Snacking State-by-State Mashup 4: Huckleberry-Bacon Cheese Tarts with Nutella Powder

For my next mash-up, I had to figure out a way to use up leftover ricotta, sour cream, huckleberry jam and "never-fail" pie crust a la Marcia Adams' Heartland cookbook. Since I didn't have enough pie dough or huckleberry jam to make an actual pie I settled for several smaller tarts. And then I added bacon.

The mashup recipe: Huckleberry-Bacon Cheese Tarts with Nutella Powder


With other mashup recipes, I may look up similar recipes to figure out logistical things: how long to fry the lumpia, how to wrap the maki roll. This time, I more or less followed another recipe - not for tarts but for cheesecake. The recipe comes from Sorrento Cheese's Ricotta Cheese Dessert Recipes (available in a fully searchable PDF). Scroll down to page 4 and you will see the recipe for "New York Style Cheesecake with Strawberries". How to use this recipe to make tarts? I followed the cheesecake portion of the recipe, with some modifications - adding an ingredient here or there, but specifically cutting down the quantities by about a third.

Makes 6 to 8 tarts

Ingredients (state flag indicates State-by-State post where ingredient was featured. Ingredients with no flag were not specifically used for any one post):

Tarts:

leftover pie crust dough (enough for 6 to 8 tarts)

3 pieces bacon, cooked to crispy

2 to 3 tablespoons huckleberry jam (or blueberry jam if you must, due to the limited availability of huckleberry jam outside the Northwest)

5 ounces ricotta cheese

1/4 cup sour cream

whipping cream (whipped, for topping)

1/4 cup soft cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar, plus extra for sweetening the whipping cream

dash vanilla

flour (for rolling out the dough)

1 egg

1 teaspoon lemon zest

juice of lemon

dash salt

Nutella Powder Topping:

25 grams tapioca maltodextrin (measured out on digital scale)

75 grams nutella (measured out on digital scale)

You will also need 6 to 8 small tart tins (I got mine for 60 cents each at the Bed Bath and Beyond), and oil for the insides of the tarts


First, roll out the pie dough. I was using dough left over from the sugar cream pie I made from Marcia Adams' Heartland cookbook. I had just enough dough for six tarts, so that's how many I made. Oil up the sides of the tart tins and lay the dough in them. If and when they break, just patch them up with little pieces of dough. Poke the bottoms and sides several times with a fork.


For the cheese tart filling, measure out your ricotta (I had the digital scale, so I might as well have used it).

Mix together the ricotta, sour cream and cream cheese, stirring for a minute, and then add the sugar, egg, vanilla and lemon.

Action shot!

Assemble your tarts thusly:


First add some of the cheese filling - it will be somewhat thin.


Next, drop a small dollop of huckleberry jam in the center of each tart


And then sprinkle bacon pieces atop each tart.


Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes at 350 degrees, and let cool.

You could just eat them like this, but you don't want to do that, do you? I chose to flex my nascent molecular gastronomy muscles yet again, hoping to get something more powder-like than the olive oil powder that I had made a while back. By following the video that Will Goldfarb filmed for Gourmet magazine on how to make nutella powder - and yes, this is more or less his recipe and procedure, so credit where it is due - I actually did this time.

For the nutella powder (or "soil" as Goldfarb calls it), measure out your nutella and tapioca maltodextrin exactly.


I was surprised at how much smaller 75 grams of nutella were...


...than 25 grams of tapioca maltodextrin.

Here's where I made my mistake before, I think. I used a hand whisk, which was correct, but whisked the olive oil and tapioca maltodextrin very quickly. What Goldfarb does is whisk it sloooooowly.


Yes, it still clumped inside the whisk at first, but it did so in the video, so I decided to be patient this time and keep at it.


In just a few short minutes, the clump broke itself down, and I got a wet sand sort of powder. Patience - not one of my virtues - paid off this time.


If you want whipped cream as an additional garnish, whip it up and sweeten it, and put it on the side, or top the tart first with the whipped cream and then the nutella powder.

The tarts were not terribly sweet, which was a nice way to let the sweetness of the huckleberry and the nutella come out. I don't know if cooks in the Northwest combine bacon and huckleberry very often, but in this recipe they went together very well. I imagine the same could be said for the closely-related blueberry, but that's for me to try another time.

