I Miss It So!

There's a book out about Jacobson's. You say that to anyone from the lower peninsula of Michigan, and they're bound to get misty-eyed. I'm definitely in that crowd.

Jacobson's (affectionately referred to as "Jake's" by clientele) was a retailer of the first order for much of the last 100 years in this state and closed their doors in 2002. At the end of it, there were about thirty stores in the chain spreading throughout Michigan, Ohio, Florida and beyond. For me, though, none of those stores bring on my sad puppy-dog face as much as the Saginaw store.  

Filling an entire block in downtown Saginaw, Jacobson's was the premier department store in the region. If you needed a dress for a special occasion, you could always find it at Jacobson's. Heck, if you needed anything to beautify yourself or your home, they probably had it or could order it.

Sure, there were other department stores in the area. Almost weekly mom and I trekked through Seitner's, Weichman's, and Heavenrich's. But Jacobson's stood out from the crowd. Way, way out in front of the crowd.

And for a birthday or Christmas, nothing was better than seeing a large silver box embossed with a pattern of the letter "J" and tied with a red ribbon. It didn't matter that I usually knew what was in the box, it was the fact that the clothing came from Jacobson's.

• That red terry-cloth robe I can't let go of because it's still in decent shape? Jacobson's. 
• That red wool dress that made me feel great every time I wore it? Jacobson's.
• The 1970s cool plaid bell-bottom pants & matching bomber jacket? Jacobson's.
• Most of my best clothing throughout high school? Totally Jacobson's and the Miss J Shop.

I was on the Miss J Board for a year in high school, and then, following college graduation, worked in the office on the second floor. Several times each day it was my job (and that of my co-worker) to walk through the store and collect tickets from sales. It meant that I knew the store backwards and forwards, and always knew where the best items were on sale. It also meant that a good deal of my paycheck went to those best items.

Did I say "tickets?"

I sure did.

It took Jacobson's a very, very long time to adapt to using registers and computers in the store. So when I was working in the 80s, the people on the sales floor were hand writing sales slips. And, from each item sold, they removed a ticket that included stock number, size, and price. I returned the tickets and sales slips to the office, where they were batched and totaled by a small, dedicated staff. Just imagine what it was like at Christmas time to collect and process all of that. By hand.

Jacobson's I Miss It So - The Story of a Michigan Fashion Institution by Bruce Allen Kopytek delves into the history and mystery of the stores. He reveals the humble origins of the store and the reign of Nathan Rosenfeld. He also explores many of the individual stores, including Saginaw. Thought there are interviews with some people who worked in Detroit area stores, I was sad to see there weren't any interviews with people who worked in the 207,000 square foot store. The handful of pictures of the store, though, are something special.

Still, this is a food blog, and focuses on cookbooks. So what does a book about ancient department stores in Michigan have to do with food or cookbooks?

As the stores were mostly free-standing, they often had gourmet sweets and restaurants. The new book has many beloved recipes from Jacobson's. And though I can't say I recognize a single recipe, it warms my heart to be cooking some chicken salad that -at one time- was indeed offered in a Jake's store.

Well, it kind of warms my heart. It's salad, so nothing warm. But it's tasty and beautiful. Like Jake's.

Jacobson's Cashew Chicken Salad
(adapted from Jacobson's...I Miss It So.)

4 cups or so chicken, cooked and diced
1/4 cup scallion, chopped
2 tablespoons Craisins (those dried cranberry raisin-like things)
1/4 cup cashew pieces, chopped
2 tablespoons mango jam (with chunks of Mango if you can find it)
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon curry powder

The original recipe calls for a little celery and mango chutney, but I wasn't going to buy celery for just 1/4 cup. And there's no way I would buy mango chutney when I have a perfectly good jar of mango jam from World Market in the fridge. Mix it all together, chill for at least two hours, and savor. Preferably while dressed in your finest outfit and sipping wine from a crystal goblet.

P.S. Someone was going to get this book for Christmas, but then I read it, cooked from it, and posted about it here. So much for surprise gifts. Unless that someone might still have a Jacobson's box lurking in a closet?

