Just when you thought it couldn't get any sillier, I found a Mouli

The things that took place during our childhood years are often the most influential things in our lives. Good memories and bad ones alike become a part of who we grow up to become. I've talked about my dad being the original foodie back in the 1970s, and my mom with her unique life story and German American fusion style of cooking. I've also talked about my never ending love for gadgets and interesting utensils and appliances destined to make food prep easier. Way back in the filed away memories of my childhood there is a utensil so interesting, old and unique, and FUN to play with, that I've never forgotten about it, talked about it often, and recently acquired a couple of my very own. I'm talking about the Mouli Shredder.

Long long before the word "mandolin" was part of my vocabulary I was slicing and shredding things like a pro when my mom broke out the old Mouli. Her lentil soup and potato pancakes is the stuff of legends, but shredding all those potatoes was a nightmare, unless you had the Mouli. What exactly is the Mouli? I thought you'd never ask. Long long before I was ever a thought, a company in France had a brilliant idea. In 1932 Jean Mantelet created a food mill. Made of metal, probably tin of some kind, his goal was to make the kitchen chores of the average housewife a little easier by creating utensils that did a lot of the hard work for her. After the food mill, a rotary grater, a ricer, and the "coupe"- the Mouli I love so much, were introduced in 1935. Millions were sold! The company became known as Moulinex in 1956 and continued to introduce kitchen helpers over the years. 

In the 1960s, as more women joined the workforce, technology was advancing and Moulinex introduced electric versions of some of their appliances. By the time the 70s rolled around, 50% of the company's business was outside of France, and they began selling appliances such as blenders, electric coffeemakers and even microwaves. Today, the company still provides a variety of appliances to perform all kinds of kitchen tasks. They look drastically different from the old Mouli still tucked away in my parents' kitchen cabinet!

This is ridiculous amounts of fun.

Browsing thrift stores with Jessica, my almost sister, is one of my favorite things to do. I always hit the kitchen section immediately, always on the hunt for unique knives, cool old utensils, maybe some delicate china teacups, and, you guessed it- Moulis. I already have three!! I can't help but feel a close connection to this crazy looking thing that folds up for easier storage and comes with a stack of disks of death- sharp edges and slicy blades and shreddy grooves. Yes, each one comes with the same disks, and the style is always basically the same, but I have both the original metal Mouli and a crazy orange plastic (so 70s!!) Mouli and I love them all the same. 

A modern version of the Mouli.

Since reconnecting with the Moulis in my life, the Chef and I don't even own a box grater. Need some cheese shredded? I'll get out the Mouli! Cole slaw? Break out the Mouli! Making some hash browns? You guessed it, I'll use the Mouli. I can't help myself. If I sit there at the kitchen island, and close my eyes while turning the crank handle around a few times I can almost travel back in time to my mom's kitchen, and piles of potatoes waiting to be shredded, and turning til my arm was rubbery felling.......and I can't help but smile.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 55: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Foodie Field Trip- Graziano Brothers

Have I ever said how much I HATE shopping? The mall is so depressing to me. I never go there. The worst part of the holiday season- shopping. Back to school time- shopping. Mindlessly shuffling through the giant tomb of consumerism just sucks the soul out of me. 

Unless it's foodie shopping. Ohhhhhh ya. Then I am alllll about hitting the store. Not just the everyday grocery store. Foodie shopping. Gourmet groceries. Unusual produce and ingredients. Ethnic foods. Kitchen equipment. Spices and herbs. Oils and vinegars. Wines. Cookware. Knives. All the knives. Now you're talking to my heart, folks. My foodie friend Mary was in town for the weekend. We met for sushi on Friday evening and decided we better hit Graziano's in the morning so she can restock cooking supplies for her Missouri home, and I can stock up on a few things too. A few things- ha! Who are we kidding here?

