Phoebe's Kitchen

Potato Cheese Casserole for Easter Brunch

Many years ago a dear friend in Florida, Jan Dean, gave me this recipe.  Easter brunch is not complete unless this dish is serve.  It is extremely rich, but it is only once a year so go for it.

It is also a delicious dish to be served at bridal showers or any large gathering. 

Potato Brunch Casserole

1 32 ounce package hash brown  

1 pint whipping cream    

16 ounce package of swiss cheese, grated       

¼ (1 stick) pound of butter, melted 

nutmeg

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

2.  Put all ingredients in an oven-to-table casserole dish; mix thoroughly.  Sprinkle top with nutmeg.    

3.Bake covered for 30 minutes; remove cover and continue baking for another 30 minutes until golden and bubbly. 

Note:  Do not double recipe in same pan.
 From Taste & Tales of Massachusetts

Farmers' Museum Celebrates New York Foods

On exhibit through October 30, 2011, the New York’s Good Eats! Our Fabulous Foods is happening at the Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown, NY. 

Many of these foods from Buffalo Wings to Pie a la Mode to Jell-o were invented in New York State.

Our latest cookbook, the Taste and Tales of New York, highlights many of these foods.  Below is the tale about one of New York's famous drinks.

What is an Egg Cream?                                                                                                         

This is definitely a Brooklyn drink and it does not contain either eggs or cream.  I can remember from my days as a buyer in New York that after a busy day in the market our resident buyer Joe would suggest we all go for an egg cream.  Initially I thought he meant a chocolate egg cream, but I learned that he meant the following drink.  There are a couple of versions of how the egg cream came to be.  The first was that a Yiddish actor had a drink called chocolate et creme, in Paris, France, and wanted one made here.  A more likely tale is that in the early 1900s candy shop owner Louis Auster, owner of Austers, invented the drink and sold hundreds a day until the store closed.