Tour of Fifty States: Maryland's meal

Well, for Maryland’s meal I made the Coleslaw and the Smith Island Cake Thursday night before we had our state meal – I like to prep at least part of the dishes ahead of time when I can, so that there is less to do after work on Friday evening when the kids are there.  Since Bill’s birthday is coming soon, I told him to choose what he’d like to have for his birthday meal that we will have on Sunday while we have the kids with us … he chose tuna steaks, scallops in cream sauce and marinated vegetables with a carrot cake for dessert. 

What does this have to do with the meal prep? 

I had a bag of carrots in the fridge, so I shredded half of them to go in the coleslaw and used my handy dandy mandolin (thank you, Mom!) to slice up the rest of the carrots, with some zucchini and cucumbers and green onions (yep, all on the mandolin.)  I chopped up a few bell peppers and packed them all in a gallon Mason jar and filled it up with a dijon-vinaigrette marinade.  All I needed to do was to give it a few shakes before Sunday.  I ran the cabbage through the food processor, dressed the slaw, and baked the Smith Island Cake.  (More about that later.) 

It hit me Friday morning as I was driving to work… I used up all of the stupid carrots! How could I make Bill a Carrot Cake?  I’ll head back to the grocery store Saturday after dropping off the recycling and trash at the dump.   Sigh…

Anyway about the cake – the recipe calls for a box of yellow cake mix, which I prepared according to directions.  However, when I measured out 2/3 cup of batter per pan and baked for 10 minutes, I only had enough for 2 repeats, meaning I had just enough batter for 6 of the thin cakes.  I think it’s because the manufacturers decreased the package size (like they do with coffee and cereal.  Grrr)  The fudgy frosting is very decadent – it’s like the inside of a truffle.  I let it warm up just a little and it spread very nicely over the cake layers.  With hindsight being 20/20, I should have flipped each layer over alternately as I added and frosted them, because when all was said and done, the cake was pretty domed up in the center and downward sloping at the edges.  I couldn’t deconstruct it, so I used all of the remaining frosting and hopefully kind of made it look less odd. 

About the unusual name for the cake:  “Smith Island, Maryland, is a 400-year-old fishing village of only 250 residents and is located 10 miles offshore in the Chesapeake Bay and accessible only by ferry.  Beginning in the 1800s, Smith Islanders would send these cakes with the watermen on the autumn oyster harvest. The bakers began using fudge instead of buttercream frostings, as cakes frosted with fudge lasted much longer than cakes with other frostings.

Known simply as the Smith Island Cake, the dessert is baked for any occasion and not reserved only for holidays.  Great attention is paid to the perfection of the pencil-thin layers that form the distinctive cake.”

On April 24, 2008, Smith Island cake was designated as the official dessert of the state of Maryland.

Menu:  Crab Cakes, French Fries, Coleslaw, Smith Island Cake

Outcome:  The Crab Cakes were super fast and easy... Um, no one needs to know that Harris Teeter sells pre-made Crab Cakes, do they?  LOL I sure hope not!   YES I took a short cut this time, but I am including the recipe that I was going to use.   What’s funny is that everyone took so well to the coleslaw!  I admit, it was pretty tasty.  It was a "fly by the seat of your pants" recipe -- meaning that after I shredded the cabbage and carrots, I just started adding stuff to the bowl and mixing it.  There was mayo, vinegar(s), spices, etc. but unfortunately, I did not write it down! Gotta see if I can duplicate it.  :)   

The next day, I served some thick slices of tomato and Bill piled his coleslaw on top of the tomatoes, and ate it together.  After a few giggles and raised eyebrows from the rest of us, one by one we all tried it.  You would never think that a bite of tomato and coleslaw would be so good! We were pleasantly surprised. 

The cake came out nicely, as well.  We all enjoyed the fudgy frosting and the picture doesn’t do it justice.    

Next up:  Ben’s turn!  He chose Vermont!  We are closing in on the last few states! He will be in NYC for a school field trip the next visitation weekend, so we will push that meal back to the last weekend in May.

Maryland's meal

Tour of Fifty States: Michigan's meal

Menu:  Cornish Pastys, Peas, Cherry Pie

Outcome:  These were pretty good, but not spectacular – the filling was just meat and veggies, but we all said that we would have preferred some kind of gravy in with the filling, as they were a bit dry.  Oh, and just for future notice, do NOT put a cherry pie in the oven then go watch “The Princess Bride” without starting a timer of any kind!    Our pie got just a little dark, well, blackened is more like it.  This state is definitely a do-over.

