In small towns of Minnesota, the noon meal is called Dinner. The evening meal is Supper. The meals between breakfast and dinner and dinner and supper are called "a little lunch". I grew up with the tradition of Sunday Dinner after church around noon or 1:00 p.m. Well, I'd love to revive that tradition at my own house and these days since we're staying home more it may just get done. It was a shame not to share this meal with others. Everything we ate was either from our backyard or at least from Minnesota, with the exception of the mayonnaise and an apple--you'll see why we needed those below...
We made a whole chicken (from a farm just outside of town) in the crockpot, on low for four and a half hours. George rubbed it with salt and pepper and a little bit of sage from the garden. He put a halved onion in the crock, too. The chicken made its own juices which was delicious as a light gravy over the potatoes and meat.
We ate the first of our potato harvest. Yesterday I went to dump out a pot in which I'd stuck a few leftover potato sprouts last spring when I was planting. The greens were yellow and dry and I figured the pot was a loss. But I found little baby new potatoes in there and of course we had to cook 'em! We just stuck them into the crockpot for the last hour of the chicken cooking.
I have been reading the book Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression. It is an excellent book, fun to read. She talks so much about the feast of foods they ate even during the Depression. Mostly raised on their family farm, of course. Nothing was wasted and they were extremely creative.
This reminded me of the salad we used to eat at my Grandma's, in the summer when the lettuce in Grandpa's garden was bitter. Just take some mayonnaise (or Miracle Whip as Grandma and Mom used) and sweeten it with sugar; even Miracle Whip got sweetened some more. I used about 3 tablespoons mayo to 1 tablespoon or more sugar, to taste. That's the dressing. The rest is just garden lettuce and apples. I thought of this as a way to use up the bitter last bits of lettuce about to bolt in the garden. It was delicious and just as I remembered from childhood!
This reminded me of the salad we used to eat at my Grandma's, in the summer when the lettuce in Grandpa's garden was bitter. Just take some mayonnaise (or Miracle Whip as Grandma and Mom used) and sweeten it with sugar; even Miracle Whip got sweetened some more. I used about 3 tablespoons mayo to 1 tablespoon or more sugar, to taste. That's the dressing. The rest is just garden lettuce and apples. I thought of this as a way to use up the bitter last bits of lettuce about to bolt in the garden. It was delicious and just as I remembered from childhood!
Dessert was Gooseberry Fool, which is just gooseberry puree with sugar and whipped cream. I got the recipe here but used the now-ripe gooseberries from the front yard. It's a typical English dessert and being both an anglo-phile and of English ancestry I decided I must try it, now that I have a gooseberry bush. It was interesting. Okay tasting. A totally new taste, in fact. It's hard to describe the taste of gooseberries. They are somewhat sour like rhubarb but also slightly perfume-y and exotic like something in a Greek dish. We still have some puree left over and we think it will make delicious martinis which we will share with the neighbors soon.
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