Old Timey Potato Soup 1 medium onion, minced 1/4 cup butter 4 cups diced raw potatoes 2 cups water 1 tsp. salt 4 cups milk a few dashes celery seed salt and pepper to taste 4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled Saute onion in butter until translucent. Add potatoes, water and salt and cook until tender. Add milk and season to taste. Simmer a few minutes before serving. Bacon and Bean Soup 2 cups dried beans (or 2 cans cooked beans) 4 slices bacon 4 cups water 1 cup diced onions 1 cup diced celery 1 tsp. dried parsley 1 tsp. savory 1 clove garlic 2 tbsp. bacon fat 1 tsp. red pepper 1 tsp. salt Soak dried beans overnight and cook until tender (or use canned beans). Fry bacon until crisp and drain. In a large pot, mix cooked beans with remaining ingredients. Simmer for 1 hour. Add water as desired during cooking process. Crumble crisp bacon on top and serve. Desserts. The complex carbohydrates in bread and pasta can take four hours for the body to break down and make use of. This is fine to provide energy for a long hike or to allow you to sleep warmly. The carbohydrates in simple sugars are more easily assimilated by the body (about fifteen minutes). Cookies or breads containing fruit and a high sugar content make good snacks for a quick pick-me-up on the trail. For example, most of recipes in the cornbread section can be prepared using a little extra brown sugar, molasses and some raisins. Cooking the sugar rich cornbread batter in a cast iron corn stick pan makes an excellent trail snack or something to munch on in a sniper hide. To satisfy your sweet tooth and to provide quick energy, here are some recipes that use sugar (brown sugar is easier to carry and use in the field), molasses and dried or fresh fruits (there is a possibility that you might just happen to run across a couple of apples in Washington State): Yankee Cake 2 cups brown sugar 2 tbsp. shortening 2 cups hot water 1 package seedless raisins 3 cups flour 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. cloves Combine and boil the sugar, water, shortening, raisins, salt and spices for 5 minutes. Dissolve soda in a teaspoon of hot water. When all ingredients cool, mix in the flour and dissolved soda. Pour batter into two loaf pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes. (Note from recipe book: "Notice this here recipe ain't got no eggs, milk or butter. Now I guess you know where it got it's name. Cause of them Yankees there wuz no eggs, milk or butter after THE WAR.") Hard Times Spice Cake 1-1/2 cups milk 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/3 cup molasses 1-1/4 cup whole wheat, unbleached or all-purpose flour 1 cup cornmeal 1 tbsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 2 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 tsp. cloves 3/4 to 1 cup raisins Mix together the milk, oil and molasses. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients except raisins. Mix together the two mixtures and stir in raisins. Pour batter into a greased 9x9-inch pyrex baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Old Fashioned Stack Cake 1/2 cup sour milk or buttermilk 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1 egg 1/2 cup shortening 1 cup molasses flour 1 quart cooked dried apples sugar allspice or nutmeg (Schilling Pumpkin Pie Spice combines cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg and is good with stewed fruit) Mix sour milk, soda, egg, shortening and molasses real good. Then add flour to make a stiff dough. Roll thin and cut layers round, the size of cake desired, and bake. To stack, drain juice from cooked dried apples, mash, sweeten and spice to taste and use between layers. Stack Cake 3/4 cup shortening 1 cup sugar 1 cup sorghum molasses 3 eggs 1 cup milk 4 cups wheat flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. salt 3 cups sweetened, spiced applesauce Sift well the flour, salt, soda and baking powder. Cream in shortening. Then add sugar a little at a time, blending well. Add molasses and mix thoroughly. Add eggs one at a time, beating well until smooth. Pour 1/3-inch deep in greased 9-inch pans and bake. This will make 6 or 7 layers. When cool, stack using applesauce between layers. Commercial applesauce can be used or you can try the next recipe. Windfall Applesauce Cut apples, peels and all. Place in pot and add small piece of cinnamon and a small amount of water. Cook covered for 20 minutes. Cool slightly and add 1 tablespoon butter per quart of apples and add grated nutmeg, ginger, grated lemon peel and ground cloves to taste. Cool and serve. Dried Apple Cake 2 cups dried apples 2 eggs 1 cup sugar 1 cup milk 1 cup molasses 3 cups flour 1 tsp. baking soda 2/3 cup baking powder 1 cup raisins cinnamon and nutmeg Soak apples long enough to soften. Chop apples up small and boil them for 15 minutes in the molasses. Dissolve the soda in hot water, put into molasses when cold. Mix in all ingredients, beat well and pour into cake pan. Bake in moderate (350 degrees) oven until done. Confederate Puddin' 3 cups hot milk 3 cups cold boiled rice 1 tsp. salt 1/4 cup molasses 1/4 cup raisins 1/2 tsp. nutmeg 1 tbsp. butter Mix hot milk and rice, add molasses, butter, raisins, nutmeg and salt. Bake in a greased pan at 350 degrees for an hour. Stir after 30 minutes. (Note from recipe book: "Southern folks always had a sweet tooth. After the war white flour wuz hard to come by so they came up with this here recipe. It wuz so good they kept right on eatin' it even when they could git flour.") Baked Cornmeal Pudding 2 cups cornmeal 1 cup flour 2 well beaten eggs 1/4 cup shortening 1 cup sorghum molasses 1/4 tsp. allspice 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. salt 1 cup buttermilk Sift meal twice. Mix all dry ingredients real good. Add eggs, milk, molasses and shortening. Mix all together good, adding more milk if too stiff. Bake at 350 degrees in well greased pudding pan until golden brown. Test with toothpick, if it comes out clean, pudding is done. Serve hot with any kind of fruit. Southern Bread Pudding 2 cups milk 4 eggs beaten 1 tbsp. vanilla 1 cup raisins 4 cups biscuit crumbs 2 tbsp. butter nutmeg to taste Mix milk, eggs and nutmeg together in a saucepan. Place over heat until hot but not boiling. Line baking dish with biscuit crumbs mixed with melted butter. Pour milk mixture over biscuit crumbs (you can use store-bought light bread, but biscuits are better). Sprinkle with nutmeg. Place the baking dish in a pan of hot water in a 350 degrees oven and bake for 45 minutes.