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THURSDAY, NOV. 11, 2004 K DINING OUT The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ➤ Today in accessAtlanta: Meridith Ford likes the pork chops at Vine — but not much else. ➤ Friday in Movies & More: Check out our weekly Best Bite. ajcFood&Drink➤ Free dining newsletter: “On the Menu” includes a sneak peek at our weekly critic’s review, plus other dining news and favorite restaurant recipes. Sign up on accessatlanta.com/restaurants. CONTACT US: Susan Puckett, Food editor / [email protected] / 404-526-5443

ONLINE Find recipes at ajc.com/food Lost that recipe you clipped from this section months ago? You can look it up in seconds. First, click on Recipe Search in the bar under the Food & Drink mast. Then click on the appropriate category (i.e., appe- tizers, , etc.). The most recent recipes will be at the top. INSIDE

From the Menu of . . . When Susanne Torres and her boyfriend dined at Che recently, their favorite dish was the Marinated Beets With Goat Cheese and Spiced Walnuts. Find out why. K7

A WEEK

of menu ideas RICH ADDICKS / Staff Virginia Willis (pictured with her late grandmother Louise Baston) takes pleasure in bringing something TONIGHT sweet to the table. Above are (clockwise from left), poundcake and cobbler. Sweet Traditions

Country Club Chicken (5:30 Challenge, K2) White rice OLD FRIENDS Steamed broccoli { } FRIDAY By VIRGINIA WILLIS kitchen and a buttery wedge of Meme’s Peanut Noodles (Fit to Eat, K8) For the Journal-Constitution From buttery poundcake with a little piece of Mama’s pecan pie on the side. Fruit salad Several years ago, I spent Thanksgiv- poundcake to Thanksgiving Day is now about being ing evening walking the beautiful with my mother, sister and my better SATURDAY Champs Elysées in Paris. I was living and half, along with my aunts, uncles, cous- working as an editorial assistant at the bubbling cobbler, ins and everyone’s husbands, wives and Broiled lamb chops cooking school Ecole de Cuisine LaVar- partners. My sister and I laugh with our Cauliflower With Currants and Pine enne. Aside from the magical twinkling Thanksgiving cousins and their children, eat and play Nuts (K5) lights in the trees, what I remember most games, then eat some more. (My mother Steamed spinach is dining in a petit bistro on poulet rôti desserts top off and aunts pore over the sales circulars, Vanilla ice cream with Old-Fashioned and crème brûlée, not feeling like it was plan the next day’s shopping assault, and Fudge Sauce Thanksgiving at all. a time of feast and then eat some more.) We say a prayer for (Desperation Dinners, K6) An American in Paris? No, I was a those with us, and those — like my dear pitiful homesick Southerner. I wanted, in fellowship Meme, my grandmother, and Dede, my SUNDAY this order: my mama, the smells of roast ______turkey and dressing in my grandmother’s ➤ Please see TRADITIONS, K4 Apple and Spice Pork Loin Roast (Double-Duty Dinners, K10) Roasted sweet potatoes Green peas Brownie Trifle (In the Kitchen With . . ., K10)

MONDAY Laborious harvest, importation Pasta e Fagioli (Success Story, K8) Green salad drive up price of tiny pine nuts

TUESDAY By DONNA DEANE / Los Angeles Times Baked Pork and Sauerkraut If you’ve ever gazed up at the pine tree in your yard and wondered if (Double-Duty Dinners, K10) you could harvest some fresh pine nuts from those cones, the answer is Mashed potatoes/carrot salad yes — and good luck. Pine nuts, also known by their Italian and Spanish names, ‘‘pignoli’’ and ‘‘piñon’’ (often spelled ‘‘pinyon’’), come from specific varieties of WEDNESDAY pine trees, about 20 worldwide, that produce edible seeds. The individ- London Broil With Pomegranate ual seeds are encased in a hard shell inside the pine cone. After har- Glaze (Try This! K2) vesting, the cones must first be heated, then left to dry before small, hard seeds can be shaken out of the cones. These seeds are cracked Couscous open to get to the pine nut. Sautéed green beans LORI SHEPLER / Los Angeles Times ______The side dish Cauliflower With Currants and Pine Nuts ➤ Please see PINE NUTS, K5 contrasts sweet, buttery and nutty flavors.

THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION CHECK FOR BREAKING NEWS UPDATES AT AJC.COM

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K4 Thursday, Nov. 11, 2004 / The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Traditions: buffet tops off feast and fellowship

➤ Continued from K1 ______cranberry sauce, bread and pickles, grandfather — who have passed away. homemade jelly, relish and chowchow. We Thanksgiving stands out as the most clear the dishes, and we take a little break family-oriented holiday in many clans, to make room for dessert. and ours is no exception. The emphasis is Imagine a profusion of towering tender not on gift-giving; it’s about good food layer slathered in buttery frosting, and fellowship, and lots of both. golden pecan pies, burnt sienna-colored Our fellowship starts days before as we pumpkin pies, cinnamon-kissed apple share the shopping and chopping. The pies, amber peanut brittle and bubbling baking commences early in the week, and cobblers. These are old friends that visit the cakes and pies are held captive in vari- every November and evoke fond taste ous collections of Tupperware. The but- memories from my childhood and remind tery smell of the cakes coming out of their me of where I came from. pans is intoxicating. Aunt Louise always prepares caramel Whoever is hosting the dinner calls , a high-sugar masterpiece expressing everyone and assigns a dish, often some- the genius of the Southern sweet tooth. thing on the sweet side. Aunt Lee nor- There’s also red velvet cake, Italian cream mally tries something new from one of cake, and Meme’s poundcake, now made the food magazines, and I’ll usually pre- by my mother. Mama also makes pecan pare something French just to mix things pie and apple pie, and there’s often peach up. The turkey is always the star, but in cobbler made from peaches we froze in the land of the Southern sweet tooth, the the summer. pièce de résistance is the dessert buffet, a Since I am a culinary professional, tantalizing expanse of butter and sugar many of my students, friends and col- concoctions on a groaning sideboard. leagues often think I slave away making Our Thanksgiving prelude to the sweet desserts over the holidays. Au contraire! end is a selection of crisp vegetable salads Even now with Meme gone, there’s as well as salads disguised by heaping almost 175 years of cooking experience in quantities of mayonnaise. Then, roast tur- my family, and I gladly take a back seat. I key, smoked or fried turkey and honey- may be chef to most, but to the ladies in baked ham accompanied by several my family — bossy women all — I’m still receivers for the giblet gravy: rice, corn “little Virginia.” bread dressing, mashed potatoes. We have But in my own kitchen, I’ve made eight or so different types of vegetables in these family heirlooms many times to various stages of cooked and overcooked share with friends and students, incorpo- Southern style, the greens usually stud- rating my professional skills to make ded with bits of salt pork. them taste and look even better. Is sweet potato casserole a vegetable Mama teases me on my insistence that side dish? Can anything topped with huge everything be fresh. I refuse to use a store- quantities of toasted pecans and brown bought whipped topping, far preferring sugar be considered a vegetable? It tastes the rich taste of real whipped cream. I’d good and that’s a yes in our family. never make a pie with store-bought crust. There’s a basket of yeast rolls made from It’s butter or nothing, and when I can Meme’s recipe, lightly dusted with substitute a real vanilla bean for vanilla and brushed with butter. extract, I always do. Styling by VIRGINIA WILLIS / Special Photos by RICH ADDICKS / Staff And no Southern table is without I am certain that my Meme would Virginia Willis’ peach cobbler, which uses fruit frozen from the summer, is made with a accessories. We round things out with approve. recipe handed down by her late grandmother Meme (Louise Baston, in photo).

Recipes By VIRGINIA WILLIS / For the Journal-Constitution Here are the desserts that show up at all of my family’s Thanksgivings and would be worthy additions to any holiday spread.

