The Battle Belongs to the Lord

The odds were stacked against a good garden this year between my surgeries and the cool weather. But all in all, it was a great garden year. We had unusually warm weather in September which allowed the tomatoes and peppers to finish strong. We had strawberries up to the bitter end. Yesterday, with a large snow storm looming in the forecast, I pulled in the remainder of the carrots, potatoes, and apples. With four trees, the dining room floor is covered with boxes and baskets of apples. Next week the canning will begin.

What I love about having a garden is all the fresh produce. Last night we had “bangers and mash” (sausages & mashed potatoes). I speared a bunch of potatoes when digging them out so Emma suggested we make mashed potatoes with them. We also finished up the last broccoli and cauliflower. Tonight we had Chiles Rellenos with fresh salsa and apple cobbler. I am thankful to God for the privilege of being able to grow and enjoy food from our backyard. Tonight it is snowing. Such is the weather in Montana. The growing season is over. God is good.

I fell in love with Indian cuisine when I lived in California. There are Indian restaurants on nearly every corner and they are all good. I don’t know of any other cuisine that rivals the depth and complexity of flavor of Indian food. Then we moved to Montana. Montana has a lot to offer in the gastronomic department, but Indian cuisine is not one of them. So, whenever we travel, we seek out Indian restaurants. When in Tacoma, we get our “fix” at Gateway to India.

Tonight, we found the Tandoori Grill in Boulder, CO and were not disappointed. I am now full of pappad, saag paneer, naan, mango lassi, and basmati rice. My tastebuds are still dancing for joy just remembering it. The food was excellent and the service was great. One pleasant surprise was that the kids’ menu did not have any of the usual suspects (hamburger, chicken fingers, fries, grilled cheese). Instead, all the kids’ options were Indian: tandoori chicken, meatballs masala, chicken briyani, etc. My daughter loved the meatballs masala and ate as much naan as the grown ups. It was a wonderful end to a wonderful day.

Everybody loves Toll House Cookies (a.k.a. chocolate chip cookies), especially still warm from the oven with the chocolate chips still liquid. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it. But where in the world did the name Toll House Cookies come from? According to my 1956-vintage Betty Crocker cookbook the “Toll House” cookie recipe was developed at “Kenneth and Ruth Wakefield’s charming New England Toll House on the outskirts of Whitman, Massachusetts.” It also goes on to say that the recipe was made public in 1939 on a radio show called “Famous Foods From Famous Eating Places.”

As I continue to dig through the recipes I’ve accumulated over the years I discovered another treasure, a Nestlé chocolate bar wrapper with the new Toll House Cookie recipe. Apparently chocolate chips are a relatively new invention. This bar, two of them actually, would be broken into pieces and used in the cookies. The instructions indicate that the bar was scored to make this easier. This wrapper presumably dates to around 1939 or 1940. Nevertheless, the wrapper is yellow, just like a bag of Nestlé’s chocolate chips is today. To me this is a fascinating piece of americana.

I notice four differences between this recipe and the modern one. First, the older recipe has you dissolve the baking soda in 1 tsp. of hot water before adding it. Second, the recipe calls for 14 oz. of chocolate pieces while the modern recipe calls for 12 oz. of chocolate chips. (I can’t believe I’ve been shortchanged on chocolate all these years.) Third, the cooking time is 2 minutes longer in the older recipe. Finally, the older recipe makes 100 cookies. I’m lucky to get 4 dozen out of mine. Apparently cookies have grown in size over the years.

Here is the reverse side of the wrapper with some more chocolate recipes.

How did people ever survive before Toll House Cookies?

Update:I found the following links that give more details on the history of Toll House Cookies. It looks like chocolate chips were invented around 1939 so the wrapper could date from earlier than that.

• Nestlé’s version of the history
• Inventor of the Week archive from MIT

I got a bee in my bonnet last week and started cleaning out my bedroom walk-in closet. Tonight while watching TV (I know, I know it’s supposed to be screen-free week), I started going through a box of recipes that I had collected over the years. And recipes my grandmother and others had collected over the years that got handed down to me. There are some interesting things found among the recipes for Macaroni Fig Pudding and Salmon Loaf.

Part of a 1941 Chevrolet ad touting “Thrilling new bigness in all major dimensions.”

A “Hint from Heloise” touting the virtues of 1/2 cup kerosene and 1 quart warm water as a streak-free cleaner for windows. Heloise warns, “the kerosene will float on top of the water, so be careful about smoking.”

Finally, the most fascinating find so far was this letter from 1942. I do not know who Mr. McFall is. Scrawled on the back is a recipe for crullers, which you can see bleeding through on the scan.

We live in an era where for the most part we can get what we want when we want it. Strawberries in January? No problem, just head on down to the nearest grocery store. The latest electronic gadget? Just a mouse-click away. Heading on a road trip? Gas stations abound. It is good to be reminded that things were not always so. It is good to be reminded not to take for granted the abundance and the choices available to us. And it is very good that Macaroni Fig Pudding never caught on as a popular dish.

Most of the food I buy comes from grocery stores, grown anonymously somewhere “out there.” Tonight, however, we will dine on steaks raised less than 25 miles from here, bought from the rancher who raised it. OK, the steaks weren’t exactly raised. The cattle were raised nearby and they were turned into steaks after the fact. Half Circle Ranch, north of Bozeman, raises Piedmontese cattle which are naturally lean and have less cholesterol than chicken. My parents who are visiting wanted to get some to take home. I called up the ranch to find out how I might get some and the rancher, Harry Armstrong, returned my call and told me he would be at the Winter Farmers’ Market today. Now that’s service. I now have a freezer full of tasty beef. There is a certain satisfaction that comes from knowing where your food has come from.

Our church has a wonderful ministry of providing meals for people in the congregation who are laid up from having a baby, illness, or surgery. Normally I am the one bringing meals to someone else. Following my mastectomy, we were blessed by 9 meals from 9 of the best cooks in our church. This gave me a chance to pick up a few pointers for future.

Here is what I learned:

1. It is OK, even appreciated, to call ahead to confirm delivery and double check preferences. (I’ve always felt awkward doing this.)
2. “Some assembly required” is not a problem. Boiling pasta, reheating, or assembling a salad is easy for anyone to do and makes the meal fresher when served.
3. Going the extra mile. We received homemade jams, home-canned peaches, flowers (no, we didn’t try to eat them), and desserts. Those extra touches made the meals more special.
4. There’s always more than enough food. Leftovers were good for lunches or additional meals later.
5. Label any dishes you want returned. It can be hard to keep track of whose is what after the third or fourth meal.
6. Salads rule. Most everyone brought a salad, yet each was different so we never tired of them.
7. And last, but not least, there are no bad cooks in the meals ministry.