Chicken Pasta Salad

After last night's birthday dessert, we rerally needed something a bit less caloric for dinner, tonight - especially since we're going to have another small piece, this evening!

I had taken some chicken out of the freezer this morning before heading to work, and decided a pasta salad would be a great idea for dinner.

Pasta salads are pretty much open, chop, and dump salads around here. It's whatever is open in the 'fridge, whatever veggies are lying about, and whatever looks good from the cupboard. Since there are always a half-dozen or mor pastas on the shelf, it's just a matter of which one I grab, first.

Tonight, it was radiatore. And the fixin's included grilled chicken, marinated artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, blue cheese stuffed olives, white beans, roasted red peppers, and freshly-grated parmesan cheese. The dressing was the oils and marinades from the jars...

Really simple and really good. Another plus is there's enough left for a few lunches.

Now... about that cake...


Walnut Cream Cake

Victor has been whining for years to Marie about a Walnut Cream Cake she used to make way back when. The original recipe came from Bon Appetit in Philadelphia - an upscale kitchenware store with a cafè upstairs. Marie worked there back in the day and got the recipe straight from them. She hasn't made it in years because once upon a time everyone was young and nobody cared about what they were eating.  Today, we're not as young - and at least pretend to be sensible. Sometimes. The cake is nothing but fat. A pound of butter, 8 egg yolks, cups of heavy cream... You get the picture. It is not a dieter's dessert. It's a cardiologist's nightmare - or delight, depending on your point of view.

But it is a dessert for a Social Security Birthday! And I had never had it, before.

Marie finally found the recipe and sent it off to me a few days ago. I made the cake Monday for tonight's celebration. OMFG! This may just be the most decadent dessert in the history of decadent desserts. It's almost indescribable.

Almost.

It is rich, it is buttery, the kirsch hits you gently - but it hits you. It's there. The drizzle of chocolate completes it. The whole thing just melts on your tongue.

As simple as simple can be. It takes a few steps, but nothing is difficult.

Walnut Cream Cake

1) Heat up 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream and 1 1/2 cups of milk. *

2) In a 2 or 3 qt saucepan, blend 8 egg yolks, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tbsp flour, and 2 tbsp arrowroot.

3) Stir in 6 tbsp Kirsch.

4) Slowly add milk and cream mixture and heat on medium flame until it thickens. **

5) Toast 1 lb walnuts and grind to very fine.

6) Cream in Cuisinart till fluffy 1 lb unsalted butter.

7) Add 1 1/2 cups sugar and blend.

8) Blend in ground nuts.

9) Fold in pudding (after it has cooled.)

10) Pour into a lined cake pan.

* If you heat the cream and milk up to hot (not boiling) it will thicken faster.

** Don't let this come to a boil. It won't get real thick but it will thicken somewhat.

I used a basic 10" springform pan lined with plastic wrap. The fun thing about making something you've never made before with basic instructions and no pictures, is you get to do what you want with the finished product! Crushed walnuts on the side, and walnut halves on the top to make everything look pretty. It is a birthday cake, after all!

Victor had a vague memory about it being drizzled with a sauce, so I drizzled it with a warm fudge sauce.

Simple elegance.

Five of us ate less than a quarter of the cake. I'm going to portion this up and put it in the freezer - and pull out a slice when I'm feeling especially bad.

It's worth it.

 


Oven Braised Artichokes

I saw artichokes at the store this morning. Purple, even... At 99¢ a piece, I had to get a couple.

When we were kids, artichokes were steamed and the leaves dipped in mayonnaise. That was the one and only way to eat an artichoke that I knew. They were grown just south of San Francisco in what is now Serramonte - they liked the combination of sun and fog down there. That was pre-freeway, pre-shopping center, and pretty much pre-history. There isn't 10 square feet of land left down there to grow anything.

Over the years I've learned to cook and eat them in any number of ways - Victor stuffs them or we steam them and have any number of fun dipping sauces, but this is the first time I oven-braised them. It shan't be the last!

I wanted to find something a little different - and I did! These are a take on a Martha Stewart recipe I found online.

