Julia Grey: A Foodish Consistency

Cape Verde Independence Day

Tue, 05 Jul 2005 19:25:59 GMT

Cachupa di Cabo Verde
by Raymond A. Almeida

Cape Verde's dry, tropical island environment and its role in Portugal's 15th-century colonizations have shaped its cooking traditions. Enslaved Africans brought knowledge of growing and cooking tropical crops. The Portuguese brought livestock. They used Cape Verde for feeding the crews of their sailing ships and as an experimental station for growing foods from the Americas, such as corn, hot peppers, pumpkins, and cassava (mandioca). They also transplanted sugar, bananas, mangos, papayas, and other tropical crops from Asia. National food preferences, reflected in ritual foods, include an affection for dried corn, either whole kernels (hominy) or ground to various degrees of fineness. The national dish, cachupa, is a stew of hominy and beans with fish or meat. It means home to Cape Verdeans everywhere.

Cachupa is a slow boiled stew of hominy corn, beans, vegetables, spices and marinated pork or tuna. It is often described as the staple food of the Cape Verde Islands. At any given moment an inventory of the ingredients in a kettle of cachupa may even be a pretty good index of the economic health of family in Cabo Verde. What's in the cachupa might depend more on whether someone in the household has a reliable job and can afford to supply the kitchen from the village market place or store. Most Cape Verdeans who reside in the countryside maintain gardens to grow a little mandioca, beans and perhaps some greens to fatten a pig for their cachupa. If its to be a wedding or other very special occasion, folks somehow manage to get together and make sure that the kettle overflows with sausage, marinated meats, and vegetables. We call this a cachupa rica.

Cooking cachupa from dry ingredients may require as much as four hours over a slow but steady flame. Years of drought have made firewood scarce. Locally produced charcoal is seldom in adequate supply. In rural areas women and children spend many hours each day gathering firewood (lenha). Despite government subsidies to make bottled gas easily available to all the cost to many poor families is prohibitive. Gradually the effects of drought and its continuing impact on agricultural production and the availability of affordable fuel have combined to transform the culinary tradition of Cape Verde. Cachupa rica has become expensive and something a family can only hope to serve on special occasions. Thirty years ago imported rice was served on these special occasions. Canja de galinha, the thick chicken and rice soup is one such dish, and is still was served for weddings, funerals or New Year's eve celebration or perhaps to nurse a sick relative to health. Today rice which cooks in under twenty minutes is fast replacing corn as the staple of Cape Verde.

Recipes for cachupa vary from island to island and from household to household. On Brava island cachupa is called munchupa. What's in a kettle of cachupa may also depend on whether it has been a year of rain or a year of drought. In a good year there will always be greens, mandioca, potatoes, maybe squash, yams, and plenty of pork meat. In a dry year you might have to make due with corn, a handful of beans and a piece of salt pork.

For Cape Verdeans scattered in immigrant communities around the world, its always a special occasion when friends gather to share a well-made kettle of cachupa. These festive occasions are called cachupada. In spite of the rising costs of making a cachupa rica in the United States or Europe, Cape Verdeans everywhere will still make an effort to bring added significance to a social gathering by setting a pot of cachupa on the table. Cape Verdeans trust in the "power" of cachupa to transform a simple meal into an occasion for storytelling and sharing memories. Cachupa can teach a lot about Cape Verdean culture.

Cachupa recipes can be easily adjusted to accommodate household preferences. Marinated chicken, beef or fresh tuna can substitute for pork. And for a vegetarian offering corn, beans and greens are one of nature's healthiest combinations.

But the best is yet to come - leftover cachupa for breakfast! To really prepare yourself for a day's work on a fishing boat or a night on the town, nothing sticks to your ribs quite like cachupa guisada. Fry up a few ladles of cachupa on top of some browned onions and let it heat up slowly until it begins to dry out. Some folks let it cook up until it is almost crispy on the bottom. Serve it with a fried egg on top (cachupa ku ovo stralado) and you're ready for anything life has to offer.

