Blog

I often experiment with recipes and rarely make one exactly as it reads. I am definitely a kitchen witch . . . a little bit of this, a little bit of that (no, I don’t use eye of newt). My one-of-a-kind cast iron cauldron makes whatever I cook turn out wickedly good. And recently, Condon resident Rick Knoernschild carved me a lovely soup ladle out of juniper so now the cauldron is complete. Thank you, Rick, for such a thoughtful gift.

When I met with Rick to pick up the ladle, we talked favorite recipes over a beer at the Wild Sage. He told me about his red currant glaze for poultry. The recipe is equal parts melted butter and red currant jelly.

I ordered Wilken & Sons red currant jelly from Amazon (which, by the way, was the best jelly I have ever eaten) and bought two Cornish hens. I brushed the glaze on one of the hens, covered the other with Dijon mustard and put a chunk of butter in its cavity. I stuffed the jelly/butter one with Stovetop dressing. I cut up some russet potatoes into big cubes, tossed them with olive oil and salt and arranged them around the hens.

I popped the hens in the oven at 375⁰ for just under an hour until a meat thermometer read 165⁰. The glazed hen had a beautifully shiny skin that looked like it belonged on the cover of a gourmet magazine, the result of frequent basting. However, the glaze didn’t impart much flavor to the meat. The mustard bird had a tangy depth and the butter kept the meat moist. But as compared to the glazed hen, it looked boring and ho-hum.

But real magic happened when I tasted the drippings from both hens. The sweetness of the red currant jelly, the richness of the butter, and the tanginess of the mustard melded together to create a sauce that was extraordinary. What a happy accident! Now I am going to try this recipe:

Holiday Hens

2 Cornish hens
4 tablespoons red currant jelly
4 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Salt

Preheat oven to 375⁰. Mix the jelly and the butter. Rub salt and mustard all over the hens, inside and out. Place a chunk of butter in each hen, put them in a roasting pan and baste with the jelly/butter. Roast for about an hour or until a meat thermometer reaches 165⁰. You can use the fat drippings to make gravy.

This recipe combines the best of both worlds ‒ the beautiful shiny skin from the jelly and butter and the rich, tangy flavor from the mustard and butter. I’m going to make them for Christmas. Festive, fun and fast!

I recently wrote about the Fill Your Pantry event in Redmond and how I burst with joy to see such bounty, especially the 25 pound bags of colorful produce.

That event reminded me of the time that my friend Rachel and I took a class from the OSU extension service on agriculture in the Willamette valley. We toured many commercial farms, orchards and processors. One of the farms we visited was the Montecucco family farm in Canby, Oregon. The farm has grown rhubarb, beans, beets, parsnips, rutabagas and turnips for four generations. They grow a red and yellow striped specialty beet which they sell to fancy restaurants in southern California. The massive cold storage facility was dark and clammy like a modern day cave. Thousands of 25 pound bags of beets and other root vegetables were stacked from floor to ceiling.

On our way out, we were each handed a 25 pound bag of beets that wholesaled for $6.50. Rachel and I were delighted to have something unusual – striped beets – but oh my, what to do with 50 pounds of beets? We put them in the garage and like Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, said to ourselves “Tomorrow is another day”.

That weekend, I attended the Oregon Thoroughbred Breeders Association annual dinner in the clubhouse at the Portland Meadows racetrack. I won three bales of rice hulls which are the Cadillac of bedding in horse stalls. That night when I got home, I opened the garage door and plopped the bags next to the beets then went to bed.

I must have thought beets storage in my sleep because the next day it occurred to me that I might be able to store the beets in the rice hulls. Sure enough, root vegetables were often stored in sawdust. Rachel and I rounded up some wooden crates and layered the beets with the hulls. They lasted several months.

We thoroughly enjoyed having a generous supply of beets on hand. We roasted, steamed, pickled and fermented them, made soups and salads and shared some. At the grocery store they were three or four dollars a bunch which made us feel smug. After that, a 25 or 50 pound bag of something or other did not intimidate us at all.

That was the beginning of my work with the “Plenty Method”, a way to find, buy, share, store and use food bought in bulk at wholesale or farm-direct prices. It’s fun to Fill Your Pantry then share or exchange the extra with friends, family and neighbors; doing that definitely increases your well-being in life. And since your food dollars go so much further, you can eat like you are a king or a queen.

