Grandpa's Home Cooking

Cream Cheese, Cucumber, & Red Bell Pepper on Pecan Raisin Bread

Goodness, how delicious!

Get inventive. This sandwich idea popped into my head today as I thought about all of the possible sandwich ingredients in our kitchen. I could eat like this all of the time. And I now do, since I put away the habit of eating greasy burgers and picked up on the idea of eating foods that are both healthy and delicious.

Just look in your fridge and bread box and bring together the best ingredients!

Ingredients:

• Raisin & pecan bread (you can find it, but if not, bake your own. It's worth it!)
• Cream cheese
• Cucumber slices 
• Red bell pepper slices

This sandwich is so delicious you do not need a dressing.

Note: Out of Bell pepper? Got some nice fresh peaches? Slice 'em and use them. Try a big slice of a beautiful tomato from your garden.

Instructions:

Just make one of these great sandwiches and enjoy! Spread the cheese thickly on the bread. Add the cucumber slices, and bell pepper slices, and top it off!

 

 

 

 

Cukes & Onions and Tomatoes Are In

Nothin' could be fina than sittin' down to eat Grandpas cukes n' onions and a big ol' tomato fresh from the garden on a summer's eve. If you're like me, you'll want more love. So I'd serve some other garden treats like hot corn on the cob drippin' with butter and salted well, and while you're at it, why slide not a pan of slo-roasted vegetables on the table.  This is a garden love feast. Serve it all up with a pitcher of sweet iced tea. You're looking at a gallon jug of cukes & onions that I can pull out of our refrigerator for a great instant meal side.

You'll find my cukes and onions recipe, dated just over a year ago, June 7, 2010, in my category for Side Dishes. Just look at my blog Category List in the right column of the blog and click on side dishes. Then scroll down until you come to the cukes and onions recipe. Also look at the Cottage Cheese Farm Salad recipe which follows the Cukes & Onions recipe. Cottage Cheese Farm Salad also includes fresh summer cucumbers and tomatoes.

I've constructed this blog to be just like a cookbook so that you can easily find recipes I've posted in the past. This is a recipe you don't want to forget!

Put a crock of cukes & onions on your table for lunch and supper. They offer goodness and a fresh bright taste to every meal. Add them to your salads. Eat them for a snack. 

It's a great time to visit your local farmers market and stock up on wonderful fresh produce.

Monet’s Soup: Potage à la Dauphine

First I will share with you a little retro scene brought up to date in today's real world. I will then share the recipe. Then I will present the Mrs. verdict. Did she like the soup? And finally, I will present a picture of our kitty, Frisky, who is always nearby and sniffing when grandpa is cooking.

Some of you folk may recall a classic 1940s or 1950s scene between a husband and wife. George comes home from the foundry, swinging his lunch pail and smiling broadly as he climbs the steps of 'his' old front porch. He greets Florence with a peck on the cheek, and he says, “Hi Honey, I'm starving, what’s for supper?” The wife trembles a bit, smiles, and fearfully replies “I’ve cooked something new to surprise you George.” His smile disappears and he says, “Like, what?” Florence announces her special creation. And George raises his nose and gives her a :-(,

Now here's an up-to-date 2011 version of this old story brought to life. The husband is the cook.

My wife comes to the front porch to greet me this morning before going to work. I was sitting in an old fashioned, 1940's style  white wicker chair, and I was looking at Monet’s cookbook. I cautiously said, “Hey, sweetheart, I’m going to make you a very special Monet soup for our supper. It will be great with a wonderful spinach salad and a glass of chilled Pinot Grigio on what will be a very hot night.” Nancy’s big smile gives way to a questioning look :-? She deadpans, “Uh, what kind of soup, Ross?” I gave her my big smile and said ... "It's a Claude Monet soup ... it's his Potage à la Dauphine!"

"What kind of soup, Ross:-?"

"Oooh ...  ees what will be a wonderful cream of turnip soup :-!"

