I eat it. The wife don't.

[Pete Bog]

On occasion, I get to fend for myself. The wife may  be off visiting her sister or out shopping with the daughter. At any rate, I'm on my own for lunch. If I've got a heads up and can plan ahead, I'll do a little shopping for myself of things the wife doesn't like and won't eat. This past week I put together a sandwich I haven't had in years and it was even better than I remembered.

2 slices of rye (Pumpernickle) bread. Buttered
1 or 2 slices of Provolone cheese
Pastrami to taste, sliced from the from the deli counter

stack 'em all together and microwave on high for 30 seconds until the cheese just starts to melt.
add a little honey mustard and a couple dill pickle spears on the side.
served with a beer or wine of your choice and your good for the afternoon. Quick, simple, easy and nice cross section of bold tastes.

Once a year I do something similar with limburger cheese. Wife insists I prep and eat it outside. Says it stinks up the house. So on a nice evening in the fall of the year, it's me and the dog in the back yard. He thinks I'm a hero for the day.

Dark bread like pumpernickel, Buttered
Big slice of raw onion
enough slices of limburger to cover the sandwich
dill pickle slabs to cover the sandwich
another slice of buttered pumpernickel and your good to go.
Chase it with a Bold beer like Guinness Extra Stout.
A jar of chilled pickled pigs feet or pickled pork hocks to go with it.

Pie and coffee, or cookies and milk are okay, for a mid afternoon snack. But for a little taste kick, Gorgonzola or blue cheese  or kippered snacks on crackers or a slice of stout Italian bread, washed down with a glass of wine that's not to dry is a nice change. Don't know where I got my tastes, no one else will eat these foods with me.

I'm thinkin' to myself "Good stuff, your loss!"
Oh well, it's only a couple times a year that I indulge myself. They all pack and keep well for a day trip or hike. The pastrami was originally formulated to keep meat before refrigeration. Though, I'm not sure I would push it more than a couple days on a hike.

[Moe M.]

On occasion, I get to fend for myself. The wife may  be off visiting her sister or out shopping with the daughter. At any rate, I'm on my own for lunch. If I've got a heads up and can plan ahead, I'll do a little shopping for myself of things the wife doesn't like and won't eat. This past week I put together a sandwich I haven't had in years and it was even better than I remembered.

2 slices of rye (Pumpernickle) bread. Buttered
1 or 2 slices of Provolone cheese
Pastrami to taste, sliced from the from the deli counter

stack 'em all together and microwave on high for 30 seconds until the cheese just starts to melt.
add a little honey mustard and a couple dill pickle spears on the side.
served with a beer or wine of your choice and your good for the afternoon. Quick, simple, easy and nice cross section of bold tastes.

Once a year I do something similar with limburger cheese. Wife insists I prep and eat it outside. Says it stinks up the house. So on a nice evening in the fall of the year, it's me and the dog in the back yard. He thinks I'm a hero for the day.

Dark bread like pumpernickel, Buttered
Big slice of raw onion
enough slices of limburger to cover the sandwich
dill pickle slabs to cover the sandwich
another slice of buttered pumpernickel and your good to go.
Chase it with a Bold beer like Guinness Extra Stout.
A jar of chilled pickled pigs feet or pickled pork hocks to go with it.

Pie and coffee, or cookies and milk are okay, for a mid afternoon snack. But for a little taste kick, Gorgonzola or blue cheese  or kippered snacks on crackers or a slice of stout Italian bread, washed down with a glass of wine that's not to dry is a nice change. Don't know where I got my tastes, no one else will eat these foods with me.

I'm thinkin' to myself "Good stuff, your loss!"
Oh well, it's only a couple times a year that I indulge myself. They all pack and keep well for a day trip or hike. The pastrami was originally formulated to keep meat before refrigeration. Though, I'm not sure I would push it more than a couple days on a hike.

 It would seem that if someone is interested enough to hold membership in an organization, club, group, or forum that has it's roots based in learning, teaching, sharing self reliance such as this one they would want to have at least a basic knowledge of food,  how to prepare it, and in such a way as to make it both nutritious and good tasting.
 This reminds me of a funny but true story,  the bride and I have seven children (all grown and with families of their own now),  ten grandkids, and five great grand kids,  all are wonderful,  while I can't speak for my great grandkids they're still to little,  but the rest of my clan either know their way around the kitchen or they are well on the way to learning, as it stands I only have two daughters that have mental blocks where cooking is required, both are bright, strong, and beautiful business oriented women, but neither can cook worth a $hitt, but that's another story for another day.
 Todays story is about my youngest son, he's come a long way as far as food goes, but in his teen years he was a dumb as a post around the kitchen,  I remember one time in particular when I was busy in my basement workshop working on some small project when my boy popped his head in the door of my shop (he was about 15 yrs. old at the time) and said "hey dad, I'm awful hungry, and mom's not around",  being a bit annoyed at being disturbed in the middle of doing a time sensitive application I answered him by saying, "just grab a bowl of cereal for now, I'm kind of busy at the moment",  to which he fired back, "but you know I hate to cook".
 
