To Clip or Not to Clip?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: It happens every holiday season: I start madly clipping recipes. And saving them in a drawer. I don't truly think I'll make any of them, but I might. I always..MIGHT.  And what if I decide--oh, I really needed that stuffed crown roast of lamb or the perfect grilled shrimp quesadillas and I'd thrown away the newspaper?

Now I know how anachronistic that sounds. "Newspaper" "clipping" "saving in a drawer." 

Then I found this:

 It's a recipe saving notebook I had in 1977. Seriously, 1977.  To prove it, here's an ad that was on the back of one of the recipes.

I clipped the recipes, and then taped them into this stenographer's notebook. (I even numbered the pages, which you have to admit is silly, since there's no index, so why would the number of the page matter?) Anyway, some of the recipes are timeless. Like this one, for Julia Child's Quiche Lorraine. There's probably not a better one that's been devised since then. 

 I recognize my handwriting from the 70's, a careful sort of printing that I will admit to you was cribbed from how my British pals wrote. It was not successful.  But you'll always need a good Bearnaise.

And Poulet Dijonnaise--that still sounds pretty good! See how yellow the tape is? It was so long ago.

This one, though,  Sno Pie, sounds pretty disgusting.

Oooh, chicken bourguignon. Reading the recipe, it doesn't sound like chicken bourguignon, it's sounds like Cordon Bleu. But, whatever. Apparently it sounded good in 1977.  Actually, if you read the ingredients, it still sounds pretty delicious.

There's some nostalgia involved. Here's Marge Clayton's Clam Dip--Marge was the wife of a writer named Bernard Clayton, who wrote a a classic book on baking. I just looked him up, and it looks like the book is now in its 30th printing. I remember the clam dip being pretty great.

But who is Helen Ward, and why do I have her black bottom pie recipe? So weirdly unsettling that I have not one memory of who that is.

Roast duck with green peppercorns. Lemon souffle. The Ne Plus Ultra mousse from Craig Claiborne. I  bet many of us have made that!

And here's a mystery recipe with no title and iffy instructions. I wrote in on a scrap pf paper, so whatever it was, I must have loved it. Reading the ingredients, I see, you probably can't go wrong.

So Reds, I will probably never make any of these things. There are two notebooks, and maybe a total of 150 recipes, spanning my (apparently) domestically focused years of 1977-1979. But still, I cannot throw these way.  I wish I had my Grandmother's handwritten recipe cards--my sister snagged them. But I'm not sure anyone but me would care about these. 

-

Now I just look up recipes on line, easy peasy, and I have been know to ask Alexa for help. (Alexa, how many ounces in half a cup. WHat's 8 times 20 minutes?)  I still clip recipes, though, because you never know. Do  you? 

And if you need the perfect recipe for cheese fondue, let me know. It was the 70's right? Yes, I have that.

The Mystery of Decluttering...Recipes @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Over the past 4 to 6 weeks, I've been involved in what one might call "productive procrastination." This means using the inspiration about cleaning stuff out of my house (that I found here) to clean stuff out of my house. This most often happens when I am stalled on my writing. (Why is it that cleaning is so appealing when a person is hammering out a first draft?) 

We've made multiple trips to the clothing donation box, more trips to the church where they are collecting tchotchkes for the white elephant booth at the fair, and a family visit to our attic. (And it turns out that Andrew is a master thrower-outer, Molly and Jeff, not so much.) But I screeched to a halt when I looked at this drawer:

The picture doesn't show you that the drawer is so full, it's very hard to open or close. 

 This accordion file used to be where I kept the recipes that I would either try or had tried and liked enough to try again. At least it's minimally organized:

Whereas this box has no organization other than the newest recipes dropped on top: (And I am still adding by the way...)

And I certainly don't want to dump the whole drawer, because I'd hate to lose precious pieces of the past like this recipe in my father's handwriting:

And this one from my grandmother (his mother) in 1969:

But the truth is, I also have a ton of cookbooks. And many, many issues of Bon Appétit, which I am too embarrassed to show you and thank goodness I had the sense to discontinue. And when I want to try something new, I most often either look at my Pinterest board for food, or I Google the ingredients. And I store recipes I've made and liked on Mystery Lovers Kitchen, like this fabulous chocolate cake or this copycat crockpot pasta fagioli. 

