Allyson

I went to the Fort last weekend and I made an amazing pie. Cheshire Pie is one of the recipes shared by Hannah Glasse in her cookbook The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. The original recipe:

As you can see, it’s fairly sparse with its directions, which is a common theme among recipes prior to the early 1900s. One of the things I do is “redact” or recreate recipes from earlier times. I do this using my own skills as a cook, and it pleases me to no end when I find a great combination. This is one of those times, though I  can’t take the credit. I went to the class to learn how to make a good pie crust (and succeeded: that’s my actual pie in the header image), and learned the recipe along the way.

For the pastry, I don’t have an exact recipe. I was taught to measure by feel, because your crust turns out much nicer. As this was my first successful crust, I have to say I agree it works. 😉 Basically, you can either purchase a pie shell (you’ll need a top and bottom), or you can use your own recipe. Or you can try this one, which I’ll describe as best I can.

First, take about 3 cups of good flour. We used a mix of all purpose, white, and bread flour (and no, I didn’t get ratios, so I’ll have to try it on my own), and put it into a large bowl. A pinch of baking powder was added in, and then we added “a bit” of Crisco vegetable shortening (you can also use butter or lard, but I’ve never had success with either and had GREAT success with Crisco, so I’m sticking to it), about a cup or so. Just plop it into the flour. Then, slowly use your fingers to rub the flour and fat together. You don’t want to handle the fat too much or it will melt, so you kind of scoop up a handful of shortening and flour and then rub gently but briskly between your thumb and across all your other fingers. It helps if you keep your elbows tight to your body while doing this. You continue doing this until all the fat is mixed in evenly to the flour. It will start to make little “peas” or look like coarse cornmeal. Add a bit more Crisco and keep doing it until the bits of dough are about pea sized. It took me about 20 minutes to do this by hand. At home, I think I’ll use my pastry cutter to do the early part, and just switch to hand mixing at the very end, which should cut the time down quite a bit. Two knives may also work, but I’d say that handling it at the end is important.

Read More

I had the joy of staying at the Fort last weekend. Originally, the temperatures were supposed to be in the high 40s at night, and the 60s during the day. Perfect Fort weather! That didn’t turn out to be correct (go figure…). It was below freezing overnight Friday night into Saturday morning, and Saturday night into Sunday morning it was 33*F. Saturday was above freezing but very wet and raw. Sunday wasn’t bad, being in the mid 50s and overcast, but dry.

Staying at the Fort always gives me an appreciation for what our ancestors lived through. In one weekend (with albeit “white man fires” going full blast), we went through an entire bin of wood. Some of that was for cooking, because we ran into our usually spring thaw challenges with warming up the fireplaces. Some of it was because my cabin-mates were cold at night. The first was a necessary issue, but the second just left me flabbergasted. Regardless, if we went through that much wood in a weekend, how much wood would the entire fort community have gone through in an average month? It’s no wonder that the entirety of NH was essentially deforested during that period!

Here’s the deal: the Fort is made of logs and flagstones and local stone and brick, in a rather haphazard way. In the 1700s, that fire would never have gone out. Ever. During the night it would have been banked, and during the day they’d have been cooking over it. It’s much easier to keep a fire going than to get one started, and that’s exactly what they would have done. When we leave the Fort in November, and it doesn’t get opened up again until March, it’s been sitting almost five months with no fire. Over that time, the damp and cold get into the stones in a way that would never have happened historically. It takes at least two days of heavy fire burning to bring the entire hearth and wood oven up to heat, so that cooking can be done. This was something our ancestors would never have had to concern themselves with.

No matter how you look at it, when we arrive, it’s going to be COLD at the Fort, and we’re going to have to work hard to change that.

This is what I do when I’m going on an overnight trip to the Fort (or anywhere, quite honestly):

• check the temperature for the time I’ll be there at least a week in advance
• keep checking the temperature to catch any trends up or down as the week progresses
• check the projected temperatures for my trip the day I’m leaving, and make appropriate choices for sleeping and clothing
• pack extra warm stuff, just in case

Read More

If I’m in enemy territory right now, it’s because I’m under cover of darkness, cloaked in mystery, and mistaken for a friend. I spend at least a few minutes each day, reading the news and whispering, “What the actual fuck…” over and over again. It’s depressing. Yes, I realize most of you have been doing that for ages, but hey, I’m new here.

Yesterday morning, it was the entire mess with El Salvador and Ábrego García being deported.

