Dwight's Grilled Pork Chops

Dwight’s Grilled Pork Chops
Dorcas Annette Walker

My son, Dwight, came to my rescue again this week when my husband was back in the hospital with lung problems. It has been a slow recovery process since my husband had his open heart 4 by-pass surgery over three months ago. Yesterday when Dana tried to do some cardio rehab he nearly went into cardiac arrest. So I’ve not had much time to spend in the kitchen lately. With the summer heat wave and high humidity that has blanketed the mountain a hot stove or oven is the last place I’d want to be near for any length of time anyway.

I have never been a real meat eater like the fellows in my household; especially pork. Secretly I was thrilled that pork is mainly ruled out on a cardiac diet. But one day- one of those days when your mind comes up absolutely blank- despite gazing at all the food in the freezer and pantry and browsing through recipes for an idea for something quick to make up for supper as I was running out of time, Dwight came home. When I told him my about my dilemma over what to make for supper, in true male fashion, Dwight shrugged he shoulders like it wasn’t that big of a deal and offered to grill something. Since Dwight had mastered grilling hamburgers and hot dogs to his satisfaction he decided to try pork chops while I made a vegetable and potatoes. To my surprise Dwight had the meat done before I was finished. I chose the smallest pork chop and took a tiny bite. It actually tasted good. I took another bite thinking that my hunger had overridden or paralyzed my taste buds. The next bite was even better. Now folks if I think a pork chop- considering that I don’t even like pork chops- tastes delicious you know that it has to be something exceptional. When I asked Dwight what he had done to those pork chops to make them taste so good, I was delighted to find out that he had used a simple method. The next time Dwight made up some of his pork chops, I also had him do potatoes on the gas grill as well. Why should I slave in the kitchen if my son will cook? So this week when Dwight came to my rescue and grilled up some pork chops I followed him around with my camera (to catch my son in action) along with a pen and paper to write it all down in order to pass his recipe along to you. The next hot and humid day try some of Dwight’s Grilled Pork Chops that I promise are finger-lickin good.

Dwight’s Grilled Pork Chops

4 pork chops
garlic salt
regular salt & pepper
spray cooking oil

Spray the racks with oil and turn on the gas grill. When the racks are hot lay a pork chop on the top rack, sprinkle on the salts, and pepper. Then spray the meat with cooking oil to hold in the meat juices, turn over, and do the other side the same way. Turn the heat to low and close the lid for five minutes. Turn over the pork chops and brown the other side the same way. Preparation time is around fifteen minutes and this recipe serves four. Serve browned pork chops immediately. You can garnish with apple sauce or cooked apples!

Weekly tip: To round out a grilled meal of meat, vegetables, and potatoes, try something different and grill fresh fruit for dessert as well. Grilled fruit actually tastes sweeter!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com

Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches

Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches
Dorcas Annette Walker

Summertime madness, as any parent brave enough to confess will tell you, is not the local grocery or department store sales, but their offspring out of school during the summer. For some reason the summer heat that drains and exhausts an adult doesn’t seem to have any effect on children. If anything it rejuvenates their systems. I shake my head over the many escapades my sister, brother, and I got into during the summer as kids. We dug underground houses that turned into forts or tepees when we hit solid rock a couple of feet down. When it rained and the holes in the ground became flooded we climbed trees swinging dangerously from the treetops or explored the surrounding countryside daring each other to jump off of dizzying heights. The fact that not one of us ever suffered a broken bone during our growing up years was not due to our prowess, but the guardian angels watching over us. I can often remember the look of shock on my mother’s face (when after a long day’s work at the local hospital) we proudly showed off our handiwork or bragged about what all we had done that day as she shook her head speechless in despair over our dirt encrusted bodies and torn clothing. Living out of state we didn’t have any close relatives to keep an eye on us and we were too poor to have a babysitter while my dad was laid up with internal bleeds. As long as we showed up in one piece for mealtime, my dad figured we were doing okay.

When I became a mother I determined that my children were not going to be left unattended to run wild during the summertime. Somehow even with close supervision my daughter, who inherited my sister’s tomboy personality, managed to wreck her bike every time I turned my back until her elbows and knees remained covered in splotches of red mercurochrome as bandages were quickly torn off in “playing”. As soon as one spot healed up Dawn had another accident. Four-year-old Dwight one summer somehow managed under his father’s nose (while working outside and “keeping an eye on his son”) to firmly nail down a decrepit looking board on top of our new wooden front porch that stuck out at a jagged angle- the first thing anyone noticed when approaching our home. Dwight had put so many nails into that one board crossing the porch in a way that my husband would have had to rip up almost half of the porch. Instead Dwight’s “diving board” became a conservation piece. Another hot summer Sunday afternoon while we were taking a nap, Dwight dug three large holes in our front yard to plant “trees”- brush that my husband was clearing on our land.

I try to look sympathetic and wait to chuckle later when my daughter complains of all the wild antics that my grandchildren get into during the summertime- even when she is keeping an eye on them. So far this summer my granddaughter has broken her arm falling off the trampoline while my grandson cut his finger playing with a pocket knife requiring stitches, blacked his eye, and stepped barefooted on a pitchfork. My daughter has been kept busy running my grandchildren back and forth between the ER and the local doctor’s office. What my daughter doesn’t realize is that with the inherited genes her children carry and summertime madness, she doesn’t stand a chance.

Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches

1 brownie mix (your choice)
1 qt vanilla ice cream

Prepare the brownie mix according to the directions- you can add more water if needed- and spread the batter into a greased rectangular cookie sheet. Bake at 350º for fifteen minutes and let cool. Cut in half and transfer upside down into a 9 x 13 baking dish. Soften ice cream and layer over the top half of the brownie. Top with the remaining brownie. Cover and freeze until firm. Cut into eight pieces and serve!

Weekly tip: You can substitute any cake mix or use a different flavor of ice cream to make you own individualized Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches. For easier transfer line the cookie sheet with wax paper or tinfoil before baking!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com

Ole Fashion German/Mennonite Slaw

Ole Fashion German/Mennonite Slaw
Dorcas Annette Walker

The hot sultry days of summertime reminds me of childhood summers spent at religious camps without the benefit of air conditioning that we consider a necessity today. The three services a day attended in a large wooden tabernacle often with sawdust on the floor, except for a few camps that featured children services in the afternoon, were more often spent in sleeping and resting from the rigorous games and hikes spent with the other kids in between services than in listening to long sermons. Being raised in church we were an expert authority on what preachers were the most interesting (those who told stories) or were just plain boring, short or long winded (those who tried to preach through the entire Bible in one sermon), and what preachers could hold one’s attention (not just in volume, but in antics- our favorites were those who jumped around a lot, marched up and down in the congregation waving their arms, throwing things in the air, standing up on stuff, or banging on the piano while preaching). Back then everyone attended religious camps no matter what denomination and my father was an expert at discovering camps. I even remember attending a black camp meeting where we were the only white folk. Little did I realize then what a rich cultural experience I was being exposed to. But the main ingredient that made us kids judge what was a good camp was the food. It was at a small mountain camp that I had my first taste of Ole Fashion German/Mennonite Slaw also known as “freezer slaw”.

Celery seeds are very small (about 1/16 of an inch), light brown, and have been used in medicine to treat colds, flu, water retention, poor digestion, arthritis, liver, spleen ailments and for funerals since the time of the Greeks and Romans. Records show that the Chinese were familiar with the plant by 5 BC and woven garland of wild celery have been found in early Egyptian tombs. Celery was considered a holy plant in the classical period of Greece worn by winners similar to the use of bay leaves today at Olympic Games. It wasn’t until the 19th century that celery seed or “smallage” as the ancients called it first appeared in pickling recipes. Celery seed has a slightly bitter aromatic flavor used mainly in soups, salad dressings and pickling.

My Ole Fashion German/Mennonite Slaw has a crunchy pickle taste with a hint of celery. You can include green pepper, onion, or add chopped tomatoes after the slaw has cooled. The Ole Fashion German/Mennonite Slaw is a great way to use up cabbage and will last for several weeks in the refrigerator or store frozen in the freezer year round. This “freezer slaw” is delicious eaten with pork roast, barbeque sandwiches, or hot dogs. Preparation time for my Ole Fashion German/Mennonite Slaw is around twenty minutes and this recipe yields around five to six cups of slaw.

Ole Fashion German/Mennonite Slaw

1 medium-sized head of cabbage
1 tsp salt
1 c vinegar (brown or white)
1½ c sugar
½ c water
1 tsp celery seed

Grate the cabbage into a large bowl and mix in the salt. Let sit while bringing the vinegar, sugar, water, and celery seed to a rolling boil in a medium-sized saucepan. Pour over the cabbage immediately, seal, and let cool. Refrigerate and completely chill before serving!

Weekly tip: Store dried herbs and spices in plastic, glass, or tin containers in a cool, dry, dark place avoiding being close to humid sources such as dishwashers, sinks, coffee makers, microwaves, stoves, or in the refrigerator. If stored properly dried herbs and ground spices will retain their flavor for up to a year; whole spices for 3 to 5 years!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com

Fourth of July Pie

Fourth of July Pie
Dorcas Annette Walker

Hooray for the red, white, and blue; the home of the brave and the land of the free!!! In my senior year (considered to be the dark ages by my kids and grandkids) I won a writing high school contest on an article about the Statue of Liberty and ended up having to give a speech on it in front of the entire school- a scary proposition as back then I was very shy (also something else my children and grandkids are skeptical about). The first time I read in grade school about the Statue of Liberty given as a gift of friendship to the United States from France, I was intrigued about this regal lady standing in the New York harbor designated as a national monument and universal symbol of freedom and democracy. This 125 year old engineering marvel restored in 1986 still stands as a beacon and daily welcome to the free world. Untold millions of emigrants (25 million between 1892-1924 alone) have arrived through Ellis Island under the shadow of the Statue of Liberty to begin a new life in a vast land where according to our Declaration of Independence “all men are created equal”.

