Ancient Family Secret – I can’t cook.

I don’t cook… Ever. Okay once or twice a year and it’s usually a casserole of some kind. I make a killer mac & cheese- It’s genetic, kinda my mutant super power. No recipe needed, I just throw stuff together and it’s not that bad. However sometimes you have to cook, sometimes you need to go back and try something that you grew up with (like Mac & Cheese) and tweak it. I think most generations do this. Sometimes by choice, other times because Grandma never really wrote down the recipe and and while everyone kinda knows the ingredients, they just can’t capture what they remember.  Hint- the secret is usually powdered bat entrails, but they are really hard to find.

So recently some friends decided to get together and do something interesting- a Beer & Food Pairing Dinner.  Everyone bring a couple dishes and some beer to go along with them.  While wine pairings have been going on for years, beer pairings are fairly new.  Our friend, Dieter, Brewmaster at Heinzelmannchen Brewery in Sylva, North Carolina is great at this.. Sadly, we didn’t had the opportunity to chat with him before this dinner.  So as Sue and I sat around we thought about dishes we liked and what might work with them.  The internet came to the rescue and Iwe found a number of sites dealing with parings and what goes with what.  We even looked at the one suggested by the hosts.  After a quick trip to Jungle Jim’s in Cincinnati we had some of what we needed. Now it was up to me to cook.

It being summer I volunteered to figure out our portion of the menu and decided to use some family recipes, since I figured most people would not know about these and I could always blame my family if they were inedible.  So I started out with my mom’s infamous barbecue sauce,  this was a staple of summer when I was growing up always done on pork ribs.  Each generation changes the recipe a little this one started off as my grandmother’s barbecue sauce and as the story goes- my mother, as a newlywed, accidentally mixed up the ingredients. So when my dad had this later at my grandmother’s house he thought there was something wrong.  Later they found out that when the recipe said “mustard” it meant to put in wet mustard… my mother had put in dry mustard which kicked it up a notch or two.  Since then, dry mustard has always been used in the recipe.  When I got married I tried it out and made another change, instead of pork ribs (which it still is great on) I decided slow cooking a pork loin in the sauce was an improvement.

The other family recipe we are going with are “Hermits.”  This was the cookie Grandfather Nelson would make anytime he visited, so it’s my comfort food.  I taste them and I think of him and all he meant to me, so these are special cookies for me and I hope I do them justice.  Especially since the first batch I had to throw out because we broke the mixer attachment to our food processor and I thought that no one should have to eat little pieces of broken plastic in their cookies.

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Here are the ancient family recipes (nutritional value undetermined):

Sandie’s Barbecue Sauce (this has been quadrupled from the original to provide what I felt was enough sauce)

• 1 cup vinegar
• 2 cups water
• 8 tablespoons sugar
• 4 tablespoons dry mustard
• 2 tablespoons pepper
• 6 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 4 thick slices of a lemon
• 4 sliced onions
• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups ketchup
• 8 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
• 1-2 slabs of babyback ribs

1. pre-boil ribs on stove
2. Makes sauce by combining the above, heat on stove
3. either grill ribs outside or in oven at 350-400 degrees
4. constantly baste ribs with the sauce

My changes- use a good size hunk of pork loin (large enough to fit in a slow cooker)

1. Put pork loin (uncooked) into slow cooker
2. Make sauce by combining on stove
3. pour sauce over the pork loin
4. set to cook for 8-10 hours
5. After around 6 hours tear pork loin to make pulled pork.
6. Let it set the rest of the time.

It is better reheated so making it a day out isn’t a bad idea.

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Hermits

• 3/4 cup of shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 cup (about three small snack size boxes) raisins

1. Mix together the first four ingredients
2. Stir in the last six ingredients (raisins last)
3. Shape into rolls
4. Sprinkle sugar on them
5. put three across on a cookie sheet, flatten somewhat
6. Bake 20 minutes at 375 degrees for chewy ones, longer for crispier ones
7. cut rolls diagonally to make individual cookies.

How have I tweaked the recipe?  I added another small snack box of raisins…

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There are those people who are cooking geeks, My grandfather loved to bake.  My older brother loves to spend hours getting things just right for a meal.  Me, I’m happy heading over to the pizza place.  That said these little bits from my culinary genetics are things that not only taste great, but for me hold so many memories that even if they didn’t I still would take time every few years to make them.  Sue has some of the same dishes from her family, but I’ll leave those for another day… since we usually have them over the Holidays.