Emily, Mr. Franklin and Andrew at Quincy Market

Boston Baked Beans (The Real Thing)and Baked Indian Corn Pudding (Both from Durgin-Park, Boston, MA)

Boston Baked Beans

Recipe By : Durgin-Park Restaurant, Boston, MA

  1   2 1/2-quart bean pot or covered casserole

  1 pound beans*

  1/2 teaspoon baking soda

  1/2 pound salt pork

  1/2 medium onion -- peeled and uncut

  4 tablespoons sugar

  1/3 cup molasses

  1 teaspoon dry mustard

  1 teaspoon salt

  1/4 teaspoon pepper

 
 *Use California pea beans, York State beans or small white beans.
 
 Soak beans overnight. In the morning, preheat oven to 325° F. Place the
 baking soda in a Dutch oven and fill half way with water. Bring to a boil
 and add the beans. Boil for 10 minutes. Drain beans in a colander and run
 cold water through them. Set aside.
 
 Dice the salt pork (available in the bacon section of the grocery store)
 into 1-inch squares. Put half of the salt pork on the bottom of the bean
 pot, along with the onion. Put beans in the pot. Put the remaining salt
 pork on top of the beans.
 
 Mix the sugar, molasses, mustard, salt and pepper with 3 cups of hot water
 and pour over the beans. Cover pot with lid and place the pot into the
 preheated oven. Bake for 6 hours. Check pot periodically to check the
 amount of liquid. Add water to the beans slowly as needed to keep them
 moist; do not flood them. Remove the pot from the oven and serve. Makes
 about 7 cups.
 
 NOTE:  Durgin-Park, a Boston restaurant whose origins date back to the
 American Revolution, is famous for its Boston baked beans, baked Indian
 pudding and apple pan dowdy, Cod dinners and Roast Beef dinners.
 
 Durgin-Park serves 1,000 diners on an average Saturday evening. The
 waitresses have a reputation for their long memories: the second time you come in, you get the same thing you ordered the first time--unless you speak fast.

Baked Indian Pudding
Recipe from: The Durgin-Park Cookbook
by Jane Stern, Michael Stern
Cookbook Heaven at Recipelink.com 
(Taken from the aforementioned book:)

"Durgin-Park's Indian pudding is the best there is. Dark brown with substantial gravity, it smells like roasted corn and tastes like the first Thanksgiving. The long cooking time is necessary to soften the corn and for the flavors to meld. Although some restaurants add raisins or other flavorings, the only traditional way to doll it up is with a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting fast atop each hot serving. Tommy Ryan (Durgin-Parks Baker) loves telling the story about the time he was eating in a restaurant in New Hampshire-just a regular customer, unknown to the staff. He asked the waitress if they had Indian pudding for dessert. "Well, we do," she said reluctantly, but then she bent close and clued him in to a secret: "Sir, if you want really good Indian pudding, I suggest you go to Durgin-Park." Just to keep the record straight: this is not a Native American dish adapted by colonist cooks. Its name comes from the fact that early settlers considered virtually anything made with corn to be Indian in nature."

Servings: 6

1 1/2 plus 1 1/2 cups milk 

1/4 cup black molasses 

2 tablespoons sugar 

2 tablespoons butter 

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1/8 teaspoon baking powder 

1 egg 

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal 

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. 


In a bowl mix 1 1/2 cups of the milk with the molasses, sugar, butter, salt, baking powder, egg, and cornmeal. Pour the mixture into a stone crock that has been well greased and bake until it boils. 


Heat and stir in the remaining 1 1/2 cups milk. 


Lower the oven temperature to 300 degrees F and bake for 5 to 7 hours. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

*personal note: Both recipes taste like warm rich history in a bowl, humble, sweet and good for the soul.

Lemon Pie

Lemon PieDear Daughter asked me to post this recipe as it is one of her favorites. Not really what I consider a "winter" dessert, but she loves it, and loves to make it herself. (Bless her 10 year-old-ness!) A note: to make this Gluten Free, substitute finely ground G.F. Pecan Shortbread cookies for the crust. Works perfect!

