Pioneer Day

By Keith N Fisher

First off, I keep getting compliments about this blog from a good friend of mine. He never leaves a comment, but he tells me at church. Just a note to say, Hi Jess.

Second, I have to update something I said before. Apparently, the powers that be in our ward tried to reserve the park for our annual Pioneer Day (24th of July) dinner and they couldn’t get it. They tried another park and couldn’t get it either. So, with a heavy heart I announce, we won’t be cooking for our church group this year. Too bad, we were planning some scrumptious food. I’ll save the recipes for next year, or whenever I have to cook for three hundred or so.

What are you doing in honor of the Mormon Pioneers who crossed the plains to the Salt Lake Valley? Even if you’re not religious and you live in Utah, chances are, you have a day off from work, so what are you going to do with it?

Can I recommend cooking pioneer recipes in your Dutch ovens? You could combine a great meal with a learning experience. Many of our old standby recipes were staples cooked by our forefathers.

A few years ago, I was involved with an event called The Wagon Train Cook off. Everyone was required to cook a recipe from the nineteenth century. Preferably, something that might have been cooked during the migration.

We ended up with things like bison and apple pie. Some cooks didn’t observe the rules, but others made some pretty simple recipes. Wendy and I made bean soup, sour dough bread and a pie we found in an old cookbook. The research taught me about using fat for flavor when cooking meats. I also found some great recipes from my grandmother’s cookbook.

I’m not sure what I’ll be cooking this weekend, but I’d like to hear some of your ideas. Send me your recipe and I’ll place it here on the blog, along with your picture. Maybe I’ll persuade my closet to cough up a prize, although I’m not sure how to decide who wins . . . Oh, I know, random drawing of all who respond. The email address without the dots and ampersands is uvdutch at live dot com.

Have a great holiday weekend and cook something delicious.