One day while checking Facebook, I found a link to
this cookbook on Amazon. I was interested in how the recipes are, but all that
seemed to be there were snarky comments about the wealth of the Romney family.
This bothered the sensibilities of this liberal Democrat, so I did the
socialist thing and checked it out of the library.
The great majority of this book is stories of the
Romney family gatherings and traditions of which I have very little interest (I
would feel the same if Michelle Obama wrote a similar cookbook). Most of the
recipes are basic recipes that I’ve seen before. I picked out a few that looked
interesting and tried them.
On page 19 are three different variations of Rice
Krispies treats. The Irish one involves just adding green food coloring. I’ve
had the s’more variety.
The Chubby Hubby Rice Krispies Treats caught my eye
with the magic word “Nutella”. These are the basic Rice Krispies Treats but
added in are pretzels, pecans, and Nutella. I totally missed the extra cup of
mini-marshmallows in the recipe so I just added less Rice Krispies. I also made
a change where I stirred the Nutella into the melted marshmallows before adding
the Rice Krispies. Mrs. Romney has adding the Nutella after the Rice Krispies.
After spreading in the pan, you are supposed to melt a 12-oz bag of chocolate
chips and then drizzle the melted chocolate over the treats. I drizzled about a
quarter of that amount. As you can see, there is a lot of chocolate there.
I found the treats to be a little tougher and chewier
than your normal Rice Krispies treats. I was very glad I didn’t drizzle all of
the chocolate on them. It would be a bit of overkill, even for this
choc-a-holic. They were okay. Not a keeper.
Next was the Sweet Pork Burritos on page 128. In my
local Safeway I was unable to find chipotle chilies in adobo sauce and bought a
jar of La Consteña Chipotle chilies (with a Google search, I found out that
they are packed in adobo sauce). I liked her suggestion of putting the chilies
in the strainer and then pouring the Dr. Pepper over them to “clean” the sauce
off of them. There is no use of the chilies in this recipe, so save them for
another time. I used a mild taco sauce instead of a medium to hot variety as a
personal preference. After mixing the sauce ingredients in my blender, I poured
it into the crock pot. (A note on the blender, don’t pour in all the Dr. Pepper
unless you have a gigantic blender and don’t forget that the Dr. Pepper will
foam up when you turn on the blender.) I
then added the pork. Mrs. Romney doesn’t have it in the recipe, but I like to cut
the pork up before putting it in the crock pot. I was afraid all the pork
wasn’t going to fit in my crock pot.
After 8 hours at low heat, I fished out the chunks of
pork and pulled the meat apart. I then put them back in the sauce for another
hour. Finally I put some of the meat in little flour tortillas and gave them a
try. The meat has a nice sweet flavor when you bite into it and then a couple
seconds later the POW of the spices kicks in making my mild palate reach for a
glass of root beer. I liked it. The one major change I would make is the cut of
the meat. Don’t use pork tenderloin. Use pork shoulder instead for a moister
pulled pork. I used a pork shoulder when I made again. It was more moist, but
the pork shoulder took a couple more hours to cook in the crock pot.
Mrs. Romney lists toppings for these burritos, but I like mine plain. Thus, I cannot comment on how the toppings and meat taste together.
I love a good lemon Bundt cake so I made the Sunny Lemon
Cake. I have never seen Lemon Oil as an ingredient. I’ve seen lemon zest, lemon
extract, and lemon juice. I went with lemon extract. I added a bit more lemon
extract than it called for and also added a little lemon juice. Even with these
additions, this cake is not very lemony. I even let it sit for a couple days to
soak in more of the glaze, but it only slightly increased the lemon flavor.
Poppyseed Bundt Cake is really easy to make especially
since two of the ingredients are a box of white cake mix and a box of instant
pudding mix. For the rum option, I used a Cruzan Rum Junkanu! citrus rum. Now
this recipe and the Sunny Lemon Cake both have rum in them. “Don’t Mormons
avoid alcohol?”, you may be thinking to yourself. I found out from a Mormon co-worker
that cooking and baking with alcohol is fine as the alcohol cooks off.
In the preparation of the pan, it says “Pour batter
into a buttered Bundt pan dusted with cinnamon.” I used my trusty Pam with
Flour and then did a little dusting of cinnamon in the pan. A note regarding
clean up: the cinnamon tends to really stick to the pan, so you’ll have to
scrub out the nooks and crannies of your Bundt pan to get out all the cinnamon.
The strange thing about this cake is that I really
didn’t like the first piece I ate, but liked it more with each piece I ate. My
classmates at Swedish School loved it.
