Dandelion Wine

This recipe comes from Jerry's grandfather, Cesare Malerba, who had a farm on Long Island. Jerry's mother is the youngest of 13, 12 of whom are shown here by the farmhouse Cesare built.

Dandelion Wine

Pick 12 to 16 cups of flower heads on a sunny day. Put in a 2 gallon container and cover with one gallon boiling water.

Stir in 1/2 lb. finely minced raisins
2 1/2 lb. sugar
one whole orange chopped with peel
one whole lemon chopped with peel
Mix in one ounce wine yeast.

Steep for 4 days in a warm spot (72 degrees to 78 degrees)
Strain mexture through a cheese cloth. Squeeze the pulp to get out all the juice. Discard pulp.

Pour the liquid into a crock, cover with fresh cheese cloth and continue to ferment in a warm dark corner for three weeks.

Decant gently into clean bottles. Cork tightly and store in a cool place for six months or more.

Bean Soup - US Representatives Restaurant

When I was about 7, Wowie and Monty took me to visit Washington D.C. In addition to the usual sights, I was also taken to the McCarthy hearings and lunch with their friend, Congressman Bryon Rogers of Denver at the U.S. House of Representatives Restaurant. Mom found and sent me the menu which has the recipe for their "famous" bean soup on the back.

2 lbs. No. 1 white Michigan beans
Cover with cold water and soak overnight.
Drain and recover with water.
Add a smoked ham hock and simmer slowly, for about 4 hours until beans are cooked tender. Then add salt and pepper to taste.
Just before serving, bruise beans with a large spoon or ladle, enough to cloud.

Raspberry Trifle

Custard sauce

2 cups 2 percent milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tbsp freshly grated orange zest
2 large eggs2 tsp vanilla extract

Filling

20 ladyfingers
1/4 cup tawny port (or Grand Marnier)
3 packages (6 oz each) fresh raspberries

Stir milk, sugar, cornstarch, and zest in a saucepan. Bring mixture almost to a boil over medium heat. Beat eggs in blender on low speed and slowly add hot milk mixture. Return to pan. Cook over low heat (do not boil), stirring constantly, until custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 7 minutes. Stir in vanilla. Cool in refrigerator, stirring once. To assemble, place a layer of ladyfinger halves in the bottom of a glass serving bowl. Sprinkle with a little port. Spread 1/3 berries and 1/3 custard on top. Continue layering, ending with custard. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate 1 hour.

SELFDecember 2001

This is the recipe that Mom just sent re Trifle. However, I think I have made it with sherry and some rasberry jam it in some where?

First try at sending by cell phone

Good Idea

Ann - great idea for us all to share ideas, recipes etc. I did check the links you had and mine is www.dollyvardenalaska.com and not www.dollyvarden.com which is a rock band :-) Also I could not open Alexandra's, so you might check that one too. You may want to add our new webpage with the Mexico tours www.dollyvardenmexico.com It is still a work in progress as we are adding tours as new vendors come on board. Dave's site for rafting here is www.pacificnwfloattrips.com which we are currently updating.

Why Eggs Fried?

This is an experiment to see how easy it might be to share recipes since it is time to start on the next volume of the Family Cookbook. It can also be used to quickly post single pictures rather than go to the trouble of putting up an entire gallery on my website or for other information we all might want to share.

Rather than having me post and having the rest of you comment, I will send invitations so that you can all equally post. I will also work on putting up the pdfs of things like the cookbook.

There is also a way to take pictures with my telephone camera and post those as well. And the best of all, Blogger is free and so far, quite easy to use.

Eggs Fried

1. Be sure to order the eggs
2. Keep eggs in house to prevent freezing
3. Empty ashes and fix fire
4. Call friend wife
5. Make coffee
6. Call wife again
7. Set table and cut bread - fill salt shaker
8. Call wife again
9. Just fry the eggs - with feeling if the eggs break
10. Repeat daily - she'll never be the wise