Wyoming mystery of the week solved: November 16 - 20

Wyoming mystery of the week solved: November 16 - 20

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A very traditional Thanksgiving

Traditional Thanksgiving fare may not have been as tasty as some of our more modern dishes. Nor were the ingredients easy and convenient to pick up at the local supermarket. For modern day cooks, cooking over the fire, in coals, and under ash may not be an ideal situation. In case you would like to explore cooking your Thanksgiving meal as the Native Americans probably prepared theirs, here are a few recipes to try cooking the traditional Native American way.

All recipes were taken from: Indian Cookin, Copyright 1973, Nowega Press.

Bean Bread
4 cups cornmeal
½ tsp soda (or lye water if you have it on hand)
2 cups cooked beans
2 cups boiling water

Put cornmeal and beans in a bowl. Hollow out a hole and put water and soda in the middle. Make stiff dough enough to form balls. Drop balls into a pot of boiling water. Cook about 45 minutes or until done.

Parched Corn
Put hot ashes in a pot, put in kernels, stir until brown. Clean ashes off with leaves or cloth, beat corn in beater. Make soup by stirring large pieces in boiling water, cook until done. (This kind of mixture was placed in a leather pouch and carried while hunting.)

Pumpkin
Cut ripe pumpkin in rings, remove the peeling, hang on a stick before the fire near enough to dry slowly. This may be stored until ready for use. To prepare it should be washed and cooked any way you like pumpkin.

Barbequed Fish
Cut fish into strips or chunks, string on pieces of sharpened sticks, hang over fire. Turn often. Keep before fire until fish no longer drips.

Baked Apple
Pick ripe apples. Cover the apples with hot ashes and live coals, cook until as soft as you want them.

Hominy Corn Drink
Shell corn, soak in lye until the skin can be removed. Beat corn in the beater until size of hominy. Sift meal from the husk particles. Cook corn particles until done. Drink hot or cold or wait until it sours. This will keep except in very hot water.

Quail
Dress bird, put on a stick before the fire or over hot coals and roast real brown. Put browned bird into a pot of water and boil until well done, thicken soup with cornmeal. Season with salt.

Indian Prayer
Here needy he stands,
And I am he.

Over the River...

Fall brings comforting feelings as we begin to prepare for Thanksgiving: traditionally a feast celebrating a bountiful harvest. Family and friends, a healthy year, and living in such a beautiful place are all at the top of my list of things to be thankful for.

As Thanksgiving rolls around for another year, I am reminded of singing the song "Over the River and Through the Woods" and in case you have forgotten the lyrics, here they are...

Over the River

by Lydia Maria Child

Over the river and through the woods,

to Grandmother's house we go.

The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh

through white and drifted snow.

Over the river and through the woods,

oh how the wind does blow.

It stings the toes and bites the nose,

as over the ground we go

Over the river and through the woods,

to have a first rate play.

Oh, hear the bell ring, ting-a -ling-ling,

hurrah for Thanksgiving day!

Over the river and through the woods,

trot fast, my dapple gray!

Spring over the ground like a hunting houd,

for this is Thanksgiving Day!

Over the river and through the woods,

and straight through the barnyard gate;

we seem to go extremely slow,

it is so hard to wait.

Over the river and through the woods,

now Grandmother's cap I spy!

Hooray for the fun!

Is the pudding done?

Hooray for the pumpkin pie!

Hooray for the fun

Is the pudding done?

Hooray for the Thanksgiving Day!