No matter what the city’s marketing department may have led you to believe, you don’t actually have to go to San Francisco to get really delicious sourdough bread. In fact, all you really need is some patience and three ingredients—flour, water, and salt. Continue reading
Food
Out of Yeast? Make a Sourdough Starter
I discovered last year that I really love making bread. My mother is probably ashamed that it took me 32 years to figure it out—my childhood memories are full of the smell of the fresh bread she baked for seven demanding children. There is absolutely nothing more delicious than a slice of warm bread with butter and honey (fight me, Hostess). Continue reading
Wassailing: England’s Apple Tree Pep Talk
For most of my life, wassailing was just something that popped up in Christmas song lyrics, like “Love and joy come to you, and to you your wassail too” or “Here we come a-wassailing.” But as long as we’re talking unusual Christmas traditions, we thought that on the Fourth Day of Imported Christmas, we’d share the joy of wassailing in its ancient form. Continue reading
Speculaas: Netherlands’ Quintessential Christmas Cookies
I knew it was time to get serious about Christmas this year when Gordon came home with a box from Topper Bakery in Ogden. So on the Third Day of Imported Christmas, we are celebrating Speculaas, the delicious Dutch cookies that we keep meaning to share with people but never quite manage to. Continue reading
Kentucky for Christmas: Japan’s Festive KFC
Every once in a while, someone has a stroke of marketing genius that influences an entire generation (Ch ch ch chia, Where’s the beef?, Got Milk? etc.) On the Second Day of Imported Christmas, we are celebrating one of the most effective marketing campaigns of all time: the KFC takeover of Christmas in Japan.
In 1974, the fledgling Japanese KFC franchises needed a boost. Takeshi Okawara, the manager of Japan’s first KFC, decided to take advantage of the lack of Japanese traditions for Christmas (which was largely not celebrated at all except by foreigners, who couldn’t get their traditional turkey ). He launched a campaign called “Kentucky for Christmas” and offered a Christmas party barrel that started with chicken and evolved to include sides, cake, and optional KFC wine.
Iron Horse Cook-Off in Ely
A couple months ago, Gordon sent me a link to the Nevada Northern Railway’s first annual Iron Horse Cook-Off Challenge with a message that just said, “Can we enter? Can we? Can we?” Contestants would be judged on three meals: one cooked over an open fire, one on the stove in the caboose, and one on a shovel in the firebox of the engine.
We had never been in a cooking contest before, but we did make engine block quesadillas during a solar eclipse. You’d think those skills would translate pretty well to cooking on a shovel in an 800-degree steam locomotive. Plus, they offered points for dressing in period-appropriate railway attire, so we were guaranteed to get more than zero even if we burned all our food to inedibility. Continue reading
Eat Masters Food without Going to Augusta
I think Augusta National must be the Narnia of golf courses. First of all, Augusta manages to make golf exciting at least once a year. Second, and more important to someone as terrible at golf as I am, their food is legendary. This is impressive because the sandwiches are made on white wonder bread and there is nothing on the menu that anyone with even rudimentary cooking skills couldn’t just make at home. But somehow, pair it all with the biggest golf tournament of the year and price the food like its 1969, and you’ve got magic. Continue reading
Pi Day Ice Cream Pie
Amazon Prime has added a series of vintage food commercials, and they are amazing. In honor of Pi Day, we watched Johnny Carson make a Jello Ice Cream Pie (circa 1957) and then made our own. We loved how easy it was, and using our favorite ice cream meant we were guaranteed to like the pie. Continue reading
Blackout Cooking
To be fair, cooking during a power outage really isn’t that difficult. You can use any camp stove, a solar oven, your barbecue, or anything else that starts on fire (like a fire). But if you have a lantern and a pot, you can cook and light the house at the same time.
We used our lantern to cook Myzithra cheese spaghetti because all you need is enough heat to boil water. And it is made entirely out of ingredients that can last for a while outside of refrigeration. And we really like it. Continue reading
Apple Cider Press
Visiting my grandmother in the fall always meant picking apples from her backyard orchard and drinking apple cider. Now that she’s gone and my parents live in the house, we knew there would be several trees full of apples that needed to be cidered.
I spent a lovely day picking apples with my parents while Gordon built an apple grinder and press. He used these plans from Matthias Wandel for the grinder and designed a small press using a scissor or bottle jack. Continue reading
Mountain Man Living 