So...help! Do you have a drawer jammed full of recipes? What will you do with them?

Jungle Red Autumn Braiser Cook-off

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I am all about braising these days. My enabling friend, Gigi (who has a world-class Le Creuset collection), loaned me her Le Creuset braiser for a couple of months. Then, when it had just got cool enough for stews and roasts and braised veggies to sound appealing, she took the braiser back. The nerve! (She wanted to use it herself. Imagine.)

That very same day we took a quick spin to the Le Creuset shop at the outlet mall and I came back with my very own 3 1/2 quart cast iron brasier, in Caribbean blue. (On the right, above.) Since then I've been trying some fun things, quickly learning why the French call the braiser the "cook everything" pot. 

So, yesterday, I was hunting through my horribly disorganized three-ring recipe binder for Thanksgiving things and came across this loose newspaper clipping.

If you can't read the fine print, here's a better version:


Rich Autumn Pork Stew with Beer


 2 lbs. boneless pork shoulder, cut in 1.5 inch pieces
Salt and pepper
6 Tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, diced
4 medium carrots, diced
2 medium apples, peeled and cut into 0.5 inch pieces
2 Tbsp finely minced garlic
1 bay leaf
1 cup diced canned or fresh tomatoes
2 cups chicken broth (bouillon) 
1 bottle (12 oz.) beer
2 Tbsp brown sugar
Cooked buttered egg noodles

1. Season the pork with salt and pepper.  Heat 4 Tbsp oil in a heavy casserole over medium-high heat.  Brown the pork well in batches.  Remove to a bowl.

2. Wipe casserole clean and heat the remaining oil over low heat.  Add onions, carrots, and apples.  Stir until softened, 10 minutes adding the garlic in the last 3 minutes.  Stir in the remaining ingredients except the noodles.  Return pork and any juices to the casserole.

3. Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, stirring, until the meat is very tender, about 1.5 hours.  Discard the bay leaf; adjust seasonings.  Serve over egg noodles in shallow bowls.

Serves 4.  Per serving: 580 calories, 34g carbs, 43g protein, 155mg cholesterol, and 27g fat.

I thought, hmm, I'll bet that would work in the braiser. A quick trip to the supermarket, and I'm all set to try this today, except that I think I'll substitute hard cider for the beer.

You can, of course, braise in any sort of covered skillet. It doesn't have to be cast iron, and it certainly doesn't have to be Le Creuset. BUT, things cook in cast iron like nothing else, and Le Creuset is, in my amateur opinion, the best. Maybe you can buy better cast iron cookwear, but I'm not ever likely to be tempted. (And besides, our outlet mall shop regularly runs 30% to 40% off sales, which makes the Le Creuset a little more affordable for a life time's worth of cooking.)

My challenge is this. If the spirit of autumn strikes you (our first Norther blew through north Texas yesterday and our teeth are chattering), try this recipe with me. Substitutions allowed. Or try something else in whatever you have in your kitchen that will work for a braiser. And let us know how it turns out.

A fun note.  According to the bottom of the recipe clipping, dated September 13, 2009, the total cost of this meal is $9.86. (Does that include the noodles, I wonder?)

My cost today at my budget supermarket down the street, for 2.64 pounds of pork butt (no shoulder available) was $8.43. So that leaves roughly a dollar for all the other ingredients, including the beer or cider. Ah, inflation...

REDS and READERS, are you up for the challenge? If so, let us know how it turns out. And give us your best braiser recipe!

And one more question, dear REDS. Do you still clip recipes? Or is it all Pinterest for you? I suppose Pinterest is much more efficient, as well as pretty, but it makes me a bit sad to think of the demise of my motley, decades old, collection of recipes--things that caught my eye, some of them much used, some of them never tried...  A personal signature, if you will.