Potatoes, layered with onions and milk, baked tender and crusty…

• 4 cups potatoes, peeled and sliced
• 2 cups onion, chopped or sliced
• Salt, pepper, thyme, and paprika
• Flour
• Butter
• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 2 cups buttered bread crumbs

Grease a 2 quart casserole and place in a layer of sliced potatoes. Top with a layer of chopped onion. Season layer and sprinkle with a little flour and dot with a little butter. Repeat layers, ending with a layer of potatoes. Scald the milk and pour into casserole. Top with buttered bread crumbs. Bake, covered, for 50 minutes at 350F, then uncover and continue baking for another 20 minutes until golden.

Vegetable marrow is a large squash, oval in shape.  It was a common summer and fall-time dish in our family, prepared simply with onion and sour cream.

Ingredients for Vegetable Marrow as Mom Made It

1/2 onion, chopped fine
2 T butter or oil
1 t paprika
2 lb. vegetable marrow, cubed
Salt and white pepper
1/2 to 1 cup sour cream

Cook marrow in salted water until very tender. Drain and mash well.

Saute onion in butter or oil until soft. Add paprika and stir a minute. Mix with marrow.

Combine with sour cream, season, and reheat before serving.

vegetable marrow

noun

1.

a cucurbitaceous plant, Cucurbita pepo, probably native to America but widely cultivated for its oblong green striped fruit, which is eaten as a vegetable

2.

Also called (US) marrow squash. the fruit of this plant

Often shortened to marrow

“vegetable marrow”. Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. 12 Apr. 2016. <Dictionary.com http://www.dictionary.com/browse/vegetable-marrow>.

Hungarian Vegetable Marrow (Tökfözelék)

Recipe from Az Inyesmester Szakacskonyve (The Expert’s Cookbook)

Ingredient for Hungarian Vegetable Marrow recipe

• 5 lbs vegetable marrow
• Salt
• Vinegar
• Lard or oil
• Chopped dill
• Paprika
• Brown flour roué
• Sour cream or buttermilk

Peel and grate vegetable marrow. Salt and sprinkle with vinegar. Let soak 1/2 hour. Squeeze out the moisture. Cook in a little lard or oil. Add chopped dill and a little paprika. When tender, prepare a browned flour roué and add to marrow. Cook until thickened. Add sour cream or buttermilk. Can add dill pickle juice for added flavor.

A marrow is a vegetable, the mature fruit of certain Cucurbita pepo cultivars. The immature fruit of the same or similar cultivars is called courgette (in Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands and New Zealand) or zucchini (in North America, Australia, Germany and Austria). Like courgettes, marrows are oblong, green squash, but marrows have a firm rind and a neutral flavour (“overgrown when picked and insipid when cooked…”), making them useful as edible casings for mincemeat and other stuffings.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first mention of vegetable marrows dates to 1822, zucchini to 1929, and courgettes to 1931. Before the introduction of Cucurbita species from the New World, marrow signified the immature, edible fruits of Lagenaria, a cucurbit gourd of African origin widely grown since Antiquity for eating when immature and for drying as watertight receptacles when grown to maturity.

Marrow (vegetable). (2016, December 12). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 06:11, December 12, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marrow_(vegetable)&oldid=754357847

We grew up on beets from the garden in the summer and pickled beets in the winter. Mom’s canning cellar always had an array of Mason jars stuffed with rich, red beetroot.

This particular recipe is for quick refrigerator pickled beets. A sliver of cinnamon bark and few cloves can also be added to the pickling liquid for spiced pickled beets.

Ingredients for Pickled Beets

• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 2 cups thinly sliced cooked beets

Combine vinegar, water, sugar, salt and pepper. Boil for 2 minutes. Place in a glass bowl with beets and let cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate 12 hours.

Hungarian Stuffed Potatoes (Töltött burgonya)

Recipe from Az Ìnyesmester Szakácskônyve (The Expert’s Cookbook)

Ingredients for Hungarian Stuffed Potatoes

• 12-14 large potatoes
• 3-4 oz. ground bacon
• Salt
• 4 oz. grated cheese
• Breadcrumbs
• Butter

Bake the potatoes. Cut in half and scoop out the pulp. Mix the potato pulp with the ground bacon. Season with salt and add grated cheese. Stuff the potatoes with this mixture.

Sprinkle with crumbs, dot with butter, and bake in a hot oven until golden.

• 2 T butter or 2 sliced bacon, fried lightly
• 1 sliced, peeled apple
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 4 cups shredded red cabbage
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 2 to 4 T sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• Caraway seeds

Melt butter or fry bacon soft and chop. Add apple and onion and cook till soft. Mix in cabbage. Add rest of ingredients and cook until cabbage is tender, about 12 minutes. Servings: 4

The classic Caesar salad as we know it: romaine lettuce tossed with oil, eggs, Parmesan cheese, garlic, and other seasonings. Anchovies are optional.

Ingredients for Caesar Salad

• 2 T olive oil
• 1 clove chopped garlic
• 8 leaves romaine lettuce
• 1/4 cup croutons
• 3 T Parmesan cheese
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 T red wine vinegar
• 1 T Worcestershire sauce
• dash Tabasco sauce
• 2 T capers (optional)
• 1 T lemon juice
• black pepper
• anchovy fillets to taste (optional)

Crush garlic and oil together. Add anchovies and capers and mash together well. Add egg yolks, then Worcestershire, lemon, Tabasco, vinegar. Mix well and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Toss with lettuce. Top with croutons and Parmesan. Serves 2

The Caesar Salad is said to have been created by Caesar Cardini (or his staff) in his Tijuana restaurant in 1924.

According to Rosa Cardini, the original Caesar salad […] did not contain pieces of anchovy; the slight anchovy flavor comes from the Worcestershire sauce. Cardini was opposed to using anchovies in his salad

Wikipedia contributors. “Caesar salad.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Apr. 2016. Web. 15 Apr. 2016.

• 1 large eggplant
• 1 bunch spinach
• 3-4 Italian tomatoes
• 1/2 container cottage cheese
• 1 cup grated mozzarella
• 1/4 cup Parmesan
• 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 slice onion, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 green pepper, thinly sliced
• Olive oil
• Oregano, fresh basil
• Salt and pepper
• Breadcrumbs
• Parsley, chopped

Slice eggplant and salt. Let drain on paper towels for 15 to 30 minutes. Press to remove excess moisture.

Cook spinach for 5 minutes in salted water and drain. Sauté mushrooms, onion, garlic and green pepper lightly in olive oil. In ovenproof dish, layer eggplant, tomatoes, mushroom mix, cottage cheese and 3/4 cup of the mozzarella. Sprinkle basil and oregano on each layer. Season to taste. May add 1/4 cup thick white sauce if desired. Top with breadcrumbs, remainder of mozzarella and Parmesan. Place in 350ºF oven for about 20 minutes.

A María Teresa recipe

• 4 potatoes, cooked, peeled and quartered
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 2 green peppers, thinly sliced
• Oil
• Salt and pepper

Heat oil and sauté onions and green peppers slowly until very limp. They need constant stirring so they do not burn. Season. Add the quartered potatoes and continue frying until potatoes get crisp brown on the outside. Season.