My Wanna-diet

By Neil Waring
Revered Wyoming Chef, outdoor cooking expert, admired woodsmen and honored citizen.



Wow, am I glad to be back in a normal eating mode. Thanksgiving makes me think I am the guy in the television show, “Man Vs. Food” then I need to recover and get back to normal eating. My wife and I had a discussion of what kind of diet we follow. Must be something mid-western. She is from Oklahoma and I am form Nebraska, I guess that is why we live in Wyoming now. I don’t even know what that last sentence meant.
So here it is our normal Mid-western stuff diet: burgers, pork chops, pot roast, pizza, pasta, French bread, biscuits, BLT’s, soups, raw veggies, pastries, diet soda and unsweetened tea, lots of desert and once in a while some fast food. Sounds like the regular guy diet to me. Hope my wife does not read this; it may be just my wanna-diet.
-N-

Christmas Candy Bar Cake

By Neil Waring
Revered Wyoming Chef, outdoor cooking expert, admired woodsmen and honored citizen.

My favorite time of the year is almost here, Christmas time, today one of my favorite holiday recipes.

Here is what you need. Let’s call it the ingredients. -I like Christmas list better-

5 full size candy bars –here is a little hint—buy yourself one of those 6 packs of candy bars. You got it, one to eat while cooking—VERY COOL!

I know, I know, what kind of candy bars? –Hey what do you like? Milky Way, Snickers and Three Musketeers seem to work the best. They need to be a candy bar with the nugget-ee stuff in the middle. (Can’t believe the spell checker didn’t like nugget-ee)

8 regular candy canes - (regular means peppermint, peppermint is what candy canes are supposed to be).

1 cup butter- (real and unsalted)

2 cups sugar

4 eggs- (put the whites in one bowl and the yellows in another bowl)

2 ½ cups flour – One time I thought the recipe said flowers (may have been making something that called for a bit of wine) I used flowers instead of flour –now that was a big mistake but long before I became the revered Wyoming Chef that I am today.

½ tsp of Baking soda

1 ¼ cups Buttermilk – don’t have buttermilk? Let’s face it, who really has buttermilk?

Guess what? You can make your own buttermilk by simply adding one teaspoon (for the real bakers out there that would be 1 tsp – anyway add one tsp of vinegar to 8 ounces of milk and Wa-La you got yourself buttermilk.

1 cup chopped nuts –good stuff, no peanuts although I do like peanuts. Pecans are best but if you are a touch on the cheap side try English walnuts. I like to mix walnuts, pecans and almonds, but remember one cup—no more.

Now here is where it gets difficult—putting all this stuff together.** In a small sauce pan (my dad used to call all canned fruit sauce, don’t think anyone does that anymore).

Anyway in a small sauce pan over low heat melt together the candy bars with ½ cup of butter. Cream sugar with the rest of the butter (stir-um-together)

Add candy and stir together.

Add egg yolks, one at a time mixing as you go. (Don’t need to kill it just blend um up some)

Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk and add alternately with flour to the candy mixture – make sure you end with flour (not sure why you need to end with flour but I think it may be an alphabetical order thing)

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold into candy mixture with the pre chopped nuts (I try to use the mixer for this to speed things up – it never works do it by hand. But if you are in a hurry use the mixer and if the peaks don’t happen just pour the crap in, who will know the difference anyway?

Pour mixture into a cake pan –deeper is better- (make sure you pre-greased and floured it)

Now for the topping and this is really cool – chop up the candy canes mix about ½ and ½ with regular granulated white sugar and sprinkle on top 20 minutes before taking out of the oven. (You may have to take it out to do this to save wear and tear on the oven but then put it back for the final 20 minutes.

Bake at 325 degrees for 65-70 minutes

Or you might try to crank up the oven to six or seven hundred and see if it will bake in 15 minutes.

Eat and enjoy!

**One time I just stirred up the whole mess together threw it in the oven at 400 degrees-tasted great, didn’t look too good.

Choke Cherries and Great Weather

The Choke Cherries have turned from green to pink to red. Won't be long now for some of the Ol' teacher's Choke Cherrie Jelly.
Second night in a row I am setting out on the patio enjoying another beautiful Wyoming evening. We pay for it when winter comes but summers are spectacular. Seventy-one degrees, southwest breeze and 27 percent humidity can’t beat it. Last night we sat outside until ten-thirty, put the blankets over us about nine. Temperature went down to 48 last night but back around 80 today.

