Finally . . .

A recipe blog post.

That’s right, you read correctly. The post you have been waiting so patiently for.

Oh, the pressure, the pressure. I hope I don’t disappoint.

So, I’m going through Allen house memorabilia, looking for pictures to scan for this blog; pictures that didn’t make it into Life On The rock. 

 I’m taking this little walk down memory lane, and I come across an old Allen House menu.  I can sort of date it by some of the items, but I’m surprised at what is and what isn’t there.  Mostly, I’m surprised by my memory, or lack thereof.

  Stuffed mushrooms.

 I remember those, and they were excellent.  Mary Beth Ryan created that appetizer, so I can roughly date this menu as printed after she arrived. But there are other items under the appetizer portion of the menu that completely throw me. 

Shrimp scampi?  I have absolutely no recollection of ever cooking shrimp scampi as an appetizer.  None.  Of course, scampi is a sauté item, and I almost always worked the broiler and ovens.  But Brie and vegetables in puff pastry with a tomato shallot sauce?  No memory.  And I’d have done that one in the oven.

Years ago, when I pulled this menu to save, I must’ve recognized it, must have felt that it was a good indicator of a menu that I myself had cooked, or I would have looked for an earlier one to keep.  The entrées looked familiar; I remember cooking all of them thousands and thousands of times.

 But shrimp scampi? 

Where are the potato skins so dear to my heart, the ones deep fried then covered with a generous amount of real bacon and cheddar cheese and thrown into the oven to melt into a delicious greasy mess?  How could I ever have replaced those with brie and vegetables and pastry?  

This must be someone else’s menu.  I shall have to go back into my box of memories and find one of mine.

In the meantime:

SPINACH MUSHROOM STUFFING

Hot sausage skinned     1 ½ lbs.

Chopped garlic        2T

Scallions chopped    3T   

Shallots        3T

Oil            ½ c

Chopped red pepper    1/3 cup

Frozen spinach        4 cups

Grated mozzarella    1 ½ cups   

  (Or mix provolone & mozzarella)

Parmesan cheese    ½ cup

Sauté and cool sausage, garlic, scallions, shallots, oil. In mixing bowl, add remaining ingredients to sausage. Add egg to bind as needed just before stuffing mushrooms. Roll into balls and place into cleaned mushroom caps. Bake about 5 minutes at 350 until mushroom caps are cooked but not limp.

none of these are the mushrooms you would stuff.
they are just random mushroom pictures. but white mushrooms are so boring.
besides, i didn't have any pictures of white mushrooms. we don't hunt those.
the season is too short and they only let you use bows and arrows.
that's a rockbridge county virginia joke..

Makes about 24 medium sized mushrooms.

Yes, it’s been a while . . .

But much has been happening.  I traveled up to New England, saw practically all my relations, got married (incidentally).

 But I’m back south now, with a head full of lovely memories.

Like the Fourth of July on a small island. It hasn’t changed much in almost 2 decades.

My foster daughter walked in the Cuttyhunk Fourth of July parade when she was ten years old and spending the summer with me. Decorated from head to toe in red, white and blue, holding the leash of my dog Jesse, who was similarly decorated by the two of us.

This was back when airline attendants would actually accompany a child from gate to gate, and make sure they were delivered safely from one place to another. That has certainly changed.  Imagine sending a ten year old girl from Kentucky to Rhode Island by herself nowdays.

Sixteen years later my daughter drove up with her four year old daughter, 

so that she could have the same experiences her mother did.

There are few constants in this world. But for one morning in July on Cuttyhunk Island the only thing that had changed was the passing of Jesse the dog, long gone now. 

There’s a new generation in the parade now.  That’s about all.