Most Patriotic Runner Up

Say hello to my friends: Lady Liberty, Betsy Ross, Uncle Sam and Honest Abe.

Their participation in Saturday’s Valley 4th Parade in downtown Harrisonburg placed Shenandoah Living as runner up in the Most Patriotic category.

I offer a huge thanks to Leah Kilcup, Allison Farole, Andrew Kilcup and Dick Kilcup for their creativity and willingness to help make our entry in the parade a success. The costumes were handcrafted by this group and they were a huge hit at the parade. They helped decorate the “Monster Truck” in red, white and blue. I think they all had as much fun as I did!

Click here to see all the parade pics.

Ahh, 85 & Sunny 4 the 4th

My cryptic title may have something to do with the fact that I just got in from a 2-day drive across the US last night, the 100+ degrees where I was vacationing, the fact that this weekend’s forecast is glorious for the parade, or all of the above!

After spending a week in temperatures that ranged from 102 to 107 (with a 110-degree heat index at least one day), I was thrilled to learn that the forecast for this weekend’s July 4 Parade calls for 85 degrees and sunny skies. I just returned from the Gulf Coast. Gluttons for punishment, my family and I took the 18-hour land route, rather than the 5-hour air route. But I happily watched the digital thermometer in our truck gradually drop as we headed north up Interstate 81 this weekend on our return to the Valley. From 99 degrees early Saturday morning (before the day’s high of 102), the gauge had dropped to 79 degrees by the time we hit the Central Shenandoah Valley Sunday night. Bliss.

Two weeks ago I thought 85 degrees was hot. I am now looking forward to a pleasantly COOL day for this weekend’s festivities in the Valley.

Look for the blue “Monster Truck” in Harrisonburg’s Valley 4th Parade. The staff and families of Shenandoah Living magazine will be riding tail-gate style in the parade. Be sure to give us a yell!

Go to Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance website for a schedule of the day’s events.

–Toni Mehling

First Fridays Starts This Week in the ‘Burg

This Friday the Arts Council of the Valley kicks off its annual First Fridays in the ‘Burg. And despite having a brand new director whose still getting her feet wet (Welcome Celia!), this year’s lineup appears to have more variety and plenty of appeal. More about that later.

In addition to movies and music, some of the downtown merchants are getting involved, and the council is teaming up with Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance to offer historic walking tours.

This Friday, in conjunction with First Fridays and to kick of their 6-year anniversary, You Made It! Pottery Studio is offering wheel-throwing demonstrations in front of the store from 5-7 p.m. According to co-owner David Miller, the studio has opened a new wheel-throwing room, where you can take lessons, or practice your own throwing. And at a good price, I may add. Practice for one hour costs only $8. I have a feeling the pottery room is going to be very busy.

Dave says later this month they are also opening a new glass warming room. Design your own jewelry, bowls, etc. and they will fire them on site in their new glass kiln. And several summer camps for kids are planned at the studio, featuring work in clay and glass. One week camps are $175 and held Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Sounds like a fun place to be. If you’ve never experienced  You Made It!, here’s a nifty video to give you a visual taste of their offerings.

Green Kitchen

» This Lexington caterer is one of few in the world
to be certified green.

By KAREN DOSS BOWMAN

For Jenny Elmes, “green living” is second nature. The Lexington native was raised to compost, recycle and eat natural products. Nowadays, as owner of Full Circle Catering in her hometown, Elmes is sharing with her employees and her clients—and anyone else who will listen—the lessons her parents taught her about sustainable living.

“My family grew a garden and recycled and composted… and I thought everyone grew up like that, canning jam every year and making homemade bread,” Elmes says. “One of the reasons I started talking about the green things I do is so that people would see that they don’t have to be ‘hippies’ to be doing great things for the environment. Normal, everyday people can take steps to make the transition into a greener lifestyle.”

Hints of green living are apparent throughout Jenny Elmes’ commercial kitchen: energy-star appliances; compact fluorescent bulbs; organic foods stacked on a large utility shelf. In one corner, a pasta drying rack is used to dry out gallon-sized plastic storage bags, which will be reused instead of thrown into the trash. And Elmes frequently cleans the kitchen’s bright orange and yellow tiled floor with natural-based Seventh Generation cleaning products, except when state regulations require her occasionally to scrub with bleach and other antibacterial cleaners.

Simple Steps When describing the efforts she has made to save the planet, Elmes makes it clear that it’s no big deal. These are simple steps anyone can take to tread more lightly on the earth, she says.

“We in the U.S. are huge producers of waste and huge users of natural resources, and I think we need to be aware of it,” says Elmes, pointing out that Lexington’s landfill is projected to fill up and close by 2012.

“There are things we can’t help, but there are things we can do better in every day living, like going to the local farmer’s market and taking your own bag.”

Going green isn’t just a gimmick for Elmes. Not only does she personally compost, recycle and shop locally, she integrates these practices into her business model. If her clients don’t have an on-site composting system or recycling bins, for example, Elmes collects the waste in airtight, leak-proof bags and lugs it home to put in her recycling and compost bins. In a typical week, Elmes composts about 30 gallons of biodegradable waste, but during her busy seasons (during Christmas, for example), she may compost up to 15 gallons a day.

“I love that I can leave my job knowing that I have nourished folks with healthy, great tasting and artfully presented food that leaves a little footprint on the environment.”

Elmes’s environmental efforts have earned her certification as a “Virginia Green Restaurant” by the commonwealth’s Department of Environmental Quality. Additionally, she is one of four caterers in the world who has been designated as a Certified Green Restaurant from the Green Restaurant Association, a non-profit organization that helps restaurants to become environmentally sustainable.

‘Militant Recycling’ A Washington and Lee University alumna, Elmes donates prepared food that hasn’t been placed on a serving buffet to her alma mater’s chapter of The Campus Kitchens Project, a national organization dedicated to relieving hunger in college communities. The food is then donated to several local charitable organizations, including an after-school program and Habitat for Humanity. The food waste that can’t be donated goes to her compost bin and is collected regularly by Elmes’s next-door neighbors, owners of Paradox Farms, to feed their chickens, whose eggs are sold throughout the community.

Elmes, who has taught her 11-year-old son, Marley, to recycle and compost, gets visibly excited when describing how others have joined in her efforts to reduce waste and save resources. Last fall, for example, she catered a party for about 100 people and was thrilled with the results: a large bag of recycling and only one piece of trash.

“All of my employees are so nice to go along with my militant recycling,” Elmes says, laughing. “All of them recycle at home—a couple did not when they started working with me, but they do now. They have gotten really excited about it, and that’s 10 more people that are on the band wagon. Then you see that [all this effort] is completely worth it.”

» GREEN YOUR KITCHEN

You can get started with these simple steps:

Read the labels. Before buying a product at the grocery store be sure to read the label. If you don’t recognize the ingredients, you shouldn’t eat them.

Milk products. Buy organic, or at least purchase milk from cows who have not been treated with hormones (check the label).

Shop at the farmer’s market. There’s something special about being able to know personally the people who raise the meat, dairy products, fruits and vegetables you eat.  And by purchasing locally grown food, you lessen the impact of fossil fuels burned to ship food from far away—and you keep the local economy strong.

Buy recycled products when possible. From paper towels to trash bags, many kitchen products are available that are made from post-consumer waste.

Eliminate (or limit) chemical cleaners. The advent of the green movement means numerous environmentally friendly cleaning products are on the market. These products are not made with harsh chemicals and do not leave behind dangerous toxins. Two effective green cleaners probably are already in your pantry: baking soda and vinegar.

Recycle and compost. Many towns, including Elmes’ hometown of Lexington, offer curbside pickup service for recycling. Nothing could be easier.

— KDB

Tickled Pink Over Red Velvet

This cake is a staple at potlucks and reunions.

By LUANNE AUSTIN
PHOTOS BY HOLLY MARCUS

It’s so good and so bad. Regardless, red velvet cake is in.

