Make Dad an old-fashioned dinner

Grand Island Dispatch, June 15, 2007

With Father’s Day only a few days away on Sunday, I have a few suggestions for you.

Mothers shouldn’t have to step up to the plate to do the choosing, the shopping or even buy a card. I remember, though. Mothers do. It takes a measure of maturity and some brain power to scope out what dear old dad might want or need – what might please him, too.

If you have a lot of big bucks to spend, I’ll let you off the hook. Just spend away. Don’t tell me how much you spent. Tell me later how much he liked those expensive toys, the expression on his face when he saw the gift, etc., etc.

And I will tell you how we might celebrate or how we have done it over the years because the focus of our love, Bob, is worth it.

All he gets now-a-days is a slew of cards. There was a time when ties, monogrammed handkerchiefs and shaving lotion were on the list. No, not anymore. Not with retirement – who wears a tie? With the advent of tissues, it knocked out a need for those terrible cloth squares, thank heavens! We have found an inexpensive and lightly scented substitute for aftershave. Most supermarkets, drug stores and discount stores stock it. The product is just plain Witch Hazel. It is now Bob’s favorite shaving lotion.

So, if we never have and never will go for those rich rewards, and the old, small-time gifts no longer apply, what, aside from cards, can be given to this deserving father, grandfather and great-grandfather?

I know!

His passion – food! That’s what!

It is easy to please a food-a-holic. Just bit by bit, increase your recipe file and watch what wonderful things you’ll create.

What started me on this road?

My mother got a job at the University at Buffalo when I was a senior in high school. I became the family cook, laundress and bottle-washer.

As soon as I got off the bus and unloaded my books on the dining room table, I’d go to the kitchen to assess the food situation for our dinner. I had no way to get to a grocery store other than to walk or take a bus. The solution, the meat market on the corner of Kenmore Avenue and Niagara Falls Boulevard. The butchers at that independently owned store knew I was only a kid. They helped me pick out the right amount of meat, the best cuts and even gave me verbal recipes.

It was a learning situation. There really is no substitute for the-job-is-yours cooking school.

I asked Bob to name a few of his favorite meals, so that I could give you some old-fashioned recipes.

“All I want is a layer cake – two layers and lots of frosting. There is nothing wrong with your Bundt cake, except there isn’t much frosting,” Bob said.

“What else?” I asked.

“Beef stew – no dumplings.”

Anything else? I needed choices.

“Roast beef,” his final answer.

The first thing I did to get started was to pull out Bob’s mother’s little cookbook. I think it was a giveaway or a premium from General Foods, circa 1939. It is “All About Home Baking.”

Page 40, Economical Gold Cake with modifications, became our favorite layer cake.

Economical Gold Cake

2 cups sifted (fluffed) cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4-teaspoon salt
1/2-cup butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
3 egg yolks, beaten until very thick
3/4-cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a medium bowl, put flour, baking powder and salt. Using a wire whisk, fluff ingredients to mix.

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add beaten egg yolks, then flour mixture, alternately with milk.

Beat well after each addition.

Add vanilla.

Pour batter into eight- or nine-inch cake pans that have been lightly greased, lined with waxed paper rounds and greased again.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes for eight-inch pans and for a few minutes less when using nine-inch pans or until batter has pulled away from the sides of the pan. Using a toothpick, testing in the center of each pan, it should come out “clean.”

Luscious Lemon Frosting

1 tablespoon grated orange rind
1/2-teaspoon grated lemon rind
3 tablespoons butter
3 cups confectioner’s sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon water

Cream butter and grated orange and lemon rinds and part of the sugar, blending well after each addition.

Combine lemon juice and water and add to creamed mixture alternately with remaining sugar.

Beat well.

Makes enough to frost two nine-inch layers generously.

If it is not to warm outside, a hearty beef stew is easy and filling.

Beef Stew

1 nine-pound stew beef or boneless chuck cut into one-inch pieces
3 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
Pepper to taste
1 onion, chopped
1 bay leaf
5 or 6 quite small onion, peeled and pierced through the center with a fork
2 or 3 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 rib celery, sliced
8 ounces frozen green peas
2 or 3 medium potatoes

Cook and stir beef in a large saucepan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.

Cook over a medium heat until quite browned. Add bay leaf.

Add salt, pepper and chopped onion and enough water to cover meat over by a quarter-inch.

Simmer for two to two-and-a-half hours, covered, checking to be sure there is enough water to keep beef from burning.

Add carrots, potatoes, celery and small onions. Remove bay leaf.

Add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer about 20 minutes. Add frozen peas. Bring back to a boil.

Cook another five minutes, covered.

Drain off the liquid into a second saucepan, leaving the meat and vegetables in the first pot.

To a small, covered jar, put one-half cup of cold water. Add five to six tablespoons flour to jar and shake until smooth.

To the poured-off liquid, add flour and water mixture.

Heat to boiling, stirring constantly.

Pour gravy onto beef/vegetable mixture.

Heat through.

Serves five to six.

Roast Beef (Pot Roast)

3 or more pounds of boneless chuck roast
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 (or more) potatoes, peeled and chunked
1 bay leaf
Water, if needed
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Brown the roast over medium heat in a non-stick sprayed Dutch oven. Brown all surfaces. Just after browning the meat, combine the cider vinegar and brown sugar and put on the meat.

Cover, Let come to a simmer, slowly.

Add onion, garlic, bay leaf, seasonings and about three-quarters of a cup of water, if needed.

Cook for two hours.

Add potatoes, carrots and about another cup of water. Remove bay leaf.

Potatoes and carrots will “take on” flavors of the roast.

Serves about six.

Bob will be happy with some (or all) of the above for a good Father’s Day repast.

When my mother’s dad passed on, it was the first death of a loved one that I had experienced. It left me so very saddened that it was difficult to believe.

Grandparents, uncles and a cousin passed on. My feelings were of a sadness that was not as deep, but it was still a truly hard time to get through.

When my father passed on, I lost a mentor, a kindred spirit and a tough taskmaster.

All fathers are, in retrospect, the best – even if they weren’t perfect – they were our very own.