Required Reading

Food doesn't go in and out of fashion as quickly or as easily as clothes, but certainly the way people cook changes over the years. Do you make the food your mother did? When was the last time you cooked your grandmother's recipes?

Saving those old-fashioned dishes is the aim of Endangered Recipes (Stewart Tabori and Chang; $30) by Lari Robling. As she says in the introduction, "I certainly regret the dishes that got away: my grandmother's baked beans that no one bothered to learn how to make; the dumplings I didn't like as a kid, which now I think I would enjoy ... as the last generation to truly cook from scratch grows older, we lose many recipes and cooking techniques."

These may not be your family's heirlooms, but they're all solid old-fashioned recipes that are worth revisiting. And look, on page 34 is a recipe for the deep-fried biscuits from the Nashville House in Nashville, Ind. I remember those (they still make them). And Green Goddess dressing. My mother used to make that, but I haven't in years.

Recipe

This slow-cooker apple butter is meant to go with the fried Nashville House biscuits.

Crockpot Apple Butter

5 pounds apples, peeled, cored and chopped into 1-inch pieces (about 12 cups)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cardamom

1/2 cup apple cider

Mix ingredients together and add to a 3-quart Crockpot. Cover and heat on high for 4 hours. Scrape down sides and continue cooking, scraping down sides about every 2 to 3 hours.

After about 10 hours, remove lid and continue cooking another 1 to 2 hours. Stir occasionally. Mixture will become thick and caramel-colored. Apple butter is done when it is reduced by three-quarters and a spoon pulled through the sauce makes a ridge. Makes 3 cups.

From Endangered Recipes

What's for lunch?

BeBe's Deli in Hyde Park is a great place for lunch to go. It sells boxed lunches, hot lunches to go, sandwiches, deli salads and desserts.

Many of the sandwiches are named for Cincinnati neighborhoods. It's not immediately obvious whether sandwich ingredients match their namesake 'hoods. Hyde Park, for instance, is smoked turkey, bacon, roma tomatoes, watercress, avocado and dill mayo, appropriately both trendy and loaded. But shouldn't the Hyde Park Near cost less? It's a quarter more than the Hyde Park, at $7.50, with prosciutto, fontina cheese, roasted red peppers, spinach leaves, and lemon caper mayo.

Pleasant Ridge is, as in real life, a better bargain. For $6.95 you get peppered turkey, havarti, arugula, caramelized onions and basil mayo.

Who knew there were vegetarians in Indian Hill? It's represented with a mozzarella, tomato, basil leaves and house dressing ($6.95). I guess the rich appreciate simplicity. I've had that one, on a baguette. It wasn't huge or fancy, but a classic combination and very fresh.

If you stop in to pick up a sandwich, I also recommend the wonderful pea pod salad, with black sesame seeds and sesame oil.

BeBe's Deli is at 2942 Wasson Road; 841-1800.

We tried it

With one vegetarian among three carnivores in my household, I appreciate well-made convenience foods that are meat-free and healthy. Amy's Kitchen makes a lot of those. My daughter and I tried three of the company's new canned soups: lentil vegetable, chunky tomato bisque and pasta and three-bean. They're all organic, and the lentil-vegetable and pasta-bean are vegan.

We liked all of them - they're thick, full of vegetables and avoid overly processed or salty flavors. Like all canned soups, the prevailing texture is soft, and these were perhaps a little bland. A splash of cream in the bisque, some Parmesan grated on the pasta-bean and some hot sauce in the lentil improved them. Each is $1.99.