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

Migrating Cornish miners helped to spread pasties into the rest of the world during the 19th century.  The arrival of the pasty in the Upper Peninsula came with an influx of Welsh and Cornish miners.

The pasty became popular with working people in Cornwall, England, where tin miners and others adopted it due to its unique shape, forming a complete meal that could be carried easily and eaten without cutlery.  In a mine the pasty's dense, folded pastry could stay warm for several hours, and if it did get cold it could easily be warmed on a shovel over a candle.

When pasties are being made, each member of the family has their initials marked at one corner. This way each person’s favorite tastes can be catered to, identifying each pasty.  The solid ridge of pastry, hand crimped along the top of the pasty, was so designed that the miner or traveler could grasp the pasty for eating and then throw the crust away. By doing this, he did not run the risk of germs and contamination from dirty hands. The crusts weren't wasted though, as many miners were believers in ghosts or "knockers" that inhabited the mines, and left these crusts to keep the ghosts content. There is some truth to this rumor, because the early Cornish tin mines had large amounts of arsenic, by not eating the corner which the miners held, they kept themselves from consuming large amounts of arsenic.

One end of the pasty would usually contain a sweet filling which the wives would mark or initial so the miner wouldn't eat his dessert first, while the other end would contain meat and vegetables. The true Cornish way to eat a pasty is to hold it in your hands, and begin to eat it from the top down to the opposite end of the initialed part. That way its rightful owner could consume any leftover portion later.

Pasties are one of the most ancient methods of cooking and of carrying cooked food. It is said that the early Irish Catholic Priests created them in order to transport food as they walked about the countryside preaching and aiding the people.

Decision time, part two

Using everyone's input, here's the latest version of our farm logo:

What do y'all think???  Thanks for the input!

Decision time!

The two logos below are what we've come up with for our farm.  We want to get an egg license from SC so that we have the ability to sell eggs off of the property, then subsequently become a "SC Certified Farm Product".  Part of the licensing process is that we have to submit a proof of our farm's "logo" with all required information that would be placed on labels for the egg cartons.

Please let us know which one you prefer -- we'd love to hear feedback!  Colors?  Fonts?  Anything?  readability?  This will have to fit on about a 3" x 4"  sticker.

Logo 1:  Woman scattering scratch for chickens

Logo 2:  Ribbon banner

Tour of Fifty States: Indiana's meal

Indiana's pork tenderloin sandwich consists of a deep-fried breaded pork tenderloin cutlet placed on a soft hamburger bun. The meat spills over past the edge of the bread. The sandwich is dressed with a variety of condiments usually eaten on hamburgers, including ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, pickles and onion.  The sandwich appears on many Indiana’s restaurant and diner menus, having been introduced to the state as wiener schnitzel by German immigrants in the 19th century. Nick Freinstein sold the first breaded pork tenderloin in 1908 from a food cart in Huntingdon, laying the foundation for Nick’s Kitchen, which opened the same year and still stands today. "Gourmet" magazine called breaded pork tenderloin more popular than hamburgers in the state.

Hoosier Pie appears to have originated in Indiana with the Shaker and/or Amish communities in the 1800s as a great pie recipe to use when the apple bins were empty. Similar pies are found in the Pennsylvania Dutch County and a few other places in the United States with significant Amish populations. This pie was also known as “finger pie” because the filling was sometimes stirred with a finger during the baking process to prevent breaking the bottom crust.  The pie is also nicknamed “desperation pie” because of its lack of ingredients from outside the basic pantry.

Menu:  Pork Tenderloin Sandwich, Indiana Corn Casserole, Hoosier Pie

Outcome:  The pork pieces were enormous after they were pounded!  I cooked them as they were, but when it was time to put them on the buns, all of us cut our portion in half to make a more manageable sandwich  and we ate the rest of the patty on the side.  The sandwiches were very good, and we dressed them as we would hamburgers with the traditional toppings as we liked (see the first paragraph.)  The corn casserole was a very nice side dish to the sandwich and was flavored nicely with the bacon and sweet corn. 

On the other hand, none of us were fond of the Hoosier Pie … it was cloyingly sweet, sticky and rather plain and boring.  Very easy to make, but not one that we’ll attempt again. 

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

Indiana's meal!

