Hash Blacks, Broccoli Creole and Onion Slushy

Almost everything is good for something. Cooking teaches us this; flops can be "tutors." My grown children love to remind me that as children they thought Broccoli Creole was a real recipe until I managed to grab the veggie before it had boiled dry and they realized that there was ANOTHER way to enjoy broccoli.!

My second daughter's first exploration in "real cooking " (not in the Easy Bake Oven, that is) was what we called Hash Blacks. She had stirred the ingredients so diligently the cast iron pan began to mix with the mess. Yup, we ate the gelatinous creation out of respect for the cook. My daughter found out that too much attention can spoil the effect; that benign neglect is sometimes the best way to create good things.

My three children have flown far past me in culinary achievements-- all adventurous eaters and superb cooks. That same daughter who treated us to Hash Blacks now knocks our eyes out and wows our palette with meals fit for a James Beard table. She has added to her innate diligence wisdom about when NOT to stir and when TO burn: -- witness the Crème Brûlée, the perfect sculptured leaves on the succulent apple pie, the brie en croute!

Who would have guessed that Onion Slushy was good for anything? Can anything sound less appetizing? I have come upon a real keeper of a recipe that starts with Onion Slushy! Then you mix it with other simple things like tomato puree, chile powder, tabasco, molasses, and this and that and you get the best tasting barbecue sauce in the world! Using the mini-cuisinart I can puree a cut-up onion with a bit of water, put it through a strainer and get this magical base-- without crying! What a discovery!

Burning things turns out to be how to coax flavor out of certain foods. How about caramalized onions, for instance, or roasted garlic? How about toasting the flour you have dredged the meat with to get those "brown bits" in the bottom of the pan for gravy?

I made some terrible "not-so-Spanish" rice a few weeks ago. Getting a little over-confident with the unmeasured sloshings of this and dollops of that, I made a dish that was a "tutor." I threw the rest of the batch away after the bad reviews it got at the dinner table. My husband reminded me that " 98 great meals out of 100 ain't a bad record, darling," and that he'd like some of that home-made pizza tonight, please.

I made a heck of a lot of pizzas before I came up with a version that we could both love that keeps out the fat and most of the salt. The first few were pretty disappointing, but we scarf up the product I have come up with using homemade bread (no fat, and virtually no salt, a little whole wheat flour with the unbleached white, and a pinch of oregano), and very carefully chosen fat-free toppings. I add fresh tomatoes from the garden and fresh sliced onions, and sometimes fresh mushrooms or peppers or -- well anything. Sprinkle it all with a very light dusting of "real" parmesan or peccarino romano and some pepper flakes and it's beyond good.

What do I do with the bit of dough left over after making my thin pizza crusts? Cinnamon "crackers"! Roll it out thin onto a cookie sheet and sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar and a bit of nutmeg and a light dusting of "butter buds" and stick it in the oven. You have wonderful "more-ish" guiltless cookies …when it's burnt just enough!

Green Thumb