Fish Herders Stew

My family is full of cooks and their remarkable recipes. My grandmother Oma had an eggnog recipe that I have experimented with but plan on perfecting this winter. My mother has guided me in making her eggplant parmesan and butter cookie recipes. My dad is a lot like me in that he has no recipes, just strong instincts and a love for meat.

My grandmother Mamie, who I speak of often on this blog, holds a few of my most favorite recipes. There are three things that she most often serves when I go to her house: lobster (I am very, very spoiled), country supper (more on this later), and fish herders stew. You'll have to pardon the absurd name- that's my father's doing. It is dish sort of similar to shepherds pie, but also totally different.
The photo, again, does not do it justice. Just trust me and make it right now.

Fish Herders Stew
Recipe from Julie Cook (Mamie)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1 1/2 pounds cod, halibut, talapia or other white fish
1 cup dry vermouth
2 cups water
4 cups mashed potatoes (make them creamy delightful, packed with butter)
2 small leeks
a shit load of sharp, white cheddar, shredded (her instructions- I used a whole block)
1/4 cup flour
1/2 stick of butter

Melt butter in dutch oven. Put fish in and cover with water and vermouth. Gently cook fish and remove from liquid with slotted spoon. Bring liquid to a boil and whisk in flour quickly. Add cheddar, whisking the whole time. This should create a thick, cheese sauce. In a separate pan, saute leeks briefly. It's nice for them to have some nice crunch because the rest of the dish is very soft. Pour the leeks over the fish. Top with mashed potatoes and pop in the oven for 15 minutes or so, until the top is lightly browned (you'll notice mine got black spots rather than an even tan, so please try to do it better than I did. This might be due to the fact that our potatoes were more heavy cream than potato.)

Serves 6, with leftovers too!

Adult Spaghetti O's

As expected, Saturday was a long and strenuous night of waiting tables. And still I followed through (which, for some reason was greeted with surprise) and made us a staff meal. When I was creating the menu in my mind for this night I really thought about the things I want out of staff meal- something warm and fun, and dessert, and I went from there.

Actually, the preparation started on Friday with the creation of 36 hour cookie dough. The key to perfect chocolate chip cookies is letting the dough rest in the fridge for a while-24 to 36 hours. Saturday (perhaps the sunniest and nicest day of the year so far) I worked in my kitchen lovingly preparing tiny meatballs, fresh cherry tomato red sauce and homemade blue cheese and buttermilk dressing. My idea was to have adult spaghetti O night, but I could only find alphabet pasta so that was the downside. I made the wonderful sauce and then pureed the shit out of it, so it was thin and saucy like the canned kind. Then I added in the tiny meatballs, and finished the whole deal with shakey-can cheese. I really know how to party.
I still had 4 tables when I started pulling the meal together at work. The kitchen, I guess pretending to mimic me, started asking about dinner at like 9:15 so I knew I had to hustle. It was very stressful, but if they were trying to teach me a lesson it did not work. I got right back there, bossed people around and got the meal going. I had already made the cookie dough and the pasta sauce with balls at home- at work I needed to boil the pasta, cut the iceburg lettuce into wedges and artfully drizzle with blue cheese dressing, and bake the cookies off. Meanwhile, I also had to dazzle my customers and keep everyone happy. Somehow it all came together perfectly. All of our customers left, we pulled the tables together, and sat down as a family. It started out so nicely, with lots of gratitude and sweetness. Things turned less sweet when bodily fluids and 7-11 became the focus of conversation, but everyone shut up again once the cookies hit the table. Warm, chewy and crispy cookies with a sprinkle of sea salt on top. Try this recipe- it can actually make boys stop talking about their penises for 2 minutes.

This mornings Emails

From my brother:

"I just read your blog and can feel you eyes judging near everything that enters my mouth.
there is nothing wrong with ho-hos and a bottle of blush wine for dinner in my bed while watching youtube clips of cats doing funny things. I feel like you are the Obama of food in our family and I am his Half brother who got caught propositioning a 13 year old girl of food in our family.
I guess I just need to let go and be ok with myself."

