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September 30
 Guest writer
— Sydne George
Check out my tailgating article and recipe
in the Great Falls Tribune FLAVOR page Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Is it the game or the grub tailgaters go for?
by Sydne George
 SYDNE GEORGE PHOTO
Great Falls resident Lani Witt enjoys a barbecued beef sandwich at a recent UM tailgate party.
Fall has arrived, and football is in the air. For many diehard fans, attending games on the weekends means partaking in the tailgate parties before, during and sometimes after the game.
While the origins of tailgating remain debatable, some claim that fans who traveled by horse and buggy to the very first college football game between Rutgers and Princeton in 1869 were in fact grilling sausages and burgers at the “tailend”
of the horse as they enjoyed the game.
Others contend that tailgating began at Yale in 1904 when a train brought football fans to a station close to the game, and they walked the rest of the way. Arriving hungry and thirsty, these spectators were said to have vowed to bring picnic baskets to the next game they attended. Green Bay Packer historians will tell you that tailgating started in Green Bay, Wis., in 1919, the same year the team was formed. Wisconsin farmers supposedly backed their pickups to the edge of the field, dropped their tailgates to sit on and ate a prepared basket of food while watching the game.
In any case, the long-standing tradition endures.
And while you’re likely to find burgers, hot dogs and brats at most tailgate parties wherever you are, portable party fare varies greatly by region.
Louisiana hospitality might mean serving gumbo, jambalaya and etoufee, Texans barbecue beef, and Buffalo fans traditionally lay out the white pizza and wings for their guests.
New England tailgating includes lobster and chowder while Pittsburgh is famous for its pierogies (Polish dumplings with various fillings).
In South Carolina, you can try a Low Country Boil, a seafood and potato stew.
Atlanta fans showcase traditional Southern food and deepfried turkeys. In Seattle it’s salmon and seafood, and San Francisco is one of the few places you’ll find wine and cheese at tailgate parties.
As a seasoned tailgater myself, I’ve found that doing most of the prep work at home before leaving for the game works best for me. Cooking without a kitchen can be dicey, and I prefer to be as stressfree on game day as I can.
My husband and I, along with three other couples, own an RV and tailgate at the University of Montana Grizzly home games in Missoula. Recently it was our turn to host the party.
When planning the food, I wanted to do something I could make ahead and assemble at home, an all-in-one meat-andpotatoes offering that could be brought to the game and reheated briefly before serving.
While admittedly it took some time to bake the barbecued beef, caramelize the onions, assemble and wrap the sandwiches, it was time well spent when all I had to do at the game was remove the foil-wrapped bundles from the cooler and line them up on the propane-powered grill to heat.
Opening the foil packets revealed hot barbecued beef, melted smoked Gouda cheese and warmed caramelized onions, all nestled between pillowy soft potato rolls. Before we knew it, all 72 bundles were gone, and people were asking for the recipe.
You might want to double the recipe. These go fast.
SYDNE GEORGE PHOTO
Barbecue Beef Bundles are stuffed with smoky gouda and carmelized onions.
BARBECUED BEEF BUNDLES WITH CARAMELIZED ONIONS AND SMOKED GOUDA
For Barbecued Beef
1 5-pound beef roast (I used choice angus blade roast)
2 tbsp. olive oil
½ cup brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp. Worchestershire sauce
1 cup orange juice
3 cups ketchup
Preheat oven to 350°.
In a Dutch oven or other large heavy pot over medium high heat, heat olive oil and brown roast on all sides.
Combine brown sugar, garlic, Worchestershire sauce, orange juice and ketchup, stirring to combine.
Pour sauce over roast and roast in preheated oven for 3 to 3½ hours or until fork-tender.
Remove roast from oven and break meat apart with a spoon, stirring to combine meat and sauce.
Let cool, cover and refrigerate until ready to assemble sandwiches.
