Tour of Europe: Latvia's meal

Our next meal from Europe is from Latvia, which is right across the Baltic Sea from Sweden.  Latvian cuisine is typical of the Baltic region and, in general, of northern countries. The food is high in butter and fat while staying low in spices except for black pepper, dill or grains/seeds, such as caraway seeds. Latvian cuisine originated from the peasant culture and is strongly based on crops that grow in Latvia's maritime, temperate climate. Rye or wheat, oats, peas, beets, cabbage, pork products and potatoes are the staples. Meat features in most main meal dishes, but fish also is commonly consumed due to Latvia's location on the east coast of the Baltic Sea: smoked and raw fish are quite common. 

 

Jāņu siers is a type of hard cheese made from cows’ milk that is embedded with caraway seeds. It is available in the US, but its availability seems to be centered around the upper Midwest region, due to the fact that Latvian immigrants settled in that area. I was not able to find any caraway cheese here in Charleston, but I did find a recipe on a Latvian cooking blog for a similar-tasting caraway cheese spread. The recipe is below. Also on that website was a recipe for ceptas siermaizītes (the blogger called them “Baked Cheese Toasties” )

 

Menu: Pīrāgi (bacon and onion pies), Caraway cheese spread, Cured Salmon, Ceptas Siermaizītes  

Dessert: Smalkmaizītes (Poppy Seed Scrolls)

Outcome: I think we all really enjoyed this meal. Since I am not very good with baking, I used a few shortcuts along the way -- for the Piragi, I used “Grands” biscuits, flattened them out, and added the bacon/onion mixture before folding and baking. They were very good, and the girls had more the next morning before we headed out the door to soccer. The caraway cheese spread was quite good, and we spread it on some of the Wasa crispbread that was left over from Sweden’s meal. The star of the meal was the cured salmon. Normally, I don’t care for the fishy taste of salmon, but the curing process really gave it a great flavor and texture that was just right on buttered baguette slices. There was no fishiness at all to it! I got the salmon fresh, never frozen, from Walmart. I don’t know if that made a difference or not, but we really enjoyed it. Another shortcut that I took was to use some canned crescent rolls to make the poppy seed scrolls. They were a bit small, only about the size of a 50 cent piece once I rolled the dough from the wide end, and I used far less poppy seeds than the recipe called for. I liked the unexpected crunch when you bit into one of the scrolls. The recipe called for a chocolate glaze, but I think that a simple confectioner’s sugar glaze would be just as good on these rolls. All in all, a successful visit to Latvia.  

Latvia's meal

Next up: Bridget’s turn! She chose Norway! We’re going right through these Scandinavian countries, aren’t’ we?  

Tour of Europe: Sweden's meal (updated)

Our first meal from Europe is from Sweden.  Having a partial Norwegian ancestry, I was interested to learn that Sweden’s foods are quite similar to the foods from Norway that I have heard about my whole life.   Our family is interested in trying new foods and combinations of flavors that we aren’t used to … on the other hand, we agree that some foods are better left to locals.  An example for Sweden would be lutfisk (lutefisk in Norway,) which is white fish that has been soaked alternately in cold water and lye for several days, rendering the proteins into a gelatinous texture.  I’ve read that is has a rather distinct aroma that is unappealing to those who have never tried it.  So for our culinary adventure through the countries of Europe, we are limiting ourselves to cuts and preparations of meat and seafood that we are more used to.  This means that we won’t be sampling haggis or kidney pie, and so forth. 

 

Many traditional Swedish dishes employ simple, contrasting flavors, such as the traditional dish of meatballs and brown gravy and boiled potatoes with tart, pungent lingonberry jam.  Lingonberry jam may be the most traditional and typical Swedish way to add freshness to sometimes rather heavy food, such as steaks and stews.  A lack of distinct spices makes everyday food rather bland by today's standards.  This tradition is still present in today’s Swedish dishes, which are still rather sparingly spiced. 