What are the actual facts? Well, you really have to dig to find them. They’re always behind the “read more” line in any article on a news site. Basically, García came to America illegally in 2011. Now, if that was the case (and it does seem to be correct), if he had no ties to any gangs or illegal operations, and his ONLY illegal act was in coming to America, he could have appealed to Obama for clemency. If that had happened, he would have been here legally by the time Trump came into office this time around. Regardless, he was granted “protection from deportation” (what does that mean? I can’t seem to find any info on it… Chris?) some years ago, and has been living with his wife and kid in Maryland. (BBC)

Kristi Noem has said, “This was just one of those examples of an individual that is a MS-13 gang member, multiple charges and encounters with the individuals here, trafficking in his background, was found with other MS-13 gang members—very dangerous person…” (DHS) So according to the director of DHS, García has multiple charges of being in MS-13, trafficking, and other stuff. I would VERY much like to see the paperwork involved with that, partly to shut up the Left, but also because I continue to have a healthy distrust of all things government and I like to check their information as much as I check anyone else’s. I don’t like it when we’re “told but not shown” stuff. It makes me wonder if they’re hiding things.

Regardless of all of the above, García was transported to El Salvador. At this point, he has been repatriated to his home country, whether that was the right thing to do or not. We no longer have any control over García because he is in the hands of his own government. We don’t get to say, “Hey, García was here illegally and should have been deported, but we want him back so we can run him through the court system to prove it well enough to make some of our citizens happy.” It doesn’t work that way. El Salvador isn’t required to send their citizens to another country, especially another country where they’re going to face possible legal trials. The fact that the president of El Salvador simply locked the dude up as a gang member doesn’t phase me.

Read More

This randomly showed up on my Google Radio the other day, and it made me stop and listen. The music strikes me as a cross between a Russian folk song and something out of a circus performance. But the lyrics… Oh, the lyrics.

My first impression of this was that it was a rallying cry to the Left. Jobless on the streets and all that. But when you listen to (or read) the lyrics, it’s something else entirely. I found out this song was originally written in Yiddish in the 1930s by a Jewish Krakow resident named Mordechai Gebirtig. He wrote it as a song of resistance against the rising tide of antisemitism in Poland and Germany. You can read more about Mr. Gebirtig here, and I highly recommend you do. I had no idea who he was until this song arrived in my play list. I’m glad it did.

Mr. Gebirtig lived through a time where he was treated horribly, persecuted and prosecuted without reason. Here was a man who wanted to work, who had meaningful work, who had family to support, and he was put out of Krakow because of his religious beliefs.

The Left talks a lot about how the Right is like the Germans and Trump is our Hitler. But when you actually read things like the above history of Mr. Gebirtig, you see that it’s the other way around. And it’s rather frightening.

For whatever reason, every party I ever went to in the 1980s included at least one version of this dip, served in a bread bowl. I’m not sure why we stopped making it, because it’s iconic comfort food, tasty and with a healthy kick to it from the spinach. Therefore, I shall share it with you, dear readers. Because it’s yummy. 

Ingredients:

• 10 oz frozen chopped spinach (cooked, cooled and squeezed dry)
• 16 oz sour cream
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 package Knorr ® Vegetable recipe mix
• 8 oz water chestnuts, drained and chopped (optional)
• 3 green onions, chopped (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix. Chill the spinach dip for about 2 hours.

In a good size round of bread with a chewy crust (in other words, one that won’t fall apart being used as a bowl), cut a circle out of the top. Using a knife or your fingers, pull out bits of bread to make the round into a bowl. Add the chilled spinach dip to your bread bowl.

Serve this classic spinach dip with the bread that you pulled out of your bread bowl, and a stack of fresh vegetables as well. Make a double batch, because you will need to refill the bowl before the night is over.

Notes:

You can make this vegetarian or vegan! Replace the sour cream with 16 oz of cashew yogurt. Replace the mayo with Nayonaise or another vegan mayo. That’s all you need to do! Another alternative is to use a cashew cream cheese in place of the mayo, for a thicker dip. Be prepared to thin it out with a bit of oat milk if it’s too thick.

There are two main types of plants in the world: annuals, which you plant from seed (or cutting or slips or whatever) each year, and perennials, which come back every year.

Some examples of annuals are cucumbers, lettuce, potatoes, peppers, and zucchini. Each year, you need to plant new plants. Each year, they complete their life cycle entirely in the span of one season. You get seeds (or slips or cuttings or whatever) from them to plant again next year.

Some examples of common perennials are asparagus, rhubarb, many kitchen herbs (sage, thyme, and chives in particular), horseradish, and strangely enough, tomatoes. With all but the tomatoes, you plant them once and then harvest each year after they’re established. Tomatoes are technically perennials, in that they can be kept from year to year if you’re in a warm enough climate. Up here in the north where I am, we treat them as annuals, but if you have a hot house or you live in a warm area, you can keep them alive and producing without having to replant each year.

Annuals are important. They’re here for a brief season, they grow, and we harvest them. The majority of vegetables we eat are annuals. You can pick up pre-sprouted annuals like cucumbers and peppers at your local feed store each spring. For those of us with a yen for gardening, going to Agway is a dangerous thing right now. Somehow, these plants always end up in my dang trunk… You can also pick up seeds, both for indoor seeding and for planting right outside in your garden beds.

