Autumn 2020,  Covid 19, and

I want tender;  I want rich;  I want savory

Goldfinch in the Sunflowers photo by Don Brockmeier, Photographer in Eustis, NE

Autumn on the prairie is flavored by sunflowers and goldenrod.

Sunflowers, swaying  and shimmering in the sunlight  attract finches to their seeds and honey bees to their nectar.

The goldfinch picks the seeds, a favorite food and available for the taking.

Honey bees take advantage of  the late season honey flow, and they pollinate the sunflowers.

Collecting nectar, their fuzzy bodies pass the pollen from flower to flower.

Photo of bee flying toward the sunflower by Don Brockmeier, Photographer, Eustis, NE

Bees are packing in the honey to prepare for their long winter’s rest in the hive.

I taste autumn’s splendor in the late season honey harvested from the sunflowers and goldenrod growing in the roadside ditches and patches of prairie.

Faces Forward – Don Brockmeier’s ingenious photo of sunflower facing forward and face of bee facing the camera!

The birds, the bees, the prairie dogs show me that autumn arrived, and in their own way they are preparing for short days and a cold winter.

I prepare In my own way, and change my cooking preferences from the hot grill to a low-temp. oven and  a long, slow roast.

 I will celebrate the first autumn days with a tender, fall-from the-bone Boston Butt pork roast baked long and low with an apple juice baste and brushed with Buzz Savories Honey Mustard.

For those with a smoker, this  recipe will elicit raves from your fan base.

Pulled Pork Sandwich with a ribbon of coleslaw, crunch of a cucumber, and sweetcorn, red pepper and cucumber relish.  Photo shoot by Robert Scott

Thank you, Don Brockmeier for the glorious photos, and thank you, Robert Scott for

brilliant culinary styling and photography.

See the recipe for a  Boston Butt Pork Roast and a Pulled Pork Sandwich below:

Buy your Buzz Savories Mustards, 100% Beeswax candle and Buzz Savories Honey here!

See our Buzz Savories online store on this site.  Order now.

Also find all retail outlets for Buzz Savories products on the Buzz Savories website including on-line sales at

Grow Nebraska http://www.grownebraska.org

and From Nebraska Gift Shop http://www.fromne.com

and Gifts & Things http://giftsandthingsholdregene.com

Check out the Pollinator kiosk at Earl May stores for Buzz Savories mustards and honey, and find Earl May store locations on the Where To Buy section of this website

When life grants you zucchini, make a fritter!

August is the gifting month across the U.S.A.  Backyard gardens and patio pots spill over with cherry tomatoes, plum tomatoes, grape tomatoes,  cucumbers and red and green peppers.

And notice, I haven’t mentioned  zucchini squash because I think if I only whisper about a super delicious zucchini squash recipe that I like to make, numerous large zucchini will appear on my porch with a polite note saying, “I hear by the grapevine that you like zucchini – enjoy.”

It has happened, and will happen again because zucchini vines are producing with abandon  this summer.

Fritters  for dinner

Zucchini on the doorstep

Nebraska summer

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Zucchini Squash Fritters

Easy- to- make and mellow to the taste, zucchini squash fritters bring a delightful upswing to dinners and backyard entertaining. Serve them singly with their creamy, bright sauce and sliced tomatoes for a light evening meal or shove the potato to the side and serve a zucchini fritter in its place to accompany chicken on the grill, a pork chop, rib eye steak. All good.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Equipment

• saute' pan or black iron skillet, any heavy bottom skillet
• grater

What You'll Need:

• 1 ½ cups zucchini coarsely grated
• 2 eggs stir to blend white and yolk
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• 6 Tb. all-purpose flour
• 3 Tb. olive oil

Sauce

• ¼ cup sour cream
• 2 Tb. Buzz Savories Spicy Beer Mustard
• ¼ tsp. salt

How To Prepare:

• Shred the zucchini using the large whole side of a grater or pulse 3-4 pulses with a food processor. The zucchini shreds easily and beware of over processing Drain off the accumulated juices from the shredding process.
  