Menu

Caldo de Peixe (Fish Soup)

Cachupa Rica
Rice Timbales
Portugese Sweet Bread

Dão Caves Velhas 1996

Caldo de Peixe
(Fish Soup)

6 white potatoes
3 sweet potatoes
l bunch fresh parsley
l green pepper
l red pepper
3 medium onions
2 medium tomatoes
4 scallions
3 lbs fresh, whole, cleaned saltwater fish (examples: tautog, cod, bluefish or sea bass).

In a large kettle, gently saute chopped onions, tomatoes, scallions and green and red peppers in oil. Next, add fish cut into small pieces and water. Cover and bring to a gentle boil. Add peeled potatoes and chopped parsley to kettle. Reduce heat and simmer. A little may be added to make a thicker broth.

Cachupa Rica

2 cups of corn*
1 cup large dry lima beans
1/2 cup dry stone beans (feijao pedra)
1/4 cup dry red kidney beans
1 lb lean salt pork meat
1 pig's foot, split (if desired)
1 lb chorico sausage (or other smoked garlic sausage)
1 small cabbage cut in quarters
1 - 2 cups big pieces of hard winter squash (if desired)
6 garlic cloves (or more to taste)
2 seeded ripe tomatoes or 6 oz tomato paste
2 bay leaves
1 chicken bouillon cube (or substitute chicken stock for as much of the liquid as possible)
1/2 c. olive oil

* midge cutchido, dried and hulled cracked corn also commercially available in the U.S. as samp or yellow or white corn groats.

Wash all corn and dry beans. In a heavy large kettle (10 quart) boil corn for 10 minutes and carefully discard froth which collects on the top. Add dry beans, 1 bay leaf and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Bring to a boil. Lower heat enough to maintain a steady but slow boil. Add salt pork. If you are using pig's foot, add it at this time. Leave cover slightly ajar. Throughout cooking make certain liquid covers the corn and beans. Use at least 4 quarts of water or stock.

After the mixture has boiled for the first hour, add the sausage. Cook partially covered at a very gentle boil over low heat for an additional one and one half (1 1/2) hours. [Cooking time can be reduced by soaking dry ingredients overnight. But cachupa "purists" prefer to work from dry ingredients].

Saute onions, garlic, chopped seeded tomato or tomato paste in oil until very soft. Add the second bay leaf. Add the mixture to the kettle when the cachupa has about one hour of cooking time left. Correct seasoning by carefully adding salt and pepper to taste. If adding squash do so when there is about 1/2 hour cooking time remaining. Remember that squash will continue to cook even after the kettle has been removed from the heat.

A few Cape Verdean cooks will even add a cup of canned or fresh tuna to the sauteed onion, garlic and tomatoes to enhance the flavor of the stew. But generally one prepares either a meat cachupa or a fish cachupa (cachupa di peixe).

Serving: For best results let cachupa sit covered and off the flame for at least twenty minutes before serving. The spices and salt will be absorbed into the corn, bean and the "gravy" will take on its special texture. Arrange the meats and vegetables on a large platter and serve the corn and beans from a bowl. Some folks may want to individually drizzle a little tabasco or piri-piri sauce on top.

Independence Day

Mon, 04 Jul 2005 04:45:25 GMT

This is the only day of year that many people of my acquaintance break down and indulge themselves in hot dogs, because it's such an American tradition. Frankfurters seem to have originated in Germany -- or was it Austria?

Frankfurt-am-Main, in Germany, is usually credited with originating the frankfurter in 1484, five years before Christopher Columbus set sail for the new world. Others argue the "little-dog" sausage, sometimes called the Dachshund because of its shape, was created in the late 1600s by Johann Georghehner, a butcher from Coburg who apparently travelled to Frankfurt to promote his products. Equally, though, the people of Vienna (Wien), Austria, point to the term "wiener" to prove their claim as the birthplace of the hot dog.

In 1852, the butcher's guild in Frankfurt introduced a spiced and smoked sausage which was packed in a thin casing and was called a "frankfurter" after the guild's hometown. The sausage had a slightly curved shape, supposedly due to the coaxing of a butcher who had a popular Dachshund dog. ..

Today's hot dog on a bun was probably introduced during the St. Louis "Louisiana Purchase Exposition" in 1904 by a Bavarian concessionaire, Anton Feuchtwanger. He loaned white gloves to his patrons to hold his piping hot sausages.