Perennials, though, are even more important (in my opinion, of course). With perennials, you plant once, harvest for years. As I get older, I look for more and more perennials so that I have less work to do in the garden each summer! An asparagus bed will keep giving for 20 to 40 years, with nothing more than an occasional fertilizing and weeding. Rhubarb, too, doesn’t require a lot. You do have to “split” it up into bits every five to eight years, to keep it healthy and growing, but that’s not too arduous. Some of my herbs have been in my garden for more than a decade, and are coming along very well. I recently had to get medieval on my oregano, because it was escaping its enclosure and getting into the lawn. While that smells nice during mowing time, it’s a waste.

Read More

I had a Right leaning friend post this meme yesterday:

What I responded with is very honest: “I don’t think so, or not without full due diligence. Remember, what the Right does to the Left or puts into practice can later be used by the Left against the Right. Put NOTHING in place that could even remotely possibly go wrong when turned around. This is something that could *easily* be turned around.”

There will always be people on both sides of the aisle who feel they are doing what they are doing to support the Constitution. The problem with the person who posted this originally is that he knows darn well HE is defending and adhering to the Constitution… and assumes that those on the Left are not, and/or will not.

I can think of quite a few legitimate reasons why someone in the House or Senate might choose to support an illegal alien over a US citizen. For instance, no matter how illegal someone is, if a US citizen assaults, sexually or otherwise abuses, murders, etc. someone from another country (legal or illegal), that’s wrong. I’ll support the person who was the victim.

Putting up something this broad is not “making it perfectly clear” or stating it’s in black and white (in any way other than the fact that it’s black and white lettering). This is akin to the Dems wanting to get rid of the filibuster while the Republicans are in office and then trying to get it back in when they’re in office. If the proposed rule can’t be broadly applied, or applies only “sometimes” (ie when your opponent is in office), then it’s not a good rule.

This is not a good suggestion.

Words, as I’m constantly told, have meaning. I might be pretty sure I know what’s being implied in this meme, it’s NOT clear. If we were to put something like this into practice, it would immediately be turned around and used against the Conservatives. And rightly so, quite frankly.

There’s a lot going on around us right now. According to the Left, the stock market is crashing like never before. I’ve heard the term “huge” used more than Trump uses it, which is driving me batty.  

As you can see in this image (Morningstar, Inc.), the mess during Biden’s time as President was quite impactful, especially as seen after the moderately beautiful recovery started by Trump 1.0. Now, this image doesn’t include the stock market information of the past few days, but frankly, I think you can all go look yourself. Yes, there was a dip. No, it would not even register on a graph of this size. It’s barely visible on a graph that includes only 2016 onward, quite frankly. Yes, there was a dip, and that’s natural. It’s a great time to buy stock, quite honestly. With the Left influencing what people think, there are bound to be some run offs with certain types of stock. We know that nothing huge is going to happen with Trump at the helm, so we may as well invest. Just be sure to pull out before the next President gets in, unless it turns out to be Vance, in which case, stick with it.

I really don’t get the absolute panic over the tariffs. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told I “just don’t understand” how tariffs work (hint: I do), and how Trump’s tariffs are going to tank our whole economy (hint: they didn’t, and aren’t). People I love and care for are absolutely devastated over the whole tariff business, and it’s sad, because it’s not something to be upset about.

But… again, when tariffs get applied, our prices are likely to go up slightly. It behooves us to be ready for that. Once it all turns around, we’ll still be sitting pretty. No need for panic, folks.

“Drink a toast to my best friend, Samuel Colt!”

One of the things I’ve noticed in listening to the vast array of older music lately, is that most of it wouldn’t make it on today’s radio. This song, for instance, would be considered horribly violent even though it wouldn’t even be a footnote in an action movie. I’ve listened to a song about truckers showing up at a kid’s house to take him out for a ride while his mom was at work (Teddy Bear), another about a bunch of Boy Scouts sneaking up on Girl Scouts bathing nude (The Battle of Kookamonga), yet another about a guy who gets blown up running illegal liquor (White Lightning)… The one that made me giggle the most was Lil’ Red Riding Hood by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, which talks about how Red is “everything a big bad wolf could want.”

I love this music. Some of it is from my childhood. Some of it is from earlier. They all tell stories that would cause pearl clutching today. Perhaps that’s why I find them so amusing.

