Date I made these recipes:
August 7, 2015 – Celebrating the annual Harley Davidson Rally in Sturgis ,
SD
The Harley Biker's
Cookbook – Big Bites for Hungry Bikers by Owen Rossan (with Biker
Consultant Tod Rafferty)
Published by:
Chartwell Books, Inc.
ISBN: 0-7858-1531-7
Purchased at Har Mar Mall Antique Show
Recipes: Sara Liz's
Garlic & Honey Chicken – p. 38 and Dial 911 Mashed Potatoes – p. 53
So every year for the past 75 years folks, Harley Davidson rider from all over the
planet congregate in, of all places, Sturgis, SD for a week-long Harley Rally. I have no idea why Sturgis is the watering
hole but it is so there you go.
Now while I know a few people from MN who have attended this
shindig, I do not keep this event on my calendar mostly because I don't own a
motorcycle, never mind a Harley. But this year I didn't have to keep track of
the dates because my favorite local radio station, 89.3 FM – The Current, did it for me.
This station (which you can and should stream online if you
don't live in these parts), is my favorite of all stations because they play a
wide variety of music (almost never the Top 40), do not have commercials (it's
public radio-owned so you'll hear brief info about sponsors but that's it), and
have very fun segments like The Morning
Show's 9:30 Coffee Break, Theft of the Dial and a No Apologies segment where you might
hear anything from disco to – and I'm not kidding – The Osmond Brothers.
The 9:30 Coffee Break
is genius: the station selects a
"theme" for the morning and then encourages listeners to email or
call with musical selections to fit that theme.
On Friday, August 7, for example, the theme was "a) songs named
after a city or b) from an album with a city title." Other times, if a famous singer is having a
birthday, they'll say call in with that singer's best songs. But on Monday, in honor of Sturgis, they
asked listeners to call in with songs involving motorcycles or motorcycle
riding. And here was the lineup:
Steppenwolf – "Born to Be Wild"
Yo La Tengo – "Speeding Motorcycle"
The Shangri-La's – "Leader of the Pack"
Jimi Hendrix – "Ezy Rider"
The Hopefuls – "Motobike"
The Allman Brothers – "Midnight Rider"
The Byrds – "Wasn't Born to Follow"
I pretty much hate mornings but I tell you what, there's
nothing like a little Steppenwolf to
put a gal in a good mood for the rest of the day: "Get your motor runnin', head out on the
highway...."
Now just because I don't have a motorcycle, doesn't mean I
don't have a great Harley Davidson
story because I do. And how convenient
that I also have a Harley Davidson cookbook, right? There is no such thing as a coincidence, my
friend.
Many years ago, I worked for a data processing company whose
headquarters were in Milwaukee
and so we ended up having a lot of Milwaukee-area clients. Milwaukee
is also home to Harley Davidson. As these things co, a co-worker, Mary, and I
ended up having to visit a Milwaukee
client during Harley Davidson's 90th
birthday celebration and luckily, we were able to (just barely) find a motel
that still had rooms available because the city was overrun with Harley
riders. In fact, picture your favorite
freeway and then picture it with wall-to-wall motorcycles and riders all in
black, stretching for miles and miles and miles and you have what we
encountered.
So we got to our hotel and I pulled up in the car port area
so we could check in when a couple rode up on their – of course – Harley Davidson motorcycle. And I noticed that they were speaking French
and commented on that to my co-workers.
You should know that I speak some French although I'm not even close to
being fluent. Anyway, my coworker then said "Say something in French"
and so I said "Bon jour" and the French couple started laughing, as
did I. I mean, she didn't ask me to have
a discussion on international politics, she just wanted me to say something in
French so I did! My co-worker was not as amused as we were: "You know what I meant!" "Oui, Mari!"
So we got checked in hauled our luggage to the elevator and
then waited along with six fairly big guys all decked out in black and
leathers. We were not in the proper
colors at all, but no matter. So the
elevator opened and several of their friends got out, dressed for the pool and
we got in and how we all fit – six big guys, two not-so-big gals and several
pieces of luggage and equipment - I don't know but I do know they made sure
Mary and I were all situated and that was very nice.
We ran into these same guys a bit later at the bar along
with about a billion of their close, personal biker friends, and the scene was
hilarious. Every single person except us
was in black and leather. Mary and I, of
course, had on our best "going to the hotel bar to unwind from the
trip" jewel-toned summer outfits which all but screamed "Which of
these is not like the others?" but what could we do? Our excuse, and it's
a good one, was that it was 1993, jewel tones were all the rage and black was
only worn for funerals or if you lived in NYC which we did not. Now, of course, I wear black quite a bit but
not biker black so there's that and I'm pretty sure my leather jacket would be
too prissy so we'll leave it at that.
And of course, I don't own a bike.
The next day we went to the client's office and got to
talking about the Harley anniversary
and Mary mentioned that she was under orders to stop and purchase some
commemorative t-shirts before we left Milwaukee
and that seemed like an easy task. But
we learned that the shop would be closing before we could get there and so we
decided, with the client's blessing, that I should make a separate journey to
the Harley store to purchase Mary's
items along with stuff for half the staff who were also too busy to go. And so armed and dangerous with a wad of
cash, I set off to the Harley store.
