Retro Recipes and Traditional Fare

My love of stuffed mushrooms started when I was very young thanks to my Aunt Mary.

Every holiday Aunt Mary made mushrooms stuffed with pork sausage. A simple starter to a large festive meal but always a crowd pleaser.

Somehow, no matter how many of those mushrooms she made, it was never enough.  My cousins and I devoured them quickly and in epic proportions. This is where my taste for all things "stuffed mushrooms" reared its head.

I have never lost the craving.

When I came across this recipe for Shrimp Rockefeller Stuffed Mushrooms with Parmesan Crumbs I knew I couldn't wait to make it.

Personally, I love the wedgie.  I've had them lots of places...some fancy, some not so fancy.  They are a little different everywhere, the dressing that is, not the wedge.

The wedge is always iceberg.  I'm not the biggest fan of the iceberg but it is the perfect, bland vessel for an outstanding dressing.

This particular concoction is no exception.  When I read this recipe, something about the ratios of ingredients just seemed perfect.  Glad I tried it because it is sooooo good.  Perfectly creamy and tangy with a little garlic bite. 

This is going to be a new staple around here, the Blue Cheese Dressing Wedge.

Here's a great dish that does double duty: it can be dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow. It's delicious served slightly warm or chilled. And it's especially great for a Friday night Lenten dinner. Using readily available ingredients including my favorite cans of tuna, this dish is light on the wallet too. For the best taste and texture use white albacore tuna packed in oil. It's much better than the chunk light in water.

My version of the French salad Niçoise is crossed with the American macaroni salad. Instead of boiled potatoes, I use pasta as a delicious alternative. Cavatappi, a corkscrew-shaped pasta, makes a playful addition, but elbow macaroni works well too. Green beans are quickly blanched and pasta is then cooked in the same pot before being combined with all the ingredients. A finish of briny olives and capers and a fresh vinaigrette make it feel like springtime on the Mediterranean coast.

Ok, so England isn't the home of one of the world's greatest cuisines, but it has exported a number of delicious dishes. I'm particularly fond of crumpets, Summer pudding, bangers and mash, fish and chips, the Sunday roast with Yorkshire pudding, and chicken tikka masala (while not completely English the combining of chicken tikka with a masala sauce is believed to be a British invention). On the rise in popularity are sticky toffee pudding and perhaps one day, my favorite English sausage the chipolata.

Something else I think of as decidedly English that has not gained in popularity yet here in the States, are Jellies. Not jelly like grape jelly, but jellies for eating that we call gelatin or Jell-o. But the British versions are much more sophisticated often including booze and ending up like gelatinized versions of elegant cocktails. Every Summer, British cookery magazines feature a variety of these lovelies which can be served instead of a cocktail, as a starter, a palate cleanser or a dessert.

The possibilities are endless. One package of gelatin and you are on your way! Other requirements include little glasses and tiny spoons. I have collected some shot glasses for this purpose and also use my otherwise rarely used vodka set.