• Whip 2 eggs until well mixed but not frothy
• Blend the flour, baking powder and egg mixture
• Mix with 1 1/2 cups of shredded zucchini
  
• In a saute' pan, heat 2 Tb. olive oil until it sizzles when a small amount of zucchini mixture is dropped in
• Pour patties of approximately 1/4 cup of zucchini mixture into the hot oil
  
• Saute' 2 1/2 minutes on one side until patty feels firm and the bottom is nicely browned, flip and saute' until the bottom browns
• Serve with a dollop of sauce
  

Zucchini Fritter Sauce

• Blend sour cream, Buzz Savories Spicy Beer Mustard and salt
• Drop a dollop of sauce on each fritter, or spoon the sauce into a serving bowl and sauce to taste.
  

A pancake without syrup is like a fritter with no sauce!  Too plain, too simple and boring!

Buzz Savories Spicy Beer Mustard sauce adds a crisp, fresh taste that compliments the zucchini fritter.

Buy your Buzz Savories mustards and 100% Beeswax candle and honey here!  See our Buzz Savories store on this site.  Order now.

Also find all retail outlets for Buzz Savories products on the Buzz Savories website.

In all times and especially the year of Covid 19, I feel more alive by cooking things and handling things, and making something.  At my most content, I’m someone doing something.

Edward Espe Brown writes in The Most Important Point, “I have no Masterpieces, I’m just cooking.  I simply cook something moderately good, and have a good time and enjoy eating it.  And  invite friends over, and  enjoy each other’s company.”

Pickles belong in the “just cooking” category, and when is a jar of pickle relish considered a masterpiece?

So relax and enjoy the process, the color, the vinegary- pickle smell in the kitchen, and the satisfaction of 4 sparkling jars of  tangy/sweet  pickle relish..

The Summer Relish I’m suggesting  perks up the flavor and adds crunch to a basic chicken sandwich, a vegetarian  sandwich (see Black Bean & Spicy Beer Mustard Burgers at Buzzsavoriesllc.com  September 17, 2018 recipe)  any meat on the grill, a braised chuck roast, a roasted turkey, a pork chop, and hot  dog on a stick, a grilled cheese sandwich!

It’s August and cucumbers, cool and elite  rule in the garden.  Let’s  make Summer Relish, and enjoy eating it and  sharing with friends.

Farmer’s Market growers are showing me their cucumbers in various sizes and varieties and in good supply.  I scoop them up by the sackfuls and make a crunchy,  colorful and delicious summer pickle relish.  Grab all  varieties and sizes of cucumbers, and pick up several pounds of onions  and a red pepper too.

Cook something and eat it!  The cucumbers are peaking now.

Now for me the fun begins because pickling and canning engage my senses and my thoughts, and lift the angst that Covid 19 inflicts.   I like

• the smell of vinegar and sugar steaming in the kitchen

•  to  chop and dice and shred

• to brine the cucumbers and onions overnight

•  to wring the brine out of the cucumber and onion mixture

•  to cook the shredded cucumbers and onions in a sweet vinegar, sugar, mustard syrup

• to  pack the jars.

• to screw the bands on tight

• to print a label giving credit to myself for the beautiful and delicious pickle relish

Please see and make the recipe below:  The Summer Pickle Relish recipe works easily and the equipment requirements are minimal.

Purchase Buzz Savories Mustards at a retail store near you.  Find all stores at Where To Buy on https://buzzsavoriesllc.com  and check out our new and useful Shopping Cart also at https://buzzsavoriesllc.com

Talk with me on the Buzz Savories site.  Tell me how Covid19 is changing your at home life and any questions and comments on cooking and social-distance-entertaining with friends.

I often  feel like a Great Western Flycatcher  hovering above  the earth, fluttering my wings and getting nowhere.

Covid19 news and the sorrows co-existing with the pandemic fill my mind with grave concern, dread and  futility.

What’s the point of cooking?   Why chop the onions, grill the chicken, plant the basil, parsley and chives?

In my search for simple ways to wake-up and feel alive again, I’m drawn  to Don Brockmeier’s   photographs of the prairie wilderness.  His photos tell an intimate story of birds, insects, mammals  doing things and handling things and attending to the business of life and living, serving their purpose yet  often playful.

