See Part 1.
LAMANITE NATIONS
Chairman, Rosemarie Francis; Fannie Grover, Fern Peay, Eleanor Vandeburgh, Irene Wheeler, Candy Grover, Chris Law
MENU
Squaw Tea
Venison Stew
Roast Turkey
Whole Kernel Corn
Lettuce-Tomato Salad
Navajo Fry Bread
(honey, wild plum jam, chokecherry jelly)
White Cake with Blueberry Sauce
Venison Stew
Make as for beef stew, using cubes of venison, potatoes, carrots, onions, celery.
Navajo Fry Bread
2 cups flour, whole wheat may be used
4 tsp baking powder; 1 tsp salt
1 cup warm or hot water
Blend dry ingredients together; add water slowly, mixing the dough with the hands, or fork if you prefer. When dough is thick enough to need oil on the hands, it is just right. Don’t make the dough too stiff. Break off pieces the size of a golf ball, shape with the hands as the Navajos do, or roll with rolling pin. Make two or three holes in each piece for even cooking. Place in hot oil (the Navajos say use lard only) in frying an. Brown lightly on both sides. Eat plain or with butter or jam.
Blueberry Sauce
Cook frozen blueberries in water; add sugar to taste and thicken with cornstarch. Serve over white cake. Use any white cake recipe, white cake mix, or use a rich cobbler dough.
GERMANY
Chairman, Nyla Chantry; Betty Petersen, Dorothy Swanson, Ada B. Naef, Zina Prince, Pam Ray, Margaret Stewart
MENU
German Sausages with Sauerkraut
Vegetable Medley
Hot Potato Salad
Red Cabbage Salad
Cheesecake
Christmas Wassail
Sausages and Sauerkraut
Heat canned sauerkraut; add fat German sausages and steam.
Vegetable Medley (Leipziger Allerlei)
1-1/2 cups frozen peas
1 cup sliced carrots
1 turnip, diced
1 small cauliflower, separate flowerets
1 cup whole kernel corn, drained
3 tblsp butter or margarine
1 cup water
salt to taste, sugar if desired
1-1/2 tsp cornstarch in 2 tblsp cold water
1 tblsp chopped parsley
Sauté vegetables in butter; add water and simmer over low heat until tender. Add seasoning. Thicken with cornstarch and water, stir gently. When ready to serve, sprinkle parsley on top. 4 to 6 servings.
Hot Potato Salad
6 medium potatoes
6 slices bacon
1/3 cup bacon fat
3/4 cup chopped onion
2 5tblsp flour
1 to 2 tblsp sugar
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp celery seed (optional)
dash pepper
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup vinegar
Boil potatoes; peel and slice while hot. Fry bacon until crisp.
Cook onions in bacon fat until yellow. Mix in flour, salt, sugar, celery seed, pepper. Gradually stir in water and vinegar. Cook until mixture boils; boil 1 minute.
Pour over potatoes; break bacon over top. Serve hot or cold. 6 servings.
Red Cabbage Salad
head red cabbage
salt, pepper, sugar
4 or 5 slices bacon
1/3 cup vinegar
1/6 cup water
Cut cabbage in small pieces, cook well, drain. Add salt and pepper and sprinkle with sugar.
Meanwhile, cube bacon, fry and drain. Add vinegar and water and bring to boil. Pour over cabbage; mix well.
Cheesecake
1 9-in. graham cracker pie crust
4 3-oz pkgs cream cheese
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice
Combine cream cheese, eggs, sugar, vanilla and lemon uice. Pour into prepared graham cracker crust. Bake at 350̊ for 25 to 30 min. Remove from oven, let cool for about 30 min. Spread topping on and bake for 10 min.
Topping:
1 cup sour cream
3-1/2 tblsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Refrigerate overnight or for at least 5 hours.
Christmas Wassail
2 cups sugar
4 cups water
Boil in heavy pan with lid.
Add:
12 whole cloves
4 cinnamon sticks
4 allspice berries
Set for 1 hour. Strain.
Add:
3 cups orange juice
2 cups lemon juice
8 cups cider
Heat to serving temperature but do not boil.
I remember these lessons. My mother told me about many of them, and I was able to attend and teach a few cultural refinement lessons before they were discontinued.
I’m impressed by the effort and creativity these women put into learning about sisters in other countries. They didn’t have the resources we have now to expose them to foreign cuisine–the internet, restaurants, TV cooking shows, or large cookbook collections in the public library.
I also note the reference to ‘squaw tea.’ Squaw is now considered to be a very derogatory term, although the exact etymology is debatable. I’m positive that these sisters didn’t use this word in any pejorative way. I’ve been listening to some of the sessions of the Black, White, and Mormon Conference and realizing just how easy it is misunderstand, to believe a false cultural narrative, to use a word that was acceptable at one point, but has taken on the opposite meaning.
As we step outside of our own little comfort zones and try to understand each other, we will surely make mistakes and have many occasions to forgive each other.
Would that tea have been ephedra-based? I think some of the omissions are as interesting as the recipes. In the spirit of the very short venison stew recipe, I suppose no recipe was provided for roast turkey, whole kernel corn, lettuce-tomato salad or white cake because all of that is basic cooking, that everyone already knew how to do. Same for the tea? Imagining that ephedra tea was a staple of basic cooking for California Mormon women in the ’70s significantly changes my mental picture of ’70s American Relief Societies. But perhaps I am letting my imagination go too far.
Mike, that was definitely ephedra, if an extraordinarily weak variety. I remember harvesting it around Susanville during our three years there, although I only made tea once — didn’t care for it. But yeah, gallon jars of Brigham tea or Mormon tea or sun tea or squaw tea (sorry, Laura; you’re certainly right) or whatever other names it went by were faddishly common.
Ah, Brigham tea! I think my mom believed it had great medicinal properties because it carried Brigham’s name. It was awful, even more so when mistaken for a jar of homemade maple-flavored syrup, that stack of pancakes was not etable.