Last week, my neighbor Geoff Brownell told me about the 9th annual “Central Oregon Fill Your Pantry” event at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds. The event was a bulk buying farmer’s market and food was being sold in 25 and 50 pound bags and boxes. Jerry and I were already planning to go shopping in Redmond on Saturday so we decided that I would attend the event while he shopped at Walmart. This was an opportunity to stock up for the winter, just like folks did back in the “olden days” before grocery stores and supermarkets. The market was a joint effort between the Bend Farmer’s Market and the High Desert Food and Farm Alliance. Food was available to all including people who are on EBT and they even offered double up food bucks. Customers could also pre-order.

Oh my, what a sight! The parking lot was jam packed with vendors, 35 in all – farmers, ranchers, fishermen, bee keepers, orchardists and artisan producers who had set up artistic displays to sell vegetables, fruits, baked goods, bee products, meat, seafood, cheese, dry goods and pantry staples, flowers and ferments. This was clearly the grand finale farmer’s market and it was definitely over the top.

Hundreds, if not thousands of “locavores”, people who buy locally grown food, milled around with carts, wheelbarrows and baby strollers overflowing with food. I didn’t expect to see so many people so I paused at the entrance to survey the situation and plan my strategy. I decided to wander around to see what was there then buy later. The displays were truly visual feasts. Clearly the vendors had put much tender loving care into creating each one. Tables were overflowing with colorful potatoes, onions, cabbages, leeks, beets, winter squash, garlic, honey, apples, pears, dried beans, krauts and pickles, baked goods and meat. What vibrant aliveness! An earthy scent wafted through the air.

I walked around in awe and didn’t know where to start. My first purchase was a bunch of carrots that I couldn’t stop eating because they were so incredibly good. They were sweet, almost like candy and felt like complete nourishment. I bought some spinach and that night made a wilted salad of pecans, bacon, blue cheese and balsamic vinaigrette that was out-of-this-world delicious. I was frustrated that I wasn’t able to carry as much as I wanted to buy, so I ended up with a sampling of things and made a plan to go back next year and bring something with wheels.

Next year we could go with our friends and neighbors on a food-pooling trip and share the travel expense. Thank you, Geoff, for telling me about this fun and amazing event. www.centraloregonfillyourpantry.com

On Monday, I chatted with Theresa Byars and Betty McNeil of Fossil, Oregon. I thanked them for their kind invitation to attend the Sunday service and picnic lunch at the United Methodist Church. The event was a special occasion to honor the presence of guest pastor Dave McCue who drove six hours from Colville, Washington to deliver a well-prepared and engaging sermon. I commented on how good the cooks are in Fossil and what a lovely addition the lunch was to the event. Betty made me laugh when she said point blank “Feed them and they will come”. Oh that’s sooooo true, Betty!! Together the three of us conversed about the amazing power of food to provide not only physical sustenance but spiritual and emotional nourishment as well. Food has the remarkable ability to bring people together. Whether it’s a pot of tea and cookies shared with a close friend or two, a wedding feast or a community potluck, food provides the true wealth of connection, joy and comfort.

Food is a physical manifestation of love. The sun’s light must be filled with love because just look at how the earth responds with her generous cornucopia of bounty. The next time you are in the produce isle, stop for a moment, quiet yourself, open your eyes and take in the gift nature of it all.

The recent fires in Fossil are a good example of the power of food to create community and nourish us on so many levels. During the apex of the fires, residents came together to offer dinners at the Isobel Edwards hall. The town invited everyone, including the firefighters. Volunteers donated and lovingly prepared the food. This gathering together gave folks the opportunity to comfort one another and empathetic ears provided much needed security. Imagine what that same event would have felt like if the only thing served were glasses of room temperature water. The words that come to my mind are empty and incomplete.

I am absolutely certain that food has the ability to absorb and transfer heart energy. In my opinion, one of the best ways to show a person how much you love them is to prepare a meal. The food doesn’t need to be elaborate or fancy because sometimes simple is best. My son, William, used to say “Mom, you are not a very warm and fuzzy type but you sure know how to show your love through food”. To this day that still makes me chuckle.

Thank you, Betty and Theresa, for your lovely invitation to experience the fellowship of food and contemplate its profound ability to uplift and restore.

I was saddened to hear of Jon Bowerman’s death last week but oh what an adventurous and colorful life he had!

