Cooking in the West

Here in our calving commune on Lower Deer Creek, we are going into our fifth week of social distancing or sheltering in place. 102 years ago, the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, the deadliest in history, infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide (about one-third of the planet’s population) and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims, including over 675,000 Americans. It primarily infected young, healthy adults. My husband's Grandpa, Hoell, contracted the Spanish flu, which kept him from going to World War I. The fever was so bad that he lost all of his hair, but that is about all the family can remember that he mentioned about the experience. We do know from newspaper reports that the same closures and restrictions that we are using today were used then. Our battle with this virus will be chronicled in social media so that the next several generations will know all about the Covid-19 Pandemic of 2020 via Facebook memes.

Every day we watch updates on the Coronavirus on television given by a panel of doctors and politicians who are obviously not practicing the six foot rule of social distancing, and often they are violating the rule of 10 people in a room. Doesn't it seem like they should be briefing us from their homes over Zoom instead?

By the way, don't worry about Zoom not being secure. I witnessed a Zoom bomb and lived to tell about it when it happened at the Sweet Grass County High School special Zoom board meeting last week. All you really have to do if someone breaks into your Zoom meeting is just end the meeting.

Aside from Zoom bombs, another source of Covid-19 entertainment is cooking and eating. We all ran out and bought months worth of groceries when this started, and now we are trying to figure out how to cook it all up in new and exciting ways, because we are eating our way through this crisis. Every three or four days, I change out of my sweat pants and force myself to put on jeans just to make sure I can still button them without lying down over the bed and sucking my breath in.

When the day comes that I can no longer zip my jeans, perhaps I will dig out my rusty sewing machine, tear out the side seams, and sew an additional strip of fabric down each pant leg. The Covid-19 side panel just might become the next fashion trend! Non-sewers can try to find fabric glue to glue Covid-19 side panels into their jean seams. Bonnie Ferguson, who owns our local quilt store, does Facebook Live sessions weekly for her quilters during this time of non-essential closure, so perhaps word of my invention will spread throughout the county, and she will ask me to do a guest Facebook Live Covid-19 side panel demonstration?

Fortunately I decided long ago to let my hair go gray naturally. I do feel sorry for the women running around (or rather sheltering) with ever widening gray strips down the middle of their hair. I suspect that home hair dye kits will become as valuable as toilet paper within the next couple weeks. In a couple more weeks, I am going to have to trim my bangs or pull them straight up in a miniature pony tail on top of my head so I can see. My mother used to cut my bangs by putting a piece of Scotch tape across my forehead at the right length and snipping the hair below the tape off with scissors. The only problem with that method, as I recall, is that when the tape was pulled off, the bangs bounced out of confinement and ended up slightly crooked and about 1/2 inch too short.

During trying times, celebrities are quick to give advice, because they are so in touch with the real world. Gwyneth Paltrow suggested learning a new language or writing a book in her Instagram post regarding coping with the coronavirus. Meanwhile, most Americans are either spending their days working from home while trying to homeschool their children or struggling with job loss after the entire hospitality and service industry shut down. I am pretty sure that rather than writing a book or learning a language, they are busy trying to figure out how to cover their rent or mortgage, food, car payment, and utility bills with that $1,200.00 check from the government that they are waiting for this week.

While parents are trying to deal with their own fears and frustrations, they are trying to help their kids cope with the cancellation or postponement of sports activities, proms, graduation ceremonies, and weddings. Just when we were starting to ponder cancelling county fairs and other summer activities, Dr. Anthony Fauci said this Easter weekend, "Parts of the U.S. may be ready in May to ease emergency measures taken against the coronavirus pandemic, but there’s no universal 'light switch' to flip on. There’s also the possibility of a Covid-19 rebound in the fall which could be a factor in November’s elections." He went on to add, "The availability of widespread testing will be key to relaxing social isolation that continues in most states." I am going to take that as a big thumbs up that we are going to declare a victory over this virus sooner rather than later!

I have more Covid-19 recipe ideas this week. Tomato soup has been scarce on grocery shelves, so I want to share a copycat recipe of the famous 4-B's Restaurant chain recipe. Thanks to Cheri Fjare of Big Timber, MT for sharing her standby chicken recipe!

4-B's Copycat Tomato Soup:

32 oz. canned, diced tomatoes

9 oz. chicken broth

1 oz. butter

2 T. sugar

1 T. chopped onion

1 pinch baking soda

2 C. cream

Mix tomatoes, chicken broth, butter, sugar, onion, and soda. Simmer for one hour. Heat cream in a double boiler. Add cream to hot tomato mixture. Makes 1/2 gallon of soup.

Cheri Fjare's Believe It Or Not Chicken:

1 fryer chicken, cut up or 2-3 lbs. fryer parts

8 oz. bottle French dressing

1 can whole or jellied cranberry sauce

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

Brown chicken in hot oil. Remove to a casserole. Mix the remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. Bake at 375 degrees for one hour.

Ten Cup Cookies:

1 C. shortening

3 eggs

1 C. brown sugar

1 C. granulated sugar

1 C. peanut butter

1 C. flour

1 C. quick cooking oatmeal

1 C. chocolate chips

1 C. nuts

1 C. raisins

1 C. coconut

3 t. soda

1 t. baking powder

Cream shortening and sugars. Add eggs and mix well. Stir in remaining ingredients. Add additional flour as needed for cookie consistency. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden.