Wyoming

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

/ sandramervillehart / 2 Comments

Today’s post is by Alice J. Wisler, author of Under the Silk Hibiscus. Alice explains how a yummy recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Cookies fits into her novel’s story set during WWII and then shares it with us. Thanks for the recipe, Alice, and the book sounds intriguing!   

In the Heart Mountain internment camp in Wyoming during WWII, food choices were not in abundance, but even so, Nathan’s aunt Kazuko seemed to find cookies for her sweet tooth. She claimed that a cookie helped her feel better and gave her a pep in her step. She hoarded any cookie or sweet morsel that she could. Often Nathan would see her standing by the large coal-burning stove that heated the scant unit they lived in, munching on a treat that she kept in her apron pockets.

Later, after the war ended, and Nathan, Aunt Kazuko, and the others returned to their home state of California, Aunt Kazuko had a proper kitchen with an oven that baked cookies for the family. She was given a copy of The Modern Family Cookbook, first printed in 1942, and by following the recipes in those pages, improved as a cook.

-Alice J. Wisler

Recipe for Aunt Kazuko’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (1946) from the novel, Under the Silk Hibiscus by Alice J. Wisler (Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas)

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 ½ cups rolled oats
2/3 cup buttermilk
½ cup chopped nuts
1 cup seedless raisins

Cream shortening, blend in sugar and add egg. Beat until smooth and light. Sift flour with salt, soda and cinnamon. Stir half the flour in with egg mixture; add milk, the rest of flour, and then oats, nuts and raisins. Stir till well mixed. Drop from a teaspoon onto a buttered baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees F. for 10 minutes or until nicely browned. Yields about 36 cookies.

Book blurb for Under the Silk Hibiscus
During World War Two, fifteen-year-old Nathan and his family are sent to Heart Mountain, an internment camp in Wyoming for Japanese-Americans. Nathan desires to protect the family’s gold pocket watch, a family heirloom brought over from Japan. He fails; the watch is stolen. Struggling to make sense of his life in “the land of freedom” as the only responsible man of the household, Nathan discovers truths about his family, God, and the girl he loves.

Get a copy of Under the Silk Hibiscus: Amazon

Bio:

Alice J. Wisler is the author of six novels, three cookbooks of memory, and a devotional on grief and loss.  She and her husband have their own wood-crafting business in Durham, NC.

Mark Twain Writes of a “Soda Lake” on the Oregon Trail

/ sandramervillehart

 

oregon-264458_960_720

Mark Twain wrote of traveling by stagecoach on the Oregon Trail. One of the fascinating sights he talked about was a dry lake he called “Alkali” or “Soda Lake.” He saw these after passing Independence Rock, located in what is now Alcova, Wyoming.

img_2270The stagecoach driver informed him that Mormons traveled from Great Salt Lake City with wagons to shovel pure saleratus from the dry lake. The driver had seen them haul away two wagon loads a few days before Twain passed by. The Mormons sold the drug for twenty-five cents a pound, a nice profit for a product that cost only their labor.

Carried by the wind, the white powder blew into the travelers’ faces, irritating their eyes. Some early pioneers described the strong odor as smelling like lime or having an “acrid caustic smell.”

baking-soda-768950_960_720The shallow lakes were sometimes dry but might not be depending on the season. The water could be poisonous; animals that refused to stay away from it sometimes sickened and died from drinking it.

Saleratus, or bicarbonate of soda, is a white substance we know as baking soda. Bakers use it as a leavening agent for biscuits, pancakes, cakes, and cookies.

cake-596918_960_720When mixed with water, sodium bicarbonate may treat heartburn and acid indigestion but this comes with a caution: don’t use on a regular basis as an excess may cause Alkalosis.

Make a paste of baking soda and water to relieve pain of burns, insect bites, and stings. This paste also treats the itch caused by allergic reactions to poison oak, poison ivy, and poison sumac—or add a cup of baking soda to bath water.

Baking soda has been used in toothpaste for years and my mother used baking soda and water to brush her teeth when growing up.

mark-twain-391112_960_720What Twain called “Soda Lake” is now known as Playa Lake or Saleratus Lake and is easily seen from Independence Rock.

-Sandra Merville Hart

 

Sources

“Saleratus Lake,” The Wyoming State Historical Society, 2016/09/27 http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/saleratus-lake.

“Sodium bicarbonate,” The Free Dictionary by Farlex, 2016/09/27 http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/saleratus.

“Sodium bicarbonate,” Wikipedia, 2016/09/27, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_bicarbonate.

Twain, Mark. Roughing it, Penguin Books, 1985.