There will be an update to this post coming after the holiday season of 2024. In future, I will not be cooking the pork and bacon in advance of baking all the ingredients together in the pie shell, which is more traditional anyway. I’d always been a little freaked out about this but shouldn’t have. I still think it’s a good idea to cook the chicken in advance of the bake in order to reduce some of the moisture. We’ll see…
Yorkshire Christmas Pie gives me a warm, Charles Dickens kind of Christmas feeling. It features sausage, chicken, chestnuts, dried apricots, cranberries and spices like nutmeg, mace and ginger. The pie has been an annual tradition for Deb and I ever since a massive Christmas Eve blizzard changed our holiday travel plans in 2017. Since we couldn’t go anywhere, we decided to try a new cooking experience in the spirit of “A Christmas Carol.”
Yorkshire Christmas Pies have their roots in the gigantic wild game pies of the middle ages. Large birds, like geese, would be stuffed with consecutively smaller birds along with other wild game and baked with fruit and spices in a pastry crust.
Royal Christmas: an 1857 print of the arrival of Queen Victoria’s Christmas banquet including the stuffed wild boar’s head and gigantic game pie.
The basis for this pie comes from the recipe on the BBC Good Food website. I’ve tweaked it in several ways. The BBC recipe calls for sausage, but does not specify what kind. I used my recipe for homemade English Banger Sausage. I cut the chicken breast into bite-sized pieces to make serving easier and I’ve increased the amount of dried apricots and roasted chestnuts and added an egg to help as a binder.
This is wonderful heritage food that deserves to be kept alive. It’s not fast, convenience food but it’s not fussy to make either. Only a modest skill level is needed to make an explosion of holiday flavor. Skilled bakers can make a pie much prettier than I and there is room for experimentation with ingredients. Some versions of Yorkshire Christmas Pie are solidly dense with ground pork and would make serving very convenient. I don’t mind a bit of crumble because of the jumble of flavors.
Use ⅔ of a double-sized shortcrust pastry dough for the shell of the pie and ⅓ for the cover.
Double Crust Pie Dough
Filling:
1 lb. Chicken Breast, cooked and cubed
1 Medium Onion, finely chopped and sautéed
1 ½ lbs. Ground Pork
¼ lb. Bacon, finely chopped
1 cup Dried Bread Crumbs
1 cup Cranberries, chopped
⅔ cup Dried Apricots, course chop
⅔ cup Chestnuts, roasted, peeled, and chopped
3 tsp. Sea Salt
1 tsp. Ground Black Pepper
1 tsp. Ground White Pepper
1 tsp. Mace Threads, freshly ground
½ tsp. Nutmeg, freshly ground
½ tsp. Ground Ginger
1 tsp. Dried Sage
1 tsp. Dried Thyme
Zest and Juice of 1 Lemon
1 Large Egg, whisked for the filling
1 Large Egg and a dash of milk for egg wash
Directions:
Step 1: Cook chicken, allow to cool and cut up into bite-sized pieces. Sauté onion and set aside.
Step 2: Coat a 10-inch diameter x 2.27-inch springform pan with oil or non-stick spray. Roll out ⅔ of a double crust pie dough and line the pan with the dough. Put the pan into a freezer for at least 15 minutes.
Step 3: Preheat oven to 375°F. In a large bowl, combine cooked chicken, ground pork, bacon, sautéed onions, chestnuts, dried apricots, cranberries, dried bread crumbs, spices, lemon zest, lemon juice and whisked egg.
Roll out the remaining pie dough for the pie’s lid.
Step 4: Fill the pie shell with the mixture. Press the contents down in order to get the mixture to hold together when baked. Place the pie dough lid on top of the pie shell and mixture. Seal the edges around the rim of the pie. Cut an “X” shape in the middle of the pie to act as a vent. Brush generously with egg wash.
Christmas Pie Ingredients in Shell
Christmas Pie with Egg Wash
Step 5: Place the pie tin on a baking sheet and bake for 60-65 minutes.
***Do yourself a favor and make this one or two days before serving. The flavors are much more pronounced and full when they have a chance to meld. Traditionally, this is meant to be served cold, but I like to reheat slices of the pie in an oven before serving.***
Boston Brown Bread with Baked Beans is a Saturday night meal tradition in New England that has roots going back to colonial days in the 1600s. The bread combines the English method for making steamed puddings with grains that were native to North America, or at least grew well in the harsh northern climate, and were inexpensive compared to white wheat flour. Both the bread and a pot of beans could be slow-cooked in the hearth of a fireplace in a time when ovens and stoves were scarce.
Cooking in an open hearth Image from arcandhammer.com
It’s a truly heritage food from early American history in which colonial settlers combined a familiar old world cooking technique with corn, which was a new grain to them, as well as familiar grains like rye and whole wheat which had been common to the working poor folk of northern Europe. This was a food for hard working people. White wheat flour was precious and had to be reserved for special delicacies.
It came to be a tradition in New England to make Boston Brown Bread in leftover coffee cans that gave the bread a cylindrical shape. It can still be purchased in cans in the New England region.
B&M Brown Bread
It’s much more practical to make this bread in a standard 8½” x 4½” loaf pan that most people have easy access to rather than messing around with old coffee cans. This recipe can also be made in a 10-cup Bundt pan which makes a pretty cool looking bread.
Anyone who’s tried to make traditional baked beans from scratch knows that they take hours and hours to make properly. I’ve come up with a very convenient way to make them in a pressure cooker that takes a fraction of the time and tastes great. I suppose they’re technically not “baked” beans, but everyone knows what that style means.
