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Angel Biscuits Leavened with yeast, these biscuits are airier and lighter than the traditional biscuit that comes with breakfast. They make a great choice for the breadbasket at supper time.
Angel Food Cake A recipe from the Dutch Kitchen's Michelle Morgan, who suggests it is especially good when topped with seasonal fruits.
Baked Beans The folks at the Dutch Kitchen especially recommend baked beans for summer's patriotic holidays. "What would be a typical picnic day for many is often celebrated at the Dutch Kitchen with family & friends."
Baked Oatmeal This gives the appearance of a cake, but is far less sweet. Just as it is named, it is truly baked oatmeal, delicious served warm & topped with cream or whole milk.
Baked Pancake A baked pancake is testimony to the rising power of an egg. Similar to Yorkshire pudding, but without the savory beef infusion, baked pancakes can be served simply, with a dusting of powdered sugar and a few squeezes of lemon, or they can be effulgently dopped with fresh fruit or fruit compote. Seeing as how this must be served and eaten immediately after being cooked, the only practical way to make several is to have several pans, one for each pancake.
Baked Vidalia Onions These tender, cheese-frosted globes of sweet onion dress up dinner the way a top hat crowns a formal suit. And yet, the moment you lay knife or fork to one, it unravels all over your plate and looks a horrid mess. The good news is that the mess is entirely delicious, and its textural balance of silky-tender onion and crumbly cheese and croutons is sheer pleasure on the tongue.
Bierock We've heard all sorts of explanations for the name bierock, including the fact that one of these pocket sandwiches tastes great with beer. Historically, the bierock, like the trademarked Runza, goes back to the Volga Germans who settled on the American plains about a century ago. The portable meals (similar to the Upper Midwest's pasties) were a favorite lunch among farm workers; and today they are ubiquitous at Church suppers and fund-raisers throughout Nebraska and Kansas.
Blueberry Dessert Although devised by the Hard Labor Creek Blueberry Farm of Social Circle, this layered sweet, known simply as blueberry dessert, will be a familiar kind of recipe to home cooks all around the country. You want to use the freshest, sweetest berries you can get (preferably just-picked); but you also must use Cool Whip. Don't even think of substituting whipped cream for the white stuff in a tub. The concordance of the cream cheese / Cool Whip layer with the nutty / sweet foundation and popping fresh berries on top is an only-in-America harmony. In some parts of the country, they'd call this dessert a torte.
Braised Lamb Shank "Everyone's favorite," is how chef Sissy Hicks of the Dorset Inn describes braised lamb shanks. "They look a little barbaric with the shank hanging out of the bowl, but they make a stupendous meal!" She suggests serving them with white beans.
Bread Pudding Louis Van Dyke of the Blue Willow Inn suggests this recipe as a great way to make use of leftover biscuits. It's good with bread, too, but the biscuits give it a true-south flavor.
Bread Pudding, Dutch Kitchen Style At the Dutch Kitchen, bread pudding is topped with secret-recipe vanilla sauce, but vanilla ice cream is a fine substitute for home cooks.
Buttermilk Biscuits The only real way to learn how to make good biscuits is to apprentice with someone who knows how. Their art is less a matter of ingredients (which are generally uninteresting) than in technique, which is deceptively simple. This classic recipe for buttermilk biscuits is simple and easy; but give it to five cooks and you will get five different biscuits, each with its own character. The difference primarily is in how the dough is handled, or more exactly, how little the dough is handled. Generally speaking, the less kneading, the fluffier the biscuit. Please note that the recipe calls for SELF-RISING flour. Plain flour will yield biscuits that look like shot-glass coasters.
Buttermilk Pie It was a sad day in the Roadfood world when Dodd's Town House of Indianapolis closed its doors. We'll remember it for great steaks and fried chicken and sweet little croissants, and especially for buttermilk pie. A heartland favorite, buttermilk pie is a study in simplicity. There are hardly any ingredients, and it is easy to make. The only trick is to not overcook it or make the crust too brown. You want it as pale as sweet cream with a lemony zest. It will rise up in the oven as it cooks, then deflate as it cools. It is best served slightly warm, less than an hour out of the oven.
Chicken Divine Having a party? Here's a dish that serves many and needs only a salad or relish to complete it. The recipe for Chicken Divine can be cut in half and is a perfect meal to make when you find yourself with leftover chicken (or, for that matter, turkey) and/or broccoli. It's a great combination of ingredients, but the secret that brings them all together, of course, is that casserole-chef's favorite flavor-enhancer, crumbled Ritz crackers.
