Tuesday, February 09, 2010

A.M. Holter Co. & P. Louquet

I found a very strange postcard in an old book that I purchased. The postcard appears to be advertising material for a hardware store but I'm not really sure. The card is addressed to: A.M. Holter Co., Helena, Mont. requesting: Please send me 1 Keg 50, 1 Keg 60 Common nails. Postmark May 25, 1913 Avon, Mont.


This is the postcard (front and verso):



Thursday, February 04, 2010

Turkey Tetrazzini

I really like turkey tetrazzini. I reduced the amount of salt, since I remember that my mother's recipe was much too salty. Also I really like the taste of crimini mushrooms, my mother probably used canned mushrooms.
My Mother's Turkey Tetrazzini
1 lb. button or crimini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
4 c. milk
10 tablespoons butter, divided
1/2 c. flour
1 c. turkey gravy (or however much you have left over, if less than that)
1 to 2 c. leftover turkey meat, shredded into bite-sized chunks
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 lb. spaghetti
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in large saute pan and saute mushrooms until soft and slightly browned. Set aside. Make bechamel sauce: Over medium heat, melt remaining butter in large saucepan, add flour, and whisk over medium heat for several minutes. Whisk milk into butter/flour mixture gradually until all milk is incorporated. Simmer sauce until it is thickened slightly and very velvety. Add turkey gravy and mushrooms and mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Meanwhile, cook spaghetti in boiling water until a minute or two before al dente. Drain and return to pot. Mix in half of sauce and stir to coat. Pour spaghetti into 9" x 13" pan and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake for 30 minutes until top is bubbling and delicious-looking. Add turkey pieces to sauce and serve over slices of spaghetti casserole. Enjoy thoroughly.

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Lemon Ice Cream

I have fond memories of home-made ice cream!

Grown-up Lemon Ice Cream
6 Lemons
1 C Sugar
6 egg yolks
2 C heavy cream
pinch of salt
2 C evaporated milk (since many cans of evaporated milk are about 1.5 cups, you could also do 1.5 cups evaporated and .5 cup of regular milk)
1 t vanilla

Prep:
Use a grater and zest the 6 lemons into a bowl. Mix the sugar into the bowl with the zest. Squeeze 3/4 C of juice from the lemons and set it aside.

Cooking:
Whisk the egg yolks with the cream and salt in a heatproof mixing bowl. Put the evaporated milk and lemon-sugar mixture in a medium non-aluminum saucepan. Bring the liquid to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove pan from heat. Slowly whisk the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture. Then return the combined stuff to the saucepan. Stir constantly over medium-low heat until the mixture begins to thicken slightly and coats the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes. Pour the hot custard into a bowl without straining (unless you are the nice mom who makes this for her kids). Stir in the vanilla. Put a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the custard to prevent skin from forming. Chill custard--can be refrigerated for up to 48 hours.

Freezing:
Stir the lemon juice into the cooled custard and transfer mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze. Makes about 1.5 quarts.