Funeral Food Tracking

As part of making funeral arrangements for Phil's mom, we were given the above-shown Assistance Guide "to help you Record and Remember the kindness, messages and personal assistance that your friends will render to you in the next few days and the accepted social procedures to follow in expressing your thanks."

The funeral director immediately pointed us to the "really unique thing about this guide"-- it has a food tracker. Right on the first page of forms, even before "Friends and Relatives to Notify." There's space to note, for 50 dishes, what was brought and what it was brought in.

To further help with getting containers back to people, a center insert has 50 "Food Dish Stickers," little numbered sticker squares to place on the containers, matching the numbers in the registry.

And if anyone is uncertain as to the accepted social procedure to follow in expressing thanks, the Guide recommends a personal note on an Acknowledgment Card with the recommended thank-you: "The apple pie you sent to the house was delicious; thanks again for your thoughtfulness."

I approve of this practice.

Bad Uses for Hotel Kitchens

Recommendation: do not season iron pans in a hotel room.

The tiny kitchen we’re using came equipped with two pans - a fry pan and a saucepan. The box of things going to the thrift store from my mother-in-law’s house contained a #3 (small) Griswold fry pan. There were a few rust spots, nothing bad.

A good scrubbing, followed by high heat and a nice application of fat, would set things right and give me a pan I’d be proud to use anywhere. Back to the hotel. It was 9:30 or so. Seemed to make sense to set the pan to rights before going to bed so that I could use it for breakfast.

Good scrubbing; no problem, and the pan was clean and ready to oil. High heat; also no problem. When the oil was put on, there definitely would be smoke, so I turned the range hood exhaust on high. Sure enough, there was smoke. Too much for the range hood. In need of another exhaust, we turned on the bathroom vent. The smoke was drawn from the kitchen. And over the smoke detector.

Smoke alarms in hotels are loud. Very, very loud.

We didn’t fess up that we weren’t even cooking, and the generous desk staff (who turned off the alarm right away) implied that it happens all the time. Nonetheless, I think it’s my most embarrassing, and certainly my most publicly embarrassing, kitchen experience.

 

I do now have a very nice and functional pan.

Oxtail soup

This is a good stew for a cold, windy winter day. Walnut Hills Farm had whole ox-tail, I have never actually seen a whole one for sale, normally get it 'pre-sectioned' So I had to do some cleaving.

2 lbs. oxtails
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup barley
2 quarts cold water

14 oz can tomato
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, sliced
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
4 bay leaf
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Brown oxtail in oil, remove. Toss in veggies and brown. Toss in barley with water and simmer for a few minutes. Add tomato, bay leaves and oxtails and cook over low heat for 3+ hrs until meat is falling off the bones. Add parley and cook for another 15 minutes.

If the result is too thick, you can thin it with water or broth

Greens, Eggs, and Ham

This morning’s fare was kale, eggs, and bacon. The color from the kale bled over on the eggs, so it was green eggs and ham, as well. Being on a Seussian theme seems somewhat appropriate with everything here in flux and surreally outside our control. Even a tiny kitchen has been a great help in normalcy. With that, the local co-op, and takeout of various ethnicities, we’re managing to keep our diet on track, but I miss my own food.

A Kitchen's a Kitchen, No Matter How Small

On our way to Minnesota decided a logical stopping point would be South Bend. The encroaching snowstorm made it more than logical - the snow started coming down in drifts about 15 miles before the exit and it would have been unsafe and stupid for us to go on. Thanks to the Intertoobs Phil was able to find an extended stay hotel so we could put our groceries in the fridge and have a hot meal after a long day travelling. Picture above shows our "kitchen," plus the entirety of the cooking utensils provided - one covered saucepan and an uncovered fry pan.

That was enough, though, for a feast of leftover hare (right) and kale sauteed in a bit of cider vinegar and then served with the sauce from the hare poured over. I feel truly decadent in our $53 hotel room with 2 of each dish, no table to eat at, and a view of the parking lot. Whenever I have the option again, I'm opting for a room with a kitchen, no mater how small.

The Heart of the Hare

The hare from D'Artagnan was packed up for the trip to Minnesota, but the offal was our going-away breakfast. Pictured above from left to right - the heart, in four slices; the lungs, in five pieces of varying size (don't know why, exactly, but they naturally divided that way, the kidneys, and the liver. Sauteed them 30 seconds on each side in sizzling butter and served them with a mushroom omerisu (rice omelet). The heart and liver both had a strong taste to them, not surprising given the taste of the meat itself. The lungs were not really worth the time. They were kind of flappy and mine (I took the single big piece) didn't want to come apart at all so I ended up having to choke it down in bigger pieces than I would have liked. I would do research before having lungs again. The kidneys were the best I've ever had - mild and flavorful and with a mouth feel that was a perfect al dente. Too bad it was just one small bite.

