100% American Meal

99% locally grown and made

You could spend a lot of time arguing with me about the origins of all of the foods on this plate, but you should know that I will win. I will win because there is almost no combination of foods more evocative of the American Diner than: grilled cheese sandwich with dill pickles and french fries with ketchup.

The true beauty of this meal is that it was made with 99% locally made and grown foods. The salt is the only part of it that in no way was processed of procured locally. (It came from Brittany) The ketchup is my one precious jar of homemade from my friend Nicole. I was going to save it for later. But when I made this meal last night I knew I had to have ketchup with it. Luckily one jar will last me at least several similar meals. It was really good!

For the potatoes I used a salt/herb mixture that I was testing for the tutorial this week. I discovered that the salt to herb ratio was off and the fries were way too salty. So I have adjusted the mixture accordingly. The potatoes are fingerlings I got at the Portland farmer's market and were creamy and roasted up perfectly.

The pickles were my own, made this past canning season. We are a little worried about how many pickles we've already gone through.

A word on the Coffee Liqueur- It seems that you are going to need to let it sit for about two weeks before decanting it into separate bottles, so this is a gift most suited to give to people you will be visiting on Christmas day, neighbors, or friends close by. You won't have time to ship it to anyone*. But if you make it and are pleased with it, you can plan farther ahead next year. I was going to buy some locally made vodka yesterday, but here in Oregon you can't buy hard liquor on Sundays because it would be unseemly.

I'm all about being seemly.

Both Angeleen and Angela have made some comments about this small town here and how people here aren't the kind to get my humor and that people here might actually care what the neighbors think. This is interesting to me because I have been accustomed to not caring what my neighbors think of me and the choices I make because I knew, as a kid, what everyone thought of my family already (especially when we lived in Ashland, a town that was half the size of McMinnville twenty years ago) and I always had the feeling that there was no point in worrying about it because they could SMELL that we were different. People are animals first and even when they deny it to their teeth, they usually can tell when someone is different or a freak or crazy because if most of us couldn't smell it-the human race would not have survived with such smashing success.

My Aunt in Wisconsin has made comments about "what her neighbors will think" regarding her wall paint choices and I thought it was so weird that it would occur to her that her neighbors might have an opinion on her choice of wall colors or that it could possibly matter to her one way or the other. It seems so 1950's to me. When my Aunt would come to stay in the house that she and my mother owned together in California, she would make similar comments from time to time. It seems that it's kind of like GOING WILD to wear flip flops that don't precisely match your outfit.

I have made many comments about what my neighbors must think of my yard with all it's hideous perpetually unkempt appearance, but not once have I said it with actual concern or seriousness. So, do people around here actually care what someone might think of them if they were seen buying something that has the word "hysteria" on it? I never looked at this community that way. As a community of people so "small town" that they all look over their shoulder when buying things.

I would say that my store is proof of what Angeleen and Angela have been saying about McMinnville- that it isn't a place where my kind of humor and product will be really appreciated. If it was my store probably would have been a smash hit right away. However, I think it's curious that one of my best selling items, besides my aprons, was the "Subversive Crossword" book full of little sweet crossword patterns that say, instead of "home sweet home", things like "Rat Bastard!" I had to reorder that one a few times. Those same people probably would have loved the bath salt kit for "Anxiety and Hysteria".

I had a really great dream last night with antique buttons and Mathew Perry.

But don't start thinking my marriage is in trouble. Dudes-Philip was in it too.





*It might actually not be legal to ship alcohol anyway. Not that I would tell anyone. Who cares about a little homemade?