I read one of the blog posts about a handwritten book of family recipes which were all in German. The author of the blog was asking for help translating the recipes. My daughter, in her first year at university, is minoring in German. I sent her the link to the blog and asked if she might be able to help with this woman’s project. Fortunately my daughter is an excellent baker (and a big fan of the British Baking Show) and is also a thoughtful, generous human being.
I found this fabulous book for only $5.99. List price is $14.95 even on their website currently so I’m not quite sure how I got it for this very nice price.
This is technically a cookbook, but as the blurb on the front says “More than a cookbook, it is a humor book and a self-help book and a security blanket and a kind of a Bible.” (quote from Elizabeth Berg, NPR interview)
Beat This! book cover
The book is called Beat This!
(written by Ann Hodgman with a foreword by Elizabeth Berg)
Now you may be wondering — Why, dear Tromp Queen, is this blog worthy? Most of you already know that I own plenty of cookbooks (read about it here in Confessions of a Chronic Creative Collector). I love to look through them for new recipes and read about different cooking techniques and cultures. Really. I do. And I really can’t help looking at cookbooks on the sale tables. Really. I can’t.
The blurb on the front enticed me. I grabbed the book. Then I wandered around until I found the cozy couch area so I could sit in comfort to take a peek inside the book.
I instantly fell in love with the author’s humor. The chatty (sometimes snarky) asides sprinkled throughout the book caught my interest:
detail aside from Beat This! Cookbook by Ann Hodgman
detail aside from Beat This! Cookbook by Ann Hodgman
detail aside from Beat This! Cookbook by Ann Hodgman
detail aside from Beat This! Cookbook by Ann Hodgman
detail aside from Beat This! Cookbook by Ann Hodgman
detail aside from Beat This! Cookbook by Ann Hodgman
detail aside from Beat This! Cookbook by Ann Hodgman
detail aside from Beat This! Cookbook by Ann Hodgman
I love her recipe names! Descriptive and humorous
There are recipes for “A Really Great Stuffing with Sausage In It,” “Vaguely Thai-Like Beef Salad,” “Magnificent Ultra-Turkey,” and “Powerfully Better Than Any Other Pot Roast.” The first sentence of that last recipe reads like this: “A well-made pot roast is one of those noble, time-honored dishes that — oh, sorry, I forgot I wasn’t writing the lyrical kind of cookbook.”
I haven’t made anything from this cookbook yet, but I’ve gotten enjoyment out of it already. I have high expectations that when I DO make something out of this book; it is going to be fabulous.
*I did make the apple crisp recipe and it was very delicious! We ate it all in one go.*
This little story in the foreword sealed the deal for me: (Yes, I did read the foreword!)
My next door neighbors did something nice for me and so I did something nice for them, which is to say I made them Ann’s Very Controversial Apple Crisp (page 23). The next day, the wife told me, “You know my husband never eats desserts, doesn’t like them. He could not stop eating that apple crisp.” Another friend told me that when she first made it, she and her husband stood at the stove after it came out of the oven and ate the whole dang thing.
(She’d halved the recipe, but still.)
–from the foreword, written by Elizabeth Berg
So, if you are looking for a gift for yourself or for a friend, or you just have chronic cookbook collector syndrome — I highly recommend this book!
Note: This post was previously published on my “regular” blog: The Tromp Queen. I thought it might be good to repost it here in case some of you don’t follow there.
vintage sign, image by The Tromp Queen CC license 4.0
I decided to change the name of The Heat is ON! to
The Tromp Queen COOKS!
In celebration of this change, I’m presenting several “old” recipe posts from my original “The Tromp Queen” in blog new posts here on The Tromp Queen COOKS! These are some of my very favorite recipes and I feel they deserve more visibility than they currently have (which is buried in a post entrancingly called “Recipe Re-visit”).
I hope you enjoy reading through these recipes and that you will try one or more of them. Please let me know what you think!
I tried to go back through to be sure all the old links will still work, etc. Please let me know if you come across any glitches with the new domain name.
I am fortunate to live near a Half-Price Books bookstore. I love books, stationery, music, cards, CDS and LPs — you name it — this store seems to have it.
I tend to browse the cookbooks at this store, even though I already have a HUGE collection of cookbooks at home. (I also have a really good Goodwill store nearby, too. Hardback books, including cookbooks, are only $1.79.)
I have a combination of three part-time jobs right now, so cooking dinner has become a somewhat rarer activity than it was previously.
I decided to try this recipe because you can only eat out so many times in a week before you get tired of
food that involves deep-frying
food that involves a drive through
food that begins to all taste the same
food that has no vegetables in it
Ingredients: *I tweaked a few ingredients and amounts so this isn’t exactly like the recipe in the book
1 pound of spaghetti noodles (or Chinese egg noodles if you can find them) 2 T. toasted sesame oil
1 whole roasted deli chicken
1 cucumber peeled, quartered, seeded, sliced and diced 4 scallions, sliced (white and green parts) 1/3 dry-roasted salted peanuts cilantro, chopped
1 clove garlic 1 one-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeeled (I grated mine) 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter 1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari 2 T brown sugar 1 T rice vinegar 1/2 t crushed red pepper flakes 1/4 c hot water (I used the pasta water as it was cooking)
Cook the pasta in boiling, salted water. Drain and toss with sesame oil
While the pasta is cooking, prepare the garnishes and sauce.
