My Kitchen Disaster

Kitchen disaster, I completely ruined an apple crisp yesterday, I really miss that crisp. I was so hungry for apple crisp topped with vanilla ice cream. The problem? It was too sweet, I put the sugar in twice, at least. My wife, who is a wonderful baker, saved the day. She made coffee cake with my crisp-like-stuff in the middle. It was terrific!

Think I will stick to cooking and forget the baking!

Well, as we used to say - A good baker will rise to the occasion, it's the yeast he can do.

Hey - Its Snack Time - Macaroons

One of the great things about retirement – eating like a little kid again, at least once in a while. My favorite snacks, these days, seem to always involve chocolate or coconut and it they have both – WOW !

And if it can be made quickly and only has four ingredients, all the better. And two of those four ingredients are chocolate and coconut, I’m a kid again.

Here it is – My Chocolate Coconut Macaroons. Oh and it only takes ten minutes.

-What You Need-

• 16 ounces shredded coconut (I like the kind of chunky shredded)
• * 1 can (14-15 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (you can use the same teaspoon, just fill it twice)
• One big 0l’ vat of hot fudge type chocolate (see how to make it below, bonus # 1)

-Getting it Ready-

Mix coconut, sweet milk and vanilla together. (Big bowl, big spoon) Drop about a teaspoonful full, at a time, of the mixture, onto a very well-greased baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 7- 8 minutes. Cool a bit before taking from sheet. After letting them cool some more dip half of each macaroon in your favorite chocolate. Makes a whole bunch of chocolate coconut macaroons. (50 or better)

My easy chocolate – (Bonus recipe) Mix equal amounts of semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips, melt them in the microwave and use them as the dip. Works great, we also like almonds and pecans dipped in this chocolate, hey, try one on the top of each macaroon.

*So what the heck is Sweetened Condensed Milk?

Not to be confused with Evaporated or Powdered Milk. Condensed milk is cow milk from which water has been removed.  It is most often sold as sweetened condensed milk with sugar added. Sweetened condensed milk goes all the way back to Civil War time and is a staple in most home baker’s kitchens. But don't drink it, tastes terrible!

Three Miles From Town

 

Chuck Wagon Hash

By Neil Waring

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

I have posted a couple of cowboy hash recipes in the past but this one is really good, give it a try. For this one get out your biggest cast iron skillet – the big black one in the back of the bottom shelf.

And here is what you will need and all the how to do it stuff!

3 large potatoes - I prefer nice red potatoes, but any type will work. Cut out the bad spots, if any, do not peel, cut into smallish, about 1/4 inch chunks. If you notice red speckles, check your fingers, that’s why I use dull knives (can’t be too careful)

1/3 green bell pepper, cut into tiny pieces, we are looking for flavor here not the big crunch

1/2 large onion, diced – You ever notice how bad/strong onions are this time of year? Cannot wait for my first garden onions, sometime in late June.

Random sunset photo I took last week to make the blog more lively.

1 lb. Hamburger, you could use sausage here but do not substitute some newfangled meat or fake meat, that is not hash, it is modern something, not hash

Fry up the potatoes, pepper, and onion in one big ol’ tablespoon of bacon grease, if you have it, olive oil if you do not.

As soon as the potatoes start to soften (only a minute or so) toss in the hamburger in small pieces and fry it up on medium heat. I turn it up on high myself, super high if I have it. Maybe that is why the smoke alarm chased the dog out of the kitchen.

When it looks about right pour in a ½ cup of frozen corn, keep stirring and cooking/frying

Now it is time for the spices, add pepper, sage, a dash of cumin and a bit of thyme. (A tad more sage than cumin or thyme)The bacon fat should take care of the salt – but being a well seniored citizen I try to avoid adding salt.

Sprinkle the top with your choice of shredded cheese (not mozzarella, hey, this is not a pizza)

Put the skillet into a warm oven, only about 200

Fry up a half dozen eggs, pull out the skillet and toss them on top (keep the eggs runny, over easy or over medium is great)

Serve with Catsup, sour cream and salsa

This goes great with a couple of glazed donuts and juice of your choice

Serves 3-6 depending on how hungry everyone is and whether or not Uncle Earl is visiting – - - AGAIN!

*Just noticed I used two exclamation marks, or is it exclamation points in this post, doesn’t matter, anyway, two in one post was my record, guess this post ties a record. Hey, a record setting post.  All Right! That’s three, new record! (4)

Trail Drive Breakfast

I get tired of reading what is labeled, “authentic cowboy trail food,” and one of the first ingredients to some kind of stir fry they didn’t have, and wouldn’t have eaten if it was available, is avocado or mushrooms. In my many years studying Western American history I have found no reference to the use of mushrooms on the trail, and although avocados were commonly available in Mexico, and in the American Southwest cowboys thought of them as low level food and most avoided them.

Cowboys ate food very plain, well done, and salty. They might have tried something with mushrooms or avocados in restaurants, but not on the trail. Trail food needed to be fast, filling and hot. Following is a recipe for breakfast on a trail drive.