Jon was a longtime Fossil resident and the son of Bill Bowerman, one of Nike’s two founders. The Bowerman family goes way back in Fossil and Jon was somewhat of a legend. He was a Marine, a rodeo rider, an Olympic ski team coach, cowboy poet, horse trainer and a track coach at both Condon and Fossil high schools.

I met Jon about 18 months ago at the Wednesday community lunch in Fossil. He said that he read my column so naturally we started to talk about food. I asked “Do you have a simple recipe you’d like to share?” He immediately blurted out “Yes as a matter of fact, for $50,000 chicken”. And then he invited me for a visit to demonstrate how to make the recipe.

As I pulled up in my truck, Jon stepped onto the porch to greet me. Into the kitchen we went and oh what a pretty sight! The regal Monarch wood stove, decked out in chrome, was definitely the queen of the kitchen and bellowed heat into one of the most inviting living spaces I had ever seen. From a rack above the wood stove hung a collection of cast iron frying pans, Dutch ovens, sauce pans and even a coffee pot. A rectangular farm table was set for two with cloth napkins, blue wineglasses, pretty dishes and silverware and a breadbasket. Jon said that he designed and built the house himself.

We made the chicken dish then sat down to a lovely lunch. He mentioned that he was writing his life story. I was curious about it, so asked if I could read the manuscript. That led to a series of visits where we would sit at his computer and read the story out loud. I made suggestions here and there. I was floored that one person could pack so many interesting and varied experiences into one lifetime. Jon plunged into life and it was six kinds of wild, especially his encounters with the Rajneesh.

Jon always went out of his way to make me feel welcome and truly knew the art of entertaining and hospitality. He ran menu ideas by me in advance so I could tell him what sounded good. When I arrived, a pot of coffee warmed on the wood stove and hot water waited to be made into tea. The meals were memorable and one in particular was extraordinary in its simplicity: baked salmon and a sweet potato loaded with butter. The pair created a perfect harmony of flavors and textures. One time he concocted a salad that was so delicious I made it several times after. My mouth waters now just writing about it: romaine lettuce, canned mandarin oranges, walnuts, marinated artichoke hearts, red onion and vinaigrette made of apple cider vinegar and olive oil.

Jon was so much fun to visit with his warm hospitality, entertaining stories and culinary expertise. He recently reached an initial stage of completion with his book after working on it for several years. I hope the family publishes it. Jon, your life exemplified the Nike slogan “Just do it”. You definitely did it! Yay!

Wow, the fires were intense, weren’t they? They certainly forced many of us to consider what we would take given a moment’s notice and limited space. I guess I’m not the sentimental type because the first thing that came to mind was to grab my cookware. Being able to eat a warm, home-cooked meal at least once a day centers and settles me, no matter how chaotic the world around me gets.

One evening during the fires, Randal and I sat on the porch to watch the constant procession of fire and emergency equipment that zoomed up and down the highway. We discussed the “what to take” question. The first thing out of my mouth was “my cast iron cookware”. Randal laughed and told me that wouldn’t be necessary. After all, cast iron can withstand extremely high temperatures, far beyond what most other materials can handle. You could recover a cast iron skillet from the rubble of a burned-down home and easily restore the cookware to its former glory.

But you don’t need to wait for your house to burn down to revamp your cast iron cookware. Last spring, Randal built a big bonfire in his back yard and burned all his cast iron skillets, saucepans and Dutch ovens. He buried them in the coals and the next morning all the old coatings had disappeared. If you don’t want to build a bonfire, you can use spray lye, commonly found in oven cleaners. You can also use the self-cleaning function in an oven. Or, sand them with 80 grit automobile sandpaper. My friend Rachel uses a wire brush and steel wool.

After you remove the old finish, re-season the pans. There are a lot of different ways to do this. Some people use high heat, others low. I apply a thin layer of grapeseed oil with a paper towel then bake the cookware upside down in a 450⁰ oven for about thirty minutes and repeat the process three or four times. The cookware may not turn black until you cook with it though so don’t let the bare metal look fool you.

Griswold and Wagner antique cast iron pots and pans are highly prized. They were made using hand-poured molds that were machined to create smooth cooking surfaces. Overtime they acquire a lovely patina. I have my grandmother’s Griswold skillet and Dutch oven and I don’t think it’s my imagination – everything I make in those just turns out well. I believe that objects carry the energy of the person who had them, as if the thing absorbs the owner’s spirit. You can’t wash the spirit off; it just gets baked in. Maybe the pot even has a story to tell about the day the house burned.

