Food And Prayers

 The US Midwest   and South has just gone through  one of the largest and most devastating tornado clusters in American history. Prayers will help. They always do. Yet food , hot and donated will also benefit.

This is one of the most horrirfic natural weather disasters to ever hit the continental US. Six states, were hit, destroying homes, schools and hospitals. The field of impact ranges from southern Illinois to western Kentucky.Arkansas,Missouri and Tennessee have also been hit. There are people and animals without electricity, water and food. Mayfield Kentucky was completely devastated. You can donate to the Kentucky REd Cross along with Aspire Appalachia and United Way  Company. You can also donate baby and pet food along with canned food to The Salvation Army, Kentucky/Tennessee Division. Food donations go to Dare To Care Food Bank, Hope To All Food Pantry at 307 W, Mose Rager Boulevard Drakesboro, KY and Community Kitchen 1237 Martin Luther King Boulevard in Paducah, KY, Give what you can and what can last, Breads, coolies crackers and cold cuts along with cheeses are good choices. Bottled water is a must. It can provide sustenance and cleaning too.

Raising money can also help. Think about creating  a bake sale which is perfect for those who  don't like to bake.Due to the virus, try to have it in a large, spacious area like your school gym or church hall.(some colleges are having holiday bake sales in their parking lots where there's a lot of space and fresh air.)  If you're really talented or can bake with help then think about making gingerbread houses or chocolate Yule logs , sweets that many home bakers find complicated to make. You can also try making fun gingerbread ornaments with royal icing and pretty decorations. These can be hung on the tree and eaten afterwards. Another big bake sale seller at this time are a wide array of cookies. The fancy spritz cookies are easy t make now thanks to improvements in cookie presses (there are even electric ones now). There are holiday themed discs that can be used in the presses and the dough can be tinted green and red for the holiday. of course oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip will always sell.

This is the season for heart and helping. Do what you can to help those devastated by the megatornados that hit six states in the Midwest and South. it could be cans pf pet food and formula. It could be the proceeds of a bake sale. Just reach out and help.

Honest Abe's Menu

Today is Abe Lincoln;s birthday. This great man came from humble beginnings as we all know. His backwoods origins also included a love of simple food whether from the forest or the garden. He ate simply , his mind more on his law studies than on his stomach. Despite all he ate well and even nutritiously.

Lincoln's Southern Illinois and Indiana back in the 1800's was just starting to become farmland. His stepmother probably cooked a lot of wild onion and parsnips, either boiled or stewed with meats to flavor them. There was plenty of wild meat to choose from, from raccoons to squirrels to pigeons. Lincoln had a fondness for chicken, especially fricasseed and he carried that with him to the White House. H e liked gingerbread a, love from his boyhood along with fruits, in particular apples. These probably grew in abundance on his farms and along the roads and were always there for the picking.

Once he was elected into the White House, Lincoln abandon his culinary loves. He still enjoyed plenty of fresh fruits,. especially grapes in the summer. He still loved apples along with apple pies pies He was not into the fancily decorated cakes and gelatins of the period, preferring simple butter cookies and plain cakes. He did have a passion for oysters especially in a creamy stew.. This last was a big 19th Century passion. Mostly everyone from that era relished this particular bivalve. and there was an incredible amount of oyster recipes in cookbooks of the time. One thing that stood out Lincoln was a lifelong non drinker,he preferred a glass of water to wine or spirits. This may have come from his days of drinking fresh stream or well water a a boy.

Abe Lincoln wasn't a gourmand like other presidents. He had none of Jefferson's culinary curiosity about food nor was he a love of all things rich like Taft . Much like his principles, he was more for the simple and pure..