Warm a flour tortilla or use fresh hot biscuits
Spread with refried black or pinto beans
*Top with scrambled eggs (in modern day we toss on some shredded cheese and salsa)

Role the tortilla taco style, or stack the biscuit halves sandwich style

Serve with fresh hot coffee and the cowboy was ready for the trail

*Eggs were available in several places along the trail, some dirt farmers made a nice bit of money by selling to ol' cookie as he went north with the beefs.

Puff Pancake, Fun and Tasty Too

The Puff Pancake

 

 Puff Pancakes, also called Dutch Baby Pancakes. I will not call it baby anything on this ol’ Wyoming boy blog. Except to say, wow, these babies are good. These are sometimes referred to as a German Pancake and may very well have been the first puff pastry. They have been around for about a century and evidently some pancake places either feature them or used to feature them. I have never noticed them on a breakfast menu, but then we like to cook and go out to eat when forced.

These are normally listed as breakfast fare but we like breakfast for supper at our house, cook these up with a side of sausage or bacon, and you have it.

 

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup flour
• 2/3 cup milk (or 1/3c of milk, 1/3c half & half)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Pinch of salt
• Teaspoon of vanilla
• Teaspoon of cinnamon
   
  Preheat to 475
   
  Beat the eggs
   
   Pour in liquid, sugar, salt and vanilla - keep mixing until sugar is dissolved.
  (I use the blender, forget the mixer, actually my wife doesn’t trust me with the mixer, or maybe I don’t know which bowls to use or how to attach whatever attachments are needed).
   
  Dump in flour and mix it all smooth.
  Let batter sit 10 min or so, you really don’t need to time this step
     
  Get out your big old cast iron skillet, the ten inch one, if you have it.
  Coat it with melted butter; make sure to get it up the sides all the way. (I was going to say slather it up with butter but wasn’t sure what slather meant so I will stick with coat it, even if slather sounds better).
  Pour the batter in and bake 15 min or a little less- when it is golden brown (or whatever you interpret golden brown to be) it is ready to take out of the heat.
  The pancake will puff up when baking, remove and let sit for a minute or so and it will collapse, don’t worry it’s supposed to.
   *Spread on strawberry or raspberry jelly and lightly sprinkle with powdered sugar.
  Loosen around edges and slide onto plate
  Serve with butter and syrup
  *This step can also be done a few minutes before taking pancake out of the oven
   
  This can also be a great campfire dish, baked in a Dutch oven. I have not tried it but don’t see why it wouldn’t work. That may be the reason I occasionally have my cooking and baking disasters, but believe I will try it some time.
   

French Fries - The Healthy Cowboy Way

 

          Can an old retired school teacher make

                  New Fangled French Fries

                         YEP!

                                   By

                            Neil Waring

Revered Wyoming Chef, outdoor cooking expert, admired woodsmen, award winning author, retired politician and honored citizen.

 

Tired of fast food French Fries? They are full of calories, greasy, and not that tasty.  But we all remember how great they were when we were kids and wish they were that good today.

Here is an at home alterative, and they taste great and without fast food guilt.

ü One medium potato – cleaned, peeled and cut into eight wedges

ü Spray pizza pan or cookie sheet with Pam or similar product

ü Place Potatoes on pan and spray with the Vegetable oil

ü Preheat broiler and put the potatoes, I put it on the highest setting so it will both cook and crisp the potatoes

ü Broil for three minutes then sprinkle with parmesan or cheddar and broil another three minutes (I usually leave out the cheese but they are delicious either way)

ü Remove salt and pepper to taste and enjoy

Each potato is about 200 calories (as long as you are light on the cheese)

We use this to serve two, enough, but not too much.

Oregon Trail Johnnycakes

Travelers on the Oregon Trail were sometime treated to Johnnycakes. Today we think of these tasty cakes as breakfast fare, but for weary travelers they were a treat, after a long day, topped with their favorite homemade jams and jellies, assuming they hadn’t eaten all the sweets the first few miles out of town. Today we more often top them with melted butter and syrup. I am not sure who Johnny was or why they named a cake (griddle cake) after him, but they taste as good today as they did back in Trail days.

-Johnnycakes-

1 beaten egg (some travelers took chickens along)
3/8 cup milk (and some brought along Ol’ Bessy, the milk cow)
1/2 cup water
1 Tablespoon melted lard (today we use vegetable oil)
1/2 teaspoon salt (I sometimes skimp this down to a ¼)
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal (cornmeal and flour amounts can be switched
1 cup flour                      depending on how corny your taste)               

1 Tablespoon sugar

Combine all ingredients and mix really smooth. Drop by tablespoon onto hot greased griddle or skillet. Fry on each side until browned, only a minute or two. This recipe makes about a dozen 4 inch cakes.
These are fun, quite a bit different from a regular pancake (we added cornmeal and took out the baking powder) but the taste is special. The taste is kind of flat, with the first chew, then the taste of cornbread a few moments later. Very cool!