The Mrs. wrinkles her nose way up and gives me one of these replies: :-(, 

A discussion follows and Grandpa agrees to a modification. He will add brocolli florets to jazz up the taste a bit, to give the soup more flavor. Here's the recipe and then I will tell you the outcome. Does the Mrs. like the soup?

Ingredients:

• 6-8 small white turnips (about 1 1 /4 pounds)
• 1 & 1/2 quarts of water
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut in slices to ease melting (1 stick)
• 2 cups of light cream half & half, or 1/2 cup salted butter, cut in slices (I used half & half)
• 1-2 cups of broccoli florets (the Mrs. idea, optional)
• Salt, pepper, & garlic powder to taste*

(*Combine 1 cup of salt, 1/4th cup of black pepper, and 1/4th cup of garlic powder in a jar. Cap the top and shake. Use your fingers to sprinkle the seasoning mix. Keep your jar handy and use the seasoning mix often.)

Instructions:

Cut off the leaf and root. Scrap and wash the turnips well. You may want to use a potato peeler to take off the outer skin. Put the turnips in a pot with 1 & 1/2 quarts of water and the 1/4 cup of the sliced butter. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes or until the turnips crush easily. 

Strain and reserve the liquid. Use a potato masher to puree the turnips. Pour the liquid back over the turnips. Put the pot back on a very low heat. While the liquid and puree'd turnips are reheating, add the half & half, cream, or butter slices. Stir until the mixture is smooth. Do not let the soup boil. Season the soup with the mix of salt, pepper, and garlic powder and taste:-)  (so that you'll know how Monet tasted the soup!) Then, if you wish to do as the spouse suggests, add the brocolli florets and keep the pot simmering until the brocolli is soft and the soup is hot. Serve with the pride you feel when you have prepared a special dish for your love. 

Serve the soup with a big spinach salad and with artisan French bread and butter. Claude Monet wanted a soup served at the beginning of every meal. 

The verdict: "It's very good!" 

And finally, here's a picture of our kitty, Frisky, with her tongue out!  

Grandpa's Fresh, Delicious Chicken Salad

There are not many foods that are quite as good as fresh chicken salad sandwiches on a hot summer day.  Pick and chop chicken from the chicken not eaten the night before and bring together the goodness of the chicken, chopped hardboiled eggs, chopped fresh celery, sweet pickle relish, and salad dressing. Spread the salad on fresh artisan bread and serve the sandwich with sweet ice tea for a happy and delicious lunch.

There are many taste options. Use rotisserie chicken with the nicely seasoned skin which adds flavor to the salad. Chop fried chicken with the seasoned and fried skin for a different taste experience. Use whatever you have and go ahead and chop the skin into the salad as well. Some people will not use the skin because the skin is rich in fat. I use it because the seasoned skin is also rich in flavor. Fix it the way you want it.

Choose varities of bread to suit your taste. I love chicken salad on slices of fresh Great Harvest round white. Nancy's choice is to make her sandwich on fresh, Great Harvest honey wheat. What a great taste you'll experience when you spread your freshly made chicken salad on slices of Great Harvest or other artisan bread. Try using Jewish rye, crusty Italian, sourdough, French, or whatever kind of bread you like. I wonder though, why anyone would still be buying rack (sponge bread, such as Wonder bread) when there are so many choices of fresh baked artisan breads that are available and reasonable. 

I'm not limited to a single recipe of chicken salad. The thrust of this posting is for you to use the ingredients you have on hand and/or to use the ingredients that please you. And while your at it, select some additional ingredients that add flavor.

For example, I love to add apple juice infused dried cranberries when I have them. I also use dried cherrys, raisins, walnuts, pecans, etc. You want a real treat. Chop some California dried apricots into your chicken salad. You might want stir in some fresh blueberries. Or for a real bright taste chop in some chilled seedless green grapes. Put a leaf of lettuce on the sandwich one day and use fresh basil leaves on another day. I love sweet pickle relish and I generally use it as an ingredient in the chicken salad to brighten the taste, but one might like to occasionally use dill pickle relish. Whatever ingredients I add, however, it suits me to make sure the flavor of the chicken, eggs, and celery come through clearly.

