Elm Creek Quilts [13] The Quilter's Kitchen (8 page)

Green Bean Casserole

Serves 6 to 8

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

2 pounds green beans, trimmed and blanched

Grated zest of ½ orange

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

Place a large skillet over high heat and when it is hot, add the oil and butter. When the butter has melted, add the green beans and cook until heated through, about 3 minutes. Add the orange zest, salt, and pepper.

Butternut Squash

Serves 6 to 8

2 medium-size butternut squash, cut in half lengthwise

¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup

Juice and grated zest of ½ lemon

1 teaspoon grated fresh gingerroot (optional)

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly butter a baking sheet. Place the squash, cut side down, on the prepared baking sheet and roast until tender, about 1 hour. Set aside to cool slightly. Scoop out the seeds and remove the skin.

Transfer the squash to a food processor fitted with a steel blade, add the remaining ingredients, and process until smooth. Cover and refrigerate overnight in a storage container or place in a large pot and cook until heated through. Serve immediately.

Pomegranate-Cranberry Sauce

Yield: about 2 cups

One 12-ounce bag cranberries (3 cups)

¼ cup pomegranate or orange juice

½ cup light brown sugar, loosely packed

½ teaspoon kosher salt

Grated zest of 1 orange

¾ cup lightly toasted pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped

Seeds from 1 large pomegranate

Place the cranberries, pomegranate juice, and brown sugar in a small saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, until the cranberries are soft and have absorbed all the liquid, about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Add the salt, orange zest, nuts, and pomegranate seeds. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

Sweet Potatoes

Serves 4 to 6

4 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in thick rounds

½ cup sugar

½ cup water

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

½ teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Place the sweet potatoes in an 8 x 8-inch pan. Place the sugar, water, butter, lemon juice, and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Pour the sugar syrup over the sweet potatoes, cover with foil, and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the foil and pour off all the liquid into a bowl. Pour the liquid back over the sweet potatoes (basically basting them), return to the oven without the foil, and cook until caramelized and bubbly, about 30 additional minutes.

Pumpkin Pie

Serves 8 to 10

For the crust:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon sugar

¾ teaspoon kosher salt

¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut in slices

6 tablespoons shortening

¹
/
₃
cup ice water

For the filling:

3 large eggs

1 cup light brown sugar, loosely packed

2 cups canned pumpkin puree

1
¹
/
₃
cups light cream

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¹
/
₈
teaspoon ground cloves

Whipped cream, for garnish

To make the crust:
Place the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor fitted with a steel blade and process until combined. Add the butter and shortening, a little bit at a time, and process until it is pebbly. Gradually, while the machine is running, add the water and process until the dough pulls away from the sides and starts to form a ball. Form into two balls and then press down to form two disks. Cover with parchment paper and refrigerate one disk at least 1 hour and up to overnight. Cover the remaining disk with plastic wrap (over the parchment paper) and freeze for up to 2 months.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Roll out the pie dough to form an 11-to 12-inch round and place in a 9-inch pie plate. Crimp the edges if desired. Poke holes with a fork in the bottom of the crust. Cover the shell with aluminum foil, transfer to the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the foil and fold it into a strip so that you can use to cover the crust edge only. Return it to the oven and bake until the bottom is just golden, about 10 minutes.

To make the filling:
Place the eggs and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk and blend until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the remaining ingredients and pour into the prepared pie shell. Transfer to the oven and bake until firm, 25 to 30 minutes. Set aside to cool. Serve at room temperature or refrigerate at least 2 hours and serve cold, accompanied by whipped cream.

Apple-Pear Crisp

Serves 6 to 8

For the filling:

3 cups diced Granny Smith apples

3 cups diced Bartlett pears

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

For the topping:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup rolled oats

3 tablespoons sugar

¼ cup light brown sugar, loosely packed

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

For the filling:
Place the fruit, sugar, and flour in a large bowl and toss well. Pour into an 8 x 8-inch pan.