You may think I’ve gone off the rails when you read this, but I hope that you will find this amusing and helpful, too. I’m veering off from the topic of food and writing about cleaning instead. Oh how I love to clean! My friend once said “Isabel, your idea of going on spring vacation is to find something yucky to clean that has dirty corners”. My son used to say “Mom, you are on continuous cleaning cycle”. Years later, I still laugh at that. It’s true though!

I was quite surprised to recently discover the joy of blue paper towels, the kind that mechanics use in automotive shops. How, after all my years of playing with various cleaning supplies and gadgets, had I not known about the miraculous blue paper towels? I thank my friend Theresa Byars for introducing them to me. That happened one afternoon when we washed the windows at their guest house. The house is brand new so it didn’t need much cleaning (I was very disappointed that there were no dirty corners but I did find one cobweb up high on a light fixture. Yay!) Though the house is new, the windows needed a good polishing up. Years ago I noticed that if the windows are clean, the house tends to look clean.

Washing windows properly is an art. I once had a friend who was a professional window washer and he taught me how to wash windows correctly. I didn’t think my window washing technique could be improved on until Theresa handed me a roll of those blue paper towels. Those little lines of water left behind by the squeegee disappeared as if by magic. The towels were remarkably absorbent and they left no lint. And they had just the right amount of “tooth”; tooth is the roughness of a surface. These paper towels glide and grip perfectly.  I said to Theresa “These paper towels make cleaning so much fun and pleasurable too”. She said “I wouldn’t go that far but they do make cleaning easier”. Well, we can agree to disagree!

Then of course I had to get my own roll so I stopped by the Napa store in Madras. I made a comment to the clerk who then told me that he accidently discovered they are washable. Now I wash the not-too-dirty-ones on the quick wash cycle and let them air dry. I can wash them four or five times before they get holes and then I toss them.

The next time you are ready to throw in the towel on cleaning, try a blue paper towel.  Thank you Theresa for this remarkable cleaning tip!

Last week I wrote about the conundrum so many of us face when we ask ourselves the age old question “What’s for dinner?” What a strange irony it is that even with our incredible bounty of food, at five o’clock we still stroll into the kitchen and wonder what to eat for dinner. If I don’t know the answer to that question in the morning, the question will repeat itself throughout the day like a woodpecker that hammers on my shoulder. Eating dinner is more than just eating dinner. It’s the period at the end of a sentence, or the note that ends a song.

An intelligent, organized person would solve the problem and make a plan. In an ideal world, they’d sit down with a cup of coffee sometime over the weekend and just figure it out. But for some reason, that’s never worked for me. I would make a plan and things would not go according to plan. Surprise! Or, what I was supposed to eat that day didn’t sound good and wasn’t what my body wanted to eat. Then I’d be left with a lot of fresh, uneaten food that went to waste.

Eventually I learned that for the most part, having a well-stocked pantry answered the “What’s for dinner?” question.  A well-stocked pantry invites you to go into the kitchen to cook. Imagine your pantry as a musical composition and every ingredient is a note on the scale. Think of it like this: an unlimited array and variety of music arises out of that finite set of musical notes. Likewise, the possibilities for food combinations and creativity are practically infinite with a simplified selection of food in your pantry.

A melody rises out of the pantry in complete and spontaneous harmony with the body’s requirements and the soul’s mood. While the food doesn’t exactly jump off the shelves and cook itself for you, it almost seems like it does. Ingredients naturally orchestrate themselves into nourishing, tasty combinations that suit the day. Since each ingredient has a perfect pitch, it doesn’t take much accompaniment to create symphonic flavor and aromatic crescendos. Having a plentiful supply of food on hand allows a nice food rhythm to develop. Sometimes you may run across a specialty food item or fresh, locally grown meat or produce. This special food item can be a guest artist in your musical repertoire of food. Once you get it home, you can combine it with what you already have in your pantry. Then the creativity really explodes. You may even have several “What’s for dinner?” questions answered then.

It’s amazing how much freedom you can find in a well-stocked pantry. Then you can just say goodbye to that pesky woodpecker, if you have one, that is.

