family didn’t fit that fantasy of mine and we had a ton of fruit that went to waste.

Many people do have notions about seasonal eating and I have found over the last 3 years that butternut squash is one of them. A big one!

When people think of the fall they think of pumpkin spice things, fuzzy sweaters, furry boots, bon fires and butternut squash.

I say a notion because while they like the idea of eating and enjoying the butternut squash, but actually cooking it is a whole different ball game.

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We have many recipes from our website using our Spatzle on our tables at our farmer’s markets. Many of them are using seasonal vegetables, which makes sense since we are at farmer’s markets. From what I have gathered, people love the idea of coming home with a basket loaded full of seasonal veggies that never get used in many cases. I love it that when people are given an idea or recipe for something they just purchased, they can’t wait to get home and make it, and do!

Many people will come back or email us how much they loved whatever recipe they tried. It makes me so happy and proud that they trusted me and my recipes.

Our recipe that I wrote Spatzle with Butternut Squash, Sage, and Parmesan is one of the most popular dishes for people to make. Don’t get me wrong, many of the folks who come to the market every week are wonderful cooks. They know exactly what they want and what they are going to do with it, but as I said earlier, many don’t.

I used to be like the other half that wanted to try new veggies, but it’s hard to figure out what to make if you have never even had it before. Talk to the farmers. They not only provide their products to their farmer’s market customers but supply many restaurants and know what chefs are looking for. Farmers I have found know the tastiest ways to use their products themselves. Don’t be afraid to ask them, they love it!

During the first farmer’s market season, I traded our Spatzle with a bunch of farmers for some really different varieties of produce. After talking to the farmers I had an idea of where to go with these new fruits and veggies. It was a whole new world of flavors!

Everyone knows what a butternut squash is, it’s the prepping of it that people don’t like. I sense this when someone is reading our recipe I tell them the truth. “I created this recipe because I had a squash that was about to go bad and I needed to do something with it.” People already know where I am coming from. I continue on, “I peeled, cubed, and roasted it on a Tuesday night. I knew I wasn’t going to use it that night because I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it, but at least it was cooked.”

Then I tell them, “Friday night I was running around like a fool and needed to make a fast dinner. I took that roasted butternut squash and sautéed it with our Spatzle, garlic, sage and threw in some parm cheese.” My family ate it and complimented me and told me that this dish was a keeper. The dish can be made with gnocchi or tubular pasta for that matter as well.

The thing that I realized is why people don’t like peeling and cutting up butternut squash. First off, it’s a bastard to peel and even harder to cut up. I watch people scrunch up their noses and listen to how they hated scooping out those seeds because it made their hands slimy. One woman said her hands felt like they had on one of those facial masks that harden up on your face. I’ve got to admit, I never thought of that one.

That woman, well she was right! It’s called “Squash hands.” I read all about it in an article in Southern Living. The sliminess is the sap from inside of the fruit, yes squash is a fruit. The sap hardens up when it is exposed to air, if the squash gets a gash in it, the sap will actually seal up the fruit and prevent rotting. That’s one smart squash!

Basically, I tell the people who want to try our recipe they can do two things. They can buy a butternut squash and suck it up or buy it already cubed up ones that you find in the grocery stores.

If you don’t have your heart set on a specific recipe that requires peeling, cubing, and roasting it, you can roast it without peeling or cutting it up.

Cutting the squash in half longways and scooping out the seed I the only prep for roasting butternut squash. There are literally endless possibilities you can do with squash prepared this way. I also do this with acorn squash.

You can mash it instead of potatoes, whip it, make pancakes or muffins, a ravioli filling, a cream sauce. The list of recipes goes on and on.

I found a monster squash about a month ago and every time I looked in the fridge I was like, “Shit, I’ve gotta use this thing.” Yesterday I decided I had the time to roast it up and serve it with dinner mashed with a little butter, kosher salt & pepper, maple syrup, and a little pumpkin pie spice.

After the squash was roasted, I let it cool. I scooped the flesh out, which by the way is super easy. If you notice in my photos the outside of the squash caramelized which adds a nice depth of flavor.

I decided instead of just mashing it, I threw it into my food processor. Afterward, I used some for dinner and had enough to divvy up and freeze.

Whenever I freeze something my food service training tells me to label and date whatever I put into the freezer, this way three months later I don’t pull it out and say, “What the hell is this?”

I hope this makes seasonal eating and farmer’s markets less intimidating. I also hope that if there is a dish, fruit or vegetable you have always wanted to try, do it! Don’t let the farmer’s market, the actual produce, preparation or recipe stand in your way.

So I know I mentioned before that I have taught cooking classes. I have taught kids and adults, but I also taught myself. I am not a classically trained chef, I am a cook. Is there a difference? Yes and no.

To be a called a chef, some would say you must have graduated from culinary school. Others have worked their way up the honest way as they call it. By honest way, I mean they started as a dish washer, then did prep work, worked as a line cook, moved up to a sous chef, then chef de cuisine and finally as an executive chef. That could take years of training more than a couple quick years at culinary school.  

Both of the ways I mentioned of becoming a chef take a lot of time and effort. One has a certificate the other has burn marks on their forearms.  One paid for their education, the other was paid to learn.

What in the hell does this have to do with the title of this post? Both of these chefs have been trained or learned what the “Mother Sauces” are, how to make them and make them well. So can I and millions of other “cooks”.

Why am I telling you this? Because yesterday when I posted my Chicken Croquettes with Gravy recipe….I am whispering this…it wasn’t really a gravy it was a veloute.

WTF is a veloute? A veloute is one of the Mother Sauces. WTF is a mother sauce anyway? I’ll tell you. 

The five French mother sauces are béchamel, velouté, espagnole, hollandaise, and tomato. Developed in the 19th century by French chef Auguste Escoffier, mother sauces serve as a starting point for a variety of delicious sauces used to complement countless dishes, including veggies, fish, meat, casseroles, and pastas.

Sauces were originally intended as a way for chefs to cover up the taste of food that was beginning to spoil. Yuck, thanks buddy for the solid! I’ll bet people blamed the richness of the sauces when they were shitting their brains out because they didn’t know they were eating spoiled food. 🤮

A velouté sauce is a savory sauce that is made from a roux and a light stock. It is one of the “mother sauces” of French cuisine listed by Chef Auguste Escoffier in the early twentieth century. The term velouté is the French word for velvety. Wikipedia

Any time I read or say the word veloute I can hear Julia Child’s voice saying Vuh-loo-tee. Speaking of Julia she’s one of my cooking teachers. I’ve been working on my French cooking skills using her book “The Art of French Cooking” for years. I have been rewatching the French Chef. Julia is my hero! 

So what the heck is gravy then? 

Gravy is like a sauce, often made from the juices of meats that run naturally during cooking and often thickened with wheat flour or corn starch for added texture. Wikipedia 

So you see a veloute is made with a roux and broth. Gravy is made with pan drippings & juices. Wait what??? Another damn French word roux??? 

Roux is flour and fat cooked together and used to thicken sauces. Roux is typically made from equal parts of flour and fat by weight. The flour is added to the melted fat or oil on the stove top, blended until smooth, and cooked to the desired level of brownness. A roux can be white, blond or brown. Wikipedia

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Gravy or veloute? No one is ever going to say mashed potatoes with veloute sauce. No one really knows there is a difference. Gravy is the word that covers both for the most part, unless you are in culinary school or a high end restaurant kitchen.

So now we have covered one of the mother sauces!!!  Guess what? In my chicken croquette recipe there is also a thick white sauce, which is made from the béchamel family….another mother sauce, but that’s a lesson for another day!