"Friendsgiving" 2017

On Saturday, Nov. 18 I ventured to a program that used to be a regular on my yearly schedule. The CSS Neuse Civil War Days program had not occurred in 5 years, but was brought back this year! I was excited to hear that the event had been brought back to the site that used to house the remains of the CSS Neuse ironclad. This year I was asked to cook lunch for the staff and volunteers, and of course I said yes!

The menu was ample in order to feed 50 people- selections included Chicken & Rice, Carrots Stewed in Cream, Macaroni & Cheese, Sweet Potato pudding, pound cake and Queen Cake.

The Carolina Housewife, Sarah Rutledge, 1851

The day started with a 10-gallon pot full of water, salt, and five whole chickens- and a lot of friends! My favorite cook (and friend) joined me for the day,-we cooked and laughed, and sieved sweet potatoes, and laughed, and peeled carrots, and laughed, and burnt noodles, and laughed some more- something we had not done in a while.

A busy table- chickens cooling before getting de-boned. 

In a surprising turn of events, we actually had lunch ready on time! Which almost never happens, I guess I was very focused this year. We laid the table with food and called for lunch to be served- this is may favorite part of the day.

Serving table Left to Right - Cake, sweet potato pudding, stewed carrots, macaroni & cheese, chicken & rice in large pot over the fire. 

Enjoying some great food with friends! 

Two cooks enjoying their bounty.

After a filling lunch of food and friendship, and a brief rest from the morning's rush, we decided to make pie! With the leftover sweet potatoes we added eggs and spices (ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg) to create a wonderful pie filling, that will probably never be replicated.

Working sweet potato magic!

We placed two pies in two different ovens and waited.

Pie ready to bake in the oven. 

. Learning to control your oven heat and monitor your food while it is cooking is  a skill that is learned- and something that cannot really be taught. We had two different sized pies in two different sized oven- in two different types of pie plates (one tin, one stoneware). It was monitoring game on these pies, the smaller one in the tin pan was done in about 20 minutes, the larger one took about 10 minutes more.

Beautiful Pie! 

We did have a TON of food left over, mostly chicken and rice- there were 9 plastic containers sent home with people full of leftovers. 

It was an incredible one-day event, which I feel like I am still recovering from (in good ways). I can't wait to do it again! 

Heritage Festival Demonstration

This past weekend I had the pleasure of cooking for the Cape Fear Botanical Garden's Heritage Festival. It was a fabulous weekend, the first real cool weather we had in NC, which made the fire that more comforting. There were many different demonstrations and activities- butter churning, tobacco tying, candle making, the general store was open & more!
Saturday's menu was simple- Chicken noodle soup. The chicken noodle soup is a easy recipe you can find here- its a go to for an easy meal!

The morning started well, after fighting to get the fire started on a very damp morning. I did have a few volunteers from the site helping as well. We started by getting the chickens in the pot and chopping vegetables. The recipe does not call for carrots- but I like them in my soup, and they add some color! 

Everyone is amazed when I start making noodles on site during demos. It is something that everyone enjoys watching- they are SO easy! Mix, roll, cut, dry. And only 4 ingredients! 

After removing the chicken and taking it off the bone- add chicken and noodles to the pot-and I had a BIG pot! 

The soup turned out great! 

Sunday was even cooler than Saturday- which made me the popular demo for the day.I had hot apple cider ready all day! On the menu with cider- fried sweet potatoes!  

Cider & boiling sweet potatoes

Directions for Cookery and its Various Branches, Eliza Leslie, 1844

These fried sweet potatoes were a hit! It is always a good idea to cook what is in season- and right now sweet potatoes are coming out of the NC fields by the truck-load. For more on sweet potatoes- click here.  I was all by myself on Sunday- so the simple menu really helped, but also reminded me of all of the hard work that is done with cooking. 

I did manage to snap one photo of myself! 

Look for a wrap-up of my Bentonville Fall Festival in a few weeks! 