Ingredients (The ones I used  for today's chicken salad -- Use what you have available.)

• Rotisserie chicken w/seasoned skin, chopped (I used half of a chicken)
• Hard boiled eggs, chopped (I used 6 today, but less or more is okay)
• Fresh celery, chopped (I chopped 4 stalks; I like to use a lot of celery)
• Sweet pickle relish (I used a half of a small bottle and a little extra sweet pickle juice)
• Mayonnaise (Use just enough to hold the salad together)
• Iceberg lettuce (to dress the put on the sandwiches

Use what you have and/or use more or less ingredients than I to suit your taste.

Instructions:

Mix all of the ingredients and stir in only enough mayonnaise for the mixture to hold together. Grab two slices of preash bread. Lay a leaf of fresh Iceberg lettuce, or multiple leaves of gourmet salad greens, or fresh basil leaves or whatever salad green you have available on one slice of the bread. Spoon on and spread a good amount of your best fresh chicken salad on the other slice of bread. Top off the sandwich with the green and top piece of the bread. Plate. Add chips or another side of your choice. Pour a delicious summer drink. Take your food to a cool spot and sit down and enjoy your lunch.

Alternatives:

• Stuff a big red ripe tomato with your chicken salad.
• Put leafs of lettuce on a plate and pile chicken salad on top.
• Add slices of avacado to your sandwich or salad plate.

Fixes:

Oh my. Is your celery a little limp? Fill a big bowl halfway with ice cubes. Add water. Plunge the celery you have in the icy water and let it rehabilitate for an hour or so. Then remove the celery from the ice water and chop it.

It's 11:58 a.m. I'm going to fix a delicious chicken salad sandwich for my lunch!

Roasted Poblano Pepper and Corn Chowder

This is a really nice soup with just enough warmth to soothe your soul.  It is gentle. You need not worry about it being too spicy. It contains wonderful ingredients and has a rich  taste. Serve Roasted Poblano Pepper and Corn Chowder as a meal or to compliment a meal. It is so good that the people at your table are likely to eat the entire pot of soup in one setting.

Double or triple the recipe to serve it to a crowd. This is a terrific soup to serve to a group.

Ingredients:

• 1-2 Tbsp butter
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 ½ -2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
• 2 red potatoes, diced with skin on
• ¼ tsp cumin
• 1/8 tsp red pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 14.5 oz cans cream style corn
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 8 oz. cream cheese, cut in pieces
• 1 large poblano pepper, roasted, peeled, and diced*

* To roast the pablano pepper: Cut off the top of the pepper and take out all of the seeds. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet about six inches under broiler. Broil on each side for about 5-6 minutes. The skin should be blistered. Remove the pepper from oven and wrap it in the foil. Put the foil/pepper in a zip-topped bag and let it rest for at least 10 minutes. When you're ready to make the soup, unwrap the foil and peel the skin off of the pepper. Then dice the pepper pulp.

Instructions:

Melt butter in soup pot, add onion, and sauté until tender. Add 1 ½ cup vegetable or chicken broth and diced red potatoes and seasonings. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10-12 minutes until the potatoes begin to get tender. Add the cream corn and evaporated milk. Simmer another 10-12 minutes. Add the cream cheese and the diced poblano pepper. Stir and heat until the cream cheese is melted, and the soup is hot (but not boiling). Serve this soup with tortilla chips or a good crusty artisan bread.

This soup will become a favorite!

Avocado, Cream Cheese, & Tomato Sandwich

Here's another healthy, delicious sandwich served with a dish of sweet watermelon for a great lunch. Make the sandwich at home and eat it at home, or make it and pack it for your lunch at work. This sandwich combines wonderful ingredients including artisan bread, cream cheese, lettuce, tomato, and slices of fresh avocado.