D'Artagnan Hare, Stewed (Thanks, Hank and Holly!)

We have had rabbit, and it is good. But hare is a new thing. I've been wanting to try some for a while, and this post by Hank and Holly pushed it to the fore. D'Artagnan's website ominously decreed that hare season is almost over for the year, so that sealed it. The recipe really is mine; I consulted a whole bunch of sources and ended up saying they were all too fussy.

Courtney's Scottish Hare
(for one hare)
1 hare or jackrabbit, cleaned and cut into pieces
1/4 lb salt pork, in approx. 1/2" dice
3 cloves garlic, peeled and cut in half
4 medium shallots, peeled and cut into thirds
1 cup water
1/2 cup brandy
2 Tbsp prepared English mustard (I used Coleman's)

Mix a little water into the mustard until it makes a slurry, then add the rest of the water and combine.

In a heated dutch oven, fry the salt pork until it is golden and there is a good layer of melted fat in the bottom of the pan. Brown the rabbit lightly on all sides in small batches. When all pieces have been browned, turn the heat to low and add back the rabbit and all other ingredients. Simmer until the meat falls easily from the bone.

Cooking Notes: The carving was the most interesting aspect. The hare came marked "oven ready" and while, as shown in the photo above, the meat was much darker than other rabbits I've had, the dressing looked about the same.
I couldn't have been more wrong. There was a ton of blood, for one thing (it even had escaped the foam packaging when sent; I wonder what the FedEx guy thinks...), which seemed a bit odd but didn't really faze me. The ribcage wasn't split, in itself not a big difference. Then looking under the ribcage came the amazing surprise: most of the organs were still intact. Heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, all the fat around the kidneys were still there.

 

Picture shows me pulling out a lot of the organs after I'd learned the rabbit's secret. My experience gutting chickens came in handy here, and I just felt and pulled and cut with the knife until I had a lovely array of offal. I recognized the heart, liver, and kidneys and think the thing in the picture below is the lungs, which are not generally sold alone in the U.S.

There was also something that looked like a really big clot of blood. I couldn't figure out what it was so I threw it away; probably it was the best part. I saved all the organ meat for breakfast tomorrow before we head out. Then I cut up the rabbit and started the stew. After wiping the blood down from the kitchen (the quantity was unbelievable and it ended up seemingly everywhere; picture below shows a sampling) it was time to let the braising do the work.

Eating Notes:Wow. If you don't like game you won't like hare, but if you like strongly flavored meat you will fall in love. Even when it was cooking the whole house was permeated with a wondrous slightly sour pungency a bit like the iron smell of liver cooking. That flavor came through in the taste as well. In terms of mouth feel, the hare was really tender but, as Phil noted, in a way that was loose with the grain but dense against the grain, so that it didn't lose all structure or turn into anything at all mushy. We both definitely would order some again.

1966 WDEC - Oregon - Celery Salad

Cooked celery, for me, is an ingredient for soup and stew, not salad. Just the thought of eating chilled cooked celery is a little "yuck." So I had to try this simple Woman's Day recipe.

Oregon Celery Salad
(to serve 4 - 6)
4 cups cooked 2" pieces of celery
Salad greens
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup salad oil (I used olive)
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp chopped green pepper
2 Tbsp chopped pimiento

Chill cooked celery and arrange on salad greens. Shake remaining ingredients together in a tightly closed jar until well blended. Pour dressing over celery and greens and serve at once.

Cooking Notes: I cut the recipe in half and omitted the salad greens, since I had none on hand.

Eating Notes: Well...it looks better than it tastes. The celery was just firm on the outside and completely tender on the inside, so I did cook it right, but I was right, cooked celery just isn't our thing. It's just kind of bland, loses a lot of its celery flavor in the cooking, and doesn't have the slightly salty crunch of fresh. Phil took one bite and passed on his; I ate mine only out of some misplaced Calvinist sense of duty. The salad greens would not have appreciably improved it.

Going away for a bit

Off to Minnesota for a couple of weeks to say goodbye to Phil's mom. Fairly decent snowstorm is expected on the way, so while it's supposed to be a two-day trip, who knows? Have enough posts for a couple of days, and Lane has promised to watch our backs, so hopefully nothing too much in the way of interruptions.

