Silence gets Smart. July 8, 2010
Posted by ourfriendben in Ben Franklin, recipes, wit and wisdom.Tags: Ancient Rome, food from ancient Rome, Silence Dogood, Silence Dogood blogs, SmartKitchen.com
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We at Poor Richard’s Almanac are delighted to announce that our very own Silence Dogood is now guest-blogging over at SmartKitchen.com (http://www.smartkitchen.com/blog/). Her first guest post is “Caesar’s Cuisine,” about cooking in Ancient Rome. (As opposed, to, say, a menu review of Little Caesar’s pizzas.) She even shares a recipe for an authentic First-Century Roman fish sauce.
We invite you all to head on over to SmartKitchen.com and check it out, along with the other colorful, informative posts by P Chef and others. You’ll be glad you did!
Needless to say, you’ll still hear plenty from Silence here at Poor Richard’s Almanac. But we’re excited for her to have an opportunity to stretch out! We think our hero and blog mentor, the great Benjamin Franklin, would be proud. Who knows, maybe Silence will do a SmartKitchen.com post on good food from Ben’s kitchen!
Our friend Ben, Richard Saunders, and Silence Dogood
The genius of the weather needs an IQ boost. July 7, 2010
Posted by ourfriendben in Ben Franklin, critters, gardening, homesteading, wit and wisdom.Tags: A Christmas Carol, Ancient Rome, Benjamin Franklin, blog humor, Charles Dickens, Ebenezer Scrooge, genius of the weather, heat and drought
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Our friend Ben is not usually one to complain—shut up, Silence—but watching every plant in our beloved Hawk’s Haven landscape shrivel and die in the relentless drought and 100-degree heat is really a bit much. We’ve drained the last of our five rain barrels trying to keep the vegetables and container plants alive—an uphill battle—and are now praying that the well holds out.
Meanwhile, we ourselves are staggering back and forth to the house to fill bazillion gallon jugs with water, dump, refill, repeat. And as I’ve mentioned —no, Silence, I have not “only said this about a thousand times.” Go away, please. As I’ve mentioned, our veggie and fruit beds are at the very back of the property—the only sunny part of our yard—and the house is the better part of an acre away. Trust me, hauling about 40 gallons of water, jug by jug, in 100-degree heat is not fun. It must be the genius of the weather playing a bad joke on us.
And the worst of it is that those 40 gallons aren’t nearly enough. By the end of each day, Silence’s prized tomato and squash plants are already drooping. The poor potato plants are shrivelling just as they were starting to give us a multicolored flower show. I’m trying to keep the onions, basil (and other herbs), and all our peppers afloat. Forget greens in this weather! Our container-grown kale and Swiss chard are the sole survivors. It just kills us to see what would unquestionably have been our most productive garden ever fighting just to stay alive.
And that’s the part that’s getting water. Except for the container plants, the ornamentals are basically crisped. Lawns up and down the street have browned out. (Not ours—yet, anyway—because we set our mower high and only mow when the lawn starts to look raggedy. So our grass’s roots are shaded and the plants are still green, though the clover—in full bloom, of course—is clearly struggling.) Corn in neighboring fields has folded up its leaves. Our poor little stream, Hawk Run, has run dry, causing untold suffering to the minnows, crayfish, frogs, and water bugs that make their home there, not to mention the birds, dragonflies, and other wildlife that depend on it for water. Toads are coming up on our deck in search of water.
Whoever called that weather guy a genius, anyway?! Our friend Ben is so glad you asked. Most moderns have encountered the phrase “genius of the weather” in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Though most of us were probably focused on the adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge, Marley’s Ghost, and the hapless Bob Cratchit, such a peculiar phrase does tend to stick in the mind. “Genius of the weather” brings our hero and blog mentor, Benjamin Franklin, to our friend Ben’s mind, holding the kite and key aloft as the lightning crashes around him.
But it turns out that the expression predates Ben by several millennia and has nothing to do with genius at all, at least in its modern sense. Instead, the ancient Romans used “genius” to refer to a local spirit or sprite, sort of the presiding fairy of a family, clan, spring, tree, stream, you name it. These genii (the plural form) were propitiated by the Romans to bring good fortune or an abundant crop, much as we might put out milk and cookies for Santa or earlier cultures set out a bowl of cream for the fairies or leprechauns (who doubtless turned out to bear an uncanny resemblance to cats, but I digress).
Our friend Ben says to hell with that approach. I’m not about to propitiate some moron who’s hit us with the double whammy of heat and drought. This is war, fella. Straighten up and fly right, or next time you show up around here, I’m coming after you with a dead corn stalk. And don’t even think your so-called IQ can save you from the Wrath of Ben!