 Just how much cooking is involved in pouring a little milk into a bowl of Coco Puffs ?       

[Pete Bog]

Pan Fried Salt Pork

1/2 lb. salt pork, sliced thin
flour and cornmeal for dredging
2 Tbs flour for thickening milk
2 c. milk (or sour cream)

Cover pork slices with boiling water for 3 minutes. Do not allow to cook. Remove slices and drain well.
In a mixture of equal amounts of flour and cornmeal, dredge slices.
Fry in a heavy frying pan in their own fat until crisp and golden brown.
Remove, drain on brown paper (paper towel nowadays) and keep hot. Pour off fat in pan, leaving about 2 Tbs.
Return to pan to heat and stir in flour, then add milk, stirring constantly, to make a creamy gravy speckled with tiny crumbs of pork.
You can omit the flour and gravy and use sour cream instead for the gravy.
Serve the pork slices and gravy separately, with boiled potatoes.

If you prefer you can take the previously fried salt pork and dip each slice into an egg batter consisting of 1 egg well beaten with 1 Tbs. cold water. Drop the slices right back into the hot fat in the frying pan. Fry until golden brown on both sides.
The added effort yields a tasty, thick crust that some prefer.

[Pete Bog]

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

This is a bit of a novelty but fun to try at least once. Fried cottage cheese can evoke a "Yuck" reaction, but they're actually pretty good.

1 c. cottage cheese
1 Tbs. melted butter
1 Tbs. flour
2 eggs, beaten
pinch of salt.

Put cottage cheese through sieve and mix with other ingredients. Beat well.
Drop onto hot griddle in quite small cakes and fry until brown on both sides.
These little cakes are really delicate and care must be taken while flipping them.
serve them hot with a little sprinkle of powdered sugar or strawberry jam.

[Pete Bog]

The Open Onion Tart

Comes in two parts. First the pastry dough and then the filling.

1 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp baking powder (Note: not baking soda!)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 c. lard (Note: lard! not shortening, there is a big difference in the end result)
about 2/3 c. milk.

Sift flour with baking powder and salt. Cut in the lard and add milk to make a firm elastic dough.
Roll out on a floured board to about 1/3 inch thick. (This is a little thicker than you might be used to)
Line a larger (about 10 inch) pie plate and add the filling.

Onion filling
2 1/4 cups chopped onions (about 4 medium onions)
2 Tbs. melted butter
1/4 tsp. salt
Pinch of pepper
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
2 eggs, beaten
1 c. sour cream

Simmer the onions in melted butter until very tender but not brown, (Low and slow here) about 10 minutes.
Add salt and pepper and spread this all into the uncooked pastry dough in the pie plate.
Mix eggs and nutmeg with the sour cream and pour over the onions.

Bake in the oven at 350^oF until the filling is set. About 30 minutes.

I personally like this, but it's heartburn city for the wife.

[Moe M.]

 
 I don't blame your wife, those aren't my kind of vittles either,  whatever book you copied those recipes from has some mistakes in it in my humble opinion. 

[Pete Bog]

I was looking for some simple recipes that didn't call for a lot of ingredients. Most modern day recipes seem to  require a 5 tier spice rack to achieve the desired result. I ran across a collection of "rules" and "receipts" from the mid 1700's to late 1800's that had been collated and, to some extent, translated to modern day sensibilities. Since the Copyright was in the early 1960's, it still needs a little work to bring it into the 21st century. For instance, buttermilk came right from the churn after the butter had been "gathered". Modern day products typically are pasteurized. It is now rare to have a natural "clabbering" of the milk or cream now days, unless you own your own dairy cow. A recipe that calls for "sweet milk" is just plain old whole milk. Right out of the cow. When a recipe calls for a "Spider", it is referring to nothing more than a plain old cast iron frying pan. I know there has been much discussion on these threads about "spiders" but in the context of this book, that is how a cast iron frying pan is defined.
Store cheese is just cheddar cheese. "Back of the stove" refers to a space back and away from the main heat on an old wooden cook stove. Placing some dishes here to stay warm and finish cooking slowly and gently will bring out flavors that can be achieved no other way. One might try double broilers and trivets on a modern day electric or gas range.

The cooking ingredients and methods have changed a lot over the past two hundred years. Some things I cannot get in a grocery store. Side pork I have to go to a butcher shop that slaughters and processes the animal on premises. Not everybody can do that. I don't have access to fresh milk from a cow. That is a serious shortcoming on my part. In some parts of the country, selling raw milk is a formidable legal challenge.
 
I like the old cook books. The older the copyright date, the better. This particular book contains recipes from over 200 years ago.
If you would like to read this book for yourself, it is available from Amazon. YANKEE HILL-COUNTRY COOKING By Beatrice Vaughan. 1963.

I posted a few of the recipes that I have tried and liked. There are few more that I liked. While I didn't post them for your stamp of approval, they seem to offend your sensibilities. So I'll let you peruse the book and try those that you find interesting.

Enjoy.

[Moe M.]