Chicken Tetrazzini It has an Italian name, but chicken tetrazzini – named for internationally famous Victorian-era coloratura soprano, Luisia Tetrazzini, reassures eaters around the globe. It combines those twin mainstays of the comfort food pantheon, chicken and noodles; plus – in this case – creamed soup and Cheez Whiz, too.
Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Looking for a way to have your cheesecake and eat chocolate, too? There are some of us for whom no dessert is fully satisfying unless it pays homage to the cocoa bean.
Coca-Cola Cake with Broiled Peanut Butter Frosting We originally found this recipe in the self-published Oakland, Iowa, Centennial Cookbook many years ago. It has since become a favorite at our house, enjoyed even by snooty epicures.
Corn Pudding Here is one of the greatest cold-weather party recipes in the world, a side dish that goes with almost any sort of roast, shrimp casserole, or chile. It is the most-requested recipe that we’ve ever served, and guests who try it once demand it on return trips. We learned it from an old pal, Ippy Patterson, who learned it from a lady she knew in San Francisco.
Cornbread Biscuits From the Blue Willow Inn, here is a recipe that makes biscuits ideal for crumbling atop a heap of collard greens or into a bowl of pot likker.
Cornbread or Corn Muffins There are two warm-bread drawers always filled in the buffet room of The Blue Willow Inn of Social Circle, Georgia. On the top are biscuits. On the bottom are corn muffins. The corn muffins have a starchy sweetness that is an especially good complement for ham, pork chops, or streak o' lean.
French Toast The Dorset Inn serves three meals a day, but we like breakfast best. It's such a cozy, friendly place to start the day. Chef Sissy Hicks' French toast is unusual in that it is made with baguette bread that is lightly browned in a pan but then baked, resulting in a nice crunch to the outside and creamy character within.
Garlic Mozzarella Bread Chef Sissy Hicks of Vermont's Dorset Inn described this extra-luxurious garlic bread as "everybody's favorite." It's a good side dish for all sorts of meals or, with soup and a salad, a wonderful lunch
Gingerbread with Lemon Sauce It isn't necessary to serve this gingerbread with lemon sauce, but the sauce totally transforms it – from a sweet bread suitable for an afternoon snack into a blissful warm dessert. The sauce is also good on bread pudding. For bread pudding or hot gingerbread, this is the crowning touch.
Gingersnap Key Lime Pie Many regional pies are known nationwide. One of the most distinctive is Key lime pie in South Florida, especially at Louie's Back Yard, an unbelievably romantic dining spot at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, where the smack of local citrus is cushioned in the traditional way with the gentleness of egg-enriched sweetened condensed milk but then layered atop an unusually spicy gingersnap crust. This recipe was created by Louie's prodigious pastry chef, Niall Bowen. Key lime juice is generally available in specially food stores.
Indian Pudding Dark brown, with an incalculable specific gravity, Indian pudding is monumental. It smells like burnt corn and it tastes ancient, conjuring visions of stark Pilgrim feeds. Unlike glamorous desserts, it will never be sinful or decadent or the least bit creative. No one will ever market McPudding or Squanto-in-a-Bowl or All-New, Lite Hot 'n' Gritty Dessert Food Product, and we doubt if we will ever see it as a Ben & Jerry's flavor. This dark duff defies the march of progress and the wheedling of inventive chefs. It will always be hopelessly dowdy, treasured all the more by partisans for its august character. Note that the baking time is 5-7 hours.
Italian Beef Just like the hero and hoagie shops of the Delaware Valley, the Italian beef stands of Chicago display pictures of celebrities who love them. At the original Al's #1 Italian Beef in Chicago, the wall holds an 8x10 of Jimmy Durante standing with his arm around Al Ferreri, inscribed by The Schnozola, "To Al's and Baba [Al's nickname]: Jink-a-dink-a-doo. What a beef sandwich!" Surrounding that are a picture of prize fighter Michael Spinks grinning with a gleaming set of dentures and a glamour shot donated by a local beauty queen. Several proprietors of beef stands have told us about celebrities who like the razor-thin, garlic sopped beef so much that they have it Fedexed to them overnight. An alternative is to make your own.
Jewish Apple Cake One of the curious specialties that we’ve seen in a couple of places in Pennsylvania coal country, but nowhere else, is Jewish apple cake. It’s a dense coffee cake with a top that is laced with slivers of sweet, soft-cooked apple. A glorious coffee companion!