Shenandoah Valley folks have been enjoying the blood-red confection for decades. It shows up regularly at church potlucks, club meetings and family occasions. Now bakeries all over New York City have discovered it. Red velvet cake is selling like hotcakes. Noting the trend in a February New York Times article, Florence Fabricant writes, “It’s a cake that can stop traffic. The layers are an improbable red that can vary from a fluorescent pink to a dark ruddy mahogany. The color, often enhanced by buckets of food coloring, becomes even more eye-catching set against clouds of snowy icing, like a slash of glossy lipstick framed by platinum blond curls.”

The origin of red velvet cake is hard to pin down. There’s an urban legend that claims to explain how the cake became popular. In “The Vanishing Hitchhiker,” Jan Brunvand writes:

Our friend, Dean Blair, got on a bus in San Jose one morning and shortly after, a lady got on the bus and started passing out these 3 x 5 cards with the recipe for “Red Velvet Cake.” She said she had recently been in New York and had dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria and had this cake. After she returned to San Jose, she wrote to the hotel asking for the name of the chef who had originated the cake, and if she could have the recipe.

Subsequently she received the recipe in the mail along with a bill for something like $350 from the chef. She took the matter to her attorney, and he advised her that she would have to pay it because she had not inquired beforehand if there would be a charge for the service, and if so, how much it would be.

Consequently, she apparently thought this would be a good way to get even with the chef.

A resurgence in the popularity of this cake is partly attributed to the 1989 film “Steel Magnolias,” in which the groom’s cake (another Southern tradition) is a red velvet cake made in the shape of an armadillo, albeit with gray icing.

Gloria Markley, church secretary at Wakeman’s Grove Church of the Brethren in Edinburg, concurs. She remembers it becoming popular around 20 years ago. About 15 years ago she got a recipe for red velvet cake from her then-pastor’s wife, Doris Knicely. Gloria, now 60, has been baking it ever since for family birthdays and holidays. Along with the recipe, Doris passed along a few tips to Gloria (see recipe). Gloria thinks that’s what sets this recipe apart.

What sets red velvet cake apart from other cakes—aside from the two bottles of food coloring—is the buttermilk, vinegar and cocoa. In his book, “American Cookery,” James Beard writes that the reaction of acidic vinegar with buttermilk tends to turn cocoa a reddish color and that before Dutch processed cocoa became widely used, the cocoa had a more red color. This natural tinting may have been the origin of red velvet as well as devil’s food cake. Some cooks are unwilling to use the required two bottles of red food coloring and instead use beet juice.

“You can buy cake mixes now for red velvet cake,” says Gloria. “But it’s not the same.”

Get the recipe for Red Velvet Cake

Red Velvet Cake

½ cup shortening
1½ cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon salt
2½ cups cake flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons cocoa
¼ cup (2 bottles) red food coloring
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

Cream shortening and sugar, then add eggs, cocoa and food coloring; beat for 10 minutes. Add buttermilk, then slowly add the flour.  Add salt and vanilla. Remove the bowl from the mixer.  Add by hand vinegar and soda. Stir lightly.

Pour into 3 greased and floured 8-inch cake pans. Bake at 350° F for 25 to 30 minutes. Test with toothpick. Be careful not to under- or over-cook it.

Tips: Instead of cake flour, you can use 2¼ cups of regular flour. Don’t skimp in the 10 minute beating.  The cake, which has a tendency to be heavy and dense, will be much lighter and higher, says Gloria Markley.  Also, when adding the vinegar and soda to the batter, Gloria makes a well, then measures in the baking soda and pours the vinegar over the top of it. She lets the baking soda dissolve and the vinegar to become bubbly before hand-stirring the mix into the batter.

Icing
1 stick butter
½ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
½ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream butter, shortening and sugar.  Add flour, 1 tablespoon at a time.  Add milk and vanilla. Beat for 12 minutes.

Tip: Beating the sugar for the full 12 minutes will assure that the sugar is not gritty.

— L.A.

Planning a Themed Party

Add an Italian Flair To Your New Year

By Cynthia Norris

Are you throwing a special soiree to ring in the New Year? Try a themed celebration.  Adding a theme makes party planning easier and creates an event your friends will remember.