 

Famous preparations include pancakes; lutfisk; and the smörgåsbord, or lavish buffet. Akvavit is a popular alcoholic distilled beverage, and the drinking of snaps (flavored liqueurs) is of cultural importance. The traditional flat and dry crispbread has developed into several contemporary variants.

 

Allemansrätten – the right of public access – gives everyone the right to enjoy Sweden’s outdoors. It allows the public to roam freely, even on private land, to camp overnight and to pick mushrooms and berries. The right also brings responsibilities – to treat flora and fauna and other people’s property with care. It can be summed up in the phrase ‘don’t disturb, don’t destroy.’

Tour of Europe!

When we finished the final state meal a few weeks ago, it closed the chapter on a long (two year!) undertaking. I hope that the kids were able to remember some of the meals that we had as we took this culinary journey via our “tour” of the fifty states. We all tried foods that we never had before, and I learned new techniques and ideas of preparing several different foods.  

I didn’t want to cram history, geography, and such down everyone’s throats, but I tried to add a little historical facts and tidbits here and there. An example would be that the foods commonly found in the Midwest today reflect the European immigrants who settled in those regions and influenced the local cuisine. You can find Pasties all over Michigan, but here in South Carolina? Nowhere would they be found! This wasn’t a place that miners from Cornwall settled, after all. 

Every state in this great nation is unique and has its own history of joining the United States and in several cases, leaving and then rejoining the union. I’m proud that we were able to complete this adventure as a family. 

As we were finishing Arkansas’ meal, the kids asked, “Well, what’s next?” “Can we do Europe next?” “We can’t stop making special meals!” Bill and I looked at each other, shrugged, and said, “Sure! Let’s do Europe!”

Ben and Bill had played Geography in the car that day … name a place, then name another place that begins with the LAST letter of that place: Texas > South Carolina > Alabama > Argentina > Albania … and so on, until someone is stumped! Having the game fresh in his mind, Ben then asked, “Wait, you mean we’ll have meals from Andorra? Albania? Ajerbaijan???” I told him that I will do my best to research each country and find a recipe for a representative meal from each place in Europe. Right away, the girls were calling out, “French Fries! French Toast! French Bread! German Chocolate Cake!” LOL!

I’ll try to be a little more authentic than that.  :-)

Everyone asked me to make the first pick, so after printing out a list of the countries in Europe, I chose … Sweden! Look for Volume Two of the Buckley Acres Culinary Adventures, coming soon to a blog near you!

Tour of Fifty States: Arkansas' meal ... the LAST one!

Menu: Roast duck, Baked Risotto, Buttermilk Pecan Pie with Glazed Pecans

Outcome:  The duck was magnificent.  Glorious.  Heavenly.  Yep, we loved it!  The glaze that is added at the end of the cooking time really made it spectacular.  

Instead of making plain risotto, I got some wild mushrooms and sautéed them, chopped, and added them at the end of the cooking time along with a little white wine and a cup of real Parmesan cheese.  It had a good flavor, but the consistency was off. I've made risotto in the past, which is quite time consuming -- I found the baked risotto recipe and gave it a try, but the rice seemed to go from too al dente to quite soft in a very short time.  It was almost like mushroom-cheese oatmeal ... ah well, lessons learned.  When we make risotto again, it will be the good old 45 minutes of stir, stir, stir, stir at the stove! 

The pie.  Oh, the pie.  It was lusciously creamy, custardy, tangy yet sweet due to the real buttermilk, and oh, so good.  The glazed pecans that were scattered on the top didn't sink to the bottom as I thought they would, they just made a crunchy topping to the velvety filling.  VERY tasty and I plan to make it again!  Do you see a picture?  No!  I forgot to take one!  There are two slices left in the fridge and I'll try to take a picture before we polish them off, LOL.

Next up: Paula’s turn! She chose... oh, wait!  There's no more states left!!  Whatever shall we do?  Stay tuned ...

