Shoestring Gourmet – Fry me in hot butter some scrapple! |
For October, we had a wonderful Sunday brunch on the patio at the lovely home of Linda and Jerry Brazelton. We started off with mimosas (orange juice and champagne) followed by Ray Pisar’s very creative mini-eggs benedict, made with his own miniature English muffins, poached quail eggs, and hollandaise sauce. What a startling visual presentation! These were accompanied by my gravlax (Scandinavian sugar-cured salmon) with dill mustard sauce.
We then helped ourselves to Marilyn McDonald’s Moosewood apple pancakes with ricotta cheese sauce, Linda’s colorful fruit salad, and Syd Golston’s fluffy French toast with powdered sugar and Natchez Trace molasses (a lighter version than the blackstrap variety). Diana Toone then served her savory, crispy mini-quiches. Jerry opened the barbecue grill to reveal Schreiner’s apple sausages and bangers (British sausages) he’d been slow-grilling. (Schreiner’s apple sausage is truly magical. It vanishes instantly as soon as it’s served. ncredible stuff.)
However, dessert was the most exquisite course of the meal: Diana presented her picture- and palate-perfect chocolate cake with silky butter-cream frosting and a dark, lustrous chocolate glaze, decorated with red roses and chocolate leaves. As the supreme accompaniment to Diana’s sinful confection, Jerry poured a wonderful Barton & Guestier 1995 Bordeaux. (Have you ever tried dark chocolate with a robust red wine? Orgasmic.)
Sigh!
November is Pennsylvania Dutch (Amish) at the Gores’! Shoo fly and pot pie and smooth apple butter, scrapple and bean soup put taste buds a-flutter! These are a few of my favorite things. (Whatever.)
If you don’t have any Amish recipes, we have plenty. This is a Shoestring favorite we haven’t revisited for a few years.
By the way, if you want to find out what real pot pie is, the pot pie of my German-American childhood, join us. Pot pie isn’t that silly frozen thing with the crust on it. Did you ever ask yourself where the pot is in the Swanson version? (Hey, maybe it’s got cannabis in it.) Real pot pie is prepared all in a stew pot. The "crust" consists of big, square egg noodles, in the pot. Hence the term pot pie. There’s no outer crust. You don’t bake it That’s a regular pie. This is pot pie. Repeat after me: regular pie, pot pie.
Dinner will be served on Saturday, November 13. We’ll gather at 6, eat at 7. Please contact me at 480-831-2170 (or jlmorgan@amug.org) or Ursula at 602-863-9648 (or agore@primenet.com) by Thursday, November 11, to make your reservations and coordinate your contributions.
Gutes Essen!