Family Recipes

Gaudet's Favorite Recipes.

The Gaudet's love to eat good food. Meals are a time to enjoy special recipes and to visit with each other. Through the years we have had many celebration meals for such occasions as someone coming home after being away, a daughter getting a job, or just for Friday night. Here are recipes that we love. There are many more.

Recipes:

1. Jelly and Hot Chocolate: Open one jar of grape jelly. Place bread in toaster set to "toast". Cook until golden brown. Using a butter knife, spread the jelly unevenly over the surface of the toast. Spread any remaining jelly over faces and cheeks. In a saucepan, slowly heat several cups of milk - stir often. While milk is heating, place a bunch of Nestles Quick into cups. When milk is hot to the touch, pour into cups and stir. Slurp hot chocolate while rubbing jellied toast on face. Lick extra jelly from fingers.

2. Yummy Spring Pasta (the one we had the night L & J got back from Mexico)
From Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

>2 T. olive oil

2 T. butter

1 bunch scallions, including half the greens, thinly sliced

2.5 t. grated lemon zest

1 t. chopped fresh thyme, sage, or tarragon (there's a lot of thyme in the garden under the rosebush in the back yard)

salt, ground pepper

2 pounds asparagus, tough ends removed

1 pound linguine

4 T. pine nuts, toasted in a small skillet

3 T. chopped parsley

2 T. snipped chives

grated Parmesan

Heat water for pasta. Heat half the oil and butter over low heat. Add scallions, lemon zest, thyme, and a bit of salt. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally.
Slice tips off asparagus, then cut up the rest. When water boils, add some salt and the asparagus and cook 3-4 min. Scoop out asparagus and add to pan. Add cooked pasta. Raise heat and mix in oil, pine nuts, parsley, chives, pepper, and some cheese. Serve. Eat. For a similarly seasonal dessert, you can make Rhubarb Fool (below).

3. Rhubarb Fool

Get some rhubarb from Nana. Wash it. Cut into 1" pieces. Put in a pan with some sugar and the juice of 1 orange, plus some orange zest if Mom isn't looking. You can add some cloves too. Turn on medium heat and boil until amorphous. Taste to see if it needs more sugar. Let cool. Whip some cream. Put rhubarb in glasses and put whipped cream on top. Mmmmm.

4. Weekend Morning Pancakes
Get up an hour before anyone else. Preheat the iron grill and season with butter. Turn on the radio and listen to the morning news on NPR.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of white flour
1 1/2 cups of wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
dash salt

2-3 eggs
5-7 tblspns vegetable oil
honey, molasses, or brown sugar to taste
dashes cinnamon, nutmeg
milk to desired thickness

Mix powdered ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add eggs. Add milk and stir until you get the thickness you want. The batter for thick pancakes, should offer good resistance to the stirring spoon but still have a slightly liquid appearance. Thinner pancakes come from, guess what, thinner batter.

Spread a ladle of batter onto the grill and cook until bubbles appear on the top side. Flip and cook the other side. The only way to know that the other side is done is to keep checking it. Be careful not to check too soon or the gooey batter will get all over everything. If you are really good, you can actually flip the cooked pancake in the air while checking. The pancakes that are cooked on a freshly buttered grill will have a tan and dark brown appearance. To get "perfect pancakes" do not season the grill with butter after the second pancake. You can get 1-2 perfect pancakes before you have to butter up again.

Once you have 10-14 pancakes cooked, start waking the family. Jules and Jenny should be awakened first as they will go back to sleep several times before grudgingly appearing at the table.

Serve pancakes with a choice of real, New England, maple syrup or fake syrup (for Julia) from the supermarket.

5. Pesto
Ingredients:

Fresh Basil
Olive Oil
salt
tomato

Pine nuts or walnuts
1 clove garlic
lemon juice

Place all ingredients except olive oil into a food processor. As you blend the pesto, add olive oil to get desired thickness. Option: add parmesan or feta cheese.

