Policewoman Pepper(Anderson)onata

This week's post is dedicated to my faithful, funny, silent partner Mark - he's been my muse (and straight man) for the past 23 years, and you can't take that away from him...

Every star entree needs a great co-star as it's side dish, and Pepperonata is the perfect compliment to last week's post Smell-O-Vision Pan Roasted Chicken with Rosemary.  The recipe has the same source, the delightful Giovanni Cappi. Simple in it's ingredients and preparation, the taste  is most flavorful. In 30 minutes you have a great pasta sauce. I usually use a very good brand of Italian strained tomatoes, although Giovanni uses fresh tomatoes - she's old country slow and I am new world convenient. Side dish or as a main, you really can't go wrong. Tastes best with fresh, wide pasta noodles - it's a big heavy sauce and it needs a substantial vessel.

Everybody remembers Angie Dickinson as Pepper Anderson in the 1974-78 TV drama Policewoman. A groundbreaking series that promoted women's equality and strength in a man's world. Whether posing as a prostitute, nurse, teacher, or flight attendant, Pepper fought crime and stereotypes, inspiring young women everywhere to pursue glamorous careers in law enforcement. Although, she didn't do it alone. Nope, she had Earl Holliman by her side as Sgt Bill Crowley. Earl Holliman, Angie Dickinson's co-star, immortalized for his celebrity mediocrity in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3k to fans) most famous ode to Earl Holliman. Watch the clip and pay homage to Earl Holliman (you can't take this away from him...)

The Recipe:

4 mixed bell peppers (orange and yellow)

4 tblsp olive oil

1 garlic clove

4 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped

basil, chopped (optional)

salt (many pinches, like a creepy old Aunt)

Note: You may use canned tomatoes and puree in a food processor or use a very good brand of Italian strained tomatoes like Pomi or Alessi Prima Passata

Halve the peppers, remove the seeds and membranes and cut into large pieces. Heat oil in stock pot with garlic. Add peppers and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, season with salt and cook for 20 minutes until thickened. Remove garlic and add chopped basil.  Serve over fresh pasta.

Smell-O-Vision Pan Roasted Chicken with Rosemary

This is one of my favorite dishes, to make, smell  and to eat. I love making it because the house is overtaken by heavenly aromas once the chicken is roasting on the cooktop with the rosemary. Just describing the recipe and showing a picture doesn't do it justice - I truly wish I had smell-o-vision technology to share the supreme luciousness of this dish. I learned to make it from an Italian woman, Giovanna Cappi, who was originally from Lake Como (you know, where George Clooney vacations). She also taught me to make my own pasta, but that I will save for a different post. When she showed me to do this, she cut up a whole chicken, but I only use bone-in breasts with the skin on. 40 minutes roasting with white wine and rosemary and a little garlic. Oh, and it tastes wonderful as well. The juices in are pan-licking good. Somebody should find a way to bottle aromas such as this into a household spray - I'd be the first in line to buy it.

Smell-O-Vision,  first used in a commercial film titled the "Scent of Mystery" in 1960. The concept, releasing aromas into a theatre to coincide with certain scenes was not new, it had been tried at the New York World's Fair in 1939 (wasn't everything?), but this was the first foray of an additional D (1D, 2D, 3D) into general audience theatres. The film was released in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, and quickly failed - the technology didn't live up to the hype and depending on where you were seated in the movie theatre you were either overcome by scents or received the delayed after odor. By the time the system was fixed and working in sync with the film it was too late - fickle movie goers had had enough and the film was dubbed a failure. Fast forward to 1981 and the brilliant John Waters/Divine/Tab Hunter masterpiece Polyester was dubbed as "Scentsational" and featured "Odorama" where theatre patrons were given scratch and sniff cards to utilize during designated scenes in the film. Not since the paper 3-D glasses of the 1950s had a movie gimmick failed so miserably that it stunk up every theatre in town.


