I live with my Mom and Dad and their weimaraner "Spencer". My Dad has multi infarct dementia

We all come from Vermont and we grew up during the 60's and 70's. One of our favorite things is cooking and so we try and stay sane by writing about cooking. I have an old cookbook from Rutland VT called "Out of Vermont Kitchens that we are going to try and cook from and see what the food tastes like.

The cookbook has some prepared foods in some of the recipes. But we will try and adapt them perhaps to modern cusine.

We also try other recipes but will dive into our Vermont roots as often as we can.

Marion Ballou Smith
The daughter of Orris and Margaret (Mageen) Ballou, Marion Ballou Smith grew up in Rutland, Vermont, graduated from Mount Holyoke College (1914), and taught botany and mathematics. In 1927 she married Esme A.C. Smith, a businessman in Rutland. Active in local business and civic affairs, Smith was the co-compiler, with Alice Chaffee Bowker and Ruth Sutton, of a fund-raising cookbook entitled Out of Vermont Kitchens, published in 1939, to benefit the Trinity Mission of Trinity Church in Rutland, and the Women's Service League of St. Paul's Church in Burlington, Vermont.

1.30.2010

Eggs In Everything

I had some leftover basmati rice so we made fried rice and used omlette strips in it for protein. I cooked the beaten eggs in a greased cast-iron skillet. I'd lightly fried some chopped fresh garlic and then poured in the beaten eggs and cooked them until they were hard set and then flipped them onto a board and cut them in thin strips.

Then I regreased the pan and fried a minced shallot, some green peppers, carrots and snow peas and then added the egg strips and some light soy sauce and a few shakes of hot sauce. The dish tasted great.

I finished the book "Iranian Rappers and Persian Porn" by Jamie Maslin. Iran sounds like a wonderful place to visit. The country has old castles and temples that go back centuries. They even have graffiti from soldiers at some ruins and fortifications that came, conquered and were later conquered by others. Now I am reading "Where Men Win Glory, the Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Kraukauer. The one Amazon reviewer says its a good story to read as fiction. I tried to read "Boots On The Ground" by his mom, Mary Tillman and it bogged down. I've always been interested in the Tillman story. He was so good looking. I first saw the story when I was contracting at the Boston Globe and his looks stopped me in my tracks. The mystery behind his death made his story all the more compelling. His father raised him to be confident in what he did. According to Kraukauer, he was over confident, something I know nothing about.

1.29.2010

I Finally Made The Gelatin Salad!

I finally made a gelatin salad. I passed on all the gluey mayonnaise or whipped cream filled salads I remember when I was a kid. We had a neighbor lady who loved to make them for us. I would try to look excited when someone offered me a big glob of the stuff on a serving spoon. She often made green gelatin salads with green food coloring and pistachio flavored jello and then add some nuts and miniature marshmallows. How did I ever eat that stuff?

My gelatin salad is Virgin Mary cocktail. The swirls in the photo are from the Saran wrap I used to cover it while it set. I just put two packages of regular gelatin in with a bottle of V8 juice and added some chopped olives, onions and green peppers then added Worcester sauce, lime juice, a bit of salt and some cocktail sauce leftover from our Christmas party. I didn't have celary and that would have been good. The whole concoction is very good and tastes great along with a tossed salad and another squirt of lime juice. The taste adds new meaning to the phrase "I coulda had a V8!".

Spencer and I went for a short walk today because its just too cold to enjoy a good long hike. The chickens are still laying about 8 eggs out of 11 hens. Not bad for rookies. My Dad is still trying to assert authority with the wood stove. I've learned to just relax and let him put more wood on the fire with my assistance. He get angry so easily and its not worth it to argue with him. He can't really understand anymore why we get angry at him. He only reacts to my anger by using his voice which is much louder than my own. Better to declare a truce and just let him play in the woodbox for awhile and then shut it up when he's out of the room.

1.26.2010

New England Chutney

We had some frozen cranberries we got from Sam's and never used them over the holidays. I never was a fan of relishes and preferred mustard or ketchup and chopped onions on my hot dogs when I was a kid.

There used to be a hot dog stand in Battery Park in Burlington, Vermont. They were well known for their hot dogs and after working all night as a waitress in South Burlington, we girls would all go there and have one with a Coke and hang around on Church Street.

