August: Hi, all! Sorry about not doing an August or September newsletter...and here we are in mid-October!... but I was getting ready for Pennsic. Many of you know what Pennsic is, but some of you haven't a clue. OK, Auntie Arwen is big into medieval re-enactment. There are many Kingdoms encompassing the Knowne Worlde, and New England, eastern Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and I think maybe a bit of Canada, are in the East Kingdom. The Middle Kingdom (western PA, the Midwest) and the East Kingdom have an annual War. Over 12,000 people from all over the world come to Cooper's Lake Campground in Slippery Rock, PA, for the first 2 weeks in August.
The losing Kingdom (when the original Pennsic war was fought) was to get Pittsburgh. The East lost Pennsic I, which means that Pittsburgh came to us. It ‘s now in another kingdom (Anasteorra), but the war rumbles cheerfully on. Slain warriors, of course, come back to life, and we have the benefits of Right Guard and Off! Bug Spray. And we do quite nicely without the Black Plague and the Inquisition. Not like the original Middle Ages at all. And talk about partying......
There was a Food Court at Pennsic. You could get gyros, stir-fry, etc. One of the more esoteric offerings was "Rat on a Stick" (think Monty Python) where the enterprising Pennsic merchant stabbed one of those kielbasa dogs onto a long sharp bamboo stick, and then wrapped the dog in a dough blanket. Sorta like a corn dog. After a deep fat fry bath, the batter-wrapped dog was doused with sweet & sour sauce. Easy to eat; sort of like a meaty lollypop. It was something different, you betcha! I usually stuck with cashew chicken or teriyaki beef from the stir fry place.
12,000 people camping in one huge campground. Campers need to eat, and Auntie Arwen is "the" major source at Pennsic for spices, herbs, massage oils, chili peppers, teas, botanicals, etc. This is a great place to test-market things, and I am now in the process of updating the web page ( www.auntiearwenspices.com ) to reflect various success stories, and also to make it easier for you all to shop at Auntie Arwen's place. My Web Master, Tom Hufford at Crystal Owl Productions, has been doing a magnificent job, in spite of my web page being a major Learning Experience for the both of us. Kudos should also go to Jesse Pellegatto and the great folks at Website Design & Marketing; they are getting Auntie's page listed in good positions on various search engines, and have been making excellent suggestions for improving the web page.
Our web page reads best on a screen whose resolution is set at 800 x 600. To do this, click on the "start" button (lower left on your screen), select "settings", and then select "control panel", then double click to get "display". Now, click on the tab marked "settings", and you'll see a "slider" sort of to the right side. Your settings may well be 640 by 480 (lower resolution), so mouse that slider about halfway and 800 x 600 will display. It also asks you for the type and make of monitor. Mine was made by Brand X, so I entered the "standard" options.
Auntie Arwen has a flock of new items listed on her web page, including
poultry
and seafood blends, and organic coffee beans. If not right now, in the near
future. If there's something you're looking for and cannot find, please do contact
me. It may take some time... I have been looking for cassia buds for 2 years
now (they aren't to be found!) and will keep looking.
If any of you Out There have an idea for improving the page, please email me at auntiearwen@snet.net . I especially would like input from blind readers; I want this site to be as accessible as possible for you! Please do note that I can do Braille labelling! I want my web page to be really easy to peruse and order from. By the time you get this e-newsletter, the major portion of the revamping will be done. Please take a few moments to check it out, and let me know what you think.
September. It's huckleberry season. Huckleberries taste rather nasty in the raw state, but once cooked, they sorta taste like chewy blueberries. To make one wickedly tasty huckleberry preserve, put 1 cup of water in a stainless steel or enamel pot, add 3 cups berries, and 2 to 2 ½ cups sugar. Simmer until gloppy and preserve/jam-like. Makes a very nice topping for ice cream, pancakes, or as a toast spread. I'm enjoying the batch I made! To make pie, pour the glop into a pie shell, put a lattice crust on top, and bake @ 350 for ca. 35-45 min (or until nicely browned and bubbly).
For marinades, stir the blend (such as Forest Lord Salt-Free Herb Mix or Monkey on a Stick Saté, many of the salt-free blends , ditto hot blends, etc) in some oil (Canola, Olive, or Peanut) (ca. 1 tbsp of blend per 1/3 c oil), pour into a Ziplock baggie, and then toss in yer meat or tofu. Chicken, boneless pork cutlets, steak, muskrat, whatever. Squeeze out as much air as possible, and then massage the meat (inside the sealed bag) until it's well coated. Refrigerate ca. ½ hour, and then bake or broil. Dips: use about 1 tbsp of blend per pint of sour cream, stir well, refrigerate for ½ hour, and serve with crackers and/or veggies..