So Friday night over dinner at Sakari Sushi Lounge and sake bombs Mary, our friend Angi and I munched on fabulous sushi rolls and discussed the upcoming Chocolate Affair in Hannibal. Angi and I are planning a road trip for the event- yay!! Girlie Foodie Field Trip!- and the discussion turned to Graziano's. For those of you who aren't familiar, Graziano Brothers is a landmark food store in Des Moines. Founded in 1912 by Louis and Frank Graziano, two brothers who had emigrated to Iowa from San Morello, Italy, and made their way to Des Moines. Louis opened the grocery store while Frank remained employed by the railroad company until the store was well on its feet. The grocery store sits just south of downtown Des Moines in an area that was once known as Little Italy and has supplied Des Moines with authentic Italian groceries, pastas, breads, homemade sausage, meatballs, imported deli meats and cheeses, bulk spices and herbs and some of the best olives on the planet for over 100 years.

The quaint store facade is suited perfectly for the old time feel of the store. Not a huge store, they have a small collection of shopping carts at the door. You'd think you wouldn't need one here, but if you know me...... ya, you do. The first items in the door are the bulk spices on the right, olive oils on the left. This is where Mary and I began our stock-up shopping. Graziano's house blended Italian seasoning is the best thing I have ever tasted. Herbs, garlic and bits of crushed red pepper are the perfect seasoning for any Italian dishes from pasta to pizza sauce. I grab the usual size bag for our house, it's priced at $3.25. I kid you not, there is a good 3 cups of seasoning in this bag, easily enough to last us a year or more. At home I transfer it to an airtight container to keep it fresh. I also grabbed a bag of crushed red pepper, again easily a year's supply, for $3.45. You just cannot get a better deal anywhere.

We love mushrooms at our house and in the same section of the store you will find beautiful dried mushrooms, like porcini, portobella, and woodear. I grabbed some porcini and woodear because, well, you just might need them, and at $2.75 and $1.15 respectively, I just can't say no. I also snuck a nice bag of sun dried tomatoes, soft and raisiny, not dried and crispy into my shopping cart. I am often searching the supermarket for sun dried tomatoes and most of the time find just the oil packed kind. That's not usually what I want for cooking and baking. Sun dried tomatoes that are packed by themselves like this are excellent in breadmaking.

Continuing down the aisle, Angi had lots of questions. Recommendations for a pasta sauce? Type of olive? Recipe ideas? For a first timer in the store she was suitably impressed by the variety and selection, especially when we got to the meat and cheese counter. Italian sausage was bought by all, and Angi grabbed some of the extra hot sausage. Mary tried a couple different imported salamis and cheeses that were new to her, Angi got several of the hot pepper cheeses and I went with the traditional famous Italian sausage and provolone cheese- sliced to order every time. It's hard to beat the Iowa classic Italian sausage sandwich especially with the best sausage hands down.

The pasta aisle was like an amusement park for food lovers. Every shape, every size. Every pasta you can possibly imagine in sizes from one pound packages to giant bags I'd guess to be 5 pounds or more. I grabbed some fusilli and some cavatelli as my mind had trouble focusing on just on or two types. I am not kidding when I say it's so easy for any self respecting foodie to go absolutely freakin bonkers in here. In the same aisle I was just as tempted by several different kinds of arborio rice and risotto mixes and seasonings. Bags of wandas tempted me, but I resisted. Italian cookies and candies also beckoned to me, but I was strong. After all, I did have a giant tub of Graziano's olives in the cart- a whole quart container for $4.75.

South Union bread is sold here, and the aroma of that freshly baked bread was so welcoming. Italian rolls, breads, focaccia, loaves, so so many options. I did not get out of that aisle without a focaccia in my cart. I can't wait to eat it.

