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the life and times of J T Frey
Rather than buying a pre-made curry powder blend, why not make it yourself? That's what I thought when I read the ingredient list on an expensive bottle of the orange-yellow spice mix. This particular recipe mimicks the Spice Islands brand very closely.
The plain dill pickle. No garlic or spices here, just a plain dill pickle, like what you'd get on a McDonald's hamburger. Heinz used to make these, but no more. Mt. Olive makes them, but few stores carry them. You can find dozens of varieties of kosher dill, but if you want a plain dill it's up to the DIY pickle-maker.
I like to use freshly-sliced onion every now and then: the pickled onion slices taste great on smoked pulled pork sandwiches. That is they in the jar on the right; the jar on the left doesn't have the brine poured over it yet.
An ongoing Pennsylvania tradition in my family is the serving of Cope's dried corn. The recipe that's right on the box yields a delicious side dish: sweet, salty, buttery, with the flavor of toasted corn. Since I have a food dehyrator (orignally purchased primarily for fruit leather and jerky) a few years ago at the tail end of summer I bought about 16 ears of Lancaster county sweet corn, cut it off the cob, and dried it. The dehydrator gets just warm enough that as the sugar in the corn concentrates it begins to caramelize gently. Eight ears of corn yields around 7.5 oz of dried corn, which is the amount in a box of Cope's — and thus the amount in this recipe. I think this is very close to what Cope's recommends, but I'm recording it here in case Cope's were to disappear (like so many traditional/small-scale food products).
The week following Thanksgiving we're always looking to have some lighter dinners. Salads often fit the bill quite nicely, but they need to be elevated to meal status. This salad uses many of the flavors we'd enjoy on a typical "Taco Tuesday." Feel free to omit components when plating for each individual — some in this household can't stand raw tomato or avocado but happily eat this salad so long as they're omitted. There are enough components left to still make it interesting for them.
French dressing has always been a favorite of mine. When I was younger my mom always had "Grandma Frey" salad dressing on hand, which she made with ketchup, oil, and other stuff (no idea what it was). It was a nice red French dressing. Eventually the Ken's line of dressings was introduced, and their honey French was a delicious departure from the usual (though it was still French!). This is an homage to both Grandma Frey and Ken…whoever he is!
I'm not a big fan of the Melting Pot restaurant. You know the joke: if I'm spending money on dinner out why would I want to have to cook it for myself? My favorite part of the "Big Night Out" menu is the salad, most especially their house dressing. Years ago I read that the secret to its being not just another basic honey mustard dressing is orange juice.