Cooking in the West

My column about aging awhile back brought several suggestions on how to combat aging including advice on where to get the best deal on orthotic inserts for my shoes to suggestions that if I would forego wearing foundation, cross my heart undergarments, it would help pull the wrinkles out of my face. Although those were helpful hints, I decided it might be easier to just change the way I perceive the aging process.

As branding season is upon us, it underscores that cowboying with your grown children is a humbling experience. For parts of three decades, I have given them cowboying tips usually screeched at the top of my lungs as wrecks were unfolding before our eyes. Now all of that patient "coaching" has paid off, and it is fun to sit back and watch them work. It is also a lot easier on my aging bones and vocal cords.

For example, I used to feel the need to lope ahead to get the gate and make sure I was strategically located to turn the cattle through it. Now, I am very content to watch from the rear while the kids get the gate. It is so much more efficient to have them get the gate, because if I do it I must respond to the little voice inside my head that sounds like an internal flight attendant for aging cowgirls. "Allow the horse to come to a complete stop before you dismount.” This little voice must be heeded, because when I am riding along, I feel sixteen again; however, to avoid dismounting injury, I must follow proper dismounting procedure. All the joints must be checked for mobility and circulation first--knees check, ankles check, carefully dismount, hobble to the gate (which is too tight for an old woman to open gracefully), drag the gate back, lead my horse to the nearest deep gully, claw my way on, and turn back just in time to watch the herd disappear over the farthest horizon. Until they invent some sort of remote control for ranch gates or they genetically engineer a very strong breed of Shetland ponies, I will just let the kids (who are well into their third decade of life) get the gate.

It has been several years now since I have felt the urge to prove to myself that I didn't have one foot on a banana peel by wrestling a few (well maybe two) calves at brandings. Thanks to the makers of Advil and the polite little kids who let me wrestle only double hocked day-old calves, I used to prove to myself that I was still a calf wrestling phenom! Wrestling the calves was not the problem. The problem was getting up off the ground afterwards.

I can no longer hold my own in the heeling pen for two mediocre/lucky loops before my bursitis, arthritis, diverticulitis, meningitis, and excusitis covering the curvature of the earth, the wind speed, and the distortion from the heat waves kick in. I can always fall back on the sudden urgency to hobble back to the house to check the potatoes for dinner, which also cleverly excuses me from unsaddling my horse. At our first branding this year, there were just a few calves left to brand, so I told Remi I better get to the house to get the food set out. He said, "Well, there would be no hurry except you have to figure in your additional arthritic travel time."

The good thing about aging is that any excuse will do if you have taught the younguns to respect their elders. In fact, I am sure those kids mean no disrespect when they refer to me as "G-Unit." I like to think the G stands for GREAT instead of GRANNY.

My featured cook this week is faithful reader Jane Lambert of Stevensville, Montana, who is a fellow aging cowgirl. Jane shared her thoughts on aging writing, "I am living proof that this aging gig is NOT a piece of cake. While picking rocks the other day, I sprained my ankle on flat ground with no wind, rain, or snow. My ankle swelled up black and blue and hobbled me. To self medicate, I tweaked an old coffee cake recipe and baked it, as brown sugar, nuts, butter, and apples are KNOWN healing ingredients. It was so healing I ate a really big piece. . so even though picking rocks is not a piece of cake, the whole thing did have a sweet ending!" Thanks, Jane!

Apple Pecan Coffee Cake Streusel:

1 C. firmly packed dark brown sugar

1/3 C. flour

1 C. chopped pecans

1/2 stick melted butter

Cake:

3 C. flour

1/2 t. ground nutmeg

1 heaping t. cinnamon

1 T. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1 stick butter, melted or softened

1 1/3 C. sugar (white or brown)

2 large eggs

1 C. milk

1 t. vanilla

2 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced thinly (Granny Smiths work great.)

Make streusel by combining the ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside. Stir together flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat eggs in and beat mixture until light and creamy. Mix the vanilla into the milk and add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk until combined. Stir in the apples. Spread half the batter in a greased 9 X 13 pan. Cover with half the streusel mixture. Top with remaining batter and finally streusel. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes until a toothpick tests clean. Serve as a coffee cake or serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

Lemon Garlic Baked Chicken Thighs:

8 bone-in skin on chicken thighs

1 medium lemon, sliced

16 peeled garlic cloves (14 rough cut and 2 pressed)

2 t. dried thyme (or 5 fresh sprigs)

3 T. olive oil

1 t. salt

3/4 t. black pepper

1 1/2 t. honey (or more to taste)

Pat thighs dry with paper towels and set aside. Arrange lemon slices, garlic, and thyme in the bottom of a 9 X 13 baking pan. Place thighs on top skin side up and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, and remaining thyme. Bake at 425 degrees until the skin is a deep golden brown and a thermometer reads 165 degrees (about one hour). Transfer to a serving dish. Remove the lemon slices from the pan drippings and stir in the honey. (Serve this as sauce for the chicken accompanied by the rice side below.)

Jane's Rice Side for Chicken:

15 fresh asparagus spears cut into one inch sections

1 small onion, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

2 T. olive oil

1 C. brown rice

2 C. chicken broth

2 T. lemon juice

Parmesan cheese

Heat olive oil. Saute asparagus, onion, celery, and garlic for five minutes. Set aside. Cook the chicken broth, rice, and lemon juice. When rice is done, combine with sauteed ingredients. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle parmesan cheese over top before serving.