Old cookbooks | Gourmandistan

Bringing out the old to ring in the new with rabbit and some colored-eye soup

December 31, 2015 by Steve

Our version did not use black-eyed peas (instead it used yellow eyes), which we feel is OK because this post is not really about New Year’s. But, if you happen to have some dried beans, rabbit and bacon around when the calendar turns to 2016, we certainly think you’ll enjoy this dish. This “hearty and hospitable” soup was featured in a mid- to late-1980s food magazine, unnamed in the photocopied page contained in Michelle’s old three-ring binder that Steve found while recently cleaning […]

Categories: Beans, Christmas, Cooking, Food, New Year, Old cookbooks, Rabbit, Recipes, Restaurants, Soups & Stews

Kahlúa & coffee give West Coast brownies a kick

December 19, 2015 by Steve

Legendary dessert cookbook author Maida Heatter opined that her “West Coast Brownies” might be “more appreciated by adults than by children.” Whether or not these need to be segregated like the spiked eggnog, we definitely believe they deserve a place on the holiday buffet. Heatter wrote that her recipe was a variation on “Brownie Points,” something made in the late Seventies by a Southern California baker/businessman, Richard Melcombe, who called himself “Richmel” and sold his goods “in leading stores across the country.” “Brownie Points” apparently never made […]

Categories: Baking, Brownies, Christmas, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Old cookbooks, Recipes

King-size apple cake keeps us intrigued, well-buttered

December 8, 2015 by Steve

We have been enjoying this simple, old-fashioned apple cake from Susan Herrmann Loomis’ 1991 Farmhouse Cookbook for several days. Long before she began making everyone jealous with her tales of Rue Tatin in a small Norman town and rural French cooking, Loomis traveled across the U.S., interviewing farm wives and collecting their homey recipes. This “King-Size Apple Cake,” from one Alice Berner of Big Sandy, Montana, is a winner. It may be the seasonally-appropriate mix of cinnamon and allspice bumped up with some nice quality cocoa, but it’s most likely […]

Categories: Apples, Baking, Cake, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Fruit Desserts, Old cookbooks, Recipes

Shrimp and grits pâté part of new Thanksgiving tradition

November 29, 2015 by Steve

Last year’s Gourmandistan Thanksgiving was a lovely gathering where everyone enjoyed themselves, including both Michelle and Steve. One reason, aside from some delightful company, was the decision to limit ourselves to simple, Southern-influenced items, many of which we could make ahead of the actual meal. Centered around country ham and roast chicken and featuring cornbread/biscuit stuffing, broccoli casserole, cranberry sauce and multiple pies, our dinner was such a lovely time we decided to do it again this year—and to share this simple […]

Categories: Appetizers, Family, Food, Holidays & Events, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Shrimp, Thanksgiving

Grits, shrimp and baby artichoke casserole can’t replace Best Derby Ever

April 23, 2015 by Michelle

We very much like this casserole, which is a fancied-up, fresher-tasting version of the boring grits and cheese concoctions usually found on Derby buffets. But we don’t like it nearly as much as last year’s Derby. Faithful, years-long readers of Gourmandistan (and oh, how we love you so very, very much) may recall our previous posts, where we tended to take “The Greatest Two Minutes in Sports” with our tongues planted firmly in our cheeks. Last year, however, as Steve’s editorship of […]

Categories: Artichokes, Cheese, Cooking, Food, Kentucky Derby, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Shrimp

Distinctive desiccation dazzles in apricot, date and nut loaf

March 8, 2015 by Michelle

While we still await our area’s first bits of fresh fruit (please hurry, strawberries!), we have made a nice discovery: apricots from Apricot King Orchards in Hollister, California, a farm in the northern part of the state that ships exceptionally good apricots as well as a number of other dried fruits. (Don’t worry, folks. Unlike many you read these days, this is not a sponsored post.) We’ve long searched for a good source of California apricots, which we find more flavorful than […]

Categories: Apricots, Breakfast, Dates, Food, Nuts, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Vegetarian

Leek Tart welcomes the ’80s back

February 11, 2015 by Steve

As we have noted before, Gourmandistanis are not unfamiliar with the 1980s. Over the decades we discarded many of our ’80s ways (shoulder pads, Sony Walkmen, comic books), but we never gave up the habit of eating quiche, despite being told it was not a dish fit for “real men.” (Being perceived as unmanly has never been an issue for Steve, who merely has to grunt in his normal basso profundo, possibly while pointing to his profound amount of chest hair.) We long ago adapted […]

Categories: Cheese, Cooking, Food, France, Leeks, Old cookbooks, Recipes

Soar, salty bittersweet: salted peanut brownies

January 26, 2015 by Michelle

Once again in the midst of a dreary Gourmandistan winter, Michelle decided she had to have something sweet. Steve tried to tempt her with a crispy Gold Rush apple, as he has found a local grocery still stocking the locally-grown fruit (though they may not last long now that Steve knows about them). While Michelle did momentarily consider tarte tatin, it wasn’t what she really wanted. A can of salted Virginia peanuts some friends brought over during the holidays gave her an idea, however—and salty peanut brownies with peanut butter icing […]

Categories: Brownies, Chocolate, Cooking, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Nuts, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Vegetarian

Moo meets Marco Polo in dan dan noodles with carrot pickles

January 13, 2015 by Michelle

Along with just about everyone who is interested in Sichuan food, we in Gourmandistan are fans of dan dan noodles. This classic dish usually calls for pork and some sort of Chinese noodle or ramen. Our current home version uses neither, and we’re mostly quite happy about it. Our pork-free, pasta-using version started with some surplus ground beef, which Michelle thought of using for dan dan after seeing such a version in Fuchsia Dunlop’s Land of Plenty credited to someone named Xie […]

Categories: Beef, Carrots, China, Cooking, Food, Old cookbooks, Pasta, Pickles, Recipes