Mama’s Pecan Pie 8 servings Meme’s Poundcake (below) 12-16 servings

Hands on: 1 hour Total time: 2 hours Hands on: 30 minutes Total time: 11⁄2 hours I remember as a child helping Mama chop the pecans in an old- This cake has been a constant in my life — it’s been my fashioned nut chopper. It’s always been a favorite pie in our family. The many times. Our family holidays wouldn’t be complete without it. This trick to this pie is having more nuts than goo. cake will stay moist in an airtight container for up to 1 week. 3 large eggs, slightly Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 3 cups all-purpose flour, mixer fitted with the paddle beaten Combine the eggs, sugar, corn syr- preferably White Lily attachment, cream together 1 cup granulated sugar up, butter, vanilla and salt in a 1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder Crisco, butter and sugar until 1 cup light corn syrup medium bowl; stir until blended. 1⁄2 teaspoon salt light and fluffy. 2 tablespoons unsalted Add the pecans and stir to com- 1⁄2 cup Crisco vegetable In a large liquid measuring butter, melted bine. Pour into the unbaked pie shortening, room cup, combine milk, eggs and 1 teaspoon pure vanilla shell. temperature vanilla. Stir to combine. extract Bake the pie about 55 minutes 2 sticks unsalted butter, room Add the flour mixture to the 1⁄4 teaspoon salt or until a knife inserted halfway temperature, more for the butter sugar mixture, alternating 3 cups coarsely chopped between center and edge comes bundt pan between the dry and wet ingre- pecans out clean. Remove to a wire rack to 3 cups granulated sugar dients in 3 parts, starting and 1 (9-inch) unbaked pie cool. Serve with whipped cream. 1 cup whole milk, room ending with dry. Fill the pre- shell, recipe follows Keeps up to 1 week refrigerated in temperature pared bundt pan with batter no Whipped cream, for serving an airtight container. 5 large eggs, room more than 2⁄3 full. temperature Transfer to the oven and Per serving (including crust): 744 calories (percent of calories from fat, 1 vanilla bean, split and bake for 15 minutes. Increase 55), 8 grams protein, 80 grams carbohydrates, 4 grams fiber, 47 grams fat scraped or 1 tablespoon (11 grams saturated), 104 milligrams cholesterol, 275 milligrams sodium. oven temperature to 325 pure vanilla extract degrees and bake an additional Preheat oven to 300 45 minutes, until the cake is degrees. Grease a large bundt warm golden brown and pulls I learned this pie crust as an apprentice. Serious business, I thought, but the truth is it’s a really easy pie crust for beginners. The pan with butter. Set aside. Sift away from the sides of the pan. key is the shortening because it does not melt as easily as butter. For together flour, baking powder Remove to a rack to cool for 10 All-American Pie Crust enough for 1 9-inch pie crust a double crust pie, simply double the amounts and divide the dough and salt. Set aside. minutes. Invert cake onto a before rolling out. In the bowl of an electric rack to cool completely. Per serving (based on 12): 566 calories (percent of calories from fat, 42), 7 Hands on: 15 minutes Total time: 1 hour grams protein, 75 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 27 grams fat (14 grams 11⁄4 cups all-purpose flour, more for the moisture has been distributed rate, press the tines of a fork around saturated), 134 milligrams cholesterol, 149 milligrams sodium. rolling evenly, about 30 minutes. the edge. To make a fluted pattern, use 1⁄2 teaspoon salt Flour a clean work surface and roll- your fingers and thumb to pinch crimp 1⁄4 cup Crisco vegetable shortening, ing pin to roll out the dough. If making the dough around the rim. Chill until chilled a double crust pie, work with one disk firm, about 30 minutes. 1⁄4 cup (1⁄2 stick) unsalted butter, chilled at a time, keeping the second disk For blind baking: Preheat oven to 3 to 8 tablespoons ice water chilled. Place a dough disk in the cen- 425 degrees. Crumple a piece of parch- ter of the floured surfaced. Starting in ment and place it over the crust. Weight Combine the flour and salt in the the center of the dough, roll to, but not the paper with pie weights or dried bowl of a food processor fitted with the over, the top edge of the disk. Return beans or uncooked rice. This will keep blade attachment. Add the vegetable to the center, and roll down to, but not the pie crust from bubbling up. Bake for shortening and butter. Process until the over, the bottom edge. Pick up the 20 minutes. Remove the paper and mixture resembles coarse meal, 8 to dough and turn it a quarter circle. Con- weights. (The rice or beans may be 10 seconds. tinue rolling, repeating the quarter used again the next time you blind bake With the processor on pulse, add turns until you have a disk about 1⁄8 a pie crust.) The prebaked shell is ready the ice water a tablespoon at a time. inch thick. to be filled and baked according to fill- Pulse until dough holds together with- Transfer the pastry to a 9-inch pie ing directions. If the filling requires no out being sticky. It should not be crum- plate. Trim the pastry 1-inch larger cooking, bake the pie shell until deep bly. Shape the dough into a disk and than the pie pan and fold the over- golden brown, about 10 additional min- wrap in plastic wrap. Chill until firm and hanging pastry under itself. To deco- utes.

Aunt Louise’s Red Velvet Cake 12-16 servings The oil in this cake makes it astonishingly moist. Even though rumor has it that this cake originated at the Waldorf Astoria in New Hands on: 45 minutes Total time: 2 hours York, in my mind this is one of the quintessential Southern cakes.

21⁄2 cups all-purpose flour, more Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush Divide the batter between the prepared for the pans three 9-inch cake pans with oil. Dust with pans and transfer to the heated oven. Bake 2 teaspoons cocoa flour and shake to remove excess. Set 30 to 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted 1 teaspoon salt aside. into the cake comes out clean and the cake 1 teaspoon baking soda Sift together the flour, cocoa, salt and pulls away from the sides of the pan. 1 cup buttermilk baking soda. Set aside. In a liquid mea- Remove the pans to a rack to cool for 5 1 teaspoon white vinegar suring cup, combine the buttermilk and minutes. Invert the cakes onto the wire rack 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract vinegar. Set aside. to cool completely. 2 cups vegetable oil, more for In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted To assemble, place one cake layer on a the pans with the paddle attachment, combine cardboard cake round. Spread with 1⁄4-inch 11⁄2 cups granulated sugar vanilla, oil, sugar and eggs. Add the food of frosting. Repeat with remaining layers, 2 large eggs, room temperature coloring. With the mixer on low speed, placing the final layer bottom-side up. 1 ounce red food coloring add the dry ingredients, alternating with Lightly coat the assembled cake with a thin Pecan Cream Cheese Frosting, buttermilk, starting and ending with flour. layer of frosting to protect against crumbs in (recipe, K5) the frosting. Finish with remaining frosting. Per serving (with frosting, based on 12): 817 calories (percent of calories from fat, 56), 6 grams protein, 84 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 52 grams fat (14 grams saturated), 78 milligrams cholesterol, 384 milligrams sodium. ______➤ Please see RECIPES, K5

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