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Robinson has Jump Teams (riders at the barn get together in the winter and have a competition) food duty this Saturday. The constraints are a single dish that can be kept warm in a Crockpot. The dish doesn’t have to be a dish cooked in the Crockpot, but that’s the only way we have to keep food warm in the barn. Also, the Crockpot works well to keep the food free of dust.

No chili. Everyone is tired of chili.

Post-up your suggestion in the comments.

thanks

Mike Ladd pointed me to an article on fried chicken. To know me is to know I love me some fried chicken.

The chicken gets two long soaks, Alabama-style, first in brine and then in buttermilk. The saltwater brine helps the flesh retain moisture and season it all the way through; the buttermilk adds a tangy flavor and helps tenderize it. The Virginia-style frying fat combines lard and sweet butter, flavored with a slice of country ham, making the chicken extra crisp and rich-tasting. The cornstarch in the dredge adds to the crispness as well.

Enjoy.

I stumbled across Alfred Lunt’s recipe for Cardamom Bread on NPR.org while I was looking for that cookbook from Friday’s post. When I saw it I thought, ‘FABULOUS! Now I can use up some of that unreasonable supply of cardamom that I have.’ I wonder how much 18 seeds of ground cardamom seeds is… 1/4 teaspoon? 1/2 teaspoon?

Dean Schmitz’s version of Alfred Lunt’s cardamom bread. Ten Chimneys Foundation

I’m definitely waiting until some brisk, October day to do it though. And I’m definitely skipping that coffee recipe.

I came across this article this morning.

“I see an increase to the desire to learn about canning as we are moving to home-grown local food,” she says. The proof: The number of folks signed on to MSU’s food preservation correspondence course on canning is more than twice that of last year.

I googled the course and it’s extremely reasonable at $30 for a 7 week course that covers pretty much every aspect of food preservation including canning, freezing, and drying. Washington State University offers a Master Food Preserver program. How cool would that be on a business card?

Scott left for Medford today. I’m keeping myself busy putting food by. I’m doing salsa tonight. While I was out buying some supplies I came across Mrs. Wage’s Citric Acid which is a pleasant discovery since I much prefer the flavor of lime juice in my salsa to vinegar. I wasn’t sure if lime juice would be quite acidic enough for safe canning so I’ll drop in a 1/2 teaspoon per pint of Mrs. Wage’s just to be sure.

I also splurged on a lovely half-bushel of locally grown peaches at Dill’s Best Market.