Baked Beans on slices of Boston Brown Bread is a hearty, stick-to-the-ribs meal that goes well with cool Fall weather, football and playoff baseball, or putting the garden to bed before winter. Or just enjoying cool evenings and the golden, rust-colored leaves still hanging onto the trees.
Fountain Grass in Fall
Boston Brown Bread
Ingredients:
¾ cup Whole Wheat Flour
¾ cup Rye Flour
¾ cup Yellow Cornmeal
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Sea Salt
1½ cups Buttermilk
½ cup Molasses
2 tbsp. Butter, melted and slightly cooled
Directions:
Step 1: Preheat oven to 325°F. Whisk ¾ cup whole wheat flour, ¾ cup rye flour, ¾ cup cornmeal, 1 tsp. baking soda and 1 tsp. salt together in a large bowl.
Step 2: Whisk 1½ cups buttermilk, ½ cup molasses and 2 tbsp. melted butter together in a second bowl.
Step 3: Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir until combined.
Step 4: Spray an 8½” x 4½” loaf pan or a 10-cup Bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray and pour the mixture into the pan. Tamp the pan down a few times and allow to settle for a couple of minutes. Place the bread pan in a baking dish with a cover and pour hot water into the baking dish until the water comes halfway up the outside of the bread pan. Cover the baking dish with a lid and bake for one hour.
Fill with hot water halfway up sides of bread pan.
Covering the pan steams the bread.
Brown Bread fully baked.
Baked Beans
Ingredients:
1 cup Great Northern Beans
1 cup Pinto Beans
2 Bay Leaves
7 cups Water
¼ tsp. Baking Soda
2 cups Onion, chopped
3 tbsp. Garlic, chopped
½ lb. Bacon, diced
⅓ cup Molasses
3 tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce
8 tsp. Dry Mustard Powder
3 tsp. Ground Black Pepper
4 tsp. Sea Salt
Directions:
Cook beans, bay leaves, and ¼ tsp. baking soda in 7 cups water in a pressure cooker on high for 10 minutes. Let depressurize and reserve 2 cups liquid. Drain beans and rinse.
Sauté ½ lb. bacon, 2 cups onions, and 3 tbsp. garlic. Return beans and combine all remaining ingredients in the pressure cooker with the 2 cups of reserved liquid and cook on high for 10 minutes.
***There will be a fair amount of liquid left after cooking that will need to be drained, but it’s a good idea to let the beans absorb as much liquid as they can.
My next-door neighbors and I exchanged plants we grew from seed this year. They got Ausilio Peppers and we got Pattypan Squash. This bread is a nice savory alternative to the many sweet quick breads that make use of summer squash and zucchini.
Our neighbors are terrific cooks and we often exchange home-cooked goodies throughout the year. We’ll notify each other with a text that ends with the sentence, “Meet at the fence?”
Pattypan Squash
On August 10, 2020, their house took a direct hit from a fallen tree that came down during an historic derecho wind storm. I pitched in and helped with the cleanup and, when an arborist was finally able to cut down most of the tree, I was able to take some the sections and make a kind of stumpery/art installation out of them. I call it “Stumphenge.” The wildlife – and our dog – love it.
Bindi the Beagle in Stumphenge
Our neighbors did an insightful thing by leaving the majority of the dead tree standing because it is a home for squirrels, birds and insect life. On our side of the fence, we’ve converted a great deal of our backyard into a pollinator-friendly perennial garden. We’re rewarded with copious firefly displays at dusk and bee and butterfly activity during the day. The increased bird activity keeps damaging insects like Japanese beetles in check without having to resort to chemicals.
Old Life and New Life
I think the suburban landscape has incredible potential to create biodiverse ecosystems on a small scale that can add up to having a big impact. Good garden design will be key to making attractive pollinator gardens that blend with existing urban and suburban neighborhoods.
My father was something of an agricultural pioneer having been 10-15 years ahead of his time in soil-conserving tillage practices and trying to get away from heavy chemical use on a commercial working farm. I’ve carried those principals with me and am proud to have nurtured a soil in my backyard that is teeming with insect and microbial life, but the reality of modern commercial agriculture is such that the Iowa countryside is distinctly lacking in diverse plant life and the soil is treated as merely a sterile medium to pump fertilizer into. Urban and suburban landscapes offer some of the greatest potential to become pollinator havens.
Bee on a Globe Thistle
Ingredients:
240 grams (2 cups) All-Purpose or Bread Flour
2 tsp. Baking Powder
½ tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Sea Salt
¼ tsp. Black Pepper
2 tbsp. Fresh Dill Weed, chopped
2 tbsp. Green Onions, diced
1 cup Extra-Sharp Cheddar Cheese, shredded
2 Large Eggs
50 grams (¼ cup) Olive Oil
114 grams (1/2 cup) Milk
1 cup Summer Squash, shredded
Directions:
Step 1: Combine flour, baking powder. baking soda, salt, pepper, dill weed, green onions and cheddar cheese.
Step 2: In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, then add olive oil and milk.
Step 3: Squeeze the excess moisture out of the squash, then add to the liquid mixture.
Step 4: Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
Step 5: Pour the batter into a greased standard-sized loaf pan and bake in an oven preheated to 350° for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Pita con Sarde look like cinnamon rolls but the filling is a savory blend of peppers, garlic and anchovy. The Italian immigrants who settled on the south side of Des Moines, Iowa in the early 1900s made these as their own regional variation on a Calabrian dish called Pizza con la Sardella.