The other day, I tried an experiment, which came out so well that I plan to
repeat it tonight. I'd run out of flour, so I grabbed the box of Bisquik. A
cup of that went into a bowl, along with 1 tbsp of my
Loose Moose! Citrus Rosemary
Blend, 1 tbsp Chuckwagon
Cowboy Grillin' Pepper, and 1 tsp sea salt. Plenty
of rosemary, which was dandy. Auntie loves rosemary. Next, I patted dry 4 nice
skinless boneless chicken breasts (ie 2 chickens' worth), and then rolled ‘em
in the Bisquik mixture before bedding them down on thin-sliced onion with a
scattering of diced garlic in a 9" square glass baking pan. About a half
cup of dry white vermouth, went into the pan , then the breaded chicken, and
then I patted the rest of the Bisquik mixture on top of the chicken. Then the
pan was loosely covered with aluminum foil, popped into the oven, and baked
at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes, after which the foil was removed. Another
10 minutes or so and the crust began to toast nicely. I served the chicken on
steamed rice, with a tossed salad on the side. Oh my, was that some wicked gooood!
OctoberOh, my, how the time snuck up on me! Here I am adding to the *August* newsletter and it's the
October news I'm adding! Eeeeek! And tomorrow's Hallowe'en, which puts us into November!
Happy Hallowe'en, Blessed Samhain, etc. Hallowe'en came over to my side of the pond (USA) thanks
to the Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine. Potatoes...now, what can we do with potatoes?
Aha! Herbed baked potatoes! Goes well with that roast chicken. Fall soul food, as it were.
Take a bunch of thin-skinned potatoes (new potatoes or those red potatoes), rinse 'em, and pat 'em
dry. Chop them into biggish pieces. Now, in a bowl, put 1/4 c good olive oil...the greenish kind...,
and add 1 tsp each thyme, basil, savory, garlic powder, onion powder, and ½ tsp sage. Wisk up a bit.
Then, toss the spuds into the oil-herb mix, scumble 'em around, and then put 'em on a greased pan
(I use olive oil as the grease). Put the pan into an oven set at 350 degrees F and bake, turning the
spuds occasionally. OK to put it next to the roasting chicken. If you want more flavor dimensions,
also add some peeled chopped sweet potato, yellow (or pearl) onions, and chunks of celery stalk.
They're done when you can stick a knife easily through them. I mean a sharp kitchen knife, not a dull
butter knife. Baking time for a single layer is about a half hour.
Hallowe'en. If that (*(*^+~){@$###!!! kid with the fireworks shows up again this year, and I can
get the cops to nail him, I will be a happy camper. Last year a juvenile male who may have been
testosterone-challenged (IMHO) tossed a brick of lit firecrackers past me into the house. He'd been
disguised as a trick or treater. The cops know the situation, and I sure hope that they nail him this year.
Oh, I hope! Revenge??? Sweeeet!
Our web site is under constant renovation, and I'm finally getting digital pix to my Guru of Electronics
(Tom Hufford at Crystal Owl Productions) so's he can post
them on the details section for each item. We're both realizing that doing a web page is a heckuva lot
of work, and is a never-ending endeavor. But in our own way, our web page is becoming something
Righteous. And we're doing pretty darn well in ratings...if you go to Google and type in "steak seasonings"
(don't forget the quotation marks!), you'll see that we're #1 on pate 1!!!!Yowza!!! Jesse P, our website
marketing effendi, is making sure that we Get Out on the Cyberspace Waves Bigtime, so that customers
can find our lovely website with ease.
The virtual cooking world is soooo interesting! I picked up a dandy recipe for kangaroo burgers from an
Aussie group. If you really really want, I can share it with you. I am also on
cookinginthedark@topica.com, which is a group for blind and visually impaired cooks. And boy,
the recipes you get there!!!! I sure hope some of the "dark" gang shows up at the Connecticut NFB
(National Federation of the Blind) convention on Nov 8! I'll be there on Saturday, cranking out Braille
labels for spice etc. blends as they are ordered by attendees. My main competition in the vendors' room
is a supplier of a vast array of Braillers, Braille playing cards, various aids, etc. Nothing that you can sink
your teeth into, as it were. I will have
chocolate covered coffee beans and
crystallized ginger there. Plus the array of blends, teas, hot sauce, and some mortars & pestles.
Do you have any Really Good Recipes? Anything from Beef Stroganoff to organic
dog biscuits? Hints for the cook? Requests for odd ingredients like cubebs,
orris root, and grains
of Paradise? (surprise, we stock ‘em!). Or if you've found a new and
creative use for one of our blends? Share it with the rest of us!
Any free Saturdays during the summer, 9am to 1 pm: Deep River (CT) Farmers'
Market. You can also find my blends at "Especially for You!" in East
Hampton, CT (the store is on Route 66 just east of Brookes Plaza) and at the
Connecticut River Artisans in Chester, CT.
Well, that's it for now. Gotta go whip up some organic hot chocolate mix; am testing that out for addition to my web page. And yes, everything in it is cert. Org.