In the pipeline...

Of course, blogging has been light due to the recent family emergency. However, some things are indeed in the works:

* Find out in a few weeks why I went all the way to Starbucks just to get a straw. And how this relates to the sheer overload of mint I have in my garden.

* Gas prices have finally gotten below $3.50. Hanover, Elkridge and Linthicum await my next trip Back to the Beltway.

* They sell alligator meat at Lexington Market, don't they?

* With Dad in the hospital, it's time to examine another local hospital's cafeteria and its food offerings: cheap for what you are getting, but worth that equally cheap price.

Flying Green Tomatoes

Yesterday's installment of NPR's Fresh Air featured Barry Estabrook, author of Tomatoland, which investigates just why our plump and beautiful supermarket tomatoes also taste like soggy styrofoam. In short, they are bred for weight and aesthetics, not for taste, because the farmers get paid by the pound, not by the "Mmmm":

"For the last 50 or more years, tomato breeders have concentrated essentially on one thing and that is yield — they want plants that yield as many or as much as possible," writer Barry Estabrook tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "They also want those fruits to be able to stand up to being harvested, packed, artificially turned orange [with ethylene gas] and then shipped away and still be holding together in the supermarket a week or 10 days later." [NPR 2011]

His opening vignette with Gross discusses how a few of these mutant Florida green tomatoes flew off a truck near his car while he was driving down the road. They almost broke his window. But what he later saw was not damaged tomatoes, but still perfectly formed and firm green tomatoes on their way to have whatever it is Big Ag does with that ethylene gas to them to turn them red extra fast.

Click on the link at the beginning to go to the podcast page.

Snacking State-by-State: Iowa II - It just ain't salad without bacon grease

This project would have been so much more difficult without the insights and travel experience of Jane and Michael Stern, whose Roadfood books have been cited and utilized various times throughout this State-by-State round-up. I turn again to the semi-regular guests of NPR's Splendid Table for the lowdown on a few more Iowa curiosities.

Official Name: State of Iowa
State Nicknames: The Hawkeye State
Admission to the US: December 28, 1846 (#29)
Capital: Des Moines (largest city)
Other Important Cities: Cedar Rapids (2nd largest), Davenport (3rd largest), Sioux City (4th largest)
Region: Midwest; East North Central (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Cornbread & BBQ, Bison
Bordered by: Minnesota (north); North Dakota, Nebraska (west); Missouri (south); Illinois, Wisconsin & the Mississippi River (east)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: none
Some Famous & Typical Foods: again, typical Midwestern foods, especially corn; Native American and pioneer foods; soybeans; Red Delicious and "Hawkeye" apples; Dutch, German, Amish and Scandinavian foods

One dish that specifically caught my attention speaks to Iowa's notable Dutch-American community, this time in and around central Iowa. When the Sterns described the dish that Sully and Pella residents refer to as Dutch lettuce, my mind went back to my visit to Amsterdam a few years ago, where I sampled so many wonderful things. And then I sampled Dutch food. Don't get me wrong: the stroopwafels and pannenkoeken were lovely. The other Dutch curiosities were, well, niet lekker. Let's just say I won't be eating hutspot again.

That said, I know I should not pan a whole cuisine. This last month, I learned that in my exploration of Midwestern food. This time, I better give Dutch food another chance. And I will do that with the dish that the Sterns describe as a combo of, at least, "hard-boiled eggs, bacon, sweet-and-sour dressing, and, of course, lettuce" (Stern and Stern 2009: 241). This time I figured I would give Roadfood a rest, and try to find another recipe for Dutch lettuce. I was successful, finding a recipe on the website for the Pella Historical Village. Their Dutch recipe section features a slew - er, a slaw - of Dutch recipes for breads, desserts, soups and salads. Did I mention their recipe for "Dutch Mess"? It's the Stern recipe, but with potatoes.