Tour of Fifty States: Illinois' meal

For the state of Illinois, I knew I wanted to try making Chicago-style deep dish pizza.  I have never had it before, but it seems to be as popular as “New York” style pizza (thinner and hand-held) and hey, I just love pizza! 

The horseshoe sandwich originated in Springfield, Illinois and is served, it seems, in all of the local restaurants. It begins with thick-sliced toasted bread, most often Texas toast and hamburger patties, or ham, topped with French Fries and cheese sauce. There is also a "breakfast" horseshoe that uses ham, eggs and hash browns. A smaller portion, with one slice of bread and one serving of meat, is called a "Pony Shoe".  It is considered a local Illinois delicacy since 1928.

Since Illinois is the #1 producer of pumpkins in the US, I had to make some kind of pumpkin dessert…but pumpkin pie in March isn’t right!  That is for fall!  I ended up combining pumpkin pie with cheesecake and dump cake for one dessert, and pumpkin pudding parfaits for another dessert.

Menu:  Breakfast Horseshoe Sandwiches, Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizza, Pumpkin Dump Cake, Pumpkin Pudding Parfait

Outcome:  I ended up using our large heavy lasagna/roasting pan for this pizza.  The crust recipe below covered the bottom of the pan and about 1 inch up the sides.  So if I had used a round pan, maybe a cast iron skillet, the crust would have come higher up the sides.  The way it was though, was perfect for us.  The oiled pan and the very high temperature almost seemed to fry the crust, leaving it very crisp and crunchy, even under all that sauce.  I thought it would be too much sauce, but followed the recipe as written.  I’m glad I did.  This pizza was GOOD.  It was hearty and delicious and reminded us of a pizza casserole.  All the kids and Bill said this was a winner!  They want to have it again next time they come! And we even have leftovers.  J

The horseshoe sandwiches were a huge hit as well.  I could only eat one of mine (Pony shoe for me) so I boxed up the leftover – and then I remembered to take a picture!  Haha oh well.  I did pretty well with the other items this weekend (except getting a picture of a slice of the pizza on a plate!)

Up Next:  For this round, we did a simple dice roll…highest went to Paula and she chose Indiana!

Tour of Fifty States: South Carolina's meal

For our gorgeous Palmetto state of South Carolina with SO MANY wonderful food choices, it was hard to narrow it down.  So here's what we ended up with: shrimp, shrimp, shrimp!  MMMMM shrimp!

Speaking of which, I can't find the paper that I wrote the Shrimp and Grits recipe on...it's here somewhere and I'll post an update when I find it!

Menu:  Lowcountry Boil, Shrimp and Grits, Benne Wafers
Outcome:   News flash -- Bill LIKED the grits!!!!  Maybe because they were loaded with cheese and bacon and shrimp?  Who cares, he said he liked it!  Ben, not so much.  That's okay, he ate the Caesar Salad that accompanied it.  The girls and I are big "grit fans" and we're looking forward to the World Grits Festival that will be held next month in our new home in Saint George, South Carolina!
(also, the Benne Wafers were packaged...sigh.  Just didn't have time to make them.  But they were still good!!)
Next up:  Paula's turn!  She chose Illinois!

Lowcountry Boil

Shrimp and Grits

Tour of Fifty States: Alabama's meal

Menu: Barbecued Chicken served with White Barbecue Sauce, Creamed Corn, Cheese Biscuits, Blackberry Cobbler
Outcome:  First, we didn't have the cobbler.  I forgot to buy the frozen blackberries!  It's a dessert that we will make in the future; I may just wait until the fresh ones are available.  The white BBQ sauce is surprisingly very good!  I doubt if I will give up my beloved SC mustard BBQ sauce, but this is quite tasty.  If you have a Jim 'N Nick's BBQ restaurant near you, you just have to try their cheese biscuits.  They are simply heavenly and the "copycat" recipe I found on the internet is perfect.  Very easy to whip up and very light and fluffy, like muffins.
Next up:  Bridget's turn!  She chose South Carolina!  Woohoo!

Alabama's meal

Tour of Fifty States: Georgia's meal

The meal for Georgia, sadly, was on 11/14 of 2015!  Just after that was Ben's, followed by the girls' birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas!  it seems we are busy all of the time and I just haven't been able to write up my blog posts!

Ah, well...here's the original Georgia writeup, which will VERY soon be followed by two more states!

This week’s meal was from Georgia…Southern food galore!  What could be more Southern than fried chicken, mashed taters,  and gravy???

