"The Mountain Biker's Cookbook by Jill Smith-Gould" - Sausage-Beef Stew

Date I made this recipe:  April 10, 2016

The Mountain Biker's Cookbook written and compiled by Jill Smith-Gould

Published by:  Velo Press

ISBN:  1-884737-23-4; © 1997

Purchased at Bloomington Crime Prevention Association's annual sale

Recipe:  Sausage-Beef Stew – p. 48 by Chrissy Reden, Milton, Ontario (profile p. 92)

"Wind is an artificial hill and yesterday, it was a mountain."

Thus saith my husband, Andy Martin, after an absolutely grueling bike ride with some friends around Ames, Iowa this past Saturday.

Andy is a member of the Minnesota Randonneurs, a group of long-distance bicycling enthusiasts who take great pleasure and pride in participating in day-long rides.  This past Saturday, the Iowa Randonneurs group kicked off the spring season with a 125-mile bike ride around Ames, Iowa, home of Iowa State University.

And so it came to pass that Friday night, we motored our way down I35W to Mason City where we spent an overnight with friends, Doug and Emily.  Although both of them ride bikes, Doug and Andy like to do the long-hauls and since the ride started at 8 a.m. in Ames, requiring them to leave by 6 a.m. to get there on time, we gladly let them.  We are such accommodating spouses, I cannot tell you.

The weather in Minneapolis when we left was probably a sign of the apocalypse to come as it was windy as all get out with periodic snow showers to boot.  Seriously—one minute, it was clear and the next minute, it looked like someone split open a bean bag chair and threw the contents in the air.

When we arrived at Doug and Emily's, the wind velocity was nearly (Dorothy) Gale-force (I reference the Wizard of Oz) and we felt the need to batten down the hatches even if we weren't in Kansas or Oklahoma where the "wind comes sweeping down the plain."

And it continued to sweep down the plain, or at least the cornfields of Iowa, into the next morning and throughout the entire day.  And by the time the ride was done, in most cases a couple hours later than anticipated, the guys and gals who participated were all done in.  Most felt like they biked standing up which is what you'd feel if you were pushing against a major headwind from the north all day.

Although I suppose one could do these randonneur rides on a mountain bike, it is usual and customary to use a "regular" bike which is to say a "touring" bike, as opposed to a racing bike.  And Andy has a mountain bike but who would of thought that he would need it in Iowa which is pretty much hill-less?  Answer:  nobody.  (PS—I must have show-tunes on the brain because as soon as I re-read "hill-less," I thought of Professor Harold Hill's character from The Music Man.  The Music Man's writer, Meredith Wilson, is from Mason City, Iowa which is where we spent an overnight.  Anyway, now I have a hankering to listen to that soundtrack Which. I. Love.  "Oh-o the Wells Fargo Wagon is a comin' down the street, oh please let it be for meeeee.....")

So as Andy said after the fact, wind creates an artificial hill and by Saturday morning, it created a monster mountain.  By mile 50, all participants (about 20 in all) were spent and every mile thereafter was sheer torture.  When Doug called Emily in early afternoon, he stated that this ride was worse than another one he and Andy completed in Wisconsin a few years back called, appropriately and hilariously, Arcadia's Brute. During that ride, they climbed hill after hill after hill in Wisconsin (who knew it Wisconsin was hilly) and swore never to do that ride again.  But there they were, on a worse ride than that, all because of the wind.  ("They call the wind Maria – pronounced 'Mariah.'"  Yes, folks, another show tune – Paint Your Wagon.)

But when Emily inquired as to whether or not we should hit the road in our car to pick them up, Doug said "WE ARE FINISHING THIS RACE!!!!"  leaving us in no uncertain terms that the elements would not have the best of them that day – or any day bwahahahahaha.... 

Meanwhile, Andy's ride was no picnic and he probably could have finished had not his knee started aching somewhere around mile 50.  By the time he got to mile 100, he was screaming in pain and so when he got to one of the checkpoints – a bar called the Flat Tire Lounge (ha!)- he propped up his knee, ordered a beer, and called for reinforcements.  Poor guy.  But if he bailed out on the ride, at least he did so in a bar where he could ask for, and was granted, a bag of ice for his knee.

