Betsy’s Favorite Recipes

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A Cooking Blog for Friends & Family

I grew up in a Dominican kitchen, but, my mother was always cutting recipes out of American magazines: Good Housekeeping, McCall’s,Better Homes and Garden, and always in the kitchen experimenting. She also made my father a daily dessert 5 days a week. I was “helping” since I could stand up. Learning how to make rice and beans the Dominican way. Although my mother would go eat beans in other houses and always complain that they were watered down, or not rich enough. She had her own way to make them the way she thought they had to be. And they had to have Cilantro and not Cumin. Dominicans use a lot of cumin now. She didn’t like it. I have never liked it either. She experimented with many exotic things. It wasn’t unusual to have a squid casserole for lunch. Or an authentic lasagna from one of Buz’s Italian cook books. Or a home-made pizza with squid topping for my brother Pico. Mine had to have mushrooms, always. There were also many Arabian flavors: cabbage rolls (my favorites), grape rolls, hummus, tipile (a bulgur salad), and much more. Her step mother was Syrian-Lebanese and she learned to make a lot of these dishes from her.

Our kitchen was a production kitchen. Our main chef was Julia, a wonderful lady that looked just like Aunt Jemima, with a great sense of humor, who would start the production in the kitchen at 5 am every morning. This kitchen fed seven family members, three maids, two gardeners, and a kid that lived with us in exchange for food, and did errands, and a painter that continuously painted our house. And, of course, the usual visiting cousin, who craved our splendid table. Later on, it added my husband, Tom who came over to eat every day before we were married.

I have shared these recipes in the hope that they live on. Some are very special to me and I hope that whoever finds them will also find them delicious. Will be adding more as I go. Enjoy!