Des Moines chef George Formaro remembers his father making the spicy paste used in Pita con Sarde by rehydrating and fermenting dried chilis in a large crock and mixing them with assorted spices and salted anchovy. Tumea & Sons Restaurant are known to feature Pita con Sarde and supply them to Graziano Brothers market.
A Des Moines-based blogger named Monica Riccio grew up on Des Moines’ south side among the Italian community there and did a brilliant job of reverse-engineering a recipe based on the memories of her and her husband. I altered her recipe because I wanted to make a larger batch that would fill a 9″x13″ baking dish and freely admit to using convenience items like tomato and anchovy paste from a tube. I also wanted to feature the roasted Ausilio Thin Skin Italian Peppers I grow in my garden while they’re in season and skip the rehydrating and fermenting process of the traditional method.
Ausilio Thin Skin Italian Peppers are another great Des Moines story. I first heard about the peppers in 2017 when CBS Sunday Morning talked about them in a feature story on The Doomsday Vault and how important seed saving is for genetic diversity and preservation of heritage plants. The seeds for this variety were brought from Italy to America in the early 1900s. Giovanni and Rachel Ausilio saved seeds from the peppers they grew and passed them down to their daughter, Theresa Ausilio Riccelli, who then passed that tradition down to husband and wife couple Chad and Michele Ogle-Riccelli. Chad and Michele’s children are the fifth generation to carry that tradition forward. In 2015, Chad and Michele compiled a massive amount of documentation about their family peppers and contacted the Seed Savers Exchange based in Decorah, Iowa.
Toby Cain was an employee of the Seed Savers Exchange at the time and writes an account of how the Ausilio Thin Skin Italian Pepper came to be preserved and available to anyone who would like to grow them in an article that appears on the Grinnell University website. Toby writes that when the documents arrived in October, 2015 it was the most thorough documentation they had seen in their collection up to that point.
A delegation from the Seed Savers Exchange visited the home of Chad and Michele Ogle-Riccelli in Des Moines later that month for dinner and Theresa Ausilio Riccelli handed over a jar of seeds that the Seed Savers Exchange have been propagating ever since. Included in the meal that night were Pita con Sarde.
I’ve been purchasing seedlings of the peppers at Chef George Formaro’s Gateway Market and growing them in our garden since 2018. They’re an important part of the homemade pasta sauce we preserve through canning and enjoy all year long.
This year, in 2023, I decided to grow them from seed and have included an account of that after the recipe.
Ausilio Pepper Seedlings
Ingredients:
Dough:
600 grams (5 cups) Bread or All-Purpose Flour
60 grams (¾ – 1 cup) Grated Parmesan Cheese
28 grams (4 tbsp.) Dry Milk Powder (optional)
2 tsp. Italian Herb Seasoning
2 tsp. (1 packet) Instant Dry Yeast
2 tsp. Sea Salt
2 tbsp. Olive Oil
1 Large Egg
330 grams (1½ cups) Warm Water
Filling:
Roasted Bell Peppers are easily available in jars at grocery stores and can be used in this recipe as a substitute for homegrown peppers. Ausilio Peppers are medium heat, so adjust to taste with crushed red pepper flakes.
150 grams (1 cup) Roasted Red Peppers, finely diced or puréed (See How to Roast Peppers after the recipe)
2 tbsp. Minced Garlic
2 tbsp. Olive Oil
1 tbsp. Anchovy Paste
1 tbsp. Tomato Paste
1 tbsp. Smoked Paprika
2 tsp. Italian Herb Seasoning
2 tsp. Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (This amount could vary depending on the heat of your roasted peppers)
Directions:
Step 1: Combine flour, cheese, milk powder, Italian herb seasoning, yeast and salt for the dough. Add egg, olive oil and water and mix well. Knead for 10 minutes and set aside in an oiled bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, usually about an hour.
Step 2: Mix the ingredients for the filling together to form a paste.
Step 3: Knead the risen dough to form a smooth ball. Let the dough relax for about five minutes. Dust a countertop with plenty of flour. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until it is approximately ¼ inch thick, dusting liberally with flour to prevent sticking.
Step 4: Spread the filling around the outer edge of the dough with a spatula. Continue spreading the rest of the filling from the outside in to the middle.
Rolled Dough with Pepper Paste
Step 5: Roll up lengthwise from one end to the other to form a cylinder. Slice into approximately two inch rounds and arrange in an oiled 9″ x 13″ pan. Place the thinner outer slices in the middle of the pan and fill up the rest of the pan with the fatter rolls from the inner part of the cylinder. The rolls will bake better that way. Let rise for about 30 minutes.
Roll the Dough
Rolled Dough
Place four thin rolls from the outer ends in the center of the pan.
Place three thicker rolls working from the middle to the edges of the pan.
Rolls after 30 minutes of rising time.
Step 6: Place the baking dish on a sheet tray and bake in an oven that has been preheated to 375°F. for about 30 minutes.
If you really want to gild the lily you can brush on a tablespoon of melted butter when they’re fresh out of the oven.
How to Roast Peppers:
Ausilio Thin Skin Italian Peppers roasting on a grill.
Roasting peppers concentrates their sweetness and adds a touch of smokiness. Peppers can be roasted over fire on a grill, in a skillet on a stovetop, baked in an oven at 400°F. or using the oven’s broiler setting.
Use tongs to rotate the peppers in order to get a good blackened char all over the skin. Place the peppers in a Ziplock bag or a bowl covered in plastic wrap and allow the steam to loosen the thin outer layer of skin. Once cooled, the thin, blackened outer layer can be easily removed.
