Minggu, 04 Oktober 2009

Shopping and Cooking from Check to Check at Herk

Away games like those at West Point, Long Island, and Syracuse University afforded us Herkimer lacrosse players a good meal outside of our apartments and our meager food budgets. Most of us at Herk had very little money in college and getting a good meal remained a top priority along with staying eligible to play lacrosse. We had to shop wisely and make the food last until the next check to buy groceries arrived. I received both checks from home from my parents and had a work study job on campus with the grounds crew. Picking up litter and shoveling snow during the winter months put food on my table. I’d fried chicken, but inexpensive parts like wings, purchased at the Great American. “we buy the largest and cheapest cuts of meat,” says Jeff Fagan, “just something to fill us up.” Fagan adds, “we did a lot of barbecuing too” coming up with creative ways to heat the sometimes strange and tough cuts of meat. As an African American, I grew up eating southern food from grandmothers on both side of my family. As I result, I regularly cooked well seasoned and spicy home fries cooked with sautéed red and green peppers and sweet onions. I also cooked lots vegetables because they were inexpensive and filling. Cooking fresh spinach with butter and salt, and seasoned and sautéed green beans and lima beans became a habit out of necessity. The love of lima beans, which are high in protein, came from my family’s southern roots which I discuss in detail in my book Hog and Hominy. The book is a food history with some recipes. http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14638-8/hog-and-hominy

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