The Recipe:

1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
3 1/2 pound chicken, cut into four pieces
1 sprig fresh rosemary broken in two (I use at least two sprigs, the more the merrier)
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine (I usually need more)
2 garlic cloves

Heat butter and oil over med-high until butter is melted. Add chicken skin side down. Brown chicken well on both sides, then add garlic and rosemary. Cook garlic until it becomes pale gold, then add salt, pepper and wine. Let the wine simmer briskly for 30 seconds then adjust heat to a slow simmer. Cover pan with lid slightly ajar (to release the smelly goodness). Cook 40-45 minutes. If pan liquid becomes insufficient, add more wine as needed. Transfer chicken to a warm platter. Remove garlic and rosemary. Tip the pan, spooning all but a little of the fat. Turn heat to high and boil, loosening residue from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Pour pan juices over the chicken and serve, whiffing all the way.

Most Popular Girl Pine Nut Sauce

This is one of my favorite posts from Cooking With Alice, originally published August 11, 2011. Funny thing is, I also remember this not tasting too bad, either. A rarity to say the least. Although, I've never made it again, which may be because of it being cost prohibitive. Buon Appetito! 

Turns out, pine nuts are very expensive and apparently there was a bad crop this year so in short supply. Luckily I only needed two tablespoons, because at $28 per pound I may otherwise have had to skip this one! Thank goodness for Rocky's in the Eastern Market where you can buy in bulk and just what you need. Oh, and a husband who is willing to run (literally) over there at lunch time to pick them up. So, that said, toasted pine nuts, chopped fresh marjoram and butter (an entire stick!), served over the pasta of my choice (penne).

The quintessential Jan/Brady Bunch episode "Miss Popularity". What kind of school has a 'Most Popular Girl' competition? Apparently Fillmore Jr High, and Jan is in the running against Kathy Williams.  Jan convinces Peter to be her campaign manager and enlists the help of her siblings by making them promises she never intends to keep. Somehow Jan has the notion that people can say anything to get elected and then do the opposite after they win.She even gets Alice to make campaign fortune cookies to hand out at school. Jan continues to promise her classmates anything they need to secure their votes, and beats poor Kathy. Oblivious to the little people who got her where she is, Jan quickly becomes a pariah at school and at home. Mike and Carol lecture her about her big head and empty heart, but it falls on deaf ears until she finds out that she doesn't have a date to the dance, because, as she puts it "I'm as popular as the measles". Feeling humbled, Jan sees the error of her ways, redoubles her effort to fulfill all of her promises, and accepts a date from Peter to the dance (not going to touch that one, either).  Fortune cookie say: All promises and no humility make Jan most unpopular girl.


The Recipe (in all of it's simplicity, cause that's the way Alice likes it, uh-huh, uh-huh)

1/2 cup butter
2 tblsp toasted pine nuts, chopped
1 tblsp chopped fresh marjoram
1 pound pasta (any shape), cooked
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Add the pine nuts and marjoram and cook for 3 minutes. Pour the sauce over the pasta and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with Parmesan.
Note: (Alice's, not mine) To toast pine nuts, arrange the pine nuts on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Serves the Brady Six.

Peanut Butter Sandwich Disciple

I must profess and confess my love of the peanut butter (on white bread, and jelly, grape) sandwich. I will also tell you that I eat peanut butter on a myriad of other foods, such as bagels, warmed tortillas, and toasted pita, often adding a sliced banana.. I mean, the PB & J is arguably America's most iconic food, after hot dogs and apple pie. I will even admit that peanut butter would be my luxury item if I were to ever find myself on "Survivor". Oh, and smooth is the only way to go in my book. Yes, I am a peanut butter fanatic. Which leads me to ponder the other famous (or infamous) peanut butter concoction - Elvis' fried peanut butter and banana sandwich - or as he referred to it - "The Nanner" (Thank you very much). I am always preaching to the Julia child to keep an open mind about new foods, to try something before you decide it's gross, etc. And unfortunately for me, this applies to the nanner. I have always scoffed at the notion of frying my beloved peanut butter sandwich, but decided not to knock it until I tried it. I was pleasantly surprised to find in my research that none other than the Domestic Goddess herself, Nigella Lawson embraced Elvis's mama's recipe. That was enough for me.I was also amazed that Nigella also called for only 2 tablespoons of butter for the frying - I can only imagine what Paula Deen would use. The mash up of the peanut butter and banana works to the point that it a regular PB & B, the sliced bananas tend to fall out of the bread. But the crunch of the bread, while perfect for grilled cheese, is a waste for my beloved spread.

