Marlene Cooking America - the Wrap-Up!

Well, here it is - the last week of December.  As I prepare to close out the Year, it seems a perfect time to also close out this Blog.

The challenge I gave myself was to cook my way through America, and I have done that. Over the past year, I have cooked recipes credited to, and honoring, each of our 50 States.

I have also researched each state, discovering fun facts, interesting histories, unique geographical and cultural characteristics, and special - and sometimes quirky - bits, that give each state its own individual charm.

Through this challenge, I have learned so many things I didn't know about our states. I feel overwhelmed by the richness and diversity of our beautiful country. And I am even more inspired to visit the last 8 states I have not yet been to.  I am also inspired to revisit a few states, and see and do some of the things I didn't previously know the state had to offer.

But above all, I cooked! Week after week, I pretty much lived in my kitchen - trying recipe after recipe, cooking things I'd never cooked before, and growing in confidence as I cooked. I gained enough confidence, actually, that when it was time to plan my Christmas Eve menu, I thought nothing of trying a couple of new recipes for Desserts!

Since I now live in North Carolina, I adapted a Moravian Gingerbread Cookie recipe and made it into a cake - complete with a festive design on top!

I also wanted to re-use the Pudding Mold I had purchased to make Boston Brown Bread. So, slightly a'la Dickens, I made a Steamed Chocolate Pudding Cake!

Both Desserts were awesome - but the pudding cake was downright decadent!  It seems my year of cooking paid off!

And what a year it was!  Almost every day, I was either choosing recipes, planning menus and grocery lists, shopping for ingredients (in store or online), making sure I had the proper equipment, or cooking for each state, one at a time.

Cooking for a state is a wonderful way of learning more about the state. Knowing that Arizona has 11 species of rattlesnakes is one thing, but experiencing the "smell of summer rain on the desert", while your Tepary Beans are simmering, adds a whole other dimension to your sense of the State.

In some ways, it seems like this project took much longer than one year - and in other ways, the time went by really fast. There were things I learned, recipes I loved, and a few that I wasn't too fond of. 😀

Actually, there were only 4 that I wasn't too fond of. I didn't much care for Indiana's Beets with Sour Cream and Horseradish, or for the cut of meat in Montana's Grilled Flat Iron Steak - although I did like the Cowboy Coffee Rub. I didn't care for the flavor combination in Nebraska's Sudanese Greens with Peanut Butter.  But I absolutely DID NOT like Delaware's Scrapple! I am told there are good recipes for Scrapple out there, but I will have to trust that - I will not try this dish again.  😅

There were also only 4 recipes that I would say qualified as "fails" or "semi-fails". I had to re-do Arizona's Arepas, because I had first created a kind of corn meal soup(!), but the recipe did work, after I figured out what I had done wrong. Pennsylvania's Soft Pretzels came out okay, but I didn't really feel they measured up to more professional standards. The flavor was fine, but I didn't think the texture was great.  Vermont's Maple Cream Pie was more of a disaster - I think I had the mixture too hot when I introduced the cream, and it separated, rather than make a luxurious creamy texture. Definitely a fail on my part!  And I had a problem with West Virginia's Appalachian Apple Stack Cake. Although it looked fantastic, the apple mixture didn't seem to moisten the cake layers, and they retained a soft, crumbly, cookie texture - which made it impossible to slice! I haven't yet figured out the fix for this, but I do believe I will try this one again. It is both tasty and impressive enough to want to make it work.

Still, considering all the recipes I cooked, I think it's pretty impressive that there were only 4 I didn't like, and 4 that would qualify as "fails".

So, how many did I cook?  I COOKED 91 RECIPES!!! Mind you, the cookbook I was using for this challenge has many, many more recipes - but these were the ones that I chose to represent the States. As I wrote in one of my first posts, I wanted to choose recipes that had a spirit of adventure for me. Some of these were foods I had never eaten, some were foods I had never tried to cook, and many of them were dishes I never thought I would try to make!

As I looked over the lists of what I cooked, I realized that the recipes I never thought I would try to make, were primarily those that involved Dough - and therefore, used Flour! Over the last year, I have purchased - and used - more flour than I had in all the previous years of my life!! I am not exaggerating.

