AUNT FRITZIE, THE LAKE & PULLA

AUNT FRITZIE, THE LAKE & PULLA 

One of the joys of my childhood was spending a good portion of every summer in a cottage owned by my Uncle Martin and Aunt Fritzie on a lake in Connecticut. It wasn’t that big a lake as lakes go… about three or four miles long and a mile wide… but for all the memories it gave me, it might as well have been as big as the Atlantic Ocean.

Alexander’s Lake (the “Lake”) was in the small town of Dayville, not far from Thompson, known for its speedway, and my aunt and uncle’s ‘winter’ residence in the larger town of Danielson. Straight up the I-95, almost to the Rhode Island, Massachusetts borders, the area is fairly rural even though it isn’t that far from Providence or Boston. The Lake was my Golden Pond and my aunt and uncle opened their doors and arms to me and my New York/Long Island/Queens friends for as long as I wanted to stay. The cottage was tiny with a living room/kitchen, one bathroom, a bunk room that slept two, a ‘master’ bedroom and a screened in porch overlooking the Lake where most of us kids slept.

The Lake banned motor boats for environmental reasons (even back then), not wanting to have that oil slick so many lakes have developed, so I canoed

(L to R - me & my BFF from Bayside)

 and row boated and sailed in sunfish – sunned

 and swam and piled into a neighbor's pick-up truck with my cousins, neighbor kids, ‘townies,’ and New York friends to go to the Pavillion and roller skate every Saturday night under the glittering balls hanging from the ceiling. We hiked the woods

(well, I'm obviously not hiking - but 'reminiscing' my brief modeling days one Christmas in Connecticut )

 read love comics and played Canasta on the screened in porch and played hide & seek after supper, often getting thrown into the lake with our clothes on by one of the cove’s fathers (the cottage was in a large cove with many other cottages).

But my fondest memories of those summers are of my Aunt Fritzie.

(the two of us over the years - the latter pic taken at her son's wedding)

She was a straight shooter, a good meat and potatoes cook and didn’t suffer fools. My mother was six when their mother died and Fritzie helped raise her, making her not only my mom’s sister, but my mom’s surrogate mom. Aunt Fritzie was also my ‘summer’ mom. A terrific card player, she taught me how to play canasta and bridge, and when I was older and dating boys from “town” she’d flick the porch light on and off if I lingered in their cars too long before coming in after a date. I adored her. My mother adored her. My father adored her. And, my brother adored her.

Did I mention that she and my uncle were Finnish? In fact all my aunts and uncles on both sides were Finnish. Well, Finns aren’t noted for their cuisine. They paid their WWII U.S. war debt, they gave the world Sibelius, Marimekko, Saarinen (father and son) and Nokia – but not a helluva lot of Finnish food unless you count Finn Crisp. And, those foods that I thought were Finnish, turned out to be really Swedish. But there is one Finnish ‘dish’ that I love. Pulla (pronounced Bull-a …Finnish is a very strange language).

Pulla is a marvelous bread. No, it’s a coffee cake! No, it’s a bread! No, it’s a coffee cake! I think, like many things in life, every person has to decide for themselves. For me it’s a coffee cake bread that is the most marvelous when toasted and buttered for breakfast. My grandmother on my father’s side made pulla. AND, my Aunt Fritzie made pulla. And when she’d make it at the Lake, the cottage was filled with the fragrant, distinct and exotic aroma of cardamom.

The years passed and I didn’t spend that much time at the lake after college (a weekend or two every summer). But, eight years after my father died, mom remarried a man in Danielson, so my brother Bob got to spend summers there when he was home from prep school or college. He spent a lot of time at the Lake with Aunt Fritzie where she would teach him how to make pulla.

(Bob resting before he had to put in the dock for the summer)

Bob has carried on the family pulla tradition and every Christmas sends Richard and me at least two loaves. One for our Christmas Eve party (if I don’t hoard it) and one for us. They’re gone in a Finnish flash. Recently I learned that my niece Nha has learned to bake these delicious breads from Bob, and that my god daughter, Monique, Fritz’s granddaughter

(from L to R - Monique, her sister Jen & me before we all grew up)

is also carrying on this Finnish food family tradition. Knowing this makes my heart smile.

I miss you Aunt Fritzie.



Here’s the recipe my brother sent me and his comments.

AUNT FRITZIE’S PULLA(BULLA)

"This recipe is what my aunt gave me about 30 years ago... It will make about 5 to 6 loaves..."

