Monthly Archives: August 2011

Frozen Custard and Soft-Shell Crabs: Something Old, Something New

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Long ago, many years before Snookie, before MTV, even before the internet, I was going to the Jersey Shore. It has always been a special, sacred place for me, and the one constant in my ever-changing early life. Summer after summer, I would head there with my parents, sister, grandparents, great aunts and uncles, and glamorous older cousins. Our family and extended family would take up large portions of the beach, and back in those days, I always felt like I was a part of something greater than myself. As my sister once said, everyone who I have ever loved has stuck their feet in that ocean. No matter where I was in life, the ocean would heal me, ground me, give me perspective.

Years passed, my grandmother and her brothers sold their beach houses (which we stupidly didn’t buy), and my days of free beach vacations at the Jersey Shore sadly ended. I have been fortunate enough to travel a bit in my life, and I have been to some amazing, beautiful, world-renown beaches in places like Saint Barth’s and Monte Carlo. But no beach ever stacked up to anything on the Jersey Shore in my heart. Yes, the water is the exact shade as when you rinse out many different colors on your paintbrush in the same old water cup for too long…sort of a murky greenish brown. Yes, the beaches can get loud and crowded. None of this matters to me. But that’s love, isn’t it?

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law generously and bravely offered to host our family of five for four nights at their beautiful beach house this past week. Watching my kids fight the waves, ride the rides, and enjoy the local cuisine brought such joy to my heart, and I am so grateful for my in-laws hospitality. The smiles I saw on my kids’ faces will never be forgotten.

But enough of this mushy stuff, on to the food!

I am a big seafood lover, so I am sure it is a surprise that I’ve never tried soft-shell crabs. I’ve had crabs in every other possible incarnation, but never soft-shell. I suppose they intimidated me for some reason, but they shouldn’t have.  What a great thrill it is for me to discover a new food that I love! I cannot wait to try this recipe for from Cooking Light (April 2003) Sauteed Soft-Shell Crabs at home. It couldn’t look any easier! I might serve it with Dawn’s Awesome Sauce, but the crabs I ate this week at Busch’s in Sea Isle, NJ were so phenomenal  as is, they didn’t need much help.

Sautéed Soft-Shell Crabs

Here is a basic recipe for cooking soft-shell crabs. You can vary it by adding cayenne pepper, garlic powder, or other seasonings to the flour.

  • 4 (3 1/2-ounce) soft-shell crabs, cleaned
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon butter

Preparation

Sprinkle each crab with salt and pepper. Place flour in a shallow bowl. Dredge each crab in flour, turning to coat; shake off excess flour.

Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add crabs to pan, top sides down; cook 3 minutes. Turn crabs over; cook an additional 2 minutes.

Last night we went to the Ocean City boardwalk where I was reunited with one of my very first Happy Foods, one of my earliest “wow!” food memories, Kohr Bros Frozen Custard. I have wondered recently, upon eating local soft-serve ice cream, why it just never tasted as good as I remembered it as a child, and now I know why: tons of fake ingredients, the nutritional equivalent of a Twinkie.  Frozen custard, on the other hand, contains actual milk, cream, sugar and eggs. We won’t pretend it’s healthy, but at least it passes for real food.

I loved my little break from reality this week, but I am eager to put on Mom Mom’s apron and get back into the kitchen again.

Hershey’s Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting

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Birthdays are a big deal around here. Our motto is simple: Everyone should feel special on their birthday. The birthday boy gets to pick out every meal and every activity, and for that one day a year, we all go along with a smile.

My youngest son Andrew is a traditionalist. He expects the same thing every year, more or less. He expects to wake up with a mylar birthday balloon greeting him in his room. He expects to come downstairs to his favorite breakfast of all time, cinnamon buns and bacon. And he expects a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream frosting, made by his mother’s loving hands.

We have tried store bought cakes in years past, and while they blow me away in the razzle dazzle department, the boys quickly figured out that they don’t taste all that great (exception: Wegman’s Ultimate Chocolate Cake). Mom’s cakes taste good, but they aren’t fancy looking. Despite having pretty nice handwriting on paper, it somehow doesn’t translate to birthday cake writing. Delicious but folksy, that’s how we roll.

This is my standard chocolate birthday cake recipe. I’m not gonna lie — it isn’t theeeee best chocolate cake you’ll ever taste. It is a decent cake which holds up well to frosting, and it is Andrew’s first choice, which makes it good enough for Mom Mom’s Apron.