Flour isn't the only thing I purchased for this project. In addition to the ingredients that were easy to find locally, there were a number of ingredients that I needed to order online, and have them shipped to me. Among those, were:

- Halibut from Alaska

- Tepary Beans from Arizona

- Chipotle Chiles from Colorado

- Mexican Leaf Oregano from Colorado

- Alligator from Florida

- Frog Legs from Florida

- Crawfish from Louisiana

- Lobster from Maine

- Crabmeat from Maryland

- Sour Cherries from Michigan

- Walleye from Minnesota

- Blue Corn from New Mexico

- Penn Cove Mussels from Washington

- Elk Meat from Wyoming

There were also a few pieces of cooking equipment that I purchased for this project. While these were not necessarily "essential", they did contribute to my enjoyment of this journey, and all were items that I have already re-used, or certainly will use again in the future. Those that I like the most are:

- An Ice Cream Maker

- A Biscuit Cutter Set

- A Bean Pot

- A Pudding Mold

- Three 9" Round Cake Pans

But let's get back to the Flour! Flour for cakes, flour for bread, flour for pasta, flour for pretzels, flour for doughnuts ---  flour for DOUGH! Dough - that magical mixture of ingredients that can make everything from dumplings to pies to breads to pizza, is something I had never in my life been comfortable with.   

I had never considered myself much of a Baker - and mainly because I was rather terrified of making dough!  So, it is little wonder, that the recipes I considered my biggest challenges, involved making, baking, shaping, and cooking dough! These were my Biggest Challenge recipes:

- Spudnuts, for Idaho

- Pierogi, for Illinois

- Fresh Egg Noodles, for Iowa

- Calzone, for New Jersey

- Challah, for New York

- Knoephla Soup, for North Dakota

- Soft Pretzels, for Pennsylvania

- Kringle, for Wisconsin

I had no idea there were so many varieties and textures of dough! And each of these recipes had its own challenges to work with. Some turned out better than others, but impressively, 6 of these 8 recipes made it onto my Top-Rated or Runner-Up Lists!

So let's look at those lists... Lists are often presented as "Top 10's".  But in honor of my adventures in Dough, I'm going to use "Baker's Dozen" lists! So, here is the list of the 13 Runners-Up:

    Florida                    Cornmeal Fried Frog Legs

    Idaho                       Spudnuts

    Iowa                        Fresh Egg Noodles

    Louisiana                Crawfish Etouffee

    Maine                      Lobster Newberg

    Nevada                    Tortilla Soup

    New Hampshire       Apple Pandowdy

    New Jersey              Calzone

    New Mexico            Blue Corn and Pine Nut Pancakes

    South Dakota           Scalloped Potatoes

    Texas                        Margarita Pie

    Virginia                    Sweet Potato Biscuits

    Washington              Slow-Roasted Salmon with Yogurt Sauce

And - Drum Roll, Please... the Winning Baker's Dozen. These are also listed alphabetically by State, and deserve a reprint of their pictures.

ALASKA  -  HALIBUT POACHED WITH POTATOES, LEEKS, AND CREAM

COLORADO  -  BOWL OF THE WIFE OF KIT CARSON (Caldo tialpeno)

ILLINOIS  -  PIEROGI

KANSAS  -  MUSHROOM RISOTTO with POACH EGG, PANCETTA, & SALSA VERDE

MARYLAND  -  MARYLAND-STYLE CRAB CAKES

MINNESOTA  -  FRIED WALLEYE

MISSOURI  -  KANSAS CITY STYLE BARBECUE SAUCE (edged out Memphis)

NEW YORK  -  CHALLAH

OHIO  -  CINCINNATI CHILI

UTAH  -  FUNERAL POTATOES

WASHINGTON  -  PENN COVE MUSSELS IN WHITE WINE

WISCONSIN  -  KRINGLE

WYOMING  -  ELK BURGUNDY

All-in-all, most of the 91 Recipes I cooked for this challenge were delicious. I have already made several of them a second or third time, and I am looking forward to re-making many more, and to improving my skills on many others.

Additionally, as I've lived with this cookbook for the past year, I have found a lot of recipes that I want to try, that simply didn't make it into a State choice. The cookbook was very easy to use, its format is clear, the instructions were easy to follow, and the photos, printing, and thickness of the pages is much to my liking. I also love that wherever you are in the book, the pages open and lay flat - and there are 3 separate ribbons to mark your places. I will include a picture of the cookbook at the end of this final post.

This challenge was a much, MUCH bigger project than I initially anticipated it might be. I imagine I could have done this more simply, but to quote Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, "If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing well!"

I have no regrets for all the work and effort - I have loved so much about this. I enjoyed the recipes, I enjoyed learning so much about our states, I enjoyed trying to write my posts in such a way that they would be interesting and enjoyable to my readers.

But most of all, I have loved the Cooking! I have loved how this project has challenged me to step way out of my comfort zone. I have loved summoning my courage to tackle things I had previously shied away from. I have loved learning to trust my recipe, my dough, and myself. And I have loved the spirit of excitement I have felt as I approached these recipes.

This project has been creative, rewarding, and FUN! And - I got to EAT like a Queen!!!

I hope you've enjoyed my "Journey" through America! And I hope it inspires you to Cook!