Chef Joe Bachman’s Vegan King Oyster Mushroom “Chicken Wings”
King Oyster Mushrooms are a great substitute for animal proteins in a lot of dishes including these “chicken wings”. Meaty and juicy, they’re especially delicious
MOTHER'S DAY CARD
To all the moms out there, Happy Mother’s Day!
Download and print a greeting card to give to your mom! Simply print and fold in half twice to get a card with space inside for a personal message!
Download Your Card
How to Fold Your Card
ALI'S FAVORITE PASTA - AMATRICIANA
Food is the heart of everything we do at Great Performances; and for many of us, it’s a cornerstone of family memories. We invite our team members to share their food traditions and memories with us, and here, we share them with you!
Cooking with my mother has always been one of my favorite things to do. From when I was allowed to just stir to taking the lead, and creating the meals with her assisting me. One of the first recipes I remember falling in love with, and wanting to memorize, is Marcella Hazan’s Amatriciana from her cookbook “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking”, which, coincidentally, was the first cookbook that my mother gave me. To this day, this recipe is still one of my favorites.
Ali and her mom sharing a hug.
Image credit: Ali Rea Baum
AMATRICIANA INGREDIENTS
PROCEDURE
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4-inch thick slice of pancetta, cut into 1/2”x1” slices
1 1/2 cups canned tomatoes, drained and chopped
Hot red chili peppers, chopped
Salt
3 Tbsp freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
2 Tbsp freshly grated Romano cheese
1 pound pasta
Add the oil, butter, and onion to a saucepan and saute on medium heat until the onions turn a pale golden color. Add the pancetta and cook for about a minute, stirring occasionally.
Add the tomatoes, chili pepper (to taste) and salt, and cook, uncovered, at a simmer for about 25 minutes. Taste and season to taste.
While the sauce is cooking, prepare the pasta according to package instructions. Add drained pasta to the sauce and toss. Add cheese and toss thoroughly again.
Adapted from Marcella Hazan’s original recipe
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MOTHER’S DAY TIPS & RECIPES FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS
Food is the heart of everything we do at Great Performances; and for many of us, it’s a cornerstone of family memories. We invite our team members to share their food traditions and memories with us, and here, we share them with you!
I’ve never met a pie crust that’s better than my mother’s, which was her mother’s recipe, that has now been passed down to me. It’s a family recipe that makes me appreciate all of the “sweet” baking lessons I had with my grandma and mother in the kitchen!
My favorite filling is apple, but the crust works for everything from cherries to chocolate pudding.
Emily’s Perfect Pie Crust recipe
Ingredients:
For the pie crust
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1 cup Crisco or vegetable shortening
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2 cups flour
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1 tsp vinegar
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Pinch of salt
For the apple filling
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6-8 apples, peeled, cored and chopped
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1 cup sugar
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1 heaping Tbsp flour
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Cinnamon to taste
Procedure:
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Prepare the crust: Put 1 tsp vinegar in a measuring cup and add enough water to measure 1/2 cup of liquid, total. Combine all ingredients and stir with a fork until the ingredients come together. Form into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
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Flour your board and rolling pin. Divide dough in half for top and bottom layers of the pie. Roll out each half so that it is an inch larger around than the pie plate. Lay the first half into the pie plate, gently forming to plate.
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Assemble the pie: Peel prepared apples in dough-lined pie plate. Combine 1 cup sugar, a heaping tablespoon of flour, and cinnamon to taste and pour over apples in pie plate.
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Roll out second half of the crust and drape over apples. Crimp edges or use a fork to seal the edges. Slice ventilation holes in the middle.
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Place on baking sheet and bake at 350 F for 1 hour.
Hungry For More?
Food is at the heart of what we do at Great Performances. And for many people who work at Great Performances, food is an integral part of any family celebration or gathering.
Each holiday, we ask our team to share recipes and food memories, and this Mother’s Day is no different. In fact, it holds special poignancy because many of us cannot celebrate with our families.
So instead, we’ll cook the dishes they taught us, share our stories, and celebrate virtually until we can celebrate together in person.
Emily Bird – Pie Crust
I’ve never met a pie crust that’s better than my mother’s, which was her mother’s recipe, that has now been passed down to me. It’s a family recipe that makes me appreciate all of the “sweet” baking lessons I had with my grandma and mother in the kitchen!
My favorite filling is apple, but the crust works for everything from cherries to chocolate pudding.
