Grandma’s Cheese Cake

Grandma always made this in a 9″ glass pie plate. I don’t know why she never bought a spring form pan … Anyway I always increase this by one half for my pan. You’ll have to experiment. A glass pie plate holds a little more than 4 cups of filling….Obviously you should make the crust first. While it’s baking you can sir up the filling.

Ingredients

• 1 pound cream cheese
• ½ tsp. vanilla
• 1 Tbs flour
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• 3 beaten eggs
• ½ cup heavy cream

 Soften the cream cheese either by leaving it out, or gently warming it in the microwave on defrost.

In a bowl, combine the cream cheese and vanilla.

Beat in the sugar and cinnamon, then add the eggs one at a time.

Stir in heavy cream.

Pour into a baked crust. Grandma always did a shortbread crust. I like graham cracker better (recipe will be on the box — it’s basically ground up crumbs, sugar, butter and cinnamon). Here’s Grandma’s cookie crust recipe:

• Combine ½ cup butter, 2 Tbs sugar and 1 cup flour — it will be pasty.
• Press into the bottom of your pan — good idea to line the pan with parchment.
• Bake at 375 for 12 -15 minutes

Bake at 325 for 35 minutes, or until a knife comes out slightly coated.

Spread the topping over top of the cheesecake after it’s been out of the oven for a couple minutes — it will probably fall — no worries. Here’s what’s in the topping:

• 1 cup sour cream
• 3 Tbs sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

Grandma always made this in a 9″ glass pie plate. I don’t know why she never bought a spring form pan … Anyway I always increase this by one half for my pan. You’ll have to experiment. A glass pie plate holds a little more than 4 cups of filling….

Grilled Pizza

My phone calls to  Mom would often start, “how do you make (fill in in the blank).” These were wonderful conversations. She would scramble around the little kitchen in Hamburg, N.Y. looking for the recipe I needed, then I would madly take notes on the backs of envelopes.

The other night I had one of those conversations, but the baton has been passed, and I am now the Mom. Stephen called from San Diego asking how to make gravy. What followed was (to me) a sweet 10 minutes spent describing what the flour would look like as it browned – how the transformation that occurs when the water or broth meets the golden paste of pan drippings and flour still seems like magic. We talked about roux — which is what the French call the substance that results from heating fat and adding flour. It’s a technique he could use to make dishes plain and fancy — from Edie’s macaroni and cheese to Bernaise sauce.

Good cooking is all about mastering technique. While we were on the phone, Stephen told me that he had figured out how to make grilled pizza — including the technique of flipping the raw dough onto the rack of a gas grill. The next day he sent me step-by-step instructions. I haven’t tried it yet — I think we’ll need to replace our crusty old grill first. But here is Stephen’s recipe, complete with tips on technique and a snap shot of one of his creations. I’m sharing it here to celebrate the next generation of family cooks. 

GRILLED PIZZA

Ingredients

Dough:

• 2 cups warm water (Don’t use tap, good water tastes better)
• 1 (1/4-ounce) packet active dry yeast (3/4 tablespoon)
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for oiling the bowl and dough during cooking

Sauce:

• 1 28 oz can San Marzano tomatoes (FROM ITALY – check the can), briefly run through a blender to smooth them out
• 2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
• Olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried or 1 tablespoon fresh oregano
• Salt to taste

Instructions

 Dough:

1. Place water in a bowl, sprinkle yeast on top, and let rest until mixture is bubbling (about 10 minutes). Meanwhile, place flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Oil a second large bowl and set aside.
2. When yeast mixture is ready, add flour mixture and olive oil and mix until dough is smooth and stretches 3 to 4 inches without breaking, about 6 to 10 minutes. Add a little more flour if the dough is overly sticky.
3. Transfer dough to the oiled bowl and cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap. Set in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour. (The dough can also be covered and placed in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.)
4. Once dough has risen, punch down, cut into 6 pieces, shape, and grill as desired.

Sauce:

1. Put enough olive oil in a medium sized pot to cover about ½ the bottom.
2. Sautee garlic on medium heat until it begins to turn light golden brown.
3. Add tomatoes and reduce heat to low.
4. Simmer to reduce liquids, about an hour.
5. Add oregano in last five minutes (especially if fresh, otherwise it turns black).
6. If sauce is too bitter add just a little sugar. If you cook it for the full hour this won’t be necessary.

Grilling:

1. Preheat grill, brushing the grate so it is clean. Turn one side to low and leave the other side on high.
2. Stretch dough into a very thin (nearly ripping in the middle) oval about 12 inches across.
3. Brush olive oil on one side of the dough. Grip it on the wide side of the oval and quickly flip it onto the hot side of the grill. Be careful not to rip or fold it (this may take a little practice). Close the lid.
4. When the dough begins to bubble and the underside develops a crust (only takes a minute or two, watch it closely!) brush more olive oil on the raw side and flip it onto the low side of the grill.
5. Now you can top the pizza with whatever you like. When you’re ready, close the lid again and let the bottom cook. This will take significantly longer than the first side but it still happens quickly!
6. Remove, cut and enjoy.