Oven Braised Artichokes

adapted from Martha Stewart

  • 1 lemon
  • 6 artichokes
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 2 tbsp minced garlic (from about 5 cloves)
  • 2 tbsp chopped parsley
  • 1 tbsp chopped basil
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375°.

In a large bowl, juice lemon. Fill with water and add the lemon back in.

Trim tough outer leaves of artichoke and peel stem. Trim off top, slice in half, and remove the fuzzy choke.

Quickly place in lemon water.

Drain artichokes and place, cut side up, in a wide, shallow ovenproof pan. Pour wine, oil, and water over artichokes and sprinkle with garlic, herbs, red pepper flakes, and S&P. Bring to a boil, cover, and place in oven. Braise until artichokes are tender, about 45 minutes.

Drizzle with the pan juices, and enjoy!

They were pretty outstanding, if I do say so, m'self! Lots and lots of flavor, the heart and the stem were tender, and the leaves had a mildly-garlicky, herby slightly spicy hint to them. They really were good.

I used a Pinot Grigio - my white cooking wine of choice - and it imparted just the right flavor. Sicilian olive oil - of course - and the red pepper flakes came from peppers in our garden last summer. The amount of garlic may seem excessive, but it works - with no harsh garlic taste.

It doesn't get any better...

Well... actually, it does... Victor's birthday is Wednesday. I just made a Walnut Cream Cake that originated in a kitchenware/cafe named Bon Appetit in Philadelphia years - and years - ago.

Details at 11. Or Wednesday night...

 

 


Mafaldine and Semelle

We just had a quiet dinner at home. Nonna is off with her eldest son, so it was time to break out the long noodles and bake some bread.

Nonna's no longer a fan of noodles - spaghetti, linguine, pappardelle - so we don't have them as often as we used to. Tonight, we broke out the last of the meter-long mafaldine and baked little rolls from Florence. We're such rebels.

Victor made a sauce by blending a jar of his homemade sauce with a jar of the eggplant I canned last summer. He mixed in some freshly grated cheese and we had total perfection. Simply topped with fresh basil and more freshly-grated cheese. We served it on the dishes we bought in Florence and it was the perfect touch. It's amazing how things really can taste differently based on what they're served on. It's one of the reasons we have so many different styles of plates - and never use paper no matter how large the crowd. If you're going to take the time to make it - serve it right!

The rolls were a take on a recipe from Carol Field's The Italian Baker. I bought this book 30 years ago and it's still my favorite bread book. I just found out that Carol Field died last month - she was only 76... She will definitely live on in our house.

I wanted to make rolls instead of a loaf of bread, and thought the Semele rolls would be fun. I had some biga in the 'fridge that needed using up - biga is an Italian starter - so I played with her recipe to incorporate it and still make 10 rolls. If you don't use a biga, increase the flour to about 3 1/2 cups. And use all-purpose instead of the Italian "00".

Semelle are little rolls from Florence. I went through the pictures we took of Florence and didn't see any in the places where we ate, but ... we didn't eat everywhere or go to every bakery. The rolls are really good!

Semelle

Adapted from The Italian Baker by Carol Field

  • 2 1/4 tsp (1 packet) active 
dry yeast
  • 1 1/4 cups warm water
  • 2 cups "00" flour
  • 1 cup biga
  • 2 tsp salt
  • Olive oil for brushing

Stir the yeast into the water and let stand until creamy. Add the flour and biga. Mix until the dough is solid and elastic - 6-8 minutes.

First Rise.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Shaping and Second Rise.

Cut the dough into ten equal pieces and shape each piece into a ball. Brush a little oil over each and let rest 10 minutes under a towel.

With the edge of your hand, make a deep indentation down the center of each ball - be sure to press down firmly.

Place the rolls, cleft side down, on floured parchment paper. Cover with a towel and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Baking.

Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Just before baking, turn each roll over and reemphasize the cleft. Place the rolls - cleft side up - on a baking sheet dusted with corn meal.

Bake 15 to 18 minutes, spraying the rolls three times with water in the first 10 minutes.

The whole batch of dough weighed 30 ounces, so it was easy to make 10 rolls of 3 ounces each.

They had a great chewy crust and a really light interior. I think without the indentation, these would make a great hamburger bun.

