Friday, October 18, 2013

Sweet Potato Souffle from Great Dinners From Life, 1969

Sweet Potato Souffle
from Great Dinners From Life

(and I quote)
Don't expect this dish to be light as a dessert souffle. It won't blow up that much, so you needn't worry that you've done something wrong. The flavor is not as sweet as you might expect it to be either. In fact, it's on the spicy side.

3 one lb. 2 oz. cans of sweet potatoes or four pounds, cooked
1/2 C butter, melted
6 eggs
3/4 C sugar
1/2 C milk
1 T fresly grated lemon rind (n.b. I always use dried, it lasts for years)
1 t ground ginger
1/2 t salt

Preheat oven to 325. Drain sweet potatoes or peel fresh ones. Mash potatoes, then beat, using low speed of electric mixer to make them as lump-free as possible. Beat in melted butter. Separate eggs and add yolks to mixture. Beat until well blended. The longer you beat, the smoother the result. Add sugar, milk, lemon rind, ginger and salt. Beat egg whites separately until stiff but not dry. Fold into potato mixture. Turn into buttered two-quart souffle dish (I've never owned one, use what you have) or casserole. Bake for one hour. Serve immediately.

Note: I have this ready to go when the turkey comes out of the oven. By the time it rests and is carved, the souffle should be done. I test with the blade of a thin-bladed knife. You don't want runny souffle. Sometimes it bakes a little longer as we begin with the other stuff. Men love this dish, btw.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Answers to Downton Quiz


CHARACTERS QUOTED:

FEMALE
The Dowager Countess, Lord Grantham's Mother
Miss O'Brien, Lady Grantham's maid
Cora, Lady Grantham
Mrs. Levinson, Cora's mother
Miss Reed, Mrs. Levinson's maid
Edith, Grantham daughter
Mary, Grantham daugher
Anna (Bates, Mary's maid)
Mrs. Hughes, housekeeper
Mrs. Pattmore, cook
Daisy, kitchen maid
Unnamed female dinner guest


MALE
Lord Grantham
Mr. Carson, butler
Sir Anthony
Tom Branson, Sybil's husband
Larry Gray, Sybil's former flame
Mr. Bates, Grantham's former valet
Murray, Grantham solicitor

CHARACTERS WITHOUT DECENT LINES: 
Matthew Crowley, heir
Sybil, Grantham daughter
Thomas, Lord Grantham's valet
Mrs. Crowley, Mattew's mothe
Mr. Moseley, Matthew's valet



1. Tell me all of your wedding plans and I'll see what I can do to improve them.
levinso
2. It's the stuff of my dreams, the panic that a dish isn't ready, a frock not allowed or a gun not cleaned.
bates
3. Smithers did it, like all ladies maids she lives for intrigue.
dowager countess
4. They're not like horses, there won't be another in 10 minutes time.
anna
5. Because when two people love each other, it's the most terrific fun.
cora
6. Love and position in one package, who could ask for more.
edith
7. It's not really what we do.
lord G

8. I feel like one of those bright young people you read about in the newspapers.
dinner guest

9. If you ask me, we are staring into the chaos of Gomorrah.
carson

10. Listen to yourself, you sound like Tom Mix in one of those Wild West picture shows.
miss o'brien

11. I shall make sure he behaves normally or I will hold his hand on the radiator until he does.
dowager countess

12. I have no time to train young hobbledehoys.
carson

13. Just remember what my mother used to say, never make an enemy by accident.
anna

14. I'm expressing myself badly if you think it's not serious
Grantham's solictor

15. Are you really that tall, I thought you might have been walking on stilts.
countess

16. An aristocrat with no servants is as much use to the county as a glass hammer.
countess

17. We're all essential until we get sacked.
o'b

18. If he wants to play their game, he'd better learn their rules.
carson

19. You still kept me here with a dishonest representation.
daisy

20. Don't worry about me, I'm an American, have gun, will travel.
cora

21. We're brothers-in-law with high-minded wive, we'd better stick together
tom branson

22. For every escoffier Monsier LeCaren, there's a thousand dogsbodies being watched over by some crabby, red-faced old woman.
Miss O'b

22. They look to exciting for so early in the evening.
countess

23. I don't know why you're getting so hot under the collar, he's only a grubby little chauffeur chap.

24. If I could control him, he wouldn't be here.
Lord G

25. She'll go into state mourning and cast a pall over the whole proceedings.
cora

26. Are you going up to the house to welcome the Queen of Sheba?
countess

27. You aren't the first drunk in that dining room, I can assure you.
countess

28. It seems so strange to think of the English embracing change.
levinson

29. She drinks only boiled water, in England that is, no fat, no crab and nothing in the marrow family.
miss reed

30. Revolutions erupt, monarchies crash and the groom still cannot see the bride the night before the wedding.
levinson

31. She's like a homing pigeon, she finds our underbelly every time.
countess

32. If only we had some coal, or gravel or tin.
countess

33. If you must pay money, better to have a doctor than an undertaker.
mrs pattmore

34. His idée fixe is yachts, bigger yachts, faster yachts, something with yachts.
levinson

35. Now stop talking and kiss me before I get cross.
Mary

36. Would you please leave the hysteria to me.
Mrs. Hughes

37. Do you think I might have a drink? I'm so sorry, I thought you were a waiter.
countess (to her son)

38. I'm an American and this is 1920. Time to live a little.
Miss Reed

39. My income might be generous, but I can't touch the capital.
levinson

40. Sometimes I feel like a creature of the wilds whose natural habitat is gradually being destroyed.
Lord G

41. Everybody sprawled on the floor and eating like beaters on a break in the shooting, that's not a party…where's the style, where's the show?
carson

42. Don't ever threaten me.
Bates

43. Are there still forbidden subjects in 1920, I can't believe it.
levinson

44. What's happened to you, have you switched places with your evil twin?
pattmore

45. I'm so looking forward to seeing your mother. When I'm with her I'm reminded of the virtues of the English.
countess