Cover two slices of fresh baked artisan bread with cream cheese. On the bottom slice of the sandwich layer fresh lettuce, a big slice of a fresh tomato, and slices of fresh avocado. Top with the other slice of bread that you spread with cream cheese. Serve with chunks of fresh watermelon or canteloupe and a tall glass of sweet iced tea or water and you'll enjoy a perfect lunch.

It is not difficult to prepare the avocodo. Pick one that is slightly soft. It's ripe. Run a sharp knife around the vegetable lengthwise. Hold the avocodo with both hands, with the cut visable between your hands, and twist and pull the ripe fruit open. Remove and discard the large seed. Then use your knife to peel off and discard the skin, leaving the beautiful ripe fruit to slice on your sandwich, in a salad, or to make Guacomole.

Fabulous Sandwiches On 2 Buns

Hey Joe, don't call 'em Sloppy. Try Fabulous! Put this elegant meat and vegetables with sauce combination between the two halves of a hamburger bun, plate it, and dine on gourmet. This gourmet burger will expose the ahhh ... industry standard fast food sandwich ... to be the awful cardboard burgers they are. You must also know this meat and vegetable with sauce ... provides 2 fabulous sandwich options. For the second option, trying spooning this gourmet burger combination on a hot dog tucked into a delicious bun and WOW ... the kids and adults will go nuts. Plate up either or both sandwiches with chips (the one that you can't eat just one) and an ice cold diet cherry Pepsi and ...  ♫Do da, do da ...shake on over here with another of those super sandwiches♫

But. Wait a minute. Add an optional can of pinto beans to the recipe and kick this dish up at least one notch. You can still serve the combo on sandwich buns or plate some as a meat dish.

An added attraction: Dip into your Seasoning Jar and dust a little seasoning on top of your meat and sauce. (The Seasoning Jar is a canning jar containing a mix of 1 cup of salt, 1/4th cup of coarse black pepper, and 1/4th cup of garlic powder.)

Yes! Your family will love this meal. This meal could become a Friday night special!

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 pound of 80/20 ground chuck (leaner if you like, but a little fats good)
• 1 medium size yellow or white onion, chopped to provide large chunks (see photo above)
• 1 medium size green bell pepper, chopped to provide large chunks (see photo above)
• 1 can pinto beans, drained of juice (optional)
• 1 can (15.5 oz) Hunt's Manwich Sauce (also contains vegetables)
• Hamburger and/or hot dog buns
• Cooked hot dogs (optional to provide 2 sandwich choices)

Instructions:

Brown the beef in a sauté skillet. Drain off the grease. I put a large colander in the sink and pour or spoon the burger into the colander. Momentarily set the cooked meat aside.

Use the same skillet to lightly sauté  the onions and green peppers. (Look at the picture above. You want the vegetables to be large chunks and lookin' good when you return the beef to the skillet.) Return the meat to the skillet and use a spatula to mix the beef and vegetables well.

Season the meat and vegetables with salt, coarse black pepper, and garlic powder (use the combined seasonings from your mixed seasoning jar ... refer to the above). 

Spoon the meat, vegetables, and sauce on sandwich buns. Serve immediately. 

Country Ham, Bean, & Collard Greens Soup

Here's comfort for a cold winters night. Tasty. Nutritious. And just plain good, with rich flavor, warmth, and goodness for your body. It's easy to make. You'll wish to have enough of this soup to provide at least two meals. You can use regular ham, but I like to make it with country ham. If you can't find a slice of country ham at your grocer (and you probably won't), go on out to the Cracker Barrel country store on I-Whatever. I expect you'll find a slice there. Either way, country ham or city ham, this soup's good.

As for the beans, Emeril Lagasse convinced me that canned beans are good. But if you want to mess around picking through and soaking dried beans, go right ahead.