I discovered this recipe by watching an older Turkish couple in Azerbaijan on YouTube. They don’t share amounts, but the woman cooks on screen, and I made educated guesses about how much of everything to put in. She uses this recipe both to make these flat breads, and as a crust for meat pies. I’ve done both. This is my take on her recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
• 1/4 cup water, luke warm
• 3 tbsp melted butter
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 tsp active dry yeast
• 3 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• egg wash
• sesame seeds

Garnish:

• 1/4 cup olive oil extra virgin
• 1 tbsp garlic paste
• 1/3 cup Italian parsley, finely chopped

Whisk sugar, yeast and water in a medium-large size mixing bowl. Let it sit for 15 till the mixture froths and bubbles.

Add flour, butter, yogurt, and salt. Knead together using a wooden spoon or the bread hook of a stand mixer. When the dough starts to come together, drizzle in the olive oil, and continue kneading until the dough is combined with the oil and has come away from the sides. This will be a shaggy dough, rather than a soft and smooth one.

Pick up the dough and gently form into a ball shape. Rub some olive oil on the inside walls of the mixing bowl. Gently place the dough back into the the mixing bowl (do not knead anymore) and cover it with plastic wrap and towel or a lid. Place the the bowl in a warm place to rest for an hour or until it doubles in size.

Flour your working surface, and place the dough onto it. Divide it into several evenly sized pieces (two pieces for pie “crust” or four to six pieces for flatbreads), and make them into balls. Be very gentle, as you want all the little air pockets to stay inside the dough. Sprinkle each ball with dry flour lightly, and then cover them with plastic wrap or a moist, warm towel to keep the dough moist. Let them rest for 10 minutes before moving on to the next step.

For pie crust, take each ball and gently pat it down with your hands to flatten it. If you need, you can use a rolling pin to even it out into a circle. Add your filling in the center, and then lift up the sides and begin to pinch the edge together to make a side for your “pie.” This will be open topped, with a pretty crimp along the edge, sort of like the top of a fancy Asian dumpling. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look good. It will taste divine. Skip to the baking part below.

For flatbreads, pat each ball down with your hands to flatten it. You can use a rolling pin to make it even and either circular or oval, your choice. Leave the rest of the dough under the plastic towel while you work on each flatbread, so that the dough doesn’t dry out.

Preheat a cast iron pan or griddle on your stovetop, at medium heat. Place the flattened dough onto the heated pan for about 10 seconds, then flip it over. Cook the other side for about 20 seconds, then flip back to the original side for another 5 seconds. Flip one last time for 5 more seconds, and then set it aside.

Repeat the above pan frying for each of your dough balls. Let the bread cool for about 10 minutes, and then check to see if it’s properly cooked inside. If it isn’t, you can put it back onto the stove for a few more seconds.

Mix together the garnish ingredients above, and brush them over the still-warm flatbreads, and serve as soon as you can.

If you’re baking pies, preheat your oven to 375°F. While it’s preheating, glaze your pie dough with an egg wash (whisk an egg with a little water or olive oil and brush it gently over the exposed dough) or melted butter or warmed olive oil. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, if you like. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, checking frequently after the 25 minute mark.

Notes:
When I use this as a pie crust, I use a finely minced meat, and all the other ingredients are also finely minced. This ensures the filling will cook properly by the time the crust is baked.

You don’t have to make big pie crusts. Most people like to have a pie to split, but if you want to make individual ones, flatten them out to a little larger than hand size, and then follow the recipe. This is a great recipe to play with!

We’re almost at the point in time when some of the seedlings you’ve planted should be going outside. Hardy greens like kale, cabbage, and chard will probably be able to weather the outside temperatures in the next week or two. This means there’s a lot of work to do!

The first thing you need to do is start hardening off your seedlings. This is a long but simple process that ensures your new plants will thrive once they’re in the great outdoors. Now that we’re getting a few days in the high 40s and low 50s (and sometimes warmer), you want to pick a day that’s slightly overcast and warm, with not too much wind. Take your flats or pots of seedlings and place them in a wind-free spot that isn’t in direct sunlight, and let them bask in the natural light for about an hour. Do this at the warmest point of the day, just after noon, if at all possible. Then bring them all back in. Repeat this every day, adding an hour or so a day to the time outside, until your plants have developed stronger stems and secondary leaves.

When the nights are all above freezing, you can leave your seedlings outside. Cover them up, though, because critters like raccoons and mice like to eat those yummy miniature plants. Once the plants are hardened off, you can wait for a nice, overcast day to plant your seedlings into the garden.

Before that, though, you have to prepare your garden. If you’re going to be using buckets and/or bins of any kind, they need to be readied for use. This means cleaning them out, bleaching them (to kill any bacteria that could harm your plants or transfer to them), and then rinsing them thoroughly. Drill, poke, or melt some holes into the bottom of each container. This allows excess water to drain. Some people do it in the bottom of the containers, but I find doing it about an inch above the bottom, along the sides, works best. That way, excess water can still escape, but there’s a “well” below the holes that continues to hold water for the plants on dry days.

Read More