King Ranch Casserole King Ranch casserole is ubiquitous in Texas Junior League cookbooks, but a relative rarity in restaurants. It is said that there are as many recipes for it as there are Lone Star cooks, but the basic elements usually are canned soup, cheese, tortillas (flour, corn or just chips) and chicken. How a chicken casserole got named for a famous cattle ranch is anybody's guess.
Macaroni and Cheese The South is not unique in its love for macaroni and cheese, one of the true all-American comfort foods. At the Blue Willow Inn, it is one of the few items served every day, every meal.
Peach Cobbler Whatever other desserts may be arrayed at the large circular table in the center of the Blue Willow Inn's buffet room, you can always count on a big pan of peach cobbler. Be sure to use self-rising flour in this recipe. (Note: Fresh peaches can be used as well as canned. When using fresh, peel and slice them, sprinkle the slices with an additional 1/2 cup of sugar and refrigerate for 2-3 hours before using.)
Pie Crust The key to good pie crust is not to overhandle the dough. So spoke Tom and Jennifer Levkulic of the Dutch Kitchen in Frackville, Pennsylvania, who shared this recipe with us for their "Famous Dutch Kitchen Restaurant Cookbook."
Rice Pudding In coastal Georgia, rice is the fundamental starch; and it is not uncommon to make it in large quantities so that you have not only enough for red rice to accompany your seafood gumbo, but several cups left over to make a batch of this elementary and always excellent rice pudding. To transform it from comfort food into a luxury dessert, serve the warm pudding in a bowl topped with heavy cream and a few fresh berries.
Roasted Garlic Soup When roasted, even ferocious garlic develops a pussycat personality. With potatoes and cream, six whole bulbs here become the foundation of a mellow soup.
Shoo Fly Cake Shoofly cake is what some locals call "dry bottom shoofly pie," a gloss on the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition with all the same basic ingredients but without the gooey, moist ribbon in the center. This is a good recipe to have on hand when you are in a hurry: no crust required.
Shoo Fly Pie Shoofly pie is a signature dish of Pennsylvania Dutch country. As to how it got its name, Tom Levkulic of the Dutch Kitchen said, "Just imagine your pie cooling on the window sill….Shoo Fly!"
Shrimp de Jonghe Shrimp de Jonghe is unique to Chicago. Its essential ingredients are shrimp, garlic, bread crumbs, and butter; variations around the city range from shrimp swimming in a pool of melted, flavored butter to casseroles in which the bread crumbs form a crunchy lid atop the fish. Our recipe is between the extremes -- moist, but edible by fork. The goodness of this dish depends on top-quality shrimp.
Spinach Cornbread Greens and cornbread go together as well as ham and eggs. This recipe, given to The Blue Willow Inn by Kitty Jacobs of Guidelines, Georgia, conjoins them in a luscious pan-loaf that is moist, high-flavored … and good for you!
Surf and Turf The big lobster tails called for in this recipe tend to be very pricey, more so even than prime filet mignon; but that’s the point of surf and turf. It is essential to any topflight steakhouse menu because it is the height of luxury – two of nature’s richest foods combined on a single plate.
Sweet Italian Cheese Platter For those with a serious sweet tooth who aren’t interested in frilly cakes and puddings, Harry Caray's of Chicago offers a platter of cheeses adorned with booze-infused fruits and sugar-toasted nuts.
Tostada Grande de Tucson Also known as Mexican pizza or cheese crisp, the tostada grande is a staple of the Sonoran cooking so prevalent in Tucson. This recipe, from the venerable El Charro, is very basic and easy to eat without spillage; but it is common to add cebolitas (grilled green onions) on top. You might also consider salsa, grilled vegetables or shredded beef -- all of which make it pretty messy.
Veal Chop with Peppers and Onions The big veal chop is king of meat in Italian restaurants. Harry Caray’s serves massive one-pounders that are so tender that a knife seems to fall through them when applied to the surface.
Whoopie Pie Cake The Whoopie Pie was invented in Maine back in the 1920s: Like a giant, squishy Oreo cookie, it is two discs of chocolate cake sandwiching a creamy-sweet filling. One of the most popular desserts at Becky's Diner in Portland, Maine, is a cake she makes inspired by the Whoopie pie, frosted with a low-cost icing she found while browsing through a World War II era cookbook. The marshmallow-soft icing gives this cake an evocative old-fashioned character, totally unlike a modern "sinful" boutique gateau.
Yeast Rolls Any worthy southern meal offers a breadbasket, not just one kind of bread. At The Blue Willow Inn, you can always count on corn muffins and buttermilk biscuits; but for mopping gravy, sometimes a soft yeast roll is essential.