The recipe: Dutch Lettuce with Potatoes (Slaw met Aardappels, or Dutch Mess)


For this version of Dutch lettuce, originally given to the Pella Historical Village by Jo Harmeling & Jenny Messer (of Pella, I assume), you will need:

* lettuce (well duhhhhh. Fortunately the lettuce in my garden is literally exploding right now. I had lettuce. Lots of it).
* potatoes (had them. This does not seem to be a common thread running through all Dutch lettuce recipes)
* green onion or sweet onion, chopped (the Sterns' recipe calls for sweet onion; PHV's needs scallions instead. I picked up a bunch for a few bucks).
* hard boiled eggs (had them)
* bacon (both the bacon itself and the grease, which you will need below. Yes, I actually ran out of bacon, so I needed to buy some - $5 for a package at Harris Teeter)
* the dressing that you will make from the following: the aforementioned bacon grease, plus apple cider vinegar, one raw egg (yes, in addition to all the hard boiled ones), sugar, flour and butter (had them all)


Before making the dressing, prep your other components.


Wash the lettuce and chop or rip it up into medium or small pieces. The Sterns suggest a crispy lettuce like iceberg, but I settled for what was growing in my garden (which tastes better than iceberg lettuce anyway). Boil the potatoes till soft. You will smash them a little, or at least chop them up. It doesn't have to look perfect. Also boil your eggs so you will have them ready to put in your salad.

Next, make the sweet-and-sour dressing. This is actually the most tedious part, and I don't think I got it quite right.


First, melt the butter, and blend in a little flour, and then some water.


As you bring that to a boil, mix in a separate bowl your raw egg, sugar and apple cider vinegar. Add this to the pot and let it come back to a boil.


Next, fry (or cheat like I did and microwave) up the bacon. The recipe suggests you cut up the bacon before cooking it. Save the bacon grease. You will end up adding it to the dressing. I put all of mine into the pot, since I didn't really get that much bacon grease. Stir occasionally and keep it heated on the stove.

And it may or may not look like this.

Now to assemble the Dutch lettuce.


Start with a layer of potatoes.


Next, add some of your lettuce.


Then some sliced hard-boiled egg...


...some of the bacon...


...and a good amount of your dressing.


Finish it off with the rest of the potatoes, lettuce, eggs and bacon.

You are supposed to serve this up while the dressing is hot, though for leftovers, I just ate it all cold.


I have to say, my expectations were not very high for this salad. However, I was pleasantly surprised by it. The flavors and textures together made for an extremely hearty salad. This is no side salad we're talking about. With the eggs, potatoes, bacon and dressing over all that lettuce, this is a meal unto itself. It lasted me for several days. Though the dressing is, again, tedious to make, this is one salad I would be willing to try again. Dutch food is again redeemed!

We're not quite out of the Midwest yet. Somewhere nearby, just south of Nebraska, just west of Missouri, lies Kansas with its prairies, wheat fields and twisters. And I don't even have to go over any rainbows to get there. Y'hear me, Auntie Em? I'm comin' for you, express-style.

Sources:

Pella Historical Village. "Old Dutch Recipes - Pella Tulip Time". Copyright 2011 Pella Historical Village.

Stern, Jane, and Michael Stern. 500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Boston, 2009.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Iowa" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Iowa".

Updates...

Blogging has, of course, been sparse of late. My father is in the hospital again, stable but he may be there for a while until he gets better. For now posting will be light, except for some auto-posts from the "State-by-State" series that are in the pipeline.

The "New" Bread Maker

My old secondhand Regal bread maker had to be replaced. The bread pan was so buckled in on itself that bread no longer comes out easily. Even worse, the paddle is missing somewhere around my apartment. So after much window shopping and internet surfing for $90 bread makers, I threw up my hands and went to the Goodwill, where I found a simple, low-end second hand bread maker from Zojirushi for all of eight bucks. It has four settings, one being a dough only one. That's good enough for me.


I tested it on one of my State-by-State series recipes, which you will read about in a few weeks. The bread came out beautifully. Sure it's just a one pound loaf, but I don't eat that much bread anyway.

Snacking State-by-State: Iowa I - Loose Meats Sink, er, Tractors?

Continuing my whirlwind tour of the Midwest, I explore some of the dishes unique to, or easily found in, Iowa, the home of The Music Man, the nation's first presidential caucus of election season and corn - lots of corn.

