SAID THE CAT: April 2024

Miss Schoebaum, she of my 1954 high school Freshman year, taught my compulsory one year of Home Economics for female Freshmen and led the FHA, Future Homemakers of America, our four-year female membership was also mandated by school policy and so was FFA, Future Farmers of America, for the high school males.

Neither Miss Schoebaum nor I were favorites of each other. She bore her disaffection with me gracefully and kindly. A crabby and self-preoccupied 14 years of age, I was sure she had little to offer but boring drudgery since Mom's home kitchen was turning out three meals a day, 365 days a year; give or take a couple of times a year when we could get Dad to drive us 50 miles to a St. Louis holiday meal at one or another of our relations.

At home I was the kitchen minion, potato-peeler, dishwasher, and/or dryer of my seven-person family, I preferred to know nothing of Miss Schoebaum's subject, and that included the sewing part because I'd already been sewing for four years. Still, what took place in that Freshman class glued itself to me. I can't explain that. My apologies to Miss Schoebaum.

Here is the most basic cooking thing I learned from her:

White Sauce

Some definitions I use:

T = tablespoon
t = teaspoon
C = cup
Whisk = spiral coil whisk

Melt in a 2-3 quart saucepan over medium to low heat...

1 T butter --She used oleo—today we know it's trans-fat (hydrogenated), use butter, it's OK, or if you insist, a good choice oil—olive, canola, grapeseed

With a whisk, stir in...

1 T all-purpose flour (or gluten-free* cornstarch Nobody had heard of gluten-free my Freshman year.)

1 t salt, less if you're taking care of your blood pressure

When all is dissolved, slowly stir in...

1 C milk warm it in the microwave...You're right! no microwave in the 1950s! A second pot on the stove warmed the milk.

Keep stirring slowly until the sauce thickens. If it bubbles, it is too hot—reduce (or remove from) heat immediately, returning to heat when it simmers down. When the sauce is thickened, remove from heat.

If it scorches on the bottom throw it out, and start over. A couple or three times you'll have it down. It's only a smidge of ingredients in the scope of life.

*A word on gluten-free. Ignore. It's a fad unless your doctor confirms that you have celiac disease. It sells books and products, just like the Atkins diet and South Beach diet (that went south! LOL).

Next is the fun part; you can do all sorts of things with this knowledge and the White Sauce you've made.

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Tomato Soup (Basic)

Prepare White Sauce in a 2-3 quart pot.

Heat to very warm:

1 - 15 oz can of tomatoes* or, 1 pound of fresh tomatoes, pureed

Miss Shoebaun pureed the canned tomatoes through a large strainer squashing them through with a big spoon. (Modern kitchen: puree canned or fresh tomatoes with a blender or hand blender.)

Slowly stir tomatoes into the White Sauce keeping all just below the boil.

Red into white

Comes out right

--Miss Schoebaum

Add...

salt** and/or pepper to taste. And, now you have tomato soup.

So, now you have Miss Schoebaum's version of Tomato Soup. Of course, you are not limited to tomatoes. Other vegetables work, too. Tomato is still my favorite.

Want to make more soup than this? Increase portions in the same ratios. Be mindful of the salt.

Serve immediately. This milk-base soup is subject to easy spoilage so only make what you'll use up in one sitting. It doesn't freeze well.

*I quit eating over-salted food. I look for the “no salt added” canned tomatoes.

**Salt. Hmm. Only add if the canned tomatoes are unsalted.

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Here are some substitutions or additions. Use your imagination--what's in the fridge? or cupboard?

Butter – fats of all varieties; bacon grease, oils, lard; avoid hydrogenated fat

Before you add the flour, saute in the fat: onions (any kind—scallions, shallots, leeks), or maybe: chopped carrots, celery, cilantro, red bell peppers, spicy peppers, etc.)

Flour – other thickeners; corn starch, arrowroot

Milk – unsalted chicken (or vegetable or meat) broth is a winner, or combine with milk

Tomatoes – any suitable vegetables or leftover cooked veggies

Sprinkle chopped hard-cooked eggs on top or oyster crackers

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Now let's talk about applied learning...

Gravy

Gravy is really a White Sauce. Remember that. Like white sauce, it takes a little patience and a little stirring, but it is the same thing. Really.

1 T fat + 1 T thickener + 1 C liquid + 1 t salt (less salt any time other ingredients have salt or for medical reasons)

Oven Roast Meat or Poultry Gravy

Say you make a nice roast or turkey in the oven. Simmer any poultry scraps with water, onion, celery, a pinch of salt, and pepper to taste to use later for gravy or freeze for soups. When the roasting is finished, put the meat on a serving platter to rest for 20 minutes. In its pan, there will be meat juice with fat floating on top and lots of browned bits. Spoon out excess fat beyond the approximate tablespoons of fat needed for gravy, and save it; it's unparalleled flavor for other dishes. Leave all the meat juices in the pan. Estimate, or roughly measure, the fat remaining in the pan. Remember …

Increase ratios to amounts desired; roughly. Don't get obsessive.