Captivated by Cappelini Caprese

Caprese salads are typically composed of fresh tomato, buffalo mozzarella, julienned basil, olive oil, salt, and pepper. This recipe adds pasta into the mix, and is great for the lazy, hazy days of summer that we're in now.

This recipe comes from a magazine. I have no idea what magazine, though I'm sure I found the recipe sometime in the mid-90s, and have been preparing it every summer since then. It's so simple, and so celebrates the season that you'll add it to your summer repetoire in a heartbeat, too.

The pictures show a recent version of this salad that uses the last bits of cooked and cooled macaroni, red onion, and leftover chicken breast. The recipe is easily adapted in that way. Don't have parsley? Don't worry about it. I'm sure the salad will be delicious anyway you make it today. And - if there are any leftovers - it will be even better tomorrow.

Cappelini With Tomato

CAPPELINI WITH TOMATO
Serves four or more

12 oz cappelini, cooked, tossed with 2 T olive oil, and cooled to room temperature

4 large tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup scallion, chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 oz mozzarella, shredded - be sure to use FRESH mozzarella.
Salt and Pepper to taste
Walnuts (optional) for garnish

Combine the tomatoes, scallion, basil, galric, mozzarella, salt, and pepper in a large bowl and let stand, at room temperature, for at least thirty minutes. Toss with pasta and walnuts and serve.

This recipe is great for potlucks and picnics. On top of my worn out recipe card I wrote "A summer classic" - indeed.

Favorite Summer Salad

Everyone could use a no-stress, no mess summer salad. Mine is a variation of the ubiquitous three-bean salad that leaves ample room for spontaneous ingredient meandering based on what's on hand.

The base ingredient is three cans of beans. In this mixture I used kidney, black, and pinto beans but honestly, virtually any mixture of three beans would do the trick. If you're feeling daring - only use two, or throw all caution to the wind and try one kind of bean. Three different colored beans, however, have a little magic cooking moxie.

Magic Moxie Bean Mix

Next up is an assortment of farm fresh vegetables, and this is where your creativity and local availability really take shape. If you're at the farmer's market, pick up red and orange peppers, sweet corn, red onions, tomatoes, and broccoli. Here I used much of what was in this week's Swier Family Farm CSA box.

Another addition is the freshly chopped herb (or herbs) of your choice. In this salad, I used dill exclusively; the salad works equally well with only cilantro.

The finally, add some of your favorite dressing. I used the final drops from a bottled dressing, and it was just enough to coat the salad, but not enough to overpower the dill. I also added some freshly cracked black pepper, and stirred to combine. I plan to let it sit in the fridge overnight and share at a potluck tomorrow. By then the flavors will have had time to marinate and become all kinds of crazy yumminess.

Favorite Summer Salad

My favorite summer salad is healthy, easy, crowd-pleasing and incredibly forgiving to the cook. What's your favorite summer salad?

Favorite Summer Salad
3 cans cooked beans - black, pinto, kidney
1 cup green, red, yellow, or orange bell pepper
2 ears fresh corn, shucked
1 cup (?) chopped red onion (I didn't write down how much I used)
1 pint grape tomatoes, at least halved, chopped if you're up to it
2 tablespoons or more fresh dill, chopped
1/4 to 1/3 cup bottled dressing of your choice (or mix your own)
Salt and pepper to taste

Place everything into a large bowl and mix well. Feel free to experiment with all of the ingredients: in the photographed version, I used a little broccoli, too. I've also made this salad adding in a cup or so of cooked, cooled brown rice or quinoa.

Funky Cold (Salad Plate) Medina

So I was browsing online and came across a recipe from Bon Appetit for Watermelon Granita. I made it. I didn't take a picture. I ate it all. I bought some more watermelon, made it again. Those Rice Krispie treats I mentioned? All mine. That's how the summer's been - some high points, some low points, and rather disjointed. Like riding a Runaway Train, err, something like that anyhow.

