Pioneer Day Food 2010

July 24th is this Saturday. In Utah it's celebrated as Pioneer Day, the day the Mormon Pioneers crossed into the Salt Lake valley. It also turns out to be the Christian Liturgical Feast day for several Saints. I don't mind sharing.

As with many summer feast fests barbecue abounds and picnic food is proffered. This year, I thought I'd offer a few suggestions from the previous posts.

Appetizers / Sides
Potato Wedges  - Don't forget the Fry Sauce
Buttermilk Biscuits or Conference Cornbread  or Newman House Dinner RollsQuick Baked Beans
Deviled Eggs
Potato Salad
Simple Green Salad

Entrees
Grilled Bacon Double-Cheeseburgers
Slow-cooker Pulled PorkGrilled Sausage and Onions

Desserts
American Flag Cake
No-Cook Peanut Butter Chews
Ribbon Jello or No-Cook Peach Pie
Smoked Apples with Peanut Butter
Easy Peanut Butter Pie

Happy Pioneer Day!

Photo by Chris Coglietti

Ribbon Jell-O (Finally)

I realized the other day that it's been a long time since I talked about Jell-O. Many of you are, no doubt, wondering why. I mean, I'm a Utah Mormon. How can I not be sucking down tons of Jello? Or is it Jell-O? I think only Kraft Foods cares.

I found this Ribbon Jell-O recipe in a great old recipe book, “The Mormon Family Cookbook.” I borrowed it from a friend of mine and I've held onto it for some time. About two years, I think. I should probably give it back to him.

It's a recipe that promises to make a stunning Jell-O dessert, and it certainly does. It's also a pain in the butt and takes a long time to make. It's fun to see how people react to it, though, so you should try it at least once. It's pretty tasty, too, with all the different fruity flavors in there. Honestly, though? As tasty as it is, I'm too lazy to make this again any time soon.

Equipment Needed
Measuring cups and spoons
Whisk or hand mixer
Tea Kettle or some other way to boil water
Mixing bowls
Bundt pan, or other large decorative pan as a gelatin mold.

Ingredients
6 (3 ounce) packages flavored gelatin in 6 or 7 different flavors and colors
7 cups boiling water (Don't try and prep this before hand, okay?)
1 pint sour cream
whipped topping
cooking spray

Directions
Thoroughly spray the bundt pan or whatever other mold you're using, with non-stick cooking spray. That's mold as in gelatin mold, not the green fuzzy stuff that makes penicillin. Try not to get them confused.

Boil some water in the tea kettle. Take one cup of the boiling water, add it to one package of gelatine in a small bowl and stir to dissolve. Pour half into the bundt pan. Place in the refrigerator on a level shelf to chill.

Fill a large mixing bowl with ice and a bit of water. Pour the other half of the gelatine mixture into a small mixing bowl, preferably a stainless steel one. Put the small bowl into a larger bowl of ice. Wait for the gelatin in the refrigerator to set up, the gelatin in the pan will be syrupy. It actually doesn't take too many minutes, as the quantities are pretty small, but the time will vary from batch to batch so keep an eye on it. Add a heaping tablespoon of sour cream to the gelatin in the small mixing bowl and beat with a whisk or hand blender until well blended and smooth. Pour this mixture into the bunt pan (a.k.a. Jell-O mold), Smoothing it all out. Return the mold to the the refrigerator and let it set. Repeat the process with a contrasting color.

After the last layer sets up (overnight is preferable), un-mold the gelatin onto a serving plate. If it won't easily come out, dip the pan into a bit of very arm water for a few seconds. This will melt a bit of the gelatin and allow it to slide out of the mold.

Mix the remaining sour cream with the whipped topping and spoon into the hole in the center of the bundt pan, or spread over the top like frosting. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to cut into slices and serve.

Makes lots.

NOTE: Don't let each layer set up until it is completely hard. Is just needs to be solid enough to hold the next layer. If the bottom layer is completely hard, it won't stick to the next layer. Try and let the hot gelatin cool a bit before you pour it onto the previous layer in the bundt pan. The hot gelatin can easily melt the previous layer.

Vegetable Mosaic Casserole

I'm always on the lookout for ways to add more vegetables to my family's diet. Inspired by the Mosaic Timbale from the Greens Cookbook, I came up with this variable vegetable casserole. It's not a vegan dish by any stretch of the imagination. It's more of an ovo-lacto vegetarian one.

The vegetables and cheese are variable according to season and taste. Use your favorite herbs, as well. The only thing I would keep constant is make sure to use either leeks or an onion, garlic, the eggs and yoghurt for the sauce, and plenty of herbs.