For the topping:
Place the flour, oats, sugars, and salt in a large mixing bowl and toss well. Add the butter and toss again until it forms a consistent texture. Sprinkle on top of the fruit.

Place the pan in the oven and cook until lightly browned on top, 35 to 40 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Turkey Tetrazzini

Serves 6 to 8

For the filling:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 Spanish onions, chopped

1 carrot, cut in small dice

1 celery stalk, cut in small dice

10 to 12 ounces button mushrooms, sliced

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3½ cups turkey or chicken broth

½ cup heavy cream

3 tablespoons dry sherry

Juice and grated zest of 1 small lemon

½ teaspoon dried thyme

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

4 cups shredded turkey or chicken

4 cups cooked spaghetti, cut in half

2 cups frozen peas

For the topping:

½ cup panko breadcrumbs

½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

To make the filling:
Place a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat and when it is hot, add the butter. Add the onions, carrot, celery, and mushrooms and cook until the onions have softened and are just turning golden, about 10 minutes. Slowly, stirring well, add the flour and cook until it is fully incorporated. Slowly, stirring all the while, add the stock a tablespoon at a time, and cook until the mixture has thickened, about 4 minutes. Off heat, add the cream, sherry, lemon juice, zest, thyme, salt, and pepper and stir well. Add the turkey, spaghetti, and peas and stir well.

For the topping:
Place the panko, Parmesan cheese, and salt in a small bowl and mix to combine. Sprinkle over the filling.

Transfer to the oven and cook until golden, about 20 minutes. Serve immediately.

Cranberry Spritzer

Yield: 8 cups

4 cups cranberry juice

4 cups seltzer

1 lemon, sliced

1 lime, sliced

Place all the ingredients in a large pitcher and serve immediately.

For the rest of the morning, Anna and Sylvia worked steadily and briskly, spurred on by the approaching deadline and the amount of work that yet remained. Despite Anna’s protests that she enjoyed Sylvia’s stories, Sylvia, lost in her own thoughts, shared no more tales from the manor’s past.

By noon they had made good progress—and had worked up an appetite. Anna offered to cook them a hot lunch, but Sylvia insisted that Anna was already working hard enough and sandwiches would suit her just fine. So Anna scrounged for cold cuts and condiments while Sylvia sliced a loaf of bread, and before long they were sitting with their backs against the wall with paper plates balanced on their laps, munching sandwiches and complimenting each other on the work they had already accomplished.

“Our efforts will be well worth it,” Sylvia promised, “when you’re cooking up a storm in your dream kitchen.”

Anna didn’t doubt that for a moment, but state-of-the-art appliances and cabinetry didn’t make a kitchen the heart of a home. When the workmen had finished and all the pots and pans and dishes had been transferred from cartons to well-organized cupboards, one problem would remain: how to make the spirit of Elm Creek Quilts and the history of the Bergstrom family apparent to everyone who crossed the threshold.

After lunch, they resumed their work with renewed energy, chatting about the new kitchen layout, the convenience of the center island and improved pantry shelving, and the luxury of nearly doubling the square footage by knocking out the wall to the adjacent room. “The manor doesn’t lack for pleasant places to sew,” Sylvia said when Anna asked her if she would miss her sitting room. “What we need is a larger kitchen.”

And a more welcoming kitchen, Anna added silently, wishing she could think of a way to make it so.

They had been steadily filling cartons and dragging them into the banquet hall out of the way for more than an hour when Sylvia suddenly cried out, “Great-Aunt Lydia’s aprons! I can’t believe they’ve been tucked away here all this time.”

Anna abandoned her work and hurried over to see the latest newly discovered treasure. Sylvia had climbed to the top of a four-step foldable ladder to reach a cabinet above the refrigerator and was holding on to the safety bar with one hand while groping into the cabinet with the other.

“Here, let me do that,” Anna said, alarmed by the older woman’s precarious balance.

“Nonsense, dear, I’m fine,” Sylvia insisted, but then relented. “Oh, very well. You are a bit taller.”