1966 WDEC - Oregon - Razor-Clam Bisque

Found razor clams through Giovanni's Fish Market at a price that didn't make me gasp, and said what the heck. These are Pacific razor clams, not the Atlantic razor clams we get in Maryland. They look completely different; hopefully, they taste completely different, too, since the Atlantic kind are considered fit only for bait, not food.
Razor-Clam Bisque
(to serve 4 - 6)
24 razor clams*
1 cup water
1 small onion, minced
1 Tbsp minced parsley
2 whole cloves
2 whole allspice
Dash of ground mace
4 cups milk
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup heavy cream, whipped
*may want to seriously adjust downward; see Cooking Notes below.

Scrub clams and put in kettle. Add water, cover, and cook over medium heat until shells open and clams can be easily removed, about 10 minutes. Reserve broth.

Chop clams and mix with onion, parsley, cloves, allspice, and mace. Add clam mixture to broth in which clams were cooked. Simmer for 30 minutes. Mix 1/3 cup milk with flour to make a smooth mixture; add mixture to remaining milk. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and thick. Strain clam broth into milk. Reheat slightly and serve topped with whipped cream.

Cooking Notes: I was not able to buy clams in the shell, the ones I had came as "clam steaks" in a bag. So I didn't have to cook the clams, and the liquor from the bag of clams stood in for the broth. Opening the 1-lb bag of clams clarified the nomenclature. Picture below shows one clam.

There were four, total. One-quarter pound each. If I'd used 24, that would have been six pounds of clam meat. I was a bit worried that maybe one pound was a bit shy, so I cut back the milk to 2 cups, keeping the other ingredients the same as in the recipe.

When the clams were sieved out, they looked perfectly good (see picture below), and certainly too good at $25+ for the pound (after factoring in shipping) to throw away. So they became a side course in their own right, with just a little black pepper ground over.

 

The whipped cream melted almost instantly, and it's lovely to watch the white-on-white display. So I recommend serving the cream on the side and letting each person put their own in if you can't serve the bisque absolutely right away.

Eating Notes: The "scrap" clams were excellent - tender but meaty and very sweet. The bisque itself was sublime. Foamy and subtle with the sweetness of the clams and the velvet of the base and cream. Good food, simply cooked. Excellent results. The only thing that kept it from being ethereal was that I didn't strain it again when plating it, so there were the tiniest flour lumps from the ladle scraping the pan. Next time.

1966 WDEC - Oregon - Peach Cream Almond Pie (Tart)

Wouldn't be convinced this would really set without trying it. So. I made a tart, as shown. Followed my own pie-to-tart conversion by cutting the crust recipe in thirds and the content in fifths. Content amounts I used for the tart follow the Woman's Day instructions in parenthesis.

Peach Cream Almond Pie
(to serve 6)
3-1/2 cups peeled and sliced fresh peaches (for tart: 105 grams)
About 2/3 cup sugar (for tart: 26 grams)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (for tart: 6 grams)
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (for tart: 1/8 tsp)
Pastry for 1-crust, 9" pie, unbaked (for tart: 1/3 recipe)
1 cup heavy cream (for tart: 48 grams)
1/4 cup sliced blanched almonds (for tart: 1 Tbsp)

Preheat oven to 400F. Toss peaches gently with sugar, flour, and nutmeg. Turn into pastry-lined pan. Pour cream over peaches. Bake 35 minutes (for tart: 20 min) Remove pie from oven, sprinkle top with almonds. Return pie to oven and bake for 5 minutes more (same for tart), or until cream is set and almonds are lightly browned. Cool.

Cooking Notes: The peaches were what one should expect in February - underripe, yet a bit dessicated. Definitely not for eating out of hand. The only blanched almonds at the Whole Foods were slivered, so I used those.

Eating Notes:  The tart had a lot of eye appeal (yes, the cream did set), but was rather non-remarkable taste-wise. The underripe peaches were, for me, a bit of a wash. On the negative side, they weren't as "peachy" as ripe fruit, and the slight crunch was a bit disconcerting. On the positive side, this was the first peach pie I've ever had that I didn't find impossibly sweet. The very slight tartness still left in the fruit also combined well (for me) with the nutmeg bite and the rich smoothness of the cream. But still, there was that nagging lack of full peach flavor. At least the pie crust was an unqualified success. Made with Mangalitsa lard using the ratio of 3 parts flour to 1 part lard and no real recipe (cut the lard into the flour (salted to taste), add cold water bit by bit until it just comes together), it was fabulously light and flaky.

Mangalitsa Stir-Fry

When carving the side of Mangalitsa from Wooly Pigs (by way of Foods in Season), about a pound of muscle meat was left over from carving the ribs. I used this for a stir-fry with green pepper. Not really anything special about the recipe or the sauce (except that using hog head broth made it absolutely fabulous), just notes on the meat.

