Flour and Butter

[indar]

So, I Minnesotified this one with a new ending:

just the thing for Bird's Eye
frozen vegetables or
an exotic twist
on a Minnesota hot dish. 

I dug up a poem from last year's NaPo to use in a book about many things related to butter--here is the rewrite:

 Flour and Butter

Making roux: a skill
learned through time and trials,
how to adjust the flame:
only a gas range,
under cast iron.

I prefer my little pan,
for years well-seasoned
over open fires at campsites--
home nowadays on the stove.

Butter browned--
in small amounts, add flour
to make paste before the mad stir, pouring milk
until pale and creamy.

That's the base for added
nutmeg scraped from a pod
or garlic finely minced,
cheese, perhaps
pepper jack or cheddar,
depending on what will be sauced--

usually fresh vegetables
bought from Cream of the Crop,whole foods coop
on Highway 101 downtown.
 

original:

Memories from Before the Pandemic

Making roux is a skill
learned over time and trials,
how to adjust the flame,
I've always used a gas range,
under cast iron pans--

I prefer my little one that has
for years
been well-seasoned
over open fires at campsites
as well as on the stove,

how to brown the butter
before the mad stir,
in small amounts, of flour
into a paste: pale and creamy
and while pouring milk.

That's the base for added 
nutmeg scraped from a pod
or garlic finely minced, 
cheese perhaps
pepper jack or cheddar
depending on what I plan to sauce--

usually fresh vegetables
bought every other day
from Cream of the Crop
on Highway 101 downtown.

[Colm Roe]

A nice read, Linda. But it's lacking the main ingredient.
You localise it in the last S, but that doesn't really add anything.
It feels soulless, like reading from a recipe book.
Or maybe it's just me, and my dislike of garlic and cheese
Anywho, great to see you posting again

[Deb]

Linda, your poem brings back so many memories.

One of my sons wants me to get rid of that old, cast iron skillet of mine, passed down through the ages. As if!


Are you going to publish a butter book of poems and photographs?

You have a unique perspective on the entire butter thing. I think it would sell like hotcakes at the county fair in Minnesota. You have a lot of history there.

Butter done Better
Better with Butter

Great to see you. I'll be back soon.

~Deb

[Matty11]

Enjoyed Linda. Keys into the comforts of cooking, routines, familiarity; the rewards of taking time to learn rather than idle. There was warmth in the poem. Details like the loyalty to the little pan and the co-op shop; the shift from campsite to home; the craft of adding, stirring, mincing and being adaptable to seasonal goods. Much better than processed!

best

Phil

[AlienFlower]

Linda, I see this coming together in my hands, in my kitchen. Very visual.

It also strikes me as read aloud in a firm voice, at a slow pace driven by all the back-to-back accented syllables:

gas range

cast iron

camp sites

add flour

mad stir

nutmeg

downtown

It doesn't skip along on light feet, but on a very clear, knowing tread. I'll bet your roux is good.

Jackie

[indar]

Thank you all for your comments:

Colm, you need to eat more vegetables.

Deb, I was a little bit anemic a few years ago, but didn't like what taking iron pills did to me so my doctor told me to cook with cast iron. I did indeed have pans from old camping trips, brought them into the kitchen and it worked.

Phil, I'm afraid the new ending kind of squelched some of what you liked about this write but there is a little inside humor to the new ending---Minnesotans will get it--that's the way it's going into the book. I doubt my target audience will go much beyond the upper Midwest.

Janet, sometimes an insistent rhythm gets into my writing, and I consider it a plague. But this time I hope it works--thank you for remarking positively on it.

[Colm Roe]

Colm, you need to eat more vegetables.

You're probably right, Linda. But it's not about my diet.
The others seem to like it. So I must me the dissident...there's usually one