by jphilo | Aug 26, 2020 | Daily Life, Recipes
When in a pinch write about pie. That’s my best authorly advice for wannabe writers when unusual life events blast their routines to smithereens.
A plethora of unusual life events also explains why this post features pie instead of an update about See Jane Run! Here’s what made the short list
- The Iowa derecho. It did a number on our yard. Everything but the giant cottonwood in the east pasture has been cleaned up. The tree’s our late-summer-into-fall project that we’ll keep chipping away at.
- Grieving friends. A text came from friends during the weekend just passed about the unexpected and devastating loss of a family member. To preserve their privacy, I won’t go into details other than to say it wasn’t COVID-related. They’ve been texting updates, and each one leads to fresh tears.
- House construction. A crew arrived this past Monday before 7 AM. By noon they had constructed the forms for the foundation walls . At 5:30 they had emptied the contents of 4 cement trucks into the forms. Tuesday morning they were back at 6:30 AM to disassemble the forms. It was great entertainment for the whole family, but not conducive to writing. This modern process for building foundations is also not conducive for the hiding of dead bodies. I’ve rebranded the time lost to writing as research because it makes me feel better.
Okay, that’s enough of that. Let’s move on to pie. My recent Instagram post about taking a pie to neighbors who helped us out during the derecho was pretty popular on Instagram and Facebook. It came to mind when I didn’t have time or energy to blog about what I’d hoped to tell you about See Jane Run! this week.
A little voice in my head said when you’re in a pinch blog about pie because people love pie. So here’s what I have to tell you about pie.
- The crumb top apple pies I made, one for our neighbor and one for our family, were delicious.
- You can pulverize rolled oats into flour in the blender and use it instead of regular flour in the crumb topping to make gluten free apple crisp that’s almost as good as pie.
- To make the pie dairy free and soy free, replace butter with half Earth Balance vegan buttery sticks and half lard.
- Homemade pie crust made from Grandma Conrad’s Never Fail Pie Crust recipe is the absolute best. If you want to go vegan, you can use Crisco, but it’s not the same. Sorry about that.
Finally, here’s the connection between a post about pie to a cozy mystery blog. In one of the final chapters of See Jane Run!, Jane makes an apple pie and uses Grandma Conrad’s recipe for the crust. Because as Jane and I both know, it’s worth writing about when we’re in a pinch and when we’re not.
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by jphilo | Aug 5, 2020 | Recipes
Where can Jane find a good cup of coffee? Java is important to fiction readers if the response to my recent Instagram post about our home espresso machine is any indication. As a result, I’ve been thinking about where Jane would find a good cup of coffee if she wants one in a future scene. So far, I haven’t come up with a decent answer, and here’s why.
For starters, the first Tipperary County mystery, See Jane Run! is set in 1977. That was at least a decade before coffee roasting and quality coffee became a thing in the United States. I’m not sure it was possible to make a good cup of coffee in the days when the big cans of ground Maxwell House, Folgers, and Hills Brothers were the only choice. Quality food requires quality ingredients and all that.
Furthermore, much of See Jane Run! and subsequent books in the series are based on the years when our young family lived in northwest South Dakota. I was not a fan of Maxwell House, Folgers, and Hill Brothers coffee and only drank tea back then. I have no idea how coffee served in homes and cafes tasted.
On the other hand, I grew up hearing my parents, as well as aunts and uncles, rave about the egg coffee my maternal grandmother made for large family gatherings. Mom’s family was from southern Minnesota, and while Grandma wasn’t Scandinavian, she learned how to make it from neighbors who were. Since the population of northwestern South Dakota was heavily Scandinavian, I assumed the Camp Crook Centennial cookbook would have a recipe for egg coffee. It did not.
The only people who can help with this conundrum are the good citizens Harding County. If you ever lived or now live in Camp Crook, Buffalo, or on a ranch in Harding County, I’d love to hear from you. First, where could Jane have found a good cup of coffee? Second, did you or your parents or grandparents make egg coffee? Third, if they did what was their recipe?
Thanks in advance for your comments. Unlike me, Jane prefers coffee over tea. She’s going to be very cranky until she gets her hands on a good cup of brew, and her bad mood will make writing about her a challenge!
Sign up to receive website updates and See Jane Run! book news on Gravel Road’s home page right under the picture of–you guessed it–the gravel road.
by jphilo | Jul 15, 2020 | Recipes
A post from a couple weeks back featured the 1982 Camp Crook Centennial Cook Book. Friends and former students (who are, to be clear, no longer my students but are my friends) left comments about how they still use the cook book. I do too, but there are a few recipes I have never tried. My hunch is that no one else has either.
While I don’t plan to whip them up in my kitchen, they provide taste of life in Little Missouri where See Jane Run! and other books in the Tipperary County series are set. That’s why I’ll be serving them up from time to time on this blog.
Today’s offering, Stir Up in a Bucket, was briefly mentioned in the Centennial Cook Book post. It was submitted by Walter Stuart (pictured above), a thrice widowed rancher who had a tiny farm in the middle of town, right behind the school where I taught. The character Merle Laird in See Jane Run! is modeled after but not identical to Walter. More on their similarities and differences in future posts.
