2 Great Cook’s Country Recipes

ByJohn Brown

Yeah, I know–I should be writing. But I promised you two wonderful recipes from my experiments with the Cook’s Country June/July 2011 issue. There were a whole bunch of other recipes we tried that worked out well, but these were our favorites and good enough to get me to subscribe.

By the way, I found these recipes were not only tasty, but they were great to do on a date (in this case, with my daughters). Why just eat when you can enjoy the time together as well?  Besides, two people working together make these recipes a breeze.

Chocolate Eclair Cake

Chocolate, vanilla pudding, whipped cream, and graham crackers–baby, is this good!  I found I liked the cake best with HALF of the pudding and whip cream mixture. You’ll see the half amounts in parentheses. That way I got a taste of the pudding, graham, and ganache in every bite. The directions make it look like there’s a lot of steps, but they all go quickly.

INGREDIENTS

Pudding Mixture

  • 1 ¼ C sugar (1/2 + 1/8 C)
  • 6 T cornstarch (3 T)
  • 1 tsp salt (1/2 tsp)
  • 5 C whole milk (2.5 C)
  • 4 T unsalted butter cut into chunks (2 T)
  • 5 tsp vanilla (2.5 tsp)

 Whip Cream Mixture

  • 2 T water (1 T)
  • 1 ¼  tsp unflavored gelatin (1/2 + 1/8 tsp)
  • 2 C heavy cream (1 + ¼ +1/8 C)

Graham Crackers

14 ounces of Nabisco Honey Maid graham crackers

Ganache topping

  • ¾ C  heavy cream
  • 1 C semisweet chocolate chips
  • 5 T light corn syrup

 DIRECTIONS

 Make Pudding

  1. Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in large saucepan
  2. Wisk milk into sugar mixture and bring to boil over medium-high heat, scraping bottom with rubber spatula.
  3. Immediately reduce heat to medium-low and continue to cook and scrape until thick bubbles appear on surface, about 4-6 minutes
  4. Take off heat and wisk in butter and vanilla.
  5. Transfer hot pudding to large bowl and place plastic wrap directly on surface.
  6. Refrigerate for about 2 hours until cool.

 Make Whip Cream Mixture

  1. Stir water and gelatin together and let sit for 5 minutes.
  2. Microwave until gelatin dissolves and mixture gets bubbly around the edges, 15-30 seconds
  3. Whip 2 cups of cream on medium-low for about 1 minute, until foamy.
  4. Increase to high and whip for 2 minutes, until soft peaks form
  5. Add gelatin mixture and whip for 1 minute, until stiff peaks form

 Combine Pudding and Whip Cream Mixture

  1. Wisk one-third of whipped cream into chilled pudding.
  2. Fold remaining whipped cream into pudding.

 Layer Pudding Whip Cream Mixture with Graham Crackers

  1. Line bottom of 13 x 9 inch baking dish with a layer of graham crackers. Break and cut crackers if you have to.
  2. Top the bottom layer of crackers with ½ of the pudding whip cream mixture
  3. Place another layer of crackers over the pudding.
  4. Top that layer with the rest of the pudding whip cream mixture
  5. Place one last layer of crackers over the second layer of pudding whip cream mixture

 Make Ganache and Pour Over

  1. Microwave chocolate chips, ¾ C cream, and corn syrup in bowl 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  2. Cool for 10 minutes to room temperature
  3. Cover top layer of graham crackers with glaze
  4. Refrigerate cake for 6 – 24 hours. Then serve.

 

Dill Potato Salad

A potato salad with a perfect dill zing. Everybody in the Brown household loved this. Super wife especially loved it because she does not like eggs. Please note that there’s fresh dill used in all three parts. So when you shop, make sure you get enough for all three.

 INGREDIENTS

 Dill Vinegar

  • ¼ C white wine vinegar
  • 1 T minced fresh dill

 Boiling Mixture

  • 1 disposable coffee filter
  • ½ C coarsely chopped dill leaves and stems
  • 3 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes (don’t get any other type), peeled and cut into ¾ inch pieces
  • 1 T salt

 Dressing

  • ½ C mayonnaise
  • ¼ C sour cream
  • 1 T Dijon mustard
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp pepper
  • 2 T minced fresh dill
  • 3 scallions (green onions) green parts only sliced thin

 DIRECTIONS

 Make Dill Vinegar

  1. Combine vinegar and 1 T minced dill in bowl and microwave until steaming, 30-60 seconds
  2. Cool at room temperature for 15-20 minutes

 Boil Potatoes

  1. Place chopped dill inside disposable coffee filter and time with thread.
  2. Put potatoes, dill sachet, and salt into large pot with enough water to cover the potatoes by 1 inch.
  3. Bring to boil on high heat then reduce heat to medium and simmer until potatoes are tender, 10 minutes

 Cool and Soak Potatoes

  1. Drain potatoes thoroughly and throw away dill sachet
  2. Drizzle 2 T of the dill vinegar over hot potatoes and gently toss until evenly coated
  3. Refrigerate until cooled, 30 minutes. This allows the Yukon potatoes to suck up the dill vinegar.

