SPELLING BEE

Food is the word of the day

“A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe.” -Thomas Keller If we had total choice, would we have picked this area of the world to live in? Let's narrow it down to the Midwest area of the United States. We sure do get almost all kinds of weather and a sample of all the seasons from around the world. Thanks to the winter season, the bad bugs that eat wood and some of those large animals that think humans are yummy, cancel their vacations in Minnesota. Daughter Nissa will be sending me an article, from a major east coast paper, that tells the story of how us Midwest people get the humidity in the air raised by “corn sweat”. Let me know if you need to know more about this fact in the future. I say that as I look around me and see corn fields almost everywhere. Local global warming? Green style?

August has been racing by with humidity and hot weather. I realized that I have so many summer things I wanted to share but within a few weeks, it's going to be fall time! Let's stay with summer for a bit longer. It appears that a lot of people think “PIE” year around. I made the statement that I think of it as a spring, fall, and winter treat. Oh my, I must be alone on that belief. I will try to make up to pie people and name some of the pies that are very summer pies. Coconut macaroon, cherry chocolate ice cream, cool and creamy watermelon pie, grasshopper, golden peach, frozen Hawaiian, caramel nut crunch, key lime cream, banana fudge, coconut pistachio, creamy pineapple strawberry, cherry cream cheese, blueberry crunch, and tropical coconut pie to name a few. I found that a lot of these are nonbake so no need to even go near the oven. Right now key lime is heading my list of “what to make first”. You decide what is on your list.

May I also introduce another subject that is open to debate? To Chill or Not to Chill Condiments. The article in Food Network Magazine, June 2017, says the camp on this is split in half, so let's see what us Midwesterners (with our corn sweat) think. To start with, perhaps a lot of us will have a lot more refrigerator room if we only refrigerate our MAYONNAISE and MAPLE SYRUP. They say we have 2 to 3 months to use up our mayo and the syrup will last up to a year in the refrigerator.

KETCHUP is naturally acidic so it is shelfstable for up to a month. MUSTARD also contains acid and can do well for about 2 months on the shelf. WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE has vinegar as a main preservative. It can hang out on your shelf for 3 to 4 years! HOT SAUCE that is commercially made usually contains enough acid to survive for 3 years but the color may change. (I think if you make your own, it would be wise to add that to the chill group). BARBECUE SAUCE can last a month outside the refrigerator, but if you don't use it a lot, it lasts for about 6 months in the refrigerator. (I usually dump the whole bottle on whatever I am doing, so I don't need to make this discussion). HONEY is the one thing that should never see the inside of a refrigerator. It most likely will crystallize if chilled. A lot of people do like it that way and keep it in the refrigerator. Honey has the honor of being known as the one product that “will just about keep forever”. If it does crystallize, you can just put a GLASS jar of it, uncovered, in a pan with just almost boiling water, half way up the jar and keep a close eye on it and stir occasionally until back to “liquid” form. This can be done more than once so never get rid of honey because it has crystallized. The local raw and/or slightly processed honey will tend to crystallize much easier than the highly processed and things added honey. You also may already know that honey mixed in a cool liquid will not dissolve. Make the liquid very hot or almost boiling and it will dissolve and stay in that state. Yes, that is what I do to have the honey syrup ready to put in my almost favorite drink, the Bee's Knees. Now that puppy will get you dancing on a hot Midwest day! (Beware of the second one)!

By Bea Westerberg