Vernon WadeThere are lots of cooks out there who actually know what they are doing. I pretty much taught myself to cook, out of necessity. I haven’t a clue most of the time, but I do love to eat. 

I have made everything posted here. If I can do it, you certainly can. Someday, if there is enough interest, I will gather all these recipes into a cookbook. In the meantime, in the spirit of dashes, dollops and three-fingered pinches, I present them here for you to try. Let me know what you think.

This was a slow cooker recipe I adapted to the Dutch Oven. You can use any mushrooms and any large hunk of pork.

 

Ingredients

 

  • 3-4 pound pork roast
  • 4 large cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 large white onion peeled and cubed
  • 3-4 cups morels, if you can get them
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 2 heaping Tbs cornstarch
  • chopped sage to taste-I used half a handful
  • thyme to taste-almost as much as the sage
  • coarse salt and pepper to taste, probably a good three fingered pinch each

Preheat Dutch oven and place roast inside. Add broth and sprinkle meat evenly with salt, pepper and herbs. Put the lid on and cook for 4 hours, enough coals on top and bottom for a hot oven. An hour in, add the onions. If the meat has seared on top roll it over ¼ turn. Do this once an hour, to cook the meat evenly. Replenish your coals as needed to maintain heat, and turn the pot and lid every so often to avoid hot spots. At 3 hours add the morels, whole if small, or chopped bite-sized if you prefer.

 

Gravy

Remove pork to a covered skillet on a trivet over 2-3 coals to keep warm. Whisk 2 heaping spoonful’s of cornstarch into 1/3rd cup of water and stir into broth and mushrooms in the Dutch oven.  Reduce heat; you can leave the pot uncovered and stir gravy occasionally until the consistency is smooth and creamy. Serve over pork roast.

 

Recipe for Rhubarb Pudgy Pie

Ingredients 

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 tbs flour
  • 2 cups rhubarb, finely cut
  • 1 tube crescent roll counterwop dough
  • lard or butter

 

Combine flour and sugar and shake it over the cut-up rhubarb, mixing it so rhubarb is coated. Allow rhubarb to soak into flour and sugar, add a splash of water and cook until soft.

Thoroughly grease a pie iron with lard, butter or Crisco. Unroll counterwop  dough and cut of enough to line the pie iron. Force it into the corners and up over the edges of the iron, thinning it with pressure from your fingers as you press it into the iron. Spoon in a generous heping of rhubarb pie filling, and latch iron shut. Place iron on coals. Turn frequently, don’t be afraid to check the pie for browning. Hot coals should yield a perfect pie in about 5 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.