HOARDING! Echoes from the Past. . . and LIME PICKLE

My friend, Gale, and her daughter, Regan

I met Gale in New Delhi so when I came across this picture, I went back to a journal I kept at that time.

Glancing at a diary entry I made in December, 1971, just after the outbreak of the war between India and Pakistan, this leapt out at me.    

Gale and I went to the American commissary.  The men were told at a meeting that hoarding was “just not on.”

One country, in particular, was called to order by the Americans.   It wasn't Canada.

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Mary Atwood put a recipe for LIME CURRY in with her section on Vegetables  (p. 127) but when I finally tried it I was delighted to find that it was actually a pickle!  the pickle you often find with the other condiments at the end of a buffet table in an Indian restaurant!
     It's a bit of an acquired taste as it's bitter but I really like it now. 
     Having made it, I built a menu around it as follows:

 Chicken with Spicy Coconut Milk Gravy from

 THE COMPLETE ASIAN COOKBOOK, p. 228 and

   Sweet and Sour Acorn Squash: GOOD COOKING FROM INDIA, p. 157

MARY STADNYK's advice re HATCHING CHICKS

MOM told me how to HATCH CHICKENS with a BROODING HEN even in a CLASSROOM!

Time of the year when you can set a clucker: between March and July.

Step 1:  Select a brooding hen or “clucker”.  When a hen is making clucking noises and has been on a nest in the henhouse for 3 days and nights without getting off, you know she is ready.

            Not all breeds of chicken produce motherly hens.  Some of the suitable breeds of chicken are Rhode Island Reds, White Rocks, Grey Rocks, Jersey Black Giants, Cornish, Sussex, and White Wyandots.

Step 2:  Prepare a nest – just a cardboard box with hay or straw.

Step 3: De-louse the clucker before taking her into the house.  Do this in the henhouse.  One     powdering should be enough. 

One type of powder is called LM4 Dust and is put out by the Niagara Brand Spray Co.  It is 4% Malathion.  There are many different brands.   

Step 4: Settling the clucker: Put 3 eggs in the nest.  For a few days at the beginning, cover the nest with a grate so that the clucker cannot leave the nest.  After she starts going back to the nest, you don’t need the grate anymore.    

Establish a routine time of the day, such as 8:30 am to take the clucker off the nest.  The hen comes off the nest for food, water, and toilet only once a day for 15 minutes and never at night.   

Take the hen outside.  Spread newspapers if you don’t want muck in that area and give her gravel, wheat or barley, and water.  Tie a string to her leg so that you can bring her in easily.  After a while, she’ll come quite readily.   

How much to feed her: Put out a can of wheat or barley.  When she finishes, refill the can.  She will drink water out of a pail.

The settling-in period will take 3 days. 

Step 5: Discard the  3 eggs and give the clucker 19 to 21 fresh eggs which have come from a yard in which a rooster is with the hens.

Step 6: Check the eggs for fertility after 7 days.  Sine a strong light like a flashlight on them in a darkened room.  Check for a red spot with blood vessels radiating away from it.  This is a fertile egg.  Infertile eggs look clear as does a fresh egg.  An egg that was fertile but has not developed will show a small red line adhering to the inside of the shell or a red or brown circle.

            Discard the eggs that aren’t fertile.

Step 7: After 20 days, the chicks will start to crack the eggs.  On the 21^st day, all the chicks should be out.

Discard all the eggs that have not hatched on the 21^st day.  The chicks that might hatch from any eggs after 21 days would not be healthy.

Step 8:  Once the chicks are hatched, you can’t keep them and the hen in the classroom because she is very messy and strong-smelling.

            The newly-hatched chicks do not require food or water for 60 hours.  (This is why hatcheries can send chicks out to farms where they will be kept warm with heat lamps.) 

            Feed the chicks chick starter, oatmeal, millet, rolled wheat or cracked wheat.  From the start, the chicks also get gravel. 

Use inverted glass jars for the chicks’ water.  In their water, for a few days, you can put ‘chick zone’.  This is a liquid chemical so they won’t get diarrhea, but it is not essential.   

            In a week’s time, the chicks can eat whole grain with the hen – not without her.

            The hen stays with the chicks only about 6 weeks.     

Healthy Spinach Pesto Pizza . . . and 2 Good Books

 

My sister, Diana, loves pizza.

Here's a heart-smart one I thought up for when she can finally come to visit!

My HEALTHY SPINACH PESTO PIZZA

     First, prep the pizza dough and put it to rise.