Italian Wine-pairing  Party
Gay Argyros owner of Wine Styles in Penn Laird has extensive wine knowledge and is an experienced event planner. She suggests an Italian New Year’s Eve wine- pairing party.

The hand-delivered invitation is a custom wine label attached to champagne splits topped with gold ribbon and bells. The label invites guests to “Ring in the New Year with Old Vines.”

Baskets of artisan breads, festive platters of assorted cheeses and grapes create the centerpiece and provide colorful appetizers. A crisp fruity wine, 2007 Laxas Alberino from Spain, perfectly complements the appetizers.

For the main course, Argyros serves Brick Oven Bolognese with Basil Pesto and Double Cheese Focaccia paired with 2003 Marchesi Pancrazi Pinot Noir from Italy. She says it is a mellow, but intense and full-bodied Pinot layered with red fruits, vanilla and mint, which evolves in the glass. It is a versatile wine, which pairs with everything.  Dessert is simple and elegant petite chocolates.

To end the evening and the year, Argyros suggests Scharffenberger Brut Sparkling Wine from California. “It is a fruity, balanced, bubbly blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, perfect for toasting the New Year,” she says.

Caribbean New Year’s Party
Michelle Miller is the executive chef of Panache catering in Middletown. She trained at the Le Cordon Bleu in London. Miller recommends a Caribbean-themed party to welcome the New Year.  “During winter, people really want to feel a little bit of summer,” she explains.

Go to the Internet to get ideas (like e-vite.com.) There are some amazing places to order inexpensive party things. “You can staple grass skirts around the tablecloth edge to set the mood and hang colorful lights over the bar or buffet table,” Miller says.

She recommends a mojito or any rum-based drink to give the party a Caribbean flavor. She says most people have the basic wine and beer available then add one or two very exotic drinks. ”Use edible orchids to garnish drinks. They really make it look special,” she adds. Miller selects chicken skewers and jerk pork or chicken served with fruit salsa, with grilled fruit and vegetables.  Miller recommends toasting the New Year with champagne cocktails for a great tasting blend of champagne, brandy and light orange flavor.

Custer’s Last Stand Dinner Party
Harrisonburg resident Robert Underwood and his wife, Amy, belong to a supper club. To make their dinner party special, they chose a theme. They wanted to serve wild game such as elk, venison, salmon and trout. “We built the theme around the food. We brainstormed ideas and came up with Custer’s Last Stand,” he says.

Underwood went online, found a copy of Custer’s last orders, and photocopied them onto parchment paper in an old script. On the back, he added an addendum to the order, “Dinner will be served at the officers’ mess,” with his address and time listed. Then he sealed it with red sealing wax and a red ribbon and delivered it by hand. He ordered oil lanterns for table lighting and made Calvary flag nameplates for the table. He downloaded music from the Civil War era for background music. Underwood recommends starting with an idea like the food and then brainstorm for other ideas. “It was a lot of fun to have a themed party,” he says. “Otherwise, you are just going over to someone’s house for dinner.”

Recipe by Chef Michelle Miller

Champagne Cocktail

· 1 sugar cube

· 2-3 dashes Angostura bitters

· Champagne

· .5 oz brandy

· orange zest for garnish

1. Place the sugar cube in the bottom of a champagne flute.

2. Use the dashes of bitters to saturate the sugar cube.

3. Add brandy.

4. Fill with Champagne.

5. Garnish with the orange zest.

Argyros’ Wine-Pairing Party Tips

• Use a white tablecloth. It helps guest observe the depth and color of the wine.
• Do not use scented candles and floral centerpieces. They detract from the aroma and flavor of the wine.
• Place an attractive dump bucket, champagne or ice bucket, in the middle of the table for guests who do not care to finish each glass.
• Supply a phone list of taxicabs for guests.
• When spills occur, use Wine Away. It is a spray-on stain remover, which easily removes red wine.

The Oft-Overlooked Goat

To some people living in the Shenandoah Valley, goat meat is a delicacy. Raw, its color is more like the pinkish rose of pork rather than a beefy red. Cooked, it isn’t greasy like lamb because it has 2.58 grams of fat per 3-ounce serving compared to 16 grams of fat in lamb or beef, according to a U.S.D.A. chart Debbie Shifflett keeps on hand. Debbie and her husband Dale own Riverdale Boer Goat Farm in Elkton, where they breed, raise and sell Boer goats.

The low-fat meat, often used in Caribbean cuisine, is becoming increasingly popular in the United States.

“It even has less fat than skinless chicken,” Debbie says. Dale and Debbie sell their Boer goats directly from the farm.

“A lot of people like my dad try to watch their cholesterol. They are going goat because it’s low in fat,” Dale says. The same USDA chart says that goat meat also contains more iron than any of those other meats, including pork.

“We grind our goat burger up for hamburger and Sloppy Joes,” Debbie says. The next goat meal she plans to cook is steak, fried in the skillet. North Americans and Latin Americans usually freeze their goat meat until they are ready to cook it.

“A lot of people say that it tastes like chicken, it tastes like this, it tastes like that,” Dale says. “To me, goat has its own taste and it’s very good . . . mild.”

BUYING GOAT MEAT

In the Shenandoah Valley, goat meat can be purchased from local farmers. Dale is a member of Shenandoah Valley Boer LLC, a group of six Valley meat-goat farmers. Customers buy the entire live goat, 80 pounds or so, and for a small fee—from $20 to $30—the farmer transfers the goat to the processing company. In about two days, the customer goes to the processor to pick up and pay for about 50 pounds of frozen packaged meat. The entire cost, around $200, comes to $4 per pound for a year’s worth of low-fat, fresh, hormone-free meat.

“We six families also sell goats at the county fairgrounds at the end of March as breeders or meat. That large doe would be sold as breeding stock,” he says, pointing to a goat living on his Elkton farm. “She’s a 94-percent Boer, so she wouldn’t go for meat.” A doe with 50 percent or more Boer, Dale says, can be registered and sold as breeding stock. Any less than 94 percent Boer is usually sold as meat.

Walking to the far side of the barn, he points to his three breeding stock bucks, huge animals with knee-length beards and long circle horns. The bucks must be at least 94 percent Boer to be registered. “This [6-year-old] buck would sell for $900,” Dale says.

PLAN AHEAD

It’s a good idea to plan ahead when buying goats due to the competition from ethnic and religious groups, Dale says. “[They] are wanting them for the holidays.”

He explains that October to November is prime purchasing season. “After Christmas there’s very few goats left because everybody’s sold everything.” Dale says he usually holds back a few goats for the post-Christmas season because the demand is greater than the supply. He and Debbie and the other SVB breeders have ideal weight goats ready for sale from October through November for Christmas dinner and from March through April for Easter.

Dale also raises cattle on family land down the street and works as a livestock specialist for the Virginia Department of Agriculture. He believes consumers should purchase meat locally and actually see the farms where the animals have lived. You never know what you get, he says, if you don’t visit the farm.

OTHER GOAT PRODUCTS

Consumers know little about goats because most don’t use their products. Although the meat of the exotic, ostrich-like emu is available at larger grocery chains, a customer can’t go to Kroger or Martin’s and ask for goat meat. But an avid gardener has probably worn soft yellow goatskin gloves. Where cloth gloves do not protect from rose and blackberry thorns, goat gloves keep the thorns at bay. Goat milk lotion is also sold at specialty shops.

Partygoers may have unknowingly downed a dollop of goat cheese on a cracker, or even on gourmet pizza. Though it looks a little like cream cheese, it tastes sort of tangy and has a texture like whole milk ricotta. That unusual taste is worth getting used to, considering the health benefits of goat milk over cow milk.

For years mothers have been substituting cow milk with goat milk for colicky toddlers. Most scientists agree that goat milk is more similar to human milk than a cow’s. According to a 1976 study by the U.S.D.A., goat milk has more essential nutrients than its ruminant cousin. A variety of studies also show goat milk protein is easier to digest than cow milk and contains 27 percent more of the antioxidant selenium. Not a miracle drink, however; goat milk does contain insufficient amounts of folic acid essential for infants and toddlers, so it often comes in cartons that advertise “supplemented with folic acid.”