My mother was a grade school librarian for more than 20 years. One of the lessons she taught was a unit on Laura Inglalls Wilder that concluded with a big party where students made food from the period of Ingalls' life. The party was a popular event on the school calendar and on a few occasions, drew the attention of local media. Here is an article from the April 3, 1986 edition of The Howard County Times:
Area fifth graders get a good taste of the 'Prairie" life
by Donna Ellis
While it's true that Laura Ingalls Wilder didn't pen a book called Little Library in Howard County, she would nonetheless have felt "right to home" recently at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Ellicott City. Indeed, the works of the woman whose writing inspired the popular television series "Little House on the Prairie," was the subject of a three-month study by the school's 29 fifth graders-a study culminating in a tasting of foods Wilder wrote about in her nine books and which also appear in the The Little House Cookbook.
With dark, paneled walls, wooden shelves and windows (yes, windows), the library itself provided a pleasant backdrop for this time capsule event. Even the students-their "modern" parochial school uniforms notwithstanding-were refreshingly eager to be a part of the learning (and eating) experience.
The experience -the second annual and fast becoming a much-anticipated tradition-is the brainchild of Our Lady of Perpetual Help librarian (for two years) Judy Bouligny of Columbia. Herself enamored of the Wilder books, she deemed them perfect subject matter as a special project for Grade Five students. (If you delve deeper, Judy will even admit she negotiated a side-trip to DeSmet, S. Dak.-site of Little House on the Prairie-as the price of her accompanying her husband and two sons to the Expo in Vancover this summer.)
Meanwhile, she's been getting herself and her students, of course, into a back-to-the-past mood by having each of them read and report on one of the nine Wilder books. Students' favorites are Little House on the Prairie, Little Town of the Prairie, The Golden Years (the latter two about Laura's teen years and the early years of her marriage) and Farmer Boy, about husband Almanzo's boyhood.
Hardtack
But today the work is done-at least for the students. They're here to sample the food they've been reading about, to find out first hand, for example, if a breakfast of popped corn (no butter or salt) with milk can stand up to a bowl of Count Chocula.
The library this afternoon is redolent of frying bacon, to which onions and apples are being added. And baked beans. And venison. Warming trays, an electric skillet, even a microwave aid Bouligny and Sharon Evans (aka A Parent Volunteer, aka "Allison's Mother") in keeping hot foods hot. And even though it's just after lunch, expressions are avid on students' faces as Bouligny describes the items on the menu.
The 14 or so offerings include the very popular Vanity Cakes, Corn Bread ("not as high as you get from the Jiffy Box," notes Judy) and Sour Dough Biscuits fried in bacon drippings.
There's hard candy, a special treat back then. And Hardtack, an indispensable and indestructible traveling companion, which Judy cautions students to dip into liquid before attempting to chew. Oh, and one of the great favorites - crisp leaf lettuce, dipped lightly in vinegar, sprinkled with brown sugar, rolled into cigar shapes and happily munched.
For dessert, there's a re-creation, thanks to Sharon Evans, of Laura Ingalls' wedding cake - a dense, not-too-sweet, buttery "pound" cake with a delicious "crusty" egg white glaze that was designed to keep cakes fresh and mosit in dry weather. And all washed down with homemade lemonade, presented authentically without ice.
Time Machine
Since January, through Laura Ingalls Wilder's words and with Judy Bouligny's help, these fifth graders have learned something of what life was like back a century or so ago. And today, they've sampled what the food was like, as well. Does all this inspire in them the desire to turn the clock back to simpler, more hard-working and some would say better-fed times?
Allison Evans is so inspired. "The food's better than the food we have now," she opines. And Beth Pegel allows as how it has "a more homemade taste. I'd like to live back in those days, even though I'd have to work hard."
Despite the fact he's broken a brace on the hardtack, Todd Newell likes the food from "back then. But not the work," he adds decisively.
Kiauhna Braddy deems everything "delicious. I'd like to live back then, even with all the hard work. Hard work. That's what gets you through life."
Janelle Thomas thinks living back then would be "neat." And Brian DuVall considers that life a "challenge."
Some students are a bit more cautious. N'Hari Patters says he'd like to live in the past "for about a year and a half. Then if I don't like it, I could come back."
And Rhonda Lee would go back but only for a little while. "It's like New York," she quips. "It's a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there..."
To get your own taste of the past, try these...
Fried apples 'n' onions
This dish is mentioned in Farmer Boy, the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder's husband, Almanzo: "They had talked about spareribs, and turkey with dressing, and baked beans, and crackling cornbread, and other good things. But Almanzo said that what he liked most is the world was fried apples 'n' onions..."
The recipe is from The Little House Cookbook, which is available through bookstores offering special-order services.
1/2 pound bacon or salt pork, sliced
6 (2 pounds) yellow onions
6 (2 pounds) tart apples
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Fry bacon or salt pork slices in skillet until brown and crisp. Set aside on a warm serving platter.
While meat is frying, peel onions, leaving stems to hold for slicing. To prevent eyes from watering, hold a slice of bread in your teeth while you slice onions as thin as possible. Discard stems.
Core apples and cut into crosswise circles about 1/4 inch thick. Apple skins help slices keep their shape and add color to the dish, so don't peel unless skins are tough or scarred.
Drain all but 1 tablespoon of fat from skillet, then add onion slices. Cook, over medium-high heat, for about 3 minutes. Cover with apple slices in an even layer. Sprinkle brown sugar over all, cover skillet nd cook until tender, a few minutes more. Stir only to prevent scorching. Remove to the warm platter with bacon or salt porch slices.
Makes 6 servings.
Vanity cakes
Laura's mother named them such because the batter for these treats puffed up like a vain person when it was fried. They are mentioned in On the Banks of Plum Creek. The recipe is from The Little House Cookbook.
1 to 2 pounds lard
1 large egg
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
A shakerful of powdered sugar
Using enough lard in a deep fat fryer or kettle (more authentic) to produce a depth of 3 inches, heat it to 350 [degrees]
In a bowl, beat egg and salt for a full minute. Beat in thoroughly 1/4 cup of the flour. Add more flour, a tablespoon at a time, until batter is too stiff for beating but too soft to roll out.
Cover a dinner plate with flour. With a teaspoon, spoon batter onto plate in 6 seperate portions. With a knife, turn each spoonful of dough over to flour it, then drop it into the hot lard. Aim for a limp but compact dough mass that will not string out when it leaves the knife. If working with a mini-fryer, cook no more that one at a time.
Cook each cake for at least 3 1/2 minutes, during which time it may need help in turning. If it darkens quickly, the fat is too hot. Drain cakes on brown paper and dust with powered sugar.
Makes 6 cakes
