Grandma Marlin's Norwegian Best Bean Hotdish

 Grandma Marlin's Norwegian Best Bean Hotdish

    This recipe is adapted from The Centennial Harvest - A Collection of Recipes from The First Unitarian Church of Dallas. My church. We are Unitarian Universalists.  It was founded in 1899; the 100 year anniversary was celebrated in 1999 and the cookbook was published in 2000.  I joined the church in about 2009/2010. The original recipe was submitted by a member and due to this cookbook only being 10 years old, I'm not going to name her, for privacy reasons.  A friend in the Twitterverse, said she has a cookbook with a very, similar recipe. It goes by the name "4 Bean Bake" in her book and that recipe is popular with her family. 

    Yeah, so this recipe wasn't complicated, but I felt like I used a lot of bowls in making it. I did the washing up, while it was in the oven. When it was finished, there was more liquid than I'd thought there would be, but I liked it. I served my Best Bean Hotdish over some brown rice and had two little pieces of buttered and toasted sourdough bread (to sop up the juices).

Ingredients:

1 Big Can of Baked Beans (I used a large can of Bush's Original Baked Beans)

2 Cans Kidney Beans

2 Cans Great Northern Beans (The original recipe calls for butter beans)

1 lb Bacon, cut into 1 inch strips

3 Large Yellow Onions; Sliced and then sliced in half (The original recipe calls for 4 large Bermuda onions, sliced)

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Tsp Garlic Powder

1/2 Tsp Dry Mustard

1/2 Cup Vinegar

    Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.  Drain the beans, saving the liquid and mixing the beans together in a large bowl.  The original recipe also says to cut your bacon into 1 inch strips, but you can certainly cut into smaller pieces if you like. Whatever size you choose, you'll fry it gently, not letting it get crispy, and remove from your pan. Put your onion in the skillet and fry for several minutes (about five minutes at least), stirring to coat with the bacon grease.  Whisk together the last four ingredients and stir into the onions. Simmer for 20 minutes. If the liquid evaporates, add in a little of the reserved bean juice, so it doesn't stick, because you don't want the onions to get dry. Mix the onion mixture into the beans, add the pieces of bacon which you had set aside and combine all ingredients. Pour the mixture into a large casserole dish.  The original recipe says a covered casserole dish. I had to use the largest casserole dish that I own, which does not have a lid. Since my dish did not have a lid, I used foil and it worked fine. Bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees. I really don't know how this could ever fit in a regular sized casserole dish, because it made a huge amount. 

    Serve as a side dish or over rice.  The side of sourdough bread went really well with this dish, because again, "hello!!" there was juices to soak up. I have no idea how many servings to say this made, so let's just say "a lot", because it was a lot. 

    The verdict? I really, liked this recipe and would definitely make this again. 

Great Norther, Kidney and Baked Beans

Onions

The bean, onion and bacon mixture.

Yass!!! It looks yummy, just out of the oven.

I wasn't going to include two pictures of the finished dish, but you can see my UU (Unitarian Universalist) Flaming Chalice (our church symbol) tattoo, so I'm including this photo, because my church means a lot to me. 

A close-up of yumminess.

   

Roast Chicken

 Roast Chicken 

    This recipe comes to us from Rufus Estes' Good Things To Eat. Rufus Estes was born into slavery in 1857. In about 1867, he attended "one term" of school and then left to go to work and help his mother.  At sixteen, he was employed by a restaurant keeper in Nashville. In 1881, at the age of twenty-one, Mr. Estes got a position at "77 Clark Street" in Chicago. In 1883, he entered the Pullman (railway) service.  Until 1897, he traveled, met and worked (in the railway service,) with many VIPs of the day. In 1894 he traveled to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Tokyo, Japan. The couple he traveled with on the Empress of China ship, I assume must have been some of those VIPs he'd met in the Pullman service. In 1897, he became employed by the president (at the time) of the Kansas City, Pittsburg, & Gould Railroad, and was  placed in charge of the company president's private rail car. He'd been hired by the company president and was well liked by the president.  In 1907, when new management took over, Mr. Estes left and was employed as a chef in subsidiary companies of the US Steel Corporation in Chicago.  This version of Mr. Estes' cookbook was printed in 2009.