People, again, let me paint a picture and the picture I am
going to paint for you is NOT black. The
company car we were driving at the time was not only a "mom car" i.e.
station wagon but it was powder blue.
And that is the car I had to drive to the store. And I took up about four parking spaces when
I got there which I'm sure didn't please the rest of the people waiting to park
and get in line at the store but what can you do?
So I parked said "mom car" and commenced walking
to the store. I was in a beautiful
raspberry-colored suit (my favorite summer suit ever), complete with jacket,
skirt, matching accessories, pantyhose
and of course, high heels. And so I
clacked my way to the end of the line and stood there, once again sticking out
like a sore thumb among the rest of the shoppers who again were all in black
and leathers. (I hope you're sensing a
theme here!) Thankfully, not one person pointed at me and said "What the F
are you doing here" but if so, I was determined to assume my best
"bad-ass-biker-chick-on- break- from-my-day-job" persona just in
case.
When I got back to the client's offices, of course I regaled
them with the story and to this day, I still chuckle to myself when I think of
the picture I must have made at that store.
It was probably one of the more memorable client visits I have ever made
and so last Monday, as soon as my radio station mentioned Sturgis, I knew what
I had to do and that was to pull out the Harley
Biker's Cookbook and get to work.
There were lots of good recipes in this book and I had a
completely different menu in mind but then Andy took a look and decided that we
should go with the chicken and then since the chicken recipe mentioned that the
dish would go well with the Dial 911
Mashed Potatoes, how could I resist? (We passed on the peas this time
around.)
Should you want to pass on the chicken and go with something
else, this book is divided into the following sections: "Breakfast & Brunch;" "Appetizers;"
"Meat Dishes;" "Poultry;" "Fish & Seafood;" "Vegetables
& Salads;" "Sandwiches;" "Dressings, Sauces &
Marinades" and "Desserts and Snacks." Several recipes make liberal use of jalapeno peppers
and so I passed on those but plenty of options remained and in fact were in hot
contention for a while such as "Claude's Blue Cheese Soup;"
"Thunder Grunt Stuffed Mushrooms;" "Torque Master Meatloaf"
and "Mario's Meatball Sub."
But the man decided that he was in a chicken kind of mood so there it
is.
This chicken recipe is easy and as they often say on Food Network's "Chopped" was
cooked perfectly. The chicken was very
moist and the garlic did not overwhelm the chicken at all, probably because you
cook it with garlic slathered on it for 20 minutes and then pour on the honey
and bake for another 20. Simple and
delicious. And the 'taters? OMG, delicious! Absolutely delicious. I mean, how can you go wrong with butter and
cream?
And that concludes our culinary "ride"
commemorating 75 years of the Harley Davidson
Rally in Sturgis , South Dakota
Sara Liz's Garlic
& Honey Chicken – serves 2 to 3
10 chicken pieces; thighs and drumsticks work best buy any
cut pieces will do
6 cloves garlic, minced
6 Tbsp honey
Chopped chives, to garnish
Salt the chicken pieces and rub them all over with the
garlic. Let sit for about 15 minutes.
Put the chicken pieces in a roasting pan, making sure that
the garlic is still on the pieces. Make
sure the pan is big enough so that you don't have to stack up the pieces. Roast in a 400F oven for about 20 minutes.
Take the pan out and drain off any liquid (not the garlic)
that has accumulated. Pour the honey
over the chicken making sure that each piece is well covered. If you need more honey for this, then use it.
Roast for 20 more minutes or until the chicken pieces are
crisp and shiny brown. Put on a warm
platter and sprinkle with chopped chives.
Serve with mashed potatoes and buttered green peas.
Ann's Note: Please
note that it does not say to actually cover the roasting pan you are to use
with the cover itself and so I left it off for the first 20 minutes, then
hedged my bests and put it on for the second 20 minutes and then because my
potatoes were not quite done, I lowered the oven temp to about 170 for maybe 15
minutes and the chicken was perfect!
Dial 911 Mashed
Potatoes – serves 4
2 pounds potatoes
½ cup heavy cream
6 Tbsp melted butter
Cayenne pepper
Salt and black pepper
Freshly chopped parsley
Peel the potatoes and boil until they are soft. Ann's Note:
Maybe if I boiled potatoes all the time, I would know how long
"until they are soft" means in terms of minutes but I don't so I
didn't. So I looked it up on the
internet and the general consensus is: peel and quarter potatoes, place in a pot and
fill with cold water about an inch past the potatoes. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer on
either medium or low for 20-25 minutes.
While the potatoes are cooking, warm the cream
slightly. When the potatoes are cooked,
drain and put them back in the pan over a low heat. Mash the potatoes using a potato masher or a
grater. Do not use a blender or food
processor unless you want glue. Ann's
Note: You cannot go wrong using a potato
ricer instead of a potato masher or grater.
Slowly add the melted butter and beat into the
potatoes. When well blended, add the
warm cream in the same way. Keep
stirring until smooth and creamy.
Sprinkle in a few shakes of cayenne pepper. Add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley.
Author's note: This
dish takes a lot of salt. Ann's
Note: I added some but not too much and
that was fine by me.
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