Ingredients:

• *2 Cans of white beans (Great Northern or Cannellini will do the trick) 
• 1/2 pound country ham cut into 1/4" x 1" pieces (Put your ruler away. You want small pieces)
• 1 Yellow onion, diced into small pieces
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic (Don't you leave this goodness out!)
• 6 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 4 cups of chicken broth
• 8 oz fresh Collard Greens (Yeah, you can use spinach, arugula, or even mustard greens)
• Salt and pepper to taste (If you use country ham, you may only need add black pepper)

* If it makes you feel better, soak 1/2 pound of dried Great Northern beans over night and use them in place of canned beans. 1/2 pound of dry beans equals 2 cans of cooked beans and vice versa:-)

Heat the olive oil in a heavy soup pot over medium high heat. I like to use my cast-iron Dutch oven to make soup. Add the onion, garlic, and thyme. Stir good to combine and saute the ingredients for 6-8 minutes. The onions ought to be translucent (and not burned brown). Add the beans, ham, and chicken stock and simmer until the beans are tender, but not mushy. Now add your greens and continue to simmer the soup until the greens are wilted. 

Serve your soup with fresh cornbread. Grandma made a pan of fresh pan o'cornbread for our supper. It goes so well with this soup!

Rev. Stephanie's Chicken Salad

Grandpa made this very special chicken salad using daughter Rev. Stephanie Curran's recipe and the outstanding butter roasted chicken prepared by daughter Marta Pipes! How can you beat a deal like this? Marta cooked dinner last night and we enjoyed her buttered chicken roasted with pearl onions, potatoes, and carrots. Today I used the leftover chicken to prepare chicken salad.

Ingredients:

• Slices of fresh-baked bread
• Cold chicken, with skin removed and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 3/4 cup celery, chopped
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/3 cup dried tart cherries
• Mayonnaise or plain whole-milk yogurt (or half mayonnaise and half yogurt) 

Instructions:

Take the skin off of leftover cold chicken and cut it into bite-size chunks. Put the chicken in a mixing bowl. Add chopped celery, chopped walnuts, and dried tart cherries. Slowly add mayonnaise until the ingredients hold together as chicken salad. Spread a little mayonnaise on slices of fresh bread, and make a sandwich using a healthy layer of the chicken salad. You’ll never taste better chicken salad!

You have pecans instead of walnuts or dried apricots instead of cherries? Use what you have. If you have dried apricots, I hope they are from California. They may not be as big and pretty as Mediterranean dried apricots, but they taste better. Or use fresh tart apples if this is what you have, and they will be good too. Just make sure you try this chicken salad made with dried tart cherries and walnuts. You can buy dried tart cherries at Whole Foods.

Bison Dog and Diamond Ruby

Here's a great combination. A bison hot dog and a great baseball novel that is closely based on a true story. Get in the mood for a great ball park frank while you read this beautifully written book, Diamond Ruby, by Joseph Wallace.

The story brings to life the history of the early 1900s, including the effects of the great influenza plague in New York City, the Coney Island amusement park, prohibition rumrunners, the Klu Klux Klan, the gangster underworld, and the sports legends Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Jack Dempsy. Best of all, you'll get to know the story of Ruby Lee Thomas, a sensational female pitcher on the otherwise all male Brooklyn Typhoons professional baseball team. This woman could throw the baseball as hard or harder than men. The minor league Typhoons played an exposition game against the New York Yankees and Diamond Ruby struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. You can imagine how she suffered in the 1920s at the hands of men who didn't want a woman to be a part of professional baseball. 

Now that you're in the mood, pick up some bison hot dogs from Whole Foods and make yourself what is bound to become the new ball park frank. You can already buy them at Wrigley Field in Chicago and of course, at the Buffalo Bison's ball Park. I like them better than all beef franks.