Measure out the...

Thickener Flour makes an opaque gravy, and cornstarch will be somewhat translucent.

Liquid any meat broth or water heated to hot—not boiling—in the microwave or stovetop

Set the roasting pan on the stovetop on medium heat. I like to use the same roasting pan because there will be tasty brown things in the pan along with the fat and meat juice, and it is hard to scrape out these precious bits into a pot without wasting some.

Add, while stirring with a spiral whisk

Thickener

Until well absorbed by the fat; scrape loose the brown bits with a spoon, if needed.

Liquid: Method 1 or Method 2.

Method 1. While rapidly stirring with whisk, add the liquid nearly all at once. Stirring must continue until the gravy thickens.

Method 2. While rapidly stirring, add the liquid in smaller portions. It will thicken rapidly, and be subject to lumps if more liquid is not quickly whisked in each time the gravy starts thickening. Advantage: You can stop adding liquid when the gravy is at the consistency you want.

If the gravy is too thin, increase the heat and bring to a boil for a minute or two, and keep stirring. Remove from heat as soon as the consistency desired is reached.

Cream Gravy

Excellent for pan-fried chicken or pork chops. I haven't tried it for sausage gravy yet (biscuits and gravy). Let me know the results if you do.

Follow the directions for Roast Meat Gravy except milk or cream is the liquid used either by itself or combined with a broth. It can be stirred in at the very end after some other liquid has made a thick gravy, too, for a less rich gravy. Caution: do not let the gravy reach a boil. It separates into an unappetizing glop; or worse, it scorches.

Pot Roast and Stew Gravy

The gravy for Pot Roast or Stew with meat thoroughly browned and then braised for hours to tenderness on the stovetop or in the oven develops much more liquid due to braising (lid on), and the vegetables added in the various stages of braising. The abundant liquids may or may not need thickening. We'll delve into the whole Pot Roast and Stew subject later.

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Hmmm. I learned more than I thought.

Also, from the '50s...

Goodnight Mrs Calabash

Thanks, Miss Schoebaum, wherever you are.

***

Mom had enormous, well-directed, calm energy. She moved about our home quietly cleaning, laundering, ironing, sewing, cooking, baking, gardening, canning, preserving, churning, and milking the cow some days when I couldn't. Occasionally, there would be a lovely time when she whistled; usually while she was cleaning. It was beautiful. I have never heard anything like it since.

No big splashy messes while she did things. There was a frugality, husbanding of resources and commodities, even motion. You might say she had to with five children to rear and Dad away in the city--pre-dawn to late night. She took the initiative where we children were concerned and though money was always extremely tight, she saw to it that we were decently clothed and shod, and certainly well and healthily fed.

In our current culture, we are finding out that much of the foods she prepared and served in what is now a renaissance of “real” food and how to make it after a couple generations of hyper-processing and creating an industrial empire of sadly, harmful methods of obtaining nutrition. Notwithstanding, bacon, and the WWII oleomargarine and hydrogenated vegetable oils (Crisco), etc., she did a fantastic job of feeding us healthily and well.

***

sun warms the damp earth

it makes lettuce seeds grow fast

soon we'll eat salad

I have warmly remembered lunches of loose-leaf lettuce that had been just minutes earlier in Mom's garden...

Wilted Lettuce*

In a large serving bowl put

Fresh-picked, washed/dried, tender, loose-leafed lettuce (red or green leaf lettuce, Boston Bib)

Fry in medium pan:

2 strips bacon until crisp

Remove bacon from pan, crumble. In the remaining bacon grease saute until translucent:

5 or 6 green onions, thin sliced, include a little of the green part

Remove from heat and add to pan:

1 teaspoon cider vinegar
Pepper to taste

Stir in the crumbled bacon. Slowly drizzle the hot mixture over the lettuce. Toss. Serve. The lettuce will be somewhat wilted.

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Yes, I hear you—bacon! We know so much more about it now. As tasty as it is, there has to be something else that would offer such a flavor contrast with the delicate lettuce while helping our planet.

How about this...

2 T olive oil to saute the onions
Add toasted Sesame seeds instead of bacon
1 t cider vinegar
Pepper to taste

Or, we welcome you to tell us what you think would be a tasty, healthy, bacon substitute.

* T = tablespoon

t = teaspoon

***

Watching...It's now 3:33pm. The solar eclipse peaked 10 minutes ago. A friend lent me her viewing glasses to have a look. Lots of watching...me too...