The most influential American novel? July 6, 2010
Posted by ourfriendben in wit and wisdom.Tags: American novels, Harriet Beecher Stowe, influential American novels, Uncle Tom's Cabin
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It’s me, Richard Saunders of Poor Richard’s Almanac fame, back again today to talk about American novels. The topic came up because we referred to practical jokers in yesterday’s post about wacky blog searches. I couldn’t help but wonder at the origin of the phrase “practical joke,” since it struck me as an oxymoron: There’s nothing practical about a joke! Our friend Ben and Silence Dogood were unable to shed any light on the matter, so I turned to my good friend Google for an explanation of this curious phrase.
Typing in “origin of phrase practical joke” brought me to a page of links, including one to an X-rated Wikipedia article, “Tea bag (sexual act).” Yow, I had no idea Wikipedia was that all-inclusive! Or that Google searches were that imprecise. But there was a helpful link to the Word Detective, www.word-detective.com.
What does all this have to do with influential American novels, or novels at all for that matter, you ask? Well, clicking on the link to the Word Detective didn’t take me directly to “practical joke,” but rather to the top of the screen that eventually scrolled down to the answer to my question. But I figured it couldn’t hurt to read the stuff on the way down, just in case I might learn something on the way. And boy, did I ever.
A reader had written in to ask the Word Detective about the origin of the phrase “grow like Topsy.” I’d heard this used many times before, in the sense of grow rapidly and out of control, but I didn’t know where it came from either and had never really given it much thought; I guess I always assumed it meant “grow like a weed” and left it at that. “Grow like kudzu” would be the modern-day equivalent.
Was I in for a surprise! The Word Detective explained that the origin of “grow like Topsy” was the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe and published in 1852. Topsy was a slave girl in the novel.
I was very surprised to learn the origin of this expression, and I’m willing to bet most of you are, too. But the other things the Word Detective said about Uncle Tom’s Cabin were even more surprising. I’ve never read Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and I don’t know anybody else who has, either. In our day, “Uncle Tom” has come to mean a grinning, subservient Black man who toadys up to Whitey. Who’d want to read a book about that?
News flash: Just about everybody, if you lived in pre-Civil War America. Uncle Tom’s Cabin “outsold every book previously published in America except the Bible,” according to the Word Detective. S/he went on to say that it was “probably the most influential American novel ever written.”
Yikes. Could that be true? Thinking it over, I found it hard to argue with the logic behind the statement. That one novel had so influenced the sentiments of Americans that it had made the Civil War possible. How many American novels have started wars?
Trying to think of other American novels that might claim similar influence, I couldn’t think of any. Yes, there were early novels that defined the relationship of settlers to the New Land, such as James Fenimore Cooper’s Deerslayer series (including The Last of the Mohicans) and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series. There were The Scarlet Letter and Moby-Dick, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Little Women, Gone with the Wind, The Good Earth. There were Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor, Theodore Dreiser and Thomas Wolfe, Washington Irving and Henry James, Edith Wharton and Willa Cather, Philip Roth and John Updike. There were The Red Badge of Courage, The Jungle, The Catcher in the Rye, The Grapes of Wrath, Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Godfather. I’d add In Cold Blood to this list if you could consider it to be a novel rather than a work of narrative nonfiction.
But did any of them start a war? Did any of them change the way an entire nation looked at itself? Each offered insights, but none galvanized a nationwide response the way Uncle Tom’s Cabin did. Only British-born Thomas Paine’s nonfiction essay, Common Sense, did that, changing Colonial perception from a willingness to endure whatever England imposed on her colonies in favor of what came to be the American Revolution.
I’m still not planning to read Uncle Tom’s Cabin. But I still can’t think of a more influential American novel. Can you?
Warmly,
Richard
Vampires and squirrel wasp spray. July 5, 2010
Posted by ourfriendben in wit and wisdom.Tags: blog humor, funny blog searches, wacky blog searches
1 comment so far
It’s time to share more of the wild and wacky blog search phrases we get over the virtual transom here at Poor Richard’s Almanac. (Sorry to disappoint anyone who might have been hoping that squirrel wasp spray was something that keeps vampires away.) We hope you enjoy the latest batch as much as we did! As always, search phrase in bold, our response following:
anyone else think dr oz a vampire: Oh, give the guy a break. Then again, maybe that was meant as a compliment…
hot times in chile: How about cold showers in your house?
wedding dress cheesecake recipes: This is one wedding we’re planning to skip.
squirrel wasp spray: First predator urine, and now this. Trust us, the only effective squirrel repellent is a yard full of outdoor cats.
shirts dyed with chili peppers: Ow! Those practical jokers just never give up.
pirates sweet food: After months of wormy hardtack on board a pirate ship, we’d bet any food would taste sweet. No wonder pirates went around bellowing “Aaaaarrrr!!!”
globs in my gallon milk: Eeewww!!! Keep your globs to yourself, please.
what day is good to wear evil eye pendant: Any day works for us.
what to put in my garden so they won’t be: Squirrel wasp spray, an evil eye pendant, a few outdoor cats, and a vampire or two should take care of them, whatever they are.
