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    How to Win a Cowboy's Heart
    How to Win a Cowboy's Heart
    How to Win a Cowboy's Heart
    Ebook223 pages1 hour

    How to Win a Cowboy's Heart

    By Kathy Lynn Wills

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    About this ebook

    This fun cookbook is full of charming cooking tips and advice for catching your man’s heart—through his stomach. The belly-filling recipes will satisfy the hardest working ranch hands, cowboys, farmers, and western-loving city folks. The recipes are organized into meals from the first date and “Hand Holdin’ in the Parlor” to when it’s time for “Impressin’ the In-laws.”

    The shopping list for a well-stocked western pantry will set you up for serving tasty grinds such as Sweet Potato Pancakes, All-Day Red Beans, Smothered Yardbird, Cowboy Cottage Pie, and Stewed Fruit with Sugar Dumplings when that dinner bell rings.

    Kathy Lynn Wills spends her time among cattle and dogs in the dairy and rural ranchlands of Northern California, writing, cooking, and raising crops. Her blog, whatjameshadfordinner.blogspot.com, reports on her travels and, yes, nightly dinners on the farm.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGibbs Smith
    Release dateFeb 3, 2015
    ISBN9781423641339
    How to Win a Cowboy's Heart

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      Book preview

      How to Win a Cowboy's Heart - Kathy Lynn Wills

      Chart

      Ring the Dinner Bell

      A man can stay with a rough outfit a long time, says lifetime cowboy Roger Clark, if there are good horses and good food.

      Though some cowhands lament they were born a hundred years too late, for most women, our modern liberation, along with a host of time-saving appliances, brought welcome relief from seemingly endless household chores. I stir up cakes and create new recipes not because it is traditional women’s work (in fact, many of the great western cooks from ranch wagons to fifty-acre homesteads were and are men), but because I enjoy it.

      If you are a better horseshoer than pot wrassler, by all means take up hammer and nails. If you, like I am, are better at building biscuits than fences, perhaps you’ll find a hungry cowboy, mechanic, accountant, or plumber ready to share your table.

      More than a primer on authentic cowboy style, this book is about sharing the comfort of good company over a wonderful meal. In the same way that a buckaroo tackles his job holding firmly to tradition and tools of the past, these simple meals flavored by our history and legends are tasty forget-me-nots from a young nation’s love affair with open air, country, cattle, and freedom.

      New York City’s culinary chefs may frown on the idea, but western cooks routinely use canned and dried ingredients. Ours is a cuisine born of distance and availability—mostly the distance between wagon or ranch and grocery store and the few items offered for sale. Though, today few of us live a day’s ride from the nearest market, the tradition of simple ingredients well blended into wholesome foods lives on.

      I’ve heard it said there are many ways to a cowboy’s heart: fast horses, silver mounted spurs, or fancy tall-top boots. I can’t guarantee these recipes will ensure a lasting love or even a passing fancy, but the quickest and perhaps easiest route is still the perennial favorite, a home-cooked meal.

      Come and get it!

      A Calico’s Shopping Guide

      Here is a short list of the fixin’s I try to have on hand so that unexpected visitors are a welcome pleasure rather than an extra trip to town.

      My Spice Rack

      Bay leaves

      Black pepper

      Chili powder

      Cinnamon

      Cilantro flakes

      Cloves, ground and whole

      Crushed red pepper flakes

      Cumin

      Garlic, fresh and powdered

      Mace

      Nutmeg

      Paprika

      Parsley flakes

      Red (cayenne) pepper

      Salt

      White pepper

      In the Pantry

      Baking soda

      Baking powder

      Beef bullion

      Brown sugar

      Chicken bullion

      Cocoa

      Coffee

      Corn or vegetable oil

      Cornmeal

      Dried beans

      Dried fruits (raisins, prunes apricots, etc.)