To get my feet on the ground,  I’m learning to handle earthly things, avoid carelessness  and respond carefully.  That may mean scrubbing the pots, cleaning the kitchen and preparing the vegetables and grilling the chicken.

It may also mean noticing the bird song and watching the bumble bee rolling in the pollen,

the Monarch visiting the milkweed

and the Western Flycatcher singing  in the stillness of a summer morning.

Simple and profound ways to help me separate from the fears and stresses of this time and to wake up to the moments that are mine to live.

So I chop the onions with care, attend to the pot washing and the grilling, and I search out Brockmeir’s photos to divert my walk of dread into feeling alive and connected to the earth.

Thank you to Don Brockmeier for the bird, butterfly and bumblebee photos.  Find Brockmeier photos on Instagram on occasion and Nebraskaland http://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov. and Nebraska Life http://nebraskalife.com

I appreciate Epicurious for the Mustard Barbecue Sauce – South Carolinia style     http://epicurious.com  

Mustard Barbecue Sauce – South Carolina style enhances the flavor of the grilled chicken instead of masking it.  I like the slightly sweet, spicy, and rich message to my taste buds.  I think you will enjoy, and the directions work exactly as printed.  Try it!

Check out Buzz Savories products on this site and note the shopping cart option.

July 2020, and I feel like a bug in a bottle or  possibly, caught in a chrysalis. From inside my chrysalis, I see hollyhocks, zinnias  and hydrangea in bloom, leaves and twigs and grass, and I listen to news reporting on Covid19.  I’m   fearful  of this contagious and ravaging virus, and I hesitate to emerge from the safety of my chrysalis to fully engage in my work, with friends and our community.

A definition of chrysalis –  “a transitional state in which a metamorphose takes place,” and I ponder  the changes that may endure as I adapt to long term social distancing and withdrawal from the  community as I knew it.

At the same time, it’s helpful to remember times in my life that were really sweet, really wonderful, and often it’s a food experience.  I remember my mother’s homemade, salty crispy bread sticks, so good with a pat of butter.

I treasure memories of my long ago friend, Julie Hathaway when together we  tiptoed  through her father’s luxurious vegetable garden and picked  English peas, opening the pods with great care to see the pale green pearls  arranged 6 in a row.

We munched on the sweet  peas, and in the tomato row, we carefully placed our small hands around the warm, plump and vibrant red tomatoes although never plucking, knowing from a young age that tomatoes were serious food (Julie’s mother canned  60 qts. of tomatoes every summer).

Today I like remembering the magical garden and remembering  a time when I felt really happy and at home in the world.

Years later, I attempted to grow a garden similar to my childhood memories, and Julie sent me her Tomato Lucia recipe.

Lucia is derived from the Italian word meaning light.  I associate tomatoes with warm (hot) and often windy Nebraska  days, and  showers of sunlight.

Julie’s Lucia Tomatoes taste like summer – earthy,  juicy, savory and sweet.  A perfect compliment to  sun-ripened  Farmer’s Market tomatoes.

I reserve a place in my refrigerator for a ceramic  casserole filled with Lucia Tomatoes  from July to September.

I often toast a thin slice of sour dough bread and layer on a meaty slice of a Lucia tomato.  Invite Lucia Tomatoes to accompany your el fresco dining this summer.

If you have yet to taste the Back Alley Bakery sour dough bread baked in a wood-fired brick oven, visit the Back Alley Bakery in Hastings for a loaf   Http://www.backalleybakery.com   or in Nebraska order Backalley Bakery breads from Nebraska Food Coop http://www.nebraskafoodcoop.org

simply Summer

Welcome to the Nebraska Prairie Museum in Holdrege, a recent addition to our exclusive retail businesses  that feature the Buzz Savories line.