The granita reminded me of a "salad" in the Alinea cookbook. The wry and savvy Carol Blymire cooked this in November of 2008 on the Alinea at Home blog and struggled mightly with the four pounds of salad greens required. I truly enjoy Carol's writing, and her blogging influenced my decision to shake my cooking thing in public.

Anyway, browsing through Michigan Summers: Tales & Recipes, I came across two salads that I thought would make good plate companions for the frozen Salad, Red Wine Vinaigrette. Compared to Carol, though I took the easy route by using less greens, and my second hand juicer that takes up too much of my precious counter space. I started by juicing the greens. I had 3-4 cups mixed salad greens from my weekly Swier Family Farm CSA box...

No, hold on...

Scratch that.

This concoction connection actually started earlier with a recipe in Michigan Summers called "Chilled Chunky Tomato Soup." It's basically tomato juice, water, worcestershire, and unflavored gelatin topped with parsley. Think of a Bloody Mary jello shot without the vodka. That's what really got me thinking about the Alinea summer Salad, Red Wine Vinaigrette.

Chilled Chunky Tomato Soup

I did eventually juice the organic greens. My small amount of greens netted an even smaller amount of green juice - maybe 1 cup. I shook in some salt, stirred, poured into a plastic container, and placed it into the freezer. Red wine vinegar soon followed in a small container as well.

I used my food processor to quickly whirr a diced green kohlrabi from the Swier Family CSA into tiny bits. I added a classic dressing of mayonnaise, sugar, and apple cider vinegar for some Kohlrabi Koleslaw. Kohlrabi's in the cabbage family, so it works very well as a Klassic Koleslaw.

K?

Then I worked on the Bacon and Egg Salad. I crisped up some bacon, hard-boiled some eggs, and mashed both with mayo, mustard, scallion, and goat cheese.

Bacon, Mayo, Mustard, Goat Cheese, Scallion, Eggs

Bacon & Egg Salad

By then the greens had frozen, so I used a fork to turn them into a slushy, mushy kind of thing. Did the same thing with the red wine vinaigrette. And then I attempted to "plate" the three salads on one humongous white square plate.

You know what "plating" refers to, right? It's what cooks do in kitchens to make the food look so utterly spectacular. Heck, persnickety chefs have been known to use TWEEZERS to get a plate just perfect for you and yours out there at the table. My cats don't care if the plate is perfect, and me? I just want it to look pretty.

Darn. Not so pretty.

The frozen salad crystals melted on contact with the plate. Perhaps I should have refrigerated the plate? I got out another humongous plate and a ramekin for the frozen salad.

Much better. Pretty. Could use some height, some wavy lines, some doo-dads here and there to make it even better. Oh, heck, it could a lot...but it looks nice. How did it all taste?

The frozen salad was disappointing; it was too sharp for my tastes. However, if you let the salad and vinaigrette melt a bit, it would work well. A different combination of greens and salad dressing would probaby have made a huge difference to me.

(Frozen) Salad, Red Wine Vinaigrette

The tomato needed vodka. I'm thinking that's the only way I would have liked this...anybody wanna try that? I added some Kohlrabi Koleslaw on top.

The hands down winner? Bacon and Egg Salad. Toasted. Home Style. With Nothing Too Fancy.

Like this:

BACON AND EGG SALAD SANDWICHES
Adapted from Michigan Summers: Tales and Recipes

Makes 2 servings

2 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 chopped hard boiled eggs
1/4 cup goat cheese crumbles
2 scallions, chopped
Mayonnaise and mustard to taste to add just enough moisture to hold the above together.
Salt and pepper
Butter
4 slices bread

Mix the bacon, eggs, goat cheese crumbles, scallions, mayonnaise, mustard, salt, and pepper together. Lightly butter one side of each bread slice. Spread mixture on unbuttered sides. Top with other slices, butter on the outside. Fry until golden brown on both sides.

Dining in Denver - Part 2 - That Beet Salad

I was in Denver recently and ate at the marvelous Rioja. Though I had only one bite of the roasted beet salad, I kept dreaming of it...and of recreating it in my kitchen.

