Nebraska Riches by Ruth Paget

Nebraska Riches by Ruth Paget 

Followers of college football know that the Nebraska cornhuskers represent a state full of corn and are pretty great players, but how rich can corn make you, really? 

Plenty, if ethanol, a fuel based on corn, becomes part of energy security for the United States and an export product for the country. In 2021, E15, a fuel with 15% ethanol, sold 814 million gallons according to the Renewable Fuels Association. This same organization reports that President Biden authorized that this fuel can be sold year-round in 2022, which will likely increase sales. 

Corn is also grown in Nebraska to feed the premium, black-skinned Angus cows that you can see from Interstate 80. Omaha Steaks runs a reliable delivery service. For years, my sister and brother-in-law have sent a Christmas order to my family that lasts till Easter. We eat red meat once a month to follow the Mediterranean Diet as closely as possible. (Sometimes I substitute Kentucky Fried Chicken for red meat reflecting my father’s Appalachian heritage.) 

Billboards along Interstate 80 advertise corn whiskey now. I think whiskey tastings with meals might be a good way to sell this product like they do in Irish bars. A country cure for colds uses whiskey for adults. The recipe follows: 

-1/2 to ¾ cup warm whiskey 

-juice of 1 to 2 lemons 

-1 to 2 tablespoons honey 

 Stir and drink while warm. 

This cure might not solve your illness, but will probably produce a bowel movement and sleep for a few hours to get you in shape to go to a doctor in town. 

Corn has significant amounts of Vitamin C and antioxidants, which help strengthen the immune system according to webmed.com. 

Along with popcorn, tortillas, and cornflakes, that makes seven good reasons why corn can be a source of wealth. If you do not plant a lot of corn and raise prices, farmers can efficiently sell corn to lead prosperous lives and protect independent farms. (If OPEC – Oil Petroleum Exporting Countries – can do this, why not corn farmers.) 

You see a lot of independent farms driving from one side of Nebraska to the other, the Western border of the state touches Wyoming. In the east, the land gently rolls and begins to rise in the west as foothills of the Rockies. Banks of sod appear. The Platte River follows most of Interstate 80 in the west and retains the history of French exploration in the area. (Platte meats flat.) 

We stopped in Sidney, Nebraska for an overnight stay from our road trip from Wisconsin to Monterey, California. We ate dinner at the 3 Margaritas Restaurant. I had a dish called Enchiladas Divorciadas. They are supposed to be divorced, because each cheese enchilada had a different sauce. One sauce was a green one made with tomtillo tomatoes. A bitter-sweet orange sauce tasted as if it were made with Seville oranges and paprika. A third sauce was a tangy sour cream. Spicy refried beans and rice flavored with pequin peppers rounded out my great meal. I highly recommend this restaurant for the fresh and delicious food. (There is a gas station nearby to make this a nice lunch or dinner spot.) 

The next day, I ate a country breakfast with biscuits and gravy, two 3-inch summer sausages, scrambled eggs, and bacon. I waddled out of the hotel with a coffee with milk, which is what I usually have at home. 

I loved the food and people in Nebraska, especially 3 Margaritas. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Scenic Iowa by Ruth Paget

Scenic Iowa by Ruth Paget 

One of the most scenic spots my family drove through on the way to Wisconsin from California this summer was Dubuque, Iowa. Dubuque sits on the Mississippi River and has a bridge you cross over to arrive in Wisconsin. There is an island in the middle of the river, which makes the Mississippi seem not so wide. The river serves as a border between Iowa and Wisconsin. 

The bridge leads you past Dubuque’s small forest of red brick and white washed church spires. The Dubuque County Courthouse is slightly taller than the church spires and topped off with a gold dome. 

Dubuque is named after Julien Dubuque (1762 – 1810), who came from Quebec, Canada. He was one of the first European settlers in the Dubuque area. He was granted rights by the local Native American tribe to mine lead in 1788. 

Nationally, Iowa is more famous as independent farm country. One of Iowa’s most famous products is tangy, Maytag blue cheese, which seeks to compete with the famous blue cheeses of France (Roquefort) and Italy (Gorgonzola). 

I wish Iowa had regional product stores along the highway like the French do to promote French products. I think items that might sell include: Maytag blue cheese, honey, country breads, summer sausage, cupcakes, herbal teas, metal and tile hot dish holders for the table, hot pads, jams and jellies, and various pickles. 