CARAMELIZED ONIONS
¼ cup butter
¼ cup olive oil
6 Vidalia (sweet) onions, peeled and sliced in thin rings
In a Dutch oven or other large heavy pot, melt butter and olive oil over medium heat.
Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened.
Increase heat to medium high and caramelize onions, stirring frequently to prevent over-browning.
Let cool, cover and refrigerate until ready to assemble sandwiches.
To assemble sandwiches: Ingredients: Barbecued beef Caramelized onions Smoked Gouda cheese, 36 slices, cut to fit rolls 36 potato rolls, from grocery store bakery Directions: Slice potato rolls in half horizontally with serrated bread knife, making sandwich tops and bottoms.
Top sandwich bottoms with barbecued beef, cheese slice and caramelized onions.
Individually wrap sandwiches in foil. (Sam’s Club carries precut foil sheets which save time.) Refrigerate Barbecued Beef Bundles until ready to serve or keep cool in a cooler.
Re-warm bundles on barbecue over low heat for 5 to 10 minutes or until beef is hot and cheese is melted.
Makes 36 small sandwiches
September 27 The Autumn issue of Signature Montana is out now.
Check out my food spread, Fabulous Flavors of Fall
http://signaturemontana.com/index.php?p=kitchen
FROM THE KITCHEN
Fabulous Flavors of Fall
By: Sydne George
Menu
Serves Eight
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Caramelized Pearl Onions
Maple Braised Short Ribs with Browned Butter Noodles
Pastry-wrapped Baked Apples with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and Salted Caramel Sauce
Nothing says fall quite like soul-soothing soup to start,
a short rib dish simmering in the oven for dinner
and pastry-wrapped baked apples
anticipating a drizzle of salted caramel sauce for dessert.
Usher in autumn with this Fabulous Flavors of Fall menu.
Enjoy!
September 24 My article on Walter Breuning, the world's oldest man, and his healthy eating plan got picked up by USA Today online.
Check it out @
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| Two-meal diet aids in oldest man's longevity |
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By Sydne George, Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — So what does the world's oldest man eat? The answer is not much, at least not too much.
Walter Breuning, who turned 113 on Monday, eats just two meals a day and has done so for the past 35 years.
"I think you should push back from the table when you're still hungry," Breuning said.
At 5 foot 8, ("I shrunk a little," he admitted) and 125 pounds, Breuning limits himself to a big breakfast and lunch every day and no supper.
"I have weighed the same for about 35 years," Breuning said. "Well, that's the way it should be."
"You get in the habit of not eating at night, and you realize how good you feel. If you could just tell people not to eat so darn much."
His practice of skipping supper began when he first moved to Great Falls from Minneapolis in 1978. He lived in the Yellowstone Apartments at the time and would walk downtown to Schell's in the Johnson Hotel or the Albon Club on the second floor for lunch.
In 1980, the Albon Club moved to the Rainbow Hotel, and the owners asked Breuning to be manager, which he did for 15 years.
"I never started eating supper again," Breuning said.
He gets up at 6:15 a.m. and has a big breakfast every day at 7:30 a.m. Usually it's eggs, toast or pancakes.
"You can order anything you want, just like a restaurant," he said.
"I eat a lot of fruit every day."
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer sent Breuning a fruit basket after a recent visit.
"Boy, I tell you that was good fruit. I ate the whole darn thing," Breuning said. "Peaches, pears, everything, it sure was good."
In addition to eating fruit every day, Breuning also takes a baby aspirin.
"Just one baby aspirin," he said, "but everybody gets that for their heart. That's the only pill I ever take, no other medicine."
And he drinks plenty of water.
"I drink water all the time," he said, and just a bit of coffee. "I drink a cup and a half of coffee for breakfast and a cup with lunch."
Breuning said he has been healthy all of his life and believes diet has a lot to do with it.
"If people could cut back on their normal weight, it wouldn't be quite so bad," he commented. "They just eat too much!"
