Something Italian-American for Thanksgiving...
& how listening to french cooking radio made me a better cook
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Grateful season
Listening to music while cooking makes the process of putting a meal together that much nicer. I mean, when was the last time you were in the kitchen, with your favorite playlist on blast, chopping vegetables, and thought…I hate this. I mean, maybe you just dislike cooking and if that’s the case, email me, let’s change that. But if you’re like me and you love to throw on some tunes, pour a glass of red wine, and get to chopping than I think it’s safe to say that the playlist I’m about to throw at you might be in your cooking repertoire. It’s dreamy, it’s romantic, and it makes you feel like a Michelin star chef. Maybe that last point is an exaggeration but, seriously, who doesn’t love transporting themselves to another realm. With all that said and the table now laid, I present you with my go-to radio playlist…French cooking music.
Yes, you heard it right. French cooking music (although my Italian partner might get a little twisted over this one). It’s classy, jazzy, and transportive. When I’m in the kitchen, preparing lots of recipes that call for fine chopping vegetables or creating a new recipe, I need a place to be plucked up and transported to. A place that’s somewhere else in the world - where I feel like I’m on holiday. It’s always been a bad habit of mine - romanticizing life a bit too much, always longing to be somewhere else. Isn’t that the fun of life anyways? But I think sometimes we must do it - to give life a bit more of a romantic lens than the realities of the mundane, every day tasks - or, in this climate, the scary and difficult realities. It’s easy to fall into the loop of constant news watching, updating our phones and apps to see the latest from this global nightmare surrounding us. It’s also easy to brush it under the rug, to put a filter over the things we want to see and the things we don’t want to see. I’m one of the lucky ones - one of the ones who gets to escape the mundane things in life by retreating to my safe space in my home kitchen. It’s something I never take for granted - how luck can play on your side, even for the smallest pleasures like making an afternoon cup of tea or opening the fridge and forgetting why you opened it in the first place. The small mundane nuances to life, those are the things I am grateful for.
Isn’t this month all about being grateful anyways? Being American, I’ve celebrated Thanksgiving now for 30 years (will be 31 years in a few days). I can, with all honesty say, that every year we have gone around the table and said what we are thankful for. Most of the time, it’s family and friends, the food we share at the table, and the health we have and hope to keep. There’s been some tough years in the past Thanksgivings. But I’m reminded that, as we enter into the “giving” season, Thanksgiving allows us to share, break bread, and enjoy company of the ones we love. In the end, it’s all that matters - family. And whether that’s with friends who are like family or friends who are family, tis the season to be thankful for their presence.
Setting the scene
In the years past, I’ve written about how you can prepare for your Thanksgiving feasts with recipes, preparation timelines, and even when to set the table. But this year, I’m not doing that. This year Thanksgiving will be hosted by my sister (I will be the cook obviously - with I hope the help from my lovely family) but, this year, it feels right to talk about the other important details that make up Thanksgiving. Music.
Music is the key to any good and wholesome event. Without a soundtrack to the night, it all kind of falls flat like an under risen cake? If you know what I mean? It’s like being in a restaurant where you can hear a pin drop. Just the clinks of peoples knives and forks, all awkwardly looking around the room with hopeless and lost looks on their faces to fill the silent pauses. On the other hand, play a bad playlist and the night goes downhill. For Thanksgiving, I recommend a mix of classic hits, jazz, and…my person favorite, tunes pulled from Charlie Brown and Peanuts soundtracks - most of which are composed by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. I implore you listen to some tracks by Vince Guaraldi. Once you find one you like that might suit your Thanksgiving table, head into the song’s “radio” and explore the other jazzy items.
Setting the scene in my kitchen, is extremely important to how a meal will turn out. In my early days of cooking exploration, I used to yell to Alexa, the robot that manages the music in the kitchen, Alexa, play french cooking music from Pandora. It’s funny because as I type that phrase, I can hear myself saying it. Like second nature. I really think that I became a better cook when I pretended I was in some Parisian kitchen, cooking some elevated dish when in reality, I was cooking for myself and my parents on a Tuesday night in New Jersey. Something creative opened up inside me. I was able to create recipes I’d never tasted before - still simple and homey but nonetheless, I was creating and enjoying the cooking process. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always loved to cook…but you knew that already. I’m not saying that if you throw on French cooking radio music you too will automatically fall in love with the mundane aspects of cooking and you too will quit your day job and go to culinary school (I’m not sure I advise that? Ask me again another day). In reality, cooking can be boring. Chopping the same root vegetable over and over again with no end in sight all to make a simple soup…was it even worth it? The answer is always yes. I’m not sure how to romanticize cooking for you. Maybe if I told you that when someone eats something that’s homemade, it unlocks a core memory. That core memory being one built of love and care. Again, isn’t that all we can hope for right now?