    I've adapted the recipe a bit, but followed Mr. Estes' directions as closely as possible.  

Ingredients:

1 Chicken (Mine was about 4 lbs; I meant to write that down, but neglected to)

Bacon (I used about 1/2 pound)

Optional:

Garlic Salt 

Pepper

Paprika

    Back in Mr. Estes' time, fresh chickens were easy to come by and you didn't go to a store for your poultry and other  meats, so it should come as no surprise, that my chicken was store bought.  After removing the chicken from it's packaging, I rinsed it off and placed it on my large cutting board. I spread a mixture of Jane's Krazy Garlic Salt, Pepper and Paprika all over the top and bottom of my chicken and used a bit of white string to tie (truss) the legs. I placed the chicken in a deep casserole dish, which was miraculously large enough.  I laid strips of bacon all over the top of the chicken and placed a piece of buttered parchment paper on top, tucking it into the dish. Mr. Estes' directions say to cover the chicken and bacon with buttered paper and I wanted to do that part, because it was in his directions. The part I was confused about, was the bacon. Did he mean bacon like we would have as part of bacon & eggs or in a BLT or did he mean a meatier kind, like Canadian bacon? Personally I figured he used the latter, so that's what I used.  I placed the dish into my pre-heated oven. I started checking what it looked like at 50 minutes, which I knew wouldn't be enough time, but I wanted to see. Ten minutes later I took the paper off and basted with the chicken's own juices. Mr. Estes says to take the paper off five minutes before cooking time is finished. Your bacon is supposed to brown up after you take the paper off. I actually ended up cooking the chicken for one and a half hours, taking it out and basting every ten minutes. 

    So, I set the pan on top of a pot holder on my counter to let it cool. I think I waited about fifteen minutes and had removed as much of the juices I could suck up with the baster, and placed the chicken on my cutting board (which I had washed immediately after having the raw chicken on it). I let it cool a tiny bit longer and then served myself a leg and a small slice of breast. I'm not including a picture of my plate like I normally do, because it just was not a cute photo. 

    The verdict? Would I make a roast chicken this way again? Yes. I would do a couple things differently though. I would cook the chicken either longer or at a higher temp, because it could have gone another 15 minutes at least and I would use more seasoning. It did come out juicy (awesome!), but I like the skin to be crisper.  I would also want the bacon to be way crisper, although it wasn't bad. 

The cookbook

The finished chicken. 

Cackleberry Casserole

 Cackleberry Casserole

    This oddly named recipe comes to us from the April 1981 edition of the Laurel (Iowa) Centennial Cookbook 1881-1981. It was submitted by Donna Hughes. I liked this dish, but I would either not add salt and I would use low-sodium pork sausage if I could find it. I adapted the recipe a bit, but will attach a picture of the original recipe, so you can see that. If I made this again, I might also consider using less of the sausage; maybe 1/2 pound to 3/4 of a pound. The original recipe calls for 1 pound. The original recipe also calls for shredded cheddar. I used a finely shredded Cheddar-Jack mix and I used a spicy mustard seasoning rather than plain dry mustard. I used wheat bread instead of the white that the original recipe calls for and, I also used the two butt ends of the loaf in addition to the two slices called for. I really liked the texture of the bread and the nice, crusty top of the casserole. 