Most of the meat had been shaved off the fat, so it already was a nice thinness for stir-fry. The thicker slices seemed to have seams through them, as well, so it was easier than expected to cut crosswise through them, making two or three thin slabs that could then be cut into strips.

As shown in the picture above, a faint silvery membrane runs through the meat. Here it is on the top of the bottom slice. Cutting along this membrane was surprisingly easy, really just a matter of letting the knife follow the natural path of least resistance.

The rest of the cooking went as for any pork stir-fry. When it came time for the eating, it was as I suspected when we had the ribs and the bacon. Put simply, Mangalitsa is raised for its fat. It is wonderful and subtle, and (I believe, anyway) is best appreciated on its own or with very minimal spicing. The stir fry sauce would have been balanced by the relatively lean forest-raised pig meat from Babes in the Woods, which has an earthy, almost nutty flavor. The same sauce nearly overwhelmed the Mangalitsa. It was very good pig, but the subtle tastes that really come forward in the bacon and ribs to make it most excellent were lost.

The stir-fry was good enough to be an excellent use for what were essentially scraps from carving the ribs and bacon. In the future, though, when I order Mangalitsa I'm going to focus on simple cuts simply cooked.

1966 WDEC - Oregon - Golden Cheese Spoon Bread

Decided this would be good for breakfast after all, and it was a way to use up the last of some frozen corn.

Golden Cheese Spoon Bread
(to serve 6 - 8)
2 cups milk
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tsp salt
Butter
2 tbsp finely minced green pepper
1 cup cooked fresh or canned whole-kernel corn
1/4 lb sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
4 eggs, separated

Preheat oven to 350F. Heat milk in a saucepan  until hot, not boiling. Gradually add cornmeal; stir constantly. Stir in salt and 2 tablespoons butter. When butter is melted, remove from heat and stir in green pepper, corn, and cheese. Gradually stir hot mixture into slightly beaten egg yolks. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry, and fold in. Turn into a buttered baking dish (about 1-1/2 quarts, or 8" x 8"). Bake 45 minutes or until golden brown. Picture shows it just out of the oven before it's had a chance to deflate.

Serve immediately. Pass with warm melted butter to pour over each serving.

Cooking Notes: Used white masa instead of cornmeal and cut the salt in half; otherwise, everything was the same. Forgot about the melted butter for serving.

Eating Notes: Much less obnoxiously cheesy than I'd expected, the spoon bread was filling but light. I didn't miss the extra melted butter, although I'll probably use it with the leftovers, and cutting back on the salt was the right thing to do.

Unlike the Delaware spoon bread, this was too fragile to be useful for any heavy inclusions - the pepper was quite enough. But it could accompany a lot of savory dishes - shrimp and seafood especially come to mind.

1966 WDEC - Oregon

Slogging my way through the "American Cookery" section of the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery and it's only now that I've realized they have a consistent 8 recipes per state. No wonder this is taking so long! Oregon, "Trail's end for wagon trains," but not for this project, is next (photo of Oxbow Park). The lineup, my take, and my plan:

Razor-Clam Bisque: The Atlantic razor clams harvested in Maryland waters and used for bait are quite different from the Pacific razor clams one would expect to see in an Oregon-based dish. Now I'm wondering if the taste of razor clams differs from the taste of the hard shell clams I'm used to. I will try to find a source online, just for grins. Otherwise, it's just a basic bisque, and I'll pass.
Barbecued Columbia River Salmon: Salmon baked (not sure why that counts as barbecued) under a salsa-like sauce and over a couple of pieces of bacon. I'm kind of feeling meh about it, but maybe if the salmon at the Whole Foods looks good this week, I'll try it.
Western Steak Barbecue: This actually is a barbecue, and it's been a while since I used Mechazawa-san, so I'll make it.
Oregon Celery Salad: A salad of cooked celery with a vinegar-and-oil dressing. Cooked celery outside of soups and stews sounds perfectly dreadful, so of course I'll have to try it.
Golden Cheese Spoon Bread: Despite my love of spoon bread, I'll probably pass on this, which takes basic spoon bread and mixes in extra corn and some Cheddar cheese. I do have some frozen corn in the freezer, though, and no other plans for Sunday breakfast, so it may happen.
Peach Cream Almond Pie: There is no egg  in this, just a cup of heavy cream and 1/4 cup of flour, but it's supposed to set like a custard. I will have to make it to see what happens.
Cranberry-Apple Crisp: Standard crisp; nothing special and I'll pass.
Oregon Filbert Squares: Hazelnut (filbert) shortbread. Like the crisp, nothing special, and as it makes 5 dozen, I'll let it go by.