6. Red Pasta Sauce
Ingredients:

1 med. onion
1 med. bell pepper
2 cloves garlic
2-3 stalks celery
(1 small zucchini)

1 can tomato paste
1 can diced or crushed tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
spices: basil, pepper, celery seed to taste (less is more)
(red wine)

Chop all veggies using the special knife that Mom bought - or any sharp knife that you have. Heat the olive oil in a pan. Saute the chopped veggies in olive oil until onions are translucent. Add tomato paste and stir until paste turns a deep red. Deglaze pan with red wine - or juice from crushed tomatoes and drink the wine. Add the canned tomatoes and spices. Keep tasting the sauce and adjust the seasonings to make it taste like you think it should.

7. Mom's Cheese Cake (Taken from an Adelle Davis recipe)

2 eggs
Some vanilla
1/2 cup brown sugar

Cream cheese 8oz.
Cottage cheese 16oz.
1 store bought graham cracker crust

Convince Mom to make cheese cake instead of a pie because Julia doesn't like pie (go figure...). Blend all of the ingredients in a blender and pour into the pie crust. Preheat the oven to 350. Cook the cheese cake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into the filling comes out clean. It always takes longer than planned so get ready for comments like, "I don't know why it's not done." "Maybe it is done but just doesn't look like it." "Maybe the toothpick had something gooey on it when it was stuck into the filling." "Is this oven too cold?" When it is finally done, serve with a fruit topping. Canned cherries or frozen strawberries are a favorite.

8. White Pasta Sauce

1 bottle vermouth
2-5 tblspns sour cream
1 small onion
1 green pepper

1-2 cloves garlic
1 med zucchini
1 med yellow squash
some shrimp, scallops, and/or mussels

Saute all vegetables in olive oil until they start to look sauteed. Add 3/4 of the vermouth. Season with salt, basil, oregano, pepper, & whatever as you will. Let the vermouth cook down until the vegetables are softened - add more if you need to. Add the sour cream to taste. (If the sauce tastes pretty good but is too thin, thicken with corn starch.) Add the fish and cook until done. Let the sauce cook on low heat while everyone eats chips and salsa, cheese and crackers, or whatever you like to have before the meal. PS sometimes a little lemon zest adds a bit of zing.

9. Sausage Pasta Sauce

1 bottle red wine
3 spicy sausages
3 sweet sausages
1 med onion
1 green pepper

1 medium zucchini
1 medium yellow squash
3 cloves garlic (at least)
2 stalks celery
2 cans of diced tomatoes

Cut the skins from the sausages - use the very good (expensive) knife that Mom gave you for Christmas ... or your birthday. Dice the sausages and saute in olive oil. Dice the vegetables and add to sausage mix. Add tomatoes. Season with celery seed, basil, salt, pepper, oregano. Cook the hell out of the sauce and drink the red wine while waiting for the sauce to be done - you can do chips and salsa too.

10. Multi Bean Chili

1 can Kidney Beans
1 can Black Beans
1 can White Beand
1 can Chick Peas
1 can whatever beans
2 16 oz cans minced tomatoes
1 large onion
1 large green pepper

4+ stalks celery minced ( you can't have too much celery)
1 medium zucchini
1 medium yellow squash
4-5 cloves garlic (to taste but who doesn't love garlic)
Celery seed (to taste)
Basil (to taste)
Cumin (just a little)
Chili Powder (LOTS)
Salt and pepper if you lik

Chop the zucchini and yellow squash. Mince the celery, onion, and green pepper. In a large pot saute the celery, zucchini, yellow squash, pepper, garlic, and onion. When translucent, add everything else. Add the seasonings and cook for as long as you can. The longer the better. Serve with shredded Parmesan cheese. Pretty simple. How can you mess this up? Best served with bread, salad, and wine, beer, or baby's bottle.