Love Letter

baby shrimp, raspberry truffles & secret treat

For Mom, Cook & Tell was much more than a newsletter. What she wrote, every month without fail, was a love letter—to food, to her readers, to her family, to her friends. After all, she lived on Love’s Cove, where cooking is as immortal as love itself.

As she noted in the February 1989 issue:

It really is Love’s Cove, named for the Love family who lived in the neighborhood. Earlier in this century, our house was the home of Woodbury Love, who served the town honorably and efficiently as First Selectman for years. We consider it a privilege to live up to our address.

I carry this torch now, her legacy as inextinguishable as my love for her. Sharing her passion for cooking through her art and words and recipes is my love letter to you.

From Cook & Tell, February 2004

Calling all sweethearts, spouses, mates, partners, chums and buddies. Break out the candles, buy roses, lay in a stock of chocolates and have a nice little supper at home. Somebody’s got to play the cook, so toss a coin, and if it doesn’t come up hearts, do the sweet thing anyway and step up to the stove. Valentine’s Day: it’s the ultimate date night!

MARINATED SHRIMP

Originally served as an appetizer, we fell in love with this as a main dish salad. Our tiny Maine shrimp¹ are sweet and tender, in keeping with the special day.

• 1 ½ lb. cleaned, cooked shrimp

• 1 c. minced onion

• 1/3 c. snipped fresh parsley

• 1/3 c. olive oil

• 2/3 c. vinegar

• 1 garlic clove, minced

• 2 t. garlic salt

• ½ t. freshly ground pepper

• Fancy salad greens

Combine the shrimp, onions and parsley in a container you can put in the fridge. In a smaller bowl, combine the oil, vinegar, garlic, garlic salt and pepper and add it to the shrimp. Marinate overnight.

Serve over greens of your choice as a salad entrée or with crackers as an appetizer.

RASPBERRY CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES

Confections worthy of your best beau or belle

Makes 60-70

• 1 stick butter

• 12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

• ½ c. seedless raspberry jam

• 2 c. confectioners’ sugar, sifted

• Ghirardelli Double Chocolate hot chocolate mix (for lavish coating of truffles)

• Mini baking cups. Many.

Melt the butter in a 2-quart saucepan on low. Add the chocolate chips and stir til melted and thoroughly blended with the butter. Stir in jam. Remove from heat. Add the sugar 1 cup at a time and blend thoroughly. Chill thoroughly.

Place ¼ cup hot chocolate powder in a shallow soup plate or small bowl. Wash your hands and lay out as many itty-bitty fluted paper bake cups as you feel like filling with truffles at the moment (make a few at a time if you wish). Scoop out a truffle’s worth of chilled dough (about 1 teaspoon) and roll into a ball between your palms. Make it casual, not a perfect sphere. Roll in the hot chocolate mix until thoroughly² coated. Repeat.

Store in fridge. Keeps like fudge.

Amie’s Endnotes

Carr’s Rosemary Crackers are a delicate accompaniment if you’re serving the shrimp as an appetizer. As a main entrée salad, crusty French bread pairs divinely.

I auditioned the truffles at my holiday “Dessert in the Desert” party and afterward cut the remaining fudge-like dough into—wait for it—small fudge-like squares to freeze for a Valentine’s Day resurrection.

Valentine’s Day 2017: Mom & I at the island store, surrounded by food. Of course.

What’s on your Valentine’s menu? Whether you’re cooking in or dining out or ripping into a box of chocolates for supper, share your plans in the COMMENTS below!

And if you like receiving Cook & Tell, why not share the love?

1. The shrimp population in the Gulf of Maine has declined sharply and remains critically low due to rising water and predation by longfin squid. As a result, Maine shrimp will remain off the menu for the foreseeable future.

2. Yeah, we like this word.