These are super easy to make - I know I'll be making more...

 

 


Not Quite Jambalaya

It's kinda wet and kinda rainy ... perfect weather for a not-quite-jambalaya.

I suppose any weather would be perfect for a jambalaya - hot and spicy really do transcend weather. I can eat stuff like this in the dead of winter or the dog days of summer. I really do love my spice.

I'm sitting here trying to think of where I've had the spiciest foods in my life, and I'm thinking it may have been in Singapore. Street food and bar food were the foods of choice as a poor sailor - although I did have the obligatory Singapore Sling at the Raffles Hotel.

The Raffles... The old girl was showing her age a bit in 1973 - but there have been a few renovations since I was there - and another going on right now. The Long Bar - where the Singapore Sling was invented - was in the lobby. During an '80s renovation, it was relocated to an arcade wing.

It wasn't all touristy like it is in the above picture... the glasses didn't have "Singapore Sling" printed on them, for one... In fact, I think there were served in a standard collins glass... But I do believe there were peanuts - not in a printed burlap bag, though...

But I was thinking spice - not hotels...

Like the original Long Bar, the street vendors of yore don't exist, either. In fact, old Singapore is gone. Some of the greatest food on the planet prepared on a cart with a wood fire, gone with it. Today, Singapore is a city of sleek, modern, skyscrapers. Tiger Balm Gardens has changed and been renamed. Even Bugis Street - where the transvestites hung out at night and where I got into a brawl with a few hundred Australian sailors - is gone. They've tried to semi-recreate it, but it's another Disney ride for the tourists... the old place had a bit of an edge at night... A great place for a 20 year old kid to hang out...

There was a public bathroom with a show on the roof-top every night... Alcohol was always involved. And no, I never partook...

But alcohol and antics aside... the food was stellar. And this shows the importance of a well-rounded education. One should always be able to have drinks at a 5-star establishment and sling beers with transvestite hookers at 3am in an outdoor street environment while catching the floor show atop the local latrine - within hours of one another, when possible.

Well-rounded, indeed...

And well-rounded is what our dinner was, tonight... Spicy, but flavorful. It was a mock-jambalaya with andouille sausage, chicken, and crab, black beans, peppers, onions, tomatoes, thyme, and hot, spicy boonie pepper from Guam. All cooked together and served over rice.

And now I need to see if I can find some more pictures of what the place was like way back then...

 


Pineapple Dump Cake

I just made 20 cakes for work, tomorrow.

Folks who know me know that I very rarely talk about my work. Although I really do like my job and have a fun time there, work is work and home is home. Being the often loud and opinionated person I can be, it's just safer to keep the two lives separated.

That being said... once in a while something rather unique comes up and it's fun to talk about it - like making 20 cakes.

We're having a regional challenge this weekend to see which store can sell the most of a few certain products - and Pineapple Tidbits just happen to be one of them. The challenges are fun - the whole store gets involved and we get to be even zanier and crazier than we usually are. We have quite a few sample stations being set up around the store with lots of pretty unique pineapple concepts. Folks will be in costume - it's a big Luau theme - and we have decorations and fun stuff happening everywhere.

The only thing missing will be Mai Tai's and Blue Hawaii's...

We came up with the dump cake as one of them - and then realized our little countertop oven just wasn't going to be able to keep up with all the things we need to do - so off to home I went, armed with boxes of goodies to make them at home.

It's great having double ovens. I had 8 cakes going at a time and had everything done in about three hours. It's nice to know I can still play production baker now and again...

Dump cakes are not part of my normal repertoire - I've made them at work, before, but never at home. We came up with what we thought was a good recipe and when I started the first one, I realized we were being waaaay too generous with the pineapple and the coconut - it never would have worked in an 8x8 pan. A quick rewrite and the following is our soon-to-be-award-winning recipe!

Pineapple Dump Cake

One of the easiest desserts on the planet!

  • 1/2 bag Pineapple Tidbits (8 oz from a 16 oz bag)
  • 1/2 cup Unsweetened Coconut
  • 1 box Vanilla Cake Mix (1 layer cake mix)
  • 1/2 can Pineapple Juice (4 oz from an 8 oz can)
  • 1 stick butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray an 8x8 pan with cooking spray.