Today visitors can tour the museum gallery, search for ancestors on the American Immigrant Wall of Honor where over 700,000 names representing every nationality are inscribed, and see breathtaking views from the Statue’s observation deck. Despite numerous wars and even a terrorist attack on our own soil this weathered grand old lady still stands triumph with her lamp held high.

Regardless of crime rates, political greed and corruption, economic woes, and all that you can think of in what is going wrong in this country, we still are very blessed to live here in America. This fact was brought sharply to my attention a couple of months ago when a friend of ours (an American missionary nurse) in Mexico was shot and killed while sitting beside her husband, who was driving trying to escape from drug cartels and make it to the U.S. border and safety. With drug wars constantly going on plus fighting between the Mexican government and these drug lords the average person lives in fear of their life. Every week there are pictures in the news showing the ravages left behind of terrorist attacks and suicide bombers in other countries where our soldiers are fighting to gain peace. How thankful we should be to live here in the good ole U.S.A. So this Fourth of July let’s raise the flag and celebrate our freedom.

My Fourth of July Pie will be a grand finale to any celebration with its creamy filling and fruity topping. You can substitute a graham cracker crust for the regular one and mix-match a variety of fresh fruits for the top decoration. Preparation time for the Fourth of July Pie is around twenty minutes (not counting cooling time) and serves eight.

Fourth of July Pie

1 (9 inch) deep dish regular crust
2 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese
1 c sugar
1 (8 oz) cool whip
strawberries & blueberries
canned whip topping

Bake pie crust as directed and cool. In a medium size bowl beat together until smooth: softened cream cheese, sugar, and cool whip. Pour into the cooled crust. Arrange strawberries and blueberries on top of the pie. Garnish with whip topping. Chill completely and serve!

Weekly tip: Always dip sliced fresh fruit into lemon juice and drain before using as a garnish or decoration to prevent the fruit from turning brown!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com

Salmon Cakes

Salmon Cakes
Dorcas Annette Walker

I’ve always been fascinated by the salmon’s migration against incredible odds, which reminds me so much of my father, who lived with severe hemophilia that handicapped his physical body, but not his spirit. It would have been simple for him to give up, sit back, and take it easy. My dad had more than enough excuses, but he was raised on a farm with a strong work ethic. We children learned early on that Dad tolerated no slackness or being lazy. There were times growing up when we complained about working harder than other kids our age in order to keep our household operating with a fulltime working mother, who was the sole support of our family, along with a handicapped father, who wasn’t able to fix things around the house like other dads. We soon became trained in many diverse areas as my father didn’t believe in spending his time lying around. My friends were in awe that I, who was always very skinny, with the help of my younger sister could change a flat tire or hitch up a trailer. It might take us girls longer than an adult and entail both of our bodies working together in unison to raise the car with a jack, but the last thing us teenage girls complained about- at least in our dad’s hearing- was broken fingernails or getting dirty from what my dad called “good ole plain hard work”. In turn I passed my father’s worth ethic along to my children, who were positive when they were young that they were being tortured. Now I’m thrilled to see my father’s legacy being passed down to my grandchildren.

There are seven categories of salmon. The most popular human consumption is the Atlantic salmon sold fresh, canned, or frozen from salmon farms as wild salmon are endangered and illegal to catch. Salmon get their pinkish color for the krill they eat, produce 2,500 to 7,000 eggs, and can weigh up to 100 pounds. Spawning salmon return to the precise stream or river of their birth by their keen sense of smell (greater than a dog or bear) relying on ocean currents, tides, and the gravitational pull of the moon to overcome great distances (the longest distance of a tagged salmon was 3,500 miles) and hazardous conditions. Salmon are “anadromous”, which means making a drastic metabolic change not once but twice when going from fresh to saltwater and back. Pacific salmon die shortly after spawning, but Atlantic salmon are capable of surviving and spawning again. Commercial salmon farming began in Norway in the late 1960’s. Today Chile and Norway are the two largest salmon farming countries in the world. Chum salmon are also called “dog salmon” because the Eskimo people catch, freeze, and then feed them to their dogs during the winter months. Evidence has proven that the Inuit and Eskimos live a longer life span due to a diet mostly of salmon and seal meat. Salmon meat contains rich sources of Omega 3 essential fatty acids known to lower heart disease, decrease hyperactivity, dyslexia, and dysphasia, improve concentration, and fight against colorectal cancer.

My Salmon Cakes are a filling addition to any meal with their mild fish flavor along with a great way to use up leftover mashed potatoes. You can add chopped onions or green peppers and substitute the mashed potatoes with cooked rice, crushed crashers, or bread crumbs. Other canned fish can be used as well. Preparation time for the Salmon Cakes is twenty minutes and this recipe makes four large fish patties.

Salmon Cakes

2 tb butter
1 (14.75 oz) can of pink salmon
1 c mashed potatoes
1 egg
salt & pepper

Melt butter in an iron skillet. Mix together in a small bowl the de-boned salmon with juice, mashed potatoes, and egg. With a large spoon drop the batter into the hot grease. Let brown on one side and flip over. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with paprika and serve hot!

Weekly tip: Potato flakes can be added to the mixture to make firmer fish cakes!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com