A while back, my friend Lorraine Smith of Spray told me about her quick and easy cheesy crackers recipe and I finally got around to making them last week. They were dangerously delicious! I suggest you make these only if you can eat the whole batch in one fell swoop because they are like Fritos and potato chips that way – why stop before they are all gone? These crackers remind me of leveled up Cheez-Its. They are versatile, too. I crumbled some over a tossed green salad which made the salad seem quite fancy.

Kansas Cheesy Crackers

1 sleeve saltines
¼ cup melted butter
4 to 6 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Cayenne pepper to taste

Place the saltines salt side up on an ungreased baking sheet. Brush on melted butter then sprinkle them with cheese then dust with cayenne pepper. Broil about three minutes until just bubbly, not browned. Watch through the window or crack the oven door because they can get over-cooked in a nanosecond. Turn off the oven and leave them in with the door closed for two to six hours. Separate them with a knife, scissors or a pizza cutter. Recipes made with just a few things require the highest quality ingredients possible. I used Tillamook sharp cheddar cheese and Kerrygold Irish butter. 

I had never noticed that saltines have a “salt side”. With intense concentration I took a moment to look at the cracker like I was a microbiologist studying a specimen under a microscope. There were indeed small flecks of salt on the surface and the cracker had a definite front and back side. I heeded the instructions and watched the crackers like a hawk while they were under the broiler. Just as they started to turn brown I heard a sizzling sound, so listen for that as an indicator that they are done. The crackers definitely needed to sit for a couple of hours so the flavors can meld. As an experiment, I used smoked paprika on some of them in addition to the cayenne. Next time I will try them together.

By the way, in March of this year, Tillamook sharp cheddar cheese won the Best of Class award for cheese aged six months to one year in the prestigious World Championship Cheese contest. Twenty-five countries submit 3,300 entries that are evaluated by a panel of international judges. Tillamook sharp cheddar cheese scored an impressive 99.85 out of 100. An interesting tidbit: their creamery in Tillamook attracts more than one million visitors a year. Tillamook extra sharp cheddar sharp would work well in this recipe too. I imagine that you could use any kind of aged cheese. Thank you Lorraine for this awesome recipe!

Some of my very favorite pantry things are the two big boxes of glass jars and bottles that I’ve rescued from the garbage. I clean them up and remove the labels so they are like new. I noticed a long time ago that food lasts longer in glass than it does in plastic. I often decant food that is packaged in plastic into glass containers. Just say NO to random food clutter and all the mismatched packages that don’t seal properly. Those invite staleness and attract bugs, moths, mold, mites, and rodents. My pantry stays clean, organized, and fresh.

You can accumulate a nice collection of jars and bottles when you pay attention to what you throw away. Because we automatically discard these containers, we don’t usually stop to consider how useful a jar or bottle can be. Transforming a bottle or jar that was once destined for the recycle bin is very satisfying. You can outfit your entire pantry with recycled jars and bottles. Make sure to keep the original lids. Do remember to test the jar or bottle for airtightness first. Fill the container with water and shake it. If water droplets come out, it isn’t airtight.

To resurrect jars and bottles that were going to the trash, de-label, clean and sanitize them and put the lids back on. First, soak a bottle or jar in soapy water and use an abrasive sponge to scrub off the label. After the glass dries, apply a citrus-based solvent to remove any sticky residue. Peanut butter works well, believe it or not. If you have a dishwasher with a sanitizing cycle, run them through once or twice to remove odors. Or, you can fill them with boiling water. Let the jar or bottle completely dry before you put the lid on, otherwise it may mildew. Save only the bottles and jars that have airtight, continuous-thread, “screw-on” lids—lids that take almost a whole turn to tighten—and not those with lug-type, “quarter-twist” lids.

I must admit I am somewhat of a jar-o-holic. I admire my hodge-podge collection of rescued jars in the boxes. Some of them are quite beautiful, especially the bottles that once contained high-end liquor. This motley crew of mismatched yet similar containers arranged on pantry shelves looks like a work of art with many different shapes, sizes, textures, and colors. You can create matching labels for an orderly appearance. A set of similar jars has a pleasing presentation. I have a set of eight decorative sixteen-ounce honey jars, which I refill with the honey I buy in a one-gallon jar. A collection of resurrected airtight glass jars and bottles is a very handy and fun thing to have!