Growing Notes:
I started growing seedlings for Ausilio Thin Skin Italian Peppers in mid-February, 2023. I started earlier than is often recommended because we don’t have a south-facing window much less a greenhouse. Needed equipment includes a seed starter tray with lid, heat mat, LED grow light and a proper seed starter soil mix.
Heat Mat, Seed Starter Tray and LED Grow Light
I used a spray bottle to water the soil twice a day and the seeds started to sprout after a week. Most sources I read said to expect about 50% germination for peppers, but of the 36 seeds I planted, 34 sprouted. After the seeds sprouted, I took the lid off the tray during the day and only put it on for overnight to retain heat. Young seedlings can get moldy and die if they don’t get ventilation.
After about five weeks of growth, the seedlings had developed their true leaves and were ready to be potted up into their own containers with proper potting soil. All seedlings had their own pot by April 1st. I augmented the natural light of our west window with LED grow lights until about 9:00 pm. The extra light was vital to successful growth.
As the weather warmed to above 70°F. in April, I was able to get the plants outside for extra light and heat and get them used to a little breeze. That process is called “hardening off” and their growth really shot up. By mid-May they were ready to be planted in the garden. The seedlings were planted in the garden on May 21st and the first pepper was sighted on June 23, 2023.
Ausilio Thin Skin Italian Peppers are abundant producers throughout the whole season and are a pleasure to eat raw, stuffed or added to pasta sauce.
Seedlings planted in the garden on May 21, 2023.
First Ausilio Pepper on June 23, 2023.
Ausilio Thin Skin Italian Peppers on August 8, 2018
This is an ice cream that will defy all expectations. At first taste, it seems like a good vanilla ice cream…and then there’s horseradish! But the flavor doesn’t hit you in the face. It plays well with the other flavors of vanilla and orange. There’s a cleanness and freshness that I would never have guessed could be possible from anything with horseradish as an ingredient.
I came across this flavor combination on a TV contest show won by a British chef. At the time, I couldn’t find much of a recipe to go by, so I played around with a few batches to come up with something I liked. I was hopeful to find a good use for the horseradish I had planted because it took up so much space in the garden.
Horseradish Plant
I dug up every bit that I could get to and harvested six pounds of horseradish root. It turns out that no matter how deeply you dig, you are unlikely to get all of it and this gigantic plant will just keep coming back year after year. Not even Roundup seems to phase it.
Six Pounds of Horseradish
There’s a sophistication to this flavor combination and it has a real “wow” factor. And not an “I-dare-you-to-eat-this” freak show kind of “wow” either. Using one ounce of fresh horseradish gives a subtle flavor and there may be room to be bolder. It’s a great dessert for a meal featuring beef.
Yield: 1 ½ quarts
Ingredients:
1 oz. fresh Horseradish Root, peeled and shredded (about ¼ cup)
2 cups Heavy Cream
2 cups Whole Milk
4 Egg Yolks
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Orange Juice, strained or pulp-free
¼ tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
Grated horseradish in vinegar IS NOT the same thing as fresh horseradish root. You can use a vegetable peeler to remove the rough, outer layer of horseradish root and a food processor will shred it just fine. You just need to do it outside or in an extremely well ventilated room because the fumes can take the top of your head off.
Directions:
Step 1: Peel and grate fresh horseradish root.
Step 2: Heat the heavy cream, milk and freshly grated horseradish root until simmering and remove from heat. Allow to steep for 10 – 20 minutes. Just like making tea, the longer it steeps, the stronger it tastes. Strain the mixture through cheesecloth to remove any solids.
Step 3: Whisk the sugar into the egg yolks to create a smooth consistency.
Step 4: Slowly add the hot milk mixture to the egg mixture a little at a time while stirring constantly. You do not want the eggs to cook from milk that is too hot.
Step 5: Mix in orange juice, salt, and vanilla extract.
Step 6: Return the mixture to the stove and heat up to 160° F. This is very important because of food safety issues involving raw eggs.
Step 7: Cool thoroughly in the refrigerator.
Step 8: Churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Rhubarb production is well underway by May in the Zone 5 growing region and it’s a great idea to preserve the flavor of spring to get a reminder of that time during the cold winter months. The flavor of homemade preserves spread on warm, fresh-baked bread brightens the senses during the darker months and boosts one’s optimism for the future.
Victoria Rhubarb
The basis for my recipe comes from a recipe that won a rhubarb contest on The Huffington Post. I’ve boosted the ginger content quite a bit and freely admit to using jarred ginger purée as a labor-saver instead of peeling fresh ginger. One should definitely taste-as-you-go when making this to get the flavor combo just right for you.
Yield: Eight 8-ounce Jars
Ingredients:
3 lbs. Rhubarb, cut into ½-inch pieces
594 grams (3 cups) Granulated White Sugar
¼ cup Crystallized Ginger
10 oz. puréed Fresh Ginger
Directions:
Combine the rhubarb, ginger and sugar in a large saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to bubble. Continue to simmer, while stirring frequently, until the jam thickens to your preference. This may only take 10-20 minutes. The fiber content of rhubarb is great for making sturdy jams.
Ladle the mixture into hot, sterilized 8-ounce jam jars leaving about 1/4-inch of space between the jam and rim of the jar. Cover with lids and rings and process the jars for 10 minutes in a hot water bath. For anyone new to canning, it’s good to become acquainted with the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning.
It’s good to have a vegetarian dish that meat-eaters will love too, and this one benefits from being extremely inexpensive to make.
