May 3, 2009

From the first wife who watched as her husband grabbed a musket in 1776 to the one who waits for her husband to return from Iraq or Afghanistan, military wives have shared the same worries, concerns, challenges and camaraderie.

Carolyn Quick Tillery, herself a military wife, has written “The Military Wives’ Cookbook,” a collection of recipes from generations of military wives with stories and historical photographs.

In the book, Tillery profiles some of the country’s earliest military wives, beginning with Anne Warner, wife of Capt. Elija Bailey, who served during the American Revolution; Mary McCauley (aka Molly Pitcher) who served with her husband John Hayes in the Pennsylvania Artillery for seven years during the Revolution; and Lucy Brewer, the first woman Marine who served during the War of 1812.

Tillery begins with a recipe for red raspberry tea similar to the one served on Oct. 25, 1774, in Edenton, N.C. at the Edenton Tea Party, one of the first political protests by American women.

While the recipes come from all regions of the country, there are plenty of Southern favorites such as fried chicken, fried catfish, buttermilk biscuits, red velvet cake and plenty of others.

The book is an interesting look at the women who have supported, and continue to support, those who serve our country. You can order a copy by clicking below.

Old Fashioned Banana Pudding

From the Military Wives Cookbook

2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
2 cups half and half
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 (12-oz) box vanilla wafers
2 cups sliced ripe bananas

Meringue Topping (recipe follows)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the top of a double boiler combine the sugar, flour and salt over boiling water. Add the half and half and stir for 10 minutes or until the mixture thickens; remove from the heat. Stirring constantly, pour half of the hot cream into the egg yolks. Return the egg yolks to the rest of the cream mixture and cook over the simmering water until thickened. Remove from the heat; stir in the butter and vanilla. Cool slightly. While the mixture is cooling, place a layer of vanilla wafers on the bottom of a casserole dish. Alternate wafers with layers of banana slices and cooled pudding mixture, ending with the pudding on top. Make the meringue topping. Spread over the pudding top and bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden.

Meringue Topping

2 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar

Directions

In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip the egg whites with the cream of tartar until the hold a peak without being dry. By hand, beat in the vanilla extract and sugar.

May 1, 2009

In honor of the Kentucky Derby, which posts at 6 pm tomorrow, a few words about mint (and other) juleps.

There is no alcoholic drink more readily identified with the moonlight-and-magnolias image of the Old South than the mint julep.

The julep has its roots in the English practice of infusing alcohol with fruit, fruit juices, cucumbers or other cooling ingredients in the summertime.

Although there are many recipes for this drink, in its purest  (and earliest) form, it consists of sugar, bourbon, mint leaves and ice. This passage from William Alexander Percy’s Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter’s Son (1941) is the only recipe you’ll ever need to make a good mint julep:

“Certainly her juleps had nothing in common with those hybrid concoctions one buys in bars the world over under that name. It would have been sacrilege to add lemon, or a slice of orange or of pineapple, or one of those wretched maraschino cherries.
First, you needed excellent bourbon whiskey; rye or scotch would not do at all. Then you put half an inch of sugar in the bottom of the glass and merely dampened it with water.

Next, very quickly––and here was the trick in the procedure––you crushed your ice, actually powdered it, preferably in a towel with a wooden mallet, so quickly that it remained dry, and, slipping two sprigs of fresh mint against the inside of the glass, you crammed the ice in right to the brim, packing it with your hand.

Last you filled the glass, which apparently had no room left for anything else, with bourbon, the older the better, and grated a bit of nutmeg on the top. The glass immediately frosted and you settled back in your chair for half an hour of sedate cumulative bliss. Although you stirred the sugar at the bottom, it never all melted, therefore at the end of the half hour there was left a delicious mess of ice and mint and whiskey which a small boy was allowed to consume with calm rapture.”

‘Nuff said.

Corinthian Julep

“Mrs. Harris says, ‘Give her a Corinthian julep if she wants one and by the time I get in the house she won’t know whether I’m wearing a sunbonnet or a crown.’”

Thus wrote ten-year-old Virginia Cary Hudson in O Ye Jigs & Juleps (1900) about this potent Southern libation. The drink draws its name from Paul’s letter to the provincial churches in First Corinthians, Chapter13.
The drink is made in the same manner as a regular mint julep, but with three jiggers of bourbon, one each for Faith, Hope, and Charity.

Yield: 1 serving

• 4 sprigs fresh mint leaves
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 3 jiggers (about 1/2 cup) bourbon whiskey

In a silver julep cup or a 12-ounce Collins glass, crush mint leaves and sugar with a spoon. Fill with cracked ice and whiskey. Stir, without touching the outside of the cup, until the outside frosts. Garnish with mint sprig and serve with a short straw.