Also de-bone the deli roasted whole chicken. Cut the meat off the bones; save the “runnin’ gears”– the bones, skin and carcass — to make some quick chicken stock for future use. Keep the meat warm until the pasta is ready.
Garnishes: 1 cucumber peeled, quartered, seeded, sliced and diced 4 scallions, sliced (white and green parts) 1/3 dry-roasted salted peanuts cilantro, chopped
Mix the ingredients (listed below) in a blender and blend thoroughly. Toss this mixture with the pasta. 1 clove garlic 1 one-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeeled (I grated mine) 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter 1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari 2 T brown sugar 1 T rice vinegar 1/2 t crushed red pepper flakes 1/4 c hot water (I used the pasta water as it was cooking)
Cook the pasta in boiling, salted water until al dente. Drain. Put it in a large bowl and toss it with the 2 T of sesame oil.
While the pasta is cooking, combine the ingredients for the sauce in a blender. Blend. Add this mix to the sesame oiled pasta.
Also while the pasta cooks, de-bone the deli roasted whole chicken. Prepare the garnishes.
To serve: Put pasta on a plate. Top with desired amount of chicken plus generous garnishes of cilantro, peanuts, scallions, and cucumber.
Image by Madeleine via Flickr CC license This image is not the actual recipe I’m posting. It looks very similar to this, though.
REVIEW: This recipe was quick to fix. It has very good flavor and was delicious. I happened to have nearly all the sauce ingredients on hand, so it was not a huge amount of items to buy at the grocery store — basically just a deli chicken, a cucumber and maybe some spaghetti, cilantro and scallions if you happen to have none of those things at the moment. I liked the fact that it tasted a little Thai and a little Chinese — but that it wasn’t overly spiced in either direction. You could definitely bump up the crushed red pepper if you need more heat or add Siracha sauce at the table.
This could easily be made vegetarian if you leave out the chicken. You could add tofu.
I think it would be good with grilled shrimp instead of the chicken. If you have them, fresh bean sprouts would give a nice crunch as well. You could use honey instead of brown sugar in the sauce. I grated my ginger into the blender because I didn’t want to chomp down on an unblended chunk of ginger. I would add more garlic next time, too.
It would be nice to add some toasted sesame seeds. I didn’t have time or energy for that, but it would be good.
FULL FORKS for this one! FIVE FORKS! Go fo it! Please let me know if you try this recipe and how you like it.
Recently I was at a loss for ideas of what to cook for dinner one evening.
I decided to use my Facebook status to ask friends for ideas.
This is what I said:
Let’s play “What’s for dinner at the Hasker Haus?” A pound of hamburger and a fairly well stocked pantry and fridge. Ideas? Go!!
I got lots of good ideas, so I decided to turn the list of replies into this post.
Sunchild57 Photography via Flickr CC
My “usual suspects” for a pound of hamburger would be tacos, spaghetti and meat sauce, spaghetti and meatballs, chili, or chili spaghetti (aka Cincinnati Chili). I requested that my friends not suggest any of those “usual” ideas.
From Lynette: brown the hamburger – boil and mash 3-4 med to large potatoes – put hamburger in bottom of casserole dish, place 1 can of vegetable beef soup over the hamburger – then place mashed potatoes over that to top off the casserole – then garnish with shredded cheddar cheese – bake at 350 for 30 minutes – yummy
From Lynn: Hamburger stroganoff. Flour, garlic salt, pepper, cream mushroom, sour cream. Over noodles.
From Jeff: Hamburger helper!!
From Pat: Goulash the easy way. Med onion diced, a can of Kidney beans, Macaroni, hamburger, dice or whole canned tomatoes, salt, pepper and basil.
From Rachel: My go-to hamburger easy recipes are pretty basic, but when I don’t feel like doing much they’re perfect. We do hamburger, peas and rice with soy sauce. It’s yummy. Steam the rice, Brown the hamburger, add rice to the drained meat, add in soy sauce, throw in a bag if frozen peas. Easy. Or I do hamburger ramen noodle casserole, a big favorite. Brown hamburger, drain. Add in jar of spaghetti sauce and halve up 4 ramen noodle packs, cover the noodles with the sauce. Use two seasoning packs, add a little less than a cup of water and whatever bag of frozen veggies you have. Corn, peas, mixed veggies, whatever. Simmer for about ten minutes. Add shredded cheese to top and cover so cheese melts. The kids LOVE this one. Or I do hamburger soup – whatever stock or broth I have, browned meat, carrots, potatoes diced, celery, onion, corn, garlic. Season with salt and pepper, soy sauce, basil, a bit of cumin, paprika.
image by Jacob A Walker via Flickr CC. Maid-rite loose meat sandwich.