I once had to make a main dish for a potluck held to benefit about 35 – 40 refugee women, mostly from Central Africa and Bhutan, who had a variety of religious dietary restrictions. It was wintertime so I wanted the food to be hot. I wanted it to be hearty and nutritious. It needed to be inexpensive because it was for a non-profit. The dish also needed to be easy to make because of the large quantity of food required to feed that many people.
I thought a vegetarian shepherd’s pie would be a good way to go. I found an excellent recipe that would fit a two-quart baking dish that used lentils, barley and Vegemite as the meat substitute. There was a vegetable portion to the recipe that was made from scratch and mashed potatoes made from scratch also. I needed to size-up the quantity massively and also find a way to get out of doing so much prep work on the vegetables and mashed potatoes.
I decided to use the most inexpensive form of frozen mixed vegetables I could buy and to use boxed instant mashed potatoes. Frozen vegetables are actually very nutritious. Instant mashed potatoes are simply dehydrated potatoes; there’s nothing all that weird about them.
The most inexpensive form of frozen mixed vegetables are combinations of carrots, corn, peas, green beans and lima beans. Online reviews of instant mashed potatoes overwhelmingly praised Idahoan Original Instant Mashed Potatoes as being the best.
Idahoan Original Instant Mashed Potatoes
Testing in small batches revealed several points:
The vegetables needed to be steamed first in order to cook out the rawness.
Each layer needed to be well-seasoned.
Lots of butter needed to be used in the vegetable and potato layers. It was especially important to have an ample amount of fat to keep the leftovers from being completely dried out when reheated.
I layered everything in an 18-quart electric roaster oven and was able to feed over 35 people for a little under $30 by getting the mixed vegetables on sale. The dish was a big hit and people took home leftovers.
I’ll probably never make a batch that size again so, in order to enjoy this at home, I needed to reverse engineer the recipe back down to a reasonable size. This recipe fills a two-quart baking dish nicely.
Directions:
Faux “Meat” Layer:
½ cup Dry Lentils
⅓ cup Pearled Barley
2 ½ cups Vegetable Stock
2 tsp. Vegemite or Marmite
Combine 2 ½ cups vegetable stock, 2 tsp. Vegemite or Marmite, ½ cup dry lentils and ⅓ cup pearled barley and simmer until the lentils and barley are cooked until tender and the liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Layer onto the bottom of a two-quart baking dish.
Lentils and Barley Layer
Vegetable Layer:
12 oz. frozen Mixed Vegetables (carrots, corn, peas, green beans and lima beans)
2 tbsp. Butter
½ tsp. Sea Salt
1 tsp. Ground Black Pepper
½ tsp. Granulated Garlic
Thaw the mixed vegetables, bring water to a boil and steam for about 5 – 7 minutes. You don’t want them to turn to mush, but you want to cook out some of the raw flavor. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the vegetables and add ½ teaspoon sea salt, 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, and ½ teaspoon granulated garlic. Layer on top of the lentils and barley.
Vegetable Layer
Mashed Potato Layer:
1 ⅓ cups Idahoan Original Instant Mashed Potatoes
1 ⅓ cups Water
⅔ cup Milk (⅓ cup milk and ⅓ Half n’ Half is a nice combo)
5 tbsp. Butter
½ tsp. Sea Salt
1 tsp, Ground Black Pepper
½ tsp. Granulated Garlic
Topping for Mashed Potatoes:
1 tbsp. Butter, melted
Combine 1 ⅓ cups water, ½ tsp. sea salt, 1 tsp. ground black pepper, ½ tsp. granulated garlic and 5 tbsp. butter and bring to a boil. Remove from heat.
Add ⅔ cup cold milk; stir in 1 ⅓ cups Idahoan Original Instant Mashed Potatoes gently and let stand until moist. Layer on top of the vegetables and run a fork over the top of the mashed potatoes to create ridges throughout. The ridges make lovely browned bits when baked. Drizzle 1 tbsp. of melted butter over the mashed potato layer.
Bake in an oven that has been preheated to 350° F. for 30 minutes. Switch the oven to the broiler setting and bake until the top is browned, about 5 minutes.
Notes:
Vegemite was developed in Australia as a response to shortages of Marmite from England during World War One. Marmite had been for sale in England since 1902 and, love it or hate it, Marmite was a nutrient-dense food that had an extremely long shelf-life at a time when malnutrition was common. Wartime only made the need for Marmite and Vegemite more important.
The process for making it was developed by German scientist Justus von Liebig in the late 1800s from the yeast that was leftover from brewing beer. It’s packed with umami flavor and is a potent vegan source of B vitamins and minerals. Marmite and Vegemite were included in rations for soldiers because it helped combat outbreaks of beriberi and other deficiency diseases.
Because of the link to Australia, I am throwing in a memorial to the person who had my all-time favorite singing voice, Judith Durham, who was a member of the Australian folk music group, The Seekers, and who passed away in 2022. She possessed an extraordinary voice which she maintained like a fine Stradivarius until late in life. This clip is a great example of their sound. I love how the guys are wearing suits and skinny ties and have such earnest expressions on their faces.
I set out to make a pumpkin pie from scratch with the goal of letting the true character of the pumpkin come through without overwhelming the flavor with sugar and spices. I also wanted to try spices other than traditional pumpkin pie and drew inspiration from an Indian dessert called Halwa, which is also made from pumpkin and features cardamom. I’ve used ghee and jaggery in order to stick with the Indian inspiration, however, butter and brown sugar will work perfectly well.
