An Appalachian Country Rag--Backwoods Recipes
Click here for Next Section
(Country Talk)


cropA Country Rag Backwoods Recipes



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



Infant portrait photograph of the publisher's grandmother, Marjorie May Harris, in her family's New Jersey 'gentleman farmer' home "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: Hungry Like The Wolf by Duran Duran)






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






birdplate

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.


Recently, on a whim, I picked up a small electric coffee grinder at the flea market for a dollar and re-explored the tasty world of fresh ground coffee beans. Although most are expensive at retail, different ones do go on sale from time and time, and the product of them goes a little further than pre-ground. They have a much more robust aroma and flavor that also make the cost difference worthwhile, at least on occasion for treat. Personally, I infinitely prefer French or Italian dark roasts but there are much milder in taste and caffeine varieties available.

The subject of pots for brewing is another, much more complicated matter. Finding one that works acceptably (along with an amenably functional and reasonably long-lived vacuum cleaner) and that stays that way beyond the warranty period -- unless one wishes to forego electric varieties completely and return to grandma's stovetop method which requires dedicated attention and timing -- might be referenced arguably as The Homemaker Challenge of the 20th and 21st Centuries. My favorite perker was a German glass ball type structure with a netted submersible "bulb" for holding grounds. When filled with clear cool water and switched on, the liquid simmered to a roaring boil that mimicked ocean fury and intrigued the cat also. Being foreign-born, when the "bulb" cracked unfixably, the whole apparatus was forced into early retirement.

As a beverage, coffee originated in Ethiopia during the 15th century and we should be grateful to that country and nationality for that, as should many employers and even professors, and a certain percentage of spouses and children and other family members. Today, the people of Brazil are by far its largest growers and exporters. Roasted green berries of many varieties ground to consistencies from coarse to fine become everything from pure espresso to latte to cappaccino to the loose boiled grounds of some native javas in Turkey and elsewhere. Nearly all, though, have their own dedicated pots designed for one purpose and that purpose only, although there are usually ways around this cultural persnicketiness. There is, naturally, a national association devoted to java in all of its aspects. The National Coffee Assocation of the USA, Inc. provides history, brewing tips, geographic sources and much more in an interesting and easy-to-use format.

Café au lait, of course, is the classic French concoction of half steaming strong coffee and half near-to-the-boil milk or cream poured into a cup or mug simultaneously from either side with an elegant flourish that results in a frothy top. Sugars are welcome additions also, from natural organic to browns to our everyday table white granulated, and a surprising number of spices may be chosen in combination or separately to add a special hint of piquant flavoring: nutmeg, cinammon, cardamom, mint, dried and preserved lemon and orange or even pineapple and ginger. Cocoa and many cordials are also splendid embellishments to the natural flavors of java, as is dark rum in particular. For toning down that slightly acidic afterswirl, there's regular and chocolate milk, heavy cream, half-and-half, and all the new flavored additions from hazelnut to almond. Coffeehouses historic to brand new serve up many of these delights along with live and recorded musical and literary entertainment from magazines to newspapers to books to author presentations. Four of my favorite kaffeklatches are Asheville's Malaprop's, Washington DC's Kramerbooks and Afterwords Cafe, Johnson City TN's Nelson Fine Art Gallery and Jonesborough TN's Cranberry Thistle, but there are many around the country comfortable, lively and inviting. Most provide gourmet snacking and dining inside and on covered outside patio areas also.

We've come a long way, baby, since the days of, "I'll just have mine black, thank you." And it's all an everyday and gourmet blessing, too.








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


Quilted Wallhanging by Margaret Gregg, Abingdon VA


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



Adbusters First Things First Campaign

"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



Recipes for Main Courses
buttonRecipes for Side Dishes
Share your favorite country recipe


Adbusters Aim High Campaign
"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



logo Return to A Country Rag Index




Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Email admin@acountryrag.org .




Original material © A Country Rag August 2010. All rights reserved.

Click here for Next Section
(Country Talk)