Roast Duck with Wild Mushroom Baked Risotto

Tour of Fifty States: California's meal

Menu:  Monterey Chicken, Almond Cupcakes
Outcome:  The Monterey chicken was good -- at the last minute, we decided to grill the onion slices and I think that came out nicely.  I kind of forgot the bacon though ... oops! To go with the chicken, we made a garden salad to represent the abundance of produce farms that California is known for.  We included Monterey Jack cubes, roasted California almonds, sunflower seeds, and some California raisins, as well. 
The almond cupcakes were divine!  For some reason, they came out on the small side, but no worries because they sure did taste good.  At first, I thought that placing a fortune cookie on top of the cupcake would be a good idea, but then ... wrapped or unwrapped?  We didn't want chocolate frosting on the wrapper, and we didn't want the cookies to become soft or stale if unwrapped, so we served them on the side!  Problem solved.
Next up:  Paula’s turn!  She chose Arkansas!  THE LAST STATE!

Garden Salad

 

Tour of Fifty States: Iowa's meal

What do you think of when you hear Iowa?  Corn!   Well, we did include corn in this meal and plenty of "corny" jokes were said around the table.  We couldn't "shuck" our responsibilities to put jokes in each others' "ears," now, couldn't we? 
Loose Meat Sandwiches were made popular on the "Roseanne" show from the early 1990s, when she opened a Loose Meat restaurant.  Yes, the show was set in Illinois, but it seems that Indiana and Iowa also lay claim to the Loose Meat sandwich.  See below the recipe title for a little more history. 
Menu: Loose Meat Sandwiches, Corn, Sweet Corn Panna Cotta

Outcome: The loose meat sandwiches were okay, but just not good. I followed the recipe below, but we found that more zip, more oomph, more gusto, etc., needed to be added. Perhaps I didn’t find a good recipe -- but we all agreed that the meat should have been saucier. This just seemed like a broken-up hamburger patty. We added cheese and extra ketchup to our sandwiches which helped a little -- I think we’re used to the “Manwich” style of sloppy joes, which are much more “sloppy” and saucy.  

 

Since both girls are in braces, we opted to have canned corn for them and corn on the cob for the rest of us.  (Not pictured, everyone should know how to serve corn!) 

 

The Sweet Corn Panna Cotta turned out to be the star of this meal. We didn’t have proper ramekins to let the custard set in, so I used some small dessert bowls. This worked in our favor, and we were able to have our dessert two different times. The first time I drizzled caramel over the top and the second time I spooned some freshly made peach preserves over the top. We liked the faint corn taste that was infused in the custard. Yes, I used the fancy cooking term "infused"! LOL   

 

Next up: Brandi’s turn! She chose California!

Tour of Fifty States: New York's meals

 Oh boy… I did it again.  I somehow overlooked writing up the last THREE states’ meals!  I realized last week, as I was prepping for our LAST state meal, almost 2 years into this adventure, that I never wrote up the last few!  Does that mean no one is reading? 

 

For New York, we knew we needed a “do-over” (see our previous New York meal) and for the state to have its’ foods properly represented.  So we went all out, and dedicated the whole weekend to the state of New York.  It was a fun weekend!  At the height of summer, the weekend began the kids’ first week of our summer visitation with them. 

 

Menu:  Spiedie Sandwiches, Beef on Weck, Buffalo Wings, Cheesecake, Pizza, Eggs Benedict

 

Outcome:  Thursday night we had Spiedies with Corn on the Cob (from Binghamton, in the region of NY that borders northern Pennsylvania, aka “The Southern Tier”.)  Bill’s aunt and uncle served these when we visited them, and we liked them a lot.

 

Friday’s dinner was Beef on Weck (from the Buffalo/Rochester area) with Skewered Red Potatoes, Onions, and Bacon (see Delaware for the recipe.)  I know I want to make this sandwich again, it was so delicious!  It was easy and quick, two more bonus points in my book.  J  Dessert that night was Aunt Barbara’s Cheesecake -- NY style, baked with a shortbread crust.  It’s unlike any other cheesecake I’ve ever had.

