Mountain Views News          Saturday, November 21, 2015

12

FOOD AND DRINK

Mountain Views-News Saturday, November 21, 2015 


ALMOST TURKEY DAY

Here are my favorite dining experiences so far 
for 2015. Look at this as a report card to dining 
in the Pasadena area. 

If you’re looking for a steak, I recommend the Arroyo Chop House. In Pasadena, the steaks are 
above average and the Grand Marnier Soufflé for dessert is a must. I also recommend Taylor’s Steak 
House in La Canada, an old-school steak house. It’s a little less pricey then the aforementioned 
Chop House, and I love their Molly Salad, and although service can favor the regulars, it’s one of my 
favorites. Looking for ribs? There is only one place to go in the San Gabriel Valley -- Robin’s Wood 
Fire Grill. Robin Salzar has been smoking the best beef and baby back ribs for years. 

Lunch? I have two places in mind. First is the Central Park Café; I always order the ahi tuna 
sandwich with the delicious broccoli salad on the side, and you can’t go wrong with the short ribs. 
Also, I like Houston’s. It’s called a steak house, and but while I’ve been there twenty times in the past 
few years, I’ve never have ordered a steak (I’ll bet its good, though!) I love the service and the non-
chain attitude, the beef dip sandwich is my favorite, and 
the $21 price is worth it. A favorite of mine for Middle 
Eastern is Sahara , a little café on Colorado Blvd., which 
features dining, wine and beer. Order the Chicken -- I 
liked it and you will too. Pizza? I like several places, but 
the one out-of-towners must check out is Tarantino’s 
on Green St. They are small and quaint, and only take 
cash, but the pizza is great – you can get traditional 
style pepperoni or sausage. The lasagna is a hit as well, 
and they offer sandwiches, but stick with the pizza. Is 

Sushi your thing? Again, we have a few chains in the 
area, but for my money it’s Gin Sushi on E. Colorado. Right next door is the wonderful Chiquita 
Bonita, Mike Bingley’s all time favorite and owner Tavo is always there with a Bud Light ready.

Save some room for Turkey!

Dining with Dills on Charter Cable Channel 188 at 3 PM on the weekends. Sunday Night it’s the 
radio show at 6 PM KLAA AM 830.

TABLE FOR TWO by Peter Dills

thechefknows@yahoo.com

THANKSGIVING MENU 
IDEAS FROM THE 
MOUNTAIN VIEWS NEWS 
CREW & FRIENDS

AUNT CATHERINE’S CORN PUDDING 

I almost listed this as My recipe, but then I remembered that I actually got this recipe from my dad’s 
sister and my favorite Aunt Catherine. For whatever reason, we only had this on Thanksgiving and 
you had to be quick if you wanted a serving. One pass around the table and that was it. (The same 
can be said for my household today. Susan Henderson)

INGREDIENTS

12 to 13 ears fresh corn, husks removed

1/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Pepper to taste. (You can spice it up with a little Cayenne pepper instead).

6 large eggs

2 cups evaporated milk (I use Half and Half instead but either is good)

1/2 cup butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350°. Get a 13 x 9 baking dish and grease the sides with butter or butter flavored 
cooking spray - my Aunt did not tell me that! 

Cut corn off the cobs into a large bowl (about 6 cups). You can substitute frozen corn if you like but 
canned corn really is only to be used if there is a blizzard and you can get to the grocery store. In a 
separate bowl or measuring cup , mix sugar, flour and baking powder together. 

Next, whisk eggs until smooth then gradually add milk or half and half and butter in a large bowl. Pour 
the sugar mixture into the bowl with the egss and continue whisking. Make certain the mixture is 
smooth and then stir in the corn. Abandon the whisk, use a wooden spoon and stir the mixture so that 
the corn is distruted evenly. Pour mixture into prepared baking dish and bake at 350° or until you can 
stick a cake tester in it and it comes out clean. Let it stand about 5 minutes before serving. 


Good Eats Roast Turkey

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown

Prep Time: 15 min 

Inactive Prep Time: 7 hr 0 min 

Cook Time: 2 hr 30 min 

Level: Easy 

Serves: 10 to 12 servings 

 

INGREDIENTS

1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey 

For the brine:

1 cup kosher salt 

1/2 cup light brown sugar 

1 gallon vegetable stock 

1 tablespoon black peppercorns 

1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries 

1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger 

 1 gallon heavily iced water 

For the aromatics:

1 red apple, sliced 

1/2 onion, sliced 

1 cinnamon stick 

1 cup water 

4 sprigs rosemary 

6 leaves sage 

Canola oil 

DIRECTIONS

2 to 3 days before roasting:

 Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.

Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, 
and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to 
dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room 
temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:

Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey 
(with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to 
ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, 
turning the bird once half way through brining.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and 
out with cold water. Discard the brine. 

Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels. 

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe 
dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity 
along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the 
skin liberally with canola oil. 

Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a 
probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature 
to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 
16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, 
loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving. 


Paul Neiby’s - *The Mountain Views News exists in part because of the support of Paul and Louise 
Neiby. Paul is no longer with us and I miss him greatly, especially this time of year when we would argue about 
whether he was the better cook. These were two of his favorite Thanksgiving recipes.

CORN BREAD DRESSING

 Ingredients:

 2 - 6 oz. bags Mrs. Cubbison’s Seasoned Cornbread Stuffing Mix

 1 cup chopped, raw white onions

 1 cup chopped raw celery

 10 dried apricots cut into pieces

 4 oz. Walnuts (they can be bought in a bag of about that size

 6-8 oz. Sausage, sauteed brown, defatted & crumbled. (Jimmy 

 Dean brand sage flavored is good

 2 cups heated Chicken Broth

 4 tbsp. butter melted in with 1 cup of the chicken broth

 Directions:

 Toss the vegetables and stuffing mix in a bowl. Add 1 cup of the heated broth with 
the melted butter and toss again. Load lightly in a greased covered casserole and bake 
for 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Half way through, pour the additional cup of chicken 
broth over the dressing.