Ingredients:
10-12 cups flour (I usually end up using more)
2 cans evaporated milk –
1 can lukewarm water
3 eggs room temp
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 packages dry yeast
1/2 pound butter
6-10 cardamom pods peeled and crushed (powdered cardamom is OK)


Directions:

Put sugar, butter, salt into warm milk (don't forget the 1 can water) and melt butter
When milk cools add beaten eggs
Soften yeast in 1/2 cup warm water - stir with spoon
Add cardamom and yeast into milk
Add 4 cups of flour- mix with spoon, keep adding flour 1 cup at at time until it has a dough consistency--then knead but not too much --"my aunt said ‘mix good’...I knead a little more-who knows?"

Cover with a towel and let rise in warm place until double in bulk
Punch down and make braided loaves (you can make muffins, too)
Cover and wait until double in bulk

Brush loaves with glaze after they have risen

Bake loaves for 40-45 minutes in a 325-350 oven
Muffins for 15 minutes

"I have noticed that in my oven with 6 loaves each time is different...I might even change the position of the loaves as my oven heats differently, especially with 6 loaves..."

Glaze Ingredients:
2+ teaspoons butter
3-4 teaspoons sugar
about 1/2 teaspoon instant coffee

Directions:
Cook in a saucepan until a syrup..."I usually use more butter and coffee....last time I added cardamom liqueur."

You can make braided rings, top with almonds and powdered sugar.
You can add raisins to the muffins

"After a day or two, I love to toast a slice until lightly golden and then cover with butter (sweet butter is great) and have a cup of coffee. hmmmm good stuff...."

A special 'note':  Yesterday Aunt Fritzie's granddaughter gave birth to a new great grandson.  Welcome to the world Cash.

Kippis! (Translation: Cheers!)

IT'S NOT LEFTOVERS - IT'S GOURMET

IT’S NOT LEFTOVERS – IT’S GOURMET

Long before Wall Street forced us to relocate to Penny Lane, Richard and I had been shopping ‘sales,’ (we’re writers – translation: we’re out of work–a lot!!) cutting coupons and frequenting places like Costco or Target for ‘deals’ on food, cleaning products, etc. I don’t think I know anyone who doesn’t. Well, maybe not the cutting coupon thing which I do obsessively (but only for things I really use) because every coupon is cash to me (double cash if you go to a double coupon market) and I hate to see money thrown into the recycle bin. Hell, I still pick up a penny on the lane if I see one, even if it’s tails up... but I digress… We buy fresh salmon in Costco for ‘pennies,’ cut it up in serving sizes and freeze it. Sadly, we can’t buy produce there since we’re only ‘two’ and most of it would go bad, but the stuff we can buy on the cheap and freeze – In. Our. Cart!!!  Our freezer is packed with healthful, boneless, skinless chicken breasts, beautiful lamb chops, fish, pork chops and steaks that give us many dinners for less than $10.00.

In past blogs I’ve written about the three meals we get from a 4 pound roast chicken. And then there’s my ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ pasta I wrote about that cleans out all the leftovers in our refrigerator – a delicious supper (it’s pasta!!) that’s good for you and cheap, cheap, cheap… Why would anyone rush down the lane to a Burger King when you can eat delicious, healthful, cheap meals at home!

Until recently, however, I never thought of leftovers as “gourmet: But, remember that leg of lamb Richard bought on sale? Well, last night he made Montefin’s leftover, low carb (I’m South Beaching it while doing the Weight Watcher point thing) leg of lamb stew.” Cheap! Healthful! Delicious! But so is my pasta, right? Well, yes. But this stew kicks the leftover thing up a couple of notches to become a real gourmet leftover. I mean really… it has fennel seeds!

(Note: montefin.com is a website Richard found that features low carb recipes, among other ideas, to help me South Beach it.)\

montefin's Leftover Leg Of Lamb Stew Recipe

Serves 2. (Actually we found there's more than enough for 3 or 4)

Ingredients:
• 1 - Leftover Leg Of Lamb with about 2 lbs. of meat left
• 2 large stalks - Celery, cut into 1 1/2" lengths
• 2 - Turnips, peeled and diced the size of Vegas dice
• 1 large - White Onion
• 1 Tsp. - Fennel Seed
• 2 Tsps. - Cumin Seed
• 2 - Bay Leaves
• 2 - Carrots, cut into 1" lengths
• 2 - Green Peppers (Richard’s not crazy about green peppers – so he
•                  used one green and one red bell pepper)
• 10 - Garlic, peeled
• 2 Tbls. - Dried Basil
• 1 Tbls. - Lea & Perrin's Worcestershire Sauce
• 3 Dashes - McIllhenny's Tabasco® Sauce (Richard chose not to
•              include the Tabasco sauce)
• 1/2 Cup - Sour Cream

Directions:

Remove the meat from the Leg Of Lamb. Cut the meat into 2 1/2" cubes, cover with clear wrap and refrigerate.