At the front of the store there are several large frozen and refrigerated cases containing fresh mozzarella, Italian sodas and beverages, more sausages like salami and others, marinated peppers and......more olives. Different types of olives. Yes, again I fell victim to the lure of olives. This time I grabbed some castelvetrano olives. If you ever get a chance to try these you simply must. In the frozen case you can find prepacked Graziano's Italian sausage in one pound hunks, pasta sauces from some of the local Italian spots, and housemade meatballs- even miniature meatballs. I grabbed a pound- they will be awesome with the cavatelli! Here again, pasta is king with probably 20 or more varieties of handmade ravioli, lasagna, cavatelli, pastas, manicotti, and the whole reason for coming here in the first place- cannoli. Oh. Em. Gee. Creamy ricotta cheese, just the right amount of sweet, chopped pistachios, bits of bittersweet chocolate and that crunchy cannoli shell. You bet I got one!

Also at the front of the store is this amazing piece of history- this beautiful and old old old butcher block. How I'd love to sit around that table with an espresso or macchiato and talk about the old days with the many people who have labored over that surface, kneading bread, rolling pasta, cutting wandas, chopping, singing, feeding their family and sharing the love. It had to be a prominent part of someones home kitchen at one time. The top is worn with years of use- Mary and I wondered about the many generations of cooks who stood beside this table and thought about all the meals prepared by hand. Kind of gives me the shivers to think about all that table has seen over the decades.

I'm happy to say Mary and I got Angi off to a good start with some Italian marinara sauce, delicious olives, some giardinera she picked out, and her sausage and cheeses. I'm pretty sure she will be back. I KNOW Mary and I will! Now........ off to go cook something............

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 55: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Guest Chef- Katie and the Soroka Family Pierogies

Since I have never made, or even eaten, a pierogi in my life, when my friend Katie asked if I'd like to come over and learn how, I jumped at the idea! You know me- if it's food I'm all for it, and learning something new is always a great opportunity. Since she and I started having our weekend cooking days we had only made treats- with the holidays and baking and candy-making, it just seemed normal. Now that all the celebrating and festivities are behind us we decided we should focus less on sweets and more on other foods and meals, traditional family recipes and maybe even some healthy recipes.

The Soroka family has a long history of making pierogies. Katie's great grandmother used to make this dish for special occasions, and it was passed down to Katie's grandmother and grandfather, and then her uncle, who then taught Katie how to make them. This family tradition graces the Soroka table at Christmas and New Years.

Pierogies are widely thought of as the national dish of Poland. While lots of other European countries have their own versions of the dish, Poland and the Ukraine are considered to be the places of origin of these tasty dumplings. There is no standard filling either. Whatever the cook likes and has on hand goes inside- often with mashed potato. Meats and vegetables, sometimes cheese, go inside and they are often topped with sour cream, applesauce or fried onion. Seriously, at this point, what is NOT to love about these dumplings? Katie got the idea to try a dessert version too, and we decided to go with tart cherries as the filling. A little research tells me we didn't invent this idea, but it was pretty darn good.

When Katie and I were working out the details of our cooking, i.e. what can I bring, what do you need, she asked if I would grab some butter. "Sure," I said without hesitation. "How much do you need?' I asked, and her answer almost knocked me off my chair! "4 or 5 pounds," she said. Yes my friends, you read that right. Pounds. Not cups. Pounds. Now before anyone has a heart attack and starts to lecture us on the heart attack you think we will surely have after dinner let me just say- while this IS a rich and buttery and in no way a low fat dish, you don't actually consume all that butter. In fact, Katie and I were kicking around ideas for using the butter once the pierogies were gone. Lobster tail, of course, was the first suggestion. Crab legs, scampi, heck even just spoon it into a jar and use it for cooking and baking. In reality you could use a lot less butter, but today we are making it the Soroka family way.

