KOREAN FOOD + RECIPE FOR HOMEMADE ROOT BEER - OLD AND NEW

Sunday, July 27th, we had the nicest possible afternoon. The background is: Ali mentioned in her blog that they can lean over their balcony and see their next-door-neighbor Korean Restaurant that serves excellent kimchee. In my comment I told her I had never eaten Korean food. Long story---short: She e-mailed me and said she’d be coming through Loa on Sunday, July 27th and if we would be home she and Erica would stop and fix us some Korean food. You’d better believe, we would be here, just to see them and hug them. The Korean food was a bonus. They cooked and we visited. It was wonderful. Ali served pork, rice, bean paste (very spicy) and kimchee wrapped in a large lettuce leaf (lettuce wraps). Truth be told---it was absolutely wonderful. After they left (they left me all the left-overs) I had two more for supper. I liked it from the first whiff of kimchee. If it were available here in Loa, I can see myself buying it every once in a while just to eat by itself. I’ll have to check whether it is available anywhere in Richfield. The girls had a friend with them---Haley(sp). She is a sweet gal. We looked at some pictures and I told some stories of my early job experiences. We laughed at the differences in how things were and how they are now. I hope I didn’t keep them so long that they missed the boat, or something, at Lake Powell. I look forward to having them come again---soon. I know it may be a little difficult for Ali to get away from Boston in the near future but perhaps Erica will drop by. And, Thanksgiving is coming.

Darn it, Ali. I had a book for you to take to read. And Erica, I had a supplement bottle to show you. I got so caught up in just seeing the two of you that I completely forgot but I love you.



Well, James, congratulations to you and Waiva. So, it’s a boy! That’s great! Now, you’ve had your fun and Waiva has to do all the work. Be sure to give her a little extra-special care and attention. She will need it and she deserves it. When is the expected arrival date? We are very happy for you and for ourselves, as well. If he is even half as good-looking as his older sister he will be a winner. Give Waiva and Kylee a hug for me.



After James read about my parents making homemade root beer, he wanted to know how to make it so I will tell you. It has been a long time but I think I can remember how to do it.

We made the root beer in the stainless steel tank from the milk separator. For those of you who do not know what a milk separator is: It is a machine that separates the cream from the milk. When my folks had two or more cows they used their separator. Most of the time when I was growing up they only had one cow so they didn’t use the separator. (They had two cows for a short time during my life in Blanding but did not use the separator.) When they had two or three cows, they strained the milk, fresh from the cows, into the tank on top of the separator. I’d guess it probably had a capacity of six or seven gallons. They turned a handle and the whole milk flowed down through a series of discs until the milk came out of one spout and cream came out of the other spout. I do not remember my parents ever using our separator although Grace told me they used it most of the time for many years. I guess they didn’t think it was worth all the work to use the separator when they had only one cow.

The reason I mentioned “all the work” was because every time they used the separator, it had to be thoroughly cleaned and sterilized: The tank, the discs, the spouts and whatever else was inside the machine was taken out, washed, sterilized in boiling water and left to air dry. It was a horrendous job that had to be taken care of two times a day after the cows were milked. My Aunt Jenny, across the street, used her separator every day for quite a few years and I saw the work it took to keep it clean. I remember it being fascinating to watch the milk come out of one spout and the cream out of the other spout. I thought, “How does it do that?” It was almost like magic.

I found a picture of an antique separator similar to the one Aunt Jenny had. The one we had was red and our tank was a different shape than Aunt Jenny’s separator tank. (Our tank had straight sides, not rounded like Aunt Jenny’s.) Also, there’s a picture of the discs I mentioned and a good picture of a tank with the spigot.

Anyway, to make root beer, we used the tank from the separator. It had a spigot on it at the bottom of the tank that turned on and off like a tap. We would buy a bottle of “Hires” Root Beer Extract. To make the kind of homemade root beer we made requires yeast for carbonation. We didn’t have “dry” yeast in those days, we had yeast “cakes.” They were about 1-1/4 inch square. They were wrapped in foil with a yellow label. The brand was Fleishman’s (what else?) and they had to be kept cool. (Just a note here: I loved the taste and the texture of the yeast cakes so occasionally my mom would break off a little corner of the yeast cake when she was going to make bread and let me eat it. One time I got really lucky. I don’t know what our doctor thought was wrong with me, perhaps he thought I was anemic because I was so skinny, but he thought eating a yeast cake every day for a week or two would cure it. I really loved that medicine. Just think! A whole yeast cake for myself every day.) To make bread or root beer the yeast cake had to be broken up into small pieces and put into warm water in order to “rise” just like the dry yeast we use now. And, yes, the yeast cakes smelled just like the dry yeast does as it rises. I love that aroma.