 This recipe is modified from the one that appears on the Cubbison pack by the addition 
of the sausage, apricot, and walnuts. The additional broth added half-way through the 
baking, makes the dressing moist enough but still light and discreet.

Also from Paul Neiby: CREAMED PEARL ONIONS 

 Ingredients:

 Onions, small pearl as needed

 Milk, butter,flour, Worchestshire Sauce, Cayenne , Salt & Pepper

 Directions:

 Trim the bottoms of the onions but otherwise leave them unpeeled. Drop into boiling 
water for 3-5 minutes. Drain and peel when cool. Reserve the onion water.

Make a medium white sauce (2/2/1) using half milkd and half onion water. You may make 
a Mornay Sauce by adding shredded cheddar if desired. Flavor with Worchestshire, 
Cayenne and salt and pepper. The sauce should be fairly thick as the cooking onions will 
add liquor.

Pour the sauce over the onions in a casserole and bake covered in a medium oven for 
30-40 minutes.

Mary Lee’s (Dean Lee’s Mother) 

Sausage Appetizers - Also makes great sandwiches the next day !

Ingredients

Refrigerated dinner rolls (10 in a tube)

Farmer John sausage links (cut in half or thirds)

butter on top

Directions:

Take rolls and flatten separately with hand or rolling pin

Put link in half of flat dinner roll 

(if using thirds spread sausage to cover roll)

Fold over and seal edges by pinching

Put 10 in ungreased cake pan

Bake 350 degrees/20 minutes until top is golden brown

Enjoy

Richard Garcia’s 

Cranberry-Pomegranate Sauce

1 1/2 pounds fresh or frozen cranberries (6 cups) 

2 cups sugar 

1 cup pomegranate juice 

2 cups fresh pomegranate seeds

Directions

In a medium saucepan, combine the cranberries with the sugar and pomegranate juice. 
Bring to a simmer and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until most of the 
cranberries have burst, about 10 minutes. Scrape the cranberry sauce into a medium 
bowl and let stand until cool, about 2 hours. Fold in the pomegranate seeds and serve the 
sauce chilled or at room temperature. 

Pat Ostrye’s Non-Recipe Turkey(The Best)

 My recipe would be that my husband always fixed the turkey. I really don't know how it 
began but, even when we had turkey a lot through the years, he always fixed it. So when 
he died 21 years ago, the men in the family thought I didn't know how to do it, which was 
fine with me. So, for this Thanksgiving, the family is going to Martin's in Arcadia. He is the 
youngest who was 27 when his dad died in October of '88. A few days before Thanksgiving 
that year he called to say he had the turkey but where should he fix it since he had a small 
apt in Arcadia at that time. Two of his sisters helped him do it and they brought it all to my 
sister-in-law's because I was living in Escondido yet, moving back to the area the first of that 
year. That Christmas, the oldest son took care of it, buying and fixing 2 turkeys. As long as 
the family doesn't run out of men, we have it made. 

Dixie Countant’s Easy Anti-marshmallow Yams

For those of us who don't like marshmallow on our yams, here's the family recipe for Candied 
Yams.

Ingredients:

Yams or sweet potatoes Butter Light Brown Sugar

Buy as many yams as you need depending on how many people are coming to dinner. I 
plan two medallions per person if I'm doing a full-blown dinner with all the trimmings.

Wash and slice yams (or sweet potatoes) into one-inch medallions. Steam medallions 
until barely done. (Not too soft) Skin the medallions by gently cutting the skin and lifting - it 
will almost fall off.

Arrange medallions in baking dish. (They can touch, but don't stack them) Put a small 
pat (aprox 1/4 tsp of butter on top of each medallion. Sprinkle light brown sugar over 
medallions. Cover and bake in 350 oven for 1/2 to 1 hour. 

From the Pen & Kitchen of Deanne Davis:

Thanksgiving Day Breakfast 

 The festive bird is stuffed and in the stove, the potatoes are boiling for mashed potatoes, 
you’ve said the gravy prayer (please, Gravy Deity, let it be smooth this year). And people 
are saying, “we’re hungry!” 

 This is not a problem, put down that ladle and in just minutes, you can hand everybody an 
Eggnog-Brandy Muffin! 

 If you’re truly feeling like Wonder Woman, whack up some bacon and an onion into 
small chunks, sauté them together, throw in some eggs, scramble it altogether, and serve the 
Thanksgiving breakfast they’ll remember with delight all year long. 

 

Eggnog-Brandy Muffins

2 cups flour

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 TB. Baking powder

. tsp. Salt

3/4 cup prepared eggnog

. cup brandy

5 TB butter, (unsalted if you’ve got it...use a little less salt if you don’t) melted

1 egg, beaten

. tsp. Grated nutmeg plus a little more for sprinkling on top

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 12 muffin pan.

In a large bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add eggnog, brandy, butter, 
beaten egg and . tsp nutmeg. Stir only till mixed. DO NOT OVERBEAT or muffins 
will be rubbery and tough. 

Spoon batter into greased muffin cups and sprinkle tops of muffins with nutmeg. Bake 
about 20 minutes or until tester inserted into center of muffin comes out clean. Remove 
from tin, butter and enjoy.

They freeze nicely and are probably about 200 calories per muffin.

Happy Thanksgiving!

May your turkey be tender, succulent and juicy, and may somebody who really knows 
how..

 offer to carve it.


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com