Now I'm a big chutney aficionado. I love the sweet and sour taste of chutneys that are commonly made with mangoes and peaches. We made one with the cranberries and some apples as the main ingredients and added nuts and raisins to the sauce. The spices are exotic and a far cry from the dilled pickle chunks of the relishes I remember as a kid. We used cinnamon sticks, cloves, shallots, ginger and allspice in this one.

The chutneys make the dishes even prettier with their color. I like them now on everything including mashed potatoes, rice, over noodles, with chicken and fish, and sometimes on my toast in the morning.

Spencer has been limping lately. I think its time to take him to the vet and get him up-to-date with them.

1.25.2010

Apple pie and coop re-construction

I browsed thru more of "Out of Vermont Kitchens" many desserts. The 1940's must have been a popular time for baking and making puddings and cakes. There are so many entries for various ice creams using lots of cream and eggs. My mother says that ice cream was a favorite in Montpelier where she and my Dad grew up. Sherbert also must have been a favorite of the day. Its funny not to see any ingrediants without the words "lowfat" or "fat-free" anywhere in any of the recipes. I'll have to try making ice cream. I was housesitting last fall for some freinds in Brooklyn and while there, they made me some homemade ice cream from a gadget they'd bought from L.L. Beans catalog and the stuff was great. A Ben & Jerry's dream that tasted like vanilla and butterscotch.

But we decided to be conventional for now and made a standard apple pie using some apples that needed to be cooked. My Mom pulled it from the oven and broke off the end piece but it tasted great despite the presentation flaw.

My Dad's moods seem to be very influenced by the weather and with the rain he becomes more agitated and requires more looking after and just plain watching. He loves to get into the firebox and move the burning wood around. He's still aware enough to understand what he is doing but there is no telling what he's thinking. Our days become more involved with just watching him.

The new chickens I bought a few days ago are doing well in their new home despite the new home being a low-rent version of the beautiful coop they came from. I tried to buy the coop but was too late but ended up with 10 laying hens. One of them, a big brahma was a pet of two little girls and she is like a big spoiled cat. She loves to be held and petted. Today I've got to figure out how to add some roosts for them to get on at night. The one I have is too small now. I've got to do some problem solving today.

1.24.2010

Finding the switch

We spent last night trying to get Dad to go to bed instead of looking for a switch to shut off the jacuzzi. He couldn't figure out where the switch was even when we tried to explain that the switch was behind the door in the bathroom was the one. He was down stairs looking behind pictures on the wall trying to find the switch.

We had taken the ax away from him. We actually hid it, he found it and hid it himself from us and then forgot where it was. I spent awhile with him yesterday and found the ax and finally gave it to him. He began cutting the wood into small kindling wood that would burn in a few minutes. I've given up trying to explain anything to him. He can't seem to understand me anymore. He has flown into rages when we try to stop him from doing anything and that can be very tiring so now I avoid confrontation if possible.

My sister brought back some fancy chocolates from Ithaca yesterday and he wolfed them down like Hershey bars. Its very difficult to remember lately what he was like as a younger man. The disease changed his personality but there are bits and pieces of him from his more lucid days.

Pizza time

We made a deep dish pizza using a cast iron skillet last night.

Late last summer we hauled out our grill and spent the evening grilling pablano peppers and eggplant and froze them. We used straws to pull out the air from the freezer bags.

I stir fried and seasoned the frozen peppers and eggplants with shallots and garlic then spread it over the pre-baked crust. I added a little pesto we were trying to get rid of and some feta. Very rich but very good.

I got 6 more chickens yesterday. These are REAL chickens! Rhode Island reds, black Australorp and a big brahma mama who loves to cuddle in your lap. Henry the rooster was overjoyed and croaked "WOW!" when I put them in the coop with him and his mates. I'm getting 4 more later this week. They are so big he needs a saddle to fertilize them. The coop will be a bit crowded for a few months until the weather improves and we can re-design the space. Its cold and should help keep them warm. The 10 new hens will be sad after having to come down from the penthouse coop they came from. I keep apologizing to them like a good slumlord.

1.23.2010

Channeling my best Cesar Milan

My mom said that Spencer snarled at Alanso on the couch today. She'd never seen him react like that before. So I wondered about it the rest of the afternoon. I am wondering if we are, saying this like Cesar Milan talks:
"Da dog iiz channeling your negativve energie". Da dog iz behaving like yer crazy daddy. Be carefullll and always channel possativvve en=er-zy!
So I gotta work on my positive energy.