The result is still a traditional pumpkin pie but with a light hint of cardamom that allows the real flavor of the pumpkin to show through. A little black pepper provides structure without drawing attention to itself and the ghee is decadent.
Jarrahdale Pumpkin
A farmer who runs a local pumpkin stand told me his favorite one for cooking is the Jarrahdale Pumpkin. He also said he prefers a graham cracker crust so I followed his suggestions.
The Jarrahdale pumpkin has a very tough shell and I had to use a large, sturdy knife to cut it into quarters and then remove the seeds. The quarters were baked on a rimmed tray with water in the bottom for about an hour and 20 minutes at 400°F. The pumpkin was 10-15 lbs. to start with and yielded 6½ lbs. of cooked pulp. I use 15 oz. of cooked pumpkin for a pie since most recipes are geared to use 15 oz. cans of pumpkin puree.
You may be able to find Jarrahdale Pumpkins for sale at a deep discount after Halloween. A 10-15 lbs. pumpkin may be on sale for as low as $2.50. That’s a lot of versatile, quality food for not much money.
I thought the rich custard of pumpkin pie might benefit from something tart to cut through, so I use lime whipped cream as a topping. The tartness of the topping makes for a great counterpoint to the pumpkin.
Directions:
Pie Crust
1 ½ cups Graham Cracker Crumbs (12 full-size Original Nabisco Graham Crackers, crushed into crumbs)
2 tbsp. Jaggery Powder or Brown Sugar
6 tbsp. Ghee or Butter, melted
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Mix the ingredients and form a crust in a nine-inch pie pan. Use the bottom of a glass or mixing cup to tamp down the cracker mix to provide some solid structure. Bake the empty crust for seven minutes and allow to cool.
Graham Cracker Crust
Pie Filling
15 oz. Jarrahdale Pumpkin, cooked
3 Large Eggs
1 cup Heavy Cream
¼ cup Whole or 2% Milk
1 tbsp. Corn Starch
6 tbsp. Jaggery Powder or Brown Sugar
1 tsp. Sea Salt
½ tsp. Ground Cardamom
½ tsp. Ground Black Pepper
Purée the cooked pumpkin until smooth. Combine the ingredients in a saucepan. Slowly heat the mixture while stirring constantly in order to avoid scrambling the eggs. Heat to bubbling and continue stirring for about two minutes until it thickens to a pudding-like consistency. Pour the mixture onto the pie crust and bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool thoroughly. Serve with a dollop of lime whipped cream.
Lime Whipped Cream
1 cup Heavy Cream, chilled
½ tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract
Zest of 1 Lime
Juice of 1 Lime
2 tbsp. Powdered Sugar
Combine all the ingredients into a chilled bowl. Use a mixer to whisk the ingredients until soft peaks form.
The Everly Brothers began their Hall of Fame careers playing music while young boys on KMA Radio in Shenandoah, Iowa on the Everly Family Show with their father, Ike, and mother, Margaret, in the 1940s. Many years later, Margaret Everly submitted family-favorite recipes to a book that told the story of KMA Radio and the radio homemakers who shared recipes and household management tips to a large midwestern audience. The program, “Kitchen Klatter,” became the longest-running homemaker program in the history of radio. Iowa Public Television made a documentary based on the book, “Neighboring on the Air: Cooking with the KMA Radio Homemakers” by Evelyn Birkby, which includes favorite recipes from the Everly family.
Neighboring on the Air: Cooking with the KMA Radio Homemakers, by Evelyn Birkby
Ike Everly began working in the coal mines of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky when he was 14 years old. Ike had a talent for music and helped develop a three-finger guitar playing style that was unique to Muhlenberg County and has since been imitated far and wide. He’s now considered to be one of the most influential guitar players of the 20th century. (See Notes after the recipe) He began playing locally in Kentucky and eventually made his way to Chicago where he gained experience in nightclubs and radio.
Margaret grew up three houses away from Ike in Brownie, Kentucky and married Ike when she was 15 years old and Ike was 26. They knew they didn’t want to raise a family in Chicago and made their way west to Waterloo, Iowa. Seeking a smaller town to raise their children, they heard of the radio station in Shenandoah, Iowa that employed musicians for their broadcasts. Ike contacted the station manager of KMA Radio and secured a job.
Starting in 1945, the Everly’s spent eight years performing on KMA Radio. Phil and Don were six and eight years old when they began making appearances on KMA Radio. A few years later, the whole family began performing live on the Everly Family Show which aired at 5:30 in the morning. According to the book, “KMA Radio: The First 60 Years,” by Robert Birkby, Margaret Everly recalled:
“Early in the morning Ike would go out to start the car to get it warm while I made hot chocolate for the boys. In the winter it might be sixteen below zero outside, but we never missed a show. I think we would have crawled to the studio to put that show on.”
In addition to performing on the radio, Don and Phil were active in school, had paper routes and lemonade stands, and detasseled corn in the summers. Shenandoah, Iowa was a great place to grow up but, unfortunately, by the early 1950s radio stations moved away from employing full-time musicians and the Everly’s had to move on.
They made their way to Tennessee in 1953 and performed on small radio stations where they came to the attention of Chet Atkins. With help from Atkins, the Everly Brothers signed with Cadence Records and in February, 1957, they recorded “Bye, Bye Love” which shot up to No. 2 on the pop charts behind Elvis Presley’s “Teddy Bear.” It became their first of many million-selling records.
The Everly Brothers performing “Bye, Bye Love” on an unknown television show.
