Cooking in the West

As the primary elections loom in Montana next week, I find myself not on the ballot for the first time in 16 years. I have decided to hang up my red pencil after 41 years in education at the end of my fourth term as County Superintendent of Schools this December. Having run for public office, I feel the pain of those running in contested races. It is not easy to run for office any place, but living in a small community makes it even harder!

I remember well the first time I ran for my County Superintendent of Schools position back in 2006. The day I first announced my candidacy in the teacher's lounge of Big Timber Grade School, my timing was off. It was lunch break a few days before payday. After my announcement, the hat was passed to kick off my campaign. I received 76 cents, several IOU's (mostly unsigned), two Lean Cuisine coupons, and some pocket lint. I surmised that I would have to run a low budget campaign.

I decided to go door to door as soon as school was out. I think I had 9 days before the primary, which seemed more than adequate. I started in my own community, and my plan was to branch out from there across the county. By noon on the first Saturday, I had covered exactly five houses in our neighborhood. I had consumed several cookies, doughnuts, a piece of pie, a pot of coffee, two soda pops, and three glasses of lemonade. I decided to go home and think up a new strategy. In a small community, you cannot just knock on the door, hand your neighbors a brochure, and head back to your car. A minimum of a half hour visit including refreshments is necessary in order not to appear snooty. I caught up on a lot of neighborhood news, but I had not influenced many voters in an entire morning of campaigning.

That afternoon, I decided to work the metropolis of Big Timber. I had my daughter Brooke drive. The plan was that she would drop me off at one end of the street, and while I worked my way down the street she would drive and pick me up a few blocks down. After an hour had passed, Brooke came back up the street looking for me. I had covered exactly three houses, because the townsfolk also wanted me to come in and have refreshments and a visit. This did not seem to be working. I decided to wait until Monday and try to catch people at work, so I could just drop my propaganda inside their screen door and move on. This method worked fairly well except for the watch dogs. I did not actually suffer any dog bites, but I skipped quite a few houses. Late in the day, I was getting tired and failed to notice one of those plastic coated dog tethers winding around the house. When I knocked on the door, it woke up the very scary big ugly mutt at the end of that tether. I ran as fast as I could, but he bumped the back of my leg with his teeth just as he hit the end of his tether, and I decided to call it a day. I figured if I lost by that one vote it still would have justified the retreat to keep all my limbs intact.

The next day I took my cute little yellow flyers to the Post Office with Plan B. I would mail every box holder instead of making a personal visit. This worked pretty well; however, it was a little hard on my ego. When I went to pick up my mail the next day, I noticed piles of my little flyers in the garbage cans intermingling with the common junk mail. I even watched a few postal patrons throw theirs away. I resisted the urge to run up and say, "Oh, please read that and please vote for me!" I was a politician by definition, but I had not sunk quite that low!

Then there was the candidate forum. It is very difficult to brag about yourself and ask people to have confidence in you and to do it in a professional, tactful, humble way. It seemed that no one cared what I knew about education and school funding nearly as much as they cared about my views on things such as abortion and gun control.

The day of the election, I was a nervous wreck. I took a horse to the vet clinic. When I loaded him up, I forgot to latch the rear trailer door. It is a miracle I didn't take out several inanimate objects on my way to town before I finally checked my rear view mirror and noticed the rear door swinging widely. After an eternally long day, the polls closed, and the results came in.. . then I realized the magnitude of the trust the public had put into me, and it scared me so much that I wondered if I should have followed in my father's footsteps. He lost his bid for election as the Sheriff of Musselshell County in the mid 1950's by just five votes. He always said the defeat was the best thing that ever happened to him. Four successful terms later, I find myself grateful that I broke the curse of that short family political losing streak, and I am looking forward to no longer being a "public servant."

My featured cooks this week are a few of my former colleagues at Big Timber Grade School who encouraged me to run for public office and still support me after sixteen years in this job. Thanks, Rita Becken, Julie Kinsey, and Judy Vidack! It was a big eye opener for me to see schools from an administrative viewpoint rather than a teacher viewpoint, and the learning curve was steep. I also want to give a shout out to Alycia Nathe Arlian, my former English teaching counterpart at the high school, so she can prove to her neighbors up in Scobey, Montana that she knows the "cooking column lady"!

Rita Becken's Cinnamon Twists

1 C. sour cream

1 large egg

3 T. sugar

2 T. shortening

1/2 t. soda

1/8 t. salt

2 T. soft butter

1 cake compressed yeast

2 C. sifted flour

1/2 C. brown sugar

1 t. cinnamon

Heat the sour cream to lukewarm in a large saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in sugar, soda, and salt. Crumble the cake of yeast into the mixture and stir until it's dissolved. Add egg, shortening, and flour. Mix well. Turn dough onto floured board and fold over several times until smooth. Then roll into oblong 25 x 6 inches. Spread with soft butter. Sprinkle half of the dough with a mixture of 1/2 C. brown sugar and cinnamon. Fold other half over. Cut into strips. Twist strips. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. While warm, frost with glaze: 2 C. powdered sugar, 2 drops almond flavoring, and enough milk or cream to achieve glaze consistency.

Judy Vidack's Spinach Salad

l lb. fresh spinach

1 can water chestnuts, drained

1 can bean sprouts, drained

1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced

8 slices bacon, fried crisp and crumbled

salt and pepper to taste

Dressing:

1/4 C. vinegar

1/4 C. ketchup

1/4 C. vegetable oil or olive oil

1/4 C. sugar

1/2 t. Worcestershire sauce

1 t. salt

1/2 small onion, diced

Toss salad ingredients. Put dressing ingredients in a quart jar and shake. Dress just before serving. (I like to add strawberries and slivered almonds to the salad and poppy seeds to the dressing also!)

Julie Kinsey's Halibut Bake

Cut halibut into bite sized pieces. Pat dry and put into a baking dish.

Mix together:

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 C. mayonnaise

1 C. sour cream

Pour over fish. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Sprinkle 2 C. shredded Cheddar or mozzarella over the top and bake until the cheese is melted.