Old Lincoln Days continued......

Continued....

During Lincoln Days in Lincoln, New Mexico, we thought we would educate some folks to what a hoe cake was.....which ......is......just as the name implies.....a cake made on a hoe, not by one....hehehe.   As the story goes during Steve's oration to this fact, during the time when there were slaves, hoeing the weeds out of the cotton fields, they would take a break and remove the handle and build a small fire and mix up cornmeal and water to make a mush, then cook the dollop of cornmeal dough on the hoe head......hence...........Hoe Cakes.  They have been called many things over time: hoe cakes, Johnny cakes(as in Johnny Reb during the Civil War), mush, hush puppies, and corn dodgers and I'm sure many more regional names.

 The recipe we used was:
1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 Tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
2-3 Tbs oil or crisco
1-2 cups water
*  We added some cheese and jalapenos to
make it a little more "our" hoe cakes.

We served the hoe cakes to whomever came by the camp.  Along side the cakes were an abundance of hot dogs that were compliments of El Paso Honda ( there were left over buns and wieners from a deal I did with them at the dealership in El Paso.)  In fact the General Manager of El Paso Honda, Gerald Miller and friend along with Bubba Brown, rode their motorcycles up to see us. It is so much fun giving food away, and people just don't understand that we don't charge for stuff like this. (my next door neighbor always accused me of not being a good businessman.....oh well).

We had a good time visiting with Gary and Walt talking about chuck wagon accouterments and swapping methods of this and that.    Mostly lies!

Here is Gary reciting one of his many lies. 

Friday was a very hot day and every so often the clouds would roll in and threaten rain....but it never came.  There was a really bad cloud on Thursday night with a lot of thunder and lightning but the little valley where Lincoln is located managed to send the clouds to the mountains to the east of us.....and nothing in the way of moisture.  As for the weather, Saturday proved to be more of the same, with clouds, a lot of humidity and no rain.........just the way we liked it................NOT! It was hot for a couple of ole fat boys.

The migas for breakfast were scheduled for the monument staff at 7:30 am, and we had a lot of fun visiting with all the folks who showed up, among them Quentin Waterhouse, several deputy sheriffs, Gary, Bill, Ira, Gwendolyn and others from the staff and a federal judge, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (who were certainly dressed the part and were part of the troupe doing some of the gun fights down the street), Gary Hiel, Walt Lowe (chuck wagon cooks),Walt's brother-in-law Rory McMinn, Jerry Baird and and old high school buddy, Hopper, Katy, and many others whose name we didn't get.

You never know who will show up to one of these things!

Fun was had by all....and I might add that a venue like this lends itself to allowing time for getting to know folks.  I was especially happy to get to visit in length with the boys from Roswell.  Have known them for quite a spell , but never did really get to KNOW them.  They are good hands, and I will look forward to meeting up with them again in the future. The thing about migas is that they will keep for quite a while if you will just keep them near a fire.  I usually use an old metal oil pan with a pan liner in it as a double boiler.  It keeps things like migas and chile con queso nice and hot as long as you don't let all the water evaporate.  This time I just cooked them in an old plow disc and kept the heat down real low, and they "kept over" for a good while till they were gone.

 Calk's Migas Recipe:
*  onions
*  bell peppers, three different colors
*  garlic
*  jalapenos
*  bacon
*  cheese
*  eggs
*  tostadas

Start off by frying up the bacon until crisp then move the bacon to the side and using the bacon grease add the onions and garlic, cooking them for a while then adding the bell peppers, jalapenos. When you have that mixture to your liking add the tomatoes and eggs.  As soon as you have the eggs stirred in, add crumbled up tostadas and cheese of your choice. When the eggs have just about set and the cheese melted add some more tostadas so you will have some that are soft and some that are crunchy.  Salt to taste and serve with biscuits and gravy or a hot tortilla. Now the amounts are chuck wagon amounts so you sort of add the ingredients till they are about right and never second guess yourself because above all I don't think you can mess up a pan of migas.

As the day wears on and the hot weather just gets hotter--I think Steve and I consumed over two cases of water in  the two days. We looked around and Gary and Walt had just stepped up to the plate and began what looked like needed to be done and they threw in and cooked up some more sausage and we had smoked oysters, and fresh Gulf Coast Shrimp cocktails followed by fajitas, Elk T-bones, and potato salad.  We certainly don't go hungry at these events.

One of the stories going around that was related to Steve was that John Tunstall, back in the day, realized that Lincoln would be a well known historic, and he had many of the things that were on the shelves in his store back in the !800's placed into storage and when "the Tunstall Store" was turned into a museum they would have the proper items to display.  The things you see in these pictures are a result of Tunstall's foresight.  So the story goes!
One of the days we and the Roswell boys  went to the historic Wortley Hotel for lunch.  It was nice to have someone else wait on us for a change.  I think we drank them out of ice tea while we were there.  The BBQ sandwiches really hit the spot.
The activity for Friday and Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon was for the Billy the Kid Pageant.  If you haven't seen it, put it on your schedule for next year.  Well worth seeing the play about the local hero.  The setting is large enough that the pageant enlists the use of  real horses, wagons, and buggies along with a lot of shootouts.  The characters used in the pageant are a much sought after acting role and some are handed down within local families.

Pic from BTK website

 "Many of the players are descendants of the original pageant participants. The players still live the Western life they portray in the pageant. These people have gladly donated their time, energy and possessions. They are the real heroes of this folk play - one of the very few remaining in the United States made up entirely of local players without any professional help." (quote from Billy The Kid Pageant homepage) 

Sunday is pretty much reserved for the parade at 11:00 am.  Rory McMinn from Lincoln with his '39 Chevrolet and Walt Lowe from Roswell with his '41Chevy truck (that will soon to be a chuck wagon) and my '27, represented three antique vehicles that were in the parade.  We took it upon ourselves to do a pre-parade parade and drove up and down the street of Lincoln to get folks ready for the parade.  We wanted to make sure everyone knew there was going to be a parade. Hehehe! I think there were somewhere around 75 entries, mostly individual horse and rider entries but several antique vehicles, one a 1914 Oldsmobile as well as the Lincoln County Fire Department and our friends the County Sheriff deputies.

Matt chewing on a hoe cake.  His horse had one too.

Exceptionally cool threesome!

After the parade we tore down the camp, Roswell boys headed home, and we headed to Ruidoso for a hot shower and clean sheets.  Steve and I  reminisced  about the goings on of the week end and both agreed that this venue is a whole lot more fun than competition cooking.

Cookie talking recipes with deputy Phillip (alias Tortilla Man)

Walt, Gary, Wayne, and Steve

See you on down the road!