Set the bone in a pot containing 2 quarts of cold water. Add the Celery and Bay Leaves. Cut the top and bottom off the Onion and toss them in too. Put the pot on a low flame and simmer it for 1 hour. Do not cover the pot.

Remove and discard the bone and onion pieces, but leave the celery and bay leaves.

Add the Lamb chunks, the Fennel & Cumin seeds, basil, the Turnips (the ones with the purple tops, not Rutabagas, the yellow ones), Carrots and Garlic cloves. Cut the Onion into eights and add to the pot. Simmer it all on low for 45 minutes.

Add the Green Pepper (and in Richard's case, red bell pepper) andWorcestershire Sauce and cook another 15 minutes.

Just before serving, dip out about 1/4 cup of the pot liquid, stir into the Sour Cream. Serve the stew out onto plates, top with dollops of the sour cream sauce and spritz the sour cream with Tabasco Sauce for color and zing.


Only 12 Carbohydrate grams per serving

NOT MY MOM'S LEG OF LAMB

NOT MY MOM’S LEG OF LAMB

My mom was a great family cook. According to Richard, she made the best stuffed pork chops in the world (she did!)… but, the meal I loved the most growing up was Sunday ‘after church dinner’ leg of lamb.

She would rub the roast w/ salt and flour, surround it with peeled Idaho potatoes and white onions and stick it in a very hot oven (450 degrees) for 20 minutes, then turn it down to 350 and roast till done, which for her was well-done – very well done. She usually made gravy, but I preferred the caramelized pan juices on my lamb slices and on my potatoes which were always crunchy on the outside and nice and mushy on the inside. The veggie was usually peas. My mom loved peas w/ lamb. And, of course, mint jelly. “You can’t have lamb w/o mint jelly” was her mantra.

I make leg of lamb the way my mom did… though Richard and I prefer it pink. And that’s what I planned to do when he found a nice size roast on sale (enough for a roast dinner, plus leftovers of lamb stew and lamb hash or whatever else he can come up with – 3 meals at least…hearty and very, very, economical). But, nooooooooooooo. Richard’s still in a ‘Julia frame of mind’ and he found a lamb recipe that he wanted to try.

 He’s never made a leg of lamb before, but who was I to argue if he wanted to cook. Not me! It’s a simple recipe (especially for Julia), but it sounded delicious…

So last night I set the table, lighted the candles, made a fresh lettuce centerpiece (you don’t need to spend money on flowers if there’s produce in the house)… then we dined on Julia’s Gigot a la Moutarde w/ Sauce Speciale a l’Ail pour Gigot. Translation: Leg of lamb coated w/ herbal mustard, and garlic sauce (gravy), and “Richard’s” roasted potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts. Julia’s leg of lamb w/ sauce wasn’t my mother’s lamb w/ gravy, but it was damn good.

Gigot a la Moutarde

(Herbal Mustard Coating for Roast Lamb)

Ingredients:
6-lb leg of lamb (ours was 5 lbs)
½ cup Dijon-type prepared mustard
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 clove mashed garlic
1 teaspoon ground rosemary or thyme
¼ teaspoon powdered ginger
2 Tablespoon olive oil


Directions:
Blend the mustard, soy sauce, garlic, herbs, and ginger together in a bowl.
Beat in the olive oil by droplets to make a mayonnaise-like cream.

Paint the lamb with the mixture using a rubber spatula or brush... and set it on the rack of the roasting pan. The meat will pick up more flavor if it’s coated several hours before roasting.

Roast in a 350 degree oven, 1 to 1-1/4 hours for medium rare; or 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours for well done. (This really depends on the oven. Richard roasted it for a half-hour longer than recommended and it came out a perfect medium rare). Do not sear first.

Sauce Speciale a l’Ail pour Gigot

(Garlic Sauce for Roast Lamb)

(This sauces used a whole head of garlic which, after two blanchings and a long simmering, becomes tamed and develops a delicious flavor.)

For 1-1/2 to 2 cups of sauce

Ingredients:

1 large head of garlic

A saucepan containing 1 quart of cold water

A 1-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan

3/4 cup milk, more if needed

1/8 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon rosemary or thyme

1-1/2 Tablespoons raw white rice (we didn’t have any so Richard used brown rice)

1 cup brown lamb stock, beef stock, or canned beef bouillon

A sieve, a bowl, and a wooden spoon, or a blender

Salt & pepper

A hot gravy boat

Directions:

Separate the garlic cloves. Bring them to the boil in the sauce pan and boil 30 seconds. Drain and peel. Set again in cold water, bring to the boil, and drain.