Lemon Pie

Crust: 1/2 cup (chopped fine) oven toasted Pecans

2/3 cup (about 5 whole) graham crackers (well crushed to fine crumbs)*may substitute Gluten Free shortbread cookies for the graham crackers.

2 Tablespoons sugar

3 Tablespoons melted butter

Combine all together and press into a pie plate to make the crust, covering the bottom and sides. Bake until lightly browned (watch closely!) Approx. 8 min. in a 350* oven. let sit and cool a bit on counter while preparing the filling.

Filling: 2 yolks from large eggs (no whites)

1/2 cup fresh squeezed Lemon Juice (yep, use a real fresh lemon!)

1 can (14oz) Sweetened Condensed Milk (Not Evaporated!)

Whisk the yolks with the milk until well blended, then add lemon juice, whisk again. Pour into prepared crust and bake until filling is set- approx. 15 minutes at 350* Let cool on the counter and then refrigerate at least 2 hours. If you are using the large Pyrex glass pie plates, double this recipe! You can serve this with homemade whipped cream, you can cover the top of the pie just before serving, making gorgeous swirls and peaks. A hit at every function I've brought it too and it couldn't be easier to make!

Since it is school vacation week, Dear Husband has decided it is time to beat feet and get out of town for a few days. So I have been assigned the task of planning a trip to...yep, you guessed it, Boston. He was stunned when I gave him the cost of the hotel rooms, tickets for the Museum of Science, dinner reservations at Legal Seafood, etc. He said we could fly to Paris for lunch and it would be cheaper! I agreed quickly and said "let's do that instead!" a long pause with a raised eyebrow (his) "Nice try honey" said Dear husband.

If we could go someplace without SNOW would be nice, but it is not to be. We all love Boston, and Andrew (dear son) is studying early American history, so this can be very beneficial for him. I just hope it's not howling wind and 10 below 0 while we're walking around town. I lived in Boston briefly in my (way back) past and knew the city pretty much inside and out. It has been under construction (The Big Dig) and I am so confused now! Some streets are gone, you can't get there from here (but you can darn well see it!) and traffic is as bad as ever. We are taking the subway as much as possible. Maybe I can convince Dear Husband to take us to France next year- the south of France, where it's warm and sunny and all beautiful oldness, the croissants are buttery lightness and melty and the cafe au lait is just potent enough and the, oh I could go on and on, but I will spare you! ......I can dream at least! I will provide an update when we return from our trip to Boston. Maybe even pictures!

Meat Loaf (Great Grandmother's)

Tonight we're having an easy old fashioned dinner...Meatloaf and mashed sweet potatoes, side of corn niblets. Here's the recipe for my Great Grandmother's fail safe delicious meatloaf:

MEATLOAF

2 1/2 lb. ground beef
1 1/4 lb. ground pork
1/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 cup oatmeal (uncooked and not instant, "quick cook" is OK)
4 eggs
1 tbsp. spicy brown mustard
1/2 c. ketchup 
1  package lipton onion soup mix (she used to add minced onions before the soup mixes became available-back in the day- but quickly adapted to using the soup mix and preferred it)
5 oz. evaporated milk (you can use regular milk, but the flavor just isn't the same!)
few hearty dashes of black pepper
few hearty dashes of Worchestershire sauce
Mix together. Pat into loaf. Brush top of loaf thickly with ketchup mixed w/ a dash of worchestershire sauce. Bake 1 hour at 400 degrees. You can make a brown gravy or tomato sauce style gravy to go with this, but we like to eat this with mashed sweet potatoes, no gray.

The above pic? Yep, of course that's me cooking, not my great grandmother. She wouldn't have approved. (she was raised in the Victorian Era) My mother would, but she hates to cook. (And no Mom, I promise I won't blog about your past attempts at cooking- although now that I think about it, it could be a fun blog entry! xo)

Mission Statement

My personal mission statement,  it suits me to a "T" and I just had to share.