Most of the gloves were not returned, and the supply began running low. He reportedly asked his brother-in-law, a baker, for help. The baker improvised long soft rolls that fitted the sausage - thus inventing the hot dog bun!

The term "hot dog" was coined in 1901 at the New York Polo Grounds. One cold April day, concessionaire Harry Stevens (his company is still in business) was losing money with ice cream and ice cold soda.

He sent his salesmen out to buy up all the Dachshund sausages they could find, and an equal number of rolls. In less than an hour his vendors were hawking hot dogs from portable hot water tanks with "They're red hot! Get your Dachshund sausages while they're red hot!"

In the press box, sports cartoonist Tad Dorgan was nearing his deadline and desperate for an idea. Hearing the vendors, he hastily drew a cartoon of barking Dachshund sausages nestled warmly in rolls. Not sure how to spell the word "Dachshund", he simply wrote "hot dog!" The cartoon was a sensation, the term "hot dog" was born, and the rest, as they say, is history. However, it is also said that the cartoon that started it all has never been found.

They're only sausages until they're put on a bun. That's what makes them hot dogs!

Classic 4th of July Menu

Barbecue Sauced Hot Dogs

Hamburgers on the Grill

Potato Salad or Potato Chips

Baked Beans

Green Salad

Genesee Cream Ale

Apple Pie

Barbecue Sauced Hot Dogs
Cook these in a chafing dish or on the side burner of your grill, leaving plenty of room on the rack for the burgers

2 lb hot dogs
1/3 cup vinegar
1/3 cup salad oil
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup catsup
1 large onion, thinly sliced

Combine all ingredients except hot dogs in a large sauce pan and bring to a boil. Add hot dogs and simmer gently 20 to 30 minutes. The longer the hot dogs are in the sauce the better they taste. Serve on toasted hot dog buns with lots of relish and chopped onion.

Algeria Declares Independence, 1962

Sun, 03 Jul 2005 15:17:24 GMT

Today's Menu Celebrations: Algerian independence and the exhibition by horticulturalist Michael Keens of the first cultivated strawberry in 1806.

By 1960, de Gaulle had come to recognize the inevitability of some form of Algerian independence; the main problem concerned the future status of the almost one million European colonists, many of whom had been born in Algeria. Sensing the direction of French policy, the colonists and army (both of whom aimed for the full integration of Algeria with France) staged major protests in 1960 and 1961, but both were put down by de Gaulle. In mid-1961, Ferhat Abbas resigned as prime minister of the GPRA and was replaced by Ben Yusuf Ben Khedda. Shortly thereafter, negotiations with the French government began, and in Mar., 1962, an agreement was signed. The accord provided for an end to the fighting and for Algerian independence after a transition period.

The people of France overwhelmingly approved the agreement in a referendum held in early Apr., 1962, but members of the French army in Algeria, banded together in the Secret Army Organization (OAS), launched an armed campaign against Muslims in an attempt to prevent the implementation of the accord. In late April, however, their leader, Gen. Raoul Salan, was captured, and by late June the army revolt had been ended. Already in April colonists had begun to leave Algeria in large numbers; by October only about 250,000 remained, and most of them soon left as well. As a result of the more than seven years' fighting at least 100,000 Muslim and 10,000 French soldiers had been killed; in addition, many thousands of Muslim civilians and a much smaller number of colonists lost their lives.

On July 1, 1962, the people of Algeria voted almost unanimously for independence in a referendum, and on July 3, France recognized Algeria's sovereignty. [But] as a result of the fighting and of the exodus of colonists, the Algerian economy lay in ruins. ...

President Lyndon Baines Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, 1964

Sat, 02 Jul 2005 17:11:32 GMT

Today's Menu Celebration: Recognition of LBJ, the previous generation's "consummate Texas politician" (invidious comparisons to the current variety are inescapable), and the "updated Southern" cuisine of Turner South television chef Marvin Woods.

