scalloped potatoes

there is nothing that goes better with ham: plus you can dice
up leftover meat and fold it into the leftover potatoes and
pretend you have a new dish altogether. Okay, maybe not quite.

Thinly sliced ham IN scalloped potatoes is a wonderful thing.

The ham seasons the potatoes, which mellows out
the saltiness. A match made in heaven.

Hap Newsom used to sneak around supermarkets
turning the boxes of pineapple upside-down cake mix
upside down

I don't recall that. I know someone else who did that but she was
only 7 at the time.

Last I saw Hap doing that he was about 65. Being
about 60 at the time, I joined in as well.

Most Easters Roslind and her sister Sandra take turns
this year we passed on the tradition to [...] niece [...] Andrea

Did she enjoy being the hostess

Yes, she did. And she's a good cook.

Good. Maybe something will eventually rub off.

did the sisters enjoy their new subsidiary role?

But none of her children seem interested in cooking at all. The
oldest one (she's 14, same as cousin Lexi, my junior chef),
complained that she didn't know how to take the pies out of the
fridge, put them in the oven, set it for 325 F and then set the
timer for 20 minutes!

They'll have had no preconceived notions, anyhow.

I picked up a bottle of Piesporter

I presume Michelsberg?

Yes, as a matter of fact. It had enough sweetness to be popular with
those who don't like Chardonnay. I had the red along with wing and
thigh meat.

It's the best-known brand in the appellation, so
that was by no means a wild guess. The quality
is variable; I've had decent luck with it when
I've had it.

Aerosol whipped cream is probably best huffed.

That's what the youngsters thought!

Heh.

Andrea had a number of fresh herbs growing in her dining room in
one of those hanging aeroponic growing tower things and we received
little baggies of a number of green things as the plants were
getting ahead of her. And as well as herbs she was growing salad rocket

I find aeroponics peculiar. So instead of growing
the plants in a medium like soil or a soil-like
medium, you have to keep spritzing the exposed
roots with fertilizer and water?

and something called Dino Kale. She harvests it when the leaves are
about 6 inches long and still very tender so they are good raw in
salads. Much as I detest kale for being an overhyped overpriced
so-called superfood I must admit it was tasty. I Googled it later
and discovered that "Dino Kale" is just a new market name for good
old Tuscan black cabbage.

I'm not a kale person but am a head cabbage person. It's
the texture that gets me, but kale, dino or otherwise,
if harvested young, can be okay. My sister loved the stuff
- she would chiffonade the leaves and give them a quick
stir-fry over intense heat: this brought out maximum
sweetness and flavor while minimizing bitterness.

Title: Lithuanian Pork Dumplings with Cabbage

More rich Lithuanians! Not imaginative ones, however.

Some Chinese dumplings (especially XLB) may be
served with a leaf or two of greenery beneath
(to keep them from sticking to the bottom of the
steamer). These could be treated that way:

---------- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.01

Title: Sui Mai Pork Dumplings
Categories: Appetizers, Pork/ham, Chinese, siew mai
Yield: 30 servings

3 Black Mushrooms, dried 1 Egg White
1/3 c Bamboo Shoots, canned 1 ts Salt
1/2 lb Pork Loin with Fatback 1/2 ts Granulated Sugar
1 ts Sesame Oil 1/4 ts White Pepper, freshly
1 ts Rice Wine or Dry Sherry Ground
1 tb Cornstarch 30 Won Ton Skins,
defrosted

* The 1/2 lb pork loin should be ground with 1 ounce of fatback.

Cover mushrooms with boiling water and soak for 15 minutes. Drain,
trim and discard tough stem ends and finely mince caps. Blanch bamboo
shoots for 1 minute in boiling water; drain, pat dry and mince finely.

In a large bowl, combine pork, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, sesame oil,
rice wine, cornstarch, egg white, salt, sugar and pepper until well
mixed.
From into 30 1-inch balls. Trim the corner of won ton wrappers to form
circles; cover with plastic wrap to prevent them from drying out.

To assemble, place a meatball in the center of each wrapper and
bring
up sides, to form an open topped basket. Flatten the top of each
meatball
with a butter knife dipped in water and flatten bottoms of dumpling so
they
stand upright. Place on a lightly oiled plate and set in bamboo steamer
or
on an inverted heatproof bowl or trivet set in a wok filled with 2 inches
of boiling water. Cover and steam for 5 to 8 minutes or until done.
Serve
meatballs hot and garnish plate with sprigs of fresh corianders. Makes
30.

Makes 30 dumplings.

From The Gazette, 91/09/11.

Posted by James Lor. Reposted by Fred Peters.

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