Image credit: Emily Bird
Ali Rea Baum – Marcella Hazan’s Amatriciana
Cooking with my mother has always been one of my favorite things to do. From when I was allowed to just stir to taking the lead, and creating the meals with her assisting me. One of the first recipes I remember falling in love with, and wanting to memorize, is Marcella Hazan’s Amatriciana from her cookbook “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking”, which, coincidentally, was the first cookbook that my mother gave me. To this day, this recipe is still one of my favorites.
Make the dish with your mother!
Image credit: Ali Rea Baum
Gary Bedigan – Every Meal is an Event
Like in song, my mother is “hostess with the mostest”. Growing up, every meal was an event! We dressed for dinner and started with cocktails (or very watered down versions for the juniors) which were followed by course after course. Always a soup, then a salad, a pasta, then a main. My sister and I learned recipes passed down from her mother, to her, and now to us. Each of us has our own take, but mom’s sauce is unbelievable. Some of our best memories (and our most vocal arguments) were always around the table. So people say “never go to bed angry”, we say “never leave the table upset.”
Image credit: Gary Bedigan
Carina Hayek – Grandma’s Bread
So many of my memories of my mom and my grandmothers are tied up in food. Grandma’s bread, which my mom learned to make from her mother in law, made its daily appearance in our school lunches. My mom would faithfully make the bread biweekly so we wouldn’t be subjected to store bought bread which, in the 80s, was only suitable as ammunition for straw shooters.
An integral component of Grandma’s bread, which of course doesn’t have a recipe, is a boiled potato and the potato water. Whenever we had boiled potatoes with dinner, my mother would invariably make extra for bread. But we needed bread more often than we ate boiled potatoes, and to this day, the smell of boiled potatoes triggers warm memories of childhood.
Sometimes, my mother would time the baking of the bread just right and we’d come home from school to find a freshly baked loaf of bread on the kitchen counter, a golden, crusty beauty that she’d brushed with butter and left to cool before she could slice and freeze it. Of course we’d clamor for a still-warm slice and my mom would indulge us. I say “we” because although it was usually just me and my brother, occasionally a friend would have come home with us and between the three of us, we’d demolish at least half a loaf.
As a special treat, sometimes my mom, like my Grandma, would prepare extra dough that she’d turn into cinnamon rolls. I’m having a cinnamon roll now. At 74, my mom continues her ritual of boiling potatoes to bake us our daily bread.
Image credit: Carina Hayek
Our GP Moms Share What They Want for Mother’s Day
We asked our GP moms the one thing they wanted for Mother’s Day this year. Moms, we hear you!
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“I want to be able to hug and kiss everybody.” Julie V.
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“Be with all my family under the same roof; I miss those gatherings a lot.” Jiny R.
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“Dinner in person with my kids!” Mindy B.
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“100% confirmation that school will be back in session this Fall. I am a terrible teacher! Seriously.” Sara S.
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“To find out sleep-away camp is happening this summer :)” Jodi S.
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“I agree that’s top on my list – to get to a point in this that summer camp is open!” Jennifer E.
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“A cabana boy for the day serving breakfast/lunch/dinner non-stop cocktails.” Tanya S.
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“It has nothing to do with my kids: a Peloton bike! I know, very materialistic, but true!! Oh, and world peace, an end to COVID-19, quality time with my kids, them getting along…” Barbara L.
Celebrations in this first half of 2020 have changed dramatically. We’re forced to be more creative and mindful as we celebrate, finding new ways to come together. We have some ideas for how we can celebrate with our mothers both via video conferencing and in person to make the day even more special and memorable.
Image credit: Wave Hill
Tips for Mother’s Day Celebrations via Video Conferencing
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Plan in advance: Mother’s Day is traditionally a day that phone lines are overloaded, and this is likely to be the case for video conferencing as well. Try starting your calls at off times — at quarter past or quarter to the hour — to help improve your connectivity. Also, make sure you’re not streaming anything on another device as that can impact your call quality.
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Send the invitation: Send the invitation with instructions for how to download the application before the call. For those less technologically inclined, schedule a practice call to help them with their technology so that everyone can see and hear (and be seen and heard).
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Set the scene: Find a fun background for your video conferences. Some apps, like Zoom, make it easy to change your backgrounds. Our friends at Wave Hill have curated a collection of beautiful garden photos that make great backgrounds, especially if you’re missing our Mother’s Day brunch at Wave Hill!
