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Our first menu item this week sounds a bit obscure, and indeed it's probably not the first thing you think of when you think about Maryland cuisine, old-school or otherwise. Don't worry though, this week's SAVORY CRAB-SHRIMP CHEESECAKE does have a home-cooking pedigree. There are plenty of "crab cheesecake" recipes out there, but my specific starting point for my version is the sort of dish that you'd make for a cooking contest at an Eastern Shore Crab Derby. There is a recipe out there for just such a cheesecake, but with a little finesse and a touch of flair, we can transform this from home-cooking recipe contest fare to something that I'd be proud to serve in a nice restaurant. I'll be using blue crab first and foremost, along with some finely chopped shrimp for a little texture, flavor and color. This seafood will be folded into a savory cheesecake batter, poured over a simple ritz cracker crust, and baked until set just so but still luxuriously tender and rich. I'm going to serve this with a simple tomatoey old bay sauce too, for a bit of contrast and classiness. This is a fantastic dish, and I know that nobody around here is serving anything like it.

The next dish in our lineup might sound like a "side dish", but I'm going to build this thing like something you'd be happy to have as a focus for a first course. ESCALLOPED POTAOTES & MUSHROOMS is pretty much just like it sounds, but the magic is in the details. I'll boil and slice potatoes so that they're super tender, then mix those cooked-and-sliced potatoes with some excellent roasted mushroom duxelles (that's the mushroom stuff that makes Beef Wellington all fancy.) Then this mushroom-heavy potato mixture will be placed into pans and topped with some thyme-infused sherry cream (sherry is a big part of old Maryland cooking) and topped with toasted breadcrumbs, ready to bake off and enjoy when dinnertime comes around. Creamy, mushroom-y, sherry-spiked potatoes... I don't think we can go wrong with this one.

Braised beef is good pretty much any way you cook it. And there are LOTS of ways to cook it. But cider? Adam, have you lost your mind? I haven't, and I didn't make this up... this "cider and beef" preparation comes directly from THE old-school Maryland cookbook (if you know it, you know it), but I'll be taking my own liberties on how this all comes together. And cooking beef in hard cider isn't even a uniquely Maryland thing either... there're examples of this in French, Spanish, and even English cooking. What I'm saying is that CIDER-BRAISED BEEF sounds like some sort of fringe preparation, but it really isn't. Sliced beef chuck slow-cooked in hard cider (not the sweet stuff, though it does retain a touch of sweetness) along with warm spices like cinnamon and orange peel, then finished with a simple roux to make a nice rich gravy from the cooking liquid. While it would be cute to serve this with mashed potatoes or just in a bowl, a much more classic way would be to serve it over "snippets", which are toasted pieces of bread. I'll be providing some nice country-style bread for you to toast up, and you'll serve this saucy beef over that toasted bread... it's actually a fantastic way to enjoy this dish that isn't too heavy but substantial enough to make sense with the super-flavorful braised beef. Trust me, this dish is a gem.

What sort of winter vegetables are a common old-time Maryland accompaniment to a menu like this? Well, certainly all the ones that people don't like, such as turnips, beets, rutabaga, etc. But we can go in the greens direction too, which I think fits much better. FLASH-WILTED WINTER GREENS sound deceptively simple, but there's a lot going on here with just a few ingredients. Kale is the star, along with one of my favorite vegetables on the planet: big mustard greens. I'll be taking the "fast cook" approach rather than the stewed down, cooked to extreme softness approach that's often taken with greens... definitely still cooked, but also still... you know... green. While these greens are great as-is, we can ramp things up a little with a simple spiced mustard dressing, so let's do that too. Great, wholesome, delicious greens with a zingy mustard dressing to better mesh with the rest of the menu, that's what this dish is.

We're going way back with our dessert this week. While there might not be an exact recipe for SALTED COCONUT & BROWN SUGAR HOT MILK CAKE in that aforementioned cookbook, I bet you $15 that if you zapped me back to 1850 and I served this dessert at a party in the Hammond-Harwood House, guests would be quite happy. Hot milk cake (which is sort of like a sponge cake and sort of like a pound cake... it's good) topped with toasted coconut that's been mixed into salted brown sugar caramel. I'll be restrained with the sweetness here as I usually am, and the contrast of the salted caramel with the coconut and the sweet, tender cake really makes this dessert something that's simple and nuanced, but complex enough not to feel boring. And it's VERY old fashioned.