So that concludes the story of the guy's wild "What the hell, Mother Nature?" randonneur ride, the first ride of (ahem) spring.

 Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Emily and I had a leisurely day.  After getting coffee at a local coffee shop, we hit the road in a car (what are we nuts) for Ames.  Unfortunately, the wind was again whipping across I-35W making it seem at times like we were stuck in place.  And even though Emily filled up the tank before we left, the wind sucked out any decent gas mileage, that bastard!

When we got to Ames, we took a leisurely tour of ISU's campus, a place last visited by me circa 1985 (some friends are alums) and strolled into some of the buildings, partly to get out of the wind, and partly just to see the sights.  As is the case in the Midwest, when spring (or something akin to spring) makes its presence known, building facility management has a hard time keeping up with the usual and customary yo-yo temperatures (freezing one day, balmy the next) and the buildings we were in were saunas.  And so we spent the afternoon taking off jackets, putting them on, rinse and repeat.  Still, this was better than being on the open road, amiright?

And after our leisurely tour of all that was Iowa State (we also saw Ames' high school prom get underway at the Union - awwww), we shopped and strolled in downtown Ames.  And what a cute downtown it was!  Unfortunately, most stores closed at 5 so we didn't get much of a chance to peek in, but we managed to stop at three of note:    Ali Cakes for a "tide-us-over" snack of cookies and cupcakes; Random Goods, a store selling used and vintage apparel and knick knacks (I found a fabulous wooden tray and coasters from Puerto Rico, circa 1970?) and Chocolaterie Stam where, inexplicably, an adorable older man in his 80's was playing a grand piano of "pop standards" (songs sung by Sinatra, Ella, Bing, etc.) while shoppers perused then purchased their chocolate.  He even let me select a song from his song list and then played it beautifully, his fingers dancing across the keys.  The last time I was near a piano, my fingers danced because I was dusting. ;) 

And so this concludes the guy's biking (and cursing) portion of our program and Emily and my takin'-life-easy moment in Ames.  Guess who had the better time?

And with that, we hit the road, and as we were driving back to Minneapolis, I recalled that I had a mountain bike cookbook in my collection and since we now know that wind creates artificial hills and mountains decided to find it and cook from it for Sunday dinner.

As these things go, sometimes it takes me forever to settle on a book, never mind a recipe, for this blog but this time it took me mere seconds to settle on a "winning" recipe – Sausage-Beef Stew.  I ran it by Andy who said it sounded good (and it was) and so while off to do a few (low-impact) errands, we stopped and shopped for groceries and I came home and put this together.  Of course, this type of meal is best made before the ride to prime the muscles and carbo load but we didn't have time and frankly, I think it was a tasty reward for a job well done (past tense).

As to this cookbook, author Jill Smith-Gould, pictured on the cover seated at an elegantly appointed table in her muddied and dirty mountain biker gear, is a professional mountain biker who apparently also enjoys cooking.  I can get behind that.  Some of the recipes in this book are hers while others were submitted by mountain biker brethren.  As you might imagine, these are fairly nutritious recipes, perfect for an amateur or professional athlete both pre- and post-event and speak to vegetarians as well as meat eaters. Recipes range from "Veggies and Main Courses;" "Pasta and Pizzas;" "Baked Goods;" and Miscellaneous that includes soups, salads, breakfast items, sauces and dips and "Quickies" i.e. food made in a hurry (so as best to get back on the race course).

So hmm, what to choose, what to choose?  Many of these sounded great such as "Awesome Veggie Enchiladas" (p. 33), "One-Dish Chicken Pilaf," "Ratatouille Bake" (p. 44), or even "Sweet & Sour Chicken" (p. 49).  Several pasta and pizza dishes also sounded good and the Baked Good section was mighty tempting!  Still, I tend to like to make a main dish, especially on a Sunday night, and so went with the stew.