As I said, I have never made, nor eaten pierogies, but I have seen them around. Little small ravioli-type dumplings like half-moons that I see in the frozen food section. People boil or microwave them, then saute in a little butter to brown them and eat as a side dish. This is not the authentic Polish way at all! These pierogies are the meal and are served as the main dish, not reheated and served alongside something else like an afterthought. They certainly aren't little half-moons either. These are some serious dumplings with loads of filling. Watching Katie fill the first one clued me in- I was in for a real treat. Like so many traditional family recipes, a lot of the process is eyeballing ingredients and mixing things "til it looks right." Katie measured things as I was writing notes so it would be easy to share the recipe with all of you.

To make the Soroka family piergoies, you will need:

5 lbs potatoes

1 quart sauerkraut

3-4 lbs butter

flour- approx. 10 cups plus more for rolling, divided

eggs- plan on a dozen

milk- plan on at least 1 cup, divided

Start the butter by placing 3 lbs of butter in a large roasting pan. Place in a 250 degree oven to melt. You will be adding the boiled pierogi to the butter bath after they are boiled.

I wasn't kidding! That is 3 pounds of butter in the pan.

Peel the potatoes and cut into small cubes. Boil in salted water until tender.

Drain and mash with a bit of butter. Drain the kraut completely and mix into the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Potato kraut filling, top, and potato beef filling, bottom.

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Pop the lid on and hold at a very low boil.

For the dough, start with 3 cups of flour, 3 eggs and 1/4 cup milk in the bowl of a stand mixer (you CAN make the pasta dough by hand but using a stand mixer is much much easier), attach the dough hook and begin mixing the dough on low speed, gradually bumping up the speed as the dough comes together and you hear the machine struggle a bit. Keep the milk handy in case you need to dribble a little bit more in there. The goal is a somewhat stiff, smooth and non-sticky dough.

Pull the dough off in ping pong ball sized pieces and roll out on a floured surface. You want the dough to be thin but not quite as thin as, say, a wonton wrapper. Scoop about 2-4 tablespoons filling onto the dough in a loaf shape.

Pull the dough up and over to cover the filling. Trim the edge of the dough to about 1/4 inch beyond the filling and pinch and turn over to seal. 

Continue with remaining dough and filling. You will need to make a second batch of dough. You can cook the pierogies as you make them (3 or 4 at a time) or make them all, cover with a towel, and cook them when they are all assembled. It also helps to have a helper- someone to roll dough while you fill. I was the designated roller while Katie filled and crimped the pierogies and got them going in the boiling water.

These are no teeny tiny dumplings- these are HUGE!

*Note- Katie does not moisten the dough edges to seal, but if you like you can, use water, milk or an egg wash.

Add the pierogies to the boiling water a few at a time. Boil them gently until they rise to the top of the pot. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in the melted butter. Hold in the butter int he 250 degree oven until all the pierogies are cooked.

Now one of Katie's son is not a fan of kraut, so she also made a beef and potato filling for him, using browned ground beef that was drained and mixed with the mashed potato, and of course, Katie's brilliant suggestion, the cherry-filled dessert pierogies. I just have to say, what a stroke of brilliance. We DID use one cheat product- canned cherry pie filling- but everything else was totally homemade and dreamed up in the kitchen as we went along.

Katie made another batch of dough, using 2 cups of flour and 2 eggs and the milk. I rolled out smaller circles of dough for the dessert version, which she filled with the cherries, folded over, crimped the edges and into the boiling water they went.

For the butter sauce, Katie ladled some of the melted butter from the big roasting pan of pierogies into a 9x13 baking pan. Into the butter went a couple teaspoons of cinnamon, 1/4 cup of honey, 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. 

After rising to the top of the water, remove them with a slotted spoon into the cinnamony butter mixture and pop in the oven for a good 15-20 minutes to get all the flavors married. 

The dessert pierogies were served with small scoops of creamy vanilla ice cream. 

Around the edge of the dish the butter mixture chilled and clung to the ice cream like that Magic Shell. It just tasted incredible. The dessert version was declared a HUGE success. We oohed and ahhed and already are dreaming up new fruit versions for next time. Can't wait !!!