That’s it for this round! But please keep ‘em coming (and us laughing), folks!
Know your (Bill of) Rights. July 4, 2010
Posted by ourfriendben in Ben Franklin, wit and wisdom.Tags: American Revolution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, Founding Fathers, Independence Day, The Constitution
4 comments
It’s me, Richard Saunders of Poor Richard’s Almanac fame, here today with a short refresher course on the Bill of Rights and some fun facts about the Constitution. Brushing up on our basic rights as Americans seems fitting on Independence Day, and of course, I can never resist some good history trivia!
Let’s start with the Bill of Rights, which is comprised of the first ten Amendments to the Constitution. How many of them do you remember? If your record isn’t too good, it may be because you’re trying to recall the actual wording of each Amendment or all the component parts. They’re a lot easier when you use Poor Richard’s E-Z Version instead! Hopefully, you’ll never have any of these rights infringed. But it’s useful to know them just in case. Let’s take a look:
Amendment I. Prohibits establishment of a state religion, and assures Americans of five fundamental freedoms: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of (peaceable) assembly, and freedom to petition the government for redress of grievances.
Whew! That one’s the biggie.
Amendment II. The right to keep and bear arms.
Despite all the hoopla over the Second Amendment, as the Supreme Court recently confirmed, there’s really no ambiguity on this one at all. That’s because, when the Amendment was written, most families needed firearms to survive: to hunt for meat; to protect yourself, your family, and your property from wild animals, thieves and desperadoes, and various warring factions; to slaughter your livestock. Unless you lived in a city, life without a gun was a death sentence, and the Founders—as well as everyone alive at the time—knew that. This Amendment reassured the citizenry that a tyrannical government was not about to deprive them of their means of livelihood and defense.
Having said that, just because that situation existed back in the day doesn’t mean it exists now, or justifies the sale of semiautomatic weapons or other weapons of war to those outside the military and police force. It’s always an option for Congress to propose and pass another Amendment restricting the sale of ouzis, machine guns and the like!
Amendment III. No turning of private homes into free bed and board for soldiers without the homeowner’s consent, unless in time of war, and then only as prescribed by law.
This one probably seems far-fetched, but remember, the newborn America had just endured just that at the hands of the British.
Amendment IV. Freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.
As timely now as when it was written.
Amendment V. Right to trial by Grand Jury for capital offenses; right not to witness against one’s self; right not to be put at jeopardy of life or limb twice for the same offense; right to due process; right to just compensation for property taken for public use.
It’s that right not to have to witness against one’s self part that people mean when they talk about “taking the Fifth.” Thing is, we seem to have come to believe that a person can’t be tried twice for the same offense, when the Amendment clearly states that the only limitation is that a person can’t be “put at jeopardy of life or limb” twice for the same offense. Seems to me that leaves the door open to throw the bastards into jail if evidence comes to light later that proves they’re guilty.
Amendment VI. Right to a fast, fair, public trial by jury.
‘Nuff said.
Amendment VII. Right of suits over $20 to be tried by jury and not subsequently reexamined by a different court.
Twenty dollars was probably close to a year’s wages for an unskilled laborer in 1791, the time this Amendment was set into law. Thank goodness today’s legal fees prevent most people from taking their $20 grievances to court!
Amendment VIII. Freedom from cruel and unusual punishment, including excessive bail and fines.
Clearly the excesses of the Inquisition and the persecution and torture of Protestants, Catholics, Freemasons, Jews, and pretty much any powerless group by Henry VIII, his daughter, Bloody Mary, Oliver Cromwell and his Roundheads, not to mention the torment of Protestant sects in much of Europe at the time of the Reformation, weighed heavily on the Founding Fathers. Many of the Colonies had been founded as refuges from religious persecution, though some notoriously imposed it themselves, as in the case of the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Nonetheless, in this case, the Founders wisely kept the good and forbade the bad. Every American has the right to live free of the fear of government-imposed torture.
Amendment IX. Just because a right isn’t mentioned in the Constitution or Bill of Rights doesn’t mean it isn’t a right.
To me, this is THE most important of all the rights in the Bill of Rights. The Founders never intended the Constitution and Bill of Rights to define the rights of the people, to say that anything not specifically mentioned wasn’t a right. Instead, they wanted to spell out a group of basic rights they felt were threatened in their time (by the British or for whatever reason), and to guarantee those rights in writing. But they had no intention of limiting Americans’ rights to a few set out in a document, and they made that very clear in the Ninth Amendment. The exact wording is: “The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” Keep it in mind.
Amendment X. Any rights not specifically granted to the central government by the Constitution shall be retained by the respective States and/or by the people.