50 million Elvis fans can't be wrong. Neither can a handful of kooks. I don't remember where I was on August 16, 1977 - the day the music (and allegedly Elvis) died. I can tell you I was at a Little League game in suburban Milwaukee when Michael Jackson died. Nevertheless, there was a time when I, and many other readers of Weekly World News believed Elvis was still alive. There is an excellent freak show of a documentary called "Rock 'n Roll Disciples" that chronicles a handful of fanatics who made the pilgrimage to Graceland following the King's supposed passing, and gave the filmmaker their various theories on how it was all a lie. Case in point: if you move the letters around in ELVIS, it appears to mean LIVES. 8/16/1977 (the reported death date) when added up 8+16+1977 = 2001, and I don't have to point out that that was Elvis theme song, if you get my drift. No, for many years I was a believer. Until Lisa Marie married Michael that is, and then I was sure Elvis had left the building.  


The Recipe: (courtesy of Nigellla Lawson & Food Network)
 1 (for the money) small ripe banana
2 ( for the show) slices white bread
3 (to get ready) tbsp creamy peanut butter
2 tbsp butter

Now, go cat go, place 2 pieces of white bread in the toaster on a light setting. Heat skillet over medium heat with butter. While the bread is toasting, in a small bowl, using a fork mash the bananauntil it reaches a smooth consistency. Using a knife, spread each slice of bread with peanut butter, topping one side with the mashed banana. Place 1 slice of bread on top of the forming a sandwich. Place in the hot skillet, browning each side about 2 minutes each. Serves 1 person not worried about their arteries clogging.

Egg-cellent Egg Salad

When Easter gives you hard boiled eggs, make egg salad. That's my motto, anyway. Even when life gives you a partial carton of eggs about to expire, make egg salad. Truly, there is never a time when egg salad isn't the answer for me. I will admit that my affinity for the lunchtime treat is one that I acquired as an adult. As a child, I never would have even thought about eating egg salad - and I only liked the whites of the hard-boiled Easter eggs, dipped in lots of salt. The yolks went right into the trash. But, as my tastes have refined, and my resistance to throwing away eggs has grown, egg salad is the perfect answer. The recipe once again comes from Betty, Crocker that it is. She has two methods - cold water and boiling water. I go with the cold, for no other reason than it appears first in the book and after doing it that way once, it became my preferred method. Really, there's nothing to it, hard-boiled eggs, peeled and mashed, some mayo, a little salt and pepper and some good bread or even better, a bagel. Sometimes, just to be daring, I like chopped black olives mixed in as well. They add a little extra saltiness, and I like that.

Holy Easter Egg, Batman! And when I say Batman, you know that I am referring to the 1960's campy romp starring Adam West. Full of POW! and WHAM! and terrific guest villains - TV was never better. My favorite villain was of course the great Vincent Price (of Professor Whitehead/Brady Bunch Hawaii fame) as Egghead - the brilliant, yet slightly warped bald arch criminal out to foil Batman and Robin at every turn. Using egg-themed weapons laid by chickens on an onion only diet, he was the wizard of egg puns and his speech peppered with words such as egg-actly, egg-cellent, egg-ceptional and egg-citing (you get the point). Sure, Penguin, Joker, Riddler, Cat Woman (all 3) and King Tut might have had more air time, but nothing is as rotten as an egg gone bad. Will Batman and Robin escape without egg on their faces? Tune in tomorrow - same bat time, same bat channel.


The Recipe:

6 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1//3 c mayonnaise
1/4 tsp salt
dash of pepper
black olives, if you got 'em

Special Equipment: Bat saucepan, Bat stove, Bat timer

Place eggs in a saucepan, add enough cold water to come at least 1 inch above the eggs. Heat rapidly to a boil. remove from heat. Cover and let stand 22 minutes. Immediately cool eggs in cold water to prevent further cooking. Tap egg to crackle shell. Roll egg between hands to loosen shell, then peel. Hold egg  under cold running water to help loosen shell. Place shelled eggs in a bowl and chop with a fork. Add mayo, salt and pepper and mix well. Chill. Makes 6 sandwiches, enough for a lovely luncheon at Stately Wayne Manor with Bruce, his young ward Dick, Aunt Harriet, Alfred, Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara.