In her early days as a homemaker, all of the recipes were hand written, from scratch creations, some coming from her grandmother’s collection and a few dear friends.  These friends, like mom, were women in their mid twenties during the early 1970′s, experimenting with new meals and various recipe concoctions utilizing their husbands and relatives as the test audience.  Julia Child and Betty Crocker were in en vogue as the reigning recipe queens of the day. The industrial food movement was gaining enormous influence across the nation as smaller food manufacturers’ brands were being purchased by large corporate interests and marketed heavily in every popular women’s publication of the day.  This is where the Johnston’s original “Ready Bake” pie crust becomes Keebler and increasingly the recipe collection turns to a lot of cutout, quick preparation type guides provided by the likes of Kraft, Borden, Bakers, Hershey’s, Jell-O, Campbell’s, and Pillsbury amongst others.  Makes sense too, as she moved into the 1980′s with 2 small children, less time and undoubtedly a smaller budget, the day-to-day meals had to be manageable in amongst the rigors of schedules.  The from scratch dishes became more and more of a focus at the holidays and special occasion meals.

The family vacations of the 1990′s brought about recipes that were hand written on the back of Disney World Hotel receipts, B&B recipes, NYT magazine recipe reviews and the first email recipe copies found in the collection sent from those same girlfriends of the 70′s, whom now proved to be lifelong culinary friends.  With the advent of the new millennium the recipe collection shows signs of my youngest siblings influence with recipe copies from their favorite restaurants and TV cooking shows.  Mom’s recipes are no longer handwritten but rather shiny, printed card stock editions from various cookbook clubs and online resources.

I have quickly discovered today that assembling this collection of recipes, into a cookbook format that accurately chronicles and gives credit where due, is going to be a pleasurable trip down memory lane……and I am starving!

When shopping for greens purchase those that are crisp and dark green, with no signs of moist spots, yellowing, and limpness.  Wash the greens in cold water and store wrapped in a damp towel or plastic bag for 2-3 days in the crisper section of your refrigeration unit. By making minor variations in the cooking methods of this recipe, I substituted any one of the fore mentioned greens as the star of the menu show with minimal additional effort.  The larger the leaves, the more aged the greens and they will need a longer cooking time; while a smaller tender leaf could be simply sauteed and enjoyed with out extensive braising.  I’m a proud pork lover and I always use it as a condiment in the dish with the greens for that salty, pig goodness.

I have found that preparing this recipe twice a week has enabled me to have a versatile prepared dish, packed with vitamins and minerals, low in saturated fat, and over the top with flavor profile.  I have applied this dish to stuffing proteins, added to starch dishes such as pasta and rice, served it as a vegetable side, dumped it into soup, and definitely served it as the stand alone main event dish.  I feature Kale in the recipe here because it was the most recent adaption, by far my favorite and the greens are farmed not far across the Mason-Dixon line at http://www.richardsonfarms.net in White Marsh, MD.

2 TBSP   Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 bu      Kale (preferrably Eastern)

1 small  Spanish Onion, julienne cut

1 oz     Peppered Hard Salami, julienne cut (sub prosciutto, pancetta, bacon or ham if you wish)

1/4 c    Sun-dried Tomato, julienne cut

1/4 c    Apple Cider or that leftover sweet White Wine that has been sitting in your fridge since December

1 Tbsp  Your favorite Vinegar!

Salt and Pepper to taste

Garnish Options and Ideas:  Scoop of fresh Ricotta, shaved or grated aged cheese

Wash, pat dry and chop the desired greens. Pre-heat oil in a heavy duty cast iron braising or saute pan over medium heat and add the onion, salami and saute for two minutes.  Add the DRY greens sauteing for an additional 2 minutes, cover between stirring every 20-30 seconds.  Reduce burner heat to low, add cider or wine and cover braising for approximately 4 minutes.  Turn off the heat and leave covered allowing additional cooking to occur for another 4 minutes.

Uncover, stir and season to taste.  Dish will keep for 4-5 days in the refrigerator and the greens will retain their crispness and endure a second reheating for a future service.  As winter winds down, take advantage of these great ingredients, because they should be the star of the vegetable world during winter.

At the mere mention of the question, “what’s for dinner?”, my inner culinary confidence shutters and then reaches for the panic button.  The young appetites whom pose the question to me night after night happen to be the toughest, most unforgiving critics that I have ever cooked for…..our 8 and 10 year old sons.  I’m all for understanding your diners’ preferences and expectations, but the process of agreeing on a dinner menu in our household, has reached the point of needing a general counsel, judge and jury.  Now I find some solace in the fact that this conflict goes beyond my meal preparations, extending into decisions regarding the question “WHERE do we eat dinner?”  I have relieved some of the tension recently by introducing rock, paper, scissors and drawing names out of a hat to fairly and objectively come to a dinner location decision.  But even these tactics have been criticized as imperfect, because as fate would have it, I’m really lucky with both rock, paper, scissors and drawing MY restaurant selections out of a hat.

So here we are, Super Bowl Sunday, we have not even finished breakfast and out comes the youngest with the “what’s for dinner Dad? Probably something nasty again?”  I fired right back.  ”What would YOU like to make?”  ”Chili” he says, “some chips and dip, and a vegetable platter…..you know Super Bowl party food.”  Wow, that was almost easy.  All this time I have contemplated grocery lists, nutritional needs, variety, fun plate presentations, health and wellness, budget, what my wife and I are in the “mood” for and most importantly, what eats the best as leftovers!

I was missing the most obvious solution of all.  Empowering the young appetites to make meal decisions that they can take ownership in and directly affect the outcome.  It wasn’t that they really disliked what I have been making, they just did not approve of how I was making it……without their input, or should I say, without their ingredients!  As our household now embarks on a perfect meal planning format and in anticipation of this week’s dinner preparations, we are stocking up on a lot of bacon, peanut butter, potato rolls and ranch dressing.  Because naturally these four items will be the answer to the question, “what’s for dinner?”  Leftovers anyone?

Beverage of the Year, on the last day of the year, for the first time in 14 years.

I have always admired my mother’s penmanship. The consistency, so fluid, so concise, something that preceded the message was the artful appearance of the words.  Christmas cards, notes to teachers, check book registers, calendar appointments, letters to friends, and RECIPES.  My admiration for her penned word stands second, only to the wonderful kitchen creations that were born out of the womb of her recipe catalog, which of course was completely hand written.

I have never felt strongly about making resolutions for a new year, although I have had the desire to do something better with a fresh start.  The good intention portion of my new year lust, made no measurable impact over the course of the first weeks of any January, and there for, I have no lasting memory of a resolution.  At a recent dinner hosted by a dear friend of my mother, I received the recipe in the photo above.  This of all things, is a recipe for bourbon slush, a holiday staple in our household for as long as I can remember Christmas holiday celebrations.  The image of the recipe penned by my mother struck me in so many ways, and all at once, like a nostalgic roller coaster racing over mounds of memories and through tunnels of buried emotion.  I followed the recipe into the past and shared the fruits of my bourbon mixing labor with a group of friends over the coming days.  The concoction yielded more than a delightful frozen cup of booze, it produced resolve.

Today I will embark on a project, in an attempt to satisfy my yearning to preserve the images of my mother’s penmanship from the pages of her life long dedication to making people happy with food.  To the woman who allowed me to experience my first joyful spoonful of raw cookie dough I make a resolution of recipes.  I look forward to the flashbacks of meals past and times remembered with each turn of the index card and scrap paper pages, a smile, a tear, an old hunger pain revisited.  So fluid, so concise, a resolution of recipes that will be sure to bring joy to future appetites and create plentiful memories like spoonfuls of cookie dough.

The distance of years and the perspective that comes with age, poured into the evening and refreshed me like a pear blini after salty hor d ouevres.  I began quoting the great cuisinier Fernand Point for the first time in years and telling catering war stories like the time we served wedding cake and chocolate covered strawberries during a 2 am traffic jam on the beltway.  I watched as my mentor moved slower than in years past, frequently pausing to sit down, and repeatedly dabbing his sweaty brow with his folded napkin and I realized that even though his body was beginning to restrict him, there was absolutely no waiver in his passion for refined cuisine and the proper observance of its service.  He is still feared, still hated, still revered, still respected, still the only one of his kind, and still talked about like a character from a silent motion picture. Yet his focus is still producing and conducting events with cuisine that makes a lasting impression, all the while, teaching the detail of details.

“As far as cuisine is concerned one must read everything, see everything, hear everything, try everything, observe everything, in order to retain, in the end, just a little bit!” – Fernand Point

I think about my grandparents going out to the back yard to slaughter the chickens, and checking the pork that decorated their smokehouse…..and then they stopped to tweet about it.  Sure they did.  Pappy Smith would tweet across the yard to neighbor Joe and chat about how the kids are getting big and the chickens are costing more and more to feed and so on and so forth.   This scene played out in my mind’s eye on a ride home from the grocery store tonight.  My 30 minute ingredient scavenger hunt went something like this: I stood in the seafood department, staring intently at the ‘ol smart phone, searching for sustainable fish options, scanning QR codes in the organic isle reviewing some slick marketing landing pages, pin pointing produce stickers looking for something seasonal that was grown somewhere in this hemisphere, and playing negotiator in the dairy section with our boys as they argued about the benefits of pudding versus yogurt.

One hundred forty-six dollars and twenty-three cents later I’m departing with some minor anxiety, not recalling if I grabbed fresh basil and realizing I forgot to check the eggs for damage.  The over abundance of information, choices, availability, and excess have nearly choked my grandparents’ food chain from memory.  Then again, I guess it was yesterday’s food chain that help to create today’s information, choices, availability, and excess.  I think its time to go tweet to me neighbor about how big the kids are getting and how expensive the organic chicken has become.