Breuning remembers his family having a cow, pigs, chickens and a big garden when he was growing up, like most people did in those days.
"Everybody was poor years ago," he said. "When we were kids, we ate what was on the table. Crusts of bread or whatever it was. You ate what they put on your plate, and that's all you got," Breuning said.
Breuning recalls his mother being a good cook, though she died when she was 46 after an operation in Minneapolis. His wife was a good cook, too. They met when they worked in Butte for the railroad.
"Everything she made was good," Breuning said. "We used to have lots of card parties, and they would always say what a good cook she was."
While diet has contributed to his longevity, Breuning also believes that working hard was good for him.
"Work doesn't hurt anybody," he said, mentioning that he had two jobs, one working for the Great Northern Railway until he was 66 and the other as manager/secretary for the local Shriner's Club until he was 99.
These days, Breuning keeps busy talking with all of the people who visit the Rainbow Retirement Center interested in meeting the world's oldest man.
Though his vision doesn't allow him to read anymore, Breuning keeps his mind active by listening to the radio.
"My eyes are gone," he said, "but I listen to the radio. I get all my news on KMON."
Breuning started eating out 35 years ago, but said he doesn't anymore.
"Once you get used to not eating in restaurants, you don't want to anymore," he said. Besides, he'd rather eat at home, at the Rainbow Retirement Center.
"They have a lot of good food right here," he said, "and good cooks."
Breuning celebrated his 113th birthday with not one, but two cakes, one chocolate and one vanilla. And for his birthday lunch he got his favorite: liver and onions.
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September 23 Check out my article,
"Sage Diet Advice from World's Oldest Man: It's Not What, It's How Much"
on the Great Falls Tribune FLAVOR page, Wednesday, September 23, 2009
"I think you should push back from the table when you’re still hungry.
... just tell people not to eat so darn much."
— Walter Breuning
By SYDNE GEORGE For the Tribune
So what does the world’s oldest man eat? The answer is not much, at least not too much, Walter Breuning, who turned 113 on Monday, eats just two meals a day and has done so for the past 35 years. “I think you should push back from the table when you’re still hungry,” Breuning said. At 5 foot 8, (“I shrunk a little,” he admitted) and 125 pounds, Breuning limits himself to a big breakfast and lunch every day and no supper.
“I have weighed the same for about 35 years,” Breuning said. “Well, that’s the way it should be.” “You get in the habit of not eating at night, and you realize how good you feel. If you could just tell people not to eat so darn much.” His practice of skipping supper began when he first moved to Great Falls from Minneapolis in 1978. He lived in the Yellowstone Apartments at the time and would walk downtown to Schell’s in the Johnson Hotel or the Albon Club on the second floor for lunch.
In 1980, the Albon Club moved to the Rainbow Hotel, and the owners asked Breuning to be manager, which he did for 15 years.
“I never started eating supper again,” Breuning said.
He gets up at 6:15 in the morning and has a big breakfast every day at 7:30. Usually it’s eggs, toast or pancakes.
“You can order anything you want, just like a restaurant,” he said.
“I eat a lot of fruit every day.”
Gov. Brian Schweitzer sent Breuning a fruit basket after a recent visit.
“Boy, I tell you that was good fruit. I ate the whole darn thing,” Breuning said. “Peaches, pears, everything, it sure was good.”
In addition to eating fruit every day, Breuning also takes a baby aspirin.
“Just one baby aspirin,” he said, “but everybody gets that for their heart. That’s the only pill I ever take, no other medicine.”
And he drinks plenty of water.
“I drink water all the time,” he said, and just a bit of coffee. “I drink a cup and a half of coffee for breakfast and a cup with lunch.”
Breuning said he has been healthy all of his life and believes diet has a lot to do with it.
“If people could cut back on their normal weight, it wouldn’t be quite so bad,” he commented. “They just eat too much!”
Breuning remembers his family having a cow, pigs, chickens and a big garden when he was growing up, like most people did in those days.