WOW - Fresh Peach Ice Cream

Tried some fresh peach ice cream at a peach orchard in Ruston Louisiana last week it was unbelievably good. Try it someday.

I’ve been grillin’ and eatin’ out lately more great recipes coming soon.

Snow Ice Cream

I Remember a time when I was a kid - yes it was a long time ago, we made ice cream with snow. A few years later we learned that there was a small dust particle in each snow flake and that was the end of snow ice cream. We allready knew enough to only use white snow, none of the yellow stuff, but we never knew snow was part dirt. I ate a lot of it as a kid and my grandson (5) still thinks it's great. That's all for now, think I will go find some snow and make a little ice cream. Honey where's the chocolate?

Baked Brook Trout Wrapped in Green Crested Wheat Grass, Sautéed in Stream Rinsed Wild Raspberries.

Today - camp food—this one is especially good for mountain fisherman.
This is your step by step guide to living the good life while roughing it in the back country mountains.
1. Gather several grapefruit sized stones (ten or twelve should be about right)
2. Stop and rest for a short time
3. Gather fire wood (about two good armloads should do it)
4. Stop and rest for a short time
5. Using your best outdoor instincts build a large fire inside the fire pit surrounded by the ten to twelve grapefruit sized stones.
6. Stop and rest for a short time
7. Let the fire die down to red hot coals before getting out the box of aluminum foil
8. Double layer the aluminum foil (I still call it tin foil) directly on the red hot coals
9. Soak burned hands in cool stream
10. Stop and rest for a short time – let hands regain some semblance of feeling
11. Put new tinfoil on the coals replacing the piece you threw in the stream after burning yourself
12. Get a big stick and roll the rocks onto the foil to prevent it from ever going anywhere again.
13. Spray the foil with a generous amount of cooking oil – then spay the coals and watch them flame up—kind of fun
14. Stop and rest for a short time after putting out the grass fire caused from spraying everything within five feet of the fire with cooking oil spray (ever notice the cans are always green)
15. Soak blistered hands in cool stream while resting up
16. Go back to the vehicle and get a change of clothes after falling in the stream trying to hand catch a small Brook Trout.
17. Stop and rest for a short time
18. Get a can of Span from the cooler
19. Cut into thin slices and lay on the foil covered fire
20. Isn’t that sizzle and smell great (now that’s campfire cooking)
21. Turn pieces when they smell like burning flesh (should be an easy smell to recognize)
22. Cook other side for a short while
23. Get out the loaf of white bread
24. Smear several pieces with mayonnaise ½ to ¾ inches deep (this will help kill the taste of burned to a crisp Spam)
25. Crack open an ice cold diet Pepsi or ratchet it up to a Mountain Dew (full sugar) if you are starting to feel a bit on edge
26. Eat and enjoy!
27. If there are still warm coals break out he marshmallows

What happened to the original recipe—never had one. Too hard to catch enough Brook Trout for a good meal, don’t believe I would recognize crested wheat grass if it were growing on my desk, and the wild raspberries—the bears in my neck of the woods will get there before me. Note: do not try to get to the berries at the same time as the bear.
-N-

Old Fashioned Cobbler

Can an old school teacher cobbler it up in the kitchen? -Maybe-
-By
Neil Waring
Revered Wyoming Chef, outdoor cooking expert, admired woodsmen, award winning author, retired politician and honored citizen.

Decided to try my hand at baking last week, actually I used both hands, except when I was on the phone.
Made a multi-berry cobbler and it was good enough to eat. When I remember all the stuff I put in it I will post here but for now this is what I remember.

1. I used several white things, flour, sugar and corn starch, don’t remember using any milk so this may be all the whites.
2. Frozen berries—quite a few
3. Spicy stuff—some cinnamon and clove and something I believe was called all-spice, whatever that is.
4. A few other things that I do not remember but they helped out the taste. Pick out a few of your own.
5. Cook, ur I mean BAKE at 350 or 450 degrees for a while but not a long while.
6. Top with lots of ice cream and enjoy

Total calories depend on how big the serving is and how much you eat, varies from ten or fifteen calories to eleven or twelve thousand.

Happy Eatin’