Remembering my Grandmother with love and scone.

I remember my Grandmother in snapshots. I don’t identify with the memories that have been shared with me over the years of her fierceness, sorrow, or disapproval. As much as I wish I could have known as many things about her as possible, it is a blessing that the only things I remember about her are beautiful in nature. I recall simple, yet impactful things – running out the front door in a new periwinkle romper she had surprised me with, her smooth and warm laughter, the way butter or shortening looked on her hands while she made scone, and her stern but loving presence.

I have been thinking about her a lot lately, as today was the 22nd anniversary of her passing. One of the worst things about losing a loved one at such a young age is that – as you grow – you begin to doubt your own memories. There have been times where I have wondered if my memories are pieced together with what other people have told me, or if they are simply dreams. However, I know in my heart that her love was very real, and if nothing else I can absolutely, vividly remember the taste of her scones. That one simple thing is so very tangible to me.

I decided to make a little meal to celebrate me and my Grandmother’s heritage today and to share the process on my blog. I was starting to feel really homesick as I got to thinking about my childhood, so I decided to make Three Sisters Soup and Scone. I’m sure everyone knows this but the Three Sisters are traditionally the staple food of the Haudenosaunee people. They are simply corn, beans and squash. And when I talk about scone I don’t mean the sweet kind that old ladies have with tea. This is more of a dense, biscuit-y bread, and it’s a food of epic proportions on the rez. I’m pretty sure that ladies have gotten into fistfights and families have been divided over who makes the best scone.

Here are the ingredients for the soup/stew:

Scary orange liquid is vegetable stock. The little thingy it's in makes me so happy when I'm cooking!

And here are the ingredients for my scone. I use half whole wheat, half white flour…but most people just use white:

Simple pantry and dairy ingredients! No guff.

It should also be said that there are about a billion ways to make each of these things, but in the end as long as it tastes good it shouldn’t really matter. I have seen this soup in all sorts of variations with acorn squash, pulled chicken, potatoes, no potatoes, hominy, etc. Also, scone/frybread can be deep fried (soooo good), baked, or pan fried and some people use buttermilk instead of regular, or margarine instead of butter, etc. It doesn’t matter. Whatever you have in your fridge is the general rule of thumb I think. Here’s what I came up with in the end -

NOMZ.

This is a photo heavy (but super simple) recipe, so it can be found under the cut!

Three Sisters Soup

- 1 green zucchini (summer squash), diced

- 1 yellow zucchini (summer squash), diced

- 1 white potato, diced

- 2 cups of green beans, ends trimmed and snapped in half

- 1 can romano beans

- 1 can corn

- 3-4 cups vegetable stock

- 1 small sweet onion, diced

- 2 cloves garlic, minced

- 2 tbsp butter (or olive oil if youz vegan)

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1/2 tsp pepper

OK SO -

Dice up all your vegetables and rinse your canned goods like so -

Melt about 2 tbsp of butter over medium high heat -

Throw in your potatoes, onions, and garlic. Continue to cook on medium-high heat for 5 minutes, then cook covered for 5 minutes more…stir occasionally.

Pour in 3-4 cups of vegetable or chicken stock. You could also just add water and make it interesting with butter, flour, salt and pepper. Bring to a rolling boil for a minute or two and then turn to low. Cover pot, simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add all of the other goodies, heat back up to a rolling boil, and then cover and simmer for 2o minutes.

Uhhh. Then it’s done and you can eat it. It tastes slightly sweet, buttery, and summery. And super yummm.

While the soup is simmering I like to prepare the scone. Today mine turned out more biscuit-y, and I do like my scone to be properly dense. However, it tasted awesome so DEAL WITH IT.

Scone

- 1 cup of whole wheat flour

- 1 cup of white flour

- 2.5 tbsp of baking powder

- 1/2 tsp of salt

- 2 tbsp of softened butter (margarine can be used too)

- 1 cup and 2 tbsps of skim milk (I have used soy milk back when Josh was vegan, and it works fine)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Celsius. Combine/stir all dry ingredients. Cut in 2 tablespoons of softened butter until dry ingredients are crumbly, like so -

Form a “well” in the crumbly mixture and stir in milk, 1/4 cup at a time -

Keep stiring in milk until dough is sticky, but not so sticky that it is stuck to the side of your bowl. It should look like this -

Knead that bad boy out a couple times and then roll him flat with a rolling pin. Using a mason jar ring or the edge of a cup, you can begin to form your scones.

Put on a lightly greased cookie sheet, and if you want you can brush with a little melted butter.

Bake for 15 minutes, then eat ‘em.

LOOK AT DAT.

Once more, just because.

And that is how I cure my homesickness for the rez/celebrate my Grandma Rovina.

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