Food and me

I grew up in a time when the country was just coming out of the great depression.

My parents came from rural backgrounds where the food that they ate was mostly home grown and was simple in its nature and preparation. My great grandmother Jane Butler learned to cook at Dunraven castle in Wales. Her husband John Ulrich Stucki was Swiss and brought that gastronomy background to the family. It was reported that when the visiting authorities would come from Salt Lake to Paris, that Jane Butler Stucki would be asked to prepare the meals for the visitors.

My mother was raised in that environment and would often tweak the recipes for food that she made. She enjoyed good, well-prepared food, especially if it had butter or cream. She was not afraid to experiment.

I always liked to eat at my grandmother Mary Ellen Kerr Gee's home. She would fix dishes that we did not eat at home. The one that sticks in my mind is peeled sliced oranges with coconut sprinkled on top.

We usually ate meat, potatoes and vegetables. There was nothing fancy.  When we went to a restaurant we would usually order chicken fried steak or a hot beef or pork sandwich.  We may have gone to the restaurant once every two or three years, or less often.

When I was working for the forest service, I did some cooking for myself and later for the fire crew.  On the Wiggins Fork fire I was the cook for the mop up fire crew.  I had plenty of provisions.  Although I did not prepare anything fancy, I enjoyed cooking.

I went to live with my aunt Alta Lowe and attend Weber College.  I lived with her for two school years.  She was an excellent cook and had dinner parties at least once a month. She let me help with the preparation of the parties.  The first party that I remember was one in which she prepared a cold three-bean salad.  You have probably eaten this salad, but it was not common at that time. I was used to eating my beans hot and not with vinegar.  I discretely placed the beans in my napkin and then disposed of them in the toilet. I like cold bean salad now, but it required a honing of my palate.

One day my aunt asked me to go to the fish market.  She asked me to pick up some fresh crab. She was going to prepare cracked crab on ice for my grandparents who were coming for a visit. It was the first time I had ever eaten crab.  I also learned to eat fried oysters and fried shrimp while living at my aunt’s house.

I helped her prepare the canned plum pudding, which she gave away to friends and relatives at Christmas time.

My next adventure with food came when I found myself in Germany on a mission. It was here that I was introduced to a wide variety of foods that I had never eaten before. I will name a few: potato pancakes, lung ragout, calf’s brain, carp, marzipan, Rinderouladen, Kohlrouladen, Kuchen, rutabaga, buttermilk soup and bauernfrüstuck.

On the way home from my mission I added to the foods that I had previously not experienced: frito misto mare (calamari, octopus, prawns and fish all deep fried), vineyard snails in garlic butter, and real Italian spaghetti.

On the ship home we had an eating contest.  I won. We went through the entire menu ordering every item.  Then we started at the top again. I won by a leg of chicken.

After I returned home and got married I worked at the Salt Lake Country Club running the refreshment stand on the golf course. I got to take home all the food that was prepared for the golfers that was not eaten.  Occasionally the chef would give me a filet of beef to cook on the grill. I would take it home with me and share with my wife.

We liked to cook “shish kabob” on the charcoal grill.  I incorporated dill pickle next to the beef cubes because it reminded me of the rouladen I had eaten in Germany and we have prepared it that way ever since.  Usually we have beef alternating with tomatoes, red or green peppers, onions and dill pickle. We have prepared it with chicken, shrimp or lamb as well. 

We used to listen to cooking shows on the radio and write down the recipes.  My wife Alice was adventuresome as well and she usually did the cooking.  While we were living on the avenues in Salt Lake City, we started making our own hand-dipped chocolates and used fudge and divinity and white fudge for the centers.

After we moved to Lander we ordered a series of cookbooks from Time/Life publishing company.  We got a number of our recipes from these cookbooks.  We collected recipes on 3x5” cards and put them in boxes.  Eventually the box became too small and we got a larger wooden tole painted box. It too became too small. Our recipe books soon lined the book self that we had in our kitchen.  We subscribed to Cuisine magazine and got small cookbooks from Cuisinart when we bought our food processor. We subscribed to Bon Appetite magazine and would look through the recipes to see what sounded good to eat.  I got a small magazine at the office called Physician’s Life Style.  There was only one good recipe in each issue.  We got our recipes for cream cheese pie and chicken cacciatore from this magazine.

In California we would go to the Imperial Dynasty restaurant in Hanford where the food was excellent and the atmosphere exotic.  The restaurant was famous all over California and beyond.  People would fly into Hanford just to eat there.  The owner was the chef for General Marshall during World War II.  We usually ordered the Tournados of beef, and they had an excellent egg foo young that they served with it.

In order to raise money for the marching band, we had a series of dinners and served at least 100 people and we were involved in the planning and cooking.  We had a few dinners for the high priests and cooked and served food for those.  We belonged to a dinner group with friends from Riverton and Lander and rotated homes and dinners for them. 

When we would go down to Salt Lake with our children, we would always go out to eat.  Some of the restaurants we frequented were Michelinos, Della Fonatana, Bratten’s Grotto, The hotel Utah coffee shop, Al Forno and other places where we could get food that wasn’t available in Lander, Wyoming.

When I was on the board of directors of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Wyoming, we would go to Jackson Lake Lodge, Phoenix, or the Old Baldy Club in Saratoga, Wyoming and eat food prepared especially for the group.  It was a dining experience.

While on our mission to Frankfurt, we went with other missionaries and by ourselves to a number of different restaurants.  I prepared a dining guide with the name of the restaurant and the food that we ate.  The food was good and we learned to eat and enjoy things that we did not have in Lander.  We also watched the TV show “Koch Duel” and got a few pointers from the chefs there.  We also found that the vegetables at the local farms were very good and the produce was fresh and excellent. We took our recipes with us on our computer. The first 48 pages or so was put together by Alice and then we added and added and added until the document was given to each of our children.  Some of the recipes are in German. 

When we went to Moscow we enjoyed eating at the Scandinavian restaurant and especially at the Pushkin restaurant at the Tverskaya Metro stop. It is touted as the premier place to eat in Moscow.  In Moscow we got the BBC television in our apartment and enjoyed watching “Ready Steady Cook”.  We took our recipes with us. 

Food seems to be a topic of conversation in our family.  We feel that food for the body is as important as food for the soul.  Both must be of the highest quality and pure and delicious.

Love,

Grandpa