Cooking in the West

One of my favorite things to do when I am visiting my rural schools during the holiday season is to ask the younger students to help me write instructions on how to cook a turkey. The following instructions were given by the two youngest students at Melville School.

Nodin Selke in first grade gave the following cooking directions:

Get a million pound turkey. Take the turkey out of the wrapper and put it in a pot. Put salt and pepper and garlic on it. Cook it in the oven for 50 minutes at 200 degrees. Take it out and stuff the stuffing in the armpits of the turkey. Serve it.

Torsten Hanson in third grade wrote:

Get a one thousand pound turkey. You have to get a turkey strainer like a big dropper. You put the juice on top of the turkey. Cook it in a pot for 30 minutes at 100 degrees. After it is cooked, put it on a plate and eat it.

Last week, I featured guest column stories by three Melville Elementary students, and this week I have stories from the other two students, sisters Elle and Emery Anderson. Teaching siblings in a multi-level classroom created an interesting dynamic for classroom management, since both sisters wanted to tell the same story. We negotiated a compromise, so they would each tell half of the story, and they would decide on one favorite recipe.

The Ice Cream Truck Escapade

-by Elle and Emery Anderson

It all started one afternoon in the Centennial Valley near Dillon, Montana in a pasture in the middle of the valley. Mom and Dad were looking at grass and checking fences, and we kids (Andy, Emery, Bergen and I) were trying to find a place to play in the wide open prairie. We spotted what looked like an old truck a few hundred yards away. We ran over there, and to our surprise it was an old abandoned ice cream truck.

Of course, we slowly opened the rusted door and stepped inside. Once we were in, we poked around and laughed at how weird it was for an ice cream truck to be in the middle of a field. After a few minutes, we were going to go back out. Andy, our oldest brother, started freaking out and pulling on the door handle yelling, "It won't open!"

Being the oldest, he often played tricks on us to scare us, so we did not believe him at first. After five minutes of everyone taking turns trying to pull the door open, we realized we were stuck in an ice cream truck in the middle of a very large field with our parents about five hundred yards away.

We were really scared, because we knew we were locked in and our parents couldn't hear us, but we yelled and screamed anyway. We decided we had to find a way out, so we explored the lonesome truck. Andy found a wrench lying on the floor, so we formed an idea. There was a hole in the window just big enough for our little brother, Bergen, to crawl through. Bergen crawled through, took the wrench, and was able to open the door from the outside to break us out. We rushed out so glad to be out of the truck. We all wanted to tell Mom and Dad the story, but, of course, Andy got to tell the story, because he is the oldest!

Elle's and Emery's Rosemary Shortbread Cookies

1/3 C. sugar

1 C. flour

2 t. chopped fresh rosemary

1 stick salted butter

Cut the cold butter into chunks. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse briefly just until combined. The mixture will be very crumbly. Press the mixture into a round 9 inch pie pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden on the edges. Cool for 5 minutes before cutting into wedges for serving.

Best Easiest Holiday Fudge

18 oz. chips (I prefer milk chocolate but any kind of chips will work.)

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 T. vanilla

! C. chopped walnuts (optional)

Pour the first three ingredients in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 90 seconds being careful not to scorch the chips. Stir the mixture. If it is not smooth, microwave in 30 second intervals until the mixture stirs smoothly. Stir in chopped nuts if desired. Grease a 9 X 9 pan or pie plate. Pour the mixture in and let set. It will not sugar. To make a 9 X 13 pan of fudge, double the ingredients.

Quick Cream Cheese Pie

1 can fruit pie filling

8 oz. cream cheese (room temperature)

6 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1/3 C. lemon juice

1 t. vanilla

1 graham cracker crust

Beat cream cheese and condensed milk. Then add lemon juice and vanilla. Mix well. Pour batter into pie crust. Let chill 4 to 5 hours. Pour pie filling over top. Refrigerate.