Official Name: State of Iowa
State Nicknames: The Hawkeye State
Admission to the US: December 28, 1846 (#29)
Capital: Des Moines (largest city)
Other Important Cities: Cedar Rapids (2nd largest), Davenport (3rd largest), Sioux City (4th largest)
Region: Midwest; East North Central (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Cornbread & BBQ, Bison
Bordered by: Minnesota (north); North Dakota, Nebraska (west); Missouri (south); Illinois, Wisconsin & the Mississippi River (east)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: none
Some Famous & Typical Foods: again, typical Midwestern foods, especially corn; Native American and pioneer foods; soybeans; Red Delicious and "Hawkeye" apples; Dutch, German, Amish and Scandinavian foods

Marcia Adams (who wrote the Heartland cookbook, which I've been using a lot lately), notes that Iowa is home to German, Dutch and Scandinavian immigrants, as well as Americans from the South and the Great Lakes region (yes, Midwesterners moving further west). These folks brought their food traditions, sometimes combining them with the local foods grown by Native Americans. Mind you, this is not just corn country, but soybean country and pork country as well. According to the Iowa Farm Bureau, Iowa is the leading producer of both corn and soybeans in the nation, and over a quarter of all pork sold in the United States comes from Iowa (Iowa Farm Bureau 2011).

Strange, then, that I did not eat anything with corn or soy in it. I take that back: it's quite probable that something I used in this recipe had some sort of corn or soy derivative in it, since both these crops are everywhere, both in our foods and elsewhere.

My first recipe is an Iowan classic. This sandwich goes by many names, so notes Jane and Michael Stern - another two authors whose books I have constantly consulted over the past month of recipes: "Big T, Charlie Boy, and Tastee" (Stern and Stern 2009: 266). The Sterns point to the origin of this fast food favorite in Sioux City's Ye Olde Tavern - hence the popular name "the tavern" - by David Heglin in 1924. By the time the place closed almost 50 years later, it was being eaten all over northwestern Iowa (Stern and Stern 2009).

If you don't want to make this, you can find it at the Stewart's Root Beer on Route 40 in Rosedale. The one time I went there on my Beltway Snacking tour, I didn't quite know what to make of their "steamburger". The steamburger is, in essence, the loosemeats sandwich. Don't ask me how it made it out of northwest Iowa but it did.

If you do want to make this, it's easy, as I followed a recipe that the Sterns published in their Roadfood Sandwiches cookbook (yes, the same one from which I got the Indiana breaded pork tenderloin sandwich and the Illinois horseshoe sandwich). There are different versions of this recipe, as cherished from family to family as is recipes for our crab cake. The Sterns post a different loosemeats recipe on their Roadfood website. But again, I stuck with the book.

The recipe: Loosemeats

I am not sure which restaurant provided the Sterns with their recipe, but I assume this is a typical one: tomato-free, though it has a flavor that is just rich enough that you realize you don't need them. Not even in ketchup form.

For the Sterns' loosemeats sandwich - enough for four servings - you will need:


* one pound ground beef (on sale at the Harris Teeter for about $5.50)
* oil in which to brown the ground beef (had peanut oil on hand)
* an onion (all I had were shallots and a red onion; I used the latter)
* red wine vinegar (this will give it a tang since you will not be using tomatoes in any format)
* salt and pepper (natch)
* hamburger buns (had them)
* various condiments, including pickles, mustard and cheese (all optional)


First, brown the ground beef in a skillet, breaking it up into small pieces - the Sterns say to "worry" the meat. (I like that description). Once the meat is worried, chop the onion and add it to the meat (to make it cry) with some salt (to rub into the wound - oh wow, I'm on a roll here. And soon, so will the loosemeats!). Ignore the bad puns, and cook until light brown.


Drain the meat when it is light brown, and then add the vinegar, pepper and enough water to cover it almost completely. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes. The water should almost be simmered off; scoop the meat out with a slotted spoon if it isn't.


Scoop onto hamburger buns, and top with whatever you like - mustard, pickles, cheese - so long as it isn't tomato based.


I liked this unusual and easy sandwich. The vinegar gives it a zing that I don't expect from ground beef. I topped mine with leftover shredded mozzarella and provolone, and it melted right in place. Eat it with or without cheese - it is just as tasty either way. The easiness of this sandwich is, I think, one of its best attributes. The only downside, and it's not a big one, is that it is much better fresh out of the pan than it is reheated. One word of advice: heat the meat separately, and then put it on the bun. It's also better to spoon the meat onto the bigger half of the bun. Both pieces of advice should minimize how sopping wet your roll may become unless you eat it immediately.

