Friday, February 17, 2012

Breakfast and a Movie: Flying Down to Rio


A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband, Chapter 120: "Bob Makes Pop-overs"


Paul and I also had company for this breakfast. Our friends David and Kelly came over to eat with us before we all drove to Hutchinson to visit the Kansas Underground Salt Museum. It's 650 feet below ground and the walls are solid salt. It's a remnant from the enormous ocean that covered this part of the country in pre-history. Evidently the ocean was as salty as the Dead Sea, so only microorganisms could survive in it. According to the tour guide, there's enough salt in this particular vein to keep mining at current levels for the next 2,000 years. It was definitely worth the trip and I'm glad Kelly suggested it!

Pop-overs 

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 egg

Generously grease eight wells of a standard muffin tin with butter and place in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. You want the pan and the butter in it to get nice and hot.

Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl, make a well and add the milk slowly, stirring, until mixture forms a smooth paste. Beat in the egg and then beat vigorously for three minutes. Set aside until oven comes up to temperature.

Take the hot muffin tin out of the oven (use an oven mitt!) and fill the eight greased wells 2/3 full with pop-over batter. Return to oven and bake for about 30 minutes, or until browned and "popped over." Serve at once.

Makes 8 pop-overs

Adapted from "Pop-Overs" in Louise Bennett Weaver and Helen Cowles LeCron, A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband (New York: Blue Ribbon Books, 1932), 381.

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Oatmeal

1 cup steel-cut oats
1/4 cup walnuts
2 tablespoons yogurt (or whey*)
pinch of salt
2 cups milk
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
Demerara or muscovado sugar

The night before, combine the oats, walnuts and yogurt and salt in a large bowl. Cover by about an inch with warm water and place a kitchen towel over the top of the bowl. Leave on the counter overnight.

The next morning, drain and rinse the oats and walnuts. Place them in a heavy-bottomed saucepan with the milk, raisins and mixed spice. Heat on medium, stirring, until oatmeal is thickened to your liking. Sweeten with sugar, if desired.

Serves 4

Adapted from "Soaked Oatmeal" at Nourished Kitchen.

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How about a pre-code 30s movie to go with a 1930s breakfast? Flying Down to Rio will be on TCM this Tuesday at 8:45 p.m. (Central time). If you're a fan of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, be sure to check it out; it's their first movie together. The main plot of Flying Down to Rio is kind of lame, but it's worth the watch for the scenes with Fred and Ginger, especially "The Carioca."
Astaire and Rogers dance "The Caricoa"; still from TCM


*If you make yogurt cheese, the whey is the liquid that drains out. Save it for soaking oats!

10 comments:

  1. My breakfast today was:

    2 strips bacon
    2 buttermilk pancakes
    1 egg
    1 banana

    Black Coffee

    I allow myself this guilty pleasure once a month.

    Fred and Ginger rock!

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  2. How fun! This sounds rather yummy :) and I had no idea there was a salt museum around these parts, or that we'd ever been so salty! Its so interesting to think about, isnt it?

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  3. Salt museum sounds fascinating! Those pop overs look yum, like yorkshire puddings UK version x

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  4. Mmmm - I've never made popovers, these look great!

    I thought you might like to see this Lauren, me with the Shellac Sisters on television talking about Fred and Ginger:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb1VBzPXy8w

    and I saw this and thought of you - probably the ONLY person I know who would know about Collop Monday:

    http://www.lovefood.com/journal/opinions/14613/have-you-heard-of-collop-monday

    Happy weekend - Jx

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  5. Popovers are a holiday tradition in my family. I also love "Flying Down to Rio."
    "What's that business with the foreheads?"
    "Mental Telepathy"

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  6. Oh this is a Fred & Gingers I haven't watched yet... it goes straight onto my list. :)

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  7. I adore popovers. The restaurant at Neiman Marcus department store serves delicious ones with jam. I've never been successful at making them myself. I will have to try your recipe. Great post!

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  8. Bettina always makes me smile! Gotta love Fred and Ginger, too! Your salt museum trip sounds like fun!

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  9. I haven't tackled popovers yet. These look great. That salt museum sounds amazing!

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  10. My mom always made popovers and I loved them - you are inspiring me to make them now. I like your soaking of the oats for oatmeal and I'll definitely try that, too.

    How cool you visited a salt museum!

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