In the saucepan bring the milk, salt, herbs, and rice to a simmer. Add the garlic, and simmer very slowly for 45 minutes, putting in more milk by spoonfuls if the rice is in danger of scorching.

Note: this sauce takes 45 minutes – something Richard forgot and started it late. Thankfully, the lamb needed to stay in the oven a bit longer, so both were done at the same time.

Pour in the stock or bouillon and simmer 1 minute. Then force through a sieve, or puree in the blender.

Correct seasoning. If done before the lamb, set aside and reheat when needed. Then pour into a hot gravy boat.

BON APPETIT!!!

PS  - Later this week, leftover lamb stew.

TOAST - An "Ode"

TOAST - An "Ode"

You know those times when you want or crave something you can't or shouldn't have?  Well, for me - today - it's toast.  Yup, toast!

Now, normally I can take or leave toast.  I like a slice now and then.  And I do like Thomas' Original English Muffins with butter or a real bagel (not a supermarket bagel) w/ cream cheese and nova - perhaps a few capers and a slice of tomato...  But regular toast.  Nah, not so much.

Well, today I WANT toast.  Why?  Because I can't have it.  No one's going to shoot me if I do, but if I'm going to achieve my 'goal' - it's no toast for me.  At least not for two weeks.

Again, why?  I'm in the first minute and a half of the first two weeks of South Beach.  Not the town in Florida, but the diet.

But why am I craving toast and not a potato or rice or pasta or a chip?  Because Richard made toast this morning and the aroma followed me all the way into my office (which really isn't far since my office is right off the kitchen) and visions of his wheat toast with melted butter flooded my mind, followed with visions of Jewish rye toast smothered in butter and sour dough toast smothered in butter and mult-grain toast smothered with butter and even wonderful Wonder Bread white toast smothered with butter... Oh, my... 

Apparently I'm not good with denial.  And I really can't blame Richard. Although next time he does it, he's toast!

AN ODE TO THE CHRISTMAS TREE

OH, CHRISTMAS TREE…

OH, CHRISTMAS TREE…

(an appreciation)

I like nature (though I’m not all that crazy about ‘wild’ life). I love hiking in the woods, walking on a sandy beach, swimming in the ocean… just smelling the fresh air. Flowers are nice in the ground or a meadow or a pot, but what I really like are trees even if I can probably name only about four different species. Memories of my father raking the leaves from the big oak tree in our yard then diving into the piles… the smells, the touch, the colors… will always be with me. Hiking the Appalachian Trail (not the “Appalachian Trail” in Argentina) during the foliage season is an all time ‘high.’ Well, as long as I don’t have to sleep under the stars on the hard ground or even in a tent when the day is done (did I mention, I really don’t like ‘wild’ life). But the tree I love the most is our yearly Christmas tree, not sitting proudly in a forest, reaching for the sky, but sitting proudly in our house, nestled in our tree stand reaching for our ceiling.

I’m also a city girl who loves walking in Manhattan amidst the beautiful man made caverns and canyons. The sight every year of the tall Christmas tree perched in the middle of Rockefeller Center always takes my breath away (well, that and the cold, wintry, New York air)… the perfect marriage of (wo)man and nature.

As long as I can remember, I’ve always had a tall Christmas tree. As tall as the ceiling in my house or apartment allowed. The aroma the tree brings to our home is so clean and fresh and no matter how the tree is shaped, there’s always a perfect angle. I also love the tree’s jewelry. The lights, the ornaments… it’s one of the reasons I love the circus – but that’s another blog. But it’s not just the trees “glitterati” I love, it’s the memory that each ornament holds. I still have the angel my grandparents gave me when I was four…

 faded, fragile ornaments from my father’s youth...

 a Santa my parents gave me when I was five or six...

the first ornaments I bought when I lived on my own…

there are hearts, wreaths, elephants and Pierre Deux ornaments my mother gave Richard and me every year we’ve been together till that last Christmas she spent with us...

 ornaments from TV shows and plays Richard wrote...

(even one from the White House Blue Room, a "Christmas in the White House" special)...

 ornaments I gave Richard as stocking stuffers...

 a cloth ‘fan’ and a cloth ‘bell’ my mother made out of fabric from one of my grandmother’s fancy “dress-up” blouses...

 baubles from friends...

 angels made by my godchild and her sister, a little cross needle-pointed by a young relative...

a card mom sent us years ago…

even an ornament I painted for us (as I did for friends) the year money was an ‘object’…

So as much as I love my noble noble for being beautiful on its own (and am sad when we ‘undress’ her every New Year’s day and send her back to the earth), I also love it because it tells the story of my life as well as any photo album. Christmas trees are memory trees. What was, what is and what can be. It’s love, loss, hope and faith. You can’t get a more perfect marriage of  (wo)man and nature than that.