Place 1/2 bag Pineapple Tidbits in bottom of pan.  Top with 1/2 cup shredded coconut. Sprinkle dry cake mix on top of pineapple/coconut.

Drizzle 1/2 can of pineapple juice over dry cake mix.

Next, drizzle melted butter on top.

Place in 350° oven and bake for 60 minutes.

Cool. Eat warm or at room temperature.

So go bake a cake, this weekend - but buy the ingredients from me. We want to win this!


Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

It's so nice to be married to a man who can cook!

When I spoke with Victor at lunch, today, he said dinner was taken care of. As much as I love to cook, those are great words to hear - and since he's a great cook, it doesn't even matter what it is he does.

Tonight was a bit of a clean-out-the-refrigerator stuffed pork tenderloin. One of those things that will never be replicated because we'll most likely never have this particular combination of things lying about, again... It was delish!

He took bread crumbs, onion, bell pepper, carrots, celery, a bit of pancetta, hard cooked eggs, golden raisins, some homemade pasta sauce, garlic, and some S&P, and made a stuffing to die for.

He butterflied the tenderloin, pounded it to an even thickness, stuffed it, rolled it, tied it, and baked it off in a 350°F oven for about 30 minutes.

Parsley buttered potatoes and green beans finished off the plate.

Did I mention it was delish?!?

My stomach is smiling.

 


Spring Salads

The weather has finally turned warm. We may actually see Spring - as in officially see Spring.

Yesterday was a perfect Easter day - low 80s, lots of sun, no humidity... today it's rain - but still warm enough to have all the windows open.

Warm weather means an end to soups and stews and the beginning of salads. I loooooove soups and salads, but by mid-March my body is calling for fresh vegetables. With a few exceptions - because there are always exceptions - we do try to eat as seasonally appropriate, as possible. I rarely buy tomatoes in the winter and never buy berries - I don't care that they're in season in Argentina. It takes away from that anticipation of the first blueberries of the season. Strawberry Shortcake loses its significance when you can eat it any time you want.

Besides... they just don't taste as good.

But once the weather starts turning, my thoughts start turning - to leafy greens and crusty bread.

One of the things I like to do when creating a dinner salad, is have a few different salads already made to add to the plate. Chewy grain salads, rice salads, pasta salads, and fruit salads all have a place on the plate. A couple of spoonfuls of several different salads just makes for a fun meal - and they're also good for a quick snack instead of some of the crap I can find myself noshing on if I'm not paying attention. Tortilla chips and salsa come to mind...

Today, I started off with a grain salad - hard white wheat berries from Palouse - and a potato salad.

Both were throw-togethers. Typical clean-out-the-refrigerator salads.

Wheat Berry Salad

  • 1 cup wheat berries, cooked, drained, and cooled
  • 2 ribs celery, chopped
  • 5 green onions, chopped
  • 1 carrot, chopped fine
  • 2 radishes, chopped fine
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 2/3 cup roasted unsalted pistachios
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 3 tbsp sherry vinegar
  • garlic powder
  • salt and pepper

Simply mix everything together, check for seasoning, and add salt and pepper, as desired.

And then there was the potato salad.

I've been making variations on this salad since I first learned to make potato salad, lo these many years ago. It's my go-to.

Mom’s Potato Salad

  • 2 lbs potatoes
  • 2 stalks celery, diced
  • 3 hard cooked eggs, chopped
  • 1 dill pickle, diced
  • 1 carrot, shredded
  • 3 green onions, chopped (yellow or red onion also works)
  • 3/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 2 tbsp catsup
  • 1 tsp yellow mustard
  • bit of garlic powder
  • salt and pepper

Cut potatoes into serving-sized pieces.  Cook until juuuuust done.  Drain and chill in cold water.  When cold, drain, again.  Mix all ingredients, toss well, and refrigerate.  That’s it.

I added a bit of radish to this batch - since I had the radish to add.  Both salads went into the 'fridge and will be available for many meals, this week.

 

 

 


Empanadas

Tonight's dinner was brought to you by the fine people at Goya.