Sweet Potatoes

The Sweet Potato. . My dear home of NC has been ranked first in sweet potato production since 1971, so it should be no surprise that I have an abundance of these near me. The sweet potato was found across the south during the war years. Many diaries of Civil War soldiers reference eating sweet potatoes and receiving them as rations.  There was even a reference to sweet potatoes in the popular song Marching Through Georgia.  

Period cook books are peppered with sweet potato recipes, giving you an idea of the variety this root vegetable has to offer. Today, we may think of the sweet potato being reserved for a sweet Thanksgiving side dish, but in the 19th century, it was used more often.

Here are a few recipes to get you to use this years crop!

The Virginia Housewife, Mary Randolph, 1838

Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches, Eliza Leslie, 1844

The Practical Cookbook, Ms. Bliss, 1850

Sweet Potato Buns

This recipe comes from the ever faithful- The Virginia Housewife, 1838. This was THE book to have in the kitchen in the 19th Century.   In light of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, I thought this would be a festive recipe to try. It sounded easy enough & tasty!

I cut & peeled one sweet potato, and boiled it until tender. Drained & mashed with a fork. I added some pumpkin pie spice & a nice portion of sugar- it says to taste  right? I added the flour, and added more flour, and it looked like a bread dough. I had proofed a package of dry yeast & added some (about a tablespoon or so).  And set it in the bowl to rise.  About 20 minutes later, it looked the same.  So I added a little more yeast. About 30 minutes later, the dough looked the same..... hmmmmm, curious.

Dough ready to rise

Oh, well I put it on the baking sheet & into a 350 degree oven. The dough was a little sticky, and not really like bread dough, and maybe that should have been my warning.  In the oven they went for about 20 minutes.  They looked done. So I served them hot with butter as suggested. And well, not so good. Yes, recipe failures are normal.  I am not sure if I should call this one a failure or not. The taste was not that bad, but the consistency of the "bun" was a little gooey.

"Buns" out of the oven

So this led me to think about the taste differences between us and our 19th Century ancestors. Today we think of a bun as something light & fluffy.  I have previously made pumpkin bread that had about the same gooey heavy texture as these buns. So, maybe they were not a failure?

A Fall Feast

This past Saturday I enjoyed a lovely fall day with some great friends at Bentonville Battlefield.   I spent most of the day in the kitchen, but oh how rewarding it was! The meal of the day was chicken, green beans & sweet potatoes. We also had fresh bread that  I had prepared earlier in the week.  While  I did not use recipes out of books for this meal, I did use my knowledge of period cookery, and what I had on hand.

The Chicken. 

Chicken all seasoned & ready to cook

Cooked chicken, sliced for eating

Since the program was about life on the homefront, I decided to not got with a fancy meal, but instead focus on what we had on hand. I took a whole hen, rubbed with some salt & a bit of butter and popped her in the pot, then surrounded it with small potatoes, a sliced onion and some fresh basil. The pot is filled about 2/3's up with water, then lidded and placed on the fire.  (Note: I put the chicken in breast down, to ensure it cooked all the way.) The chicken cooked for about 3 hours. Then was flipped over and cooked for about 20 more minutes. To ensure that the chicken is cooked all the way, cut into the breast near the bone, there should be no pink in the meat.

The Green Beans

Green beans have not changed in 150 years. Well, I don't think so anyway. The beans were fresh, and I snapped off the ends, and snapped the longer beans in pieces to make them smaller. They were placed in a pot of water with some salt and a piece of butter. They were the last thing I put on the fire as they did not take as long to cook.

The Sweet Potatoes 

The pots filled & cooking strong! 

Again, something that would have been on hand. The sweet potatoes are coming out of the fields in abundance, so I cooked up a few. Again, no recipe. I took 5 large potatoes, rubbed them with butter and placed them in a dutch oven to bake for about 2 hours.  They took so long because I had to keep opening the lid to show spectators that there was really food in the pots. 

A full plate

After lunch was done, we all enjoyed a great helping! The chicken was almost bones when everyone was done picking at it. The food was so good!   

It was a great day! Full of fun. I forgot how tiring it was to be bent over a fireplace all day scraping coals & getting temperatures just right.