“Everybody was poor years ago,” he said. “When we were kids, we ate what was on the table. Crusts of bread or whatever it was. You ate what they put on your plate, and that’s all you got,” Breuning said.
Breuning recalls his mother being a good cook, though she died when she was 46 after an operation in Minneapolis. His wife was a good cook, too. They met when they worked in Butte for the railroad.
“Everything she made was good,” Breuning said. “We used to have lots of card parties, and they would always say what a good cook she was.”
While diet has contributed to his longevity, Breuning also believes that working hard was good for him.
“Work doesn’t hurt anybody,” he said, mentioning that he had two jobs, one working for the Great Northern Railway until he was 66 and the other as manager/ secretary for the local Shriner’s Club until he was 99.
These days, Breuning keeps busy talking with all of the people who visit the Rainbow Retirement Center interested in meeting the world’s oldest man.
Though his vision doesn’t allow him to read anymore, Breuning keeps his mind active by listening to the radio.
“My eyes are gone,” he said, “but I listen to the radio. I get all my news on KMON.”
Breuning started eating out 35 years ago, but said he doesn’t anymore.
“Once you get used to not eating in restaurants, you don’t want to anymore,” he said. Besides, he’d rather eat at home, at the Rainbow Retirement Center.
“They have a lot of good food right here,” he said, “and good cooks.”
Breuning celebrated his 113th birthday with not one, but two cakes, one chocolate and one vanilla. And for his birthday lunch he got his favorite: liver and onions.
September 09 Check out my Learning to "MacGyver" Marvelous Meals article
in the Great Falls Tribune FLAVOR section, Wednesday, September 9.
Guest writer
— Sydne George
Like mother like daughter: Learning to ‘MacGyver’ marvelous meals
When I was a kid, I would drift into the kitchen to find a snack, fling open the fridge and eye the emptiness inside. Cadres of condiments, ranging from standard to gourmet, saluted from their stations inside the door. Standard beverage standbys, orange juice and milk, stood at the ready on the top shelf. But rarely do I remember being invited in by a bounty of snack-making staples.
That is not to say there was no food in our house. On the contrary, the cookie jar always was filled with freshly-baked cookies, and I’m sure there was fruit in the fridge. It’s just that there never was much to work with as far as creating something.
Or so I thought.
Pondering possibilities, I remember finding nothing, closing the door and moving on only to discover, just a few hours later, some culinary masterpiece for dinner my mom had somehow managed to contrive from who knows where.
Mom is and always has been the master of making something out of nothing. She reminds us a lot of that jack-of-all-trades Mac- Gyver from the 1980s television show who could transform a bike frame into a blowtorch.
Since then we have borrowed his name and taken the liberty to use it as a verb to describe her miraculous magic tricks in the kitchen.
“How in the world did you MacGyver this out of what was in the fridge, Mom?” I remember saying.
But, she did.
By golly, the bacon in the meat drawer grabbed the fresh parmesan and a few eggs on the way out to become spaghetti carbonara at the hands of my Macgyvering Mom. Or occasionally the lone chicken breast lounging lazily in a soy-ginger marinade later emerged as the base for — would you believe — cashew chicken stir fry?
I remember pondering the puffy gougere with ham and mushrooms as Mom pulled it out of the oven and mentally backtracking to inventory its individual ingredients, all previously present in the refrigerator. Not to mention the faithful fallback — pork-fried rice. That was one dish Mom effortlessly could evoke on a moment’s notice, pulling frozen peas from the freezer compartment below with one hand and purveying pork roast, scallions, eggs and leftover rice from their respective posts with the other. Voila! Dinner’s on.
Somehow the MacGyver gene wasn’t passed on to me. Before I had kids, I would go to the grocery store every day. I’d think of something I wanted to make for dinner, and heaven forbid I should substitute something I had for something I didn’t, I’d head to the store and get exactly what the recipe called for.