I was passing through the frozen aisle at the grocery store on Monday and espied Goya Empanada Disks. Impulse buy of the day. I have not made empanadas in quite a while according to a blog search - or - I just didn't write about it. More likely the former since Nonna really doesn't do Mexican food...

Mexican/Central American/Southwestern-style flavors used to be my go-to dinners when I didn't have any idea what I wanted. The first solid food I ate as an infant was a chili bean, according to my mother. That pretty much set the tone. I love chilis, spice, and that blend of flavors.

I have never been into Mexico, proper... I've been to Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, Acapulco, and Cabo San Lucas - all in the '60s and '70s - but haven't yet made it into Mexico City. Maybe one of these days.

I have, however, eaten the foods of 24th Street in San Francisco back when immigrants could afford to live there.

Empanada dough is pretty easy to make, but, impulse buys being what they are, I decided to go for the frozen ones. They're actually pretty good - and really easy to work.

I made a filling of ground pork, fresh sweet peppers, cumin, ancho chili powder, Mexican oregano, garlic, hatch chili salsa, green onions, and a bit of S&P. Not exactly authentic, but close enough for a gringo dinner. The beauty of empanadas is you really can fill them with anything.

The package has 10 disks.  I had filling for about 16, so I made taquitos with some corn tortillas in the 'fridge. They went into the freezer with the empanadas I didn't cook.

I need to work on my crimping technique, but they came out really good. I fried them, but you can bake them, as well. I like them fried, better.

I made yellow rice and refried beans as side dishes - with sour cream, guacamole, and salsa for dipping and dunking.

Nonna had a ground beef patty, yellow rice, and her favorite canned green beans.

All-in-all, a successful south of the wall dinner!

 


Salad Time

The calendar says Spring. The thermometer says Summer. And the Stomach says Salad.

It's 83°F outside, right now. That's 28°C for the rest of the world. It's still annoying as hell that we didn't convert to the metric system with everyone else. We sell wine and hard liquor by the liter and beer by the ounce. We sell gas by the gallon, milk by the gallon, and soda by the liter. Miles instead of kilometers, feet instead of meters... The thickness of aluminum foil is measured in millimeters.

Just one more instance why this country is so confused...

But out of that confusion came salads, tonight. Crisp, fruity, tangy salads - with grilled chicken on top.

I really do like salads for dinner - and once the backyard produce starts coming in we will be having them all the time - but for now, it's whatever looks good at the grocery store. Today was iceberg lettuce - because we like crispy crunchy lettuce - and shredded carrots, blackberries, tomatoes, radishes, and marinated grilled chicken - with a simple red wine vinaigrette. If I had thought of it earlier, I would have hard-cooked a few eggs. I'll put a batch on later and we'll have them when we need them - methinks more salads are in our future.

We have a ton of tomato seedlings going - 3 different heirloom varieties and San Marzano seeds brought back from Italy. Victor planted 6 pepper plants this morning that came in the mail from Chili Plants.com. It's a New Jersey company and we got them in less than 24 hours. Not bad, at all. They also have lots of practice shipping things - so... if you're in the market for live plants... give 'em a click.

There's also 2 types of beets out there, along with leeks, lettuce, and green beans  - and eggplant and other stuff I can't remember right now, in the seed-starters. It's looking to be a plentiful season...

So here's to Spring in all it's overheated glory. At least it's not muggy.

 

 


Sloppy Joe's and Dirty Potatoes

My original plan for dinner, tonight, was either split pea or lentil soup. I bought a ham last week because it was ridiculously inexpensive and cooked it up last night.

I have had - and cooked - many hams over the years. I can appreciate a really good ham, but a cheap ham has its place, too. With just a bit of patience, just about anyone can turn a supermarket freebie into a holiday centerpiece. Low and slow without a lot of extraneous stuff - a few cloves stuck in should suffice.

And I like unsliced hams. I'm not a fan of spiral-cut hams for a couple of reasons... First, have you ever had one that was actually cut properly? And second - they dry out. HoneyBaked Hams - the supposed Cadillac of Hams - are pretty sad, in my not so humble opinion. Not to mention, ridiculously expensive.

But, wait... this is supposed to be about sloppy joe's - not ham. Focus!!