This one was intended to limit the power of “big government.” The battle over strong central government versus States’ Rights is as old as America. It pitted the likes of Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, and John Jay (big government guys) against James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry (States’ Righters). The debate sparked the Civil War and continues to this day. Too bad our hero and blog mentor, the great Ben Franklin, wasn’t able to contribute his words of wisdom to this issue! But, though he was around to sign the Constitution itself, he died in 1790, a year before the Bill of Rights was added.
Okay, everybody got their rights down now? Then let’s move on to some Constitutional trivia.
* At the time the Constitution was written the U.S. population was 4 million. Philadelphia, the Nation’s capital, was its largest city, with a population of 40,000.
* Constitution Day commemorates the signing of the Constitution into law on September 17, 1787.
* It took exactly 100 days to write the Constitution.
* James Madison is known as the Father of the Constitution, but it was that marvelous but overlooked Founding Father, Gouverneur Morris, who actually wrote it. Madison would be more fairly credited as the Founder who gave us the Bill of Rights, which is arguably the more important of the two documents.
* The word “democracy” never appears in the Constitution. The Founders considered themselves to be founding a Republic such as the Romans had before the Caesars and the Roman Empire.
* The Constitutional Convention, where the Constitution was developed, written, and signed, took place at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia. This was also the site where the Declaration of Independence was written and signed in 1776.
* One now-humorous issue that arose during the Constitutional Convention was how to address the President. John Adams proposed “His Highness the President of the United States of America and Protector of Their Liberties.” The outraged Congress and appalled George Washington insisted on a simple “President of the United States” instead. But political foes of the short, fat Adams referred to him from that day forward as “His Rotundity.”
Finally, in honor of this day that commemorates the cry for freedom that created America, let me quote the portion of the Declaration of Independence that explains the Founders’ vision of the purpose of government. It is as far removed from today’s massive, impersonal government, with its professional politicians and complete disregard for citizens’ input and approval, as it is possible to be.
Most of us know the phrase “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” What you may not know is that the Founders envisioned government as being established for the sole reason of establishing these three essentials for its citizens.
Today, when we look at a cancerous, massive body of indebted and thus inherently (even if unintentionally) corrupt professional politicians who serve the interests of corporations at the cost of our health, our planet, and our freedoms, folks who could not give less of a damn about anyone’s individual freedom save their own, it is virtually impossible to believe that the Founders could really have held this vision for us all. Yet they did. Let us read again the moving words through which they conveyed their vision for America the Free:
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Oh, wow. A government designed solely to ensure the life (safety), liberty, and happiness of its citizens, and otherwise to get out of people’s way? Surely that is, indeed, the American Dream.
Have a wonderful Fourth!
Warmly,
Richard
Ben Picks Ten: Films for the Fourth July 3, 2010
Posted by ourfriendben in Ben Franklin, wit and wisdom.Tags: 1776, Abigail Adams, American Revolution, Ben Franklin, Glory, Independence Day, Jimmy Buffett, John Adams, Mma Ramotswe, patriotic movies, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Long Hot Summer
3 comments
At our house, watching “Independence Day” on the Fourth of July is a family tradition. So our friend Ben decided to present my Top Ten list of great films to watch on the Fourth, in case you’re planning a little July Fourth Film Festival of your own. Maybe your family will pick a favorite and start their own tradition!
Here are my top picks:
Independence Day. The unlikely but lovable team of Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith save the world from evil aliens on the Fourth of July. Lots of good humor and camaraderie as well as epic battles. A must-see for us every July 4th.
1776. The beloved musical presents the Founding Fathers as they wrangle over the Declaration of Independence, face the prospect of war and a split from the Mother Country, and generally rub each other the wrong way. Highlights include (of course) our hero and blog mentor Benjamin Franklin and a classic role for Richard Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee.
John Adams. Okay, I’m cheating, since this is a series rather than a single movie. But if you want to really experience what it was like to live in Colonial times and post-Revolution America, don’t miss this marvelous series. Its realism is just riveting, down to the tiniest details. John Adams is an unlikely and unlikable hero, but strong appearances by Abigail Adams, George Washington, and Ben Franklin (who steals the show yet again) make this a series we want to own and watch again and again. Our friend Ben thinks every American should watch it at least once.
Glory. This stirring Civil War movie documents another revolution: the fight to free America from the abomination of slavery. It portrays the true story of the first Black U.S. battalion. This brutal but brilliant movie pulls no punches: There is no happy ending, so if this one’s your July 4th pick, consider yourself forewarned. But if you’re looking for bravery and valor, this movie would be hard if not impossible to beat.
The Long, Hot Summer. Don Johnson and Cybill Shepherd sizzle in the fantastic 1985 remake of the 1958 classic starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Based on a novel by famed author William Faulkner, this pre-air-conditioning look at Mississippi life during an unforgettable, sweltering summer will have you sweating as much as its characters. But you’ll love every steamy minute.
