Iced Tea Forever

I’ve told you before about my family’s ice cream legacy, and it looks like this little girl is her grandpa’s granddaughter.

Although it looked a little unsure at first!

In a comment about my recent commentary on Krispy Kreme, Dorcas mentioned a donut episode that happened in years past.

Indeed, it’s a particularly favorite AHQ memory. We were on tour with Paul (Life in the Shoe’s husband, but this was years before Life in the Shoe) somewhere up north, Minnesota or somewhere, and it was in the dead of winter. Piles of snow everywhere, and bone-chilling temps that make even Hoosierville seem mild.

We had managed to find a Krispy Kreme (this was also long before there were any in the Northwest), so we stocked up on donuts. Not long before this, our good buddies the Denton Brothers had showed us a video they made centered around the last Krispy Kreme donut in the box. It was pretty good, so we thought we’d do our own version.

There was one donut left, but it was a day old and had been frozen in the van overnight. Now you know that hot off the conveyor there’s hardly anything more melt-in-your-mouth than a Krispy Kreme. But old and cold, they’re anything but. I was more than up to the task though, and I put it away in fine style.

So here for your viewing pleasure interest is “The Last Donut.”

This particular feat would have been no big deal if it was a hot one, but let me tell you, that was a mouth full.

A few months ago I took the family to Krispy Kreme, they had never had hot donuts right off the conveyor. And if you haven’t had them hot off the conveyor, you have no idea as to the phenomenon that is Krispy Kreme.

KK’s from gas stations, grocery stores, or those fundraiser boxes are usually not much better than your average donut. You can’t begin to compare them with donuts hot in the store.

So we got to Krispy Kreme late in the evening, I was really hoping the Hot Now sign would be on, but it wasn’t. We went in the store, though, and soon the sign came on! They were just firing everything up.

I asked, “Do you still hand out donuts hot off the line?” I meant it as a rhetorical question. I was stunned to hear the negative reply. Evidently they quit doing it as long ago as early last year.

Why in the world would a company take such a famous gesture of goodwill (and brilliant business move) and give themselves a black eye by canceling it?

I was interested in this recipe, so I thought I’d try it.

Big mistake. This stuff is nasty.

Amish Potato Rivel Soup

1 1/2 cups water
3 medium potatoes, peeled and grated
1 celery rib, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup diced cured or smoked ham
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups milk
1/8 teaspoon celery seeds
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley or chives

Bring the water, potatoes, celery, onion and ham to a simmer in a large saucepan; cook for 20 minutes.

In a medium bowl, mix the egg, flour and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt. Using floured hands, pull into stringy lumps; add to the potato mixture. Cook for 7 minutes, stirring often. Stir in milk, celery seeds and remaining salt; heat through. Top with parsley or chives.

What is up with this “rivel” stuff? Sounds like drivel. And it turns out it’s much nastier.

The finished product looks kinda good, but that’s because you can’t see any drivel. Nasty.

But really, what can you expect with just egg and flour?

Steer clear of this one.

1. There is nowhere for customers to park behind the post office.

2. Never try to stir soup while shaking a bottle.

3. Rivel is nasty. More on that later. I freely admit, I probably messed it up, but really, what can you expect from flour, salt, and an egg?!

Today I ran across a recipe calling for couscous. What in the world?! I never heard of the stuff. I have no idea what it is. I looked it up, and I still have no idea!

Don’t know how to pronounce it either.

It’s something in the pasta family, maybe? If so, then it’s not worthy of any further pursuit anyway.

It seems like we haven’t had much food content lately here at ITF, so it’s high time to remedy the situation!

These pics are from a year ago (almost exactly), but I’m making this stuff right now. It’s fantastic. I learned it from my Mom.

What you need:

Zuchini (small ones, don’t let them get too big)
An onion
A tomato
1 lb. sausage or ground beef
Grated cheese
Sour cream
1 can any cream-of soup
Mushrooms (optional, but recommended)

Slice up the zuchini. You can also use that yellow squarsh they grow a lot of in Hoosierville.