The assassination of John Kennedy in November 1963 left most civil rights leaders grief-stricken. Kennedy had been the first president since Harry Truman to champion equal rights for black Americans, and they knew little about his successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson. Although Johnson had helped engineer the Civil Rights Act of 1957, that had been a mild measure, and no one knew if the Texan would continue Kennedy's call for civil rights or move to placate his fellow southerners.

But on November 27, 1963, addressing the Congress and the nation for the first time as president, Johnson called for passage of the civil rights bill as a monument to the fallen Kennedy. "Let us continue," he declared, promising that "the ideas and the ideals which [Kennedy] so nobly represented must and will be translated into effective action." Moreover, where Kennedy had been sound on principle, Lyndon Johnson was the master of parliamentary procedure, and he used his considerable talents as well as the prestige of the presidency in support of the bill.

On February 10, 1964, the House of Representatives passed the measure by a lopsided 290-130 vote, but everyone knew that the real battle would be in the Senate, whose rules had allowed southerners in the past to mount filibusters that had effectively killed nearly all civil rights legislation. But Johnson pulled every string he knew, and had the civil rights leaders mount a massive lobbying campaign, including inundating the Capitol with religious leaders of all faiths and colors. The strategy paid off, and in June the Senate voted to close debate; a few weeks later, it passed the most important piece of civil rights legislation in the nation's history, and on July 2, 1964, President Johnson signed it into law.

Home Plate Cooking:
Everyday Southern Cuisine
with a Fresh Twist

Menu (for 6)

Texas Barbecue Ribs
Tomato and Corn Salad
Collard Greens or Cole Slaw
Cheese Biscuits

Shiner Bock

The Path To Power

Volume 1 of Robert Caro's

definitive Johnson Biography

Texas Barbecue Ribs
Purists will object to these, since in Texas "barbecue" means unsauced, smoked beef (never pork!). That tradition inspires the boldness of the smoke flavoring in this recipe's forbidden sauce.

2 medium onions
4 lbs beef chuck short ribs (you can use pork ribs, of course!)
1 tsp salt
Water
1 medium green pepper
2 Tbsp salad oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
3/4 cup catsup
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp Texas Pete (hot pepper sauce)
1 tsp smoke flavoring (preferably Mesquite)
1/4 tsp salt

Cut 1 onion into quarters, set aside remaining onion. In 6 quart Dutch oven over high heat, place ribs, cut-up onion, salt and enough water to cover. Heat to boiling, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 1 1/4 hours or until meat is fork tender.

Meanwhile, prepare barbecue sauce. Dice green pepper and reserved onion in 2 quart saucepan over medium heat. In hot salad oil, cook pepper, onion and garlic until tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in catsup, brown sugar, Worcestershire, Texas Pete, smoke flavoring, 1/3 cup water, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cook on high heat until boiling and simmer 5 minutes to blend flavors.

Arrange ribs on prepared grill or broiler rack and grill or broil until heated through, about 20 minutes, brushing with sauce and turning occasionally. Makes 6 servings.

Tomato and Corn Salad
Marvin Woods (rescaled)

Serves 6

6 ears corn, shucked
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
6 medium heirloom tomatoes, chopped
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
3 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped
6 large butter lettuce leaves
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook corn until tender, about 5 minutes, and drain. Using a large chef's knife, stand ears of corn on end and cut down sides of ears to remove kernels, set aside.

Using a medium bowl, whisk together oil and vinegar. Add corn, tomatoes, feta and oregano, season with salt and pepper and gently toss.

Arrange lettuce leaves on serving platter, top with tomato and corn salad.

Spinach, Pesto and Cheese Lasagna

Thu, 05 May 2005 23:50:07 GMT

This is marvelously quick to assemble -- no boiling the noodles -- and it is a genuinely delicious meatless meal.

3 cups ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup shredded Asiago cheese
1 large egg
2 10-oz packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 7-oz package prepared basil pesto
4 cups bottled chunky vegetable pasta sauce
12 no-boil lasagna noodles
3 cups grated mozzarella cheese

Blend ricotta, Parmesan and Asiago cheeses in a medium bowl. Stir in egg, season with salt and pepper. Blend spinach and pesto in another medium bowl.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Spray 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish with oil. Spread 1 cup pasta sauce in the dish, arrange 3 noodles side by side on the sauce. Spread 1 1/4 cups cheese mixture over the noodles in a thin layer. Drop 1/3 of the spinach mixture over the cheese by spoonfuls. Repeat layers of sauce, noodles, cheese mixture and spinach mixture 2 more times. Top with remaining 3 noodles and 1 cup of sauce.