Jen’s Crispy Chicken with Dipping Sauces is actually
quite easy and quick to make. My mini food processor was great to blend the
walnuts and bread crumbs. It says to cut up the boneless chicken breasts into
“bite-sized pieces”. I cut several sizes of bite-sized pieces. Around 2 inches
square seems to work the best. Although I baked them for 20 minutes instead of
25 minutes. Mine ended up being overcooked and a bit dry.
The recipe also has three recipes for dipping sauces.
None of them really appealed to me, so to counteract the spiciness of the
chicken, I dipped them in lingonberry fruit sauce (purchased at Cost Plus World
Market). It was a delicious combination.
When you make these, try to eat all of them the same
day. These nuggets do not warm up in the microwave well. The outside turns
soggy and the inside turns tough.
Mitt’s Meat Loaf Cakes are easy to make and are
delicious. They also microwave well, so I’ve had them for dinner four days in a
row with mashed potatoes. Yummm. My only gripe with this recipe is that you are
supposed to put them in 6 mini-loaf pans. What size mini-loaf pan? My mini-loaf
pans are 7”x 3 ¼”x 2”. This recipe didn’t make enough for 6 of those size pans,
so I only used 4.
Potato Gratin with Gruyere and Crème Fraiche is okay. It tastes good, but is missing something. Maybe should have used garlic salt instead of regular salt. Maybe should have used Yukon Gold potatoes instead of Russet. Who knows?
One gripe I have with the instructions is she writes,
“Using a spatula, spread half of the crème fraiche on potatoes.” This is not
such an easy task as crème fraiche has a consistency somewhere between sour
cream and cream cheese. You’ve just spent time laying out your nice rows of
potato slices and trying to spread the crème fraiche over it ruins them.
The recipe for Fontina Cream Pasta is a keeper. It was
very easy to make and is delicious. I used San Marzano crushed tomatoes and had
to go to two different supermarkets to find fontina cheese (Safeway didn’t have
it but King Soopers did). It also microwaves well.
This recipe and the Potato Gratin recipe taught me to
read the recipes before making my shopping list. Both recipes have items in the
ingredient list that are just garnish. Anyone need some fresh parsley?
I’m not sure why I tried “Josh’s” Heavenly Rolls.
Yeast breads and I don’t have a pretty history. I mixed the ingredients in my
Kitchen Aid mixer first using the paddle attachment. After I’d mixed in the
flour and yeast solution, I switched to the dough hook to mix in the rest of
the flour. I’m not quite sure why she writes “Spread a little vegetable oil in
a small plastic garbage bag. Scrape dough out of bowl and add to bag. Twist end
loosely and tuck under”. I simply sprayed Pam into the bottom of my large
mixing bowl and put the dough in that. I put the bowl in my oven with a pan of
boiled water under it and waited. So happy that the dough rose when it was
supposed to. All this work resulted in rolls that were not that heavenly. They
are perfectly serviceable rolls, but you’ll get the same results with some
Pillsbury Crescent Rolls without all the work.
The last two recipes I tried were both pie recipes –
Apple Crumb Pie and Southern Pecan Pie. I will admit up front, that I did not
use the pie crust recipe included in the cookbook. I will confess to familial fidelity
and say that I used my aunt Phyllis’s pie crust recipe. I don’t think it harmed
or helped either recipe.
The Apple Crumb Pie is the first apple pie recipe I’ve
made that does not have cinnamon in it. The only flavoring besides the apples
is a half teaspoon of vanilla. Thus, it is rather a bland tasting pie. Mrs.
Romney has putting on the crumb topping at the end and baking for 20 more
minutes “until filling is bubble and topping is browned.” I baked it 10 extra
minutes (so 30 minutes total). The filling didn’t get bubbly and the topping achieved
a tan coloring.
The Southern Pecan Pie is missing something. I’m still
trying to mull over what that something is. It was a tad too sweet and didn’t
have enough pecans. This recipe shall not be replacing my own dear mother’s
pecan pie recipe.
There you have it, my review of “The Romney Family
Table: Sharing Home-Cooked Recipes and Favorite Traditions”. I tried 11 recipes
and only 4 were keepers. I cannot recommend this cookbook. Most of the recipes were
unoriginal and you can find recipes like the ones in this book in your Betty
Crocker Cookbook.
If Mrs. Romney decides to try her hand at book writing
again, may I suggest a how-to book on writing off your dressage horse on your taxes. I know
many, many horse owners (including myself) would find that book worth our time
and money.