They traded places. Anna reached deep within the cabinet and withdrew a stack of neatly folded cotton prints—florals, fruits, novelties, mostly small-scale designs in a rainbow of pastels. Anna handed the stack to Sylvia, who eagerly draped each apron across the counter as Anna hopped down from the ladder and joined her in admiring the collection. There were fourteen different aprons, similar in size but varying in style and embellishments, with no two fabrics the same. Some covered only the skirt while others also covered the blouse; several had large pockets on the front, while others boasted lace trim and others were tailored to show off a trim hourglass figure. Judging by the faded fabric, loosening seams, and occasional stains and burns, all had been used often.

Sylvia tied a daisy-print apron around her waist and turned around to model it for Anna. “It’s hard to believe such pretty things began as feed sacks, isn’t it?”

Anna fingered a lace-trimmed apron made from a print of ripe red cherries on a yellow-and-white check background. “Feed sacks?”

“Oh, yes. When I was a girl—and even when my grandmother was a girl—feed for farm animals as well as flour and other kitchen staples were sold in cotton sacks. Farming families were much too frugal to waste perfectly good fabric, so we washed the empty sacks and stitched them into clothing. My great-aunt Lydia had a penchant for pretty aprons, as you can see, which she indulged with what she considered ‘free’ fabric.”

“She made enough for the whole family,” Anna remarked. “Even a family as large as yours.”

“True, she did, but if my great-aunt loved a particular fabric, she made sure the apron fit her and her alone so that she wouldn’t have to share it and it would last longer,” Sylvia handed one of the slender, tailored aprons to Anna, who held it up to her more ample figure, shook her head, and returned it. “Lydia thought she had the other women of the family fooled, but they knew what she was up to. She was such a delightful person otherwise that her sister, my great-aunt Lucinda, convinced the others to indulge her in this one vanity.”

“Lucinda must have been a very tolerant sister,” Anna said, knowing that her own sisters never would have allowed her to get away with something like that.

“She was, indeed.” Sylvia rested her hand upon another, more generously sized apron sewn from a holly leaf print on a red background. “It helped, I think, that Lydia made Lucinda this special apron from a holiday fabric that she particularly admired. Why don’t you try it on?”

Anna obliged, and Sylvia’s face lit up with satisfaction upon discovering that it fit Anna as well as if it had been made especially for her. “It suits you,” Sylvia declared, looking her over. “The red fabric complements your dark hair and coloring. Lucinda looked pretty in it, but I think it looks even better on you.”

“It was Lucinda’s favorite?” Anna asked, embarrassed by the praise.

“Oh, yes, but she wore it only during the Christmas season, which for us began on December 6 with St. Nicholas Day.” Sylvia’s gaze grew far away, and Anna knew she was imagining the kitchen as it had appeared long ago, when her great-aunts had filled it with the enticing aromas of a Christmas feast. “All the women of my family were fine cooks, but Lucinda was an especially skilled baker. She made all the traditional German Christmas cookies we children loved so much—
Anisplätzchen, Lebkuchen
, and
Zimsterne
—and, of course, she joined in when all the women of the family made apple strudel.”

“I bet that was quite a production,” said Anna, who had made traditional apple strudel in culinary school. It remained one of her favorite memories of her student years—chatting with friends while they peeled apples, confiding similar dreams to run their own restaurants someday, debating how much of which spices created the most “Christmasy” flavor, and laughing over their first attempts to stretch the dough.

“Gerda’s apple strudel was legendary in the Elm Creek Valley,” Sylvia said, “and although the succeeding generations followed her recipe to the last pinch of salt, no Bergstrom woman could equal her in the kitchen. It was our tradition to make many strudels each year, one for the family to enjoy at breakfast on Christmas Day and others to give to friends. Unfortunately, the tradition died out with my generation. My sister and I tried to make strudel after our mother passed away, but you know how women of that time cooked—they rarely wrote anything down, and rarely used standard measurements.”

Anna nodded. “They measured by handfuls and pinches, not cups and teaspoons. My grandmother still cooks that way. I had to watch her very carefully while she cooked, or I never would have learned the secrets to her tomato sauce and pasta.”

