Can I Throwaway My Cookbooks?

My sister Joan is a cookbook person. As kids growing up, I can remember her coming home from school and poring over a cookbook with a glass of milk. Today she spends her summers on her island in New York’s Thousand Islands. She still has lots of cookbooks, but like most of us, she gets most of her recipes online. That is why Joan is questioning of the need to keep her collection. My answer was: Of course you need to keep your cookbooks. I don’t think people will be throwing away their family bible simply because they go to the Internet to check out Facebook in the morning. Books, cookbooks in particularly, are part of Joan’s DNA. And, that is a good thing.

Joan and her husband Brian are wonderful hosts. They spend their summers on the St Lawrence River, right on New York border with Canada. Their little island has been in Brian’s family for generations and is a wonderful place to visit, but it isn’t exactly easy to get to. Joan and Brian have been going there for years, but it has only been since our daughter moved to Ottawa Canada two years ago, that we have made it there. The pace of life on the river is low key. One can sit on the veranda and stare across the river and see Canada while watching very large ocean going vessels pass. With all the noise in the media about the southern wall with Mexico, one has to wonder where the northern wall will go? LOL.

Joan, Brian, Susan and I were probably our original supper club. We all went to college together In Plattsburgh NY which was also close the Canadian border. Back in the 1970’s there certainly wasn’t any wall. You didn’t need a passport to get across the border. I don’t think we even had to show an ID. We would drive to Montreal for an evening. My buddy Ron Iles used to claim that the drunker you were, the easier it was to get across the border. His line was: “The Lord protects fools and drunks. That gives us double coverage.”

Back then we didn’t have much money for our supper club dinners. I can remember one late summer meal where I made Zucchini Parmesan with over-ripe squash from Joan and Brian’s garden. Iles, always a wizard with words, quickly began to shout praise for my Seeds Parmesan. Once you got past the larger seeds, the parmesan was pretty good and the price was right for hungry college students.

The menus for our dinners on Joan and Brian’s this week were a lot closer to Joan’s cookbook standards.

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.

The Best Neighbor Ever

My friend Howard Johnson passed away this week. We have been neighbors for close to 30 years. When we first met, I knew I would like him when his wife Jan called him “HoJo”. Howard never took himself too seriously and he had a wonderful sense of humor.

What made him a great neighbor?:

He was always positive and had a smile on his face.
His grandkids worshipped him. My granddaughter Emma (5 years old) would run across the yard to say hello whenever she saw him.
He had tools that I didn’t have and made sure I borrowed them.
I have a power washer that he didn’t have. When Howard borrowed it, he would power-wash my driveway.
When I couldn’t get a small engine to start, he would calm me down with a story that was just long enough to cure a flooded carburetor.
My dogs loved him.
He would ask about my golf game and listen.
I could go on and on.

Howard and I hosted an annual neighborhood Oktoberfest. We were both veterans of the food industry. Howard worked for a sausage casing company. He would get his old customers to supply bratwursts. We would roll out our grills and have one street to bring side dishes and the other street to bring desserts. One year I had extra potatoes and made homemade French fries. The next year as we were setting up, Howard asked: No fries this year? Then followed up with: That’s all the neighborhood has talked about since last year. With a quick trip to the market that year, Howard’s fries were a hit, and have been a staple ever since.

Howard did volunteer work at the local hospital. For years he has been giving a morning blessing over the PA system. His goal was to deliver a spiritual blessing with a positive message. Howard’s boss at the hospital complained that his messages were too long. He worked hard on these messages and often struggled to keep them short. As a reader of this blog, Howard advised me to get your point and humor in up front, because you can’t rely on the attention span of your audience. Hence, the goal for all my blogs is to keep them short, to the point and try to include humor. As for Howard’s morning blessings, he has been fighting cancer for a while and the recordings of his messages are still being run. We have a friend who is a nurse at the hospital and she tells us that the staff still loves listening to Howard.

Howard was special to all his grandchildren. His one granddaughter made him promise years ago to live long enough to walk her down the aisle when she got married. He fought hard to live up to that promise. When that special day does occur, Howard will be there. His memory will live on with many of us. He was a great friend and the best neighbor ever.

All Hail The Queen Of The North

There is not much in life that is more special than the arrival of a new grandbaby. Hadley Grace Begun was born in Ottawa Canada on July 11th weighing 7 pounds and 11 ounces. With numbers like 7/11 and 7/11, Susan and I should have headed straight to the casino. Instead we were busy keeping the Queen Mother (our daughter Jennifer) and her court (Dad Ethan and sons Max and Dylan) fed.

The Queen’s Family Wants Low Carb

The key to meal planning at Jenn’s in Ottawa is low carb. There was a great article in the July 10, 2019 Wall Street Journal titled “Family Dinner Is Now A Battle Over Carbohydrates.” The essence of the article was that while cutting carbs has become a common dietary theme, there is still a broad spectrum of wants and needs when it comes to carbohydrates. Given different diets, (Low carb, veto, vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, no dairy etc.) family meal planning can be a challenge. As I look back on the long list of diet fads over the last 40 years, low carb is definitely one with staying power. At Jenn’s, the emphasis is on protein and vegetables, while cutting back on bread, potatoes, pasta, rice and processed foods.

From a culinary standpoint, low carb is not that hard to manage, with a little planning and market options, it can be a lot of fun and downright tasty. Our menus for the week included:

Friday’s Menu

Saturday

Sunday

Note: Sushi was something Jenn missed during pregnancy so…

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Check out the recipes:

Grill Roasted Miso Cod

Cauliflower Fried Rice

Friday

Eating low carb is certainly not deprivation. Welcoming a new grandchild was a real celebration. We had lots of fun, ate extremely well and worked very hard. Taking care of three grandchildren reminds you why you have kids when you are young.

Traditionally when writing supper club menus, I tend to include carbs. We figure that we get to be good during the week, so it is ok to splurge a little on the weekend with a supper club meal. When you get a little creative with low carb, you can eat healthy and no one will miss the carbs. And maybe, you can have an extra glass of wine to celebrate the arrival of “The Queen Of The North”.

On the way to the hospital, Jenn and E noting that things will change with THREE!