VBS: Very Busy Summer (or Vacation Bible School)

Fish with grapes and squeezy cheese by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Summer began with a roaring start this year with a weeklong Vacation Bible School, VBS to those in the know. This is a ministry for my church, and it takes a lot of volunteers to pull it off to make a successful program for the 200 children attending. A core group of volunteer and church staff begin planning in December in order to get the program together by June. This year, the theme was Pandamania, a program that teaches God's love through various characters, including Boomer the Panda.

I was very excited this year to be in the kitchen, providing snacks for the kids. And I was in hog heaven on the first day when Kathy, the kitchen leader, asked me to help bake 250 cupcakes. No glue dots in the craft room for this craft-school dropout, cupcakes for 250 is a ministry that I can get into! We learned to use the commercial-size mixer and ovens and even though we used a mix, I was pretty pleased with the results:

VBS cupcake by Laura Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

The week of VBS was a renewing week for me. I love my church, but I'm in the mommy years, which means that when I'm in the church building, I get distracted keeping up with my kids and where they need to be, making sure my own volunteer responsibilities are met, in other words: keeping all my ducks in a row. I hardly have time to hang out and enjoy the other women and the young people around me. During VBS, I put names with faces, matched children to parents, and made new friends while bonding over squeezy cheese and rice cakes.
And speaking of, this was my favorite snack of the week: two Quaker Cheddar Cheese Quakes sandwiched with squeezy cheese and a triangle-shaped Triscuit Thin Crisp to create a fish shape, and a raisin for an eye.



Fish crackers by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

(The Quaker Cheddar Cheese Quakes are my current favorite snack food - I could seriously eat an entire bag with no evidence other than the cheesy powder on my fingers.)

What about you? Is VBS a part of your summer? And what is your favorite packaged snack food?



When autumn leaves start to fall: A late summer menu



Okra by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books



The telltale signs of summer ending in Georgia: the trees are dropping leaves on the driveway, the afternoon highs are in the low 90s, and the harvest is in at the markets. Tomatoes; some late peaches, still eye-poppingly sweet; zucchini; bell peppers; corn; cantaloupes, astoundingly stinky ripe and full of flavor; and even a few watermelons, still crisp though low on the sugar scale. And okra - between the technicolor glory of August and the sturdy greens and squashes of October, is okra. People either love or hate the prickly pods with pearly seed-filled interiors - most citing the slime factor, but I love them all ways, always.

Okra was brought to the United States on the slave ships from Africa, and can be used as a stew-thickener in familiar dishes such as gumbo. Many a Southern cook I know swears by a meatless, streamlined version of this known as "okra and tomatoes" and it's usually just those few ingredients, united in holy matrimony by Father bacon and served over rice. Okra is delicious when chopped into short lengths, dipped in a cornmeal batter and fried - some folks will call that Cajun popcorn, although I'm not sure it's particularly authentic to Louisiana. Okra can be pickled, in fact, an okra pickle is a splendid garnish for a Bloody Mary.

I recently picked up a new okra recipe, thanks to two-time James Beard award winning author Nathalie Dupree. Nathalie is near and dear to Atlantan's hearts - she was a cooking instructor here and on PBS stations for years. I have many of her books and use them for inspiration frequently. And now I can say with a barely concealed squeal of delight - she’s my Facebook friend! Nathalie lives in Charleston, S.C. now, where she writes for the Charleston Post and Courier. Being her Facebook friend is like reading her books and asking questions and getting an answer back within minutes. In a recent post, she detailed a Southern vegetable feast with her favorite method for cooking okra - thinly sliced, tossed with olive and oil and salt and roasted in a hot oven.



Roasted okra chips by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books



I experimented with the idea and created beautiful, crispy okra chips that were devoured by my family. My husband and I dusted the chips with chipotle powder. I think with some tweaking, I could go all Famous Amos and market Lucy Mae's Smokin' Hot Okra Chips.

Dear reader, I can't leave you with just one recipe for okra, and not even a real recipe at that, so I featured the okra chips in my End of Summer Menu:

 Roast Chicken with Honey, Grapes, Rosemary and Thyme

Mashed Potatoes

Crisp-Roasted Okra

Plum Crumble with Cinnamon Yogurt Cream



Grapes by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books



Late summer grapes are coming into markets and they are sweet and juicy. We mostly eat them as a snack, but they are fun to cook with, adding a tasty element to a marinated chicken.

Roast Chicken with Honey, Grapes, Rosemary and Thyme

 Marinate the chicken for up to a day before roasting. This is a small quantity of marinade for the chicken - the key is to use a large plastic bag and squeeze the air out, allowing the bird to make contact with the marinade. 