We put five pounds of sugar into the tank, poured the Root Beer extract over the sugar and then added about 4-3/4 gallons of lukewarm water over the sugar. We stirred the sugar until it was completely dissolved and added the yeast cake that we had dissolved in lukewarm water. After we stirred the yeast in, the root beer was ready to be bottled.

We had glass bottles. I don’t know where they all came from but most of them were beer bottles. Some may have had wine in them. All I know is: whenever one of us saw a beer bottle at the side of the road we would pick it up, take it home, wash it thoroughly and sterilize it. We would put a cap on it and save it for root beer. I am assuming that’s where most of them came from---the side of the road---inasmuch as my parents were not drinkers of alcoholic beverages. Most of the bottles were brown. I only remember two or three that were clear and we had a few green ones. They were different sizes: some tall and others were short. The bottle caps came in a box of 500, as I recall. They were always available at the General Merchandise stores in Blanding.

We put a funnel in the top of the bottle, filled the bottle, leaving a couple of inches at the top. Mom usually filled the bottles. She’d hand the bottle to me and I’d hand it to my Dad. We put a folded towel on top of a stool to cushion the bottle. My Dad had a hand-held bottle capper. He would carefully place the cap on top of the bottle, cover the bottle cap with the metal part of the hand-held capper then rap the top (wooden part) ‘smartly’ with a hammer. He would gently test the cap to make sure it was secure. Ninety-nine percent of the time it was secure. He seemed to have just the right touch and knew exactly how hard to hit the bottle capper to seal the bottle but not break the bottle. After all the bottles were capped, we’d put the bottles, on their side, on the floor behind the stove and leave them there for about four days to carbonate. After four days, we’d take a “test” bottle and open it to be sure it was carbonated enough. Generally, it was. Then we’d take all the bottles to the ice house. We’d dig through the sawdust and place the bottles gently on the ice surrounded by sawdust and we’d cover them with sawdust. It took about 24 hours for them to be sufficiently cool to drink. And then, oh, my! Drinking the root beer was such a treat. The outside of the bottle smelled like wet sawdust and the contents of the bottle were pure heaven. That homemade root beer was better than any Hires, A&W, Barq’s or whatever brand you drink. Five pounds of sugar seems like a lot and it is, but the root beer we made didn’t seem as sweet as the sweet, syrupy brands that are made commercially now .

Jack and I had inherited Jack’s parent’s root beer bottles and their bottle capper so one summer we made a batch. We had a different kind of bottle capper so it was much easier to cap the bottles. The root beer was really good but I kept thinking there was something missing. It took me a lot of years to figure out what was different about the root beer we made and the root beer my parents made. Finally, I realized what the difference was. The bottles didn’t smell like wet sawdust. By the way, we always took the caps off the bottles very carefully and saved them. After the bottle was empty, we rinsed the bottle thoroughly, turned it upside down to dry and then put the cap back on the bottle to keep it relatively clean so that the next time we used the bottles they were easy to wash and rinse for use.

Okay, James, that’s how we did it. I went to the store to see whether Root Beer Extract is still available. I looked for the familiar “Hires” box and didn’t see it. I spent several minutes looking and I just could not find it so I asked one of the stockers. She showed me the Root Beer ‘Concentrate’ with the McCormick brand on the box. I suppose it is the same, or nearly so. Perhaps McCormick bought Hires out. Anyway, I bought a bottle to see whether the instructions are the same. They are nearly the same. The instructions on the box give you a recipe for “Easy Homemade Root Beer.” Then as you read further it gives you a “flavorful tip.” They tell you to “Find recipes for Homemade Root Beer, Old-Fashioned Root Beer Frosting, and Root Beer Ice Pops on our website.” The website address is http://www.mccormick.com/.

The new recipe tells you that the “lukewarm spring water” should be approximately 95 degrees Fahrenheit. And your “preboiled water to add to the yeast should be cooled to 85 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit.”

They tell you not to use an Aluminum container to mix the root beer. They tell you to use plastic bottles and they recommend that you NOT use glass bottles. They caution you that the “Contents of bottles are under pressure and can overflow or explode.” We lived in a world where people tried to figure things out for themselves and didn’t have to be told of all the “possible disasters” that could/might occur.

So my dear, I don’t know what to tell you about the plastic bottles. I have no clue where you can find them but I’m sure with all your computer know-how you can find something. It probably isn’t a good idea to pick up plastic bottles on the side of the road and re-use them as we did. And where you’d find caps/lids for them, I have no idea. From my perspective, the new instructions for making Root Beer are interesting/amusing reading. Go ahead! Look them up and print them. Let me know how your root beer turns out. I’d love to know.

The last I knew, our root beer bottles and capper were still in Big Water. Bret may have brought them up here but I haven’t seen them. I’ll ask him.