Ingredients:

1 pound pork sausage browned

6 eggs, beaten

2 to 3 slices of white or wheat bread, cubed

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dry mustard

1 cup shredded cheese (cheddar or use cheddar/jack mix like I did)

Directions:

    Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray the bottom and sides of your casserole dish with cooking spray or grease with butter. Cut your bread slices into cubes. Brown your sausage in a skillet, drain and place in the bottom of your casserole dish. Spread the bread cubes over the sausage. Crack your eggs into a large, mixing bowl. Add your salt and dry mustard and beat well. Stir your cup of shredded cheese into your eggs and pour this mixture over your bread cubes.  Make sure you get egg mixture on all of the bread.  Place in your oven and bake for 45 minutes. The original recipe says 45 minutes to an hour, but 45 minutes was perfect for my oven.  Serve this with a side of fruit salad. Makes 4 to 5 adult sized servings, 

    The verdict? It was good, but like I said, I would cut how much salt I used and would probably not add salt separately. I liked this also, because it has only six ingredients and was really easy to make. Like I also said, I liked the texture of the bread and the crustiness of the top. Let me know if you try it. 

**I think you could totally make this as a vegetarian or vegan dish. I know you can get faux sausage crumbles and someone who is knowledgeable, could likely find vegan egg and cheese substitutes. I'm neither vegetarian or vegan, but I know there are cheese substitutes; I'm not sure if there are vegan egg substitutes. 

Cackleberry Casserole

Crumbled Sausage

Bread Cubes Covering Sausage

Casserole Topped Off With Egg and Cheese Mixture

Done! Side View To Show You This Casserole Dish. 

Top View of Casserole

Donna Hughes' Original Cackleberry Casserole Recipe

    

Capellini d'angelo al Limone

 Capellini d'angelo al Limone

    This recipe is adapted from Sophia Loren's recipe for Spaghetti al Limone in her 1998 Sophia Loren's Recipes & Memories cookbook. The most obvious change I made, was that I used angel hair (capellini d'angelo) pasta. The rest of the ingredients I used were the same as the recipe, but modified to use what I had. I also used a sprinkle of red chili pepper flakes when I served and gasp! I used jarred Parmesan cheese instead of fresh Parmesan (The recipe calls for Parmigiano cheese). I used 8 small lemons instead of 2 to 3 lemons, and I used a zester instead of mincing the lemon zest. I also used 3 cloves of garlic, instead of 2 cloves. You can Google "Sophia Loren's Spaghetti al Limone" and find other versions of her recipe. 

    I have the actual cookbook, but due copyright matters, I am not going to be copying her recipe or directions, word for word. I like the book and want to try some other recipes. Search estate sales, flea markets, antique stores, used book stores for her book, so you can enjoy her recipes, personal photos and stories.  I got my copy for $2.50 at an estate sale/antique store/flea market years ago (I left the tag on it) and this is the first time I've actually used it. 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds Angel hair pasta (Capellini d'angelo) or you can use Spaghetti or Fettuccine (I actually used a little more than 1 pound; the original recipe calls for 1 1/2 pounds)

3 cloves garlic, chopped or minced 

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

8 small or two to three lemons, zested

1/2 cup heavy cream

Salt

Pepper

Parmesan/Parmigiano cheese (Fresh would be best; but if you have the powdered kind like I do, it was fine)

Red chili pepper flakes

Parsley flakes

    

    Melt the butter in a large skillet or saucepan on medium heat.  Add your garlic and saute until golden (this does not take very, long at all), add your lemon zest and stir. Salt and pepper to taste. Turn to low heat. While you are making your sauce, cook your pasta to al dente in boiling water. Drain your pasta and add  to your skillet/saucepan. Toss the pasta to coat with the sauce.  The sauce was not "saucy", if that makes sense (picture below).  I like more sauce, so if/when I make this again, I would double the sauce recipe. Remove from heat, transfer the pasta in a serving dish and pass the Parmesan/Parmigiano cheese at the table. Sprinkle with red chili pepper flakes or parsley if desired.

Capellini d'angelo al Limone with asparagus and sourdough bread

Chopped Garlic

Lemon zest

Butter and garlic (mmmmmm)

The finished sauce

Capellini d'angelo al Limone