Mrs. Fake
If you have read any of my stories, you probably already
know that everything Val makes is strictly from scratch. On top of that, it’s
always fresh. She actually gets up at 4:00am on Thanksgiving Day to bake the
pies. That’s how important it is to her. I’m not lying. There are no short
cuts, just techniques and recipes that detail the right way of doing things. You
may be surprised to know that her mother, Edie, does not subscribe to this
folly.
I often say that Val, my mother, was doing what Martha
Stewart made popular like making homemade jam from freshly picked strawberries
she grew in her own garden, long before Martha was a household name. I’ve just
come to realize that my grandmother, Edie is also ahead of her time. She was
using mostly store bought ingredients and combining them to make it her own way
before Sandra Lee came onto the scene with her “Semi-Homemade” approach. This is
Edie’s classic technique. She even
earned the nickname, “Mrs. Fake” lovingly bestowed upon her by my smart-aleck
aunt, Janet. Edie knows how to take advantage of modern conveniences so that
she can get on with the business of having a good time.
Edie has done a lot of entertaining throughout the years. I have
always loved hearing about the parties she had and the names of the guests who
attended the night before. The phrase, “Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres” is still
magic to me especially when she says it in her sing-song voice. The hors d’oeuvres
she served were very exotic: Vienna sausages, Swedish meatballs and fancy pink
and orange cheese served in a crock. There were signature cocktails, too: vodka
and Fresca, vodka and 7-Up and vodka and Cranberry. One time, I was lucky
enough to be invited to help take coats at one of her fancier parties. My
friend Jenny and I were 16 and we dressed in our finest to greet guests and lay
their heavy fur coats on my grandmother’s bed. Then we escaped to the kitchen
to sample some of the food and stole up to our room to giggle the night away. I’m
not sure how late the festivities went on but I know we were asleep before the
party goers began to leave.
There were family holiday dinners as well, one where Edie
attempted to cook a large turkey in her new microwave. Unfortunately, that method
did not catch on. But other useful tips and ingredients are still in play in
households across the country today. Cool Whip comes to mind. Many people love
the stuff. I have only had the pleasure at Edie’s house. As you can imagine,
Val demands freshly whipped cream when adorning her homemade pies and cakes. I’ve
recently come across two of Edie’s recipes that require little effort for seemingly
homemade type results. Both of them employ the magical frozen stuff. One is a
strawberry pie using three ingredients and absolutely no cooking. Two
containers of Dannon strawberry yogurt, Cool Whip and a premade graham cracker
crust is all that is needed to fool your friends. But my favorite one is
actually pretty impressive. This dessert can be found in “A Collection of
Powell Recipes” typed and photocopied by my mother’s cousin, Susan Hackley,
June 1988. It was also featured in “Simply the Best Course”, the Woods Hole Golf
Club centennial cook book. If you don’t have the good fortune to own either one
of these tomes, the recipe is reprinted below. Please be sure to heed the
warning that Edie wrote at the end of the directions: “Very Rich!”
Sandra Lee, eat your heart out!
Edie’s Ladyfinger Cake
(Serves 12)
1 cup heavy
cream or 2 cups Cool Whip
3
tablespoons sugar, divided
12 oz.
Nestle’s chocolate bits
4
tablespoons cold water
1 teaspoon
vanilla
6 eggs,
separated
3-4 dozen
ladyfinger cookies
½ oz. dark
chocolate for shaving
Add 1 tablespoon sugar to 1 cup cream and whip until soft
peaks form. Place in refrigerator. If using Cool Whip, omit this step.
Melt the chocolate
over low heat. Remove from heat and transfer to mixing bowl. Add the cold
water, 2 tablespoons sugar and vanilla and combine with electric mixer. Beat in
egg yolks while chocolate mixture is still warm; continue to beat on low speed
for 5 minutes. In another bowl, combine the egg whites and one tablespoon sugar.
Beat until stiff peaks form. Fold in ½ of the whipped cream or ½ of the Cool
Whip. Combine egg white/whipped cream mixture with chocolate mixture.
Line the bottom and sides of a 9” spring form pan with
enough plastic wrap to hang over the sides.
Place a layer of ladyfingers along bottom and sides of pan. Pour a layer
of the chocolate mixture over ladyfingers; add a layer of ladyfingers, then
chocolate mixture until there are three layers, up to the top edge of the pan. Cover
cake with plastic wrap and freeze cake for 24 hours. Thirty minutes before
serving, remove cake from spring form pan by inverting it onto a serving plate,
then releasing the pan. Cover the top
and sides of cake with remaining whipped cream or Cool Whip. Decorate with
chocolate shavings and serve.
This holiday season,
Andrea Norris can be found under a mound of freshly baked cookies. For more
recipes and fun, go to http://www.notesfromvalskitchen.com
No comments:
Post a Comment