The importance of radio to rural America cannot be overstated and the history of KMA Radio is a fascinating one. Margaret Everly included recipes for fried chicken and fried oysters in the book commemorating the homemakers of KMA Radio, but I’ve decided to highlight the recipe she submitted as Phil Everly’s favorite dessert.
This recipe makes a LOT of custard and I would cut way back when making it again. I’d also use more vanilla extract and go with a thicker graham cracker crust. However, the goal was to try and recreate this as accurately as possible. I’ve made a slight alteration from the original recipe by increasing the amount of egg whites used in the meringue to adequately cover the whole dish. I’ve also simplified the cooking instructions somewhat.
Directions:
Crust
140 grams (1 package or 9 cracker sheets) Original Nabisco Graham Crackers, crushed into crumbs for the base
48 grams (3 cracker sheets) Original Nabisco Graham Crackers, crushed into crumbs for topping
Crush one package of graham crackers into crumbs and form a crust in the bottom of a standard 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish. Crush an additional three sheets of graham crackers and reserve for a topping.
Graham Cracker Crust
Filling
248 grams (1 ¼ cups) Granulated White Sugar
30 grams (¼ cup) All-Purpose Flour
2 tbsp. Cornstarch
3 ½ cups Milk
2 Egg Yolks, lightly beaten
2 tbsp. Butter, melted
1 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract
4 to 5 Bananas, sliced
Combine sugar, flour and corn starch, then mix in the beaten egg yolks. Add milk and mix thoroughly. Slowly heat the mixture while stirring constantly in order to avoid scrambling the egg yolks. Heat to bubbling and continue stirring for about two to three minutes until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat, add melted butter and vanilla and allow to cool somewhat. It should take on a pudding-like consistency fairly quick.
Meringue
4 Egg Whites
4 tbsp. Granulated White Sugar
¼ tsp. Cream of Tartar
Beat the egg whites until foamy, then gradually add the sugar and cream of tartar. Continue until you have stiff peaks.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Arrange enough banana slices to cover the graham cracker crust. Spread on half the custard. Repeat with another layer of bananas and the rest of the custard. Sprinkle the custard with the reserved graham cracker crumbs.
First Layer of Bananas
First Layer of Custard
Second Layer of Bananas
Second Layer of Custard
Graham Cracker Topping
Spread on the meringue and bake for about 15 minutes until light brown on top. Let cool on a wire rack.
Meringue Topping
Cross Section Side View
Final Bake
Notes:
I first thought that doing a post about a recipe from one of the Everly Brothers was, on the face of it, just kind of quirky and funny. As I dug into the story a little bit, it took me down a path I hadn’t seen coming.
I grew upon a farm in Iowa and have always had an interest in history, yet my knowledge of the Everly Brother’s connection to Iowa history did not extend much beyond what is the standard Chamber of Commerce template version of all local history in Iowa:
“Come to [name of town] – Boyhood Home of [famous person] – and while you’re here enjoy our many shopping opportunities.”
What was a revelation to me when I started doing research was the little-noticed importance of Ike Everly’s place in the history of American music. He never hit the big time, but he ranks alongside such giants of American Folk Music as Doc Watson and Merle Travis.
Ike Everly was one of four people, along with Arnold Schultz, Kennedy Jones and Mose Rager, who were largely responsible for developing a three-finger guitar playing style that Everly and Rager taught to fellow-neighbor, Merle Travis, while working in the coal fields. Merle Travis went on to become a giant in American music. He wrote the song, “Sixteen Tons,” that was on an album of coal mining songs he made and his guitar playing influenced Chet Atkins, who was largely responsible for the Everly Brothers getting their first big break.
The playing style Ike Everly helped develop influenced countless musicians during the Folk Music Revival of the 1950s and ’60s. Johnny Cash called him one of the most influential guitar players of the 20th Century.
I came across an article ranking 10 Great Musical Moments from the Newport Folk Festival Since 1959 and his performance with his sons, Don and Phil, in 1969 comes in at No. 5 on the list. For some perspective, Bob Dylan’s famous “going electric” performance ranks as No. 3.
What first got my attention was the fact that he was from Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. It immediately brought to mind the John Prine song, “Paradise” and the verse:
Daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
down by the Green River
where Paradise lives.
Well, I'm sorry my son
but you're too late in askin'
Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away.
The song is based on the true story of Paradise, Kentucky, a town that was literally scraped out of existence by coal mining.
Ike Everly started working in the coal mines when he was 14 years old and it was Black Lung Disease that claimed him in the end. But he had talent, and his talent allowed him to escape the bone-punishing grind of coal mining and give his family a chance at a better life.
Ike Everly quite possibly could have achieved greater fame and fortune for himself had he stayed performing on radio in Chicago as Merle Travis had done in Cincinnati. However, the biggest priority for Ike and Margaret Everly was to find a nice small town where they could raise their children.
Margaret Everly alluded to their life in Shenandoah, Iowa as having been an idyllic time and that they may never have left had the changes in the radio industry not necessitated their move. She outlived both her sons and passed away in 2021 at the age of 102. She spoke highly of their time in Shenandoah, Iowa to her grandchildren until the end of her life.
I find the story of Ike and Margaret Everly to be quite moving and poignant. I’m not the only person with a rural background who’s experienced a sense of loss at realizing that one can’t go home again because the old place doesn’t really exist anymore.
Some of my interest in old recipes is an attempt to capture a bit of what that old aura was like and to keep a little sense of it going.
There’s some old clips from The Johnny Cash Show that have Ike Everly playing his unique guitar style. The clips are a little ragged, but worth watching if you’re into Americana music.