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup honey
1 cup white wine
2 tablespoons kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 sprigs fresh thyme
5 pound roaster chicken
2 cups red seedless grapes, divided
Additional thyme and rosemary sprigs for garnish

1. Assemble the marinade: combine all ingredients except for chicken and grapes in large zippered bag. Make sure the salt dissolves. Add chicken to bag, carefully squeezing out all of the air, so that the marinade thoroughly covers the bird. Place in a plastic container, then the fridge overnight or for up to a day.

2. When you're ready to roast, turn the oven to 450°. I use a cast iron skillet, but a roasting pan will do just fine. Place 1 cup grapes in bottom of skillet or pan, then the marinated bird, one breast side up. Roast at 450° for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, turn bird to other breast side and roast for 15 minutes. Turn bird breast side down for 15 additional minutes. Finally, roast the bird breast side up for 30 minutes or until a meat thermometer placed into the thickest part of the breast reads 165°.

3. When chicken is ready, place on platter and let rest for a few minutes. Pour liquid in bottom of pan into a degreasing cup. Stir remaining 1 cup grapes into the degreased liquid and spoon onto platter around the bird. Garnish with sprigs of rosemary and thyme.



Roast chicken with grapes and thyme by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books



And for dessert, a plum crumble, made with juicy tart-sweet plums, the last of summer's stone fruit from California.



Plums by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books





Plum Crumble by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books



Plum Crumble with Cinnamon Yogurt

This is an adaptation of a Martha Stewart recipe from back in the day, 1995's "Martha Stewart Cookbook." It would work with many kinds of stone fruit, but plums are inexpensive this time of year and lovely with the creamy custard and spicy crust. This is one of those "divided" recipes that require you to pay attention to the directions. Follow closely! 
  

1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
8 dark plums, pitted and cut into wedges
Vanilla yogurt
Cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350°. In a medium bowl, combine the sugar and salt and cut in butter until it resembles coarse meal. Stir in flour. Set aside half the mixture - this will become the streusel topping.

2. With one-half of the mixture, add cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and remaining egg. Mix until blended and press into the bottom of a baking dish - I use a round stoneware dish approximately 9 inches in diameter. Bake for 10 minutes.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup sugar, the milk and vanilla.

4. Remove the baked pastry from the oven and cover with the sliced plums. Pour the milk mixture over and sprinkle with streusel. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until brown on top and bubbly around the edges. Serve warm with vanilla yogurt spiced with cinnamon.



Plum Crumble with Cinnamon Yogurt by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books



    

  Text and images © 2010, Lucy Mercer.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation & Learned to Love Chilled Soups

Almond soup with green grapes by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Because my girls, ages 4 and 11, drive me crazy while we’re packing for a vacation, my husband and I have learned to pack on the sly and not reveal any plans until we are in the car. We tried this first a couple years ago for a trip to Disney World. We had crossed the Georgia-Florida line before they figured out where we were headed. I got away with the deceit again this year, with the girls having no idea we were leaving until the Saturday morning in June when we woke them up at 5 a.m., told them to get dressed and grab their loveys and blankies and pillows. We pointed the loaded-up minivan east on I-20 and evaded all questions regarding “where are we going?” and “when are we going to be there?”

When the signs outside of Columbia, South Carolina, started mentioning Charleston, my older daughter, Laura, dialed a clue. “Charleston, yay! I want to go to the beach!” My husband and I exchanged glances, but didn’t reveal the true vacation plans. Once in Charleston, we parked the minivan and ate at our favorite hometown restaurant, Jestine’s, home of some dandy fried chicken for me and crab cakes for my husband.



Jestine's Kitchen in Charleston, South CArolina by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books



Back in the car, we eased onto East Bay Street and Laura started looking for the hotel, which if you know Charleston, is kind of funny, because there are charming little inns on East Bay, but not the big kind of kid-friendly hotel with a beach Laura was thinking about. Down on East Bay, you can see the Carnival Fantasy cruise ship as it prepares for weekly Caribbean runs - I think it’s high time that Charleston is a cruise ship port - we all need another reason to visit and eat in this charming city.

We pointed out the ship to the girls and they noticed the show-off red and blue whale-tail /smokestack and the waterslide on the upper deck. “Doesn’t that look like fun,” we asked. “But where’s the hotel?” Laura replied. “Where’s the beach? C’mon, guys, where are we going?” It wasn’t until we pulled into the “Cruise Traffic” lane that Laura finally understood “We’re going on the boat!”

