Operation Flipper - The Conclusion

Approximately eight hours after I started my task, I am done. Its about 40°C in the house. Many stages later I wonder how in hell womenfolk back in the day managed. I wonder this all the time as I do the things I do.
So once the flippers were cooked...at least they seemed cooked with the meat sliding off the bones...I decided to leave three plain and do the other four with pastry and gravy. And for all those poor people who don't understand the Newfoundland way and the seal hunt...this is only part of what its all about. Being a Newfoundlander is drooling over flippers doused in gravy made with salt pork fat fried goldeny crunchy and onions topped in tea bun pastry. And well I pity the crowd who think its all about saving the little white coat...who has been saved for decades now. I will do my part for saving my heritage...and I don't mind telling anyone I support the sealers. And just think...I am a townie (even if I did transplant myself into the woods) and so are my parents. But I digress yet again.
This was my first time cooking flipper. It was something I only ate at Nan T's house on Queen's Road. The smell reminds me of Nan T wearing her apron...coming out of the pantry...yes she had a pantry. Nan had a clear dish that were for flippers and turrs.
If you're gonna try flipper cooking for yourself...try two. Two is sensible...seven is hard core. But I cross another thing off my bucket list today and will be whomping  up more flipper pies in the future.

Operation Flipper

A few days ago my buddy, Blair made a run out to The Compound. I didn't even see him. I was home and the dogs who normally bark when a crow flies by were silent. I saw tire tracks out in the driveway and went out to investigate. Low and behold there was a bag of frozen flippers hanging on the patio stairs banister.
So I hid them in the freezer. Why hide them says you? Well Himself...Sam...hates flipper...seal...rabbit...moose. I don't know what's wrong with him. But Himself was going for Friday and Saturday so that was my flipper window. As soon as he left the driveway I took the bag out.
They weren't tawed until this morning. And Himself arrived before 8. He was hungry. I told him not to rustle around and then it happened....is that seal. Yis by it tis. I barred him in the bedroom and went about stage 2.
Well there were seven flippers in the bag. Enough to feed a couple of pre-Confederation families. So I got a couple bowls and the baking soda and put them to soak. And after a while started trimming the dreaded yellow fat. And trimmed and scraped and trimmed and cut and so on. Meanwhile the frying pan was doing its thing with the fat back pork. I have been doing a lot of Nan-channelling the last couple days.
With fat trimming completed as best as I knew how it was on to stage 4. Flour the flippers and fry in the fat. Alliteration at its best. Once browned in they went in the roaster. I must explain...I have a small stove. Like people have in cabins...well cause I live in a cabin. My roaster is small as well. So double decker flippers it twas. What odds. Make do with what ya got.
Stage 5 is ongoing...still a few hours to go till its time for stage 6...the pastry.
So tomorrow when I go to town for Easter dinner at me mudder and fadder's I will be bringing Easter Seals...some for Pop and some for Mom and maybe some for Himself's parents. Smells some good wha?

Storm the Kettle

Cookery books or compilations of food patterns. Loves them. Not the pretentious kind...but the old ones. I read them. Its an addiction. Cover to cover. I have some favorites.
The best ones have stories, anecdotes and little tidbits from ladies from the past.
Usually the best ones have recipes that are mysteries. Butter the size of a small egg. How big were eggs in 1820? Some have ingredients but no instructions. Because really...any dumbarse should know how to make a pudding sauce over a wood stove. Right?
Also fun is to see how nutrition was viewed. How much of what type of food should be consumed and why. Its awesome. Can't wait to see what future generations will think of all those diet cookbooks out there.
But back to my favorites..
Five Roses Cook Book was published in 1913. Did you know a barrel of flour was 196 lbs...which would cost over $1000 today. But they sold it in half barrels and four sizes in bags. And this cookbook sold almost 1 million copies by the last printing in 1915...and the population was less than 9 million.
fish & brewis toutons & tales from 1980. This is where I got my first spruce beer recipe and has an awesome collection of old recipes. Blood pudding or peas and melts? Fill yer boots.
For Maids Who Brew & Bake from 2003 Nuff said? Not really. 17th century Newfoundland recipes in the original and decoded for the modern maid. Umble Pye and syllabub. Read it.
And what I consider to be the Bible of Newfoundland dishes. The Treasury. The blue cookbook. The Cream of the West cookbook. All one in the same. Holy crap I will never forget the day I picked up the book at the Craft Council Christmas Craft Fair...opened it and realized what I was holding. I didn't recognize a cover that wasn't 50 years old. But lard tunderin dyin I recognized the symbols in the corners of the pages. Gavin Will of Boulder Publishing must have thought I was nuts. But my own copy. My own! If you don't have one get one.