One thing I like about this dish is that it's a casserole. Casseroles have a huge place in Utah Mormon cuisine. Usually you take them to sick or injured neighbor's houses. They can be made in advance and frozen, reheating them for later. This one you'll want to keep for your own table.

Equipment needed
colander
cutting board
kitchen knife
medium mixing bowl
measuring spoons and cups
large frying pan
medium baking dish

Ingredients
2 leeks, white parts only
2 to 3 cups asparagus
2 cups fresh or frozen peas
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 sweet bell pepper, green or red
4 eggs
2 cups plain yoghurt
1/4 cup low fat milk
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1 cup bread crumbs or crushed butter crackers (Ritz)
1 teaspoon dried basil, or 2 teaspoons fresh basil, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme or 1 teaspoons fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
butter and canola oil as needed


Directions
Butter a medium baking dish. Coat with a single layer of bread crumbs, reserving the remainder of the crumbs, and set aside.

Quarter the leeks and cut into 1/2 inch pieces. Rinse well in a colander or sieve and set aside. Break the bottoms off the asparagus and cut into 1 inch lengths. Seed the bell pepper and cut into 1/2 inch pieces.

Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl. Beat the eggs, then mix well with the yoghurt, milk, grated cheese, salt and pepper. Mix in the herbs and set aside.

Heat a large frying pan over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of butter and add 1 tablespoon of canola oil to the hot pan, melting the butter. Add the leeks and a pinch of salt. Saute until they start to get soft. Add the peas, peppers, asparagus and garlic. Saute until the asparagus is bright green and the vegetables are starting to soften. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

In the meantime, heat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once cooled a bit, toss the vegetables in the egg mixture until completely coated. Pour the vegetable-egg mixture into the baking dish. Sprinkle the remaining bread crumbs evenly over the top. Cover and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes to an hour, so that a toothpick can be inserted and come out clean.

Makes 9 servings, enough for dinner and leftovers.

The original Greens Mosaic Timbale was baked and served in individual ramekins with either a tomato or herbed bechamel sauce. They would make a nice addition to this version, as well.

Sauteed Lamb Chops with Onion Sauce

For a relatively quick weekday meal, or a nice weekend one for that matter, lamb chops are a great choice. The whole thing shouldn't take you more than about 15 minutes to prepare. Add an extra 5 minutes for the side dishes and you've got dinner ready in less than a half an hour.

Utah has excellent lamb, and it's not as expensive as you might think. My nine year old daughter had a hard time with the idea of eating lamb, though. “But DAAAaaad. It's a baby sheep!” Lamb isn't really “baby” sheep. It's more like pre-teen sheep. Think of it as young mutton. It has a lighter flavor than the adult variety, and is quite tender. We don't eat a lot of it, but we do enjoy it on rare occasions.

When I do prepare lamb, I think of family. One of my uncles kept sheep on his farm. If I was visitign at the right time, I could help feed the lambs. He'd fill glass soda bottles with milk, topped with tough rubber nipples, and we'd hold them for the greedy wooly monsters. He'd share some with the meat with my mother from time to time, and I really enjoyed the roasted mutton ribs she'd make. My paternal grandfather was a sheep shearer by trade. Even though I never met him, I can't help but think about them all when I cook lamb.

Lamb can be hard to find in some local groceries, though. To prepare this recipe for you, I went to my the only lamb I found at my grocer was in the form of blade chops. Blade chops are cut closer to the shoulder of the lamb and have a lot of connective tissue. The flavor is quite good, though, and they tend to be less expensive than the traditional loin or rib chop, even though they actually may more meat on them. If you use the lamb blade chop for this recipe, cut the chop in half lengthwise, removing the large band of tough connective tissue that runs through it's center, before cooking.

Equipment needed
Kitchen knife
Cutting board
Large skillet or saute pan
Measuring cups and spoons

Ingredients
8 lamb chops
ground pepper
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1/2 large red onion*, finely chopped
1/3 cup red cooking wine (Marsala) or red grape juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon honey
salt to taste

Directions
Trim excess fat (and connective tissue) from the lamb chops. Heat the skillet over high heat for two minutes, and add the oil. Grind black pepper over both sides of each chop and place in the hot pan. Do not add salt at this point! The salt will pull the juices out of the lamb and you'll end up with dry lamb. Reduce the heat to medium and saute the lamb for 3 minutes per side for rare lamb. Add two or three minutes cooking time per side if you prefer it well done. Remove from the heat and set aside to rest a bit. You can add a pinch of salt to the lamb before serving, if you want to.

