By Jomay Steen
Replacing my battered stockpot was like a trip through the magical land of Oz.
My all-terrain aluminum camping kettle has finally given up the ghost. It sprouted a pin-hole sized leak that filled my stove well with a scorched watery stew. The cleanup was a huge pain in the neck, but what an opportune time to replace a stockpot.
It just happened to be in time for Someone’s in the Kitchen’s annual product showcase. Just about half the population of Rapid City and I arrived at the store Friday morning to be wowed by a variety of cool kitchen gadgets, all developed to make the process of getting meals on the table tastier and easier for the cook.
Instead of a stockpot, I came close to buying a set of professional chef knives, a complete set of Le Creuset stew pots and—the most improbable of all—a skillet-sized pressure cooker. “My father would LOVE this,” I rationalized as I gazed at the skillet.
The Fissler Ultimate Frying System comes with a novogrill frying surface, safety handle, cookstar all-stove base, hanging eyelet, a steamer basket, glass lid and locking pressure lid. All of this skillet stuff costs the same as one-third of my mortgage payment or my entire gasoline budget for the month.
“Lifetime guaranteed,” the skillet salesman purred, which was more than could be said about my house or gas tank.
In the end, I brought a sleek, sophisticated Cuisinart 12-quart stock pot with steam basket and strainer and a bag of La Panzanella Groccantini (20 percent off) for about $90. It cost more than I figured on spending, but I did upgrade. With the tasty recipes and free coffee thermos in the long-run, I came out $1,000s ahead of my impulses.

Le Creuset’s Chicken Stew
1 tablespoon each of butter and vegetable oil
1 pound chicken thighs
1 large onion, diced
4 large garlic cloves, minced
1 carrot, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon sugar
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (28-ounce) can puree tomatoes
1/2 small can tomato paste
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1/4 heavy cream, optional
Place butter and oil in a 5-1/2 or 7-1/2-quart Le Creuset French oven, heat over medium heat. Add thighs, skin side down, cook on each side for 3 minutes. Remove meat to the lid of your pan.
Saute vegetables in the pan dripping for about 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Add all spices and stir to blend flavors. Add all other ingredients; bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to simmer. Return the thighs to the sauce. Simmer on stovetop for 1 hour with the lid on or place in 300 degree oven for 1-1/2 hours. Adjust flavor with salt and pepper to taste. Just before serving, stir in heavy cream if desired. Serve with crusty bread and parmesan cheese.

Beef Burgundy with Mini Farfalle
Prepartions: 2 minutes
Cooking time with Fissler skillet pressure pan: 6-8 minutes
1 pound lean beef steak or stew meat
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 sweet onion, sliced
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1-1/4 cup Burgundy win
1-1/2 cup mini farfalle
1/2 teaspoon salt
Fresh pepper to taste
Cut beef into about 1-inch cubes. If using the pressure pan, beef can be seared without oil then cut into pieces.
Place the beef cubes in the cooker and saute with sliced onion on high heat for 2 minutes. If a lean meat is used saute with 1 tablespoon cooking oil. Add all the other ingredients into the pot. Mix so that all ingredients are coated. Close lid. Cook for 6 minutes under pressure, reducing the heat and timing from when the second ring on the indicator rod is visible.
Release pressure using the slide on the handle or by running cold water over the lid. Serve with parsley and freshly grated cheese, optional. Mini Farfalle can be substituted with regular Rotini or Fusilli pasta. Once pressure is built, adjust cooking time to about 8 minutes.

By Tanya Manus

The cool, rainy days and crisp nights that heralded September’s arrival mean autumn is definitely on its way. A recent cold, wet Sunday put me in the mood for some of my favorite rainy-day comforts - wrapping up in a quilt to watch an old movie, and enjoying the sweet, spicy scent and taste of something warm from the oven.
I know we’ll have many sunny days ahead to enjoy before cold weather really hits. And many of us are still using up fresh produce from our gardens. So I think I’ve found an ideal dessert to bridge the summer-into-fall season we’re in now - rhubarb crumble.
A couple of weeks ago, I enjoyed rhubarb crumble that I bought from a vendor at the Black Hills Farmers Market. Not too tart, not too sweet, it struck just the right note. And on a crisp fall day, what could be better than enjoying summer produce in a wonderful, warm treat?
The next time it rains, or you feel that unmistakeable fall chill in the air, use some of that rhubarb you have stashed in the freezer to make this tempting dessert. For some interactive fun, you can find a crumble-making demonstration at YouTube, called The Rhubarb Triology - Crumble. Yes, it’s a video of a home cook named Monica making rhubarb crumble. Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HnqYrWgAEo
Or you can try this recipe, which comes from a cook on RecipeZaar who calls rhubarb crumble “possibly the best dessert in the entire world.”

Rhubarb Crumble
2 lbs rhubarb, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup sugar (superfine)
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cornstarch

For the Crumble Topping:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and diced
3 tablespoons vanilla sugar (can substitute ordinary sugar)
3 tablespoons brown sugar

Place a baking sheet in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Heat the rhubarb in a pan on medium to medium low with the 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon butter, vanilla, and cornstarch for about 5 minutes, until the rhubarb is glossy and everything has melted together. Transfer to an 8-1/2-inch pie plate (about 1-1/2 inches deep).
To make the crumble topping, place the flour and baking powder in a bowl and rub in the butter until it is thoroughly combined, with a texture like soft crumbs.
Using a fork, stir in the sugars. Spread evenly over the fruit, attempting to cover all of it. (Exposed parts will bubble up). Bake on the sheet for 35-45 minutes. It’s okay if it bubbles over a bit, this is what the pan is for. Serves 10.