Ingredients:

• Bison hot dogs 
• Hot dog buns
• Cucumbers, sliced thin
• Vidalia onions, sliced thin
• Tomatoes, sliced
• Banana peppers
• Mustard

Instructions:

Heat bison dogs in hot water as you would beef franks. Use your tongs to pick the hot dog from the pan and tuck it in a hot dog bun. Add your favorite toppings. I like dress to dress my dogs with mustard, cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes. Sit down and enjoy what is sure to become a new American treasure. Bison hot dogs are reported to be much lower in fat than beef hot dogs and not stuffed with additives and fillers. Can you imagine something this good coming from a buffalo?

Yes, I was this close!

© Photo by Ross Lee Pipes 2008, 2009  

Kosher Corned Beef and Frank on Rye

My father, a good Protestant, introduced our family to the pleasures of great Jewish food. For this sandwich, you need kosher franks and slices of kosher corned beef. You can buy the ingredients at a Jewish deli. If you do not have a Jewish deli near you, you can find the ingredients at a quality grocery. 

Ingredients:

• Corned beef, warmed at 285 degrees for 20 or 30 minutes
• Kosher frank, boiled and hot, sliced lengthwise
• Your favorite mustard
• Slices of Jewish bakery rye bread
• Kosher dill pickle spears
• Mustard
• Potato chips
• Ice cold root beer (diet for me, nowadays)

Instructions:

Spread your favorite mustard on a slice of Jewish rye bread. Layer the warm corned beef slices on the bread, and top the meat with a piping hot kosher frank. Spread mustard on the remaining slice of bread, and then top off and plate the sandwich. Add a kosher pickle and chips to your plate. Enjoy your lunch with an ice cold root beer. 

Here is my father, Lloyd, my mother, Charlotte, my older brother, Jerry, and me, Ross Pipes, in 1953 in front of the Benjamin Harrison home in Indianapolis.

Healthy Sandwiches Inspired by the English

You don't have to be a vegetarian to enjoy a meatless lunch. In fact, you might actually enjoy a fresh vegetarian offering. You might find Grandpa's Cotswolds sandwiches to be a refreshing change. 

You can make your sandwiches using my ingredients or you can invent your own. Let's start with a classic English Cotswolds sandwich.

English Cotswolds sandwich

Ingredients:

• Slices of freshly baked bread
• Frissee, arugula, lettuces, or alfalfa sprouts
• Hard boiled eggs, sliced thin (use an egg slicer)
• Cucumbers, sliced thin
• Salt and pepper to taste
• A yogurt spread like Brummel & Brown or your favorite dressing

You might want to bake some English muffin bread for your sandwiches using the recipe from the bread section of my cooking blog. "Oh, chip-chip and all that sort o' rot. Tis very good mate!"  

Instructions

Construct your sandwich by layering the ingredients on fresh bread. Add salt and pepper to taste. Spread your favorite dressing, soft butter, or a healthier butter-like yogurt on your bread. I like Brummel & Brown spread. You might like this product if your physician has suggested that you quit using butter and margarine. It tastes good!

If you like, add one of my special sides to your plate. Then sit in your lovely garden or a park to eat your sandwich; or, lacking a scenic place, imagine that you are out in the country walking, or that you're sitting on the grass next to grazing sheep, or on one of the stone walls that separate property in the English countryside. Eat your sandwich in peace!

 Bah!

We ate lunch in the Cotswolds, near the village of Broadway, at the edge of this pasture.

Muesli bread, cheese, and vegetable sandwich

Ingredients:

• Slices of fresh whole-grain muesli bread
• Lettuces
• Provolone cheese rounds
• Heirloom tomato slices
• Rings of thinly sliced green bell pepper
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Your favorite dressing, soft butter, or yogurt spread

Instructions:

Make your sandwich and graze with the sheep! Bring a bottle of ale, water, or wine to sip while you enjoy your sandwich. "Oh pip-pip!"