Also included in this cookbook were profiles and photos of mountain bike racers, the recipes they submitted, and an section about nutritious eating. 

Not included in this cookbook?  Serving sizes!  I looked and looked and looked but there's either some secret handshake section that I missed or we're supposed to guess.  And if you read my blog, you know how I feel about guessing!

But guess I did and seeing that the recipe called for six Italian sausages and 1 pound of stew meat, I decided to halve the recipe as that sounded like a lot of meat for two people, never mind the rest of the ingredients.  As it turned out, we had a decent amount of leftovers so half this dish could probably serve four unless you are a mountain biker in which case...I have no idea!

Still, even though I decided to halve the meat, I was at a loss for what to do with the two green peppers included in the recipe ingredient list.  The recipe instructions said "...add green pepper" and I was pretty sure they did not intend for me to just throw a whole green pepper into the pot so I diced it into medium-sized dices.  You should do the same with the potatoes and (if used) turnip or sweet potatoes as you won't find direction beyond "peel and cut."  I ask you:  how is that helpful?

My version of this dish then, was composed of three Italian sausages, one-half pound of stew meat, 2 regular potatoes, 1 sweet potato (I skipped the turnip) and half of everything else.  This bakes in the oven for a little over an hour and it was great and oddly rejuvenating but then it would be given that our get-out-of-Iowa Saturday dinner consisted of a sandwich on the run from Jimmy John's (subway/sandwich take-out)! Andy took the recipe-submitter and mountain bike racer, Chrissy Redden's serving suggestion to pair this with crusty bread and beer to heart (we skipped the salad) and was a fairly happy, if not sore, camper come Sunday night. 

With all that, you'd think the man would wait a while before hoping on a bike again, right?  Oh no, in addition to riding to work this week, he's back in the saddle for another group ride on Saturday, April 16^th.  Here we go again.  I keep trying to remind my man  that Nature is NOT your friend (my life motto) but he's not having any of it.

This then concludes our post-bike (mountain or wind-created mountain) bike repast or, as I posted on Facebook "Yesterday In Iowa."

Sausage-Beef Stew – serving size not given but estimates are serves 4 if you make the  full recipe below and 2 if you halve it (still with leftovers)

6 sweet Italian sausages

1 lb stewing beef, cut in 1" cubes

1 large onion, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

2 medium green peppers (Ann's Note:  diced)

4 potatoes, peeled and cut (Ann's Note: cut into a large dice)

Turnip or sweet potato (optional) (Ann's Note:  cut into a large dice)

2 cans red kidney beans

1 tsp basil

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

2 beef bouillon cubes in 1 cup boiling water

Beer (optional)

Brown sausages well.  Cut each link into thirds and place in 3-quart casserole dish.

Brown beef cubes in same frying pan or skillet.  (Ann's Note:  the next instruction is to cook the onion and garlic but it didn't say if I should leave the beef in the pan or not.  I decided "Not.")

Cook onion and garlic until tender, add green pepper and cook one minute longer.

Turn into casserole dish.  Add potatoes, drained kidney beans, and, if desired, turnip/sweet potatoes.  Sprinkle with seasonings and mix lightly.  Add bouillon mixture.

Cover and bake at 350F for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until beef and potatoes are tender.

Add beer for an interesting flavor!  (Ann's Note:   Andy said he'd rather drink a beer than include it in the recipe so we made is sans that "interesting" flavor.)

Ann's Note:  I had some celery that I wanted to use up so I sautéed it with the onion, garlic and green pepper.  You could probably do that with other vegetables if you wanted.