Hershey’s Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup boiling water

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
  2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
  3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely before frosting.
Editorial rant follows:
There is no excuse whatsoever to not make your own buttercream frosting. Few things in life are easier or more satisfying.  And unlike baking, it is not an exact science, so there is plenty of room to adjust for personal preferences of thickness, sweetness, etc.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
2 sticks of unsalted butter (1 cup), softened
2 to 3 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon real vanilla
1 to 2 Tablespoons of whole milk, half and half, or cream
On low speed, mix together  2 cups sugar and butter. Stop to check for sweetness, and add more sugar if desired. In my opinion, 2 cups is plenty sweet without being diabetic-coma-overbearing, but many people like it sweeter. Gradually increase speed to medium and continue mixing until smooth. Stop mixer, add vanilla and one T. of milk, then beat for another minute or so. Add more milk if too thick. Let your birthday boy lick the beater.

Blue Cup, Green Cup

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When my oldest son Logan was two, we would occasionally get into something I liked to call “The Blue Cup, Green Cup Meltdown.” It went something like this:

Logan: Can I have some milk?

Me (pouring milk into a blue sippy cup): Here ya go, Sweetie!

Logan: No, NOT THE BLUE CUP! I want the green cup!

Me: That is not how we ask for something.

Logan: Please GIVE ME GREEEEEN CUUUUUP!!!

Me (Sigh. So glad I went to college.): Here is the green cup.

Logan: THIS IS NOT THE BLUUUUUE CUP!!!

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

I quickly attributed this psychosis to something called Cognitive Dissonance, which is a fancy way of saying “buyer’s remorse.” Basically, if you are choosing one thing, then by default, you are rejecting something else. And that something else suddenly is way more appealing. Considering it took me about four months to commit to what color diaper bag I wanted, I sort of got his point. Sometimes too many choices make you cry.

After about the tenth one of these meltdowns, I made a public declaration that if I were to ever have another child, that child would be given all the cup choices of Soviet Russia: one color, one choice, end of story. And to give myself credit, this plan worked pretty well for us. For a while.

A couple years ago I discovered these wonderful monogrammed melamine plates from La Plates, just the perfect thing for outdoor dining. Choosing which combination to go with harkened me back to the Blue Cup, Green Cup years, except with an infinite number of combinations this time around. I decided (against my better judgement and control freak nature) that I would allow each family member to choose their own design. As much as this pained me, I knew if I had this burden of choice entirely on my shoulders, we’d still be eating off of paper plates.

Mexicasserole

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As much as I like to fancy myself a highfalutin foodie, the sad reality is cooking for kids has knocked me down off my high horse many years ago. A nice example of how my children have humbled me: decent casseroles and crockpot dishes excite me as much as truffle oil. More so, in fact.

Years ago my friend Bonnie shared a recipe which won a contest in the Sunday Parade Magazine (that’s a division of Food & Wine, no?), and its many incarnations have been a hit with the family ever since. I rarely make this the same way twice, but this is a very forgiving recipe which allows much room for improvisation and substitutions. Leftovers are always rare.

Mexicasserole

1 pound of chicken, poached and shredded

2 cups restaurant style tortilla chips, crushed

1 can red kidney beans, rinsed well and drained

1 can black beans, rinsed well and drained

1 can of corn, drained

8 oz. can of tomato sauce

1 cup salsa

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup red onion, chopped

1 red or green pepper cut into 1/4 inch dice

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1 clove of garlic, minced

12 – 16 oz. grated cheddar

Diced tomatoes to garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray bottom of 13 x 9 inch baking dish and line with crushed tortilla chips. Combine everything but the cheese in a large bowl and mix well. Place half the mixture atop the tortilla chips, and sprinkle half the cheese over the mixture. Cover with the remaining half of the chicken-bean mixture, and then top with remainder of cheese. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes, and let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Coconut Pork

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Today is one of those days where cooking anything beyond grilled cheese feels like a major accomplishment. But the pork is defrosted, and the show must go on!

This dish is inspired by an old recipe posted by the hilarious writer Ayun Halliday. I have made some major modifications, but the spirit remains the same. I can’t remember if the kids actually ate this or not, but at this point, there is no turning back.

Coconut Pork

1 to 2 pounds of boneless pork tenderloin, sliced in thin medallions

2 – 3 Tablespoons olive oil

1 red pepper, sliced in lengthwise strips

1 to 4 hot peppers, depending on your tolerance, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped (not minced)

2 inch piece of ginger, cut into matchsticks (careful, this is tricky!)

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 can of coconut milk, and none of that low fat nonsense

1 can of Mandarin oranges, drained

Cilantro for garnish (optional)

Heat oil and saute peppers, garlic and ginger for two to three minutes. Add pork and cook until no longer pink, but do not overcook! Add salt, sugar, soy sauce and coconut milk, and simmer on low for 20 to 30 minutes. Before serving, stir in a small can of Mandarin oranges. This may or may not entice your children to try it. Garnish with cilantro, and serve over rice or rice noodles.