Ike Everly Joined by Mabelle Carter In a Guitar Instrumental
The Everly Brothers / Ike Everly / Tommy Cash on the Johnny Cash Show
This is an hour-long set of Ike Everly with his sons, Don and Phil, at the Newport Folk Festival from 1969.
Everly Brothers International Archive : Live at the Newport Folk Festival – Workshop (July 18,1969)
Iowa Public Television has produced a documentary on Robert D. Ray, who was governor of Iowa from 1969-1983. Robert Ray set an example of moral leadership among politicians that remains unique in my lifetime.
It’s a story I remember well. I was a sophomore in high school in 1979 when the Vietnamese and Cambodian Boat People Crisis happened. The images of families drowning as their flimsy crafts broke up in the ocean have stuck with me. I was glad to send in $30 of money I earned baling hay to Iowa Shares and seeing my name published in The Des Moines Register, along with all the many others who contributed.
In 1975, Iowa Republican Governor Robert Ray responded to a humanitarian crisis with a profile in leadership. Ray enjoyed an 81% approval rating and parlayed the political capital he earned to come to the aid of the Tai Dam people, an ethnically distinct group who fled their homeland in Vietnam because of their opposition to the North Vietnamese Communist insurgency. Iowa has a unique place in the history of refugee services in the United States because of it, and from 1975-2010, Iowa was the only state recognized by the U.S. State Department as an official resettlement agency.
Following the fall of Saigon, President Gerald Ford asked the nation’s governors to take in refugees from Vietnam who had been allies of the U.S. and were now fleeing persecution. Iowa governor Robert Ray was the only one who said, “Yes.” Ray was motivated not only by his Christian values to help others in need, but also by his desire to gain more control over state government’s role in shaping refugee policy, and started an experiment that continues to influence resettlement policy to this day.
Ray was frustrated that state governors had so little control over refugee policy. The U.S. State Department allocated refugees to the states through voluntary agencies like Lutheran Services in Iowa and Catholic Charities who, understaffed and underfunded, often signed new refugees up for welfare as the quickest way to achieve stability for the newcomers. This placed a burden on state services and Ray believed it could set refugees up for long-term failure by creating a false impression about society’s expectations. Resorting to welfare as a first option fundamentally ran counter to his fiscal conservatism.
Ray placed administrative responsibility to resettle the Tai Dam under the Job Service of Iowa department. Previously, resettlement issues were administered through the state’s social services, the distributors of welfare. Colleen Shearer was the head of Job Service of Iowa and also acted as head of the Governor’s Task Force for Indochinese Resettlement, thus streamlining the effort to find the Tai Dam jobs as quickly as possible. Resettling the Tai Dam as a group made the job placement task easier because the state only had one language and set of cultural barriers to deal with; if one Tai Dam in a workplace spoke English, they could serve as interpreters for the other Tai Dam workers.
The cohesiveness of the Tai Dam people also contributed to the success of this experiment. Leaders within the Tai Dam community had negotiated for their people’s exodus from danger as a single group no less than four times since the early 1950’s. This strong sense of community meant that members helped one another in hard times and fit well with Ray’s goal of showing that his experiment could be successful in keeping refugees off welfare.
The Governor’s Task Force relied on three characteristics for success: work-first, cluster resettlement and individual sponsorship. Iowans across the state answered the call to sponsorship from the popular governor and signed up to provide individual attention to Tai Dam families. Not only did this provide an additional safety net for newcomers, it acted as the first point of integration into established society for refugees. In return, the refugees enriched the cultural landscape of Iowa permanently.
Nationally, the Iowa model gained attention because of the success of the Tai Dam people. Ray continued to push the envelope of his political capital. In response to the boat people crisis, Ray made an executive decision in January, 1979 to increase the intake of Indochinese refugees. He was one of two governors to attend the Special United Nations Conference on Refugees in Geneva, Switzerland that year in July.
At the conference, Vice President Walter Mondale electrified the crowd by referencing the failings of the international community in 1938 at Evian, France when 32 nations met to discuss the plight of the Jews. In his speech, Mondale said,
“Our children will deal harshly with us if we fail…Let us not be like the others. Let us renounce that legacy of shame. Let us reach beyond metaphor. Let us honor the moral principle we inherit. Let us do something meaningful – something profound – to stem this misery. We face a world problem. Let us fashion a world solution. History will not forgive us if we fail. History will not forget us if we succeed.”
Walter Mondale, Special United Nations Conference on Refugees, Geneva, Switzerland, 1979
Polling in Iowa showed that the majority of Iowans consistently opposed Ray’s resettlement policy. On December 4, 1979, conservative commentator Paul Harvey wrote an article that appeared nationwide in which he denounced what he called the refugees’ “parasitism” and “welfare-Cadillac” lifestyle. Harvey wrote that the Indochinese “buy and sell their teenage daughters; they skin and eat dogs and cats; they ravage our fishing grounds…Transporting them here is cruel to them and an affront to our own jobless.” He cautioned readers not to get suckered into donating to relief efforts by the emotionalized appeals pushed by bleeding-hearts, preachers, and fundraisers.
The nativist instinct of comments like these are an undeniable part of the character of the United States. It is a part of our past, our present and our future. People who have lived through ethnic violence know that this is the most tribal of instincts. The angry letters that were written to Iowa governor Robert Ray show that he knew this instinct as well.
Ray had choices to make as to how he would spend the political capital he earned through five terms as Iowa’s governor. Politicians have always faced criticism for issues relating to refugees and immigration and always will. It was Robert Ray’s personal moral choice as a leader to stand up to and rise above that criticism.