The Empire Strikes Back. Jedi knights strike a blow for galactic freedom as they take on the Evil Empire in my favorite of the Star Wars movies. May the Force be with you!
The Fellowship of the Ring. Humble hobbits battle the evil overlord Sauron for the freedom of their world in the first installment of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic trilogy, “The Lord of the Rings.”
Jimmy Buffett Live in Anguilla. It’s 5 o’clock somewhere! Chill out with a margarita or bottle of Land Shark Lager and enjoy the beautiful beaches of Anguilla and the antics of the colorful and wacky Parrotheads on this live concert DVD. There are two CDs for the car, too, the best recording of Jimmy Buffett’s music our friend Ben has ever heard. So kick back, wiggle your toes in the sand, pig out on cheeseburgers and Junior Mints… but watch out for those land sharks!
Avatar. This time, the movie’s about struggling for planetary freedom and environmental wholeness as Good battles Greed. The computer-generated planet is light years beyond anything created before; it really has to be seen to be believed. And like the other movies here, there’s so much going on that every viewing shows you something new. Enjoy!
Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music. The revolution of the Hippies, the late-’60s/early ’70s Peace and Love generation, vegetarianism, the Back to the Land Movement, the Flower Children, and their flowering of clothing, art, ornamentation, and above all, music, is always worth revisiting. The Summer of Love may not have coincided with the Woodstock Festival in 1969, Joni Mitchell may have composed “Woodstock,” with the immortal line “We are stardust, we are golden,” having never been there, but this 1970 documentary captured the music, and the feeling, that sparked a genuine revolution in search of a better world. Hungry for more? Try Across the Universe and Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains the Same for a real Sixties flashback.
And some very close runners up:
James Bond. When it comes to Bond, our friend Ben goes for the gold: Goldfinger, The Man with the Golden Gun, and Goldeneye. But all the James Bond movies make for entertaining summer fare, so pick your faves and settle down with a martini (shaken, not stirred).
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Mma Ramotswe is on the case in these episodes set in her beloved Botswana. Our friend Ben and Silence Dogood love Alexander McCall Smith’s novels and the subsequent film series. The action is low-key, but the temperature is hot!
Pirates of the Caribbean. Aaarrrrr! What’s summer without a good swashbuckler or two? Who could resist Cap’n Jack Sparrow, Captain Barbossa, Davy Jones, Tia Dalma and the crew? My favorite is the first of the series, The Curse of the Black Pearl, but I think Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End are almost as much fun. Grab a bucket o’grog and plenty of pirattitude and enjoy ‘em, you savvy?!
That’s it for us. What are your favorite summer movies?!
Fun food for the Fourth. July 2, 2010
Posted by ourfriendben in recipes.Tags: coleslaw, deviled eggs, egg salad, Fourth of July food, gazpacho, macaroni and cheese, picnic food, picnic recipes, potato salad, refrigerator pickles, salad recipes, squash casserole
2 comments
Silence Dogood here. The Fourth of July is coming, and that means picnics, grilling, food, and plenty of it! Do you know what you’re going to make? Potato salad, egg salad, deviled eggs, coleslaw? Maybe some pimiento cheese spread, refreshing gazpacho, or a big salad? How about a yummy summer squash casserole or crock of mac’n'cheese or a big vat of quick, crunchy hot-sweet refrigerator pickles?
Over the years we’ve been writing Poor Richard’s Almanac, I’ve posted a wealth of summertime recipes. We love them, and I think you will, too. So I’m going to do a post roundup here so you can find them. Just search the post title in our search bar at upper right. (Mind you, as I discovered, even if you type in the exact title, you may hit a few other posts before you get to the right one. But no worries—you can read the other posts and find even more great recipes, or just skip down to the one you’re looking for.)
I couldn’t decided how to organize this post—by type of food, or by post title with recipes listed for each post—so I’m going to do it both ways. That way, you can check out a post’s contents and see which ones appeal most to you, or look for a food (such as deviled eggs) and then see which posts have recipes for it. Either way, enjoy!
