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the life and times of J T Frey
Who doesn't love smores? As an occassional fireside treat, they can't be topped. But as the person who must build and tend the fire used to make them, I don't always feel quite as excited for them. So instead of that gooey, messy, sometimes-burnt campfire creation, I figured why not make an ode to the smore that can be prepared in the comfort of the kitchen.
One condiment I can never seem to get enough of is A1 original sauce (a close second place goes to Crosse and Blackwell seafood cocktail sauce). This is an ode to the content of those ridiculously-expensive dark-tinted bottles. (No kidding, I saved a 15 oz A1 bottle and I'm reusing that for my own sauce.)
If I'm being perfectly honest, this should really be Squash a'la Pépin because Jacques Pépin made it as an accompaniment to a chicken dish on his Facebook page. But Abby did help me prepare it for dinner one night, and we made a few changes to the recipe so it's only fair to give her credit!
At a lunch buffet in a villa in St. Lucia I tried two items together: spaghetti that was dressed with butter and (seemingly) curry powder, and lentils. The combination was delicious.
Once upon a time at a pre-spring seed sale at either Home Depot or Lowes I found a pack of tomato seeds that were marked as being "San Marzano variety." Authentic San Marzano tomatoes are prized for their low-acid profile and are often used in sauces. In 2020 we had a fairly good crop from the few plants I cultivated in the garden beds around the yard. I also planted a fair amount of sweet basil herb.
Classico Sweet Basil pasta sauce is one of our favorite tomato-based sauces for pasta here at home. So with our home-grown San Marzano-esque tomatoes and sweet basil, I set out to make a tomato sauce that approximated Classico's.
This casserole was designed to please those folks for whom Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without some sweet potatoes, but to also please those who don't care for a large hunk of orange doused with a sticky, sweet sauce. Sure, in essence this recipe is like lumpy mashed potatoes. But those mashed bits will actually hold on to that tasty sweet sauce rather than letting it running all over your plate. And the unmashed bits have enough texture left that they'll remind those who crave a big hunk-o-yam of what they like best. Everyone's happy — except those who just don't like sweet potatoes, period.