Cover lasagna with foil and bake 35 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and return to oven. Bake until the sauce bubbles and the mozzarella is melted and golden in spots, about 20 minutes longer. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

Makes 8 servings.

Cinnamon-Roasted Chicken

Wed, 04 May 2005 20:07:00 GMT

This sounds strange, and you'd think it tastes like breakfast buns, but it doesn't. The scent of the finished dish is intriguing, and many people can't place the spice at first. It's great cold the next day, too.

1/4 cup ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
8 small chicken breast halves with skin and bones
8 chicken thighs with skin and bones
1 cup (about) all purpose flour

4 tablespoons (about) peanut oil

Harissa Sauce (recipe below)

Mix first 5 ingredients in small bowl. Place chicken breasts and thighs in 2-gallon resealable plastic bag. Pour oil mixture over; seal bag. Turn bag to coat chicken with marinade. Chill overnight.

Preheat oven to 475°F. Transfer chicken to rimmed baking sheet, shaking off marinade. Sprinkle chicken all over with flour. Heat 1 tablespoon peanut oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, add chicken to skillet. Cook until golden, adding more oil as needed, about 3 minutes per side. Return chicken to baking sheet, skin side up. Roast until cooked through, about 15 minutes. Serve with Harissa Sauce (see below).

Makes 8 servings.

Modified recipe from
Bon Appétit
September 2002

Harissa Sauce

Wed, 04 May 2005 20:00:16 GMT

This is fabulous stuff. Rich, sweet and complex, with a flavor in the mouth that develops in layers like a fine perfume. And I say this as someone who is not exactly crazy about bell peppers of any color.

1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
6 large garlic cloves, unpeeled
4 large red bell peppers
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 teaspoons dried crushed red pepper

Stir coriander and caraway seeds in a small skillet over medium-high heat until fragrant. Transfer to a food processor. Cook garlic cloves in same skillet, covered, over medium-low heat until tender, turning occasionally, about 10 minutes. Cool. Peel garlic; add to processor.

Char bell peppers over a gas flame or under the broiler until blackened on all sides. Enclose in a paper bag; let stand 10 minutes. Seed and coarsely chop the peppers; add peppers, oil, sugar, and crushed red pepper to the processor. Puree. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Modified recipe from
Bon Appétit
September 2002

Glazed Onions

Wed, 15 Sep 2004 23:29:38 GMT

Here's one of the recipes that accompanies the article mentioned below:

Adapted from "Readers Digest 30 Minute Cookbook"

Time: 30 minutes

1 pound button or pickling onions
1/2 to 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon dark (blackstrap) molasses
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon soy sauce.

1. Bring a saucepan of water to a simmer, and add onions. Simmer for 5 minutes, drain, and rinse with cold water. Drain again. Peel off skins; set aside.

2. Using a mortar and pestle or rolling pin, finely crush rosemary; set aside. Place a large skillet over medium-low heat, and add butter. When butter has melted, add rosemary, molasses, mustard and soy sauce. Mix well.

3. Add onions, and reduce heat to low. Cook gently, stirring frequently, until glaze has thickened and onions are tender and golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Yield: 4 servings.

In Search of the 30-minute Dinner

Wed, 15 Sep 2004 22:49:51 GMT

An excerpt from an article in today's New York Times, I'm Cooking as Fast as I Can, by food critic William Grimes. It outlines his search for "respectable one-star dinners" that can be made by the home chef in 30 minutes or less.

I breezed right by 30-Minute Meals for Dummies on the theory that when you get right down to it, all 30-minute recipes are recipes for dummies. It is built into the concept. Usually, if you can turn on a burner, you can handle the recipe. Better Homes and Gardens, although chock-full of sensible, middle-of-the-road recipes, lost me when it called for grated American cheese in its recipe for corn chowder.