 Make dressing and Combine with Potatoes

  1. Wisk mayonnaise, sour cream, remaining dill vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper until smooth
  2. Add dressing to cooled potatoes
  3. Stir in scallions and 2 T minced dill.
  4. Cover and refrigerate to let flavors meld, 30 minutes.
  5. Serve with salt and pepper to taste.

 EDIT 9/7: Somehow I deleted four of the dressing ingredients when I posted. They’ve been added back 🙂

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    And I mean all subjects. Math, history, science, criminology, psychology—you name it.

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    This one thing, proven by research, leads them to grow up to make more money.

    And it doesn’t matter if they start in a rich or poor family. This one thing leads them to greater opportunity. Over and over again.

    It’s a thing that kids actually can learn to love. For some it becomes as delicious as eating ice cream.

    The kids are back in school. Parents want them to do well. They want them to succeed. How wonderful that there’s one thing that parents can focus on that will so dramatically change their child’s life.

    And it doesn’t take long. Even just twenty minutes per day of this activity can change everything.

    Twenty minutes.

    Is there a parent anywhere that can’t find twenty minutes?

    So what is this one thing?

    Reading for pleasure.

    Notice I didn’t say reading for academic purposes. I didn’t say reading to finish homework. I said reading for pleasure. For the enjoyment it brings.

    And it doesn’t matter what the subject matter is. It can be fiction—fantasy, love stories, horror, action. It can be non-fiction—like material on bugs, robots, horses, motocross. It can be fairy stories or funny anecdotes. It can be short or long. The key is that they’re reading for pleasure.

    I know some of you might be saying, “But John, my kid doesn’t like to read.”

    That’s okay. You can change that.

    If you want to find out how to help your child learn to enjoy reading, let me recommend Raising Kids Who Read: What Parents and Teachers Can Do by Daniel T. Willingham, a professor at the University of Virginia whose research has focused on the brain and learning. In the book, Willingham debunks the myths about literary instruction and provides practical, engaging, research-based tips for sharing the joy of reading with kids of all ages.

    You can get a used copy for $13 bucks on Amazon.

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    While you’re waiting for the book to come, here are some things you can do start doing right now to help your child read for pleasure.

    First, start reading something fun or interesting with or to them every day. For little kids, this can be picture books. For older kids, this can be anything–an article from a magazine, funny stories online, or books large and small. If you want to start with a joke book, that’s okay. If you want to start by listening to a book on tape, that’s great too.

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    No.

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  • Good Stuff! Operation Underground Railroad

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  • The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt

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    Mountain crushing logic.

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    She had never actually considered what I had to say in any of my previous emails. It never mattered how powerfully vast my brilliant logic was. She’d demonstrated wax ear time and again. All of my intellectual might never made a dent in her liberal force field. I brought blood and thunder, and it always seemed to bounce off her like bullets made of styrofoam.

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    At this point a faint ding sounded in the distance in my mind. A small light bulb suddenly flipped on and illuminated a dark cubby of my mind.

    Hadn’t I just read about studies showing how a soap opera in Mexico, a radio play in Tanzania, and sitcoms in America actually changed viewer attitudes and behaviors about literacy, HIV, and abortion? Didn’t I already know about the power of concrete and vivid storytelling? Not sermon-telling, but storytelling.

    Why, yes. Yes, I did.

    Had I not witnessed the use of storytelling on U.S. television for, what, fifteen years by those wanting to build sympathy for homosexuals? (A good thing, even if I disagree with some of the gay agenda.) And the cheapening of sex by others? (A bad thing.) And the clearly conscious promotion of many other attitudes and beliefs via various media programs?

    I determined there was something to this.

    If people were going to vote for fiscal responsibility in Washington, something like this was going to have to be done. It wasn’t going to happen in flame wars.

    About this same time I was browsing through the recent Radio West programs. I saw one called “The Righteous Mind.”  It was an interview of Jonathon Haidt about his new book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion.