Cucumber, radish, watercress, and goat cheese sandwich

Ingredients

• Soft fresh goat cheese
• Watercress strips
• Radishes, thinly sliced
• Sea salt and pepper
• A drizzle of earthly truffle oil

Instructions:

Make a sandwich of goat cheese, watercress, and radishes. Sprinkle the ingredients with a bit of truffle oil, sea salt, and ground pepper. Put your sandwich, a cherry tart, and a split of white wine in your shoulder bag and you're good to go! Sit on a step at Monument Circle in Indianapolis, in Lincoln Park in Chicago, on the grass near Big Ben in London, or in a park near you, and eat in peace!

Invent your own!:

Just think of the possibilities for inventing your own healthy sandwich as you peruse the selection of produce at a Whole Foods Store, a Fresh Market, or at a local farmer's market. Then too, I love thinly sliced hard boiled eggs on my sandwich, or a side of deviled eggs to add a bit of protein to my lunch. Suit yourself, though, it's your invention!

We enjoy setting the table with a platter of beautiful ingredients and let everyone invent their own by selecting the ingredients that appeal to them. Some might like to use fresh-baked whole grain bread from a local bakery. My wife, Nancy, loves these sandwiches on my homemade English muffin bread. I'm about to give you the recipe, for I think you'll agree that sandwiches made with this bread are fabulous!

 English Cotswolds Buffet! 

You'll find an amazing array of possible ingredients at your supermarket. Ours offers local goat cheese in rolls, as well as containers of Provencal goat cheese, brie, and a variety of other soft cheeses which are ideal for English Cotswolds sandwiches. You may also like to use sundried tomatoes packed in olive oil and found in jars at your market. Look around the produce, grocery, and cheese departments and you'll discover a wonderful selection of food to make healthy and delicious sandwiches.

The recipe for English Muffin Bread will be found in the bread section of my cookbook.

© 2010

 

Introduction to Lunch

Grandpa's lunch in Paris, circa 1992

 

A

s you can see, I was well fed by the time I got to Paris. But fresh in my memory is the food of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s at home in Indianapolis.

I loved the delicious food we made from farm-fresh produce, fruit, meat, butter, eggs, cheese, spices, and staples we bought at the original Indianapolis City Market, the farmer’s truck market, Lay’s Market, and various ethnic and European-style markets.

 

Throughout my childhood we bought groceries from independent stores, at stands in wonderful old buildings, and from the back ends of trucks full of fresh fruit and produce. I loved the autumn apple harvest, during which we went out to Marvin Norton’s orchard and picked big Jonathon and Golden Delicious apples from his special trees. Then we’d go into his barn and drink apple cider fresh from the press. Then too, his wife, Audrey Norton, would sell us pints of fresh cream.

Our favorite place to shop in my formative years was the original City Market. There is a new City Market in Indianapolis, but it’s not the same as the old market where the stands were operated by new immigrants in the European way. There was always an aroma of ripe vegetables and fruits, kosher delis, and exotic spices. Sometimes you can’t replace what’s gone. Thankfully, farmer’s markets offer a way to experience old traditions.

We generally had a little lunch at one of the remarkable City Market food stands that offered home-cooked European foods. Then we’d commence our shopping, starting with the fruit and produce stands. Mom’s heavy cloth shopping bags were near full by the time we headed to the meat stands.

We finished our shopping at Harry Simon’s farm-fresh butter and egg stand, where we’d shoot the breeze and buy Harry’s hand-paddled butter and just-laid eggs. Harry was a giant of an old German whose big hands worked hard at paddling the butter and scooping it into paper cartons. Then he’d wrap the carton up in butcher paper and tie a string around it just before you slid it into your shopping bag.

I loved watching immigrant stand-holders as they arranged fresh produce, creating displays that enticed you to stop and buy. How could you not stop at an entire table of fresh red-ripe strawberries carefully arranged in wood quart baskets? Beautiful arrangements of fresh red stalks of rhubarb positioned near the strawberries would have me salivating for a slice of Mom’s just-baked strawberry-rhubarb pie. “Yes, please put a dollop of French vanilla ice cream on top of my warm pie!” 