"The Holiday Inn International Cook Book" - Beef Stew from the Holiday Inn in Ames, Iowa

Date I made this recipe:  March 8, 2015

Holiday Inn International Cook Book by Ruth Malone

Published by:  The Holiday Inn Magazine

© 1962; Seventh Edition

Purchased at Etsy

Recipe:  Beef Stew from the Ames, Iowa Holiday Inn "on U.S. 69 & 30 off I-35"- p. 137

Dateline:  Holiday Inn, Kokomo, Indiana, spring 1968

When I was in 4^th grade, my parents decided to take what would be the start of an annual spring break family vacation (never mind that I didn't technically get one) and set out from Michigan for Key West, Florida and then from Florida to New Jersey to visit my grandma and then New Jersey to home.  Grandma lived with my dad's sister, Rose, and her family, and this trip was our once-a-year trip to visit that side of the family.  It was the prefect vacation, particularly because it started my love affair with Holiday Inn hotels.

On the first day of our vacation, we drove to Kokomo, Indiana, arriving there at nightfall, beckoned by the glow of the Holiday Inn sign, the one that had an arrow that kept lighting up, pointing to the hotel, as well as a star burst on top (see below).  I was enraptured.

Inside our room – the most capacious thing I'd ever seen – was a directory of other Holiday Inn hotels, free for the taking.  So of course we took that with us and kept taking it in subsequent years, adding other hotel guides along the way, for example, Best Western when we took a trip west.

And so on every day of every trip, including the Florida one, my younger brother and I (mostly me) drove our dad crazy by whining about wanting to stay at a Holiday Inn with a pool (had to have a pool—what a treat!), something I don't think the Kokomo Holiday Inn had.  It mattered not to me that the hotel with a pool was 500 miles away because hey, I was in 4^th grade and had no idea that 500 miles was not something covered in a few hours time.  But dad did so there you go:  "No! We are not driving to that Holiday Inn."  "But daaaaaaaaaaaaddddddddd."

Side note:  can you imagine if the Beach Boy's song "Kokomo" would have been released in 1968 instead of 1988?  Talk about driving my dad crazy!  It's such a catchy tune...and so fitting!

Dateline:  Newark Liberty Airport, Newark, New Jersey, Sunday, March 1, 2015 (also known as hubby's birthday)

On Friday, February 27, 2015, Andy and I flew to Newark, NJ in order to attend my dear Aunt Rose's funeral – she who was mentioned above – the next day in Middlesex, NJ where she lived most of her life.  Aunt Rose was 96 years old and outlived my dad (her brother), her parents, her husband and two out of three children. She was a beautiful woman, inside and out, and we were happy to be able to attend.

And it was all good with the trip until it wasn't which is to say until it started to snow.  This happened about noonish on Sunday afternoon, March 1^st, when Andy and I were having brunch in NYC with some friends.  By the time we set out in our rental car to return to Newark a few hours later, it was snowing to beat the band.  And long story made short, our 7:30 p.m. flight back to Minneapolis was canceled and rescheduled for the next evening.  This meant we had to find a place to say near the airport that had a courtesy shuttle.  And this proved to be no easy feat.

So we rushed, as did half the people in the airport to the "bat phones," i.e.  courtesy phones at the airport, to try to secure said hotel room and from that point on, hilarity ensued.  I got on one phone and dialed #10 which allegedly connected me with the Marriott Newark. I like Marriott's hotels and the directory information said it was the only hotel on the airport premises so this seemed like a good idea to me.  Meanwhile, Andy started calling from the top of the list to see if he could get first fender in someplace else.  I won.

So we walked outside among the masses of people waiting for their courtesy vans, and within minutes, we spotted the maroon van for the Marriott and away we went.  (Please note that the van's color – maroon – is very important.) We were the only ones on the van and had a great time chatting with the driver (who also offered us water – how nice!) and within minutes we were there.  And the place was gorgeous with a beautiful fire place, a bar and restaurant and an attentive front desk staff.  What could go wrong?

Plenty.  Turns out that we were booked at the Courtyard Marriott.  The Courtyard Marriott runs a green courtesy shuttle and it ran every 30 minutes.  The fancy Marriott's shuttle ran every few minutes.

Dejected, and embarrassed even though the booking person NEVER said anything about the Courtyard Marriott, we hopped the very nice shuttle from the wrong Marriott back to the airport.  And waited, and waited AND waited for the green van.

Meanwhile, the fancy Marriott's maroon van came by several times as did the Hilton and the Holiday Inn Express (the topic of today's discussion). Over and over and over again, they came along, picked up more stranded passengers, ferrying them to the hotel in question to drop them off.  Still no green van.

By this time, the crowds of people gathering for a courtesy van were getting larger and larger and testier and testier.  One hotel's van – I cannot recall which hotel - finally arrived, causing a stampede of people to get on the thing.  But at least 10 people couldn't fit on and holy cow, you would have thought the Titanic was sinking and there was only one lifeboat left, such was the distress of the "stranded" passengers.

Several hotel's vans were really tiny and in one case, barely had room for a mom and her two kids, one of whom was a baby.  The husband, who in charge of the family's 20 pieces of luggage had to stay behind with the luggage while the "women and children first" went to the hotel.

It was chaos.  Nah, make that Armageddon.  And still we waited and waited and waited.  We didn't dare get inside out of the cold and snow because then the van could come and what if we missed it? 

Finally – thank you Jesus – the green van for the Courtyard Marriott arrived.  As did the Holiday Inn Express – again!  We piled on and all fit which was a relief because who wanted to wait another half an hour...besides nobody?

By this time it was almost 9:00.  At no point were we able to get food or drink at the airport because that was upstairs in the gate area and we never got past the "Special Services" area in the basement of the airport where we had to go to reschedule our flights.   In a parallel family moment, my brother's 1:30 p.m. flight, also out of Newark, got cancelled and he flew standby for the 8:15 a.m. flight the next day.  He decided to sleep in the gate area.  Had we known, we could have all bunked together but 'tis not the Verme Family way to be that organized!

When we got to the hotel, to our right was a bar and restaurant that was open for another hour.  To our left, the front desk.  And I swear, for one, brief moment, every passenger on that van paused to ponder these choices: check in, pass "GO" and head to the room or check in later and proceed immediately to obtain a beverage and a tidbit.  Tough call, that one.  I was just happy to see a bar.  And food.  But particularly a bar.  Just sayin'.

The hilarious thing about this is that Andy and I had just checked out of a Courtyard Marriott in Somerset, NJ where we stayed for my aunt's funeral.  Had we known all this (i.e. had we had a crystal ball), we could have just made the reservation in advance and not had to scramble.  But where's the fun in that?

And so dear reader, although we did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express that night, I had a great time recalling the magic of the Holiday Inn of my youth, even if it was done while watching the "wrong" hotel courtesy van pass by us several times over.  I told a friend that we should have just hopped on a Holiday Inn Express van just for the hell of it.  Because when those people say "Express," they mean it!

Now then, as to this cookbook, leafing through this is almost as fun as going through the  hotel directory of old except this time it contains recipes.  By the time of the seventh publishing in 1972, the town of Marquette, Michigan, which is near my hometown, had opened a Holiday Inn.  Of their two recipes, only the one for a Pasty (pronounced paa –[like baa]- stee) floated my boat but pasties are a bit of work to make so I passed on the pasty.

Kokomo, Indiana's Holiday Inn recipe for "Talk of the Town Steak" also fell short given that it consisted only of round steak, seasoning salt, liquid smoke and bacon.  I decided not to ruin the memory of my very first Holiday Inn stay with such a simple recipe.

Andy favored the "Creamed Ham and Turkey Au Gratin" recipe from the Holiday Inn in East Lansing, Michigan but given that we had a lot of rich, Italian food, at my aunt's funeral, I suggested we pass.

Several other Holiday Inn recipes also fell by the wayside – some from Minnesota, a few others from New Jersey, Florida and also the Boston area – before we settled on the beef stew recipe from the Holiday Inn in Ames, IA.

