Foodie Friday

I was going to post a BIT more this week, but I succumbed to the flu. Argh.

       Anyway, I wanted to discuss food today. I was rather bad and made chocolate chip pancakes: pancakes from a mix with a handful of chips sprinkled onto each one as I poured it into the pan. Mmmmmmm. I had to fry them in butter, too, because I couldn't find the vegetable oil. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't eat them all. Well, that means I get some for lunch!
        Chocolate chip pancakes are particularly special to me because my mother used to make them for special occasions. My mother is an amazing cook, and used to make all kinds of amazing food when we were growing up on the farm. I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I grew up on a remote, self-sufficient farm in the Cascade Mountains. We made our own electricity, grew our own food, and were home schooled by my mother, who had an excellent college education and drilled us ruthlessly. We spent summers exploring the mountains, hunting, gathering wild berries, nuts, tasty greens, stocking up on hay, and learning advanced survival skills. In the fall, we would gather in all of our garden and orchard goodies, dig up bushels of potatoes to store in bins in the root cellar, harvest dozens of massive winter squash like Acorn squash and Hubbards, gather cords and cords of firewood, finish canning hundreds of jars of vegetables, fruit, meat, jams, jellies, and apple sauce, and hunt deer in their season. Winter was spent mending tools that had been broken, studying, playing in the two feet of perpetual winter snow, playing on the frozen pond and ice fishing, and planning for spring. Spring was a frenzy of planting the garden repairing the fences, gathering the first delicious greens, watching chickens hatch broods, calving milk cows, picking out the perfect suckling pigs to raise, and watching the streams and rivers carefully for flooding.
        It was a pretty awesome way to grow up, but everything was from scratch. Want a cherry pie? Stand guard over the tree all spring and part of summer, then, to make sure the birds don't steal the cherries. When they are finally ripe, pick what ones the birds haven't stolen, pit each one by hand with a hairpin, put in fridge.   (fridge is powered by propane, because the nearest power lines are five miles away) Whip up some piecrust from Crisco, butter, flour and salt. (the flour is storebought, but the butter is home-made from our grouchy Jersey cow's rich cream) Preheat stove, (also propane, unless you're feeling adventurous and want to use the woodstove) place crust in pie plate, put in cherries and sugar, bake. Fend off horde of hungry siblings with a stick. Serve pie hot from the over with a pitcher of fresh cream.
     Despite the extra time involved in making everything from scratch, it's extra delicious that way. Our cow gave four to six gallons of milk EVERY DAY. A third of each gallon was a thick, heavy cream so rich that you could pour it into a sieve and it wouldn't flow out.  It was slightly more viscous than sweetened condensed milk. You could cut it with a knife. Sorry, I tend to wax eloquent on the subject of cream, but it was one of my favorite things about the farm. Breakfast? Big bowl of fresh blackberries and peaches with cream. Lunch? Thick pile of ham or chicken sandwiches on homemade bread , tall glasses of milk, with homemade tapioca pudding- made with cream. Dinner? Grilled or steamed zuchinni, roasted chicken or chicken pot pie rich with big chunks of potato and carrot and spring peas, baked squash with brown sugar, butter and nuts, green beans with butter, onions and bacon. More tall glasses of milk. Lots of wild green salads, venison, and ham. Thick bean soup with ten kinds of beans, salt pork, and bacon. Cornbread with rabbit enchiladas. Her sourdough biscuits- oh, don't get me started on them. Amazing  mile high, crunchy crust with a flaky inside, amazing with pork or rabbit gravy or with jam. Rich, buttery rolls, and her plate-sized cinnamon rolls, studded with walnuts and raisins, with a secret caramel sauce.
           Ever heard of Creme Bulgare? It's a sort of whipped heavy cream with a yogurt starter, and DELICIOUS. My mom would make crepes and serve them with fresh berries and creme bulgare in summer, and berry jam and creme bulgare in winter. Lots of easy, soft cheeses. Lots of egg custard. In fact, she made me an egg custard just this past week, with wild rice and duck eggs. YUM.
      Ok, I have to stop now. I'm too hungry. : D