Lee White

I have been to the beach exactly three times since the end of May, each time for less than an hour and a half.

One day it was blistering hot and humid. As much as I like summer, I really dislike humidity to the point that I can stay in my condo for two days just because I have central air conditioning.

I remember that my mother could stay in her apartment for the exact opposite reasoning: she hated winter. She tried to spend as much time in Florida or, later in life, Arizona, just to avoid cold weather.

My father never complained about weather: he would play golf as soon as Daylight Savings Time began, so he could close the store by 5 p.m. and get in 18 holes in before it went dark. On weekends he’d play 27 holes on both Saturday and Sunday.

I like it cold in the winter (with my thermostat at 60) and I turn the central air on in late May, turning it off in early October. (My condos have heat pumps and, although I cannot understand how it works, I just turn “cooling” to “heat” and vice-versa twice a year.)

I like to cook what I want whatever the weather. I just ordered packages of Wick Fowler 2-Alarm Chili Kit to make chili in August and today found a recipe for Slow-Cooker Chicken Cacciatore.

I foraged into the freezer and hauled out two, unthawed freezer bags of chicken thighs. No reason to heat the oven; dinner tonight will be this new recipe.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

From Food Network Magazine, March, 2017

Yield: Serves 4 (and freezes beautifully)

¼ cup dried porcini mushrooms (about ¼ ounces)*
1 ½ pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 cloves garlic, mined
2 sprigs fresh basil, plus torn leaves for topping
14.5 ounce can stewed tomatoes, crushed (fire-roasted tomatoes are fine instead)
½ cup dry red wine
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup white rice

Soak the mushrooms in 2/3 cup hot water, 10 minutes. Strain through a paper towel-lined sieve, reserving the liquid. Rinse mushrooms and finely chop.

Toss chicken and carrots into the oil in a 6- to 8-quart slow cooker, season with salt and pepper. Top with mushrooms, garlic and basil sprigs, the pour in the tomatoes and their juices.

Whisk red wine with flour, tomato paste and reserved mushroom liquid in a bowl until smooth; add to slow cooker. Cover and cook on low, 7 hours. 

About 10 minutes before chicken is done, cook rice as the label directs. Uncover the slow cooker and stir, breaking the chicken into chunks; let stand, uncovered, until sauce is thickened, about 15 minutes. Discard basil sprigs and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Serve chicken with rice and top with torn basil.

*If you have fresh mushrooms, any kind, use them instead.

About the author: Lee White has been writing about restaurants and cooking since 1976 and has been extensively published in the Worcester (Mass.) Magazine, The Day, Norwich Bulletin, and Hartford Courant. She currently writes Nibbles and a cooking column called A La Carte for LymeLine.com and the Shore Publishing and the Times newspapers, both of which are owned by The Day. She was a resident of Old Lyme for many years but now lives in Groton, Conn. Contact Lee at leeawhite@aol.com.

Lee White

In the early 80s, when we lived in Massachusetts, I bought an ice cream maker called a Lickety Split. It was all plastic, except for the two bowls, which were maybe aluminum or stainless steel. It costs around $25 and it could make two different pints of ice cream simultaneously.

A few years later, Ben and Jerry’s and Haagen Dazs entered the freezer aisles, and eventually my Lickety Split entered the basement shelves of my appliance cemetery.

But the covers of food magazines this year brought back my love of home-made ice cream. I may have mentioned this to my friend, Lisa.

In early June, just a few days after my birthday, there was a notice to pick up a package at the post office. I dragged it home and inside was a Cuisinart Frozen Yogurt-Sorbet and Ice Cream Maker, the very one my magazines said was the best. And it was smack dab during that short, three-week strawberry season.

This appliance is a fantastic machine. If you keep its bowl, which encases water, in the freezer, you are almost 25 minutes from a heavenly frozen dessert. You can eat it immediately, but I pack it in quart plastic packages and will keep it more than a week.

This is one of the easiest recipes; I have made it three times (2 quarts at a time).

Next will be fresh peaches or blueberry gelato. Later in the fall and winter, perhaps chocolate ice cream with Heath bars.

Should you buy this particular ice cream maker, it costs around $100 or even less.

E-mail me at leeawhite@aol.com when you are ready to begin if you have any questions. And let me know how many other recipes you come up with yourself.

Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream
From Cuisinart’s small brochure that came with the ice cream maker

Yield: about 14 ½ cup servings

Photo by micheile dot com on Unsplash.

3 cups fresh ripe strawberries, stemmed and sliced
4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 ½ cups sugar, divided
1 ½ cups whole milk
2 ¾ cups heavy cream
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla ice cream

In a small bowl, combine strawberries with lemon juice and ½ cup sugar. Stir gently and allow berries to macerate in the juices for 2 hours. Strain berries, reserving juices. Mash or puree half the berries.

In a medium mixing bowl, use a hand mixer on low speed to combine milk and remaining granulated sugar until sugar is dissolved, about 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the heavy cream, reserved berry juice, mashed berries and vanilla.

Turn machine on; pour mixture into freezer bowl and let mix until thickened, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Five minutes before mixing is complete, add reserved sliced strawberries and let mix in completely.

The ice cream will have a soft, creamy texture.

For a firmer consistency, transfer ice cream to an airtight container and placed in freezer for about 2 hours or longer. Remove from the freezer about 15 minutes before serving.

About the author: Lee White has been writing about restaurants and cooking since 1976 and has been extensively published in the Worcester (Mass.) Magazine, The Day, Norwich Bulletin, and Hartford Courant. She currently writes Nibbles and a cooking column called A La Carte for LymeLine.com and the Shore Publishing and the Times newspapers, both of which are owned by The Day. She was a resident of Old Lyme for many years but now lives in Groton, Conn. Contact Lee at leeawhite@aol.com.