Stroll through  the Nebraska Prairie Museum collections including a church, school and farmhouse built in the late 1800’s along with actual machines and items employed in  farm work, household, business,  entertainment and art of the immigrants who arrived on this prairie grassland with nothing but hope and a vision, and where they built and cooked and sewed and manufactured lifestyles and a community that endure today. See photos of the displays and original buildings of the early settlers at http://www.nebraskaprairiemuseum.com

telephone:  308-995-5015

address:  2701 Burlington, Holdrege, NE 68949

Please see retail and on-line buying opportunities for Buzz Savories line of products on this website.  Sign up for our twice monthly newsletter, always a low-lift recipe and leave one of your own or any comment in the contact section.

Washing my hands, preparing to handle food
I cleanse my mind of same old thinking,
and offer to lend a hand,
freshly doing each task.

 by Edward Espe Brown

June 5, 2020

I search for answers, a solution, a shred of hope, a conclusion

to no avail

I look to the leadership and see beetles walking backward

I wail and listen for echoes  and then my echoes echo

I wash hands,  and cook the fundamentals

To us a gift of Beans

Serve warm, room temp. or cold

Ideal for packing and sharing and serving

Caramelized Baked Beans prepare a body for the tasks ahead

I offer this fundamental bean recipe to you, and

I Let my hands do the making as I cleanse my mind of old thinking.

I Thank Lynn Rosetto Casper and  Sally Swift for the recipe and The Splendid Table  Http://splendidtable.org

For vegetarians, eliminate the bacon, flavor soars with or without bacon.

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Buzz Savories Famous Baked Beans

Buzz Savories Famous Baked Beans are caramelized, sticky, sweet-tart and smoky, perfect for accompanying grilled hamburgers, hotdogs, steaks, chicken, or a ham sandwich. Putting it simply, these beans are famous because of their flavor and the pleasant chew they offer in the mouth.

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine American

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 hours hours

Servings 8 people

Equipment

• Dutch Oven or any heavy 6 qt. pot that can go into the oven.

What You'll Need:

• 1 lb. dried Great Northern beans
• 1 tsp. ground allspice
• 4 large garlic cloves coarsely chopped
• 4 medium onions chopped
• 1 lb. good-quality sliced bacon sliced into 1-inch squares
• 4 Tbs. olive oil for the vegetarians at your table
• ⅓ cup Buzz Savories Spicy Beer Mustard
• 1 lb. dark brown sugar
• ½ cup cider vinegar, or to taste
• 2 tsp. Tabasco sauce
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

How To Prepare:

• Cover the beans with boiling water and soak 2 hours, or cover with tap water and soak overnight, then drain.
• Place beans into an oven-proof 6-quart pot and cover with two inches of clean water.
• Stir in the allspice, 2 of the garlic cloves, and 1 of the chopped onions. Bring to a slow boil, then reduce to simmer. Cook beans until soft.
• Drain the beans, saving the liquid. Clean the pot.
• Set the pot over medium heat and add the bacon. Slowly cook until it has given off most of its fat, but the bacon is not crisp.
• Spoon off all but about 4-5 tablespoons of the fat. Stir in the rest of the onions and saute' them until soft.
• For the vegetarian preparation, separate desired proportion and spoon the beans into a heavy bottomed pot. Add 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil and a portion of the chopped onions. Saute' the onions until soft.
• In both pots, add the remaining garlic and cook about 30 seconds. Return the cooked beans to the pot and stir in the brown sugar, vinegar, mustard, Tabasco, and a good amount of black pepper.
• Add about 2 cups of the reserved bean liquid or enough to make a slightly soupy mixture.
• Bring to a simmer and taste for sweet-tart balance and salt.

Baking

• Bake covered in 325 degree oven for 2 hours.
• Uncover and bake another hour, or until the beans are thick and look almost glazed.
• As the beans bake, taste them and add more vinegar and other seasonings as needed. Serve hot or at room temperature. They reheat beautifully.

Notes

These baked beans can also be cooked in an InstaPot following InstaPot instructions.

Welcome to the  Wildflour Grocer in O’Neill, NE  and Andrew’s Garden, Kearney, Nebraska  to the  Honorable Mustard Merchants.  See contact information for these businesses on Buzz Savories website.

Andrew Erickson

Something New and Handy for your convenience!  Buzz Savories offers a SHOPPING CART! SEE IT ON THE BUZZ SAVORIES WEBSITE FRONT PAGE.