♦  In the Salon this week  ♦

St Pat’s Day full Irish breakfast  ♦  TV kitchen recreations  ♦  Celery – preserving, restoring  ♦  Who do you know that’s the celebrity chef in their own kitchen???  ♦  Title recipe  ♦  Girl Scout cookie recipes  ♦ Resource links

  Tidbits  

♦  St Pat’s Day is just weeks away and what better start to the celebration than that won’t-need-anything-till-dinner meal, the Full Irish Breakfast. And what better authority for how it’s done than the Irish Central newsletter. St Pat’s Breakfast

♦  Remodeling your kitchen? Want it to look like something from a popular tv series? Food & Wine shows us Home Advisor’s recreations from “Friends,” “Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Big Bang Theory, ” “New Girl,” “Malcolm in the Middle,” and “Mad Men.” TV Kitchens

♦  What a bummer when you can whip a celery stalk back and forth like a rubber hose.  The “Extra Crispy” newsletter comes through again with storage suggestions and a recovery solution. Btw, the aluminum foil technique calls for leaving the ends open, but my trick, which is among the tips in my Kindle book, is to close it up tight. Maybe we can try both ways and see which works best.  Celery article    My “50 Fun & Unexpected Food Storage, Prep and Presentation Tricks,” 99 cents

  CS Marketplace Spotlight

“In this house I’M the celebrity chef”

Proclaim it with your morning coffee, afternoon tea, and evening cocoa, and what the heck pour in your beverage of choice at cocktail hour.

Make clear to one and all just who rules this kitchen.

For you, your spouse, or a cook-tastic friend or family member.

Other colors available.

Also tees, sweats and hoodies with this design.

My design, crafted by Michigan company SunFrog, where all printing takes place in the USA

See the mugs here  ♦  Shirts  ♦  CS Marketplace

  Featured Recipe  

What a clever concept for a cookbook. In its pages Andrew Rea brings us recipes inspired by memorable dishes from the movie world, many of which in effect played a supporting role in the tale: Chocolate Truffles {“Chocolat”}, Tonkatsu Ramen {“Tampopo”}, Il Timpano {“Big Night”}.

There are other food-centric films represented too, “Julie & Julia,” “Babette’s Feast,” “Eat Drink Man Woman,” while others just simply at some point turned the cameras on a notable dish, in sum yielding over 40 recipes here. While I considered several for my first foray into the book, in the end the Prison Gravy from “Goodfellas” won out, just the sauce though since I’m not a meatball fan.

Prison Gravy for Pasta

from “Eat What You Watch/A Cookbook for Movie Lovers”

1 T vegetable oil

1/2 lb sweet Italian sausage, casing removed

1/2 lb spicy Italian sausage, casing removed

1/2 lb beef shank

1/2 lb veal neck bones, with meat attached

1 T olive oil

2 garlic cloves, sliced paper-thin

1 med onion, finely chopped

1 T tomato paste

1/2 c red wine

Two 28-oz cans whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes

2 large basil sprigs

1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 3 pieces

1 T butter or olive oil for finishing the sauce {optional}

In a very large stainless steel or enameled cast iron pot, heat the vegetable oil over med-hi heat until shimmering. Working in batches, brown the sausages, beef and veal until well browned and a brown crust forms on the bottom of the pot. Transfer the meat to a platter and reserve.

Heat the olive oil in the same pot over med heat until shimmering. Add the garlic and cook until soft, about 30 seconds. Add the onion and tomato paste and cook until the onion is translucent, about 4 min. Add the wine and stir making sure to scrape up all the browned bits on the bottom of the pot.

Pour the tomatoes into a bowl and crush them with your hands, then add them to the pot. Return the meat and any accumulated juices to the pot. Add the basil and carrot and bring to a gentle simmer.

Let the sauce simmer on low heat for about 4 hours total, stirring and scraping the bottom occasionally with a wooden spoon {don’t let anything stick to the pot; it will scorch and ruin your sauce}. Then, using tongs, fish out and discard the carrots and bones. If there is any meat remaining on the bones, remove it and put it back in the sauce. If desired, stir in a tablespoon of olive oil or butter to make a richer sauce.

Notes  In the movie, those paper-thin garlic slices were achieved with a razor. If you are using meatballs, make them golf ball size and add them to the sauce during the last hour of cooking. Also, Rea says this sauce freezes and reheats exceptionally well for up to 2 months.

“Eat What You Watch”  ♦  Goodfellas videos  ♦  The Wise Guy Cookbook by Henry Hill

  Tip  

In many communities this is Girl Scout cookie season and chances are the goodness of your heart has translated into a pretty decent inventory of thin mints, samoas, trios and more. Without questions these are all just fine right from the box, but did you know there are official recipes that can help you use up some of that surplus in quite tasty ways?  What’s even better is they’re sorted by cookie type so you can go directly to the possibilities for whatever has taken over your household  See them here

Cook with passion and a party spirit, whether for a crew, or for two, or just for you