Here’s my playlist for a truly dreamy and jazzy Thanksgiving, helping to ease the hours of mundane chopping, too many sticks of butter, and one too many questions from that family member with the judge-y undertone. I’ll be updating this playlist over the next few weeks so expect some changes and additions as I work through my own Thanksgiving prep. We’re keeping this jazzy with some new hits thrown in there.
Mary Lou’s Cheese Cake
As I sit in the airport at Heathrow, I realize I lost track of time last week and didn’t get to test this handwritten recipe. I wanted to share this with you this week as the holidays, for me, are all about memories and nostalgia. Reading my grandmothers handwriting brings me so much joy. I’ve kept every note, card, recipe she wrote me - I continue to do the same when I receive letters and hand written cards from family and friends. It connects me with that moment, especially these food moments I once shared with my grandmother.
It’s been quite some time since I’ve tasted my grandmother’s cheesecake, but I can remember it vividly. It’s engrained in my memory - a core memory. The prized cheese cake. I always remember her telling me that what makes a great cheese cake is the surface of the cheesecake. If it comes out of the oven smooth, without any cracks…that’s a great cheese cake. Baking cheesecakes is delicate business - avoiding cracks is sometimes impossible, but I thought, it’s been too long since I’ve tasted my grandmother’s cheesecake. I found this recipe in either my grandmother’s hand writing or my mother’s - whoever it was, they were writing it down in short hand and very quickly so it took some interpretation, but I think we have enough to work with here. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did over the years.
Ingredients
1 lb of ricotta cheese (16 oz, 450g)
(2) 8 oz packets of cream cheese (total 450g)
1 - 1/2 cups of sugar (300g)
4 eggs slightly beaten
1/3 cups of cornstarch (40g)
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup of melted butter or mayonnaise (115g)
1 pint of sour cream (16 oz, 450g)
Crust
1 - 1/2 cups of graham crackers or in the UK, digestive biscuits (180g)
1/4 cups of sugar (80g)
6 tbsp unsalted melted butter (85g)
Method
Pre-heat oven to 350°F/175°C. Lightly grease a 9-inch spring form pan. Wrap the outside of the pan in aluminum foil - this will protect the cake as the cake will be baked in a baking tray filled with water - bain-marie.
Blitz graham crackers and combine with melted butter and sugar. Press the graham cracker mixture onto the bottom of a 9-inch spring form pan - you may either line just the bottom of the ban for a base only crust or press into the sides of the pan for a graham cracker edged crust. Bake the crust at 350°F/175°C for 5-7 minutes, allow to cool.
In a bowl using a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the ricotta cheese, cream cheese, and sugar together until blended well. Slowly mix the eggs into the mixture until they are fully incorporated. Stir in the cornstarch, lemon juice and vanilla. Gently fold in the sour cream and melted butter (or mayo).
Place the aluminum foil wrapped springform pan in a deep roasting pan. Pour the cheesecake mixture into the springform pan. Boil water and pour the water into the roasting pan - about 1 inch of the way up on the spring form pan. Place into the oven at bake for 70 minutes. Turn the oven off, open a crack and allow the cheese cake to set for another hour or so. Remove from the oven and remove the spring form pan from the water bath - along with the tin foil. Allow the cake cool to room temperature. Run a knife along the edge of the spring form pan to ensure it’s not sticking before unlocking the spring form pan. Refrigerate overnight.
Until next time at a standing reservation…
With love & snacks,
Paige
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Have you tried the recipe? Let me know in the comments below or share with me on Instagram. Would love to chat.
Need a happy moment?
It’s chestnut season. Would you like to learn how to roast your own chestnuts at home? Or what to possibly pair and cook them with? Tis the season! Let me know in the comments of this newsletter.
And yes please share pairings for chestnuts 🌰
Absolutely loveee this newsletter! I can’t wait to dive into your playlist! I’m always yelling at siri to play “chill jazz” or to set a timer 💛 i love learning more about you through these newsletters and I gotta say we’re alike in many more ways than we thought. 🥰