Prairie Cooks: Holiday Post

By the time we arrive for Christmas dinner, the table is set for twelve people; it is loaded, and it is beautiful. Ingeborg has lovely Scandinavian china and antique water glasses of red and gold. In addition to lutefisk, lefse, and mashed potatoes, she serves roast pork and rich brown gravy. Lining the table are watermelon pickles, raisin breads, preserves, and jellies. For dessert there is pumpkin pie with whipped cream.

Pioneer Pumpkin Pie

My mother and Ingeborg often made pumpkin pie for the winter holidays. This recipe has a mild yet rich taste.

For the 9-inch unbaked pie shell: use recipe for Carrine's Flaky Pie Crust (see page 23)

For the filling:

1 cup canned or fresh pumpkin

2/3 cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon dark molasses

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon melted butter or margarine

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups light cream

whipping cream (for topping)

After making pie shell, refrigerate for 30 minutes. Place pumpkin, brown sugar, and molasses in a large mixing bowl and combine well. (If using fresh pumpkin, boil well until tender, drain and mash very well—if pumpkin still looks rough, put it in the blender a minute.) In a small bowl combine eggs, melted butter, spices, and salt and beat well with an eggbeater. Pour over pumpkin mixture and add cream and stir until smooth. Pour into refrigerated shell.

Pumpkin pie is best if baked at a long slow heat—pumpkin filling that has been allowed to boil in the oven is not palatable. Start out at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes and then lower heat to 300 degrees and bake for up to another hour or until a knife inserted in the filling comes out clean. Cool pie on rack until warm and serve with a liberal topping of freshly whipped cream sweetened with a little sugar and vanilla. Serves 8.

Carrie Young and Felicia Young, Prairie Cooks

Tree of the Week

Norway Spruce, Picea abies (L.) Karst.

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: Leaves linear, four-sided, evergreen, 3/8 to 1 inch long, dark green, with woody, peg-like bases tat remain on the twig when the green portions fall, spirally arranged and extending from the twig in several directions. Twigs drooping, orange on new growth. Buds with recurved scales. Cones pendant, 4 to 6 inches long, their scales dull brown, rigid, with finely toothed margins. Bark thin, dark, scaly.

SIMILAR TREES: White and blue spruces have smaller cones, and the twigs are stiffly held, not drooping. Blue spruce has longer, more sharply pointed leaves that are usually (in cultivated trees) noticeably blue-green in color. White spruce has grayish twigs.  Firs and Douglas-fir resemble spruces and are often confused with them but differ in having flattened leaves that lack woody, peg-like bases. Fir cones are held upright on the branches and disintegrate at maturity; cones of Douglas-fir have protruding bracts.

IOWA DISTRIBUTION: Planted throughout the state; occasionally naturalized on cool, moist slopes in northeastern Iowa.

Forest and Shade Trees of Iowa (Third Edition), by Peter J. van der Linden and Donald R. Farrar

Winter Story

December 8, 1909 / Fort Pierre, South Dakota
To Mrs. M. M. Corey

Dear Ma,

You folks think you know something about cold weather but you don't. I had got used to having my hair, eyebrows and eyewinkers covered with frost and ice till I looked like Santa Clause when I got to school but Sun. night beat that all hollow. I went to bed with the covers over my head and just a little air hole over my right eye and when I woke up in the night I found when I put up my hand to turn down the covers that my hair and the blanket were covered with hoar frost.

Monday morning it was blazing cold—I put that heavy gray wool skirt on for an under neath skirt—and wrapped as warm as I could. I got to school at five minutes till eight but the stove is in such a bad condition it took me fifteen minutes to clean out the ashes and start the fire. About that time my feet began to feel queer and by the time I was through sweeping I was ready to dance the "Highland Fling." I saw Mr. Stone coming with Myrtle and when he got there I had a note written to Mrs. Stone asking if she had anything in the house of which I could make bloomers as I got so cold about the branches and if she would send to town for some woolen stockings for me first time she got a chance. Plague take Mr. Stone he read the note and it tickled him so he had to tell Speers about it. Mrs. Speer said the wording of the note most killed him off. Mrs. Stone sent me a pair of woolen stockings and Miss Hunts' bloomers that night when Mr. Stone came after Myrtle.