    Hey, wasn’t that addressing my question?

    The program blurb states: “Monday, our guest is the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, whose latest book sets out to explain the root causes of the divisions in our society. At the heart of his argument is the idea that the human mind is designed to “do” morality. But when we separate into tribes – say political affiliations or religious denominations – we focus on different moral foundations. Haidt joins us to explain why he says we need the insights of liberals and conservatives to flourish as a nation.”

    I listened. And loved the program.

    Haidt shared a number of deliciously insightful things about how our mind works and how we choose our affiliations. He shared so many insights that I immediately requested his book at my library. The library ordered a copy for their collection. I, of course, was first in line to read it. I just finished the book.

    It’s one of the best books I’ve read all year.

    Haidt explains why my sister and I were both baffled by people who voted for the opposition candidate. He explains how human morality works. How our reason does not lead us to make the judgments we do, but instead more often acts like a lawyer to justify our positions to others.

    As soon as he explained that I saw how I had done that time and time again. For example, in this election cycle I blamed Obama for the economy. In the Bill Clinton re-election I vigorously argued that the President doesn’t have any effect on the economy and is lying if he takes credit for it. I’m not saying that Obama didn’t do things that might have hampered the recovery, but how did I know his actions exacerbated our problems? What evidence did I really have?

    Haidt explains that there are six basic moral bases then points out which ones drive liberals, conservatives, and libertarians, and how we can use that knowledge to disagree more constructively. He provides strong insights into how our reason and intuitions and judgments work, the evolutionary function of our morality, and how our wiring for group affiliation affects it.

    I didn’t agree with some of his conclusions. He sometimes takes his points too far. For example, he seems to suggest that people in cities are pre-disposed to be liberal. And that’s why they live there. Um, no. That’s not why they live there. They live in cities because that’s where the jobs are. The agricultural revolution made sure of that, remember? In his effort to explain the smaller biological basis of our beliefs, he also downplays the larger effect our families and groups have. But despite these excesses, he shares so many fresh and exciting ideas that they don’t matter. And he shares them all in such a fun and clear way that I couldn’t help but stay up late a number of nights reading this book.

    Do you know how much I wanted to trash Obama to my sister?  That Soviet-style central planner.  That drunken sailor spender.  That choom wagon pot head.

    And yet, you and I also know that will never work. I now know better why. Because of Haidt, I think I see a better way. I certainly see how I have done exactly what drives me mad about those who have drunk the opposition candidate’s Kool-aide. I see that I have my own conservative force field that deflects liberal bullets (and perhaps even blinds me to the truth sometimes). And why I need to watch my reason, that cunning lawyer part of my brain, as well as my intuition.

    Haidt, a liberal, has given me, a conservative, a great gift. I intend to use it. If you are interested in the two taboo topics of politics or religion, if you enjoyed Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink or the Heath brother’s Made to Stick, if you want to find a better way to influence than flame wars (as fun as they can sometimes be), then I think you will enjoy the wonders Haidt shares in his fine book.

    Don’t just take my word for it. Listen to the Radio West program http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/righteous-mind for a taste of what awaits you.

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  • | |

    One of Orson Card’s best essays

    ByJohn Brown

    Scott Card recently wrote “Marriage needs lots of humor.” It’s an awful title for one of the best articles of his that I’ve ever read.

    I’m not going to spoil it for you. But I will say that I’ve found that it’s the small things that seem to make the biggest difference in relationships. And this is one of those small things that packs a HUGE punch. But not until this article did I realize it.

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    Enjoy!

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6 Comments

  1. I’ll have to try the Dill Potato Salad as soon as I can get some fresh dill. I think I’ll try a used milk strainer/filter instead of the coffee filter. (I have a milk cow.) Thanks for sharing.

  2. I bet cheese cloth would do just fine too. We don’t drink coffee, but where I live, cheese cloth was an hour away 🙂 Good luck. You’re going to love it.

  3. psst? There’s something off about the dressing list of ingredients. The make it part talks about mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard, but they’re not in the ingredients?

  5. Am I missing something very fundamental here, or is this whole post a giant copyright violation?

  6. You can’t copyright the mixtures of ingredients. Only the text used to explain them. This is my text, not theirs. In fact, the Chocolate Eclair Cake is my recipe variation. So there’s no violation. Even if I copied the text for these two, it would probably fall under fair use. So I don’t think we’re in any violation here. More importantly, I am providing excellent advertisement for their product.

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