 

Saturday we had real NY bagels that we had frozen on our last trip up (Poughkeepsie) for breakfast.  I took the girls to Bee City in Cottageville and we had pizza for lunch!  For dinner, we had Buffalo wings (I had Teriyaki wings because I don’t care for hot/spicy food) with French fries. 

 

We finished up our salute to New York with Eggs Benedict (NYC) on Sunday morning, then we took the kids to their grandparents’ to finish up the week.   Overall, it was a great weekend. 

Next up:  Bridget’s turn!  She chose Iowa!   

Tour of Fifty States: Washington, D.C.'s meal

Washington, D.C. was this weekend’s “state” meal.  Senate Bean Soup, prepared with traditional early American ingredients of dried white pea beans, onions, and a ham bone, has been on the menu in the United States Senate restaurant since the early 20th century, possible longer. It is the most popular item on the menu and is usually recommended by members of Congress when entertaining guests there for the first time.

Bean soup, a favorite of Speaker of the House, Joseph G. Cannon (1836–1926) of Illinois, was omitted from the menu on one hot, humid day in 1904. When speaker Cannon arrived for lunch and learned he could not order it, he was more than a little upset. "Thunderation!" roared the speaker. "I had my mind set for bean soup. From now on, hot or cold, rain, snow, or shine, I want it on the menu every day."   A resolution was introduced in 1907 by Senator Knute Nellson of Minnesota, chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, who decreed that while the Senate is in session, no day shall pass without Senate Bean Soup. From that time on, Senate Bean soup has appeared on the menu in all eleven Congressional dining rooms every single day, regardless of the weather. This tradition has endured for over 100 years.

A recipe for Election Cake, also what I chose to represent Washington, D.C., appears in the second edition of the first American cookbook published in this country – Amelia Simmons’ American Cookery (1796.)  The cake is actually a classic English fruitcake and was baked to celebrate Election Days at least as early as 1771.  Election Cake, as all cakes baked in colonial homes, was yeast-leavened, as there was no commercial baking powder, and they were baked in brick fireplace ovens.

The centerpiece of Election Day festivals, when everyone was given the day off , was a very large cake, which would traditionally be made of roughly 15 pounds of flour, two pounds of butter, 10 pounds of dried fruit, a dozen eggs, milk, yeast, spices, and a bit of sugar. Too big to fit any pan, it was a kind-of free-form bread baked directly on the floor of a wood-fired oven. The size of the cake depended largely on the size of the town and the available resources – both financial as well as a large enough oven. One cake, for example, was measured at over a yard in diameter and over a foot thick. The purpose of the cake, of course, was to have something hearty that would sop up the large amounts of ale and cider consumed that evening after the polls had closed.

I read also that slices of Election Cake were provided as an incentive to vote a straight ticket or for a particular candidate, and were handed out by women (who weren’t allowed to vote) as the men lined up at the polling sites. 

Menu:  Senate Bean Soup, Election Cake

Outcome:  The soup was good, but a little too thin for my taste when I made it according to the directions, so I added another cup of prepared mashed potatoes to thicken it up.  The Election Cake was okay, but none of us were really over-the-top thrilled with it.  It was quite too “bready” for our tastes – having been made with a yeast starter –  and in my opinion, it needed a lot more dried fruit.  Being quite dry, we remedied it with a scoop of ice cream on top and a little drizzle of caramel.  The minimal glaze didn’t add to the cake and I would think that omitting it and serving slices with whipped cream would have been much better. 

Next up:  Ben’s turn!  He chose New York!   Wait, you say??  Didn’t you already have New York?  Like in 2015?? YES !!

Explanation:  we had New York’s meal the weekend we moved into our house.  We were sleeping on the floor that Friday evening before everyone arrived on Saturday morning to help us move.  We didn’t even have the propane turned on yet, so quickly we heated up some Nathan’s hot dogs (from Coney Island, NY) on the electric griddle and opened a couple bags of potato chips (first made in Saratoga Springs, NY).  For dessert, we had some Entenmann’s  (Brooklyn, NY) Black and White cookies (a NY tradition.)  We needed a re-do!

