Nona:

Do you remember when they started to charge you to go over the bridge from Loch Lublin?

Stuck in Trac in Thorp

Dear Stuck:

I almost dropped my rölling pin when I heard that on the Lublin Radio Station, WCOW back in the day. Sometimes they get a little sensational, trying to compete with the other station in town, WPIG, so you never know if they are just cooking things up to get listeners or what.

I switched away from listening to WPIG and their early show – The Mornings Moos – a while back because they got those shock jock types on in the a.m. They try to start stuu all over town. They had a run on hair dye at the Lublin Market because they said that they were taking the blue dye ou the shelves. Then, when someone calls in and they don’t like them, they play the pig flatulence ver them. They truly are pigs at WPIG.

The Lublin pay bridge experience was a bad one. It definitely went wrong, and we haven’t heard any talk of it since.

It was back when the Lublin Common School was facing some divcult years fi nancially. People were fed up with their taxes being so high. The powers that be at the time, including our heralded mayor. Weasel K. Smith, de cided to fund the hot lunch program by charging people to get over the bridge. To get to the other side, you had to donate some food to be used in the hot lunch program.

It was a bad idea from the get-go. The kids were eating leftover bean casserole, turnips and old bread. One week, they had pickled beets every single day. Then, when fall came and old produce starting rotting on the vine, the citizenry let them have it. The lunch ladies were in charge of collecting the toll, and there was an uprising against them. People would race right through the intersection and whip tomatoes at the gals. The tomatoes weren’t the only problem. Leftover liver sausage was flying. Moldy potatoes. Jars of pickled eggs. People were trying their hardest to come up with the lousiest food to throw at the ladies. It got so they had to wear the football uniforms of the Lublin High School squad to keep from getting hurt.

The toll bridge experiment may have gone wrong, but the football team was awful good that year. Either that, or they smelled so bad that no one wanted to be on the same field as them. It was the year they made it to the championship game, but had to forfeit because the bus driver got lost and they never made it to the game. Oh well, let’s get down to some serious business in the kitchen!

Chicken and Biscuit Pie Ingredients FILLING: 4 T butter 1 C finely chopped onion 1 rib celery, finely chopped 1/3 C flour 1 1/2 C chicken stock 1 1/2 C whole milk 1/21 dried sage 1/2 t dried thyme 2 1/2 C diced cooked chicken 2 c vegetables of your choice (left-overs or frozen ones that have been thawed) Salt and pepper BISCUIT TOPPING 2 C flour I T baking powder I t sugar 1/2 t salt 1/4 C cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces 3/4 c milk Instructions

Melt the butter on the stovetop in a Dutch oven or other oven-safe sauté pan with high sides. Stir in the onion and celery, then cover the pan and cook them for 7 to 8 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Add the flour, stirring for 1 to 2 min utes to lightly brown it.

Whisk the chicken stock into the pan. When it starts to thicken, whisk in the milk. Add the sage, thyme, chicken, and vegetables, continuing to stir until the mixture is heated through, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Remove the pan from the stovetop and heat the oven to 375 F. Meanwhile, make the biscuit topping by combining the flour, baking powder, sug ar, and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the butter and use our fingertips to rub it into the dry ingredients. Add the milk and stir briskly, just until the dough pulls together.

Flour your work surface and turn the dough onto it. Using floured hands, knead the dough two or three times, then flatten it to about 1/2 inch thick. Using a small round cutter, cut the dough into biscuits and place as many as will fit, barely touching, on top of the filling. (You can bake any extras separately, on a lightly greased pie plate, for about 15 minutes.)

Bake the potpie until the biscuits are golden brown and the filling is bubbly, about 20 to 30 minutes. Then let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving it. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

GRANDMA

NONA

Knows!

WEEKLY ADVICE AND SO MUCH MORE!