Uncle Dick's Cheeseburger Delux

One of the nicest compliments I've ever had about my cooking came from this cheeseburger. I don't make it unless I have ALL of the ingredients - sounds simple but people can really fuck it up...in Holland by the way ALL hamburgers and cheesburgers are 50% pork 50% beef - don't even bother to ask if it's 100% beef 'cause it ain't and they won't even understand your question.

Needless to say never use pork in a hamburger - I don't add anything else to the burger itself besides salt and pepper. And I don't buy the leanest meat - it has to have some fat. The cheese should be melted - I prefer a swiss - and the burger medium. The bun should be toasted with a little bit of mayo to keep the lettuce in place. Two thin slices of tomato are essential. A good glob of ketchup goes on top before topping off...done! Still one of Williams all time favorites...and I always make it exactly the same way - thanks Uncle Dick! Great lessons at the American House in Hoosick Falls NY.

Faye's traditional turkey stuffing

I have to make everything from scratch. I put a loaf of white bread in a low oven for about a half hour to make the crutons. William uses the egg slicer to do the mushrooms.

Tons of butter - sauted with onions and cellery.

I use chicken stock to make it moist...and fresh parsley for color and flavor. I always cook the bird upside down for the first half of cooking time..this is a french turkey...never comes with the neck, heart, liver or kidneys.

Carrot Pumpkin puree

I always make this for Thanksgiving but it goes great with all game and beef dishes.

Bake fresh pumpkin until soft and cook a pound of cut up carrots in water, butter and salt and peper, bay leaf till soft and the water is evaporaterd.

After removing the skin from the pumpkin, puree pumpkin, carrots, butter and creme fraiche with a staff-mixer. It keeps for a long time - can be warmed up in the oven and is execellent left over! I do add a scrape or two of fresh ground nutmeg.

Oysters Rockefeller

These are the "cruse" oysters - funny shaped and somethimes hard to open. They can be quit large and are a lot cheaper than the flat ones. I can get these for 25 cents a piece - also just around the corner in Yerseke at my friends Sinke. This recipe is great for people who think they don't like oysters. We can eat a lot of them several times a year in season so I've simplified this recipe. I use frozen spinach. I doctor up a package of hollandaise sauce. I microwave the bacon. William and I can have 24 of these on table in about a half hour....delicious with champagne.

Oysters straight up

Susan Murphy gave us these lovely oyster plates - these are what we call flat oysters, small, sweet and more expensive - grown here locally in Yerseke, just around the corner from Wemeldinge. We always eat this type raw - at 1 euro a piece it's a shame to cook them.

Baked Belgian Endive

For something different in the winter on the vegtable front you can get that carmalized effect with endive with very little work if you bake it in the oven. I take a baking pan and smear butter over the bottom and sprinkle with sugar...wicked easy.

After you take the bitter heart out of the endive spread them in a single layer in the pan and salt and pepper.

Endive can be grown in water or in earth. In belgium you can get both and it's clearly labeled on the package which it was grown in. William's mother Emmy insists on the kind grown in the ground if you can imagine! This type releases less water when cooking - which can make a big difference in a recipe. I usually turn my endive once in the oven - and drain off excess water if necessary. William doesn't like it if gets to burnt...it gets bitters...so there's a fine line with carmalized between burnt and delicious.

Frog's legs in honnor of Uncle John R.

Our lovely neighbor gave me a box of frozen fog legs because she knew I enjoyed them. Frog legs remind me of my Uncle John R....he used to go froging around Hedges Lake...a drunken event always in the middle of the night (not sure if that had to do with the frogs or that it was illegal). My cousins Jenny Lee and little John R. and I would wake up to a burlap bag half full of half alive big beautiful bull frogs. Our job was to cut the legs off and skin them....which at that age we were thrilled to do...I know it sounds hard to be believe but we saw them as fish and admired their beautiful form and color and didn't really even think about severing the legs from the rest of the body...I think we probably went fishin then with the other parts.

I breaded them and did a sort of provencial.

Uncle John R.'s frog's legs were wicked spicey...he used Maria Laports recipe I think which called for large amounts of garlic and red pepper flakes and olive oil...and lots of alchol to keep your mouth from burning....John R also went to India - could have picked up this recipe there as well...it was always a special day and evening at the blue camp on Hedges.