Books We Love Insider Blog: Traditional Recipes for when the Chill is in the air

It's September, and time to start thinking about slow cooker recipes and the kind of traditional foods that make you feel all warm inside. My husband, John has a book called Gifts from the Grandmothers, and I've tried some of those recipes. They are excellent reminders of the days when soups and stews sat all day on the back of the cook stove waiting for the hungry workers and children to sit up to the table.

Here are a few you might like to try

(If you don't have buffalo, beef will do just fine)

Buffalo Oven Stew

2 lbs. of buffalo meat, cut into 1 inch cubes

1 T. fat
1-1/2 T. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 cup flour
1 large onion, chopped
1 can stewed tomatoes
4 carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
4 potatoes, chopped

Brown buffalo cubes and onion in fat on high heat. Reduce to simmer. Mix flour, salt, pepper and paprika sprinkle over browned meat; stir and gradually add water to form gravy. Place mixture in casserole dish. Add tomatoes, carrots, celery and potatoes and sufficient water to cover (leave room in the dish for the biscuit topping to be inside the rim of the dish). Place into baking dish, bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Cover with biscuit topping and return to 425 oven to brown topping.

Biscuit Topping

1-3/4 cups flour 4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup shortening
1 egg
2/3 cup milk

Sift dry ingredients. Cut in shortening to consistency of cornmeal. Beat egg with milk. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients. Pour in milk mixture. Stir until dough binds together. Place on floured board. Pat into circle, place on top of Buffalo Stew fit to edges of pan until snug. Bake at 425 for 15 – 20 minutes or until top is lightly browned.

Roundhouse Pea Soup

1/2 cup dried split peas, 4 cups water

1 lb. Ham shank or 2 hocks

1 cup grated carrot

1 tsp. salt

1 onion, minced

10 peppercorns, 1 bay leaf

1 cup milk

2 T. flour

Wash peas and soak overnight in water. Place ham shank in slow cooker, add peas and
water in which they were soaked, add salt and seasonings, set to high, and allow to

cook several hours. If cooking in stew pot, bring to boil, reduce to simmer and allow to cook several hours.

Moosejaw Chili

4 lbs. Course ground lean beef/venison/moose

2 cloves garlic, minced

8 T. Chili powder

8 T. Flour

4 tsp. Salt

2 T. Cumin (comino)

1/2 cup beef suet

1/4 lb. Butter

2 cups onion, diced

2 quarts hot water

1 pint tomato puree

3 cups cooked beans (optional)

Season meat with garlic, chili powder, flour, salt and cumin, using your hands to work into meat. Heat suet and butter in heavy kettle and sauté onions until soft but not brown. Stir in meat mixture and cook 20 minutes, stirring often. Add water and tomato puree. Simmer 1 hour, stirring often. Stir in beans and cook 30 minutes longer. Make 1-1/2 gallons of chili.

Sourdough Starter

2 cups warm water into container

1 pkg. active yeast or 1 level T. dried yeast

1 cup white flour

Mix ingredients to form smooth paste, cover loosely with lid. Place container in warm place, leave for 24 hours. Sourdough starter can be kept in refrigerator for several weeks.

Each time you use starter, pour off 1 cup of starter and set it aside as a starter for the next baking. Replenish by adding flour and warm water, nothing else. The mixture improves with time and once fermentation is under way, this cup of starter will be sufficient to sour the flour overnight.

White Sourdough Bread or Rolls

Put 1 cup of starter into mixing bowl

Add 2 1/2 cup of flour and stir lightly

Add 2 cup warm water

Mix thoroughly. Cover with plastic wrap.

Place in warm spot overnight (12 hours)

In the morning add:

1 cup water, warm

1 pkg. yeast (1 T.)

2 T. butter

1-1/2 T. sugar

2 tsp. salt

4 cups white flour

1/4 tsp. baking soda

Add yeast and sugar to warm water. Stir until yeast is broken down (about 10 min.). Add to starter in your mixing bowl, liquid alternating with flour, stirring and adding until too stiff to mix with spoon. Turn out on floured board, kneading with hands, and adding more flour if needed to make soft dough. Briefly knead dough. Place kneaded dough in greased mixing bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until double in bulk. Knead briefly. Divide dough into pieces to fill bread pans, fold into the shape of a loaf, place in warm greased pans, and brush with melted butter. Put in warm place, and let rise until double in bulk. Preheat oven to 425. Bake loaves for 5 min. Reduce oven to 350 and bake for 20 to 25 min. until bread is loose on sides of pans. For rolls follow above steps, but add 1 T. shortening and 1 T. sugar and shape into rolls. Place on greased baking pan. Bake for 20 min. At 400 degrees.

I hope you enjoy these. John and my mom (Lillian) spent many hours updating some of these recipes so that they would work for today's cooks.

And, if while you're waiting for those soups and stew to cook you have some reading time, I'd love for you to get a copy of the new mystery Jamie Hill and I have just finished. It's called "New Directions" and it takes my Kelly McWinter PI characters from the Deadly series in an entirely new and exciting direction.