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Share a toast or a meal: Depending on what time you’re having your call, encourage everyone to have a toast ready or you can even share a meal together. If you have a favorite family dish, encourage everyone to make their version of it. It may seem silly,but it can help everyone feel more connected. We’ve got some great recipes for you to try.
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Remember to take a screenshot: Save a memory of the video conference by taking a screen shot. Take several and remind people to look at the camera and smile.
Tips for Celebrating Mother’s Day at Home
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Make a plan: Plan a menu and activities in advance. Take stock of your refrigerator and pantry and decide what else you’ll need to get or what substitutions you can make. We’ve collected some of our favorite Mother’s Day recipes.
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Involve the kids: A great activity for kids is to create an invitation for mom inviting her to join them for a Mother’s Day meal. You can even print out pages from our coloring book to use as a cover for the invitation.
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Set the table: You’ve worked hard to prepare the meal, make sure the table setting is up to par. Use found items in your house to create a tablescape. Kaitlin Walsh, our director of design, used a variety of plates on a textured table cloth. Food presented in small dishes of varying height alongside flowers in a tall vase added color, texture and interest. If you don’t have flowers available, fruits, vegetables, and herbs in jars c an add a sustainable and decorative element.
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Thank mom! Don’t forget to take a moment to thank mom before your meal and let her know how much you appreciate her. Using fancy glasses, even for non-alcoholic beverages, helps add to the festive mood.
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Preserve the moment: Make sure to capture a photo together! Set up a tripod or prop your phone up and use the timer function to get all of you in the shot. It’s sure to be a memory that’s treasured.
Let us know how you’re celebrating Mother’s Day! We’ll be sharing our memories on Instagram and can’t wait to see yours.
Single Pie Dough, Double Crust
By Chef Rob Valencia
Everyone loves a light, flaky pie crust, and there are several tips to ensure you make the perfect crust.
Tips for Making the Perfect Pie Crust
First, we use both pastry flour and all purpose flour. Pastry flour makes for a more delicate dough, while the all purpose makes the dough more workable and elastic. We find that using a 50/50 proportion makes a dough that’s easier to work with and that bakes up beautifully flaky.
Second, don’t over blend the butter into the dough — as the dough cooks, the water evaporates from the butter creating the flaky layers.
Third, using vodka or white vinegar in place of some of the water allows the other ingredients to bind together without contributing to the formation of gluten, which can make your dough tough. And finally, chilling and resting the dough allows the gluten to relax, gives the flour time to fully hydrate, and prevents the butter from melting into the dough, again, preserving flaky layers.
Ingredients:
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10 oz flour, half pastry flour, half all purpose
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½ tsp sugar
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½ tsp salt
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4 oz butter, diced and chilled
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3 oz water, cold
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1 ounce white vinegar or vodka
Procedure:
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Combine the flours, sugar and salt.
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Add the butter and rub into the flour with your fingers until the mixture begins to take on a yellow color. Leave small chunks of butter. Add the liquids in three parts, incorporating after each addition. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
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Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator and shape into a thick rectangle. Fold into thirds like an envelope. Flatten into a rectangle. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
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Remove chilled rectangle of dough and divide into two 8-ounce portions. Shape each portion into a ball.
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Roll each ball of dough into disk that’s 1/8 of an inch thick. Chill each disk after rolling.
Hungry for more?
Enjoy our first ever coloring book! Color in the pages and take a picture to share with us on Instagram!
Each month, our Great Performances menus feature seasonal ingredients. It’s our way of celebrating the earth and bringing our special touch to every menu.
WARM ASPARAGUS, ARUGULA AND TOASTED ALMOND SALAD
Ingredients
2 bunches large green asparagus, bottoms trimmed and sliced on bias
1 cup water
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 coups whole blanched almonds, lightly toasted
2 cups baby arugula
3 tbsp cold butter, cubed
1 lemon, zested and juiced
4 tbsp tarragon leaves
sea salt and pepper
Procedure
Combine water, honey, olive oil, sea salt and pepper
Preheat a large saute pan over high flame. Once the pan is very hot, add the asparagus followed by the prepared water and honey mixture. Quickly cover and let steam for 2 minutes.
Remove the pan from heat, take off the cover and add the whole almonds, butter and baby arugula. Toss well, letting the carry-over heat melt the butter. Add the lemon juice and taste for seasoning. Finish with the tarragon and serve warm.