A Country Rag Larder Arts

Video below, Kentucky bluegrass cellist Ben Sollee
(Click here for more Sollee music and info)

"Cooks of any region are bearers of a culture and a tradition; they are oral historians, not to mention sustainers of humanity." -- Novelist Michael Lee West, ETSU 81, Consuming Passions: A Food-Obsessed Life
Cookbooks are traditional fund-raisers collected, collated and published regularly by volunteers for beneficial community organizations. Recipes, including some from A Country Rag and its contributors, by alumni of ETSU, Johnson City TN, have been published in the illustrated and voluminous, 758-page reference Home and Away: A University Brings Food to the Table, as a fundraiser for the local public radio station. For more details contact East Tennessee State University.

(Midi right: Alice's Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie)

(Video below: Hungry Like The Wolf by Duran Duran)

Herbs and Sauces

Recipes handed down through generations are frequently learned by sight and doing rather than in discretely measured portions and instructions. Part of the fun of cooking is enjoying that freedom and creativity in experimenting with ingredients and processes -- following, of course, some standard experience in the basics involved. There aren't really many hard and fast rules for every day succulence, so go ahead and use the spices that are your favorites and/or are on hand and similar to ones called for in any particular recipe, e.g. basil or dill for parsley, ginger and/or cloves for allspice, seasalt for salt (or none at all, as foods have naturally-occurring salts in them), fresh-ground mixed peppers for black pepper. Personally, I'm sure that any Italian dish is improved by extra oregano. Fresh spices are fun and beautiful to grow and can also be purchased reasonably in some groceries and fresh-air farmers markets. Add a special sauce that seems compatible. Use brown or natural (unprocessed) or even confectioner's sugars. Various kinds of honey can work well also as a substitute sweetener in some cases and is a traditional healer for sore throats and other discomfitures. Different types of flour do bring different results, so check on packaging for equivalencies before using kinds more esoteric than standard white.

Christmas Candies from Grandma's Cookbook
(via Caroline Ross)

*Mexican Pinoche*

2 c brown sugar 1 c rich milk 2 c pecan halves 6 TBL butter
Mix sugar and milk; boil until a small amount dropped into cold water forms a soft ball; add butter and nut meats; stir well while warm and drop, by large spoonfuls onto a buttered plate or tin; set to cool.
Fewer nuts may be used if desired; walnuts or hickory-nuts may be used.

*Rich Chocolate Fudge*

3 c brown sugar ½ c rich milk ¼ c butter ¼ cake chocolate
Melt chocolate in a pan, and add butter, milk and sugar in order named and boil; when it will form a soft ball when tested in cold water, remove from fire; let cool a little and beat until thick; pour into a buttered shallow pan, cut into small squares and let cool.

Sumptuous Snacks from

*Fruit Preserve Blintzes*

(makes four blintzes) 4 eggs 1 c pre-sifted flour 1 tblsp sugar 1 c milk 1 tablsp butter
variety of tart and/or tasty fruit preserves (like strawberry and raspberry)
sour cream
sprigs of fresh mint for garnish
Melt butter over medium flame in a non-stick flat skillet.
Mix remaining ingredients in a medium-sized bowl with a wire whisk until very smooth. Pour about ¼ cup into center of skillet and tilt to spread thinly over bottom. Turn carefully with non-stick spatula. French pancake will cook through quickly. Flip unto clear plate. Drop a dollop (around a tablespoon) of chosen preserve in the center. Fold sides (four times) of crepe over it and turn with spatula to create blintz package smooth side up. Repeat with remaining batter.
Top with dollop of sour cream and mint sprig.

*Quick and Easy Cheese-Toast Sandwich*

sliced bread sliced cheeses (like cheddar, provolone and/or mozarella) mayonnaise mustard soft butter
Preheat toaster oven to broil. Spread bread slice with mayonnaise, another with mustard. Top with cheese and remaining bread slice. Spread around a teaspoon of soft butter on top before placing on tray in oven. Remove, turn and repeat when top has browned.

*Ginger Snap*

chilled ginger ale banana liquour grenadine
Pour soda into tall glass. Add a few jiggers of liquour to taste and drops of grenadine for festive color. Stir, serve and sip.

*Yeasty Beer Bread*

3 c self-rising flour 3 tablsp sugar 1 can or bottle leftover stale beer
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour regular-sized loaf pan. Mix dry ingredients into bowl with wooden spoon. Stir in beer. Batter will be thick and lumpy. Direct it into loaf pan. Bake for about 50 minutes. Check off and on for rising and browning.

*Rich Stuffed Baked Potatoes*

Idaho-style large, thick-skinned potatoes cream cheese with chives Salt, pepper, paprika shredded cheese (like cheddar, mixed Mexican or Italian)
Preheat oven. Bake potatoes normally. Remove from oven when done, let cool a little bit, cut in half lengthwise, and scoop insides into bowl. Add cream cheese and dry spices, stirring with fork, to taste. Spoon mashed potato mixture into halved skin shells. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top of each stuffed half, place on baking sheet, return to oven and brown for about five minutes until cheese melts.

Recipe Rehash (pages from the recent past)

first
second
third
fourth
fifth

Older Larder (1996 through 2007)
Recipes for Main Courses

Recipes for Side Dishes
Share your favorite country recipe

Funeral Notes (1946)

We’re burying part of him today In Hickory-Grove Church Yard. We can’t put him all here, For his grave Spreads over a few rocky acres That he loved — Where peach blossoms bloom, and Cotton stalks speckle the ground On a Georgia hill. Forty years he’s been digging And plowing himself under Along these cotton rows. Most of my Dad is there Where the grass grows And cockle-burrs bristle Now that he’s gone... We’re covering him in March days When seeds sprout. And I think next Autumn At picking time The white-speckled stalks Will be my old Dad Bursting out...
-- Rev. Dr. Don West

Graphic above: "Summer," quilted wallhanging by Margaret Gregg, Abingdon VA

"Last fall, Adbusters and six design magazines printed First Things First 2000. An updated version of a 1964 declaration, FTF 2000 states that too much design energy is being spent to promote pointless consumerism, and too little to helping people understand an increasingly complex and fragile world. It was signed by 33 high-profile designers, and has since been signed by hundreds more." -- Adbusters

"In New Jersey, elementary school kids filled out a 27-page booklet called "my all about me journal," basically a marketing survey for a television channel. Students in Massachusetts spent two days tasting cereal and answering an opinion poll. ZapMe! corporation puts "free" computers and internet hookups in schools. Then they monitor your web browsing habits and sell the information, neatly broken down by age, gender and postal code, to their customers." -- Adbusters

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Original material © A Country Rag January 2012. All rights reserved.