Sources:

Adams, Marcia. Heartland: The Best of the Old and the New from Midwest Kitchens. Clarkson Potter: New York, 1991.

Iowa Farm Bureau. "Ag Facts". Copyright Iowa Farm Bureau, 2011.

Stern, Jane, and Michael Stern. 500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Boston, 2009.

Stern, Jane, and Michael Stern. Roadfood Sandwiches. Houghton Mifflin: New York, 2007.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Iowa" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Iowa".

Adams Morgan for Capital Pride

I was in DC last Saturday night for Capital Pride. No I wasn't living it up, but I did eat out and then crashed at a friend's place before our Sunday morning soccer game and then my first ever visit to DC's pride festival. Said dinner was at Casa Oaxaca on 18th Street in Adams Morgan. Casa Oaxaca brings not just Mexican, but specifically Oaxacan dishes to DC diners. I had been meaning to head here for a while but was always flummoxed with the variety of restaurants.

I chose to eat downstairs in their softly-lit, earthy-colored restaurant. The menu does not offer much in the way of cheap eats - average entrée prices are about $15 to $25. Casa Oaxaca notably has a dizzying array of moles, a Oaxacan specialty. It's not just mole poblano.: it's red moles and black moles, yellow, orange and green ones. There was even a fig-based mole that intrigued me enough to seriously consider ordering. Eventually I went ahead with their three mole plate ($19) - red, black and green moles smothering a nice piece of chicken breast, with beans, Oaxacan cheese and small corn tortillas. It's a delicious combo that gives you a nice sample of several moles that would be pricey to order on their own.

Much of my bill came from what I ordered to drink - unusual for me, since I rarely order anything pricier than a small sake when I get sushi. In addition to the obligatory Mexican beer (Dos Equis on draft for $5.50), I considered ordering one shot from their extensive tequila list - I wasn't driving anywhere. Instead, I moved my eyes to their mezcal list. Most mezcales are made in Oaxaca (unlike the more Jalisco-based tequila), and so it seemed appropriate. Since I have no experience ordering mezcal I had no idea what to order. The waiter recommended the Del Maguey Minero ($10 - they were all that much), which goes well with moles. After the obligatory offering to Mayahuel, the Aztec goddess of fertility and of maguey (the source of mezcal)* I very slowly sipped the warm, tangy shot of mezcal while I ate. This may be why it didn't hit me so hard. Mezcal is strong if you drink it all at once, and since I was spending so much for such a small glass of alcohol, I intended to make it last.

To finish off my meal, I ordered a chocolate flan ($6), a silky and rich custard that also went well with this brand of mezcal. This topped off what ended up being, after tax and tip, a $50 bill. That is not chump change for me, and it is the rare time that I will spend so much on one meal. Heck, that's usually two or three meals out for me. But I'm not eating in Adams Morgan often, and I thought I would splurge for once. Yes, for me that is a splurge.

Before meeting up with my friend, I walked over to the 18th & U Duplex Diner for a few Sierra Nevadas on tap, while I navigated around all the much more drunken gays in silly beads from the day's parade, and watching the United States lose their CONCACAF Gold Cup match to a Panamanian team they were roundly expected to defeat.

* Now that I have an Android phone, I decided to look up how to drink mezcal while I was in the restaurant (these devices are pretty handy). Traditionally, among other things that I was in no place to do, one makes an offering to Mayahuel by spilling a little mezcal on the ground. I stuck my fingers in the glass and flicked a little on the floor. Hey, I don't want to take any chances here.

Whole Foods Parking Lot

It's gettin' real by the quinoa...

by Fog and Smog Films

Bubba Gump in Harborplace

Hey Phil, make room for Bubba. This from Richard Gorelick of The Sun:

That didn't take long. The anchor restaurant space in Harborplace's Light Street Pavilion that for 31 years was home to Phillips has a new tenant. Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., "the first restaurant group based on a motion picture," will occupy the space previously occupied by Phillips Seafood Restaurant and Phillips Express.

It's the first in Maryland and the Chesapeake region, though Gorelick points out that they almost got here as early as 1998. Next question: will Bubba Gump be getting their shrimp from Thailand?

Snacking State-by-State: Indiana II - Sugar cream pie, honey bun...