Here's the description from the restaurant's menu: Roasted Candy Striped Beet Salad: cucumber mint vinaigrette, snow drop goat cheese, crispy beet chips, pickled red onion, micro beets, mint syrup. To create the salad at home, I began by deconstructing the ingredients.

1) Roasted Candy Striped Beets. There were none in my local supermarket, so I settled for three regular jewel toned beets and roasted them as I typically do.

2) Snow Drop Goat Cheese. Nothing exactly like this in my local store, so I used goat cheese sprinkles.

3) Pickled Red Onion: I headed over to Simply Recipes for a great pickled red onion recipe and adapted based on what was in my pantry...which I didn't write down. Pickling red onions involves sliced red onions, sugar, white vinegar and some combination of spices: cinnamon, allspice, cumin, garlic, and so on. I'm pretty sure I threw in some organic oregano, too.

• In one pot, blanch onions in boiling water 2 minutes, drain.
• In another pot, combine vinegar, sugar and spices. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer five minutes.
• Add onions, summer one minute.
• Transfer to a glass jar, let cool, and keep in the fridge. I simply poured mine into a glass bowl, let cool on the stove, covered with plastic, and put into the fridge.

4) Cucumber Vinaigrette: I searched online for a cucumber salad dressing, but all I found was a lot of recipes for cucumbers in vinegar - and that's not what I was looking for. I ended up with something along these lines...

• 2 cucumbers
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• red white vinegar

Pushing the cucumber vinaigrette through cheese cloth.

I peeled and seeded the cucumber, then chopped, and pureed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and red white vinegar. I pushed the pulverized mixture through two layers of cheese cloth and came up with a reasonable facsimile. Next time I won't use the olive oil as it's too pronounced. Still, not bad.


5) Micro Greens: Definitely nothing like these around here, so I used chopped organic charge from my weekly Swier Family Farm allotment.

6) Mint Syrup:  Mint syrup was a breeze to make. There are many variations available online, and I used this combination:

• 2 cups water
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 bunch mint

Mint and Sugar

Throw it all in a pot, boil until slightly thickened. Cool, remove the mint, and store in the fridge. Just try to not drink it all before you get to the salad. Save and use in various other things like mint juleps, tea, or drizzle over ice cream with chocolate syrup.

7) Crispy Beet Chips: I didn't get these made, and, in fact, completely forgot about them. They seem pretty easy, though - extremely thin sliced beets roasted in salt and olive oil until crispy.

The result? Satisfying.

Beet Salad with Mint Syrup, Pickled Onions, Cucumber Vinaigrette, Goat Cheese

I really wish I could have found a different type of beets as the jewel-toned beets have a stronger "beety" flavor than the more delicate candy-striped. I hope I can find candy-striped beets sometime this summer. The chard for the micro-beet greens worked, although I suppose their flavor is also more pronounced; maybe I'll try this again and use the beet tops as salad. Regardless, I'll call the re-creation a success. Taking the essence of beet mingling with cucumber and mint, along with the crunch of the chard has a decidedly summer twist and certainly echoes the one bite of salad I had in Denver.

Roasted Veggies, Part Two

I recently explored Kitchen Life: Real Food for Real Families - Even Yours by James Beard Award winning chef Art Smith. I choose several recipes that included roasted vegetables, which I wrote about here.

The cookbook begins with a quiz that suggests recipes that suit your cooking style. I definitely fit the profile of the "seasoned and careful cook." I love fresh vegetables, enjoy reading and trying new recipes, and don't shy away from most any challenge in the kitchen (hello Alinea cookbook, I'm talking to you.) The Chopped Grilled Vegetable Salad on page 120 was suggested under the soup and salads category for the seasoned cook.

I'm not sure why it's a "seasoned cook" kind of recipe. I think just about anybody could whip this up. Then again, I've been known to make my own chicken broth and gnocchi, so I suppose not everybody could roast some veggies. Don't be intimidated by this salad; it's certainly not rocket science.