Younkers' Famous Rarebit Burger Gets a Makeover

As a kid growing up in Des Moines in the seventies downtown was the place to be. Malls weren't a thing yet, and downtown all the big department stores had huge fortress-like buildings. The streets were lined with shops and interesting places, big stores, small stores and lunch counters. The big department store in Des Moines was Younkers, and their flagship store was right in the heart of downtown.

photo from Wikipedia Commons

My mom never drove a car, so going downtown to go shopping was quite an event. We'd wait patiently for the taxi to arrive, and back in the old days taxis were built by Checker Taxi and were big! The backseat area was quite spacious and had kid seats that were round and folded down into the floor. 

photo from Wikipedia Commons

We would make the trip from our home to downtown and hit all the big stores. Sometimes we would have lunch at the King Ying Low Chinese restaurant, sometimes it would be a lunch counter and sometimes we would eat at the Younkers Tea Room.

photo from Pinterest- owner unknown

Younkers was quite an amazing place. The original dry goods store was opened in 1874 in Keokuk and later moved to downtown Des Moines in 1912. The Tea Room was opened in 1913 and became somewhat of a destination restaurant. Many many weddings, receptions and corporate events were held in that beautiful tearoom, with its gorgeous architecture and crystal chandelier. Famous for their sticky rolls and chicken salad, their real claim to fame had to be the Rarebit Burger. The Rarebit Burger was introduced to the world sometime in the 1940s and has been much loved ever since. The recipe is fairly simple- a savory cheesy rarebit sauce is ladled over a hamburger making it a rich and decadent fork and knife sandwich. Rarebit itself is a very old recipe, commonly served over toast for a lighter meal. Some brilliant chef at Younkers decided to go one big step forward and top a burger and created one of the best-loved regional foods.

You can prepare your burger however you like, but for this
recipe nothing beats a cast iron skillet.

Younkers' Famous Rarebit Sauce

1/3 cup cooking oil
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard powder
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon hot sauce, such as Tabasco
1 cup shredded American cheese

Place the oil in a saucepan, Stir together the flour, paprika, salt and mustard. Add to the oil and cook while stirring for one minute. Add the milk all at once. Continue cooking and stirring until sauce is thickened. Add remaining ingredients;  remove from heat and stir until cheese melts. Pour over prepared hamburger and bun. Makes 2 cups sauce.

Sadly, the downtown Younkers store closed in 2005 and the building was destroyed by fire in 2014, meaning the Tea Room and it's beautiful interior was lost forever. 

photo from The Des Moines Register

Now that we've talked about the rarebit sauce and burger, it's time to talk about MY version. Plain cheese sauce over a burger doesn't do much for me, and over bun top and bottom is a bit much, so I like to kick mine up with the addition of salsa and taco seasonings, changing the Rarebit Burger into a Queso Burger! 

Double-stacked cheesy spicy happiness

To make the queso sauce, melt 1/4 cup butter in a saucepan. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons flour over and whisk over medium heat for a minute. Add 2 cups milk all at once, and continue whisking. Cook over medium heat until thickened. Remove from heat and add at least a cup of shredded cheese. Mild cheddar, Colby Jack, or even pepperjack cheese are all delicious. Stir until melted.

Spoon the hot queso sauce over the burger. I made double
burgers with queso between and on top of the patties.

Drain most of the liquid from 1 cup of salsa. Add to the cheese sauce and return to low heat until heated through. Use whatever heat level you like in your salsa.

Cook your burger to desired doneness and place on toasted bun bottom on a place. I made two thin burgers for each sandwich, placing one on the bun, topping with sauce, and repeating. Pour the queso sauce over and garnish with your favorite taco toppings. Toast the bun top and place it on the burger. I like to top mine with sour cream, guacamole, sliced black olives, sliced scallions and a bit more salsa. Sometimes I add a few slices of jalapeno.

You'll still need a knife and fork for this one!