 Actually Pete, being a student of history and a lover of good food and of cooking I too happen to enjoy old time recipes and like to collect when ever possible recipe books from the past,  they are rare however, but the internet has opened a wealth of cooking knowledge not nearly as obtainable as it is today.
 Most of my interest is in American cooking from the Pilgrim era through the Victorian era and up into the depression era of the late '20's and early '30's,  I agree that some ingredients are hard to find or don't exist today, but some can be found and others can be made if one is serious enough to do a little research,  for example in todays language salt pork comes in too "flavors", Fat Back which is the solid layer of fat that grows on the back of pigs, or a leaner variety of cut that includes some muscle fat that contains pork meat and it resembles fatty bacon,  both are heavily salted in a brine for taste but doesn't preserve the meat unrefrigerated like real salt pork did back in the day.
 Back when salt was used as a preservative salted meats were common, salt pork was exactly what it sounds like good lean pieces of pork that were rolled in salt and packed tight in ceramic urns or small wooden barrels,  when almost full water was added until no more could be added and a cover was placed on top,  done properly the meat was ready to consume within a few weeks and would keep in it's container for up to 18 months or so without refrigeration. 
 Butter milk weather pasteurized or in it's raw state has pretty much the same flavor and acts the same as an ingredient in recipes, but it can be difficult to find in certain areas of the country, and isn't something found in most refrigerators all the time,  but if you happen on a recipe that calls for buttermilk or soured milk you don't have to make a special trip to the store, you can make your own in about fifteen minutes by adding one tablespoon of lemon juice or plain white vinegar to one cup of whole or 2% fat milk, give it a stir and wait about 10~15 minutes and you have a perfect substitute for buttermilk.
 Other ingredients with names that are unfamiliar can be researched rather quickly, most of them still exist today but under different names.
 A good reference for historical cookery is in book form and on U-Tube by James Townson.

 Hope this helps.         

[madmaxine]

Pete, I (we) don't like a lot of spices on our food.  We like to taste what we're eating.  The only exception is blackened mahi mahi (or redfish where it started).  I'm very exploratory when it comes to food (possum, insects, wild plants).  Kelly is not.  She is odd what she will consume.  Rattlesnake is fine.  Opossum is not.  Rabbit is fine.  Squirrel is not.  Gator is fine.  Iguana is not.  Deer, elk, bear... fine.  Mountain lion?  Nope.  This is what she will and won't TRY.  Forget eating them.

I like liver.  It makes her nauseous just thinking about it.

Since I cook most of the time I accommodate her.  When she cooks I get one pot meals or rubber chicken.  I love her more than the world, but she'd much rather mow the lawn or weed poison ivy in Florida in the summer than cook.  Sure.  I'll cook tonight baby.

[Plumber]

Things I made when the X-Wife was away, but now I can have them any time.

1. Kippered snack sandwich on Dark Rye.
    Mix kippered snack with mustard (I like coarse ground) and chopped onion.

2. Simmer 2 Tbsp. cottage cheese in butter, on low heat, until melted. Add equal amount of shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese. Add 3
    beaten, or unbeaten eggs. Scramble in pan until soft cooked. Black pepper to taste. (no salt is required)

[Pete Bog]

It just so happened, I had all the ingredients for the kippered sandwich on hand. The Dark Rye bread was actually Pumpernickel and I added a layer of dill pickle to the sandwich too. I liked it and I'll be fixing it again.

Cottage cheese and sharp cheddar cheese have been added to the list for the next grocery store run. I assume the cottage cheese is pressed gently in a sieve to remove some of the moisture before mixed in with the butter? It sounds like a quick tasty plate for when you don't have a lot of time to cook. I'll give it a try in the next week or so.

[Pete Bog]

Well Plumber,
    I tried the recipe for cottage cheese and eggs. It needs a little help on my part. Nothing wrong with your recipe, I just need to back off on a couple things. I think I used to much butter and just a tad to much cottage cheese. And I should have strained the cottage cheese first. I think I had it a little to wet. I'll do a few more plates until I get it just right and then I'm looking forward to sharing it with my granddaughter.
    So, it's not only good enough to make again, it's good enough to share with others. Thanks.

There is a website called teriskitchen.com. It is a big site with lots of recipes, so she has apparently been doing this for a while. It takes hours to just read through the entries, let alone print the interesting ones out and try them. A lot of good stuff there.

[Plumber]

Well Plumber,
    I tried the recipe for cottage cheese and eggs. It needs a little help on my part. Nothing wrong with your recipe, I just need to back off on a couple things. I think I used to much butter and just a tad to much cottage cheese. And I should have strained the cottage cheese first. I think I had it a little to wet. I'll do a few more plates until I get it just right and then I'm looking forward to sharing it with my granddaughter.
    So, it's not only good enough to make again, it's good enough to share with others. Thanks.

There is a website called teriskitchen.com. It is a big site with lots of recipes, so she has apparently been doing this for a while. It takes hours to just read through the entries, let alone print the interesting ones out and try them. A lot of good stuff there.

My Grandpa liked his cottage cheese and eggs soft. I like to cook the cottage cheese until some of the "water" cooks out. You will know when it starts to thicken, and turn yellowish. Than I add the cheddar, and eggs.