Graber - The daily feast : everyday meals we love to share

For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Good Books, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or . Good Books in an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation. Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The daily feast : everyday meals we love to share / by Esther Rose Graber [et al.]. p. cm.

Includes index. ISBN 978-1-56148-756-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Cooking. I. Graber, Esther Rose.

TX714.D352 2012 641.5--dc23 2011053335 Paperback ISBN: 978-1-56148-821-6 Ebook ISBN: 978-1-68099-080-5 Printed in China Contents Introduction T HE WOMEN IN OUR FAMILY utterly love to cook! There are seven of us mother, five daughters, one daughter-in-law and although none of us is professionally trained, we all have a love for cooking. We create, experiment, and share our best recipes with each other, always striving for that perfect meal. Over the years we have produced several photocopied collections that are constantly in use in all of our homes, functioning as our primary cookbooks. Because of the positive response weve had from friends and guests who have shared our tables and requested recipes (the meals that get the wow! response), weve arranged our best-loved recipes and menus into a book that we hope will be helpful, easy, and a pleasure for you to use. Our food memories and experiences as a family go back more than 80 years, to the days of pap, cambric tea, and impossibly hot curries. Our heritage is rooted in Amish and Mennonite cooking that unites families and friends around the shared pleasures of the table, but our tastes have expanded through a love of travel.

That began with Grandpa Joe and Grandma Minnie Graber, who spent many years in India and brought us their love for Indian cuisine, which Grandma prepared with great skill. From left to right: Ellen, Sibyl, Susan, Esther Rose, Jane, Ann, and Yvonne. Our immediate family lived and worked in Puerto Rico, where husband and dad, Ronald Graber, was a surgeon for 35 years, so our children developed a special fondness for the local dishes of the Caribbean. Since then, Ron and I, our children and their spouses, and our grandchildren have lived or spent significant time in many places, including Italy, Spain, England, Germany, Cambodia, China, the Dominican Republic, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Mexico. From many of these countries come some of our favorite recipes for fabulous dishes, which weve included in this book. In this collection, each of us cooks shares three complete menus one for a Soup Meal, the second for a Family Weeknight Supper, and the third for a more elaborate Guest Dinner.

If you have ever wondered what to serve with a particular dish to round out your menu, we have some ideas! Each meal takes into account the ease of preparation, balance of textures and flavors, and eye appeal. Partly because were a family of artists watercolorists, book illustrators, potters, designers, musicians we know these meals will look as beautiful as they taste. In addition to our cooks special meals, we also offer our favorite Special-Occasion Meals. Our family reunions always feature an Indian or Puerto Rican meal, with each family preparing one or more of the dishes on the menu. For us, its not only about the eating , but also preparing the meal, a collective and delightful process when were all together. Because many of these dinners have particular memories attached to them, we tell our stories here, too, all bits of our family legacy.

In our homes, the men cook, too. When I was a little girl, the only times I remember seeing Papa in the kitchen were when he was passing through, after washing up at the porch pump, heading for the dinner table. But one day, there was Papa in the kitchen, sitting on the kitchen chair with Mama on his lap! I can still remember the wonderful feeling, after all these years (that was back in the 1930s when I was a very small child), of the loving warmth of their arms welcoming me into the middle of their embrace. Ann and Esther Rose The roles of men and women were clearly defined in those days. Mamas place was in the kitchen, the home, and garden. Papas was out in the world where he worked on cars and trucks and brought home a paycheck.

And on Sundays he preached at the small Mennonite country church where he was pastor. In Rons and my home these roles were a given. I took care of the home and children, while my husband was a busy doctor and surgeon. Then our daughter Ellen got married (she was the first of our six to marry), and we visited the newlyweds in their home in Vermont. Imagine my surprise at seeing Nelson in the kitchen, wearing an apron, working at the stove with total aplomb. As other men came into the family, we quickly discovered they were quite adept in the kitchen.

Now we count on them to do the grilling, and on occasion, to produce a complete meal. Following family tradition, the grandchildren are developing their own specialties in the kitchen, and they may someday produce a cookbook of their own. But that will be another story. In the meantime, don your aprons and join us. We hope you have as much fun in the kitchen as we do! And we wish you great success in creating beautiful meals to be shared and enjoyed by your family and friends. Esther Rose Graber From left to right: Sibyl (partially hidden), Ann, Ellen, Esther Rose, and Jane, cooking together in Sibyl's kitchen.

CHAPTER 1 Esther Rose Graber B ORN DURING the Great Depression and raised on simple country cooking (I loved Mamas Sunday pot roast, fried chicken, and mincemeat pie), I discovered beautiful food at a friends table in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, where I was working as an illustrator for the Mennonite Publishing House. Not only was it my first taste of shrimp and avocados (heavenly!), but the colorful and luscious arrangement on the salad platter opened my eyes to food as an art form. That dinner was an epiphany of sorts, setting me on a lifetime course of recipe-collecting and cooking. My mother-in-law, Minnie Graber, whose pies were unparalleled, set standards for guest meals that were a challenge to a young bride-to-be. I didnt want my new husband, Ron, to be yearning for his mothers cooking. But she generously shared her recipes and techniques.