Cooking in the West

 


The thermometer reads 17 below this morning, but I am in a wonderful mood, because I am fleeing from the tundra of Montana for a few days in Arizona. My torn hamstring has healed enough from doing the spilled dog water splits four weeks ago, and we are sunshine bound. We had previously been banned from going anywhere right before calving, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that the warm up is coming and no calves will come early.

The pre-calving travel ban was put into effect five years ago by our son, Bret, who had a negative experience when we went to the World Timed Event Finals at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma right before calving started. Every time he tells the story of that experience, the temperature gets lower, the drifts get higher, the wind blows harder, and the number of calves born climbs. Nevertheless, he survived to tell his story.

It was the first week of March, and we really were not supposed to be calving yet, but Mother Nature can have an evil sense of humor, and as soon as we got to Oklahoma, Montana got hit with a severe winter storm that caused a bunch of cows to “decide” to drop their calves. I believe it might have something to do with falling barometric pressure or global warming or Donald Trump, but nevertheless, Bret found himself in a pickle.

It was 20 below with a 30 plus mile per hour wind blowing out of the north, and the calves that were being born had to be plucked out of the snow drifts and brought to the barn immediately or they would freeze down and die. This might not sound like high adventure, but it is--especially in the night. He spent three days and three nights feeding the cattle as close to the barn as possible and then watching for cows that drifted away usually up brushy coulees to calve. As soon as they would drop, he would try to get them tagged and hauled to the tack room to warm up and dry out. They had to be tagged, so he would know which cow to return them to when they were safely dried off and warmed up.

When the tack room was full of tagged wet babies, he had to make a makeshift calf warmer in the barn. After the first twenty-four hours, we knew he had become desperate because he had called his sister for help. All of the friends he could call upon were having their own calving nightmare, so he had to humble himself and admit he needed his sister’s help. By this time, the drifts were getting deep, so he abandoned his truck as a portable calf ambulance and resorted to the Honda Pioneer even though he could only get two calves inside instead of several in the truck, but he was tired of shoveling his truck out of drifts.

On the second night with the wind howling, the snow coming down sideways, and his energy level in desperate need of sleep, he plucked a calf out of a drift and shoved it into the running side by side. He grabbed another calf and was carrying it back to the side by side when the Pioneer began zipping backwards around in a circle. He had left it in reverse, and the calf he had put on the seat had tipped over on the gas pedal. He stood there holding a calf that needed to be put inside, but there was no way to safely get inside the side by side which was speeding around in circles in reverse. With exhausted legs and knowing the direction the doors open plus the depth of the snow, he knew that trying to get into that vehicle circling wildly in reverse would be foolhardy.

As he stood there trying to remember how many gallons of gas might be left in the tank so he would know how long the calf would be joy riding around in the hayfield, he decided to plant the cold wet calf he was carrying under a chokecherry bush where hopefully he could find it again, and he headed back towards the barn for his truck. Somehow, miraculously the calf wiggled off of the gas pedal, the side by side stopped, and he got both calves to the barn. He is rightfully very proud that he didn’t lose any calves on his watch. When we finally got home after a 12 hour delay in Denver and spelled him so he could get a little sleep, of course a calf died, but because of the timing of the death on our watch, it did not sully Bret’s perfect record.

Bret immediately instituted the travel ban on travel before and during calving, so we are really hoping that this little trip on the back side of this winter storm does not induce labor in any cows who are not due to calve for a couple more weeks or there will probably be a permanent travel ban instituted. I have always loved Baxter Black’s poem “Cow Attack” about a cow driving his truck, so I believe I will chronicle this story in a poem entitled “Calf Attack” when I get back from my few days in the Arizona sun unless Bret has another adventure that is even more poem worthy while we are gone this time!

I love old recipes so I would like to share recipes from Ann Curry Hannah, who was a good friend of my late mother. Ann’s mother, Matilda Curry, lived in the homestead cabin that we call the Taylor Place on the Musselshell ranch. You won’t find these old recipes in an online search, but they are tasty and simple. Ann’s daughter, Claudia Melcher, shared these. Thanks, Claudia!

Grandma Curry’s Potato Soup:

3 lg. potatoes, peeled,

1 C. milk

2 T. butter

1/2 med. onion, diced

3 - 4 slices bacon, cut in small pieces

1 - 2 stalks celery, diced

Dice potatoes in small chunks and simmer until done. Don’t overcook. You can add onion and celery to potatoes to cook after potatoes are about half done, or you can fry diced onion and celery with bacon. Mash potatoes, add milk, and butter, and put on low heat, so it does not scorch. Add bacon, celery, and onion (if not added earlier). Add pepper. You can add 1 T. Accent to taste. Heat through on low, but do not scorch before serving.

Glorified Rice:

1 C. boiled rice

1/2 C. white sugar

1/2 t. vanilla

8 marshmallows, cut up

1 1/2 C. crushed pineapple, drained

1 C. cream, whipped.

Mix all together. Chill before serving.

Matilda’s Pigs-In-A-Blanket:

3/4 C. rice

3/4 lbs. sausage

1/2 onion

Large cabbage

Fry sausage and onion. Put cabbage leaves in hot water to make them soft. Roll mixed ingredients in leaves. Lay them in a pan and top with a can of tomato sauce. Simmer for three hours on low heat. Top with Mozzarella cheese before serving if desired.

Grandma Curry’s Easy Penuche Icing:

1/4 C. butter

1/2 C. brown sugar

2 T. milk

Approx. 1 C. powdered sugar, sifted

Melt butter in a saucepan. Add brown sugar. Boil over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in milk and bring to boil, stirring constantly. Cool to lukewarm. Gradually add powdered sugar. It if becomes too stiff, add a little hot water.

 

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