By Lynn Taylor Rick 

My parents officially retired from farming and ranching recently. I guess it’s official. There are no more cattle in the corrals, but there still seems to be plenty of work to do. In fact, they seem to be busier than ever.  I suppose you never really retire from those professions.

That became apparent to me during a weekend visit recently. While my garden looks like a weed-infested mess (I like to call it our no-till garden) my Mom and Dad’s garden is spectacular.

The tomato plants are so massive and plentiful they could eat a small child. And the tomatoes have the most delicious flavor. I guess that’s what you get when you plant a garden in an old cattle corral. It would be hard to find better fertilized soil than that.

We returned to Rapid City with a box of tomatoes, beets, zuchinni, cucumbers and potatoes. We’ve eaten things in the raw form. We’ve sauted the zuchinni (my husband’s favorite). I’ve thrown zuchinni and the potatoes in a stew or two. But we still have plenty of everything left, except the cucumbers. We can’t keep them in the house.  

What are some of your favorite way to use up zuchinni, tomatoes and various other goodies from the garden? Any great recipes to share?

By Jomay Steen

In an attempt to revisit the past and spark some fun memories, the women hosting a book club gathering last week surprised everyone with a “Back-to-School”-themed meal. With a world globe, cup of pencils, boxes of crayons and theme paper as the centerpiece, the women clustered individual sack lunches around the dining room table with the names of participants written on the sacks on the first day of school in the Rapid City School District.
“It’s like in the cafeteria lunchroom. If you don’t like what you’ve got, you can trade,” said Catherine Dimock, one of the geniuses behind the funky meal.
“We’re attempting to lower the bar,” said Margaret Skillman, co-conspirator and top-notch sandwich maker.
“It’s a way to break the ice,” said Pat Clanton Handel, who had created some truly mouth-watering appetizers that had initially hinted at a multi-coursed dinner.
Dimock, Skillman and Handel, all of Rapid City, had gotten together earlier to brainstorm sack lunch menus before agreeing on ham salad or peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches, chips, carrots, Little Debbie cupcakes and a juice box. The eagle-eyed of the group were the first to notice the juice boxes were single-serve boxes of Cabernet—“found in Wyoming.” Everything inside the paper bags was swaddled in waxed paper or in its own cellophane wrapper.
These women are excellent cooks, who have lead legions of friends into new territories of culinary delight and foreign cuisine. Three months earlier, the entire club had been fed an English tea right out of the books of Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters.
Yet, they wanted to widen the culinary circle. The sacked meals also signaled to those of us who are less well-schooled in the kitchen to try a simple approach when entertaining a crowd.
“What a great idea,” chorused the crowd.
I traded my Doritos for Ruffles potato chips, but kept the ham salad on white sandwich. The phrase I often heard throughout the house was “I can’t remember the last time I ate white bread.” To me, it tasted like a tender piece of cake!
Opening that sack was like sitting down to a 1964 noontime meal at my wooden desk in a one-room schoolhouse called Turtle Creek. Inside that bag were foods that would sustain me throughout the day made by the woman who truly understood me better than I did.
So like these women demonstrated, don’t get overwhelmed by the logistics of a dinner party for friends. Feel free to tone it down a couple of notches because the point of the gathering is your friends and having a good time.

Catherine Dimock’s Faux Ham Salad
1 pound bologna, chunked
1/4 cup sweet pickle relish or to taste
1/2 cup mayonnaise or to taste
1 loaf white sandwich bread
In a bowl, mix bologna and sweet pickle relish. Fold in mayonnaise to moisten. Spread on slices of bread to make sandwiches. Store in refrigerator in sealed container for two days. Dimock had found ham to be too salty. She prefers using bologna while Skillman uses hotdogs when making this delicious spread.

Pat Clanton Handel’s Chutney Cheese Ball
8 ounces cream cheese softened
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup coarsely chopped dry roasted peanuts
1 cup chutney
1 cup coconut
Crackers
In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese and sour cream. Blend in curry powder. Add onions, raisins and peanuts and mix thoroughly. Form into a ball. Can be made four days ahead, but flavors will intensify. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Roll in coconut. Pour chutney over top and serve with crackers.

Lila’s Incredible Tuna Salad Sandwich
2 (6 ounce) cans tuna
1-2 hard-boiled eggs
1 rib celery, minced (about 1/4 cup)
2 tablespoons sweet or red onion, minced
2 tablespoons dill pickles or sweet gherkins, minced
3/4 cup Miracle Whip
8 slices whole wheat bread
Open cans, drain well. Break up clumps of tuna using a fork until it has a fine and even texture. Put tuna in medium bowl and mix in celery, onion and pickles. Fold in Miracle Whip until mixture is evenly moistened. Salad can be kept in covered container in the refrigerator for up to three days. Spread salad on bread, cover with remaining slices for sandwiches. Recipe yields 2 cups. Serves 4