Do you calculate food cost?  If so, how?  In my little corner of the food service world I am increasingly shocked and bewildered at the alarming number of independent restaurant operators and managers who do not accurately calculate food cost.  Starting a restaurant business is probably the easiest business to get into with minimal initial capital outlay and it has one of the higher failure rates, current economic state aside; it is no surprise why the banking community greets this tangled web with a ten foot pole.  The ashes of failing operations leave behind plenty of fully equipped facilities with willing suitors ready to cook the pipe dream.

I digress. There is a stark difference between calculating raw cost and determining food cost. Many operations have terms of some sort with their suppliers and that should be the compass used to set the course for ordering cycles, inventory rotation, and production schedules.  Here are my two cents that you can take to the bank on calculating food cost.

1.  You must calculate a beginning inventory before the first sale of the month.  Counting the food items on your shelves, in the nooks and crannies, on the guest tables etc…..Review prices from current invoices (past 30 days), and apply those to all of the counted items.  Total it up and you can see the dollars stocked in your operation at the start of a new sales month.

2.  Bust your tail and sell your product all month because your livelihood depends on it.  On the last day of the month, after the last sale, repeat step one.

3.  Total all of the food purchases for the month just completed and add them to the beginning of month inventory figure that you achieved by completing step one. Subtract the total end of month inventory figure that you arrived at after completing step two.  This answer = Cost of Goods.

4.  Cost of Goods divided by Total Monthly Food Sales = Food Cost %

Food cost combined with labor cost in today’s market equates to average .62-.68 cost of every dollar at a casual restaurant concept.  Take the time to calculate an accurate food cost and you will be better poised to recognize the price of profit.

Value is subjective.  I will type it again…..Value is subjective.  What I look for in a meal on the go during the breakfast hour is completely different from what my wife has in mind.  I am not a market researcher, a corporate brand coach, or even a consultant – more importantly I’m a c-o-n-s-u-m-e-r! I believe there are a few consistent hot buttons that affect consumers’ meal purchasing decisions.  In no particular order of importance, here are a few factors that rank high on the “Value Subjectivity Meter”:

1.  Genuine Customer Service:  when someone knows my name and cares about how my day is going, I’m more inclined to support their business or employer.

2.  Efficiency and Accuracy: get it right the first time and do so as quickly as possible.

3.  Food Quality:  I need to eat FOOD – not “food like” products.  The menu items should be prepared with TLC, in a reasonable portion size, hot food should be served hot and cold food served cold.

4.  Consistency: If it was great last week, make sure it is great today.  If the food service model cannot reproduce a consistently great experience for the customer then it will flounder.

You know your hot buttons well, so the next time your value meter has been satisfied, be sure to share it with the establishment that helped to make it happen. Chances are they will appreciate the positive feedback and it may go a long way in solidifying their model of a consistently positive meal experience for the future.

Boiling potatoes for a dinner application, set 3 to 4 aside for breakfast home fries later in the week, potato salad tomorrow, potato soup weekend, or potato latkes for that surprise visit from the in laws because you have no idea they are coming this Sunday.  Pasta and rice are other obvious items for “whoops – I made a boat load of this”……and four days from now I am taking this foundation and erecting salads, making rice balls, rice pudding, baked pasta stuff etc…

Whatever you do, do not let it rot behind the gallon of milk or wither in the crisper drawer.  These innocent building blocks of the meal didn’t ask to be prepared in portions to feed 10 and you work way too hard for your money and you have way too little time to spend cooking ingredients destined for the trash heap.  So get going and take that wilted 2 week old baby spinach and saute it into your omelet tomorrow morning……your culinary inner conscious will thank you.

The recent heat wave has catapulted the garden harvest activities into fast forward mode, and as a result, I suddenly find myself unprepared to restock the glass pantry.  Prepping to fill the home kitchen larder is one of my favorite ways to pass the late night hours and it has taken new relevance in my life, as I have involved my two young sons in the joy of the process.  I have fond memories of spending my childhood summer evenings dunking Ball jars and spinning the shiny gold lids like tops while mom and dad meticulously washed the vegetables to ready them for the cooking. I was mesmerized by the assembly line precision playing out before me.  Sanitizing the jars, counting out the lids and rings, timing and temping the water bath, doubling checking the immersion rack, and of course my role; lining up the finished product like soldiers in a red beet army ready to do battle for the honor of appearing on our dinner plates.  The fascination with the preservation of our garden sticks with me to this day, often reinforced on a cold winter evening when I pull a jar of tomatoes from a dark corner of the pantry in preparation for a deep dish lasagna layered with nostalgia.

Today’s glass pantry has a slightly different look than that of my childhood home’s closet of double door goodness.  Thai chili oil, tarragon vinegar, sun-dried tomatoes, lavender syrup, and pickled watermelon rinds to name a few.  The logic for going through this process of preservation could be viewed as irrelevant and unattractive.  However the ideal of taking more control over the contents of our cupboards and the food on our table, is as appealing to me today as my memory of the red beet army, lining up on the kitchen counter of the old home.