Vegan friends, this one's for you

 I love the cover of this book, and I love the artwork, which Keith Michell did himself.

Who is Keith Michell? He's a British actor. A lot of actors and celebrities turned to macrobiotics in the seventies and eighties. I was late -- I didn't try macrobiotics until the turn of our new century.

Blame it on PBS -- because I was so taken in by Dr. Christiane Northrup's Woman to Woman lectures, and she mentioned that she often recommended macrobiotics to patients as a form of holistic healing.

And if you have ever seen Keith Michell in a role, chances are it was on PBS in his amazing portrayal of Henry VIII and His Six Wives.  Here he is as Henry:

You eat a lot of grains and veggies on macrobiotics, and when I managed to stick to it for maybe three days in a row, by the fourth day, if I happened to be anywhere near a hot dog, I would eat it! No questions asked. Woops! Back to the brown rice tomorrow! -- I was just really, really hungry. A lot.

But I learned a lot about cooking, because as vegans know, you have to make everything from scratch. And you have to learn what to substitute for anything dairy, for eggs, for thickening agents, for sweetening without sugar, and on and on. I learned how to go "off book" with recipe modifications and that courage has been valuable in later kitchen adventures.

I acquired this cookbook at the tail end of my macrobiotic phase. It's one of my favorite books, for the original artwork alone (beautiful pictures of vegetables throughout the book). I thought they were watercolors but I learned this week, when I finally spent some quality time with the book, that Michell used markers, because they were easy to take on the road during an acting gig. Below is a scan of one of his illustrations to give you an idea of what this man can do with markers. And-- you guessed it -- I have never cooked even one recipe from this book -- until now!  Results coming up in the next blog post.

Oven-cooked round steak. Because squirrel is not available.

For years I've been blaming my mom for giving me this book, but when I finally took a good look at it, I realized I must have bought it myself. The clues are: it's a signed copy, and the author grew up in Medford, Oregon, where I have visited on repeat vacations since the (mumble-- mumble, um '80s). I was probably charmed by a small town restaurant with a folksy gift shop. This was when I lived in Los Angeles and fantasized a lot about leaving the big city.

Weirdowlbooks.com says: "Spiced with bits of poetry and illustrated throughout with drawings and halftone prints taken from turn-of-the-century primers, The Pioneer Lady's Country Kitchen is a book to be read and savored." Alas, not by me. All I did was buy it. Until now!

Does anyone know a good substitute for squirrel? I'm curious about the Squirrel Pot Pie, and during the Depression I might have been willing to "dress" a squirrel, and maybe even eat it. But not now.

Luckily there are other recipes. Let's go with Oven-Cooked Round Steak.  A bargain-bin cut of meat that needs a lot of tenderizing, dredged in flour, browned, and cooked in milk (the opposite of kosher.) The recipe is posted at the end of the blog.

You know it's a vintage recipe when you're expected to brown meat in frying margarine.

And when's the last time you used one of these? ------>

The specific direction: "Pound in as much flour as the meat will hold." 

 Gotta admit, that part was fun!

(Before you assume I'm a heathen -- in fact I paid top dollar for this beef at Whole Foods, because I don't like the idea of feed-lots. But sometimes you might just want to get it on sale. I don't judge.)




Results:  easy preparation, pounding notwithstanding. Guess who had seconds? Chris, the resident male teenager. A born pioneer. Sides were potatoes and turnips mashed together with butter and salt, sprinkled with crumbled bacon (another recipe from the same book -- a good pairing.) And fresh green beans.



 Recipe is below -- and scroll to the bottom to see the author's signature, "Combining the future with the past."


Oven-cooked Round Steak

Why do I have so many weird cookbooks?

I have tried to de-clutter, but I still have more than fifteen cookbooks. I know I'm not alone in this -- but I wish mine were great cook books. Sure, I use Joy of Cooking (90s version)  and I also acquired Julia Child's vol I and II after the movie (and I've actually used them. Once each.)

But I've never used "Pioneer Lady's Country Kitchen." My childhood obsession with "Little House on the Prairie" made a big impression on my mom, and she has gifted a few of these books to me. But  I'm not now, nor have I ever been, a Pioneer lady.

And why can't I toss "Feed me, I'm yours"?  It was a popular book for baby showers (early '70s version.) Except mine was a re-gifting situation, so I'm not even guilt-bound to keep it. I have used the play-dough recipes, and once made tuna cakes. That dinner (the tuna, not the play-dough) was a hit with my son -- back when he was about eight years old. Next month he'll turn eighteen. Why do I keep this book?

Joy of cooking, hate of cooking, macrobiotic, Swiss Secret, French, Mexican, Missourian, and Californian. China is represented. And Quebec. So many cookbooks, so little time.

OK, it's been years. YEARS. And these are only the books that have survived my frenzied de-cluttering.

So here's the deal -- I am going to try one new recipe out of each of these books, between now and the end of the year.

I know a lot of people have the same situation. If you have fifty cook books, pick a shelf.

These aren't mine, but a picture I couldn't help taking at our local library when they displayed some antiques. Recognize any of these?