I hope this inspires you to give the Homemade Root Beer a try. It will probably taste great to you because you didn’t get used to smelling the wet sawdust on the outside of the bottle. I would certainly be interested to know where you get your plastic bottles to put it in; whether they can be reused; where to buy the lids/caps.

It has taken longer than I planned to get this chapter finished. I’ve been dealing with Jack’s horrendous mood swings; demands for a check book and credit card; lying to anyone and everyone who would listen to him about how he walked to the Courthouse and back; demands for a key to the gun safe. He has been fairly docile for a few days but I spend every waking moment “waiting for the other shoe to drop.” Oh, well, with the support I have here in Loa, we will get through this. I just had a fantastic massage today (8/19/08) and am much more relaxed for the moment.


I must tell you here that I had a marvelous break on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of August. Juli has been encouraging me to go to Education Week at BYU. I have wanted to for years and have never done it. Of course, I would have had to battle Jack to do it because women are supposed to stay home and take care of their husband. But with Juli’s encouragement, my Doctor’s encouragement and my Bishop’s encouragement, I just decided to go. Not the whole week this year but maybe next year. I didn’t tell him until Thursday morning that I was leaving. He seemed to get the feeling that something was up and finally, Thursday morning about 9:00 a.m. he asked if I was going somewhere. I said, “Yes, as a matter of fact, I am. I’ve always wanted to go to Education Week and this year I’m going.” Hurrah for me! I explained I was too late to go the whole week but I was going for two days. I told him that I might come home Friday evening but if he didn’t see me Friday night then that meant I wouldn’t be home until sometime Saturday. I gave the cats enough food and water to last so he wouldn’t have to go out if he didn’t want to. Meals-on-wheels arrives about 11:00 a.m. on Thursday and Friday. They have a meal for me so I told him to put it in the fridge and eat it for supper. I showed him, one more time, how to use the microwave, but told him if he couldn’t figure it out, just eat it cold (he hates cold food if it’s supposed to be warm). But, for gosh sake, he’s an Engineer. I told him if he could open the fridge door, there food in there he could eat on Saturday. And, if all else failed, I had a couple of boxes of his favorite cold cereal on the shelf and milk in the fridge. And then I left. I didn’t get away as early as I thought I would but I drove to Shanna’s home. She had encouraged me to visit them and had a wonderful bed where I could sleep. I had a great visit with Shanna and Russ and the older boys (my gosh, they are tall and good looking). Charlie was at a sleep-over at Grandma Bryant’s. But I did get to visit with him and hug and kiss him on Saturday morning.

Juli came over to pick me up and we went to dinner. For those of you who don’t know, Juli has several sisters (Alisa and Christine from Loa, Robin, who came up from Phoenix), a sister-in-law (Nicole from Loa), and a cousin (Wendy from Cedar City), who go to Education Week every year. I love them all, dearly. They are/were so good to me; so patient and caring. I can’t move as fast as they can and I had tendonitis in my right foot that really slowed me down. But we had an absolutely grand time.

Friday morning we went to the Provo Temple and did a session. It was really an emotional experience for me because I haven’t been to the Temple for years. Jack has difficulty walking and couldn’t generate enough energy to go and you know the drill: women are supposed to stay home, etc., etc. After the temple we went to lunch. Then we took in three classes. I know those three classes were prepared especially for me. And, to top off the evening, we went to see a musical: “Pride and Prejudice: The Musical.” It was the premier performance. I cannot emphasize enough how fantastic it was to listen to real singers (not screamers like most of the popular “artists” of today). Every one of those people sang with their OWN magnificent voice and not one of them tried to imitate their favorite pop “artist.” What can I say? I was almost in heaven.

Saturday, I had time to visit more with Shanna’s family, including Charlie and a little friend who happens to be a girl. I think her name is Savannah. Then Juli came to get me and we went to lunch. After that, we all did a little shopping. Juli had to stay up North to attend a banquet with Dallin, so Alisa and Christine rode home with me in my van. I prevailed on Alisa to drive for me—it was my right foot giving me the problem. When I arrived home Jack welcomed me very warmly, turned off the TV and wanted to know what I did and who was there and who I saw. Later, he said he was really glad I was home. I questioned him a little about what he had had to eat. I don’t think he had anything on Saturday. I had brought some brownies with me so I offered him a couple of brownies and a glass of milk. He gratefully accepted. The reason for me telling you this story is this: Jack survived three days and two nights without me. I needed to know that he could. He may not be happy about it but he survived.

Well, that is my Great Adventure! I think I’ll go somewhere every once in a while. It’s good for my morale and for a few hours, at least, Jack seems to appreciate what I do for him.



August birthdays: Happy birthday to Shanna, August 12th, and Eric Shields’, August 20th. Hope you had a super day. Also, Happy Anniversary to Russ and Shanna, August 25th and I forgot to mention Happy Anniversary to Tal and Julianne, July 21st. There, did I miss anyone? I love you all.