From another family member (I feel compelled to protect her husband's identity for some reason):

"Can Staffmeal be an advice column one day a week? For our food related problems?
Because I have a question & I need answers!

Q: Is it NORMAL for a husband to go into the GARBAGE CAN with a fork to have a little spaghetti?
Spaghetti that was left out overnight before being tossed?

Here is our conversation, just for context:
(dog walk)
Jay: I ate that avocado.
Me: Oh, good.
Jay: And some spaghetti!
Me: What spaghetti?
walk walk walk
Me: Wait-WHAT?"

F-

I am depressed to admit that since my failed baking trials with David, I have been a total spaz in the kitchen. I think my confidence was really shattered when everything I tried to make not only did not come out the way I planned, but in fact came out disgusting and inedible. My shaker lemon pie? It was basically a scrambled egg and lemon pie. SICK. I even messed up Lasagna the other night. My only success this week in food was buying pudding at the farmers market, and that wasn't even my idea. (Thank you Holly.)
I'll never tell what Kevin and I had for dinner tonight, I'll only say that our prowess of impersonating fat teenagers has reached another level. It was cute when we used to eat pastries in bed whilst my roommates judged us behind our backs, but now that we are on our own it's disgusting and shameful. SHAMEFUL.
Fortunately, my Aunt and Uncle cooked for us on easter. We ate so much pork that we could not even have our yearly egg-cracking contest. It's the first year we haven't done it, and all thanks to eating too much. It was worth it.

Hot Pot City; It's a Family Affair

I have two food events that I must report on. They are different for many reasons but both were fun and tasty meals. The first was at Hot Pot City, a very exclusive restaurant that my friend Emily told me about. Its like a buffet... but then you cook everything in your own little hot pot of broth. Kevin and I went there on a Tuesday afternoon or something and ate our selves silly- noodles, pork, veggies, barbeque broth- the whole deal. Emily brings up this restaurant frequently and this is usually what she says: "OMG you have to go to Hot Pot City it's so good the whole time you are there you moan 'HOT POT CITY IS MY FAVORITE RESTAURANT MMMMM OH GOD'". And she was right- at one point through a whole mouthful of burning hot noodles I think I really did moan that whole run-on sentence. The waitress thought it was perhaps the funniest thing she had ever seen that I was taking photos of the food. She stood behind me, peering into the viewfinder, cheering "Nice photo! That very good!" I really felt like a pro.




This week my grandparents are visiting so I took them and the rest of my fam to dinner at the restaurant I work at. The service was outstanding- look at our super hot server next to an absurdly handsome Kevin! We had a huge tasting menu and many bottles of wine including a bottle of 2007 Antica Terra. My friends make this wine and this vintage is absolutely wonderful! I was very happy, though it made me miss them terribly (they had a baby and for some weird reason don't come in for dinner anymore. NOT COOL GUYS.) We ate octopus with lemon rind, soup of rhubarb and fois gras, carrot and bean sprout salad- too many dishes to remember. The best part though was my grandmothers story of punching a guy out on the dance floor on a dude ranch in Montana. As she remembers saying to her friend at the time, "We are not at Mount Holyoke anymore."

Last night my family and neighbors all came over dinner and my aunt Leslie brought over the almond blossom cake that I posted about a while back. Ok, she makes it so much better than I do, and I have come to believe that if you have a newer oven you should bake it at 325 degrees, not 350. My oven is new and over-bakes the damn cake! Her oven is vintage and even though she burned the top this time, it was still gooey and insane on the inside. I shake my fist at that cake! Either its the oven thing or I am just missing the touch.

Anyway, I just went down the slide at the Mount Scott pool like 4 times with my cousin Pearl. I am exhausted! I have a special staff meal photo shoot that I have been meaning to post from last week, but that will have to wait. That's called a cliff hanger guys, get used to it.