But focusing is difficult when you're writing on the laptop in the back yard in gorgeous 78°F (that's about 26°C for the rest of the world) weather. Today just wasn't soup weather.

So Sloppy Joe's moved from lunch to dinner and dirty potatoes replaced the fries. Ham and bone are vacuum-packed and frozen for another day.

Dirty Potatoes is a Pop recipe. He was a pretty good cook in his own right and actually enjoyed getting into the kitchen now and again. Breaded Veal Cutlets, Dirty Potatoes, and Apple Cole Slaw will always be my Pop-In-The-Kitchen memory. Along with his eggs fried in an inch of bacon grease, of course. Damn, they were good. And french bread toast. Can't forget the toast.

It's amazing that so many of my fond memories of life revolve around food.

Pop's recipe for his Dirty Potatoes is pretty straightforward - he wrote it out for a Family Reunion Cook Book circa 1996:

Peel at least 2 potatoes per person.

Cut longways in fours (or sixes for large potatoes). Put in large cake pan. Oil all sides of spuds. Put in oven at high heat and keep checking until crispy on outside. Keep turning till all sides are brown like french fries.

His idea of a "large cake pan" was a 9x13 pyrex pan. I'm a sheet pan person, m'self... and I'm sure those "two potatoes per person" harken to his firehouse cooking days - and the 10 lb bags of russets we got - mostly small potatoes for a cheaper price.

The sloppy joe's were just onion and bell pepper sauteed in a bit of oil, ground beef added, along with a bit of cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Then some tomato paste and a bit of water to thin.

Really simple, really basic, and perfect for a sunny spring day.

 

 


Kolaches

We caught an episode of Cooks Country on PBS a couple of weeks ago. It's a variation of America's Test Kitchen, because... why have one PBS cooking show when you can have two?

But that's neither here nor there...

The program showed the making of a Czech pastry called a Kolache. The dough intrigued me, because I've made a lot of sweet doughs in my time, but this one really was put together a bit differently.

I have to admit that far too many Cooks Country/Illustrated recipes are just too convoluted. They often take a simple, innocuous dish and rework it into something totally different with little resemblance to the dish they were recreating - with an additional 25 steps just for grins and giggles.

Seeing something that looked pretty straightforward was refreshing - and it sounded really good.

While I had lots of practice with Danish Pastry in my early years, I really wasn't introduced to sweet dough until my Navy days... When I was finally assigned to the USS Ranger (CVA-61) I was put right into the bake shop because I had that baking background. The ship was in dry dock at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco and all of our baked goods were bought locally. My biggest job was portioning - cutting the pies and cakes into 8 slices, placing them on plates on sheet pans, and putting the sheet pans on rolling carts to wheel over to the chow line. For this I had been sent to Commissaryman Class "A" School. But... It beat actually having to work.

The day we came out of drydock, we sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge and into the Pacific Ocean for 24 hours to see how things were working. There was a Chief Petty Officer named Brown who was overseeing the bake shops - when the ship was underway, there were two of them - one forward and one aft. The forward bakeshop was the bread bakeshop and was still closed at this point. Old Brown had about 3 months until retirement and just didn't give a shit for nothin' - except he like fresh-baked sweet rolls. He decided we were going to make sweet rolls for the crew for breakfast the following morning. Did I mention I was the only person assigned to the bakeshop at that time?

Brown said he would help me make these and to work we went. The Armed Forces Recipe Card Service is a collection of maybe a couple thousand recipes all scaled to 100 portions. It's simple math to multiply or divide any recipe for any quantity you need. This is early 1972. Pre-computer. There were actual index boxes of recipe cards all scaled at 100 portions. I think we needed to make something like a thousand cinnamon rolls - so it was going to be two batches of 5 times the base recipe. Made the first batch of dough and let it start rising while we made the second batch.

This is an online version of a recipe - updated for the 21st century. We didn't have frozen eggs... I had to crack them.

In the meantime, another lifer buddy of Brown's came in with a bottle of cheap whiskey and the two of them had a few shots. And then a few more. And then Brown decided I could finish and he went off to bed.