To the kitchen!

1966 WDEC - Oklahoma - Fish Baked in a Blanket

The rockfish (striped bass) at the Whole Foods just came in Friday morning from being fished on Thursday, and one can catch bass in Oklahoma, so it seemed apropos for this dish.

Fish Baked in a Blanket
(to serve 6)
1 whole 4 - 5 lb fish
Salt and pepper
Lemon juice
Butter
Flour
Water

Preheat oven to 450F. Clean a large whole fish (or have your fishmonger do this). Season fish inside and out with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with lemon juice and dot with butter. Make a thick paste of flour and water.

Cover entire fish with paste as shown above; Place on greased baking sheet.
Bake 25 - 30 minutes. Remove from oven. Picture below shows it just removed.

Crack crust with mallet and remove fish carefully. Picture below shows me peeling the crust off the fish. Discard crust. Serve fish with lemon.

Cooking Notes: It takes a lot of paste to cover a 4-lb fish. I used up my gluten-free baking and garbanzo bean flour for the crust, and it didn't make enough to cover, so I used masa flour for the rest. The gluten-free baking flour is the darker part and the light part is the masa paste. Unfortunately, I didn't need a mallet to crack open the crust. The flesh came off the bone fairly easily; by using gloves so it wouldn't be too hot I was able to lift a fillet from the fish and transfer it to the plate - it worked nicely on the one shown above; the other one crumbled a bit in transit. Oh, well. Plating is my eternal challenge.

Eating Notes: I was hesitant about baking any fish for 30 minutes, but I held my breath and did it, and it was the right thing. In fact, if I'd had a 5-lb fish, it could have gone a little longer. The blanket of paste protected the fish from drying out, and the flesh just done, moist, and had a really gentle flavor. If I made it again, I might add lavender or other fresh herbs to the cavity for a bit more nuanced taste, but the fish itself was so good that I'd use a light hand.

The kitchen goddess also approved.

Up Next: Oregon

1966 WDEC - Oklahoma - Chili Sauce

It's a cold day and I'm home, so even though tomatoes aren't in season, it seems like a good time to have some sauce simmering on the stove.

Chili Sauce*
(to make approximately 2-1/2 pints)
12 ripe medium tomatoes
2 medium onions, chopped fine
2 green peppers, chopped fine
2 cups cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp whole cloves
2 tsp salt
1/2 - 1 tsp cayenne

Dip tomatoes in boiling water until skins just crack; remove and plunge into cold water to stop cooking. Core, remove skins, and cut into eighths. Add remaining ingredients. Cook at a slow bubble until sauce is thick and vegetables are tender. Pour mixture into hot sterilized jars; seal and process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

*The Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery recipe just has you seal the jars and store them. This does not follow current safe canning practices. If you are planning to consume the chili sauce quickly and store it in the fridge, it probably is ok not to can it. You also could freeze the sauce, in which case the boiling water bath processing would not be necessary.

Cooking Notes: I cut the sugar back to 1/3 cup and went a bit heavy on the cayenne; everything else kept the same. It ended up simmering all day and then, on the lowest possible setting, all night. This made a nicely thick and fragrant sauce. In the future I'd make it in the crock pot, which I think is safer to leave on overnight. My yield, as shown in the first picture, was 3-1/2 pints.

No eating notes for a while; I'll let this set 2 weeks before trying it and then will update.

1966 WDEC - Oklahoma - Buttermilk Shake

Phil just came in from going behind the snow-eater. This was a machine something like shown in the picture below that came by to clear the last lane of our street still clogged by previous plowings.

Instead of putting the snow in a dump truck, however, the State helpfully pointed the chute curbward and dumped it into our yards. To their credit, they aimed around the cut I'd made to the curb and tried to shoot it over the sidewalk, but in some places the banks were simply too high already and most of the crud just cascaded down, half-filling the trench.

Picture shows the trench we now have, down from the nice snow-shovel-wide path of before, but at least the mail carrier can get from our break in the snowbank to our neighbor's house if she shovels her part. The other side wasn't as bad.

After coming in from work like that, Phil should have been offered hot chocolate, but instead he got a Buttermilk Shake.

Buttermilk Shake
(to serve 8)
Juice of 6 lemons
1 cup sugar
2 quarts chilled buttermilk
Ice

Mix lemon juice with sugar and stir until dissolved. Stir in buttermilk. Shake with plenty of cracked ice and serve immediately.

Cooking Notes: I cut the recipe in fourths to serve 2 but kept everything else (even the sugar!) the same. Because the quantity was lower, I combined everything in a 2-gallon plastic Tupperware pitcher, using whole ice cubes and filling it about 1/2 full, then shook it until it was well mixed and the sugar was dissolved. This worked fine and was far less fussy than their method. I think I could have done up to 3 servings using this method with this size container.

Eating Notes: Surprisingly good, it tasted, well, like buttermilk, lemon, and sugar all mixed up and frothy. It's quite lemony and the citrus cuts through the buttermilk, giving the drink a very clean taste. I think it would work with orange juice and no or greatly reduced sugar, also. Lime would probably be too strong and grapefruit juice just a shade too bitter, but who knows?

1966 WDEC - Oklahoma - Pepper Butter

"Excellent for steaks, fish, and chops," says the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery. I was having fish. So.

Pepper Butter
1/3 cup soft butter
1 Tbsp each of minced red and green pepper
1 tsp grated onion
1 Tbsp minced parsley
Garlic salt
1/8 tsp cayenne
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Cream butter. Add remaining ingredients. Mix well. Store in covered jar in refrigerator.

Cooking Notes: I minced the onion and used a clove of fresh garlic and a pinch of salt instead of the garlic salt. The cayenne was applied with a slightly heavy hand - more like a shy 1/4 tsp.

Eating Notes: Picture above shows it on the fish. It was a nice contrast with the whitefish - just strong enough with the pepper and garlic to make a statement, but not too much to overpower the fundamentally unassertive whitefish. I asked Phil if he thought I'd undersalted, because there was no obvious salty taste, but he said no, it was fine as it was, and I agree. There were no leftovers.

1966 WDEC - Oklahoma - Picnic Chicken

Washington is in the grip of some of the worst (best?) snow I've seen in my time here. (Picture of me barely keeping up with the plows)

Phil reports that as of today we're behind only Syracuse, having just edged out third-placed Rochester, in terms of snowfall for the year. What better time for a picnic?

Picnic Chicken
(to serve 6)
3 broilers, 2- to 2-1/2 lbs each2 cups cider vinegar
2 Tbsp salt
1/2 cup cooking oil
1/4 tsp pepper

Have broilers split into halves. Mix the remaining ingredients [until salt dissolves] and pour over the chicken. Let stand for 1 hour. Drain chicken, reserving marinade, and place chicken halves, skin side up, over charcoal or in a broiler about 8" from source of heat. Brush with marinade every 15 minutes during cooking. Broil 20 to 25 minutes on each side, or until chicken is brown and tender.

Cooking Notes: I'm always amazed at how much larger today's food creatures are than they were when the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery was published. A 2-lb chicken is hard to find except at the farmer's market. Not having a whole chicken on hand, I used a pound and a half of thighs and cut the marinade in half, keeping the pepper at 1/4 tsp. With Mechazawa-san blanketed by many inches of snow, the broiler was definitely the way to go. I ended up cooking it skin up on high broil for 15 minutes, then basting it and having it go skin up another 15 minutes, then flipping it and basting it and having it go skin down 15 minutes more.

Eating Notes: The chicken was from the Whole Foods and not the farmer's market, and that did show; it had less of a muscular taste than we've become used to. But the marinade and process worked great. There was just enough pepper for interest, enough salt for flavor, and enough vinegar to balancd the salt. The olive oil helped brown the skin, and it all came together. If you don't have access to an Egg, this isn't such a bad substitute.

Stocking up Times Two

We didn't particularly stock up for last week's storm, which hit Friday and Saturday and closed the Farmer's market, and it looked like the prospects of our alley being plowed any time soon were about nil. So when my colleague kindly took me on an excursion to the Safeway in Oxon Hill, Maryland (not the one in the picture, but a similar set-up). I had a list:

eggs (pastured or Omega 3)
cheese
milk (organic whole)
rice (short grain)
cucumbers
chicken
yogurt (organic whole milk plain)
coffee
salami or other dry sausage
mushrooms
miso
nuts
gluten-free frozen waffles

The Oxon Hill Safeway is small-ish and caters to a working class clientele. I didn't expect to find miso and thought I might have to compromise on or swap out some things just because they'd not had time to fully restock after the last storm. But what I saw really brought home to me the challenges people who shop in less affluent areas face.

The produce at the Safeway was awful. Some stuff was picked over, but most was pretty well stocked. Even so, the cucumbers were wrinkled and soft, the celery was limp, the carrots and root vegetables were soft. Two bags of "premium traffic light" peppers (one red, one yellow, one green in each bag) looked o.k. One turned out to be moldy inside. There were some nice white mushrooms, and the fruit looked a bit better.
The "fresh" food wasn't. Nuts, meats and cheeses were past their expiration dates; despite my best efforts I managed to misread a label and get a block of Swiss that had expired two months ago. It was tightly vacuum-sealed and probably ok, but I just didn't trust it.
The lack of options was stunning. There was a broad selection of rice - but with the possible exception of a bag of Chinese rice that didn't say anything about grain size, it was all medium, long grain or instant. There were no gluten-free frozen bread products at all. All the yogurt was non-fat or sweetened and flavored. There was no dried sausage except for sliced sandwich meat. We couldn't find fresh chicken, although that was almost certainly a shortage issue.
The only good news was offal. The Safeway did have liver and pig feet and other "Specialty Meats" the Whole Foods doesn't carry. A pound-and-a-quarter slice of liver for dinner Tuesday cost 95 cents on sale (otherwise it would have been $1.36). The impossibly low price scared us enough that I cooked it through. It wasn't from a pastured animal, but it tasted pretty good.

In the end, I was unable to get eggs, yogurt, rice, cucumbers, chicken, salami, miso, or waffles.


Phil and a couple of neighbors dug out 150 yards of our alley when the county decided that they were unable or unwilling to do our block, so he went to the Whole Foods for a second run. By then the forecast for accumulation from this storm reached a point at which we figure we may not be going anywhere in the car any time soon, so I had him lay in more stuff. He had no problem at all getting everything on the list.

Is the issue at the Safeway prices, assumptions, marketing (or lack thereof), distribution options, or what? Most likely it is some combination of these. Average item cost for the food from the Whole Foods was $5.65; from the Safeway it was $5.28. Doesn't seem like much, but over the course of a full cart it would add up, and at the Safeway I almost always made the most expensive choices available. Grocery stores run on famously low margins and are not going to be inclined to buy stock that doesn't move. But there are lower income people who have celiac disease or gluten sensitivity who surely would buy gluten-free products, and people who would buy free range or Omega-3 eggs. And couldn't produce be marketed and maintained a bit better so that people buy it before it's too unattractive to consider? Again, small things, but they add up. I've become less dismissive of people shopping from the middle of the store and avoiding the edges, when the edges are like this.

1966 WDEC - Oklahoma - Sooner-State Beans with Spareribs

Beans and ribs, baked in a casserole. Perfect for the "American Cookery" chapter.

Sooner-State Beans with Spareribs
(to serve 6)
1 lb. dried pinto beans, washed and drained
3 lbs. fresh pork spareribs
Salt
Pepper
Chili Powder
2 green peppers, cut into quarters
2 onions, sliced
3-1/2 cups (one 1lb.-12 oz can) tomatoes

Cover beans with cold water, bring to boil, and boil for 2 minutes. Cover pan and let stand for 1 hour. Meanwhile, cut spareribs into serving pieces. Brown lightly in heavy skillet. Cover with water. Simmer, covered, until tender.
Preheat oven to 325F. Drain beans and pour into roasting pan. Arrange spareribs on top of beans (picture shows it).

 Add water in which spareribs were cooked. Season with salt, pepper, and chili powder. Put peppers and onions on top of pork; pour tomatoes over all. Cover and bake 1 hour.

Cooking Notes: The rack of ribs weighed just over a pound and a half, but I still kept the rest of the ingredients steady, except for the peppers, omitted entirely due to a lack in the house. A bit of leftover Mangalitsa rib fat facilitated the rib-browning process and prevented sticking. Jamaican pork seasoning took the place of chili powder. Everything else as written.

Eating Notes: Coming out of the oven after an hour, the beans were still a bit crunchy, but the ribs were perfectly done. So we sent the beans back in for another hour and ate the ribs. The ribs themselves were tender and had a nice infusion of the bean/onion/tomato liquid. They were cooked enough that the ball joint ends were soft and edible (a bonus for me, who loves bones). By the time we were done and had a bit of conversation, the beans were ready, but we were full. Picture below shows the beans.

I sampled a small bit and they were excellent. Just a bit al dente, still, but nicely infused with the fat from the ribs and the flavors of onion, tomato and spice. They will make most wonderful leftovers.

1966 WDEC - Oklahoma

After making almost everything in the Ohio section, I'm continuing the pattern in the state where, according to the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery, "Wide rivers quench soil's thirst, but humans are sustained in oil." Makes it sound like The Matrix or something (Photo of Keystone State Park by Pattie). The line-up and my take:

Fish Baked in a Blanket: A 4-5 lb fish covered in a flour and water paste and baked for 30 minutes. Then you break the paste with a hammer and eat the fish. I may try it just to break the paste with the hammer.
Sooner-State Beans with Spareribs: Spareribs cooked over beans with tomato and onion. Why not?
Picnic Chicken: Chicken marinated in vinegar and then grilled. Seems ok, but not thrilling, and with more than 2 feet of snow between me and the grill, I'll probably pass but may try it baked.
Fried Squaw Bread: Deep-fried quick bread covered in syrup. I'll pass.
Indian Shuck Bread: Cornmeal boiled in corn husks. If it were corn season I'd probably try a couple just for grins, but it honestly doesn't sound terribly interesting aside from the cooking method.
Chili Sauce: Homemade chili sauce. I will try it once I can get some decent-looking tomatoes.
Pepper Butter: Butter mixed with pepper, onion, and spices. I like flavored butter and haven't made any in a while, so why not.
Buttermilk Shake: Buttermilk, lemon juice and sugar shaken over ice. I'm a sucker for buttermilk just-about-anything, and I'll try it.


That's it! A lot to do (after I shovel, and shovel, and shovel) so off to the kitchen.

1966 WDEC - Ohio - Black Walnut Meringue

Kind of like a snowbank with nuts instead of slush.

Black-Walnut Meringue
(to serve 6)
4 egg whites
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 soda crackers, crushed fine
1/2 cup chopped black walnuts
Ice cream
Berries

Preheat oven to 275F. Beat egg whites until almost stiff. Sift cream of tartar over whites and blend. Gradually add sugar and continue beating until mixture is very stiff. Add vanilla. Fold in cracker crumbs and nuts. Pile lightly in buttered 9" pie pan. Bake 45 to 60 minutes (Top should look dry). Cut in wedges and serve with ice cream and berries.

Cooking Notes: I cut the recipe in half, which was enough to make two generous meringue tarts. I further cut the sugar to 1/3 cup, and instead of crushed soda crackers, I used 1/4 cup of very finely chopped walnuts in addition to the "regularly" chopped walnuts.

Eating Notes: Fresh out of the oven these were great. We had them on their own, as we had no berries in the house and making ice cream just didn't appeal to me. I think that the ice cream and berries would have improved it as a dish, with the contrasts of warm meringue and cold ice cream; crunchy nut meringue and dense smooth ice cream; and rich ice cream/meringue and slightly tart blueberries.

Next Up: Oklahoma

Courtney likes to shovel

Odd, but in a good way. We got around 26 inches, more or less.

1966 WDEC - North Dakota - Finnish Barley Pudding

Finally got around (after several days) to making the Finnish Barley Pudding. And therein lies an interesting twist.

Finnish Barley Pudding
(to serve 6 - 8)
1-1/2 cups barley, large or medium grain
4 cups water
6 cups boiling milk*
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/3 cup butter
*I believe this may be a misprint, but I'm not sure. I used only 3 cups.

Soak barley overnight in water. Cook in same water. As water is absorbed, add boiling milk and seasonings. Cook over very low heat, stirring frequently to prevent sticking, for 30 minutes. Pour into a buttered 3-quart baking dish. Dot with butter or margarine. Bake in preheated very slow oven (250F) until golden brown, about 2 hours.

Cooking Notes: Planning to make this on a Sunday, I started the barley soaking on the kitchen counter. Sunday dragged into Monday, and so on, until on Tuesday I put the barley and water into the fridge. There it stayed until Friday. By then it had sprouted, and there was a distinct smell as though it had even started fermenting. A close look at the photo reveals the sprouts.

To say I was happy would be an understatement. I carried on, but 10 cups total of water for just over 1 cup of barley seemed excessive, so I added half the called-for amount of boiling milk. In addition, having a limited milk supply on hand and 30 inches of snow in the forecast, I swapped out a cup of cream for one cup of milk. So, in all, I used 2 cups of whole milk and 1 cup heavy cream. After cooking 30 minutes the consistency was still quite liquid, as the picture shows.

During baking, the pudding was forgotten and went about a half hour longer than it should have, but still it was golden brown. The top crust dried out, maybe a bit too much, but the underneath was still very soft.

Eating Notes: Too good to be so simple. The top was crunchy and firm; the underside smooth and rich. The pudding itself was savory, and held up quite well as a side to an equally-comforting dinner of sausage baked with cabbage. It also would have been great with baked apples or fruit, or with just a light covering of cream. Next time I will cook it in a smaller pan, though, because I think I'd like a greater soft parts-to-crunchy crust ratio.

This recipe is likely to become a standard for me. While barley is a gluten grain it's not one I appear to be especially sensitive to, and I like having something simple but a bit more interesting than the usual grits/oats/rice rotation.