Let’s start with the posts themselves:
Perfect picnic fare: Silence’s Refrigerator Pickles, Caprese Salad, Quick Coleslaw, Deviled Blue Cheese Eggs
Time for potato salad: Mr. Hays’s Baked Potato Salad, Penn State’s American Flag Potato Salad, Janice Lichtenwalner Wetzel’s Favorite Potato Salad, Betty Lichtenwalner’s German Potato Salad, Mama Dip’s Southern-Style Potato Salad, Indian Potato Salad a la Silence
Silence makes coleslaw: Silence’s Green and Gold Slaw, Coleslaw with Cilantro and Scallions
Some eggcellent picnic fare: Silence’s Bedeviled Eggs, Delilah’s Egg Salad, Chard Quiche, Potato and Sugar Snap Salad, Veggies and Dips
Painless pickles, potato salad, and pimiento cheese spread: Mr. Hays’s Baked Potato Salad, Alice’s Primo Pimiento Cheese Spread, Silence’s Hot Sweet Refrigerator Pickles
Some celebratory salads: Silence’s Red, White and Blue Salad, Silence’s Simple Greek Salad, ‘Mater Madness
Super summer squash recipes: Silence’s Super Squash Casserole
The ultimate mac’n'cheese: Delilah’s Crock-Pot Macaroni and Cheese
A gazpacho rainbow: Silence’s Think Pink Gazpacho, White Gazpacho, Southwestern Yellow Gazpacho, Green Tomatillo Gazpacho, Red Garden Gazpacho, Red Bread Gazpacho with Avocado Salsa
Okay, let’s start again and list ‘em by category:
Potato salad: Time for potato salad; Painless pickles, potato salad, and pimiento cheese spread; Some eggcellent picnic fare
Deviled eggs: Perfect picnic fare; Some eggcellent picnic fare
Coleslaw: Perfect picnic fare; Silence makes coleslaw
Egg salad: Some eggcellent picnic fare
Veggies and dips: Some eggcellent picnic fare
Pimiento cheese: Painless pickles, potato salad, and pimiento cheese spread
Refrigerator pickles: Perfect picnic fare; Painless pickles, potato salad, and pimiento cheese spread
Salads (other than coleslaw and potato and egg salad): Perfect picnic fare; Some celebratory salads
Summer squash casserole: Super summer squash recipes
Macaroni and cheese: The ultimate mac’n'cheese
Gazpacho: A gazpacho rainbow
You’ll find a few recipe repeats as you look through these posts, since some recipes are so good and so appropriate I wanted to make sure they were available during picnic season. I know you’re going to love them! And please, share your Fourth of July favorites with us.
‘Til next time,
Silence
Time for potato salad. July 1, 2010
Posted by ourfriendben in recipes, Uncategorized.Tags: avoiding food poisoning, food for July 4, food safety potato salad, Indian potato salad recipe, patriotic potato salad recipe, picnic food, potato salad, potato salad recipes
4 comments
Silence Dogood here. It’s summer picnic time, and for lots of us, that means it’s time for potato salad, deviled eggs, homemade pimiento cheese spread (it’s easy and so much better than storebought), and lots of hummus for sandwiches and dipping (ditto). But today, let’s focus on that potato salad.
Potato salads generally come in two styles: cold, with a mayonnaise-based dressing, or warm to hot, typically with an oil (or bacon grease) and vinegar dressing. They’re generally made with smooth-fleshed “new” or boiling potatoes or fingerling potatoes rather than fluffy, flaky baking or mashing potatoes. The potatoes are usually boiled whole, then cooled, often peeled, and cut into chunks before combining with the other salad ingredients. These can include sliced celery, diced onion, sliced scallions (green onions), shredded carrot, and/or diced red, orange, green and/or yellow bell pepper for flavor, crunch and color; sliced or chopped hard-boiled egg for color and protein; crumbled bacon; and yellow mustard for color and bite. But rules are made to be broken, and none of these guidelines are ironclad, as we’re about to see.
But first, let’s take a minute to talk about food safety. Potato salad is notorious for causing salmonella poisoning when left out for extended periods on a hot picnic table. Gastric distress is never entertaining, but hot summer picnics can be especially prone to cause them, and July Fourth picnics are known for being both super-hot and super-long. (President Zachary Taylor died in office in 1850 of food poisoning after attending a July 4 picnic and eating a dish of cherries in milk.) Most people point to the mayonnaise and/or eggs in potato salad as the culprit, but I recently read that it’s more likely to be bacteria-laden soil clinging to the potatoes themselves when they’re prepared.
Whatever the case, use the sense God gave you and take appropriate precautions: Scrub potatoes thoroughly before you cook them, and rinse them after cooking and before chopping. Never use a cutting board to cut potatoes—or any other vegetable or other type of food, such as cheese or bread—that’s been used to cut meat. If your potato salad is to be served hot, keep it hot (see the slow-cooker recipe below); if it’s served cold, keep smaller containers on ice in your cooler and bring one out as needed, rather than setting out one huge bowl to fester in the hot sun. Much as I hate wasting food, this is one instance when I’d toss the contents of an opened container that had sat out in the heat after the picnic if it hasn’t all been eaten (not a worry if you try any of these recipes!), rather than trying to save it to eat later—another reason why bringing multiple small containers is a better idea.
Now that you’ve brushed up your food safety skills, let’s move on to the recipes themselves. Our own go-to recipe was developed by 90-year-old family patriarch and enthusiastic cook George Hays, and it’s still our favorite. Mr. Hays defies conventional wisdom and puts baking potatoes in his salad, and I can attest to how delicious it is. Try it and see for yourself!