With Fast, Food & Wine's collection of quick meals, I found my comfort level. The book, indistinguishable in size and feel from an issue of the magazine, looks as if it were thrown together in the time it takes to make one of its appetizers, but the recipe writers include the likes of Marcella Hazan, Daniel Boulud and Terrance Brennan.

I found a disarmingly simple way to serve peppered steak, a dish I have to have at least twice a month. I had grown tired of Bordelaise sauce, and the nice brandy and cream sauce I ran across in The New Joy of Cooking was beginning to pall. The Food & Wine alternative was to make a simple red wine and butter sauce and then serve the steak with watercress that has been sautéed in the same pan. Like the most successful 30-minute dishes, this one relies on one simple twist or one unexpected flavor to make it distinctive.

Reader's Digest, as homey as it gets, took me by surprise with an international lineup of recipes in its 30-Minute Cookbook. Dishes like egg-topped kedgeree, leek and Cheddar cheese tart and venison sausages with Stilton mash, as well as a large chapter devoted to vegetarian main dishes, reflect a strong English accent, although a healthy percentage of the recipes are also Asian.

I gave its recipe for salmon with lime-herb butter a try, partly because keeping compound butters in the refrigerator is a terrific time saver and partly because I was intrigued by a suggested side dish of glazed onions [see recipe above]. That recipe called for rosemary, molasses and Dijon mustard, a combination that sounded on the face of it a little strange but turned out to be a hands-down winner, spicy, sweet and aromatic. It does not go well with grouper, the fish I had on hand the first time around, but it fits salmon to a T. ...

I knew I was onto a good thing in my quest for the 30-minute meal when Jacques Pépin [Fast Food My Way] turned up on the scene. Mr. Pépin knows a few things about fast food, having flipped hamburgers at a Howard Johnson in Queens when he first came to America, but his approach combines simplicity with originality. ...

His stir-fry of chorizo sausages, fresh asparagus, croutons and almonds takes almost no time to prepare, but the result looks more impressive than a lot of dishes requiring triple the time and effort.

Grimes is at first mystified by Pépin's (good) dessert using canned peaches, but later he figures out why Pepin doesn't call for fresh ones.

Cheese Wiz

Tue, 14 Sep 2004 02:12:20 GMT

Floris Claesz van Dijck: Still Life (1613)

My friend Michael Berch does a nice little blog On Food. Check him out on "Three Cheeses."

Mama DiSpirito's Meatballs

Mon, 06 Sep 2004 00:17:21 GMT

From the NBC (and Bravo) reality series, The Restaurant.

Serves 4 as antipasto or over spaghetti
(20 balls)

For the seasoned stock mix:
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 large sweet onion
4 cloves garlic
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped

Place all ingredients in blender or food processor and puree.

For the meatballs:
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
1 lb ground veal
1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
3 whole eggs
1/2 cup parmigiano-reggiano, grated
2-3 pinches chili flakes
2-3 pinches salt
4 cups marinara

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients (except extra virgin olive oil) with stock mix and mix with both hands until mixture is uniform. Do not over mix.

Put a little olive oil on hands and form mixture into balls a little larger than golf balls.

Pour about 1/2-inch of extra virgin olive oil into a straight-sided, wide sauté pan and heat over medium-high flame. Add the meatballs to the pan (working in batches if necessary) and brown meatballs, turning once.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the meatballs from the oil and place them into a saucepan of marinara (they should be submerged). Simmer for 30 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked through and tender. Serve alone or over spaghetti (in which case, increase marinara to 6 cups).

---- Nicolina Dispirito

Perfect Crockpot Pork Roast

Sat, 04 Sep 2004 15:01:17 GMT

The scent of this while it is cooking is to die for.

4-5 pound boneless pork roast
8 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp cracked black pepper
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp basil
1 cup dry white wine
1 medium onion, sliced

Cut 8 slits into the roast just big enough to fit a clove of garlic. Put a peeled garlic cloveinto each slit.

Rub outside of roast with cracked pepper, salt and basil.

Pour dry white wine in the bottom of the crockpot and place the roast into the wine. Put slices of onion on top and around the roast.

Cover and cook on low all day (8 hours) or until done.