You also will need the onion diced up in largish dices. I usually start the zuchini frying a little bit before I add the onion though.

Fry the zuchini. Fry it hard. Fry it long. Cook those vitamins out of it! A little Mark Lowry reference there for you. But you want it cooked to death, you want it shriveled and mushy. It takes a while, but don’t try to shortcut here.

I’ve kinda quit frying it for awhile covered, I think I like it better fried uncovered the whole time.

Fry the meat too. I usually fry the meat beforehand, set it aside, and add it back in later. Saves an extra frying pan to wash.

And don’t forget to salt the meat. I like to salt the zuchini too. They don’t use much salt here in Hoosierville, but I do.

Dice up your tomato, set aside. Add the onion to the zuchini in the frying pan somewhere in here though. The reason I add it later is because I want the zuchini fried harder than the onion.

You are happy, because you’re soon going to consume an ITF delicacy!

Dump in a small can of mushrooms.

When the zuchini is nearly done, add the dices of tomato and the meat. Fry for a few more minutes.

Once it’s getting good and cooked, add the can of soup. Cook long enough for the soup to be hot, then throw in a handful of grated cheese and a dollop of sour cream.

Stir and eat. Try not to eat the whole pan yourself, it’s nice if there’s enough for someone else to try too.

My wife got my Mom’s rhubarb pie recipe from her, and she’d been making it a lot!

She has worked and worked on it and gotten it down to perfection. It’s a wonderful pie, tastes great and looks great too.

If Brother Doug was a little closer I’d share with him!

My Dad loves ice cream. He likes to have it every day. He always wants it for dessert after supper. I remember countless times from my child(and adult)hood Mom asking after supper, “We don’t need any dessert, do we?”

Dad would say, “Oh, how about a little ice cream!”

Or Mom would be serving cake or pie or something and say, “Should we have milk or ice cream?”

Dad would always reply, “Oh, we’d better have some ice cream!”

No matter what, he was always in the mood for ice cream. Years ago he used to make it a lot. In fact, way back in the Nebrasky days he was well-known among his neighbors for regularly making homemade ice cream.

AHQ was on tour one time in Nebrasky, singing at a church in the area Dad was from. This elderly lady cornered me afterwards and said, “Does your Dad still make ice cream?! We used to be next door neighbors and he would make ice cream every Saturday night!”

I hope I wasn’t a disappointment to my Dad, I never was that enthused over ice cream. I liked it ok and would eat it occasionally, but more often than not I would pass it up. It was just too cold and milky.

But lately I started to notice that I’m eating it more often. For some reason I’m usually helping myself when it makes the rounds, my interest is growing. This all led up to a momentous happenstance.

My wife and I were on the way to the in-laws one evening for pie and ice cream. And we were supposed to bring some ice cream. Of course we didn’t have any, so we stopped at the Most Expensive Grocery Store Known to Man (the gas station) to get some. My wife made me get out and get it, so I thought, I’m going to get whatever kind I want. If she doesn’t like what I pick that’s just tough, she could’ve came in too!

I scanned the freezer and picked 2 cartons. The one I’ve long since forgotten, but the other has changed my life. Destiny reached out and tapped me on the shoulder when I saw that box of Raspberry Cow Tracks ice cream.

My wife looked at my choices in the car and burst out laughing. “It’s supposed to be for pie!” she said. I didn’t care, I got what I thought looked good.

The whole family tried my ice cream. Everybody hated it. I was thrilled! I got it all to myself!

This is the most amazing ice cream in the world. It’s a Kemp’s Special Edition flavor, and in their words it consists of:

Raspberry filled chocolate cows, swirls of thick chocolate fudge in raspberry ice cream.

Yes! Very accurate! And as good as that sounds, it’s even far better! Wonderful raspberry ice cream liberally swirled with fudge! Generously populated with little chocolate cows which are surprisingly filled with raspberry filling! Amazing!

If you come over I’ll let you try some. If I still have any on hand! I think I’m going to create my own little twist on the family ice cream legacy.