While the lamb chops are resting, add the onion and a pinch of salt to the same pan. Add a little more oil, if you need to. Stir and cook over medium heat for about 4 minutes, until the onion starts to get soft. Add the cooking wine or grape juice, mustard and honey. Mix well. Simmer for 1 or 2 minutes more, until slightly reduced, stirring occasionally. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the lamb and sauce with your favorite vegetable sides. In this case, I served it with asparagus and mashed potatoes.

Serves 4 adults, or two adults and a few children.

If you're using blade chops, you may end up with leftovers as there is more meat on them than a prepared loin chop.

*This recipe calls for red onion because they're milder than their yellow cousins. Yellow onions will work just fine, though. You may want to cook them a little longer in this case. Longer cooking times mellow the onion's flavor.

No-Cook Peach Pie

While most people think of zucchini when they think of Utah food, the reality is we have great peaches. Do I daresay we have the best peaches in the U.S.? Yes I do. They're so good, we even have peach festivals every year in Brigham City and Hurricane. This is not home town (home state?) bragging, folks. There's just something about our water and climate that makes an incredible peach.

I love peaches. They're my favorite fruit. After eating my fill of fresh peaches off the tree, the foodie in me wants to make something more with them. The choice is obvious. Peach pie.

The trouble with peach pie is that it's cooked. I don't know what it is, but peaches change so much when you cook them, they seem like an entirely different fruit. Cooked and canned peaches just don't compare to the bright flavor of a fresh peach. It's a shame to have to cook these yummy things just to make a pie.

Ah, but we don't have to. My mother used to make a wonderful peach pie that required no cooking. It's so simple she was embarrassed by it. I love all kinds of pies, but this is my favorite peach pie. What makes it work is another Utah food favorite – don't laugh – Jello.

Use only fresh peaches with this, please. Save the canned peaches for something else.

Equipment Needed
Tea Kettle or Saucepan
Mixing Bowl
Paring Knife
Cutting Board

Ingredients
1 cup fresh peaches (or more), peeled and sliced into thin wedges
1 cooked pie crust or graham cracker crust
cooking spray
3 oz. package peach flavored gelatin
2/3 cup boiling water
2 cups ice cubes

Directions
Spray the bottom of the pie crust with cooking spray. This helps reduce the amount of liquid that can seep into the crust from the filling. Place the peach slices into the pie crust. Place them decoratively, or just spread them around and random. As long as they're more or less evenly distributed, and completely fill the crust, you'll be fine. How pretty you want then to look is up to you.

Dissolve the gelatin in the boiling water. Add the ice cubes and stir for about 2 minutes. Remove any ice cubes that haven't melted. Pour the gelatin over the peaches, just to the top. Don't drown them.

Place the pie in the refrigerator and chill for at least 2 hours, or let it set up overnight. Serve with whipped cream, or all by itself.

You don't have to use peach flavored gelatin. Orange or apricot flavored gelatin will work great.

Makes 8 servings.

Picture by Alaina Cherup Isn't it pretty?

Zipperer's Zucchini Bread

Today's offering is a guest blog, coming by way of Sheena Simpson, of Atlanta Dish. Her roommate, Sarah Zipperer, makes a mean zucchini bread. If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you already know the special place that zucchini has in the heart of Utah Mormons. When they sent me this recipe, I was blown away. Sweetening it with pineapple gives this dish a wonderfully sweet, and slightly fruity, kick. Special thanks to Sarah for the wonderful recipe, and to Sheena for convincing her to share it with us.

Zipperer’s Zucchini Bread by Sara Zipperer

Here is a recipe for zucchini bread that is good morning, noon or night. I love having this for breakfast or as a snack at any time. This is my go-to recipe when I need an easy gift to give that I know won’t disappoint. Every Christmas I bake a few small loaves and give them to friends in a basket along with other baked goods.

It has a subtle cinnamon taste and can be prepared as a loaf of bread or muffins. My favorite way to eat it is warm with butter. Here you go!

3 cups flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 8oz. can crushed pineapple

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Combine sifted flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder & cinnamon, set aside. Beat eggs, add sugar, oil, vanilla and beat until creamy. Stir in zucchini and pineapple. Add dry ingredients. Spoon into two medium loaf pans (or several small loaf pans, or muffin tins) and bake for one hour, or until browned on top and you can stick a toothpick in the center and have it come out clean.

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Peach Gelatin Mousse Mold

Last Father's Day, my wife volunteered us to take a Jell-O salad to a get-together at her parent's house. What this really means is that my darling wife volunteered me to make a Jell-O salad for everyone on her side of the family. She hates cooking so I get volunteered a lot. I ended up making two salads, or rather two different flavors of the same recipe, just to make sure there was enough. They were quite a hit. I'm always glad when people enjoy a dish I've made, it's just that if they like it too much I'll be asked to make it again ... and again ... and again ...