Mr. Hays’s Baked Potato Salad
3 pounds russet potatoes
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 T chopped parsley leaves
1 t salt
1 t fresh-ground pepper
1 cup (about 1 stalk) chopped celery
4 large eggs, hard-boiled, peeled, and chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped red pepper
1 cup (1 medium) finely chopped sweet onion
1/4 cup each chopped sweet and dill pickles
3/4 cup mayonnaise (Hellman’s, or try Vegenaise grapeseed oil mayo)
Bring the potatoes and a teaspoon of salt to a boil over high heat until the potatoes are fork-tender, about 25 to 30 minutes. Drain the potatoes and gently rub off the skins, using a paper towel, while the potatoes are still warm. Chop the potatoes into 1-inch chunks and toss with the cider vinegar, parsley, salt and pepper. Stir in the celery, red bell pepper, onion and pickles. Fold in the eggs and mayonnaise. Refrigerate, covered, for at least 2 hours or overnight. (Sadly, there are never any survivors when we make this!)
Just yesterday, I found some great recipes in our local paper, the Allentown PA Morning Call, in an article by Diane Stoneback called “Add a Spark to Holiday Gatherings.” (Read the full story and check out all the recipes for yourself at www.themorningcall.com.) Diane had the brilliant idea to interview area potato farmers and ask for their favorite recipes, and she came up with some real winners. I was especially intrigued by William Lamont of Penn State’s patriotic potato salad, which is made from red-, white-, and blue-fleshed potatoes. The Lichtenwalner family has grown potatoes in the Lehigh Valley for three generations, and mother (Betty Lichtenwalner) and daughter (Janice Lichtenwalner Wetzel) have the potato salad recipes to prove it. Pick your favorite or try all three!
Penn State’s American Flag Potato Salad
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 lbs. new potatoes (red, white and blue)
1 small red onion, very thinly sliced
2 medium red bell peppers, diced small
1 bunch scallions (green onions), thinly sliced
Kosher salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste
In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar, salt and pepper, then whisk in the olive oil. Add the garlic and whisk again. Let stand for one hour for flavors to develop. Boil the potatoes with skins on until tender but slightly firm. Drain them and let cool long enough to handle. Peel and cut into 1-inch dice. Transfer them to the vinaigrette, toss and let sit until the potatoes have cooled. Add remaining ingredients and toss. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and toss again. Let sit for at least 2 hours. Serve or refrigerate.
Janice Lichtenwalner Wetzel’s potato salad uses yellow mustard instead of vinegar to give the dish some bite, as well as shredded carrot to warm up the color. My newest copy of Cook’s Country, my favorite cooking magazine, features a taste-test comparison of various brands of yellow mustard. To the surprise of the Cook’s Country crew, Annie’s Naturals Organic Yellow Mustard took the top spot, beating out six other contenders, including Gulden’s (the #2 choice) and French’s (#3). Keep this in mind next tiem you’re mustard-shopping!
Janice Lichtenwalner Wetzel’s Favorite Potato Salad
2 quarts of potatoes
1-1 1/2 stalks celery, diced
1/2-3/4 carrot, shredded
1/2-1 mild onion, diced
4 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
3/4-1 cup Miracle Whip [No! Don't do that to the poor salad! Please use Hellman's mayo instead!!!---Silence]
1-2 T yellow mustard
Fill 2-quart saucepan with new potatoes; smaller potatoes are better. Quarter or halve them for uniform size for cooking. Do not peel. Add water and boil until soft but not mushy. While warm, peel and dice potatoes. Add celery, carrot, onion, eggs, salt and pepper and stir gently. Start by adding the smaller amounts of [mayonnaise] and mustard.. Stir and taste. Add additional [mayo] and mustard to your taste. Sometimes, you’ll need more or less dressing on the potatoes because some are drier in texture and will soak up more dressing.
Janice’s mom, Betty Lichtenwalner, makes a classic hot German-style potato salad. She keeps it nice and hot for picnics by spooning it into a slow-cooker and taking it along to the picnic site, then plugging it in. If there are no electric outlets at your picnic site, Mrs. Lichtenwalner says you can chill the salad and serve it cold. But I think that would be a shame!
Betty Lichtenwalner’s German Potato Salad
2 1/2 to 3 lbs. potatoes
1 medium onion, diced
1 stalk celery and leaves, diced
8-10 slices bacon, cooked and diced, reserving drippings
chopped parsley
1/2 cup vinegar or more to taste
2 T water
1/4 cup sugar
2-3 T olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Cook small potatoes and peel while hot. Slice into a large bowl. Add diced onion and celery. Cook bacon until crisp, remove strips from drippings in frying pan. Add diced bacon and chopped parsley to potato bowl. To the bacon drippings in the pan, add vinegar, water, sugar and olive oil. Cook until the dressing is warm and sugar has dissolved. Pour over potatoes. Mix gently. Add salt and pepper if needed. Serve warm.
Moving right along, I wanted to check out recipes for Southern-style potato salad, an Indian-spiced potato salad, and a “this will knock your socks off” potato salad. Sure enough, I found a classic Southern-style recipe in Mama Dip’s Kitchen by Mildred Council (University of North Carolina Press, 1999). I’d wondered where those celery seeds had gone!
Mama Dip’s Southern-Style Potato Salad
2 1/2 lbs. new potatoes, all the same size, washed but unpeeled
1 t salt
1 t celery seed or 1/2 cup chopped celery
3 hard-boiled eggs, grated
1 cup sweet pickle relish
1 medium (4-oz.) jar pimientos, chopped
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 t prepared mustard
1/4 cup chopped spring onion (scallion), optional
Put the potatoes in a pot with enough water to cover them and cook until tender, about 35 minutes or less, according to size. Drain off the hot water and pour in cold water to cool the potatoes. When they are cool enough to handle, peel and dice the potatoes and place them in a large bowl. Add all the other ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Let’s take a peek at that knock-your-socks-off potato salad. I just knew Chef Bryant Terry, author of Vegan Soul Cooking (Da Capo Press, 2009), wouldn’t let me down. I can’t share the recipe because the publishers forbid any type of content reproduction (sigh), but I can tell you what Chef Bryant does: He roasts chunked red-skinned new potatoes (after tossing them with extra-virgin olive oil) and diced red bell peppers, then combines them with a pesto made from parsley, roasted pine nuts, garlic, white or yellow miso, lemon juice, olive oil, and sea salt, adds sea salt and fresh-ground white pepper to taste, and serves his Roasted Red Potato Salad with Parsley-Pine Nut Pesto at room temperature. Check out Vegan Soul Kitchen at your bookstore or library; the recipe is on pages 66-67.
Another gourmet version, from cookbook author Rick Rodgers, appears on page 84 of the July 2010 issue of Bon Appetit. This version, Potato Salad with Pancetta, Rosemary, and Lemon, uses Yukon Gold potatoes, finely grated lemon peel and juice instead of vinegar, olive oil, garlic, finely sliced celery, fresh minced rosemary, and salt and pepper, topping the salad just before serving with chopped baked pancetta (Italian bacon) and chopped fresh parsley. Head over to the Bon Appetit website (www.bonappetit.com) and search for “potato salad slideshow” to find plenty of other intriguing variations.
But what about that Indian-spiced potato salad I was hoping for? If you Google “Indian potato salad,” you’ll find plenty of intriguing recipes. But I wanted a potato salad without mayonnaise—not something I think of as Indian!—or tomatoes, and that was served warm or hot. Maybe more like the filling of a potato-and-pea samosa with a warm yogurt sauce that just coated the potatoes. Then there was the crunch issue. I still crave crunch in my potato salad. One recipe approached this issue very innovatively, by adding cashews to the potatoes. I’m sort of fascinated by this, since I think the flavor of roasted, salted cashews would really complement the potatoes. Hmmm… However, for a first try, this is what I’m going to do:
Indian Potato Salad a la Silence
14-20 baby Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed, skins on
1 large sweet onion (Vidalia, WallaWalla, or 1015 type), diced
2 garlic cloves, smashed, peeled, and minced
1 small green chile (chilli), such as a Thai chile, seeded and minced
4 fresh curry leaves, chopped
handful (about 1/4 cup) golden raisins
1 cup plain yogurt
1 T black mustardseeds
1 T whole cumin seeds
1 t turmeric
1 t chaat or garam masala, or more to taste
extra-virgin olive oil or ghee (clarified butter)
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped (about 1 cup)
salt (we like RealSalt or Trocomare) to taste
Chipotle chile powder and/or fresh-ground black pepper to taste
Boil the potatoes in a heavy pot or Dutch oven until tender, drain, and quarter (if small) or cut into 1-inch chunks. Return to the pot (off the heat) and cover. Add mustardseeds, cumin, garlic, chile, turmeric, curry leaves, and chaat or garam masala to hot oil or ghee in a pan. When mustardseeds pop, add onion. Reduce heat to a simmer and add raisins and enough of the yogurt to cover all ingredients thoroughly—at least 2/3 cup. Allow sauce to thicken, stirring, adding more yogurt as necessary. When sauce is thick, add the potatoes, salt, and chipotle chili powder and/or pepper, stirring gently to blend. The potatoes should be thickly coated but not dripping sauce. Remove from heat, stir in cilantro, and serve hot or warm with a side of thick-sliced ripe heirloom tomatoes that have been topped with salt, pepper, and a spoonful of chopped cilantro.
Okay, that’s enough about potato salad from me. What’s your favorite potato salad recipe?
‘Til next time,
Silence