Bachelor Bess: The Homesteading Letters of Elizabeth Corey, 1909-1919, edited by Paul Gerber

Prairie Cooks: Holiday Post

Now we are gathered around the table, ten strong, the snow still falling behind the windows. My mother and father, Ole and Anna, my brother, my four sisters, and me. The piano bench has been brought in for two of us smaller girls to sit on, because there are not ten chairs in the house. My mother brings the lutefisk glistening with butter on a platter, my older sisters serve the meatballs in gravy, the mashed potatoes, and a casserole of macaroni and tomatoes. The lefse is already on the table, buttered and rolled up in serving portions on a huge platter.

By the time we are ready for dessert, the windows are so dark we can no longer see the falling snow, and the gas lamp above us seems to burn brighter. When my older sisters start to clear the table, my father says, "I suppose you kids did'nt leave any room for ice cream. I guess Ole and I are going to have to eat it all." Ole thinks this is hilarious and starts one of his giddy laughs he can't stop. Anna purses her lips and looks sideways at him. He straightens up.

Norman leaves the table, goes out to the porch, and brings in the ice cream freezer and sets it beside my mother's place. He has scraped the ice off the top and taken the cover off. My sisters bring the saucers, and my mother dishes up the ice cream with a long-handled spoon. It is too delicious for words. We eat silently. The sauces are passed back for seconds. My brother has thirds. After all, he says, he did all the work.

Hand-Cranked Ice Cream

6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 quart milk
1 quart whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla


Place lightly beaten eggs, sugar, and milk in a kettle and let simmer over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula to keep it just below the boiling point. When it has congealed to the consistency of thin custard, remove the mixture from heat and let cool. Add the whipping cream and vanilla and stir well.

Pour into steel can of 4-quart freezer. Surround with mixture of ice and rock salt. Turn crank slowly until it will no longer turn. Remove ice from top of steel can. Life off cover and carefully take out dasher, cleaning it off with a spoon as you lift. Replace cover and plug hole in top with small cloth. Repack ice around can until ready to serve. Set freezer in shallow pan and let water drain. Makes 4 quarts.



Norwegian Meatballs

No Norwegian Christmas Eve dinner would be complete without meatballs served with mashed potatoes and lefse as accompaniments.

1/2 pound lean ground beef
1/2 pound lean ground pork
1 egg, beaten lightly
1 tablespoon light cream or half-and-half
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg


For the gravy:
3 tablespoons drippings and/or butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
pepper to taste
1 teaspoon sugar


In a mixing bowl place all the ingredients for meatballs and mix thoroughly together. Flour the hands to keep them from sticking and form tablespoons of the mixture into balls (large walnut sized). Let balls dry on cutting board until all have been made.

Put 1 tablespoon of butter in heavy frying pan, melt to sizzling, and put in meatballs. Cook slowly over moderately low heat, shaking the pan to brown evenly on all sides, until meatballs are cooked through on the inside (20 to 30 minutes). They should be very brown and crusty. Remove meatballs to a warm dish with a slotted spoon.

Pour off drippings from pan, leaving the brown crusty particles. Measure 3 tablespoons drippings, or add enough butter to measure a total of 3 tablespoons of fat, and return to pan. Add the 1/4 cup flour and with a fork brown it in drippings over medium heat, scraping up the brown bits clinging to the sides and bottom of the pan, for 2 minutes. Add 2 cups of water in a stream and, stirring constantly, bring the sauce to a boil, then simmer for 3 minutes until gravy is very smooth. Stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, pepper to taste, and 1 teaspoon sugar. Add the meatballs and simmer for several minutes, stirring occasionally, until the meatballs are heated through. Transfer meatballs and gravy to a heated tureen and serve, along with a bowl of mashed potatoes topped with melted butter and paprika. Serves 4.

Carrie Young and Felicia Young, Prairie Cooks

Tree of the Week

Mugo Pine, Pinus mugo Turra.

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: Leaves in fascicles of 2, moderately stout, 1 1/2 to 3 inches long. Cones 3/4 to 1 1/2 inches long, without prickles.

