Cooking good in the neighborhood
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| Always a favorite for family and friends, Dale and Caitlin munch on a bowl of his famous caramel corn. (Alex T. Paschal - SVN) |
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Noah Dale Erisman, 78, may live alone, but he cooks for his entire neighborhood. And for his family. And for church dinners. Dale likes to cook, and when he cooks, he makes large pots of food and gives most of it away.
Caitlin, 8, nominated her great-grandpa – “an AWESOME cook!” – as one of our Great Cooks in the Sauk Valley.
“He not only cooks good food, he shares his food with many people in our community,” Caitlin wrote in her nomination letter. “He cooks the best chicken and noodles! They are homemade noodles. Yummy!”
With that in mind, we headed out to Dale’s home in Franklin Grove, hoping to snag a bowl of those noodles.
No such luck! Dale was in the middle of making dinner for his son, Gene, Gene’s wife, Susan, and six other guests.
The aroma led the way to the kitchen, where a chicken was gently boiling in a large pot, waiting for Dale to sprinkle in the homemade noodles. Potatoes were simmering in another pot, until tender enough to be mashed with butter and milk; corn was bubbling in another pan; and the sweet, fresh smell of homemade bread was wafting through the air as only the smell of fresh loaves can waft.
As he stirred the thickening noodles and tended his other pots filling the stovetop, Caitlin sat by his side on a stool, singing his praises. The Franklin Grove Elementary School third-grader likes helping her great-grandpa cook.
“He makes everything better than anyone else,” she said. “When I eat noodles somewhere else, they are not as good as his. When I eat vegetable soup, his is better. He gets all his vegetables from his garden.”
Dale certainly does grow a large garden, and he is famous for his vegetable soup, made with his own fresh produce. He grows lots of tomatoes and cans about 40 quarts a year.
“I wash the tomatoes, then cook them and put them through a colander. I push the tomatoes, pulp and all, through the colander, so I have the whole thing,” he said. “I use these all year to make things like soup and goulash.”
He makes everything from scratch, but he takes advantage of the machines available that save him some steps. For instance, he uses a bread machine to bake his bread, but he uses his own ingredients – no mixes for him. The same with homemade noodles; they are made from scratch, according to Dale’s recipe, but he has a slick attachment for his Kitchen Aid mixer that cuts the noodles perfectly, saving him from having to roll and cut by hand.
He likes to makes chicken and noodles for church dinners. “I have never brought any home; the pot is always empty, ” he said proudly.
Dale did not grow up cooking. Not at all.
“My wife died in ’77 and I had to learn to cook,” he said. “I really did not know how to cook, and I still had kids at home and somebody had to cook for them. I had never done any cooking before that.”
He pretty much taught himself. “If I wanted to cook something, I just got out a recipe and looked at it and tried it. If it did not turn out right, the next time I made it, I tried something different. I used an old bowling cookbook, mostly.”
Dale is an automobile mechanic who ran his own shop in Franklin Grove for 47 years. When he retired, he turned over the business to Gene, who still runs it.
Here are just a few of Dale’s special dishes. (Noodles are his favorite.):
Chicken and noodles
(double batch)
Noodles
4 cups flour
6 egg yolks + 1 whole egg (add a little water and slowly beat together)
1 teaspoon salt
Combine flour and salt, add eggs slowly to flour while mixing. Put dough through noodle machine or roll out and cut. Dry noodles on a white cloth for half a day.
Chicken
1 whole chicken or chicken parts, as desired
Boil chicken in water with a pinch of salt. Let cool. When cool enough to handle, debone the chicken and cube the meat. Add meat back to chicken stock. Bring chicken and stock to a boil and slowly add noodles, a few at a time, keeping the water boiling.
Simmer gently for 15-20 minute. Turn off and let set, covered, until thick. Serve.
Vegetable soup
Dale: “I use a 2 1/2- gallon stock pot to cook soup.”
Cut up: Any type of beef roast
Cook: In water and pinch of salt in crock pot for half a day, until meat is cooked
Pour: Beef and stock into stock pot
Add:
Potatoes
onions
head of cabbage
2 quarts of tomatoes
2 cans green beans
1 can corn
1 can peas
1 bag carrots
celery
Let cook slowly, about 2 hours. Add salt and pepper, to taste. Serve with hot bread.
Rhubarb cobbler
6 cups rhubarb, cubed
1 cup sugar
1 package strawberry Jell-O, dry
1 box yellow cake mix, dry
1 stick melted margarine
1 cup water
Layer ingredients evenly into a 9-by-13-inch, buttered pan in order listed. Do not mix. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until cobbler is golden brown and tests done. Delicious when served warm.
Long-keeping cole slaw
6 cups finely chopped cabbage
2 medium-size finely chopped carrots
1 small finely chopped onion
1 small finely chopped pepper
3/4 cup salad oil
1/3 cup vinegar
1/3 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1 box lemon Jell-O
Combine vegetables, pour oil over them, and let stand. Heat vinegar, water and sugar until
boiling, add the Jell-O and stir well. Pour over vegetables. Mix well and let stand overnight in
refrigerator. Will keep several weeks.
Caramel corn
Dale usually makes lots of caramel corn during the Christmas season. He fills 5-quart ice cream pails with the corn and gives it away for Christmas.
Air pop 1 cup of uncooked white popcorn and place in large heat-proof container. Heat oven to 300 degrees. Grease two 9-by-13-inch glass cake dishes.
Mix together 1 1/2 sticks margarine, 2 cups brown sugar, and 1/2 cup Karo white syrup. Bring to boil and slow-boil for 3-5 minutes. Slowly add 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda. Slowly pour caramel mixture over popcorn and stir well. Divide the popcorn equally into the glass cake dishes and bake for 30 minutes, taking the corn out of the oven and stirring after about 15 minutes. Let cool.
Dale’s tip of the week
When making noodles, make a double batch. After they are dried, put one batch in a plastic resealable bag and freeze it. These will be quick and easy, next time you want chicken and noodles in a hurry. You won’t have the mess of making the noodles. You also can just cook them in a pan of canned chicken broth for a side dish.
Nomination letter
I would like to nominate my great grandpa Noah Dale Erisman (for one of the area’s best cooks). He is an AWESOME cook. He not only cooks good food, he shares his food with many people in our community. He cooks the best chicken and noodles! They are homemade noodles. Yummy! He also makes popcorn balls and peanut briddle. He grows his own garden and he has lots of tomatoes that he puts in jars. And don’t forget the best vegetable soup. He bakes bread to go with it. (P.S. It is all very good! I hope you choose my great-grandpa because he cooks for a lot of people.)
Your friend,
Caitlin Elise Cheatham
If you know a great cook in the area, please send us the person’s name, address and phone number, along with a brief statement telling us your reasons for nominating that person. Include your own name, address and phone number.
Send to:
Grace Whitten
Food Editor
Daily Gazette
P.O. Box 498
3200 E. Lincolnway
Sterling, IL 61081
815-589-3877