      Flour

      Grits

      Honey

      Lard

      Molasses

      Nonstick cooking spray

      Oatmeal

      Olives

      Olive oil

      Onions (white, yellow, red, and pearl)

      Pasta

      Peanuts

      Peanut oil

      Popcorn

      Potatoes (white, red, and sweet)

      Dry buttermilk mix

      Rice

      Sugar

      Syrups (corn and flavored for flapjacks)

      Tea

      Vegetable shortening (both regular and butter flavored)

      In Cans and Jars

      Applesauce

      Beans

      Corn

      Cream of chicken soup

      Cream of mushroom soup

      Creamed corn

      Chili tomatoes

      Crushed tomatoes

      Green chiles

      Hominy

      Jams and jellies

      Peaches

      Peanut butter

      Pears

      Tomato paste

      Tomato sauce

      White potatoes

      Whole tomatoes

      In the Freezer

      Beef for stew

      Blueberries

      Breakfast sausage

      Broccoli

      Butter

      Peas

      Pork steaks

      Green beans

      Ground beef

      Frozen bread dough

      Ice cream

      Juice concentrates

      Milk (leave out on the counter to thaw)

      Mixed vegetables

      Tortillas

      Whole chicken ready for roasting

      In the Refrigerator

      Apples

      Bacon

      Butter

      Buttermilk

      Carrots

      Fresh vegetables and fruit

      Margarine

      Milk

      Salad greens

      Salsa

      Sour cream

      Spring onions

      Essential Utensils

      Cast-iron Dutch oven or other heavy covered pot

      Cookie sheets

      Colander

      Covered roaster

      Iron skillet

      Large mixing bowl

      Large rectangular pan

      Large stockpot

      Loaf pan

      Muffin or cupcake tin

      Pie tin

      Sifter

      Saucepan with lid

      Sharp chopping knife

      Spatula

      Square baking pan

      Wooden spoons

      Good Morning, Dear

      Starting Off Right

      Breakfast in A Canyon, Colorado Diner

      A counter-style starter for 6

      The love remembered as most sweet is the one we never again will meet.

      A waitress and a wandering man. Ian Tyson’s classic Navajo Rug, (written with celebrated songwriter Tom Russell) sings to the sentimental memory of a tender, lost love—Katie, a diner waitress.

      All that’s left is a sweet melancholy recalled in textile shades of red and blue. I saw lightning ’cross the sacred mountains, Tyson sings, Saw woven turtle doves. The lovers, like a Navajo rug’s woven storyline, are forever wound together by the sweet strands of time. The diner’s gone but their long-lost love, anchored by the storyteller’s memory of lying next to Katie on that old Navajo rug, lives on. It’s hard, the singer knows, to find things that last any more like true love or an old woven Navajo.

      In dreamlike memory, Katie serves her coffee-shop lover two eggs up on whiskey toast. The WHISKEY TOAST or rye-bread recipe is a sourdough-style tangy loaf tempered by rich, dark molasses with an intoxicating aroma and chewy, barely crisp crust.

      A diner favorite, home fries on the side is a delicious way to use up dinner’s baked potatoes. I first sampled this breakfast delight recklessly thrown together by the short order cook at Kate’s Cafe, (no relation to Tyson’s waitress), a waterfront shack with terrific greasy-spoon food and several inches of atmosphere in the corners. My version of Kate’s hash-browned Idaho flowers are seasoned with stories of small-town roadhouses and corner diners, where cowboys and truckers still court spirited waitresses.

      Remember sweet days long past and silently drink a roadhouse coffee toast to cowboys (or waitresses) you once loved.

      Ay Yi Yi, Katie. Whatever became of the Navajo rug and you?

      *Phrases in quotes are from Navajo Rug by Ian Tyson ©1986 Slick Fork Music—CAPAC and Tom Russell ©End of the Trail Music—CAPAC. Included on Tyson’s award-winning album, Cowboyography.

      Ham Steaks and Red-Eye Gravy

      4 tablespoons vegetable oil

      2 pounds ham steak (approximately), cut into 6 portions

      3 tablespoons flour

      1-1/2 cups strong coffee

      1 cup water

      1-1/2 tablespoons brown sugar

      Salt and pepper to taste

      Dash of mace

      1/4 cup half and-half (optional)

      Heat oil in a heavy skillet. Pepper ham steaks and fry each side until just browned.

      Remove steaks; hold in warm oven. Pour out all but 3 tablespoons of drippings. Add flour to pan drippings and cook until thick, stirring constantly with a fork.

      Slowly add coffee, stirring constantly. While still stirring, add water until gravy has thinned to desired consistency.

      Add brown sugar, salt and pepper to taste, and a dash of mace. Mix well, and stir until

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