SIMILAR TREES: This shrubby pine is easily distinguished from other species by its small size, multi stemmed habit, and small, roundish cones.

IOWA DISTRIBUTION: Planted throughout the state.

Forest and Shade Trees of Iowa (Third Edition), by Peter J. van der Linden and Donald R. Farrar

Winter Story

November 21st

I haven't had to carry water—just melt snow you know—have had my tub full of snow water by the stove all the time and more than once I've gone to bed at nine thirty with a good fire and when I got up at five thirty have had to strike quite hard with my fist to break the ice on the tub while smaller things freeze up solid. My house is one of the warmest and best built houses in the country so you see we are having a spell of weather. I don't mind it like some folks do and every one is good to me—I have lots of invitations to stay over night or over Saturday & Sunday.

I started bread Friday evening. I suppose you wonder how I kept my yeast from freezing. I did like every one else out here—put it in a tight can, wrapped it up good and took it to bed with me and if holding that darned thing all night isn't enough to give any old maid bad dreams I don't know—I don't think I ever had better luck with bread though.

Bachelor Bess: The Homesteading Letters of Elizabeth Corey, 1909-1919, edited by Paul Gerber

Prairie Cooks: Holiday Post

Lefse


2 1/2 pounds (6 to 8) boiling potatoes
1/4 cup butter
2 tablespoons light cream
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup flour

Peel and boil 6 to 8 potatoes until very tender; drain, mash, and measure 4 cups. (Reserve the water for making potato bread, if desired.) Add butter, cream, milk, salt, and pepper, and mash again until very creamy. Chill lightly covered with waxed paper or cloth 2 to 4 hours or until well chilled. Add the cup of flour to the dough and work in well with hands. (Do not add flour before you refrigerate. Lefse must be made immediately after flour is added.)

It will be much easier to roll lefse if you use a pastry cloth and a stocking on your rolling pin which have been well seasoned with flour from previous use. Measure 1/4 cup of dough, form it in a ball, and put it on the pastry cloth on which is 1 tablespoon of flour from previous use. Measure 1/4 cup of dough, form it in a ball, and put it on the pastry cloth, and try again.

Have a well-seasoned cast-iron griddle. Do not grease. If you have an electric burner with eight settings, a No. 3 is just right for lefse—but better to have the heat too low than too high. Using a wide metal spatula or lefse stick, if you have one, lift the circle of lefse up from the pastry cloth on one side, using your other hand to help lift it on the other side, and carry it to the griddle. Prick the dough in four or five places with the corner of the spatula. let it bake for about a minute or until it bubbles in the middle, turn it carefully, and cook it for 45 seconds on the other side. If the heat is correct, it should still be very pale, with just a few flecks of brown. Turn again, then keep decreasing the turning time until you are turning about every 5 seconds, for a total of about 3 minutes. When done it should be dry on both sides but still tender and pliable; it should be pale brown flecked. Remove lefse to a dry dish towel and let cool. Wipe griddle with dry cloth between each lefse.

When cool, the circles can be piled up on each other. Store in a covered tin, overnight if desired, until ready to serve. To serve, halve them, spread with soft butter, and roll into coned-shaped rolls. Arrange the lefse on a decorative platter and serve as bread. Lefse freezes beautifully. It can be made several weeks ahead for special occasions. Just place in plastic bags and freeze. Then thaw several hours before serving at room temperature. Serves 6 to 8.



The Nine Days of Christmas

When today's children think of Christmas, they think of gifts. When I was a child I thought of food and celebrations. Gifts were the least part of my childhood Christmases. But the celebrations! That was a different matter.

The active festivities get into full swing in the midafternoon of Christmas Eve when my father brings in the tree and sets it up in the front room. Norwegian tradition holds that the tree must not be decorated until Christmas Eve. My mother is still in the kitchen baking the last piece of Christmas lefse on the top of her cast-iron cookstove—a task she has been at since morning. In a few minutes the pungent scent of damp pine mingles with the aroma of fresh lefse, and we know that Christmas week has started in earnest.

Carrie Young and Felicia Young, Prairie Cooks