Tour of Fifty States: Delaware's Meal

Duh! I was going to write up the next state and I realized that I forgot to write up Delaware!!  Somebody poke me when I forget!!!

Last December, we went to NY to see relatives, and on the return trip, we detoured to Virginia to see my brothers.  The route we took was down the Delaware peninsula, then through Maryland and then after crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel, we were in Virginia.  Get it?  DELMARVA.  The one thing I remember about Delaware was chicken farms.  Poultry is apparently a very big business there!  Many, many tractor-trailers passed us on the road (they were heading North) that were named with various poultry farms’ names, mainly Perdue. The Delaware chicken breed is very popular, as its white feathers leave clean meat when plucked.

Also, the University of Delaware has the Fightin’ Blue hen as its mascot.  So it was obvious when Delaware rolled around, it was time for us to have … you guessed it, chicken!!!

The recipe for the skewered potatoes came from the Post and Courier’s food section (June 1, 2016,) but I modified it.

Menu:  Roasted Chicken, Skewered Red Potatoes, Grilled Peaches with Ice Cream
Outcome:  Yummy!  The chicken was great but ordinary, as we frequently have roast chicken but the star of the meal was the skewered potatoes.  They were so good that we’re having them this weekend with the next state meal!  The grilled peaches are from upstate SC – and with the vanilla ice cream, they were just the finishing touch.

Next up:  Bill’s turn!  He chose Washington, D.C! Not a state, but it’s still got unique foods of its own. 

Pics from the Farm

The following pictures don't fit into our regular recipe and farming posts, but they are just pretty.  :-)

Washington, looking so handsome

Nano Farms; Produce Delivery Service Review

A coworker told me about Nano Farms, a produce delivery service, based out of Summerton, SC.  There is no commitment, no contract, and no strings attached. For a flat $35 fee, you choose 8 items from a long list of locally grown produce, and they deliver your basket to your home or work on designated days.

They currently only operate a Facebook page -- every Saturday they list the items that they will have for delivery the following week.  They also indicate which items are grown organically, and from which farms they come from.  A few items are available from NC and Georgia.  To order, either post a comment under the list, or you can send them a Private Message (PM.)  Payment is through PayPal, although I believe they take checks.  Don't quote me on that, LOL!

You may also add on additional items for an additional fee, such as a dozen local eggs, SC honey, boiled peanuts, etc.

I must say, we have not had such delicious and fresh fruits and vegetables since we had a garden of our own. (We are working out plans for a convenient place to build a fenced-off "goat proof" garden for next Spring, including irrigation.)  Hopefully we will be able to grow enough to participate in the program as sellers. Also, when our newest pullets begin laying in <2 months, we should be able to start selling them our eggs.

Tour of Fifty States: Vermont's meal

Menu:  New England Boiled Dinner, Apple Pie

Outcome:  The New England Boiled Dinner was okay, but we would have preferred a little more flavor.  I chose to put the corned beef and the vegetables in the crockpot and let it cook on low for the 12 hours that we were gone on that workday … the meat came out quite tasty and very tender, but it seemed that the long cooking time washed out the taste of the veggies.  I was unable to slice the meat, it just fell apart as it was lifted from the crock pot (behaving rather like a pulled pork.)  Yes, cabbage is included in the recipe; however, there wasn’t room in the crockpot for it!  (I added some yellow squash so I think it took the room that the cabbage should have had. 
Next up:  Bill’s turn!  He chose Delaware!

As for the apple pie – delicious!  It was topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and we served two different Vermont cheddars beside each slice (the sharpness of the cheese helped to cut the sweetness of the pie.) 

Online Grocery Shopping -- Comparison

I’ve shared with y’all before that I like to do my grocery shopping online with Harris Teeter, because: