Me on KLWN, June 20, 2015
Those of you who follow me on Facebook might know that on June 20 I was interviewed by Jeremy Taylor on his program “About The House” on KLWN AM-1320 in Lawrence, Kansas. It was great fun! Jeremy had prepared well for our discussion of the Oregon Trail and my forthcoming novel. We had an excellent conversation about why emigrants set out for Oregon, the dangers they faced, and their preparations for the trip. As a Brit, Jeremy had a refreshing perspective on some of these issues. We Americans forget how much Western lore and myth we absorbed through our education and constant exposure to television and movies.
Not only had Jeremy prepared, but he brought in a chef for the latter part of the program to talk about the food that the emigrants ate along the western trails. With samples!
Chef, Jeremy Taylor, and me
My fellow writer (Write Brain Trust member Pamela Boles Eglinski) and I were treated to some wonderful food, including a rice pilaf dish (more frequently seen along the Santa Fe Trail, but the Oregon emigrants often did take rice along), spider cake (more on that below), spotted dog, and a rice pudding. If the pioneers always ate this well on the trail, they might not have cared if they ever reached Oregon.
Spider cake is not anything that should alarm arachnophobes like me. “Spider” refers to the type of skillet the cake is cooked in. A spider dish is a cast iron skillet on legs to sit about a campfire. But this cake can be made in any cast iron skillet. With a little syrup over it, it was my favorite dish of the day.
Here is the spider cake recipe from Food.com.
Spotted dog (and, no, Diet Coke was not on the menu on the Oregon Trail)
The spotted dog recipe was also wonderful. For those of you who have never heard of spotted dog, the “spots” refer to raisins. This dish is like a bread pudding, but in addition to bread, apples, raisins, and eggs, the version that Chef offered me had onion and bacon in it, so it was both savory and sweet.
I didn’t want much lunch after sampling all these dishes.
Although we ate well on this summer Saturday morning in 2015, the emigrants didn’t always have such feasts. Sometimes they had plenty, but often they scraped the bottom of their barrels well before they reached Oregon and had to live off the land.
Frankly, I had expected venison and buffalo meat when I first learned that Jeremy and his chef planned to feed me. But Chef told me the Lawrence authorities frown on killing deer that pass through the yards in town.
What old-fashioned foods do you enjoy?