From Marianne and Stacy: This is the recipe I wanted when I started all of this!1# gr. beef, 1 egg, 3/4t salt, pepper to taste, 1/2c milk, 1c crushed cornflakes, 2T minced onion, 1T Worcestershire, 1-2 cloves garlic. Form into 4 patties, 1″thick. Broil 3-5″ from heat 10-12m, turning halfway through. Addendum from Laura H: To me it has to have cornflakes or it won’t taste like Mom’s… Knowing you like info, I add this. Mom got this from a magazine in the 50’s. It was called Budget Porterhouse Steak . When I wrote out the recipe for the kids, I called it Good Broiled Hamburger.
From Bert: I do a potato bake – brown the burger with a diced onion, add a can of tomato soup, add a lot of raw sliced potatoes. Stir together and bake 375′ for an hour or so…
I really appreciate all the choices and recommendations. Now I have many new ideas for the next few weeks of family dinners, and you do, too!
Linguine Carbonarish by quirkyjazz aka The Tromp Queen
Carbonara usually has eggs and bacon included in the ingredients. This one doesn’t so I’m calling it “Carbonara-ish” or Carbonarish for short.
I have delicious sliced leftover in the freezer from Christmas. I was looking for an idea to use it in a quick dinner tonight.
In one of my cookbooks I saw a recipe for “Hay and Straw.” Number 1: I don’t like the name. Not very appetizing! 2nd: It was kind of plain. But I took the idea, tweaked it quite a bit and made this really good dinner. I declare the recipe “share-worthy” now.
Ingredients:
1 pkg. (16 oz) linguine, cooked al dente
3 cups cooked ham, julienned (I used leftover spiral sliced ham.)
1 T. olive oil and 1 T. butter
1 pkg. cook in the bag in the microwave frozen peas
1 1/2 cups shredded good quality Parmesan cheese
1/2 c. heavy cream (could use half and half)
8 oz. white button mushrooms (sliced)
2 t. butter and 2 t. olive oil
1 t. minced garlic (from a jar is fine or use powder — probably 1/2 t.)
1 t. thyme (or to taste)
salt and pepper to taste as well as additional Parmesan for topping
1. Put a pot of water on for the pasta. Add salt. Turn it up on high. Throw the peas in the microwave, but set it to undercook them slightly. (i.e. 4 min. instead of 5 min. — they will cook later on some more). When the water boils, add the pasta, set the timer for al dente and turn the heat down enough so it doesn’t boil over.
2. I cooked the mushrooms separately because we have a mushroom hater at our house (SARAH!). But I actually think it worked really well in this case, and would probably do it again this way. The last four ingredients are what you need here. In a medium skillet, heat the butter and oil (you don’t have to measure it, but you don’t need a gob). Slice the mushrooms. I admit I rinsed mine off even though I know it isn’t good for them. Tough. I don’t like all that dirt looking stuff hanging on there. Anyway, throw the mushrooms in the hot skillet. Hat the garlic and thyme. Stir everything around and let this cook for the rest of the time you have. Mine got really nicely browned and were very yummy. Be careful not to burn them, though. Stir them every once in a while, but let them sit long enough to get a little brown.
3. While the pasta cooks, dig the ham out of the fridge. Hopefully you remembered to take it out of the freezer yesterday! (YAY! I did!) Slice off any huge blobs of fat, stack the slices and julienne the heck out of it. If you are a precise person you can measure 3 cups of ham slices. If not, just cut up how much you think everyone will eat that night. It’ll be fine!
4. The peas are probably done. Just let them hang out in the microwave until you are ready for them. Get the cheese and cream ready, because it comes together in a flash here at the end.
5. Drain the pasta. Remember to stop it at al dente if you can. Pasta that has no texture is not great to eat. BLAH.
6. You can either use your pasta pan or a very large skillet. Melt the 1 T. butter with the 1 T. olive oil. Add the julienned ham. Stir it around til it is hot but not so long that it gets dry and yukky. Just heat it through. (You can work on the ham while the pasta is cooking if all goes well, but I had a small gray cat trying to poke her head up onto the table, and I had already dropped a mushroom earlier which was still rolling around under the table, and then …. well, you get the idea). Grab the peas and add them to the ham in the skillet. Throw on the shredded parmesan (save some for on top or use extra). Pour in the cream. Stir it all together and mix it as well as you can. I used my wonderful stainless steel pasta fork. It will not be an easy job, but hang in there. Everyone can stir it again when they serve themselves so don’t get obsessed.
7. Yell, “Dinner’s ready!”
Ideas to make it healthier: Add more kinds of veggies. Use whole wheat pasta. Make a roux and thicken milk to use instead of the cream. Use less cheese.
The whole thing from start to finish took less than 30 minutes. I’m ready for my TV show!
The Tromp Queen COOKS! 