Menu:  Southern Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes with Gravy, Corn on the cob, Peach Pound Cake

Outcome:  Well, I have to say this honestly -- there is a REASON that KFC, Popeyes, Bojangles, Church's, Bi-lo, Walmart, etc. sell fried chicken:  I don't do a very good job of it.  I love fried chicken, but I either mess with it too much while it's cooking, or it's not cooked correctly. Maybe it's their deep fryers or pressure cookers or whatever.   I have officially made my very last batch of fried chicken.  I will continue to buy it!  (Church's is the best in my opinion,)

As I was impatiently and repeatedly turning the chicken pieces (LOL) I heard this loud bleating coming from the pasture.  Knowing something was wrong, I turned off the burner, moved the skillet, and dashed outside to find Miss Gracie (the younger goat) with her head stuck in the fence.  She'd grown just a little too much and she could no longer get her horns through the fence wires to get to whatever she wanted on the other side.  After I freed her, I returned to the fried chicken to find it .... well, let's just call it "dark brown".  I did serve it, with profuse apologies.  Oh, and the mashed potatoes were boxed.  Sometimes you have to improvise!

The Peach Pound Cake was very, very good (I used frozen peaches.)  I can't wait until next summer when I can make it with fresh ones!

Next up:  Bill's turn! He chose Alabama!  Stay tuned til 2016...

Tour of Fifty States: Missouri's meal

This week’s meal was from Missouri.  The state that is just about in the center of the US certainly has some unique foods.   The rest of the county serves round pizza “pies” that are cut into triangles whether New York style or Chicago style.  The definitive characteristics of St. Louis-style pizza are a very thin crust made without yeast, the use of Provel cheese, and pizzas cut into squares or rectangles instead of wedges.

All of us are familiar with ravioli and we most often see it served with red sauce, Alfredo, or simply melted butter.  However, in Missouri, the ravioli are fried or “toasted.”  The first toasted ravioli seems to have been made in the 1950s at a restaurant called Angelo Oldani's on the Hill, the Italian neighborhood where both Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola grew up.  According history, it happened this way: ''Angelo was busy and told a new assistant, a German cook, to prepare the ravioli. He had a pan of boiling hot oil on the stove, and the cook thought it was supposed to be for the ravioli, so he dropped them into the oil.'' When Mr. Oldani saw what had happened, he tried to salvage the ravioli by brushing on some grated cheese. The result was local history.

The dessert famous in Missouri is the Gooey Butter Cake, which originated in the 1930s. According to legend, a German baker added the wrong proportions of ingredients in the coffee cake batter he was making. It turned into a gooey, pudding-like filling.

Menu:  St. Louis Style Pizza, St. Louis Toasted Ravioli, Gooey Butter Cake

Outcome:  Well….with the above descriptions of the food, we thought it would be an amazing meal.  We were less than thrilled, however.  The pizza crust recipe -- as written -- states that it will make two 12” pies.  Oh no, not for me!  I rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled and could barely get one 12” oddly shaped crust that was literally paper thin.  So I made a second batch of the dough and had the same results.  The recipe for the sauce says that it is enough for four 12” pies but it adequately covered the two that I made.  We really liked the (imitation) “Provel” cheese blend – the liquid smoke kicked it up a notch.  Real Provel isn’t sold outside of St. Louis, except by mail order and I didn’t want 5 pounds of it, so I went with the substitution.  When we ate the pizza that night, it was super crispy and it was  like eating pizza on a cracker – but the crust just didn’t have a bit of flavor and reminded us of cardboard.  (Next day’s reheating of the leftovers made the crust a soggy gooey mess.)  Sad to say it, but it was an overall thumbs down on the pizza. 

As for the toasted ravioli, I opted to “oven-fry” the breaded ravioli instead of deep-frying them.  NORMALLY when I put food like breaded chicken breasts on a cookie sheet and spray it with cooking spray, it will crisp up and get nice and golden brown.  Not the ravioli…it just couldn’t develop a good crust.  So it as well was just lackluster.

Moving on to the dessert… the Gooey Butter Cake is AWESOME.  Outstanding.  Fabulous.  Scrumptious. Super yummy!  Bill said that I don’t ever ever need to make another kind of cake again.  It was THAT good.  The edges were crisp and chewy, and the center had a creamy, gooey, cheesecake-like texture that was so very, very good.  A real winner! 

