TEENY MCMUNN: MY RECIPE BOX

Times advertising manager and food columnist Teeny McMunn presents our readers with a special “Recipe Box” this week, featuring five scrumptious courses guaranteed to satisfy the hardest-working harvest crew members out there. Pull up an empty cooler, grab a plastic knife and fork and get ready to gorge on some great chow.

No Recipe-Recipe

When I called my friend, Joan Smith McMunn, I asked her if she had any harvest recipes. Her reply was as follows:

Well, as I remember the long, hot, harvest season we used to have, we did the noon meal for our harvest crew---which consisted of, meat, potatoes and gravy of course, and often corn on the cob, plus usually a fruit, such as my mom’s wonderful frozen applesauce, or watermelon, and homemade biscuits or rolls, plus a dessert, like homemade apple or cherry pie, or a custard, chocolate or banana cream pie with real whip cream----yummy!!

We would always have plenty of lemonade or a mixture of lemonade and Kool-Aid, too. The harvest crew would eat their meal and then rest a bit out on the cool grass before going back out to the field for the afternoon. They would replenish their water cooled gunny sack water bags with a fresh supply of our spring water!

I have many warm, happy memories of our family time together, while doing our various chores and responsibilities helping Mom, and others during the harvest. I also remember loving to play in the wheat trucks full of freshly cut wheat at the end of the day, which was so warm on our bare feet!! Great memories!!

She added, “Also whatever berries we had at that time, fresh strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, which we picked daily!”

This made a lot of sense to me. Recipes weren’t only for harvest time, as I was looking for “harvest recipes”, but whatever was made, there was a lot of it.

Joe’s Western Lentil Casserole

For feeding the harvest crew

[doubles nicely]

Ingredients:

4-6 cups cooked lentils (1 cup dry lentils = 3+ cups cooked)

1 lb. ground beef (or other ground meat)

1 large onion, chopped (WW Sweets preferred) – or onion soup mix

¼ cup cooking oil

1 – 14 oz. can diced tomatoes (petite diced is better)

1 cup ketchup (may substitute BBQ sauce for some of the ketchup)

1 cup beef broth (or bouillon cubes & water)

1 teaspoon prepared mustard (Coleman’s dry mustard)

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon vinegar (vinegar brings out the flavor of lentils)

Preparation:

In a large pot, over medium heat, sauté chopped onion in oil until translucent.

Add ground beef and continue cooking until browned.

Add diced tomatoes, ketchup, beef broth, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and vinegar. Simmer to blend flavors while cooking lentils.

Simmer lentils in 4 quarts water until cooked medium (20+ min.).

(1 cup dry lentils = 3+ cups cooked.) No pre-soak needed.

Drain and stir cooked lentils into beef mixture.

Bake 30 minutes in preheated oven at 375 degrees F.

Feeds 8-10 hungry folks – a protein-rich dish.

A package of beef-flavored onion soup mix can be substituted for the onion and beef broth.

This is a very flexible recipe. Enjoy.

Easy Peach Cobbler

I don’t know for a fact that this was made for the harvest crew. This is my full disclosure. BUT IT COULD HAVE BEEN.

Since peaches are in season and the topping is quick and easy. And truth be told, I was going to put it in My Recipe Box column last week but ran out of room.

Topping—

1 c. flour, 1 c. sugar, 1 egg. Mix flour and sugar together first, beat egg, then add. The topping will be crumbly.

Skin about 15 peaches, give or take, and cut into a 9 x 13 pan. If you have not skinned peaches before, get a large pan of water hot on the stove. Put the peaches into the hot water for about 30 seconds, take out with a slotted spoon and put into a bowl of cold water. The skin should come off easily. If not, leave in the hot water a little longer.

I have found that if I add 2 or 3 TBSP of tapioca with the peaches, it helps to absorb the liquid.

Fill pan with peaches. Add the topping, covering the peaches. Melt a stick of butter and pour over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. It will start turning brown towards the end and be very bubbly.

Peaches are one of my favorite fruits. I love this recipe because there is no added sugar to the peaches. The topping gives them a little extra sweetness, without a lot of crust as a pie would.

Enjoy----add ice cream or whipped topping if desired.

Overnight Buns

This is a great recipe for those who still cook for a harvest crew as it is made the day before, refrigerated overnight, then baked the next day. It resembles those packaged rolls called “Hawaiian rolls” in that these are slightly sweet. This is a true story—one time I made a batch when I knew my son was coming along with a few of my friends to be with me for a surgery. When he left, he left about six in the pan and took the rest.

1 pkg yeast

¼ c. warm water

1 tsp sugar

Dissolve yeast into warm water and sugar. Let stand for 15 min (or so) I use a whisk and work quickly to dissolve the yeast while the water is warm. How warm you may ask? When it feels very warm on my wrist, but not hot.

2 ¼ c. warm water ½ c. oil

3 eggs well beaten 2 tsp salt

1 c. sugar 7-8 c. flour

Mix warm water, eggs, sugar, oil and salt. Add yeast mixture from above, then add flour a cup at a time. Put dough onto a bread board and knead until smooth, then put into a large greased bowl. Let rise three times, about an 1 ½ hour each, then make into small rolls. Put onto greased baking sheet (with edges). Refrigerate overnight. Recipe makes 50—or so it says. I’ve never been able to get 50 made, more like 35. The next day, take out of refrigerator when ready. I let them warm up some. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 min. (that may work if one makes very small rolls, but I add another 5 minutes or so to make sure they are done since mine are larger)

This is optional, but I always smear some butter on the tops after I get them out of the oven. It helps to keep the tops from being dry. I do this to all my baked breads.

My notes: It seems eight cups of flour isn’t enough, so I add more to keep the dough from being sticky. This can also be done when you add flour on the bread board. Even if the dough is sticky, the rolls will come out great. If you have not made rolls before, put a dab of Crisco into the palm of your hands, take a small amount of dough (I use scissors and cut the dough into many small pieces), and tuck all loose edges into the center. Place onto greased pan.

Enjoy—one of the many pleasures in life is smelling fresh bread baking.

Buffalo Chip Cookies

This recipe came from my cousin whom I grew up with. It seems she told me they would make it for the harvest crew because it made so many, but I am thinking, since we came from eastern Montana, it may have been for round up. Since harvest time is usually a warm time of year, baking these ahead of time on a cool day and freezing them might be a good idea. She copied the recipe without a lot of direction, like I do, figuring most recipes follow a pattern, but I will fill in anyway.

1 c. shortening

1 c. margarine (butter)

2 c. sugar

2 c. brown sugar

Cream shortening, butter, and sugars together. Add four eggs and 2 tsp vanilla. Mix the following dry ingredients together.

4 c. flour 2 c. crushed corn flakes

2 tsp baking powder 1 c. nuts

2 tsp baking soda 1 c. coconut

2 c. oatmeal 1 pkg chocolate chips

Drop onto an ungreased pan. Bake @350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

My notes: I have not made these yet. When I make cookies, I have to pay attention to the bake time as my oven is a few degrees off. I find baking with a combination of shortening and butter makes a better cookie.

Enjoy-----my problem would be a lot of the dough wouldn’t make it to the cookie sheet.