We took a few detours through business districts in small town Iowa. I played a housing game I did as a child when I did road trips through the Midwest with my mom. I tried to guess the kind of professions people had and where they lived by the kind of house they lived: 

-red brick houses = Main Street businesses = town business owners 

 -white clapboard houses = country dwellers = people who make money on agriculture 

 -stone houses = town dwellers = lawyers, doctors, professors, and city hall people = afternoon tea drinkers 

Country dwellers in Iowa are famous for their artistic barns with barn art above their barn doors showing a four-part design with blue, green, and red hearts in each quadrant and yellow lines separating the quadrants. 

When we traveled, the corn surrounding these barns was 12 inches high. There were also many fallow fields left untilled to naturally regenerate soil nutrients. 

When we passed Iowa City, we did an “All Hail University of Iowa Writing Program” for producing great American writers like Jane Smiley, who lives in Monterey County California. 

We passed the Amana Colonies, which were a self-sustaining and communal religious colony set up by German immigrants in the 19th century. The colony ended when the Depression began in the 1930s. The Amana Colony is a tourist center today and might interest anthropologists and economists alike. 

Driving though Iowa was nostalgic and future-oriented at the same time. Farming has become easier with technology. As a sign of prosperity, farmers lined up their neatly rolled hay in plastic-covered rows by the side of the highway along with their farm implements. They had already gotten a lot of work done in June as we rolled by. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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DeForest, Wisconsin Trip by Ruth Paget

DeForest, Wisconsin Trip by Ruth Paget  

My California family set out by car for a road trip to DeForest, Wisconsin for a Sawle Family Reunion from June 8 – 16, 2022. We drove through the states of Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Iowa. 

DeForest sits immediately off Interstates 90 and 94, north of university town Madison, Wisconsin on the way to tourist town Wisconsin Dells. DeForest is a good stop for tourists from Chicago. There are many fast food chains by the highway and Ehlenbach’s German Food and Gift Shop. 

My favorite fast food is the Wisconsin chain called Culver’s, which sells fish fry dinners everyday with 2 or 3 pieces of cod, coleslaw, a yeasty bun with butter, and crinkly fries that fill the bottom of the dinner tray. Drinks for this special are extra. Butter burgers are Culver’s main item along with daily ice cream specials – dairy land products from America’s Dairy Land. 

I lived in DeForest three years and think they did some nice things to promote local businesses and civic services. The local chamber of commerce offered a welcome wagon service that they presented to you at home or in a local food outlet. A chamber representative introduced me to local businesses like the video store, supermarket, movie theatres, library programs like summer reading and literacy programs, and farmers’ markets. The chamber representative gave me some coupons as a “welcome to the neighborhood.” I became a quick part of the community by becoming a literacy volunteer for a French woman in town. 

Ace Hardware is a business of longstanding that has gone into the food business. Besides tools, their billboard out front advertises Brat Party Kits. (Brats are bratwurst sausage.) The kits no doubt come with buns, German potato salad, coleslaw, maybe a pasta salad, and charcoal and grills, if you need them. 

About ten minutes west of DeForest in Waunakee are two good restaurants that tourists might also like – Cuco’s Mexican Restaurant and Rex’s Innkeeper. The Sawle Family Reunion was held at Rex’s, which features various kinds of steak and prime rib and excellent seafood with a soup and salad bar and yeasty buns and whipped Wisconsin butter. 

Across the street from Rex’s is Cuco’s. I like their tangy Mexican cheese enchiladas verdes with green tomatillo tomato sauce and pulled pork (carnitas) on top with beans and rice on the side. 

We did some tourism around DeForest, too, visiting towns that Laurent worked in when he was a representative for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce from 1994 – 1996. 

In Portage, red brick Main Street bars are now wine bars that also sell chocolate, cheese, and gifts. Hot and humid summers make Wisconsin good wine growing territory. 

At the outlet malls in Johnson Creek going towards Milwaukee, there are still good deals and lots of parking. At the Pine Cone Restaurant, you can eat breakfast and fish fry all day. 

In Sun Prairie, there is now a halal market that sells meat and fine produce. There are miles of barns here that the artist Georgia O’Keefe painted in her youth. The corn in the area is used to feed dairy cows. 

In Madison, we made a pilgrimage to Metcalf’s Market to buy pancetta, Maytag Blue Cheese from Iowa, and oblong country loaves of bread to toast for breakfast. 

We ate well in Wisconsin, but left the excellent craft brewery beers to the Wisconsin cousins. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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