Here's the variant I made on a recipe you used to be able to find at Kraft Foods. (I made that recipe for the get-together, too, in case you were wondering.) It's not the famous green Jell-O with pineapple or grated carrot that's so much a part of Utah Mormon food culture, but I like this one better.

Peach Gelatin Mousse Mold

(If you say that phonetically it sounds, awful, doesn't it? Who wants to eat mold? Okay, if it's in bleu cheese or gorgonzola I'll eat it, but I draw the line at penicillin.)

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups boiling water
2 (4 serving size) packages of Peach flavored gelatin dessert (or one 8 serving size package)
1 cup cold water
2 fresh peaches, peeled, pitted, and chopped.
1 8oz. tub of artificial Whipped Topping

Preparation

In a large bowl, mix the boiling water and powdered gelatin with a fork until completely dissolved (about two minutes). Stir in the cold water.

Place half the peach pieces in a 6 cup gelatin mold (I used a bunt cake pan). Pour 2 cups of the gelatin mixture into the mold, over the peach pieces, and refrigerate for about 35 minutes. The mixture should be firm, but not fully set. You can use more peaches, if you want. Just don't let it overwhelm the amount of gelatin.

In the meantime, refrigerate the remaining gelatin mixture for about 30 minutes, or until it has the consistency of raw egg whites. (Or, if you have children with head colds, the consistency of their . . . never mind.) Gently stir 2 cups of whipped topping into this mixture, along with the remaining peach pieces, until well blended.

Once the gelatin in the actual mold starts to get firm, pour (or spread) the whipped topping mixture evenly over the top, and refrigerate for about 4 hours, to let it fully set up.

Tips

To un-mold the gelatin, plunge the bottom of the mold (not the gelatin inside it), into some warm water for about 5 to 15 seconds, depending on how hot the water is. This melts the thin layer of gelatin that's actually in contact with the mold. Don't do this for to long. You want gelatin, not fruity flavored soup. Place a serving plate on top the mold, face down. Invert the plate and remove the mold. You may need to shake it slightly to get the gelatin to come out.

You can make this recipe with canned peaches as well, but you have to do a little more work. Cut the peaches into small pieces, and then wrap them in paper towels to get as much of the excess canning liquid out of them as you can. You may need to use a couple of paper towels. If you don't get the majority of the liquid out, the gelatin won't set up as well.

Enjoy!

Zucchini Breads

With all the crazy talk about zucchini around here, I thought I'd share two zucchini bread recipes with you. Joyce Ashton, my mom's neighbor, compiled a bunch of zucchini recipes for her ward (a ward is an individual church congregation, in Mormon-speak) several years ago. These two recipes are from that compilation, modified to fit my own tastes. Thanks Joyce!

Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

2 cups zucchini, grated

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, pecans, cashews, or whatever you like (optional), toasted

Non-stick cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 325 °F.

Beat together the eggs, oil, and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar until well combined. In a separate mixing bowl, mix the flour, soda, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon. Add the egg mixture, zucchini, and nuts to the flour mixtures and gently mix the whole thing until well blended.

Spray two 9-inch by 4 1/2-inch bread loaf pans with cooking spray. Divide the batter evenly between the loaf pans, and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.

Bake on the center rack for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick can be inserted, and come out clean.

Place the bread pans on a wire cooling rack and let cool for 10 minutes, in the pans. Remove the bread loaves, and transfer to the cooling rack. Let cool at least 30 minutes before slicing.

This bread can be kept in a freezer, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, and then aluminum foil, for up to six months.

Zucchini Banana Nut Bread

Ingredients

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups grated zucchini

2 bananas,quartered and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

3 cups all purpose flour (alternately you could use 1 1/2 cups all purpose, 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup raisins

3/4 cup chopped walnuts, pecans, cashews, or whatever you like (optional), toasted

Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl along with the oil, and vanilla. Add in the sugar and mix thoroughly. Gently fold in the zucchini and bananas until well blended. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Mix in the egg mixture, and then fold in the raisins and nuts.

Spray two 9-inch by 4 1/2-inch bread loaf pans with cooking spray. Divide the batter evenly between the loaf pans, and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick can be inserted, and come back out clean.

Place the bread pans on a wire cooling rack and let cool for 10 minutes, in the pans. Remove the bread loaves, and transfer to the cooling rack. Let cool at least 30 minutes before slicing.

