May 3, 2000
Recipes a way to advertise
The cook
John Caudill and his wife, Susan, are Realtors with Prudential Preferred
Properties at the Oakway Center. "I am the primary cook for our family, and Susan is
the master gardener," he says. He publishes and mails out about 1,100 recipes a month
to clients and friends as a way of advertising his work in real estate sales.
His specialty "I enjoy most of the world's foods and have tried the recipes of
most cultures as local ingedients would allow. Asian and Middle Eastern, with their unique
sauces and spices, offer challenges that fit our lifestyle."
If he doesn't find ingredients locally, he hunts them down on the Internet, and he
offers to help others find ingredients or recipes if they send an e-mail to
jcaudill@earthlink.net.
How he began cooking "The oldest boy of an all-boy family, I found that, with
my mother and father both working, if we were to have anything besides '50s 'blah' food, I
would have to make an effort to learn to forage for myself. I purloined a copy of the
'Good Housekeeping Cookbook,' which I still have in tattered and worn state, and began.
After many - and I mean many - errors, the dumbell light went on and things began to make
sense.
"Embarassed to tell my buddies I liked to cook, it was a well-kept secret until
some of my girlfriends found out and I was instantly popular.
"After some professional training, I worked for several years in the food service
business and realized professional cooking was a drudgery and one was at the mercy of an
ungracious industry."
His biggest cooking success He considers a pizza parlor he opened in Roseburg in
1963 and ran for about two years as his biggest cooking success.
"I hand-rolled pizza, had a delivery service, sold fresh pasta and, for drinks, I
made lattes and mochas with an old, solid brass Ghiardelli expresso machine. I still have
one of the menus from that 'before-its-time' adventure."
When the novelty of the restaurant business wore off, Caudill said he moved to Eugene,
where he began a career as a salesman.
His biggest cooking failure "Fresh bonita with mornay sauce on homemade
linguini is usually complemented with Tuscan black olives. I was out of them and on my
third glass of Chianti, so I bravely tried green cocktail olives. Yuck!"
His favorite cookbooks "I own several hundred, one dating back to 1780 and
published in New York.
"I enjoy them all, but 'The Escoffier Cook Book' by A. Escoffier and issued by
Crown Publishing out of New York is one of my favorites."
Why this recipe was chosen This Moroccan chicken dish is made with cinnamon, one of
Caudill's favorite spices, which gives a dark mahogany color to the baked meat.
"I have served this dish many times to friends who find its aromatic scent and
distinct flavor quite complementary to fowl, particularly capon or roasting hens," he
said.
John's Moroccan Chicken
1 whole fresh Oregon chicken
1 tablespoon garlic paste (or minced fresh)
2 tablespoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons Worchestershire sauce
1/2 tablespoon oregano
2 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon thyme
1 tablespoon ginger
1 tablespoon paprika (Hungarian, of course)
1 tablespoon fresh ground pepper
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Wash the bird in cold water, remove any fat inside the cavity, pat dry with paper
towels inside and out, and let sit for an hour or so.
Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl and mix until well blended. Rub all the
mixture onto the skin of the bird until it is thoroughtly coated.
Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, reduce heat to 300 degrees and continue baking
until a meat thermometer inserted in the thigh reads 165 degrees.
Remove from oven and allow to rest for 20 minutes.
Carve chicken and serve with couscous mixed with broccoli, peas and baby carrots.
Suggested wine Pinot gris is a very complementary flavor with this entree.
To nominate a cook for this feature, mail it to Home Cooking, P.O. Box 10188, Eugene,
OR 97440; fax it to 683-7631; contact Jim Boyd at 338-2363, or (800) 377-7428; or e-mail
it to jboyd@ guardnet.com.
Include the nominee's name and phone number, your name and phone number, and why you
think he or she is an interesting cook.)
John Caudill