I may have stayed at a Holiday Inn in Ames, IA.  I say "may" because the last trip I made to Ames where Iowa State University is located, was almost 30 years ago and the details of the "lodging" were fuzzy.  My best friend, who died almost 3 years ago on St. Patrick's Day, graduated from Iowa State, as did her grandparents, parents, siblings and a handful of friends.  After we met and become friends, she invited me down for a few graduations and friend/alumni get-togethers, and over the years, we added a few others from Minneapolis to our travel posse.  Sometimes we stayed at private homes (once we stayed in a commune) but other times a hotel.  Maybe the Holiday Inn, maybe not.  But in her honor and in her memory, I decided on that the beef stew was going to represent Holiday Inn's everywhere and it did an admirable job.

This is a very simple recipe although patience is required when cooking the beef stew meat so that it gets nice and tender.  The recipe says 1 -1 ½  hours and I say plan on 1 ½.  The vegetables, which are added at the end, stayed nice and crispy but not such that they were raw and the whole dish was pretty tasty.  If anything, it needed a bit of spice but you can cheat and add that on your own as the recipe only called for paprika and salt.

Beef Stew – serves 8

3 pounds boneless beef, cubed

1/3 cup cooking oil

2 cups beef stock or bouillon

1 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

2 cups potatoes, peeled & diced

1 ½ cups diced carrots

1 ½ cups tomato paste

1 cup onion, diced

½ cup chopped celery

2 tablespoons cornstarch

Ann's Note:  Although I only made half the recipe, you will likely need to add almost 2 cups of liquid so that your broth doesn't boil down.  I started with 1 cup and then added another cup halfway through cooking, making sure to cover the meat.  If making half a recipe, reduce the amount of all other ingredients though, including the cornstarch.

 Sauté beef in oil in a heavy skillet.  Brown on all sides.  Add stock and cook slowly until meat is tender (1-1 ½ hours).  Add seasonings, then vegetables and cook until they are done.  (Ann's Note:  This includes the tomato paste.)  Carefully add thickening for gravy (blend cornstarch in a small amount of water and add gradually to stock). 

"The Des Moines Register Cookbook" - Top-Secret Tamale Pie

Date I made this recipe: April 20, 2009

The Des Moines Register Cookbook by Carol McGarvey, Marie McCartan, and C.R. Mitchell
Published by: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 0-87745-515-5; © 1995
Recipe: Top-Secret Tamale Pie, submitted by Jennifer Phelps of Carlisle, Iowa – p. 168

I have to say that in all the years I’ve asked someone what they did over the weekend, I’ve never heard the answer I gave to a few people on Monday: “I was in Des Moines judging the final round of the American Collegiate Mock Trial Association competition.”

Yup, that’s right, I drove all the way to Iowa to judge something the majority of you have never heard of unless you’ve competed in them yourself and to my surprise, the young lady checking us in at our hotel said that she participated in this competition in middle school - go figure!

So a word about the competition because I know you are all dying to know(and if you’re not, too bad!): starting in October, over 600 college teams (emphasis on “college”—you cannot believe how young some of these people are) compete against each other in a mock trial around the United States; the 48 remaining teams left standing at the end compete for the national title.

In previous years, my law school alma mater hosted the semi-final and final rounds and that is how I got involved, but this year (the 25th anniversary), the competition moved to Des Moines, Iowa.

Des Moines is only a four hour road trip from the Twin Cities (yes, I know, that seems long to some of you, but to those of us here in Minnesota, it’s a Sunday drive) and so I decided to give it a go. My husband was out of town but I enlisted a friend, Andrea, to go on the trip with me and we had a great time.

I told Andrea that I thought she would be surprised by the caliber of some of these individuals and indeed she was. In these mock trials, two teams, each made up of student “attorneys” and “witnesses,” battle out a case as if they were in an actual courtroom. A presiding judge (often a real judge) oversees the case while two scoring judges such as me rate the performances of the individuals including everything from clothing (it should be court-appropriate) to eye contact (you should engage in it, most especially with me) to tone of voice (as my girlfriend, Laura says, you should not scare the kitty with your tone of voice)—even hairstyles can factor into the believability and persuasiveness of a contestant. I once told some very stylish young ladies that while their hairstyles were cute as all get-out, the minute some locks of hair fell in the middle of their forehead I quit listening and started obsessing about the hair. This may sound like frivolous feedback (and perhaps even mean) but the scoring judge acts as a member of the jury and if I quit listening, a real jury member probably will as well.

To be clear, although tempting, I do not do this to be evil or to seek redress for the harm done unto me in law school (that’s the job for a well-trained therapist); I genuinely like doing this and am blown away by some of the performances and face it, this is as close to a real judicial bench as I’m ever going to get. But some of these people have great careers in front of them and I like to be encouraging. One guy so blew me and my friend (and co-judge) away that it seemed as if he had been a practicing trial lawyer his whole life. When we told him that, he beamed from ear to ear and eventually went on to take top honors. I often wonder what happened to him but alas, his name is long forgotten.

So anyway, we came, we saw and we judged. I will say that a “What Not to Wear “admonition extended all the way to some of the fellow judges. I mean, Jeeze Louise, who on earth thinks it is acceptable to wear a summer suit with flip flops? I kid you not—this one woman arrived in a seersucker suit and flip flops. Granted, she was a third year law student, but we about died. And wouldn’t you know this woman turned out to be one of the scoring judges along with me. Too bad there wasn’t a scoring form for her…. (Like I should talk—the hem on one of my pants came down and I had to emergency hem it and then my shoes were looking particularly battered and so a trip to a shoe doctor is in order. And yesterday, I went out to eat with a friend and wore one black shoe with a 2.5 inch heel and one similar looking shoe in a 3 inch heel. But still….)

Now before I left town I decided to make something in honor of Iowa but honestly, I couldn’t stomach any more ham or pork, products that have put Iowa on the map, and so when I got home, I revisited my initial selection and changed it up to the tamale pie. But as per usual, kids, this seemingly innocent recipe was fraught with peril! Okay, true confession, I am apparently losing my “attention to detail” superpowers because I misread this recipe and it almost tanked on me.

Now I bet many of you would do what I did: I saw “1 pound beef chuck and 1 pound pork” and translated that into “ground beef and ground pork” and this was incorrect. Although I noted ahead of time that I was supposed to cover the meat and simmer it with water, I neglected to focus on the “dice meat” directive in the instructions. Shoot. Of course, I already purchased ground beef and pork and now had to decide whether I should freeze that meat and purchase anew or tweak the recipe. I went with “tweak the recipe.”

My husband suggested that I brown the meat and then strain it before I covered it with water and I did that and it was just fine but I think I ended up with more meat than expected and therefore more water and that may have made a difference in the final product.

And then (in retrospect), I’m not sure I should have added all the water (1 cup) to the cornmeal (1 cup) called for in the recipe. The recipe said to moisten the cornmeal but that’s all it said and when I added the water, it was pretty runny. In the end, the cornmeal didn’t set as I expected it to—the flavor was fine but I expected a layer of cornmeal to cover the top of the meat mixture and that is not what happened. After all, I don’t think it’s an accident that the recipe is named Tamale Pie, not tamale mush!

But luckily, folks the end result was just fine although a little top-heavy on the olives for my taste. And yes, despite being rather tired of pork, I did use it in this recipe but it wasn’t so bad and frankly, should always be included in a salute to Iowa. (But I’m thinking a chicken is in order any day now…).

And if you ever get a chance to participate in or judge or observe a mock trial (even high schools have them), I recommend you do so. You could very well be looking at a future Supreme Court justice in the making!

Top-Secret Tamale Pie – makes 6 to 8 servings
1 pound beef chuck (not ground)
1 pound pork (not ground)
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup water
1 can cream-style corn
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can tomato paste
1 (8-ounce) can ripe olives
1 cup Cheddar cheese, shredded

Dice meat and simmer for 30 minutes in water to cover. Add chili powder, onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Simmer 30 minutes. Moisten cornmeal in water. Add to meat. Stir in corn, tomato paste and ripe olives.

In the meantime, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Transfer the mixture to a large casserole and bake, uncovered, 1 ½ hours stirring occasionally and adding more water if needed. Cover with cheese and return to oven until cheese is melted, about 10 minutes.