16 Innings & Salt Pork Buns

I am a sports fan. Not all sports mind you. Soccer is boring. Darts is a skill not a sport. And give poker its own channel because it shouldn't be on TSN.
Then there are sports I like. Hockey...Leafs fan so that's a lesson in futility. Football...Packers have been kind. I don't like the CFL. And I will watch tennis grand slams, curling, Olympics, Tour de France till my eyes bleed. And this time of year...baseball season starts. The season all shiny and new. Optimism abounds. I am a Jays fan. I remember when they won the World Series. A long time ago...I was a waitress at The Strand. Yup that's how long ago. Yes I know they won twice. But those damn Yankees and Red Sox. Argh.
But yesterday I was knitting and baking and watching Glenn Howard play the Chinese and some Masters. I knew the Jays were playing the season opener but what odds. They smash my hopes most years. But as I finished making salt pork buns...they were on my bucket list...I realized the Jays were still playing...they had come from behind and it was the top of the 15th. Well then. A three run homer in the 16th won it. The longest opening day game ever...for anyone. Maybe this will be the year. Maybe.
The salt pork buns turned out wicked. Ought to make some more today as the first batch are going to the Cove for the Annual Poker Game. A cup of finely chopped salt pork. Makes me think that they were special buns back in the day when the womenfolk had a yaffle of youngsters and had to lug water and wash the clothes and no dials on the stove and were preggers most of the time to boot. Who had time to be chopping salt pork finely for a batch of buns that wouldn't last five minutes.

Owls and Frogs

Cell service has not been up to par the last couple of days so no blogging for me. That's one of the cons of living on The Compound at times. What odds.
So my friend Mel has two cute little boys...they came to visit last weekend. The littler one, Ben was wearing a cute little frog hat so I thought his tootsies could use some froggie slippers. So Ben became a froggie slipper test subject. They turned out okay but a little too big for his littleness.
Big brother Jakob...who's not much bigger really....he gets owls. I would have liked to do snowy owls...but really what mom wants white slippers for a little toddling boy? That would be crazy. So brown owls it was. These should fit Jakob pretty well....but the great thing about slippers is the fit needn't be perfect.
Now that I have the bugs worked out with sizes I will try a pair in salt and pepper with republic flags. Cause you can't have too many things with pink, white and green.

The Jailbreak and the Snitch

Now I might have three dogs and nine acres but I don't let them roam. My nerves can't take it. My dogs have always been behind a fence or on a leash. I don't like the dogs being free. When I lived in civilization and walked my first dog Buddy...on his leash...we were attacked twice by dogs. One was roaming on his property and came up on the road and took a chunk out of my poor doggy. And no apologies from the owner either once he heard about it.
Now this is not to say there aren't jailbreaks. It happens. Around here it usually happens after snow has built up to the point where my less than svelte beagles can hop the fence. This year we upped the height of the perimeter with birch tops. But this weekend we had a surprise. Now we had removed the birch because all the snow had melted but low and behold I was in the kitchen and heard Chief whining his head off outside. Now this normally means either Duke or Dakota has a bone or toy Chief wants. Not this time. Duke...the fattest shortest beagle in the Northern Hemisphere if not the Universe had high jumped the fence. With not a peck of snow to help. Chief is taller and only an ounce or two less fat couldn't do it so had to rat out his brother. The brother doing laps around the house. Instead of coming in the patio door Duke jumped back in and came inside as if nothing had happened.
So the birch went back. But beagles like raptors...and I say this in the same voice as dude in Jurassic Park...remember. They test the fence. And yesterday Dude was sproinging around a la spring lambs or baby mountain goats. And left tracks like a 80 lb April Fools rabbit.
So now I must supervise pee breaks so there aren't jailbreaks.

Get Thee Hence

So yesterday we had a bit of snow. From bare ground with crocuses to 30+ cm of the white stuff. Now I know we are all ranting and roaring for spring to arrive for good but we could look at this snow storm as a good thing. Don't give me that look.
Traditionally, having a storm like this after Paddy's Day...Sheilagh sweeping her steps like Nan...means that a good spring is on the way. And Sheilagh's sweeping is a better indicator of spring's arrival here on the rock than any foolish groundhog. I mean we don't even have any groundhogs.
The sealers can think about getting out on the ice once the Brush has come and gone. And if you look at the forecast it appears we might have some sun and normal for this time of year temperatures. So get thee hence o month of March...we've given the orders.
April means chocolate and daffodils and skipping ropes and all the accoutrements associated with Easter and spring.
It also means today is April Fool's Day...you've got 4 hours left for your foolishness otherwise:
April fool is gone a past and you're the biggest fool at last.
Up the ladder, down the tree, you're a bigger fool than me.
Skin the rabbit, pick the hen, you're the biggest fool again.