“It’s a shame when those old recipes fade from family memory.” Sylvia sighed, untied her great-aunt’s apron, and placed it on the counter with the others. “What I wouldn’t do for a taste of apple strudel the way my mother made it, or a bite of
Lebkuchen
fresh from Lucinda’s Santa Claus cookie jar. So many of my fondest Christmas memories bring me back to this kitchen, warm and festive and fragrant with cinnamon and gingerbread. Those, to me, are the flavors of Christmas.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” said Anna.

She untied the apron and was about to place it with the others when Sylvia held up a hand to stop her. “No, dear, it’s yours. Perhaps you’ll indulge me by wearing it this Christmas as you prepare your own special holiday dishes.”

Touched, Anna nodded and folded the apron carefully. “I will. Thank you.”

But she had already decided to indulge Sylvia in a way that she hoped would please her even more. This Christmas, she would treat Sylvia to all of her favorite holiday flavors, from the Christmas cookies of her childhood to the traditional German
Jägerschnitzel
for Christmas dinner, and a hot cup of cocoa with a slice of apple strudel for dessert.

Anna had a feeling the legendary Gerda Bergstrom would approve.

Jägerschnitzel
(Pork Loin with Mushroom Gravy)

Serves 6

8 thin pork cutlets, pounded to
¹
/
₈
-inch thickness (just over 1 pound)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

2 large eggs, beaten

1½ cups panko breadcrumbs

4 to 6 tablespoons vegetable oil

4 slices bacon, finely chopped

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 pound button mushrooms, sliced

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

2 cups chicken broth

2 tablespoons sour cream

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Have 2 paper-towel-lined plates ready.

Sprinkle the pork cutlets with the salt and pepper.

Place the eggs in a shallow bowl. Place the bread crumbs on a plate.

Dip the cutlets in the beaten egg and then in the bread crumbs to coat evenly.

Place a large skillet over medium heat and when it is hot, add 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the cutlets, in batches, and cook until evenly browned, about 2 minutes per side, adding oil as necessary. Place on one of the prepared plates to drain, then transfer to the oven to keep warm while you prepare the sauce.

Place the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat and cook until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain. Raise the heat to high, add the onion, and cook until browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and butter and continue cooking until the mushrooms are soft and brown, about 10 additional minutes. Add the flour and stir to combine. Add the chicken broth and cook until reduced and thickened, about 5 minutes. Off the heat, add the sour cream and herbs and stir to combine. Serve immediately over the pork cutlets.

Cornish Game Hens

Serves 8

Four 1-pound Cornish game hens, rinsed with cold water several times and patted dry with paper towels

1½ teaspoons kosher salt

½ to 1 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Juice of 1 small lemon

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Remove the backbones and press the hens down flat. Transfer to a wire rack placed in a large roasting pan and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Dot with the butter and pierce in several places with a sharp knife. Roast until the juices run clear and the hens have browned, about 25 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil until deeply browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the lemon juice to the pan juices and drizzle over the hens. Serve immediately.

Mushroom Medley

Serves 6 to 8

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound button mushrooms, wiped clean

1 pound assorted wild mushrooms, wiped clean and trimmed

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves

1 teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Transfer the mushrooms, in a single layer, to a baking sheet, place in the oven, and roast until they are lightly browned and have released their juices, about 20 minutes. Serve immediately.

Sage and Thyme Potatoes

Serves 6 to 8

3 pounds new potatoes, halved or quartered

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 to 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon dried, plus additional fresh thyme, for garnish

1½ teaspoons kosher salt

½ teaspoon dried sage

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Place the potatoes in a large bowl. Add the olive oil, garlic, thyme, salt, and sage and mix until combined. Spread the mixture on a baking sheet or in a large baking pan and roast until browned, 35 to 45 minutes. Serve immediately, sprinkled with thyme.

Anisplätzchen
(Aniseed Cookies)

Yield: 18 cookies

1½ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

1½ teaspoons ground anise seeds

3 large eggs

1 cup sugar

½ teaspoon grated lemon zest