Following the directions for roasting vegetables I gave earlier, you could also grill these with no problem. For this group of vegetables, use a favorite bottled (or hand made) salad dressing. I choose Girard's robust Champagne salad dressing and lavishly tossed the chopped red bell peppers, zucchini, eggplant, and asparagus, then settled the vegetables into the pan for roasting. If you use eggplant, be sure to chop, salt and let sit for an hour in a colander; drain with cold water before use. After roasting or grilling, allow the vegetables to cool thoroughly.

Vegetables Before Roasting

Choose and prepare your salad greens, then toss with more of the same salad dressing you used to coat the vegetables. The recipe suggests barbecued tofu, but I used rotisserie chicken breast.  Scatter on some cheddar cheese and almonds, and there's dinner.

Grilled, err, Roasted Vegetable Salad

Except...

What's that funny smell?

If you leave the salad in the bag too long, it smells and tastes funny. It's a nice picture, but I didn't eat the salad that way. Instead, I trashed the lettuce - it was just too far along the trail towards compost for me to eat. I piled the salad onto a smaller plate, added slices of chicken, and used salad dressing as dipping sauce. Not as pretty, but still delicious!

Relish - Easy Gourmet Cooking For Everyone!

This week's cookbook...isn't an actual book. It is a collection of recipes from the recipe service provided by the fine folks at RelishRelish.com

RelishRelish is a weekly menu service. You pay a small fee, and each Thursday receive an email enticing you to come to the subscriber's-only area of the website and choose from fifteen different meals for the week. You end up with a total of five meals plus one dessert per week.

RelishRelish also offer special menus for seasonal events; one summer party suggestion was "Lobster and Lambrusco" complete with multiple recipes and invitation designs. They currently have a gluten-free service and a new iphone app; the app comes with a free one-month trial of the service. I've also heard tell that an email to customer service might net you a brief guest membership; following them on Twitter might land the same type of benefit.

The recipes scale from 2 to 8. As a household of one, I went with the 2-serving option and always have just enough left over for lunch the next day, but then, I eat like a bird. There are different options each week including vegetarian, kid-friendly, budget-friendy, low calorie, quick preparation, and crockpot recipes. Recipes call for mostly fresh ingredients and thus allow for substitutions and other spur-of-the-moment changes.

Each menu option includes a main dish and side dish. This week I'm cooking through the recipes I selected for the week of November 24, 2008:

• Pumpkin Bread
• Pork Tenderloin with Sweet Potatoes and Breadcrumb Broccoli
• Southwestern White Bean Chili with Jack Quesadillas
• Baked Tuna Melt with Cucumber Apple Slaw
• Roasted Rosemary Chicken Breasts with Green Beans & Golden Raisins
• Breakfast Burritos with Spicy Hash Browns

I started the week by heading to the grocery store, which is really easy with RelishRelish. When you select your week's recipes, you also get an easy to read grocery list. Mine starts out looking like this...

RelishRelish Menu Before Shopping

And ends up looking like this...

RelishRelish.com menu after shopping

Before I head to the store I review the menu items and check my pantry and freezer plus cross out items I already have and add in any substitutions. Then, once in the store, I cross things out as I throw them in the cart. The items in the left column, on the other hand, are basic pantry staples you will need through the week; you may or may not need to pick them up at the store.

And yeah, I can be found Aisle #4, pen in hand, gawking at the canned pumpking trying to find a 15-oz can. I'm probably muttering to myself, "Not a single 15oz can to be found." I got a 28-oz can instead.

I started the week easy with the Baked Tuna Melt and Cucumber Apple Slaw. The recipe for the Tuna Melt recommends baking the prepared sandwich for fifteen minutes - I didn't bother, so there was no melting involved. The Cucumber Apple Slaw was delicious. And as promised on the RelishRelish website, I was able to prepare and serve this in about 30 minutes. Spectacular!

Tuna Salad with Celery, Craisins, Shredded Cheese

Cucumber, Apple, Celery, Almonds, Yogurt, Lemon

P.S. I'm not associated with RelishRelish in any way. I did subscribe for about two years, but do not have a subscription at this time.