Editor's Note

My high-summer highs list has sweet corn (roadside), stone fruits, watermelon and BBQ in it. So does this July issue :) Here you'll find recipes for sweet corn relish, watermelon ice, BBQ chicken Old Virginia-style and more. We serve up some decadent vintage chocolate cakes: Chef Gale Gand's re-creation of Ebinger's of Brooklyn's Blackout Cake (click on the Food Yarns button on the far right to hear our interview with Gale), and, Gerry Frank's favorite from 50 years of judging the chocolate layer-cake competition at the Oregon State Fair. Our new feature "Restaurant Recipes Then & Now" kicks off with Jersey shore soft-shell crab recipes from Doris & Ed's. Behind the scenes we've been busy e-mailing you recipes found in response to your requests--you'll see more of those appear at the site each month. We love hearing from you--keep writing & keep cool!

Gale Gand's Brooklyn Blackout Cake

Brooklyn Ebinger's fans, rejoice! The Blackout Cake is back, thanks to the re-creation efforts of Chicago-based chef and baker Gale Gand. As Gale tells it: "Ebinger''s was a chain of bakeries in Brooklyn renowned for the purity of its ingredients, the sparkling cleanliness of its stores, and the deep chocolatiness of this cake. Even though the last Ebinger's finally closed in 1972, devotees kept Blackout Cakes in their freezers for years afterwards." Recreating the cake, Gand didn't have access to one of these freezer fossils for analyzation purposes. Instead, she relied on the taste-memories of Ebinger's fans who grew up in Brooklyn. Says Gand, "They're a tough crowd, but they tell us we've finally got it right. The custard filling is finally the perfect deep, velvety, very, very, dark brown."

Buttered-Maple Black Walnut Pie

Oh, the resourcefulness of youth! When traditional nutcrackers failed to split the rock-hard black walnuts we brought home from the farmers market, my 11-year-old son happily headed out to the sidewalk with a nice, big brick. A smashingly successful hour later, he had enough nutmeats to make this pie. We've acutally had several requests for black-walnut pie. This one's a good un'.

Peaches and Cream Pie

We found this simple, mildly-flavored peach pie recipe reader Honoria M. was looking for, on a very old Betty Crocker recipe insert that had once been included with sacks of Gold Medal flour. We sent the recipe to her, post haste, and Honoria says she received rave reviews for the pie she baked with it: "...just as I remember, it was easy as pie to make, ergo, my Grandmother would have made it!" In this recipe, because the peaches are baked as halves (as opposed to being thinly sliced) the pure flavor of peach really comes through. Choose the best peaches you can find, to make the most of that. We used super-sweet white peaches.

Meier & Frank Summer Girl Soda

Creamy raspberry, orange and vanilla in frothy foam... it's no wonder the Meier & Frank department-store chain called this the Summer Girl Soda! According to fourth-generation Frank family-member Gerry Frank, generations of sweet-loving Frank family members pretty much ensured that the soda-fountain creations, and desserts served in the Meier-Frank department store restaurants would be worth coming back for. While the stores, and their restaurants are gone, this signature recipe--a long-time best seller--is worth reviving.

Watermelon Ice

Pink, summer shimmery, refreshing, this easy-to-make icy blend of sweetened frozen melon presents lots of summer possibilities. You can make popsicles, blocks or cubes of it...experiment!

Creamy Nectarine-y Cheesecake

Creamy cool and sunny as the summer nectarines it includes, this light, fruit-flecked cheesecake was requested by reader Marge. Marge remembered making it for her mom's 70 birthday. Now, she's looking forward to having her daughter make it for her. The old-fashioned not-too-sweet crust is made with zweiback toast instead of graham crackers. We've included a recipe for zweiback, in case you can't find store-bought.

Alanbess Luncheonette Chicken Scampi

Gary Allen has a way-- a wayward, winding way--with words: especially when describing memorable food moments from his own colorful youth. (Go to www.onthetable.us for an illustrative sampling.) But Allen's recent write-up about "The Underground Gourmet Cookbook," full of New York restaurant recipe gems hunted down by Milton Glaser & Jerome Snyder in the '70s, went straight to the point: Great book. Great cheap meals. Great recipes. Many of these restaurants are long gone, which makes the recipes more of a treasure: Blue Cheese and Apple Crepes form Belcrep, Chicken Scampi from Alanbess Luncheonette; rich meatless classics from Jewish dairy restaurants The Grand, Hammer's, Hershey's and Gefen's. I dove in to Amazon.com for my 95 cent copy. You can too! There were several copies left, last I checked. Here is one of the recipes:

Tiki-Tiki Chicken in Parchment

Hot, gin-soaked, hoisin-glazed chicken and scallions...This appetizing appetizer recipe was a signature at The Islander restaurant in Los Angeles in the '50s. To make it, you deep-fry little packets of gin-spiked marinated chicken with onions. Yum! We like the result served in lettuce cups.

Fanny's of Evanston's Fried Chicken

From the time it opened in 1946 until it closed in 1987, Fanny's of Evanston was known for its unusual orange juice/pecan/chutney salad dressing, spaghetti with meat sauce, and fried chicken. You can still buy the dressing and the meat sauce from the Bianucci family's Worldwide Foods online (www.fannysofevanston.com) Not so, the chicken. But now, you can make the chicken yourself at home! (Thank you, Helen Bianucci!) The recipe has a really-truly "knock-knock" story to it: Upon opening, Fanny (a woman of faith) prayed for a cook. Two days later, Bob Jordan knocked at the restaurant door announcing "The Lord sent me to be your cook." To Fanny's "what-do-you-cook?" query, Jordan answered, "The best fried chicken around!" Hyperbole notwithstanding, we think Jordan's recipe, which he prepared at Fanny's for 25 years, has phenomenal flavor. Really a fricassee,(i.e. not crispy) this rich, fall-off-the-bones rendition has cream in the coating and butter in the dish.

Old Virginia Club Barbecued Chicken

Last issue, we hinted around that we'd include some barbecue sauce recipes for you. Chicago BBQ king, Gary Wiviott says he'll come through with an heirloom-ish recipe for the outdoor grill soon, but in the meantime, we dredged up this golden oldie from Virginia, plus another spirit-spiked pseudo-BBQ: Tiki-Tiki chicken, also in this issue.

London Chop House Roqueburger with Pancho Sauce

Among many satisfying meat dishes at Detroit's London Chop House in the '60s, Chef Philip "Pancho" Valez was known for this blue-cheese-and-brandy stuffed Roqueburger and its accompanying "Pancho" sauce. It's a keeper in more ways than one: With all that butter, cheese and mayo, you'll have to run a few extra miles on your treadmill to work this one off.

For the rest of our July recipe content please click on "In This Issue" links at the top upper right hand of this home page.