Scones Part II

At eldest on Stephen’s apartment … there was no oatmeal in the cupboard, so I searched for a recipe that called for just flour. I found this one, for blueberry scones. I was doubtful about the eggs, and I had to use frozen berries. They turned out well, but the eggs make them resemble muffins. Picture to follow!

Scones and homemade play dough

Mom started making the oatmeal scones from "The Book of Bread" (Judith and Evan Jones; Harper & Rowe, Publishers, 1982) after I had left the house, and I started making them when the kids were little. When playgroup in Scituate, MA was at our house I would make the scones and a batch of  homemade play dough. As the moms and kids would arrive, the snowsuits, mittens and boots would pile up by the side door. For cold little hands I had warm play dough ready, and for the Moms -- hot coffee and fresh scones.

We live in Phoenix now, and I make these for a fast but special breakfast, or to take to work as a treat. I can be standing in the kitchen thinking, “maybe I should make some scones…” and about 30 minutes later I can be showered and the scones will be done. 

My copy of the “Book of Bread” has Mom’s adjustments in the margin, and I’ve made my own changes over the years. Here’s the evolved version. When I find the play dough recipe (which was taped inside a cabinet door in Scituate) I’ll add it here.

1 1/4 cups white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon coarse salt or ¼ teaspoon table salt
¼ cup sugar
1 stick butter, cut into ½ tablespoon chunks
1 cup oats (I like quick oats for this)
1/3 cup currants, dried cranberries, mini chocolate chips or nuts
*1/4 to 1/3 cup finely ground nuts — “wicked good”
½ cup buttermilk
Melted butter and sugar crystals

Combine the flour, baking powder and soda, salt and sugar in a food processor. (*If you want to add the ground nuts, grind them to a pretty fine crumb in the processor before you add the other dry ingredients.) Cut in the butter with a few pulses. The butter should be in pea-size bits now — do not over-process!

Shape into 7" round

Dump the mixture into a bowl and toss in the oatmeal and your choice of fruit, nuts or chocolate (or leave them plain …). Add the buttermilk and stir it in with great restraint. You want the dry ingredients to just barely stick together. Overwork it and you’ll have a paving stone (quoting Mom here) and not a scone. Move the dough onto a floured surface and knead it lightly (remember Mom’s warning …) about 7 turns. Make it into a 7 inch wide disk, then cut into 8 wedges.

Separate the scones on an ungreased cookie sheet. Brush with butter and sprinkle on sugar (way optional!). Put in a preheated 375 degree oven. 

Now get in the shower, but be sure you return to the kitchen in 15 minutes to remove the scones from the oven and onto a cooling rack. These are best when straight out of the oven, but if you have one leftover you can zap it in the microwave.

Deliciously Interesting

Every family has its own dialect. When my husband was growing up in Dorchester, Massachusetts, “ten birds” was his family’s  way of ramping something up, such as “It’s cold as ten birds out there,” or “I’m as hungry as ten birds.” In Boston, “wicked” serves the same purpose: “wicked good.” I don’t think the Farquhars know why “ten birds” meant “very” to them. Maybe the birds in Dorchester flew in gangs — get ten of them together and they make a lot of noise. Who knows? But the silly phrase makes us smile.  

Another of our expressions is “tasty papers.” Tasty papers are something deliciously interesting … like a really great hand in a game of scat, or secret information about someone’s birthday: “Mmmm….tasty papers!”  

Edie Oberg in 1951

I started to think about a food blog when I was going through some boxes left over from cleaning out my Mom’s apartment. Edith Haskell Oberg, who passed away eight years ago today, was a wonderful home cook. She had her tried-and-true family favorites, but she was adventurous to the end. Her stuff was full of recipes clipped from newspapers and magazines, and squares of scratch paper upon which she had copied a friend’s recipe in her beautiful Palmer Method hand-writing. I also found old cookbooks and pamphlets — like Pillsbury Bake Off booklets from the early ’50s. Her “Betty Crocker Cook Book” — a gift from her mother in the 1940′s — and a yellowed copy of “Good Maine Food” — the source of the potato soup she made for us to eat on Halloween before we went trick-or-treating – were never lost. They are precious to me and I had them stored separately.  

So, as the recipes and photos piled up on the bed in my guestroom, I realized that I had some tasty papers on my hands. And I thought, what a great name for a blog!  

For eight years I have intended to scan the best of Mom’s recipes and compile a book for my children and Edie’s other grandchildren and their wives. I never even started, but I think a blog is a better idea. This way I can share her good recipes as time allows. Maybe I’ll even scan a few so you can see that graceful writing.  

I can share some family stories here, too. And because I felt so close to Mom and Aunt Betty — even the female relatives who had passed before my birth — this blog will be about being a woman, a wife and a Mom, in this crazy world. The kitchen, cooking, and our recipes tie us women together across the generations. The food is always full of love, as Mom used to say, and I feel their love every time I make one of their dishes. I hope some of you might contribute, too, because I know this family has great cooks on all sides: Farquhars, Obergs, Haskells, Lanes ….  

Hopefully “Tasty Papers” will be as interesting as ten birds.