I was first exposed to the old Indianapolis City Market during secret excursions with my Grandpa, William Obediah Pipes. Old folks in our family called him Willie. Dad called his father George just because that’s what he liked to call him. I called him Grandpa.

Grandma Pipes didn’t allow Grandpa to have pie because she said it was bad for his ulcers. But Grandpa and I didn’t let this get in our way. We’d sneak off and go to the City Market to get some anyway. Grandma rarely asked where we were headed, and Grandpa never offered the information. We’d just walk away from 2020 N. Harding Street, where I guess all of us lived at one point in time, and head toward 16^th Street. There I’d look up at the beautiful ivy-covered brick walls of the original Victory Field, where the Indianapolis Indians played baseball. The Indians were then the Cleveland Indians farm team.

On our excursions, I often asked Grandpa if we could go to a game there. He generally answered, “I ‘spect son…but you know, if you were to stand behind one of those brick walls and catch a ball, you could then take it to the box office and get in for free. But maybe we could pay an admission one of these days and see a game together.” I ended up seeing a lot of regular and exhibition games there with some of the greatest ball players of the time.

“Let’s cross the street and catch an electric streetcar, Grandpa,” I’d say, looking forward to the ride. I already knew we’d be on our way to the City Market to have some homemade pie.

Printed with permission from Bass Photo Co Collection, Indiana Historical Society

Once at the market, we’d sit on low stools at a special stand, and a woman who seemed to know Grandpa would ask, “What kind o’ pie you boys want today?” We generally ate two pieces each before we rose from the stool to get a streetcar home. “This is just between us boys, son,” Grandpa would say as we climbed up the steps and found a seat on one of those great old public conveyances that operated from the power of overhead electric wires. 

Grandpa Willie and my Great Grandma Margaret See (on Mom’s side of the family) nurtured within me the love of good food and the joy of eating. It was Great Grandma See who taught me to cook.  I used to sit on a tall stool by her elbow and ask her questions as I watched her cook. She always patiently answered my questions as she encouraged me to cook.

Grandpa Willie’s wife, my Grandmother Mary McKeon Pipes, emigrated here from Scotland. She talked nonstop, it seemed, while she was sewing. I’d sit right next to her at her old machine as she made the prettiest aprons you ever saw, aprons that I’d go out and sell door-to-door for a dollar. That was a lot of money in the 1940s, but, when I’d open the box of Grandma’s aprons, housewives would start digging for their dollars. The apron box was always empty when I went back to the house and handed Grandma the money.

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he radio would generally be playing softly in the background while she was sewing. Grandma and I would always pause our talking to listen to the world news as reported by Walter Winchell, Gabriel Heater, and Paul Harvey. (Years later, in Chicago, I was thrilled to run into Paul Harvey, on North Michigan Avenue.) I can still remember Winchell’s distinctive voice as he reported on the day’s events in the World War II. "Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. North and South America and all the ships at sea, let's go to press..." 

Grandma often talked about the world news and her notions of how current events mirrored her understanding of prophesies written in the Bible. Before I heard of the coming of television, Grandma told me it was coming. Then she’d talk about her prophetic notion that television would be a powerful demon that would lead people to more sinning than we could imagine. Grandma prophesied there would be television ministers who would be fakes with a motive of grabbing people’s money and lining their pockets. She likened them to be foxes in sheep’s clothing. Grandma told me of all this long before it became a reality. She was so smart she sometimes scared me.

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ou’ll read a lot more about the good old days as you work your way through this cookbook and others that I’m writing. But before I serve up recipes of some of the great food we fixed when I was a boy, I want you to know this old boy is up to date and now fixing up some healthy lunches too. 

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et’s start with some healthy lunch recipes, because health seems to be on everyone’s mind nowadays. Stay tuned for my next post!

© 2010