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| Pines Welcomes Us into Its Kitchen, as Grove Had Invited Us to Take a Taste |
by Bruce-Michael Gelbert
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| Cookbooks |
| Photo by Bruce-Michael Gelbert |
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This summer, the Fire Island Pines Arts Project (FIPAP) has issued a cookbook entitled "Into the Pines Kitchen," published by G & R Publishing Company in Waverly, Iowa and available for $20 in the Pines Harbor or from www.fipap.org. Last summer, the Cherry Grove Community Association, Inc. (CGCAI) put out a "Taste of Cherry Grove," printed by Morris Press Cookbooks, in Kearney, Nebraska and available for $15 (plus $3 for shipping and handling if mailed) from Mel Rock and Don Robb at 631/597-9560. Between them, the books offer a dizzying array of creative recipes likely to keep you in the kitchen for many an hour.
The FIP "Kitchen" and CG "Taste" contain recipes plain and fancy, ethnic and all-American, from notable Fire Island residents current, past, and long gone, male, female and transgender, giving their takes on appetizers, cocktails and other beverages, soups and salads, entrées, side dishes, and desserts, interspersed with helpful hints and photos of our neighboring communities. The Pines book is helpfully indexed by course and recipe and by contributor, the Grove book by course and recipe alone and requires much flipping of pages to revisit your friends' work. Even the bookmark for the Pines book boasts a recipe-for a Sicilian grandmother's tomato sauce.
"Kitchen" includes a dessert recipe-a Mousse au Citron, involving eggs, lemons, white wine and heavy cream-attributed to late Botel, Sandpiper and Pavilion owner John Whyte, without whom there would be no Grove Invasion of the Pines. "Taste" includes a savory Vidalia onion, Parmesan and Reggiano cheese pie created by late connoisseur Jerry Ehrlich and a cherry-glazed pork dish by late columnist Nat Fowler, contributed by Harold Seeley, who also adds his own paella recipe. Glen Boles reaches further back, to an 1886 Grove collection, for one Lula Voss' clam chowder and fried clam fritter recipes, while his partner, Roland Michely, weighs in with carrot, tomato, and spinach side dishes. Jack Dowling pays tribute to his late partner, Wally Forstell, with a couple of pastas "for Wallace."
Grove Archbishop Seeley's "Bishop of Cherry Grove's Paella" competes with one by the Pines' Dennis Lonergan. The latter calls for shrimp, littleneck clams, boneless chicken and white wine, the former for shrimp, chicken legs and Italian salami. The Archbishop specifies Rice-A-Roni, while his Pines neighbor favors Uncle Ben's. Grove clergy, in the person of the Rev. Dr. Charles E. Whipple, further proffers a miracle of loaves--no fishes--specifically of Boston brown bread, with molasses and dark raisins.
Our respective communities' Philadelphians give us a take on Tommy Tune's Southern Comfort-laced baked beans, from the Pines' Ron Blum, and a Grove answer to "Chicken Marengo," with red wine and vegetables, created for Napoleon and placed here by reviewer Dan Evans.
FIPAP and Congregation B'Nai Olam macher Laura Hartstein shares her grandma's sweet noodle kugel (pudding) recipe, embellished with apricots, which shares a page with Atilano Gimenes and Arnie Guior's Grandma Dora's pudding, calling for apples. Both use egg noodles, cottage cheese, sour cream, raisins, sugar and vanilla. Rita Lichtenstein gives us her vegetarian version of chopped liver, made with string beans, green peas, onions, eggs and walnuts and, for dessert, a raspberry Jello mold.