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

Missouri's meal

Tour of Fifty States: Arizona's meal

This week’s meal was from Arizona.  A couple of weeks ago, we had our state meal from New Mexico, but as I’ve learned, the cuisines are pretty distinct.   New Mexican cuisine is known for its dedication to the chile (the official "state question" is "Red or green?" which refers to the preferred color of chiles) and plentiful corn tortillas.   Arizona's style of cuisine is often called Sonoran after the Mexican state of Sonora that Arizona borders to the south.   During the Mexican Revolution in 1910, thousands of Sonorans fled to Arizona. Because of this, a lot of “Mexican” cooking in Arizona reflects Sonoran cuisine. For instance, in Sonora wheat is a common grain, so wheat tortillas are eaten more frequently in Arizona than corn tortillas. The state’s cuisine also includes Native American customs, such as harvesting fruits from cacti like the saguaro and prickly pear.  These fruits are eaten raw or dried, as well as being turned into syrups, wines, and jams. 

Source:  http://arizona-guide.info/food/

Menu:  Beef Chimichangas, Arroz Rojo, Refried Black Beans, Flan

Outcome:  The Chimichangas were quite good.  I didn’t make them the way the recipe I had originally found – due to Bill and I both being sick for the majority of the week, neither of us were up to preparing a roast and shredding it.  Instead, I used some eye of round quick-sautéed in the skillet and to be a little healthier, I baked the Chimichangas instead of deep-frying as is traditional.  Directions are given for the version I made.  The Arroz Rojo (Red Rice) was Knorr “Spanish Rice.”  Again, we weren’t up to 100% yet and the 7-minute side dish worked out perfectly. (And the refried black beans were canned.) The next day we enjoyed the flan – as you can see in the photo, I cooked the sugar/caramel a little longer to get it nice and dark (although flan is usually much lighter in color.)

Next up:  Ben’s turn! He chose Missouri!

Arizona's meal

Tour of Fifty States: North Carolina's meal

This week’s meal was from North Carolina.  The state is known for two distinct types of barbecue – Lexington style and Eastern style; they differ in the cuts of pork used and the sauces they are served with.  Lexington style barbecue uses a red sauce made of ketchup, vinegar, and pepper.  It is most common in the Piedmont (central) and western areas of the state. This style uses only the pork shoulder section of the pig.  Eastern-style barbecue is a whole-hog style of barbecue, often said to use "every part of the hog except the squeal".  Eastern-style sauce is vinegar- and pepper-based, with no tomato. 

I chose to make the Lexington/Western NC style of pulled pork using a pork shoulder, with a red sauce.  Number one, I didn’t want to make a whole hog, and number two, I like it best!  Of course, a staple with pulled pork is creamy macaroni and cheese and some peach cobbler. 

Menu:  Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Macaroni and Cheese, Peach Cobbler

Outcome:  Well, to be honest, we all prefer other pulled pork that we’ve had – we live in South Carolina (home of the best barbecue you can EVER find) and the vinegar was a bit too much for us.   The sauce was very thin and soaked right through the buns, making us either eat our sandwiches very quickly or give up and use a fork.  I think that we shouldn’t give up entirely on the North Carolina style – when we travel through the state we’ll have to try some from a restaurant and see if it’s different.  The macaroni and cheese was very good, as was the peach cobbler.

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

North Carolina's meal (I added pimento cheese and bread & butter pickles to mine!

Tour of Fifty States: Montana's meal

This week’s meal was from Montana. I’ve never been there, and Bill doesn’t remember much about it when he traveled through the state many years ago.  It’s definitely on our list of places to visit!  When I first thought of what to serve, I thought of cowboys on the frontier and their meal of choice, most likely meat and potatoes.  Instead of regular beef, I opted to get some ground bison (Costco sells it in a 2 pound package.)  For dessert, I went with something that I thought would be relatively easy to find on the prairie -- berries that could be made into a simple cobbler. 

Menu:  Bison Burgers, Home Fries, Berry Cobbler

Outcome:  The bison was extremely tender and juicy, even at 93% lean. I thought it wouldn’t be so juicy with such a low fat content.  It has a good, mild and somewhat “grassy” flavor.  We grilled the burger to a nice medium rare and served them on buns with cheese and the traditional condiments.  The home fries recipe is one I’ve made for years and years, and is one of my favorite ways to cook potatoes.  They are excellent with mayonnaise on the side!  The cobbler was served with some of our goat milk cinnamon ice cream, which complemented the tart berries perfectly.  By the way, leftover cobbler was wonderful on our French toast the next morning!

Next up:  Bill’s turn! He chose North Carolina!