Haute Cuisine

Every region in our country has food items characteristic to its culture, growing seasons and heritage. I once read an article stating that the highest per capita consumption of Jif peanut butter and jello was in Des Moines, Iowa. The Midwest is not known for its exotic or spicy foods. Minnesota has its own quirky favorite foods:

Tater Tot Hotdish
Green Bean Casserole
Corn on the Cob
Everything on a Stick (at the MN Fair… snickers, corndogs, donuts, etc)
Lefse
Lutefisk

While I was in Florida, I made 2 key epicurean delights: chocolate chip cookies and jello with fruit. We enjoyed our jello in martini glasses!

Sweets from the Past

Today I had breakfast (which turned into lunch) with my sister. As a "birthday gift" she gave me a package of Circus Peanuts because she remembered that I liked them as a kid. I guess my husband liked them too since we ended up splitting the package. I was amused at how memories rushed at me with just one bite of a sugar-y peanut-shaped marshmallow.

One summer Kim and I stayed with good family friends in Minnesota while our parents were moving us from Sioux City to Charles City. We were 9 and 11 years old. This family owned the only grocery store and every day we were allowed to walk down to say "Hi" to Schmitty and to spend a little of our money at the candy sections. The store also boasted a pop machine from which you pulled your bottle out of a column of sodas. Grape was an especial favorite.

I remember those candies: Pixy Sticks, wax lips, Bottle Caps, Bazooka Bubble Gum, candy necklaces, salt water taffy, red hots, root beer barrels, etc. We could walk to the store with a quarter in our pockets and bring back the change.

It's amazing how tastes and flavors can trigger memories. I can't remember ever taking time to think of these vintage candies. Yet now a number of pleasant scenes from childhood remind me what great fun it was to be a kid and to have just a bit of candy in my pocket.

For anyone with a hankering for a particular old-fashioned treat, I found a website which sells many of the candies you ate as a kids. It even seperates the candies by decades.

What candy do you remember?

Rutabaga Central

Last Friday, my kitchen was Rutabaga Central as I cooked up the Brassica napobrassica harvested from my garden. Rutabaga was a trial crop this year. We've really only eaten it at Thanksgiving and Christmas as part of a Prichard Tradition. And, don't you know, that one seed packet contained a lot of seeds. My prolific harvest of these root vegetables have led me to know more about this marginal crop than I'd ever imagined.



A little research uncovered these facts:
In the U.S., the plant is also known as Swedish turnip, yellow turnip, or wax turnip, while in Ireland and Candada where it is called turnip. In Scotland, it is either "tumshie" or "neep."
"Swede" was an important nutritional source for many Finno-Urgic tribes before the introduction of potatoes. Some claim the vegetable is native to Sweden, but others think it was introduced to Sweden, possibly from Finland or Siberia, in the early 17th century. From Sweden, it reached Scotland, and from there it spread to the rest of Great Britain and to North America.
In continental Europe, it acquired a bad reputation during World War I, when it became a food of last resort. In the German Steckrübenwinter (rutabaga winter) of 1916–17, large parts of the population were kept alive on a diet consisting of swedes and little else, after grain and potato crop failures had combined with wartime effects. After the war, most people were so tired of swedes that they came to be considered "famine food," and they have retained this reputation to the present day. As a consequence, they are rarely planted in Germany.

You can go to a Wikipedia article for further reading. Follow these links for Nutritional Information chart and great recipes. Another blog article, Rutabaga, Rutabaga, Rutabaga is a great dissertation on the beauty and commonness of the vegetable. Right here in our own state, you can attend the Askov Festival and Rutabaga Festival (in Askov, MN)






Here at Rutabaga Central, I peeled, diced, boiled (or blanched) and mashed that yellowish, slightyly sweet smelling vegetable.

While the rutabaga was cooking, I finished cleaning up my leeks and onions.

My freezer now has a good quantity of that humble vegetable, the rutabaga. Considering it's non-stellar history, I'm inclined to think that this is a great addition to our Thanksgiving table. This "famine food" serves as a reminder that even in the direst of times, we can find something to sustain us.

Prichard Chef Challenge

Last winter our family started their own "Chef's Challenge" ala the Iron Chef America show. We would pick an ingredient and all make something. Last year we centered out challenges on bread dough/ spaghetti sauce, potatoes, pasta and chocolate. We invited neighbors to share in the products of the chocolate challenge.

Last week we had our first cooking challenge of the this school year ...Corn. I made black bean salsa with corn, cilantro and green onions. My dish also included corn tortilla chips. Faith made corn fritters with sour cream topping. Ryan made cornbread and caramel corn. For some protein and to balance the meal we had apples, green salad and rotisserie chicken.

We've talked about extending our Chef Challenge to other friends. Wouldn't that be a fun small group? Gather once a week and everyone bring a unique food item along a theme? Would you come?

We've talked about extending our Chef Challenge to other friends. Wouldn't that be a fun small group? Gather once a week and everyone bring a unique food item along a theme? Would you come?