The Midwest has significant Amish and Quaker populations - especially Indiana, whose LaGrange County boasts the second largest Amish population in the country. While our own nearby Pennsylvania Dutch neighbors have brought on the shoofly pie, in Indiana their most well known pie-based contribution to the local fare seems to be the sugar cream pie.

Official Name: State of Indiana
State Nicknames: The Hoosier State
Admission to the US: December 11, 1816 (#19)
Capital: -Indianapolis (largest city)
Other Important Cities: Fort Wayne (2nd largest); Evansville (3rd largest); South Bend (4th largest); Gary (5th largest - let me thththay it onththth agaaaaaiinnn)
Region: Midwest, Great Lakes; East North Central (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Cornbread & BBQ, Wild Rice, Maple Syrup
Bordered by: Lake Michigan (northwest); Michigan (north); Ohio (east); Indiana (east); Kentucky (south); Illinois (west)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: water (beverage - no, seriously, I am not making this up); sugar / "Hoosier" cream pie (pie)
Some Famous & Typical Foods: American Indian (especially Shawnee) foods like buffalo, deer, turkey, corn, maple syrup and wild rice); again, Hoosier cream pie, breaded pork tenderloin sandwich; Wonder Bread; popcorn

This sugar cream pie sounds as sweet as it is, and is much easier to make. In part, it is so simple because of the spartan spate of ingredients that go into the pie, often prepped right in the shell. Marcia Adams, whose Heartland cookbook I have visited several times since I started investigating the Midwest and its foods, points out that this pie - also called a poor man's pie or a milk pie - is a simple pie often made from leftover pie dough scraps, milk, cream and sugar. This very popular Hoosier pie is even the official state pie - a much more interesting official food than the state beverage, which is water.

That's right: water.

After using Adams as a reference since I started looking at Illinois, I knew it was time to use one of her recipes. This pie comes from the same recipe featured in her Heartland cookbook, provided to her by Charlanne Dixon, Floridian but originally from Southern Indiana. This replicates the same pie from her youth.

The recipe: Sugar Cream Pie

For this recipe, you can make any old pie crust, but I decided to use Adams' recommended "Never Fail Pie Crust" which includes hardened vegetable shortening, flour, ice water, cider vinegar and eggs among other things (but no butter). It is indeed a deliciously flaky pie crust.


Apart from that pie crust, you will need:

* sugar (um, duh)
* milk and heavy whipping cream (had to buy the cream, about $2.50 for a cup - a half-pint - size carton)
* flour to thicken, and salt (had 'em)
* butter (had it)
* vanilla and nutmeg (had these on hand as well)

Once you have the pie crust made (or bought, or whatever), you will assemble the pie the following way:


First, mix the sugar, butter (still hard), salt and flour in a food processor until smooth (the closest to "smooth" I got was "soft and crumbly" but it still worked).


Dump the mixture into your pie shell and spread it out.


Next, pour the cream over the sugar mixture.


Here's where it gets different - take your fingers and gently mix it together. Make sure you do not break or tear the bottom of the pastry while doing this!


As for the vanilla and milk: combine the two together...


...and pour into the pie shell. Sprinkle nutmeg on top. Then bake it in a preheated 300°F oven for all of 90 minutes. Adams notes that it is a slow baking pie, and must be baked for this long.


When it's done, it will still bubble and wiggle. That's normal. But let it cool completely before cutting.

In terms of appearance, this pie reminded me a little bit of buttermilk pie, which of course does not cook nearly as long. The taste is different from any pie I have experienced. Of course it is sweet and creamy. What I did not expect was its very slight saltiness, a nice addition to this very sweet pie. You don't add a whole lot of salt to this dish, but it is there. Perhaps this comes from Adams' pie crust? Again, it's not unwelcome, but it adds an interesting flavor to this pie. It is so damn easy to make, this Midwestern pie might pop up alongside that breaded tenderloin sandwich in my very Mid-Atlantic kitchen again.


Next on my culinary tour of the Midwest, I cross back over Illinois to the state of early caucuses and Music Men. What does Iowa have to offer someone who isn't running for his or her party's nomination? I am not sure at this point. So I really ought to give Iowa a try.

Sources:

Adams, Marcia. Heartland: The Best of the Old and the New from Midwest Kitchens. Clarkson Potter: New York, 1991.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Indiana" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Indiana".