Weekend cooking should begin with a classic bagel sandwich for morning.  Pictured here is an everything bagel from the Purple House Bakery whose Montreal style bagels are superb.  With a schmear of cream cheese topped with a fried egg , local tomato slices and smoked Nova from Acme Smoke House in Brooklyn (Harbor Fish carries it), the weekend food spree  at home  has begun.

Purple House Bakery bagel with Acme Nova, cream cheese, tomatoes and fried egg

But fine-dining eating-out fatigue can inflict pain occasionally.  It’s one reason why I’m cooking more at home than going out to eat.  But there was an exception a while back when we finally got a table at Union at the haute-hipster Press Hotel.  Union is one of those under-hyped restaurants when it shouldn’t be because chef Joshua Berry is a terrific cook.  His larder is chock full of locally sourced ingredients that he utilizes in creative takes on American bistro cooking.

Consider a starter course like the charcuterie board of house-cured meats such as jambon de maison, house smoked beef brisket and braised pork rillettes; or tempeh bathed in a glistening sweet-salty hoisin glaze; or an ingenious dish of sprouting cauliflower with house made lamb bacon and cloth bound cheddar or his take on southern fried buttermilk chicken with pickled cauliflower and spoonbread timbale.

I would have done a formal review of the restaurant, but on the night we were there I  didn’t intend to.

My photos were haphazard and couldn’t’ report faithfully on the many dishes we tried since I wasn’t taking notes. Suffice it to say, you should go before summer arrives and becomes packed with visitors.  Even now advance planning is advised to get a reservation.

Top, clockwise: Union dining room, charcuterie board,fried chicken, sprouting cauliflower and tempeh-hoisin

Back at home I’ve had some good success trying various recipes from newspapers, magazines and cookbooks.  I continue to explore the “Red Truck Bakery Cookbook” by Brian Noyes.  In it you’ll find the most astounding take on molasses cookies; or try  his recipe for Alma Hackney’s Rum Cake.

Two rum cakes: Mami’s and Red Truck Bakery

Another rum cake recipe, which still stymies me because of what might be a serious omission in the recipe directions, is Mami’s Rum Cake.  I read about it first in Garden and Gun Magazine and bought the cookbook  in which it’s published,  “Coconuts and Collards” by Von Diaz.  In the book there are two versions of the cake that was transcribed from Mami’s old recipe.  That version is made with yellow butter cake mix and instant vanilla pudding and the other is a from-scratch version that the author devised with the help of local cookbook author, Kathy Gunst.  I’ve made both.  What’s unclear in the original recipe is how it’s assembled using the cake mix and the other ingredients.  The instructions on the box are to add the eggs and butter to the mix as well as 1 cup water and rum.  But that’s where the recipe goes awry.  It says to add the eggs and butter but no mention of the liquid.  Without it the batter is as thick as wallpaper paste.  I added half water and half rum, and the cake turned out great.  I’ll publish my version once I’ve confirmed the correct way to make it using the cake mix.  I made the scratch version, but I like the cake mix version better.

Another recipe that was intriguing was  from the New York Times Magazine in the January 9th edition featuring cider brined chicken baked over stuffing by Samin Nosrat who has the acclaimed Netflix series based on her cookbook “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.”  I urge you to try it.  The stuffing was wonderful picking up all the juices from the chicken that roasts on the stuffing mix. The chicken thighs are brined in apple cider, stock, prunes, sage, parsley and thyme.  The chicken should have had more striking flavor having steeped in the marinade for 24 hours, but nonetheless the chicken and stuffing worked well.

Cider-brined chicken baked over stuffing

 

I also made a rustic and rich split pea soup, from a recipe found on the NYTimes Cooking site by Ali Slagle.  I made it yesterday and it will be served for Sunday supper tonight.  I’ll post my version of the recipe next week. I’m going to serve it with traditional Spider Johnnycake, from a recipe I found in the Marjorie Standish cookbook “Keep Cooking—the Maine Way” published in 1973 by the Maine Sunday Telegram.  Her recipe for Johnnycake is unusual in that milk is poured over a traditional cornmeal batter and put in the oven to bake.  I’ll see what that’s all about and report back.

The recipe I’m going to feature here in my series of weekend home cooking is a delicious meat sauce for spaghetti. I call it Diner Spaghetti Sauce.  I found the recipe in the book “Mrs. Rowe’s Restaurant Cookbook—A Lifetime of Recipes from the Shenandoah Valley. “

The restaurant is a diner chock full of home cooking that’s been around for decades and beloved by locals and tourists alike.

The sauce is titled DiGrassie’s Spaghetti Sauce, devised by Mrs. Rowe’s husband at the time, Eugene DiGrassie. It was in much demand at the restaurant.

DiGrassie’s spaghetti sauce

I love it.  But there’s very little resemblance to an Italian American version.  The base is cans of chopped tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste and red wine, onions, garlic, parsley and dried basil.  It cooks for about two hours.

The recipe calls for two 4-ounce cans of sliced mushrooms.  For years I’ve sautéed fresh mushrooms instead.  But finally I made it according to the recipe using the canned undrained mushrooms asdirected.  Well, what do you know, it’s better.