Valerie Perez, Grove coordinator for PAWS, the Pines Animal Welfare Society, has us savoring her potato-and-dill and Mexican pasta salads, orzo with pine nuts, cucumbers with dill sauce, cream-cheese-and-jalapeño-pepper and green-olive-and-anchovy dips, and rum-laced baked bananas. Photographer Lorraine Michels tempts us with cherry-raspberry pie and former Arts Project of Cherry Grove President Wendy Lewis, with her mom's peach custard pie. Audrey Hartmann kicks off the meal with her rigatoni and broccoli salad, Martha Pitkin with her blue cheese coleslaw and cold yogurt soup, and Joyce Rodgers with her baked minced clams, capping the repast with her trifle with three fruits--peaches, raspberries or strawberries, and bananas. Eileen Alley would have us try her "Buttons and Bows Salad" (bow tie pasta, peas and pearl onions) and brown sugared "Taffie Tarts."
The arts and entertainment world is well represented in both books. In "Kitchen," the Metropolitan Opera's David Kneuss and Bill McCourt field, between them, "Sicilian Cracked Green Olive Pasta;" "Bloody Marias," made with Clamato juice and beef broth; barbecued brisket; "Choucroute Garnie à la Coupole," sauerkraut flavored with ham hocks, pork chops, wursts and kielbasa, and apples, "bathe[d] in Champagne;" and roasted potatoes with shallots. "Amanda Reckonwith," whom I suspect is versatile singer David Sabella, advises the clueless with riotous instruction on how to boil eggs, while allowing for distraction by a neighboring "guy who looks like the Porn Star you used to date." Singer Ron Perkov and partner William Hayden let us in on the secret of their cauliflower side dish-"looks like mashed potatoes, but it's not!"-for those who "want the taste and feel of mashed potatoes but don't want the carbs." On a haimish note, singer Bob "Rose" Levine, who entertains in both communities, starts us off with "Rose's Chopped Eggplant Appetizer," with green bell pepper, tomato and onion, and caps the meal with "Rose's Apple Cake," spiced with cinnamon and stuffed with raisins and walnuts.
In "Taste," the reigning Grove Homecoming Queen sets before us "Lola's Favorite Peanut Butter Pie," with cream cheese mixed in and Cool Whip added, then chilled. Recent past Homecoming Queen Charity teaches us how to make "Aunt Lovey's Simply Scrumptious Mushroom Caps," a nacho dip, pan-fried spaghetti, and a chocolate whiskey cake and its glaze. Perennial Homecoming Queen candidate Connie Francis would have us spend Sunday stuffing and roasting a 13-pound turkey. From Jack Hayes, who was in many Grove shows, comes a recipe for chicken paté, rich in heavy cream. Cabaret singer John DeMarco favors a "summer sun" tomato-basil sauce and "Tuscan Fish," tilapia with shallots, olives, thyme and white wine. Island Repertory Theater's 'nacho men' Richard LaFrance and Richard Fenn share a wealth of information about coleslaw with mayonnaise dressing, corn pudding, Southwestern-style shepherd's pie, lemon chicken, carrot-banana cake, peanut butter pie, pistachio cake, orange cake (a Mexican recipe), and tomato bread. Pianist Don Robb and partner Mel Rock give us tips on hummus, black bean or lentil soup, "crustless" cheesecake, and baked cranberry relish. Director Lisa A. Jacobson leaves us her formulas for artichoke dip and "Imperial Crab." Broadway video maker Bradshaw Smith would have us sample his "Garden Tuna Pasta" and the Brooklyn Museum's Peter Downes, his "Cold Creamy Cucumber Soup." Artist Susan Ann Thornton is on hand with her "Maryland [Walk] Potato Salad" and "Carrot Radish Stew," and Kurt Gahan, with his "Apple Cobbler with Spiced Whipped Cream."
Scott Bromley, Gilbert Parker, Hal Rubinstein, and Michael Safdiah are Pines names you'll find in "Kitchen." Pierre Galarneau and Frank Santoro, early Gay Movement veteran Mike McPherson, Paul Orlando, Walter B. Quetsch, Gerri Mac Whinnie, dentist Gary Seiden, Island Breeze chef Sara, and Reggie the Grove Grocer are ones you'll find in "Taste." Both spiral-bound volumes should prove worthwhile investments to set beside one another.
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