This bread can be kept in a freezer, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, and then aluminum foil, for up to six months.

Fry Sauce Recipe

Green Jell-O may be listed as Utah's official snack food but, if you think it's the only Utah food culture export, you’ve really missed the mark. Another Utah food culture claim to fame is the ever popular "fry sauce," a regional condiment served with, you guessed it, French fries.

The Arctic Circle fast food chain claims to have invented it back in 1948. They keep their secret recipe locked away in a safe.

Some people claim that fry sauce is really just Thousand Island dressing, renamed. Hey, it's got catsup and mayo in it, right? Nothing could be further from the truth, though. Thousand Island dressing has pickles and stuff in it. It’s chunky and weird. Fry sauce is smooth and yummy. Most of the time, anyway.

At one point Utah was the "fry sauce" state. You just couldn’t get it anywhere else. If you asked for fry sauce at most cafés and fast food joints outside Utah, the server would look quizzically at you and say, "Isn't that what catsup's for?" That's not the case, anymore. Years ago Arctic Circle expanded its fast food chain outside of Utah and now claims that they go through more of the stuff in Washington and Oregon than they do in Utah.

Arctic Circle isn't the only company to get in on the fry sauce craze, though. Carl's Jr., Hires Big H, Apollo Burger and The Training Table all offer their own variation on the popular pink stuff. Up until 1999 Utah’s McDonald's franchises offered it. They quit carrying it though, citing high spoilage rates because of the mayonnaise. If they couldn't keep it from spoiling, they must not have used much. It must have been pretty crappy fry sauce

Fry sauce has hit the grocery stores, too. One Utah entrepreneur decided to make his own version and sell it. Sure enough, "Some Dude's Fry Sauce" can be found on most grocery store shelves in Utah. I’m not kidding. That’s what he calls himself – "Some Dude." He even markets a few variations. You can get "zesty" or a "bbq" versions, if you want them. Not wanting to be left out of the profit loop, Arctic Circle and Hires Big H have started bottling their own concoctions and selling them on store shelves, as well.

The Basic Recipe

This is so simple it hurts: 1 part catsup to 2 parts mayonnaise. Some say it's half and half, but it's not quite the same that way.

As a foodie, I'm just not satisfied with the basics, though. I've gotta play with it a bit. I wanted to find the best fry sauce I could, while still maintaining the spirit of the original. To that end, I enlisted the help of my three daughters as victims ... erm ... taste testers! We grabbed a bunch of ingredients from the grocery store (if we didn't already have it in the refrigerator), and started experimenting.

We didn't use everything we could think of, and avoided most of the variations I'd heard of before. We didn't try barbeque sauce, for example. Mostly that's because we didn't have any in the fridge and I forgot to pick it up at the store. We also creating a data sheet. This was going to be a scientific study, so we needed to track the data for each round of experiments.

Next, we cooked up some French fries. I'm basically lazy so we just got some frozen ones at the store and cooked 'em up in the oven. Yes, I know. All of you French fry purists out there are whining, ”You should have deep fried them!” I don't care. This was about finding the best sauce, not the best fries. I wasn’t going to peel, cut up, and deep fry a bunch of potatoes just for this bit of nonsense.

We started experimenting with the basic recipe, in a couple of different ratios. We also swapped the catsup out for chili sauce in a few of them. (Yum!) I mixed them all up on old yoghurt cups (don't worry, they got washed first) and labeled the cups with letters - A through D. We ran out of clean cups and had to start using mugs. Some of our samples were labeled "Blue rimmed mug," "Snoopy mug,” “red cup” and “pink cup” and the winning "square bowl."

Once we settled on the best ratios, we started playing around with other ingredients. We added garlic powered (which everyone loved), Worcestershire sauce (which everyone hated), in various combinations and tried them out. I think we went through nearly the entire bag of frozen French fries testing each combination.

Our winning experiment, created after hours (okay, it was really about 45 minutes) of endless (four) trials, is as follows:


Super Newman (not Paul's) Fry Sauce recipe

1/4 cup Ranch dressing
1/4 cup chili sauce
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Dash of liquid smoke

Mix completely and serve with hot French fries.

It's probably good on hamburgers, too.


Now It’s Your Turn

There are a few variations you could try with your own fry sauce experiments. Try using barbeque sauce instead of catsup, add buttermilk to thin the mixture, add various seasoning salts, try adding some horseradish mustard, or whatever else you can think of.

It's not all been fun, though. After a long morning of eating fries and tasting fry sauce with my daughters (the fun part), I've sworn off French fries and fry sauce for the next month or so. I'm so sick of fry sauce I could scream.

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