The newsletter of MORGAN RIFLE CORPS, INC. JULY 2010
Video to watch...
http://videos.nj.com/star-ledger/2009/06/thousands_attend_reenactment_a.html
Looking back...
Monmouth was our only unit event in June, but Fran Florio and Kathy Cecala attended ‘Remember the Ladies” Day in Trenton on Sunday, June 14, and we found it quite worthwhile. We skipped the sewing seminar, although Fran attended Wayne Daniel’s morning talk on 18th century expressions, while Kathy learned how to properly use a bake oven to bake terrific bread. In the afternoon, Fran and Kathy participated in a baking workshop, using the now-slack bake
oven, where we learned to make three enticing sweets: Naples biscuit, rusks and what our teacher, Mercy Ingraham, called gingerbread balls, but Fran and I renamed ‘canister shot,’
because that’s exactly what they looked like. They were tasty, and may turn up at a future event. Speaking of recipes, here is one from Monmouth’s meal, which we tried for the first time, with
red currants from the Cecala’s backyard. It is a true 18th century recipe–perhaps even older, and likely the precursor to today’s ubiquitous cranberry sauce. In honor of our artillerymen, who
played British for the weekend, we call it–
“Royal Artillery” Red Currant Sauce
About 1 pound of fresh red currants
2 oranges
1 cup ruby port wine
Pinch of cloves (or 8 or 9 whole cloves)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp.ground ginger (or 2 T fresh)
½ cup brown sugar, or more to taste
Remove stems from red currants and rinse briefly. Put into a sturdy pot, and add the juice of both oranges (you could also chop up the pulp and add it as well), plus the chopped up zest of one of the oranges (or as much as you like). Add wine, spices and sugar; and bring everything to a boil; reduce heat, and let simmer for 20 minutes or so. Let mixture cool, (note to moderns: This means refrigerator to you) overnight, where it will jell up slightly. The original sauce was for venison or game meat, but we found it went quite well with fowl. ETC.
We express our deepest condolences to Gene Bono, whose wife passed away in June, and offer him all our thoughts and prayers.
And Malcolm is on the mend, after spell in the hospital and the operating table. He writes to us– "I am touched more than I can say by the many expressions of good will I have received in the last few days. It was necessary to remove a malicious growth from one lung, it was done successfully. Now watching the field. I have survived. That will hopefully be the end of the story. Thank you all for thinking kindly of me. Malcolm Dick"