Fettucine Alfredo

My father was an enthusiastic amateur cook; he worked in a bakery for several years as a teenager, and originally even intended to be a cook or baker when he joined the Navy. He'd do a recipe over and over until he'd gotten it right, even though by the time he got ones like this fettucine Alfredo recipe perfected, he was often facing a family mutiny from eating the same thing night after night.....

Make sure you make this in a warm casserole or chafing dish to keep the cheese from clumping up, and continue to keep warm while serving. Toss thoroughly after each addition in order to incorporate as much air as possible, but also do it as quickly as possible.

2 tablespoons salt
4 quarts boiling water
1 pound fettucine egg noodles, 1/4 inch wide
4 tablespoons softened butter
2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup slightly-warmed heavy cream

Cook noodles in boiling salted water 7 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain in colander.
Pour hot noodles into a hot 2 quart casserole or a hot chafing dish over a warmer.
Add butter one tablespoon at a time, tossing each time until the noodles are well-coated.
Add cheese 1/2 cup at a time, tossing until well-coated after each addition. Add cream and toss.
Finish with several twists of freshly-ground black pepper.

Mushrooms Florentine

I really ought to be ashamed to admit it, but I found this recipe in a cheesy romance novel. I don't remember much about the book, but I do like these mushrooms!

24-30 large mushrooms
10 ounces frozen spinach
2 cloves finely-minced garlic
1 small chopped onion
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup Italian gread crumbs
6 ounces softened cream cheese
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 and 1/2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Clean mushrooms and set on paper towels to dry. Remove stems, chop, and set aside to use later.
Cook spinach without salt and drain thoroughly; mix the spinach in a food processor or beat with an electric mixer until smooth.
Saute garlic in butter about one minute. Remove from heat. Dip mushroom caps in the butter/garlic mixture, coating well, and place in a 9x13 baking dish.
Stir the chopped mushroom stems and onion into the remaining butter/garlic mixture and saute until tender.
Combine spinach, cream cheese, bread crumbs and seasonings in a bowl; add sauted mushroom mixture and mix well. Spoon into the mushroom caps and sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.
Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

Rossana's Causa (Peruvian Potato Salad)

This is my niece-in-law V.'s mother's recipe, pronounced 'cow-sa'. (V. says it's a secret family recipe: I won't tell anyone if you won't!) Use a ricer to mash the potatoes: it'll give the best smooth consistency.

Aji amarillo is a ground-up yellow Peruvian pepper paste --- Rossana once told me she thinks most American food is pretty bland, so keep that in mind when you add those 4 tablespoons of the aji amarillo!

2 pounds yellow potatoes
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup lime juice (make sure to use limes that don't smell or taste too tart or sour, this can really impact the dish)
4 tablespoons aji amarillo
1/2 pound cooked shrimp
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 ripe avocado
2 hard-boiled eggs
1/2 cup mixed frozen mixed peas, carrots and greenbeans, cooked
1/2 cup kalamata olives, sliced in half

Boil potatoes until tender. Peel while still warm, then use a ricer to mash the potatoes. Once riced and cooled to room temperature, add salt, vegetable oil, lime juice and aji. Mix thoroughly, taste for salt and aji, and set aside.
Boil shrimp in water with a pinch of salt for about three minutes. Peel shrimp and cut in half or thirds, depending on size, but reserving a few whole shrimp for the top of the causa. Mix together the rest of the shrimp, half the mixed vegetables and all the mayonnaise.
Spread half of the potato mixture in an 8x8 or 9x9 dish, and smooth the surface flat with a spatula. Cover that with the shrimp mixture, and smooth flat. Slice the hard-boiled eggs and avocado thinly and arrange half of each evenly on top of the shrimp. Cover with the rest of the potato mixture and smooth that flat.
Decorate the top with the remaining shrimp, egg slices, avocado, mixed vegetables and olives.

Refrigerate covered with plastic wrap, preferably overnight: it will really bring the flavors together. Serve cold.

Fresh Horseradish

My father loved horseradish, and for a few years he even grew his own. Be warned: you definately want to do this outdoors or somewhere well-ventilated; compared to the commercial stuff, fresh horseradish is very powerful stuff!

1 large horseradish root
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Clean horseradish root well and scrape off the skin. Grate it outdoors or near an open window, or use a food processor. Measure one cup of grated horseradish and add lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.
Store in a tightly-covered jar in the refridgerator. Best when used within four weeks.

Grandmom R.'s Salad Dressing

My mother's mother used to make this salad dressing. I don't think I ever saw a store-bought dressing in her house, she just made up another small batch of this every day. It's a simple, tasty recipe, and you can easily change the proportions to suit your own taste.

1/2 cup mayonaise
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 teaspoon of crushed garlic or garlic juice
1 hard-boiled egg (optional)

Mix together and served chilled.

Spatzle (Homemade German noodles)

This is an old recipe from my father's side of the family. Our grandmother used to always hover over us when my sisters and I were making spatzle, telling us that it was very important that we make nice THIN spatzle, because it was 'well known' that nobody wanted to marry girls who make fat spatzle!

There are different regional varieties of spatzle; ours is a longish thin noodle. By comparision, the Hungarians make it as small dumplings, about the size of a half-teaspoon.

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup water

Beat egg in a large bowl. Add all other ingredients, beat well to a smooth thin dough. Cover and let rest 1/2 hour, beat down. Bring four quarts of water to a rapid boil.
If you have a spatzel machine (similar to a ricer), dip it in the pot of boiling water, then fill it and squeeze the dough steadily into the water. Spatzel float to the top of the boiling water when they're cooked; remove them to a large pot of cool water. Continue until finished. (Make sure to leave the spatzel machine soaking in water until you do the dishes: you do NOT want to find out the hard way just how difficult cleaning a spatzle machine can be if the dough dries rock-hard!)

The older method for making spatzle uses a spatzle board (a thin wooden board, only about 1/4 inch thick, usually 7 or 8 inches wide by about 10 or 11 inches long, tapered on one end and with a handle on the other end) and a long straight-edged knife. Dip both the board and the knife in the pot of boiling water. Pour about half a cup of the dough onto the board; use the flat side of the knife to spread it thinly near the tapered end of the board. Use the knife to scrape thin rows of the dough off into the water. Again, the spatzle will float when done. Dip board into the pot of boiling water between each batch, and dip the knife frequently: this will keep the dough from sticking to them.