There are only a few subjects more tiresome than listening to a post-mortem on someone else’s vacation (childbirth stories and the play-by-play for little Janey’s soccer match spring to mind.), so I’ll mention just say that I was kind of cranky when I boarded the boat. Maybe my blood sugar was low - the sweet tea boost from Jestine’s had worn off by late afternoon. My mood dramatically improved once I was fed. I’m easy - just give me starched linens, fresh-faced waiters and a menu without chicken fingers and hot dogs, and I’m content. With the ship pointed south towards the Caribbean, the menu included warm-weather selections such as cold soups. Gazpacho the first night was low-calorie, tart and satisfying. Laura chose the Orange Sory, which I’ve come to believe is just melted orange sherbet garnished with tapioca pearls. Naturally, it’s one of the best things she’s ever eaten. The next night, she chose strawberry bisque, which was like a grown-up smoothie - sweet and pink and creamy. The service for the chilled soup is part of the magic - a soup plate with a garnish in the center placed in front of the diner, then the waiter reaches over with a small pitcher of soup and pours into the plate, from 10 o’clock to 10 o’clock.

Since our return home, we've experimented with cold soups - I made chilled cherry soup, thickened with a cornstarch slurry. I have plans for a cantaloupe soup once the melons become stinky-ripe, just crying out for a blitz with lime and honey and a dash of chile pepper.

Chilled almond soup with green grapes by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

The sweet soups are nice as a dessert course or a special treat for the girls, but for a starter, I like a savory chilled soup along the lines of almond soup. Sometimes called ajo blanco or white gazpacho, it’s simple and tasty, and no less kid-pleasing - Laura gobbled this serving down as soon as the picture was made. The traditional almond soup uses garlic, but I prefer the refreshing bite of shallots instead. This is light, unusual, vegan, satisfying.

Chilled Almond Soup

I use homemade vegetable broth, a snap to make and useful to have on hand.

Serves 2 soup bowls or 4 demitasse cups (very civilized)

¾ cup almonds, blanched preferred, but whole with skins ok

1 shallot

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

¼ cup fresh bread crumbs

2 cups cold vegetable broth

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

Sliced almonds or green grapes for garnish

1. Toast the almonds in a skillet for a few minutes, remove from heat and let cool.

2. In a food processor, puree shallot, then add toasted almonds. Blitz until finely ground. Add olive oil and bread crumbs and process until combined. With the motor running, slowly pour in vegetable broth through the feed tube. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Finish with sherry vinegar.

3. Strain and serve in rimmed soup plates or demitasse cups.

I’ll end with a kid-pleasing cruise ship gimmick - towels folded into animal shapes. Each night, we returned to the cabin to find out what the cabin steward Igusti would create next: There were lobsters, manatees, crabs, swans, pigs and this. Dog or rabbit, you decide.

Towel origami by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Text and images © 2010, Lucy Mercer.

<script type="text/javascript">
  var _gaq = _gaq || [];
  _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-21764820-1']);
  _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
  (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
  })();
</script>

Chicken Tonight

It was a classic 70s Mom moment: I pored through my cookbooks asking myself, "what can I do with chicken tonight?" Of course, the 70s mom would have have worried about ground beef, but I had a 1-pound package of bone-in chicken breasts about a day past its expiration and due for a date with the freezer.

I prefer bone-in poultry because I love to braise - making a hearty pot of chicken and dumplings or chicken stew that can simmer in the oven for most of the day, the chicken releasing its juices into a savory broth. In the summer, however, I avoid these kind of kitchen-warming projects. But my husband found some chicken breasts on sale at the market and I needed a quick and easy supper idea. I guess most folks would coat the breasts in barbecue sauce and grill them, but given the stormy weather, an indoor recipe would need to be found. I checked through two favorite cookbooks, a cherished ring-bound Pillsbury Cookbook, missing its covers, but still holding its own as a home cooking go-to resource; and my favorite cookbook, Big Orange, the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, revised edition. My search this time yielded a Roast Chicken with Vegetables in ATK that used bone-in chicken breasts and required just one pan.

I cut up two carrots, six red potatoes and two onions, mixed them with a double glug of olive oil and a teaspoon of dried thyme (ATK test cooks are overly enamored with thyme, IMO; I will probably leave it out next time), spread them in a pan and baked them for 15 minutes in a hot, 450 degree oven. The chicken breasts were placed over the vegetables, brushed with a few tablespoons of melted butter (ATK is also big believer in doubling up on fats), and seasoned with salt and pepper. Both chicken and vegetables returned to the oven for about 30 minutes (this was convection, allow longer for conventional). When I opened the oven door, the aromatic chicken was a sight to behold - skin the color of aged cherrywood and juicy, tender flesh. The potatoes cooked in melted butter, olive oil and melted chicken fat were a guilty pleasure.

As always, the proof is in the leftovers - the kids gobbled up the chicken and veggies, so I have a just one plump breast left over for chopping up and making chicken salad. Rounding out the meal were steamed broccoli, wilted spinach cooked with bacon and bunches of champagne grapes for dessert.

Menu

Roasted Chicken Breasts with Root Vegetables

Steamed Broccoli

Wilted Spinach with Bacon

Champagne Grapes