Fast forward almost 15 years and two kids later, and you’re right. I no longer go to the grocery store every single day. And while I can’t say I’ve become my mother — she’ll always be able to out-MacGyver me — I have become a better meal planner. I can look at a whole week and map out what I am going to make to compile one weekly grocery list and stick to it, mostly.
I’ve even gotten better at MacGyvering leftovers (thanks, Mom) into innovative, enticing creations my family doesn’t think are leftovers. “Piggyback menus,” I like to call them. Buy one meat item and cook it for meal No. 1. Save the extra and make it into meal No. 2. Monday, it’s Apricot-glazed Pork Tenderloin, Tuesday, it’s Cha-Cha-Cha Chimichangas, and no one is the wiser.
It sure beats staring into the refrigerator and wondering what in the world I am going to make for dinner or going to the grocery store every day.
Piggyback dinner plan
SYDNE GEORGE PHOTO
“Piggyback” meals require a little planning, but are worth the effort. Night one, serve pork tenderloin with apricot glaze. The next night, leftovers become cha-cha-cha chimichangas
If you’re anything like me, you’re always looking for ways to minimize meal planning and limit leftovers lurking in the refrigerator. This week, plan to make apricot-glazed pork tenderloin for dinner one night. Then use the leftover pork for chimichangas the next.
APRICOT-GLAZED PORK TENDERLOIN
12-ounce jar apricot preserves
¼ cup light corn syrup
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
1¼ tsp. salt, divided
1¼ tsp. freshly ground pepper
¼ tsp. ginger
2 tbsp. brandy
1 cup sliced almonds
2-pound pork tenderloin roast
¼ cup olive oi1
4 fresh rosemary sprigs
Preheat oven to 375°. Position oven rack in the middle of the oven.
In a medium heavy saucepan over medium high heat, combine preserves, corn syrup, cider vinegar, ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, ginger and brandy.
Boil briefly, stirring constantly, until mixture is thoroughly combined.
Add almonds. Set aside.
Place pork tenderloin roast in a shallow heavy roasting pan.
Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper.
Roast uncovered for 30 minutes.
Remove roast from oven and pour 1 cup of apricot glaze over the top of the roast, leaving the rest in the saucepan.
Return roast to the oven and continue baking for 15 minutes.
Rewarm remaining glaze in saucepan over medium heat while roast is finishing.
Remove roast from oven, tent with foil and let rest for 10 minutes.
Slice roast into ½ inch slices.
Arrange slices attractively on plate. Top with apricot glaze and garnish with fresh rosemary sprigs.
Serves four with leftover for chimichangas.
SYDNE GEORGE PHOTO
CHA-CHA-CHA CHIMICHANGAS
Leftover pork tenderloin (about 2 cups), cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup roasted red pepper, corn and black bean salsa
½ cup cheddar cheese, grated
1 7-ounce can green chiles, diced (optional)
8 burrito-sized flour tortillas
8 toothpicks
½ cup sour cream
1 tsp. chili powder, for garnish
½ cup minced fresh cilantro, for garnish
1 cup roasted red pepper, corn and black bean salsa, for garnish
Preheat electric griddle to 300°.
In a medium bowl, combine pork tenderloin, 1 cup roasted red pepper, corn and black bean salsa, cheddar cheese and green chiles. Stir together until thoroughly mixed. Place ¼ cup filling mixture in the center of each flour tortilla.
Fold left edge of tortilla into center, then right edge into center, then top down into center and finally bottom edge up to the center, making a square package. Secure loose tortilla flaps with toothpick. Flip chimichanga so it is seam-side down. Repeat with remaining seven tortillas, making eight chimichangas.
Using a pastry brush, brush vegetable oil onto preheated griddle. Place chimichangas, seam-side down onto hot griddle and grill until golden brown, about three minutes. Turn and grill other side.
Serve warm with salsa and a dollop of sour cream sprinkled with chili powder.
Enjoy!
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