For now, let’s focus on the recipe for Stir Up in a Bucket. If you, dear reader, have the intestinal fortitude necessary to prepare and eat this delicacy, please leave a comment about whether it’s edible, what it is, and what it tastes like. I’m dying to know, but not enough to try it myself because dying is not at the top of my bucket list.
Readers who don’t have the intestinal fortitude to try Stir Up in a Bucket are welcome to leave a comment after reading the list of ingredients and the spare cooking instructions. It’s a head scratcher for sure, and a tiny glimpse at the ingredients available to early settlers in Tipperary County. Boy, am I glad we didn’t live there then!
Stir Up in a Bucket
1 quart flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Add enough bacon grease to keep it from sticking to pan. Add water until you get a heavy batter. Pour into a frying pan. Cook until brown on the bottom and turn. Cut like a cake.
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by jphilo | Jul 1, 2020 | Recipes
The Camp Crook Centennial Cook Book holds a special place in my heart. This little town on the prairie, population 92, celebrated its centennial while we and our baby boy lived there. Cooks from all over Harding County submitted recipes, and I don’t think any were turned away. It was the first publication to accept and feature my work.
All in the form of recipes.
All for foods my mom taught me to cook.
Almost all of them being desserts.
Which just goes to show I’ve had my priorities straight since a young age.
I found this little cook book to be valuable primary source material while I wrote and rewrote at least 10 times–yes, that’s right, 10 times–See Jane Run! Paging through it and seeing familiar names beneath recipes brings back memories of life in a place where the “old timers” had lived in soddies and shacks built by their homesteader parents.
My favorite section is the one for candies and old time recipes. It contains recipes for homemade soap, grandma’s sweet pickles, hand lotion, corn cob syrup, homemade mustard, and something called “stir up in a bucket.”
I have no idea what “stir up in a bucket” is. The first sentence in the instructions which reads as follows–”Add enough bacon grease to keep it from sticking to pan”–doesn’t have me rushing to try it for supper any time soon.
Though I might give it a try to because it has the potential to be a great scene in the sequel to See Jane Run!, which is called Hear Jane Sing!
Before I mix up a batch of “stir up in a bucket,” I’ll post the recipe here in a month or so. Then all of you can give it a whirl with me, and we can talk about how to incorporate it into the story.
Until then, I suggest you try this recipe for fresh peach pie. It’s in the Camp Crook Centennial Cook Book, and I can vouch for its deliciousness. I’ll be making it as soon as the Colorado and Missouri peaches appear in the grocery store just like in 1983 when the little town where I once lived turned 100 years old.
by jphilo | Jun 19, 2020 | Recipes
They say corn salsa–they being the authors of this recipe I found in a free publication available at our local Fareway grocery store and in their online recipe box. The first time I made it my husband, also referred to as the man of steel in other blog posts at this website, called it corn salad.
And the new name stuck.
Let me be perfectly clear. This recipe was not part of our world when we lived in northwest South Dakota. Therefore it has no link whatsoever to the mystery series which is the reason for the Gravel Road blog. However, testing and exchanging new recipes was a favorite pastime amongst my circle of friends when we did live there.
30 years later, I still use many of them. The recipes, not the friends.
I’m recalling that spirit to share this recipe today. It is too good, too simple, and too easy to keep to myself. Plus this is cilantro season here in Iowa, and this is a good way to use it. All 6 people in our house love this dish. That number includes the 5-year-old who is suspicious of anything where different foods touch one another and the 2-year-old who as a rule refuses to eat anything not smothered in barbecue sauce. Plus it works for the 3 adults who can’t eat dairy, the 5-year-old who can’t eat gluten, and the 2-year-old who can’t have soy.
Yes, we are THAT family.
One more thing–I usually double the recipe because it’s just that good.
They Say Corn Salsa, I Say Corn Salad
1 (16 ounce) bag frozen yellow corn, thawed
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped (put on rubber gloves for this part)
1/2 of a large onion, diced
3/4 cup cilantro, chopped
2 limes, juiced (or 1/4 cup lime juice)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Combine all ingredients. Refrigerate and enjoy!
by jphilo | Sep 20, 2018 | Recipes
The original recipe for these coconut cookies was given to me in the mid-1980s by a woman who remains a dear friend. I’ve reworked the recipe a couple times to make it dairy-free and as healthy as any cookie can be. You’ll find the most recent version below. Enjoy!
Coconut Cookies Redo
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup Earth Balance Soy Free Buttery Sticks, softened
1/2 cup lard, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups oatmeal
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups unsweetened, shredded coconut
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
Preheat oven to 350°. Toast the pecans in the oven for 5-7 minutes. Remove them from the oven and cool.
Cream sugar, shortening, and eggs until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, flour, soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. Add oatmeal, coconut, and nuts. Stir well after each ingredient is added.
Drop dough by rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheets. Bake for 8 – 12 cookies, depending on how chewy you like them. Makes about 4 – 5 dozen.
