Total time: 1 hour 35 minutes
Serves 4–6
2 to 3 tablespoons grapeseed oil, for searing
¼ cup coarse sea salt
¼ cup coarse cracked black pepper
1 whole beef strip loin, trimmed with some fat remaining
Bourbon-mushroom sauce (recipe follows)
Preheat the oven to 300˚ F.
Add the oil to a sauté pan. Season the meat on all sides with salt and pepper. Sear the meat on all sides, 2 to 3 minutes each side. Place the meat on a sheet tray with a rack. Roast the meat for 30 to 40 minutes. Crank the oven up to 450˚ F and roast for an additional 15 to 20 minutes until crust forms and meat is nicely colored. When done, allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing. In a small bowl, reserve the drippings for the bourbon-mushroom sauce.
Bourbon-Mushroom Sauce
5 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 cup cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 cup onion, finely diced
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ cup bourbon
3 cups beef stock
Salt
1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, add 4 tablespoons of the butter. Add the garlic, mushrooms, and onion and cook for 4 to 5 minutes until nicely browned. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer. Before serving with the beef, add the reserved juice to the mixture.
Bogart’s Baked Beans
Named after Humphrey Bogart, this one is especially easy to make. In fact, I threw it together one afternoon while at my parents’ house in Syracuse, largely because I had promised them some sort of dinner and I didn’t know what I was going to cook. Plus my father had the car, and I couldn’t go grocery shopping! And so, I needed to come up with something that used whatever ingredients I could find that day in my parents’ pantry. The result is a recipe that’s simple, satisfying, and quick. And like the characters that Bogey oftentimes played on the big screen, it’s also colorful and has a flavor all its own.
Total time: 21 minutes
Serves 4
6 cups baked beans
3 slices bacon, chopped into ½-inch pieces
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
¼ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
3–4 cut-up hot dogs
2 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves, optional
Preheat the oven to 425˚ F.
Pour the beans into a casserole dish and place in the oven.
In a small nonstick skillet, cook the bacon over medium-high heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the onion and cook for 3 minutes longer. Slide the beans out of the oven. Scatter the onions and bacon around the beans. Sprinkle the brown sugar and black pepper over the onions and add hot dog pieces.
Bake the beans with the toppings for 10 minutes longer. Garnish the beans with parsley and serve.
MacArthuroni and Cheese
Of all the recipes listed here, this one is the most surefire favorite. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like a nice dish of macaroni and cheese! This recipe is especially good, because it’s made with two kinds of mushrooms and Gruyère cheese. Just be sure to not skimp on the Gruyère, and use only good-quality mushrooms. During World War II, General MacArthur made his famous pronouncement, “I shall return!” Make this dish correctly, and your guests will “return” repeatedly for second (and maybe even third) helpings!
Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Serves 6–8
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Good olive oil
½ pound shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and caps sliced into ½-inch pieces
½ pound cremini mushrooms, stems removed and caps sliced into ½-inch pieces
3 tablespoons cream sherry
Kosher salt
1 pound pasta, such as cavatappi
3 ounces white truffle butter
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 quart whole milk, scalded
12 ounces (4 cups) Gruyère cheese, grated
8 ounces (2½ to 3 cups) extra-sharp cheddar, grated
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 garlic cloves, chopped
3 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley leaves
1½ cups fresh white bread crumbs
Preheat the oven to 375˚ F.
Heat the butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large (12-inch) sauté pan, add the mushrooms, and cook over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes, until they are tender. Add the sherry and continue to sauté for a few more minutes, until the sherry is absorbed. Set aside.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add a splash of olive oil and a pinch of kosher salt. Add the pasta and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until al dente. Drain well.
While the pasta cooks, melt the truffle butter in a large (4-quart) saucepan and whisk in the flour. Cook for 2 minutes over low heat, stirring constantly with a whisk. Slowly whisk in the hot milk and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the white sauce is thickened and creamy. Remove from the heat and add the Gruyère, cheddar, 1 tablespoon salt, the pepper, and the nutmeg.
Combine the pasta, sauce, and mushrooms in a large bowl and pour into a 10-by-13-by-2-inch baking dish.
Place the garlic and parsley in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until they’re minced. Add the bread crumbs and pulse to combine. Sprinkle the crumbs over the pasta and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until the sauce is bubbly and the crumbs are golden brown. Serve hot.
Winston’s Baked Walleye
I created this recipe for a dear friend during one summer at Lake Evergreen. Because this one has such a strong sentimental meaning for me, I almost didn’t include it here. But the recipe is so good that I just had to add it. . .
I prefer to use walleye, but almost any of any kind of fish will do. The secret here is to not bake the fillets too long and risk drying them out. Since the day I came up with this, I have often wished that I had also created a lobster or shrimp cream sauce to go on top of the fish fillets, but I haven’t gotten around to that yet. Anyway, this is a good one, and named after Winston Churchill, another of my great heroes. With all that going for it, how could it miss?
Total time: 30 minutes
Serves 4
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter
⅔ cup crushed crackers (I use Ritz)
¼ cup (about 1 ounce) grated Parmesan cheese
½ teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
1 pound walleye, or sole, scrod, perch, or other mild-tasting fish fillets
Lemon wedges
Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.
Melt the butter in a 9-by-13-inch pan in the oven. While it melts, combine everything else except the fish in a pie pan. Dip each fish fillet in the melted butter, dip each piece in the crumb mixture, and return it to the baking pan. Bake the fillets for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the fish flakes with a fork. Serve with lemon wedges.
About the Author
After graduating from Colgate University with a B.A. in economics and a minor in art history, ROBERT BARCLAY enjoyed a successful career in business, also serving as chairman of his industry-related consulting group. After selling his business and moving from upstate New York to Florida (and with some rather successful prodding by his wife), he was able to finally devote his full attention to something he had always wanted to do—write a book. Barclay lives in sunny south Florida. When he isn’t writing, he enjoys weightlifting, Shotokan karate, and going to the beach to do absolutely nothing.
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Also by Robert Barclay
If Wishes Were Horses
Credits
Cover design by James Iacobelli
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br /> Cover photograph © by Jean-Claude Winkler
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
MORE THAN WORDS CAN SAY. Copyright © 2012 by Robert Newcomb. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
ISBN 978-0-06-204119-7
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EPub Edition © JANUARY 2012 ISBN: 9780062041203
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