     Next prep the pesto:

            1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted

            4 cloves garlic (or more if the cloves are small)

            4 cups fresh spinach (all of a bunch from the grocery)

            ¼ cup grated Parmesan

            2 tbsp olive oil

            ½ tsp salt

            ½ tsp pepper

            ¼ tsp cayenne or crushed chillies (more if desired)

     Grind all of the above in a food processor.  Set aside.

**

     Now, prep the other toppings: the peppers, red onion, and artichoke hearts.

     Preheat oven to 450.  Then roast for 15 minutes to partially cook:

            1 green bell pepper

            1 red bell pepper

     Chop the peppers into ½ inch squares.  Set aside. 

     Finely slice and then cut up some red onion: about half a cup.   Set aside.

     Drain a small jar of artichoke hearts and cut them up.   Set aside.

     Grate 8 ounces of mozzarella cheese.

**

     Roll out pizza dough for a 15-inch pizza.  Let rise 20 min.

     Preheat oven to 500.

     Bake undressed pizza for 7 min.  Reduce heat to 450 degrees.

     Dress the pizza in the following order:

            Pesto, Artichoke hearts, Peppers, Red Onions, Mozzarella

     Bake pizza at 450 for 17 min.  

    

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     Serve with a shrimp salad such as the one on p. 40  in this cookbook I use A LOT:

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And while we're still sticking close to home, here's a book that's worth your time:

Bryan's Parents . . . and Irish Roast Chicken

Bryan and his sisters were remembering Kay and Peter on St. Patrick's Day.

A few notes about Bryan’s father:

·   

·        He enjoyed hot banana pepper sandwiches.

·        Also orange slices and onion sandwiches.  Unclear whether the orange slices were IN the onion sandwiches, but Bryan thinks so.

·        He liked squares of bread on Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup: referred to these as “chickies”.

·        He liked strong cheese and head cheese.

*     He ate whatever was put in front of him.

Honey Trussed Chicken stuffed with fresh Basil and Rosemary:  from A TASTE OF OLD IRELAND by Andy G. Gravette. 

MARY, NELLIE, and FLORENCE . . . and my SPICED BISCUITS

MARY REMINISCING  . . .  in her own words . . . 

                              L to R:  Florence, Nellie, Mary (Mom) in 1974

       When Nellie was about six, Mama Anna said Mary should buy some material and make Nellie a kerchief.  Instead, Mary bought Nellie a birthday dress with panties.

            Nellie was a very good girl and comical.  She was never into mischief much, but if she did something naughty and was scolded, she just laughed.

            Mary had a rubber apron.  Nellie blew bubbles in it and made them pop.  Mary was disappointed so she scolded Nellie, but Nellie just laughed so Mary laughed, too.  “You just had to laugh, too.”

One Saturday, Mama Anna bought stockings for Nellie.   “It was a must to have stockings,” said Mary.   The next day, Nellie and Myron found a horse lying in a ditch.  Something had happened to it.  Nellie and Myron tried to get him up, and Nellie’s stockings got ripped.

Nellie was a tomboy.  She liked horses and was always with them.  Once, when it was dark, Nellie got caught on Tato John’s barbed wire fence, and cut her neck badly.   “Maybe she still has a mark on her neck,” reflected Mary.  “They said she could have died.”    

            Growing up, Nellie was best friends with Myron.

            Nellie looked after Florence and was very good to her.  She let Florence do whatever she wanted. 

            When she was two, Florence was breaking dishes because she liked the noise, and Nellie didn’t scold her.

When Nellie was twelve, she went out to work.  Mary was married then.   

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SPICED BISCUITS

Start preheating oven to 425.   

Grease a baking sheet.

Put into food processor and blend together:

            2 cups flour

            ¾ tsp cinnamon

            ½ tsp ground ginger

            ¼ tsp ground nutmeg

            1/8 tsp ground cloves

            2  tsp baking powder

            ½ tsp baking soda

            ¼  tsp salt

            ½ cup softened butter  

Transfer to a large bowl and lightly stir in:

             1/3 cup corn syrup stirred into:

            1 cup buttermilk

Drop onto baking sheet and bake 14 to 15 minutes. 

      

Zucchini & Feta Pancakes . . . a really good book . . . and a shared memory

 Don't these look great?  I froze the zucchini last summer and I really wasn't sure this recipe would work, but wow!  They're served with sour cream and they taste as good as they look.   Bryan loved them alongside Greek ribs and an eggplant salad from THE VICTORY GARDEN cookbook. 

If you have the Moosewood cookbook, give them a try!

 My friend, Eileen, asked me what I'm reading these days and I am very happy to recommend this book:

I have a picture to share with you, too, thanks to another friend who recently sent it to me.

Thanks, Pat.  I have to say I didn't recognize myself at first. . . it has been a few years!

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