I had two batches of dough proofing all over hell and back, a wall of 27 ovens that didn't work right - some heated top only, some bottom only, some along the sides, some down the middle... not one of them worked correctly - and never did the entire time I was on that ship. Over time, we learned which ones did what and just did a sheet pan ballet moving them around to bake things off with relatively little effort.

But on that first night, this not-even-20-year-old had no idea what was working and what wasn't - and I had never made a thousand of anything before in my life. I had been bouncing around San Diego waiting for orders, so I really wasn't doing anything other than serving on a chow line now and again. I sure as hell wasn't making a bazillion cinnamon rolls. Dough was proofing, over-proofing... I'd punch it down, get a batch rolled out and onto sheet pans - and watch it over-proof before I could get another one into the non-working ovens.

I was up most of the night, but I did it - and in a few short weeks I was really honing the production baking skills. That first night really was a disaster, but I learned a hellava lot.

One thing I learned was I didn't want to be a production baker when I grew up. When I baked after Uncle Sam's Yacht Club, it was going to be just for fun.

And that leads us up to today.

Watching cooking shows is fun. Deciding whether to make something is fun. If it ain't gonna be fun, I ain't gonna do it. I've reached the age where I don't have to.

I followed the recipe pretty closely - except I proofed my yeast in the milk because I never use rapid rise/instant yeast. And while I really had no reference point for these things, they were really really easy to make - and they taste even better. A hellava lot better than those cinnamon rolls of yesteryear.

Extremely easy to make. Maybe three hours start-to-finish, but most of the time was letting the dough rise. I was out planting in the garden between steps.

If you like to bake, this is one I really do recommend.

Kolaches

adapted from Cooks Country

INGREDIENTS

DOUGH

  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 large egg plus 2 large yolks
  • 3 1/2 cups (17 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup (2 ounces) sugar
  • 2 1/4 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

CHEESE FILLING

  • 6 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
  • 6 ounces (3/4 cup) whole-milk or part-skim ricotta cheese

STREUSEL

  • 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces and chilled
  • 1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk

INSTRUCTIONS

1. FOR THE DOUGH: Grease large bowl. Whisk milk, melted butter, and egg and yolks together in 2-cup liquid measuring cup (butter will form clumps). Whisk flour, sugar, yeast, and salt together in bowl of stand mixer. Fit stand mixer with dough hook, add milk mixture to flour mixture, and knead on low speed until no dry flour remains, about 2 minutes. Increase speed to medium and knead until dough clears sides of bowl but still sticks to bottom, 8 to 12 minutes.

2. Transfer dough to greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions. Place dough on lower-middle rack and place loaf pan on bottom of oven. Pour 3 cups boiling water into loaf pan, close oven door, and let dough rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

3. FOR THE CHEESE FILLING: Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, and lemon zest on low speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add ricotta and beat until just combined, about 30 seconds. Transfer to bowl, cover with plastic, and refrigerate until ready to use.

4. FOR THE STREUSEL: Combine flour, sugar, and butter in bowl and rub between fingers until mixture resembles wet sand. Cover with plastic and refrigerate until ready to use.

5. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Punch down dough and place on lightly floured counter. Divide into quarters and cut each quarter into 4 equal pieces. Form each piece into rough ball by pulling dough edges underneath so top is smooth. On unfloured counter, cup each ball in your palm and roll into smooth, tight ball. Arrange 8 balls on each prepared sheet and cover loosely with plastic. Place sheets on oven racks. Replace water in loaf pan with 3 cups boiling water, close oven door, and let dough rise until doubled, about 90 minutes.

6. Remove sheets and loaf pan from oven. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour bottom of 1/3-cup measure (or 2 1/4-inch-diameter drinking glass). Make deep indentation in center of each dough ball by slowly pressing until cup touches sheet. (Perimeter of balls may deflate slightly.)

7. Gently brush kolaches all over with egg-milk mixture. Divide filling evenly among kolaches (about 1½ tablespoons per kolache) and smooth with back of spoon. Sprinkle streusel over kolaches, avoiding filling. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking. Let kolaches cool on pans for 20 minutes. Serve warm.

They are light, they are rich, and you're going to want to eat several at one sitting. And making 16 of them is so much easier than making a thousand...

And I froze half of them...