The Magic Pan

For most of us, the food we grew up with is special. People from New York like New York Pizza. People from Chicago like Chicago Pizza. If you are lucky enough to have a mother that is a great cook, your favorite dishes are going to be what your mother made. My buddy Angelo talks about his mother’s magic pan and the dishes she made with it with a mythical wonder.

Mom Doing Her Magic in The Kitchen

A friend of mine grew up on the island of Cephalonia off the mainland of Greece. Spiros would talk about Cephalonia and his face would glaze over with a smile fueled by the fondest of memories. Angelo talks about his mother’s Fried Zucchini and Ravioli with A Beef Ragu made with her magical pan with the same look on his face.

Fried Zucchini With Pasta

Ravioli With A Beef Ragu

Mom Making Homemade Gnocchi

Most families look at inheritance in terms of money, property, jewelry or maybe furniture. All I inherited from my father is a wacky sense of humor and a few old golf clubs. Angelo’s big ask is for his mother’s magic pan. That pan will make great meals, but more importantly, it will invoke really great memories.

Angelo with His Wife & Son

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/wine group/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

Reheating A Baguette Is Magical

Something magical occurs when you reheat a baguette. Even the most pedestrian (even day old) baguettes become perfectly crusty and delicious. It is truly magical.

I learned this trick from my friend Lucien, the famous chef. Back in the day, we would bring customers into our KFI culinary center to sell them Kraft Ingredients. Lucien would buy baguettes at Costco. He would serve the baguettes reheated to customers and get rave reviews. Customers thought the baguettes were from one of Lucien’s secret family recipes from the south of France. So we didn’t tell them about Costco, but the bread was magical.

(Lucien and Paul having fun in the kitchen)

Today I am using this trick to stage virtual wine group zoom sessions during the pandemic. I have been making baguettes and using them as a center piece for a fun evening.

Click for blog about neighborhood baguettes

Outline Of A Virtual Wine Group Proposal

Date: Saturday January 9 at 6 pm
PK (and the “baguette fairy” to provide baguettes and pesto in the afternoon
5:30 AC and SH reheat baguettes
6:00 we get together virtually via zoom with baguettes and a bottle

This also works if you don’t have a “baguette fairy” in the neighborhood. Trust me, you can buy the baguettes (and the wine) at Costco, tell everyone that the baguette is from a secret family recipe from the south of France. If you reheat the baguette for 6 to 8 minutes in a 400 degree oven…magic will occur.

Grandson Declan as the “Baguette Fairy”

By the way…The magic gets even better after a second bottle of wine

The “Baguette Fairy” destroying the evidence to protect his grandfather

Stressed About Cooking A Thanksgiving Dinner?

Preparing dinner for Thanksgiving can be stressful. You have developed your menu, planned all the detail, but you are afraid that in the heat of the final moments, you will forget something. Writing yourself some notes is a great way to minimize the stress and reduce the chances of something being left behind.

They say that apples don’t fall far from trees. My daughter Jenn has seen her father prepare for many a dinner party and place a few strategic notes around the kitchen. Lo and behold, she did the same thing when she was preparing her first Thanksgiving dinner for her new in-laws. They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, not only did Jenn replicate her father’s traditional Thanksgiving menu, she used his note trick to manage the stress. In hindsight I wonder if she followed the family tradition of forgetting the cranberry sauce?

Jenn’s Uncle John has been an important player in her life. He was her first babysitter in California. He served Jenn her first beer before she was a year old (pictured below). Most importantly, Uncle John schooled a young Jenn from Memphis on the ways of the big city when she first moved to New York. I’ll never forget Uncle John treating a twenty something Jenn to a makeover at Saks Fifth Avenue in the city and proudly announcing to the make-up artist and crowd of 10 tourists, that changing baby Jennifer’s poopy diaper was his first and last. You can’t buy memories like that one.

(Uncle John Nangle serving baby Jennifer her first beer. If we only knew…)

Jenn’s husband Ethan also had his Uncle John who was very important to Ethan and his brother Bret growing up in New York. Their Uncle John who taught them many things, left his rent controlled apartment to Bret when he retired several years back. Uncle John passed away recently and Bret wrote a touching tribute to his Uncle John:

When Uncle John retired and moved upstate, I lived in his apartment. And as much as I tried to make it mine, I never could; his presence there was too strong. Especially in his tiny kitchen, where, inside the cabinets, he’d taped valuable cooking lessons and recipes. I could never bring myself to take them down until I moved out. He was such a great cook, and I was too intimidated to ever try to make anything that he had. But there were about a half dozen warnings up in those cabinets never to use dish soap on the coffee filter, and I consider having lived that commandment my greatest personal tribute to him.

(A few of Uncle John Cahill’s kitchen notes)

Notes, and Uncle Johns have been a very important gifts. to both the Kenny and Begun Family.

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.