"Dust if you must"  By Rose Milligan 

Dust if you must, but wouldn't it be better To paint a picture or write a letter, Bake a cake or plant a seed. Ponder the difference between want and need. Dust if you must, but there's not much time, With rivers to swim and mountains to climb, Music to hear and books to read, Friends to cherish and life to lead. Dust if you must, but the world's out there With the sun in your eyes, the wind in your hair, A flutter of snow, a shower of rain. This day will not come around again. Dust if you must, but bear in mind, Old age will come and it's not kind. And when you go and go you must, You, yourself, will make more dust.

*SIGH* We are due for yet MORE snow today. 6-10 inches of the stuff. I have been decorating for spring around the house to try to lift everyone's spirits a bit. Yes, I know. We live in New England. It's February. Usually it's not a big deal, we've had snow storms in April and haven't gotten mopey about it, but this winter seems to be wearing on everyone's nerves here in New Hampshire. Even the skiers! So, aside from decorating (pots of fake but believable hyacinths and tulips and other spring-y flowers as well as chickens, eggs and bunnies- and of course my vintage Easter postcards) I have been literally drooling over the seed catalogs that have recently arrived. I love Burpee's catalog, and have always had great luck with their veggie seeds. http://www.burpee.com/  I have taken a hiatus these last few years from a big veggie garden, but this year I've convinced Dear Husband to build me raised bed gardens (like he made for us at our old house many years ago, I had 10 4'x8' beds. Divine!) . Although I will be the first to confess I am domestically challenged, it is mainly in the housework department. To me, it is pure drudgery. I have tried to make joyful work of dusting, vacumming, washing dishes and  endless laundry, to no avail. (Although I love to hang freshly laundered clothes out on the line during the warmer months -using my Great Grandmothers clothes pins- as nothing beats the smell of fresh air and sunshine on your clothes and sheets! I used to help my Me'mere' Yvonne hang clothes out- I was the official clothes pin hander-upper (I was around 4 or 5 years old ) every time I hang clothes out I feel especially close to her. I wish I had inherited her knack for whipping through housework- in a happy state of mind!  I do love a clean, neat and tidy house, just don't (can't!) appreciate the process. However, I love to cook and I love to garden (veggie gardening- I love flowers, but the perennial kind, low maintainence and all that) and I love to can, freeze, preserve, and dry all the fruits of my labor. For me, there is great satisfaction in nurturing vegetables from seed to dinner plate! Gazing upon gleaming rows of glass jars of preserves, colorful veggies and even homemade fruit cordials on our basement shelves. Ah, such smug satisfaction in all of that!

During this economicaly stressful time in America and the outrageous prices at the grocery stores, it is awesome to have the luxury of one's own vegetable garden! (Alright, yes it is hard work, but good for the soul- unlike housework!) I wish the government would bring back the Victory Garden campaign of WWII. Encourage people to know what goes into their food, and the satisfaction of knowing your family is not only saving money with a little hard work, but eating healthy.

I made a rather large (and very ambitious) wish list from the Burpee Catalog.  Have to trim it down to a "workable" garden size. I stopped by our local discount store days later, (Ocean State Job Lot) to graze for Girl Scout Troop useable items (project ingredients- like yarn- so cheap there for Lion and Moda brand yarn- less than 1/2 regular price! I am teaching "my" girls to knit during the next few meetings.) and I saw a big BURPEE SEED display- all 2009 seeds, including organic seeds and Heirlooms (YAY!Be still my heart!) at a whopping 40% off! I actually found 2/3 of my wish list, which is perfect as I had to trim it down anyways. (I really don't need 3 varieties of carrots, do I?!)  I LOVE when things like that happen- it's a sign from the Universe (the Powers That Be) that yes indeed, I am meant to garden this year and it will be bodascious! I will share favorite tried and true canning recipes later this spring. Pumpkin Butter, Dilly Garlic Green beans, Atomic Pickles, Corn Relish (ok, so I'm not actually planting corn, but I love corn relish!) Stewed Tomatoes, etc. And some cordial recipes as well- Fresh Blueberry, Autumn Spice, Cranberry Raspberry and Peach, okay and Chocolate Covered Cherry as well!  And it will be Spring soon, I'm hoping!