1.22.2010

Gelatin Salad Updated

I've been reading the different gelatin salads and frozen salads in the old cookbook. I remember these from my childhood. The sweet, glossy molded creations were engulfed in mayonnaise or real heavy whipped cream and contained frightening stuff like marachino cherries and food coloring. I remember viewing them from the table on holidays and someone saying as they scooped out a wobbly block of the mess and hovered it over my plate, "would you like to try some of Auntie Marge's wonderful lime mold??"

I guess we didn't eat as good as I thought we did. Michael Pollan, eat your words!

But I'm determined to have a go. I've found a few of them online and in my Mom's recipe collection that aren't quite so bad. One in particular is a mold made from tomato juice called a tomato aspic. Its just a bloody mary in a mold complete with worcetershire sauce and celery. This could be interesting.

Today my little sister is bravely coming up to watch Dad while Mom and I do some shopping and get away from his questions, orders and irrational statements for at least a few hours. We are having the VA help with home care soon and this will give us a much needed liberation. Other than that, we have a few glasses of chardonnay while making dinner.

1.21.2010

Rigatoni's and tomato sauce and cheese

The cold weather outside makes "comfort food" almost a necissity. We made a batch of tomato sauce and combined some of the red sauce with rigatoni's and mozarrella. We just mixed the slightly underdone boiled noodles with the homemade sauce and covered the top with grated cheese and popped it into the oven for about 35 minutes. As easy as a peanut butter and fluff sandwich except you have to wait a little longer.

Dad had a bad day yesterday and kept asking continually for an ax to cut wood for the woodstove. He screams now when he wants something badly and I tend to holler back in anger. I hope I can overcome the anger and learn to rationally deal with someone who can't respond to my pleas for logic any longer. We kept telling him we didn't need an ax (which is hidden in the barn) but that never stopped him from imploring me to take him to the hardware store to get an ax. We were exhausted by the end of the day. Thank God for my yoga class at 5. I never realized how much chanting and calming stretch poses can help someone who is as tense as a clothespin.

I met an Indian woman at the class who told me there was an Asian market now in Horseheads that I'll be interested in visiting next time I'm out that way.

1.11.2010

Finnian Haddie


Wegmans now has finnian haddie in its seafood department. My mom and I had it while we were backpacking thru Scotland and Ireland. I loved it. Its hard to find here but for some reason Wegmans found it. Its probably seasonal. We cooked it this time by lightly cooking it on a cast iron frying pan and then adding it to creamed potatoes. We combined it with a tossed salad.

I made Sticky rice pudding


I think it looks terrible but tastes great. Its simply black sticky rice. I got it in Ithaca at a Chinese market. They were selling it in bulk and I took enough for about two recipes to see if I liked it. We tried it earlier this summer and baked it as we usually do in Vermont. You bake puddings normally in the 60's growing up in Burlington. We had Jello puddings after school but the custard puddings were always served during our days as children in Burlington and South Burlington.

The sticky rice was almost a grain. I soaked it for about 24 hours and the water turned inky black. I strained it and put it in a crock pot with some coconut milk (about a cup), some toasted coconut, a 1/2 cup of brown sugar, a cube of butter, and a little salt.

I crock-potted it on low all night and left it to cool all day. (I took my time). I added about another cup of coconut milk and 3 eggs separated and combined into the mixture and baked it in slow oven in a buttered dish for about 45 minutes (until set). It was great. It looks terrible but tastes very exotic.

1.04.2010

Out of Vermont Kitchens


I have decided to try some of the old recipes from an old cookbook I was given. Out of Vermont Kitchens was first published in 1930's and I have an a 1940's edition. There are lots of recipes with lots and lots of eggs, whole milk, evaporated milk, lard and butter. No non-fat, low-fat anywhere.

The recipes have a list of ingredients but have hidden ingredients embedded with the method.

I'll try a few recipes each week. I'm still leafing thru the cookbook and I'm coming up with alternates for both my health and thighs.

We baked Panettone a few days ago and I'm having some of it with coffee this morning.

1.03.2010

We are going to try and re-create some old favorites

As a kid growing up in the 60's, I've decided I'm going to try and resurrect some of the dishes I remember from that era.

The first offering will be FROZEN SALADS. Yes..... frozen salads. A mixture of milk products, sugar, canned sweet fruit in heavy syrup and a few nuts.

Mom is calling some of her friends and relatives to find out how they made their offerings. I'm gonna finally find out about gelatine.

The weather is below zero. The chickens are laying a few eggs and I'm thinking about custard pies from the old Trask farm in Underhill VT. But we'll start with the custard pies.