Corn n beans...

All we have out here, an hour west of Rockford, is corn and beans...

When you move from your homeland of Chicago out to the country it is such a refreshing change... blue sky, fresh air, oddly polite strangers, sexy farmers in big trucks everywhere... but when it comes to food, it is so miserable.

There are like no hotdog stands here. (found this website looking at the poor flooded Gene and Jude's pics)

Gyro? What?

Italian beef... on a pita. I saw this one the other day at The Pec Thing... just not right. (and about as "Greek" as you can get out here)

Oddly enough... no bakeries. Which sadly means, no cannoli. As a matter of fact... I have only met one person out here who has had cannoli... he was from Cicero.

All the bread, is soft on the outside. "You cannot eat minestrone with uncrusty bread, mom! " I get this complaint from my oldest daughter all the time. Sadly, I agree.

Restaurants like Mama Lena's... that aren't even Italian. Mama = Italian.

Wow... pizza is scary. Really, really, scary. Enough said.


We basically have no distinct ethnicities where I live except for a few Mexican people I have come across, in a mexican restaurant... so food is really plain. I do make frequent trips back to the city to visit friends... with an empty cooler each time. I bring food home to my boyfriend out here... Italian subs from Al & Joe's, Cannoli from the Sicillian Bakery on Cumberland, there are plenty of polish markets to bring him sausage and pierogi, plum crescents from J Bean... I have several trips planned out in the future as well.

I'm so hungry. I could really go for fried spinach balls from Ambrosio on Belmont...

-
corn n beans

Hi,

In another life, I lived in Moscow, USSR. If I constantly reminded myself what I could not get locally compared to my life in Chicago, I would have made myself absolutely miserable. You have to find the beauty where you are at this time in your life.

They may not have bakeries, they will very likely have fundraising bake sales. You may want to support your community by bringing a baked good to sell as well as buy something. Want cannoli? Learn how to make cannoli. Want crusty bread? Learn how to bake it. You cannot expect the same level of services and products in a less densely populated area.

I remember meeting a woman at a Master Gardner conference who made all the wedding cakes in her small town. She also had a side business selling dried egg noodles made from the egg yolks not used in the cakes. There are a lot of word of mouth services available, if you ask around.

You do have access to meat lockers that usually make sausages or will slaughter and dress a pig bought from a neighbor. You have neighbors who hunt who may be willing to exchange something you do that is unique for venison, pheasant. geese. ducks and wild turkey. You likely have a dairy farmer in the region you can buy unpasteurized milk directly from, if that tickles your fancy. This farmer may make cheese or know someone who does.

Some places to look for good food is at the church suppers, VFW hall and some watering holes. A few years ago, a woman informed me the bars in LaSalle county compete for the best fried chicken. I am sure there may be a similar rivalry, if you keep your eyes wide open. When you do find it, then please report it back here.

I don't think the lack of a hot dog stand is anything to cry over. You can buy premium hot dogs, perhaps at the meat locker, and hot dog buns. Bring water to a boil, add the hot dogs and bring to a boil again. Turn off the heat and wait five minutes, before serving your hot dogs. This will likely be more freshly made than any low volume hot dog stand in a rural area could ever dream of serving. Don't forget to visit the county fair when they roll around, they often offer freshly made corn dogs that is still a rarity in Chicago.

There are recipes for making your own gyros meat, if you choose to explore it. Pita bread is not difficult to make.

I guess I can go just about anywhere and come away well fed. Plus you are near Chicago to stock up, which is really quite an advantage. I certainly did not have that in Moscow!

Regards,

Suck it up, Nancy. How far are you from Madison? 45 minutes, if that? You will find anything you want there, including a year-round farmers market of such size and scope that it puts any here in the Big City to shame. Not to mention that you will find things like Laotian and Indonesian restos, which are virtually impossible to find here.

Kids!

There's a great burger bar called Ridott Corners Tavern out on Hwy. 20 between Rockford and Freeport. It's a fairly anonymous building sitting on the northwest corner of Hwy. 20 and Rock Road, surrounded by, well, corn n bean fields. I discovered it by accident during repeated trips out that way for business.

Usually deserted during the day, a total madhouse on weekend evenings, especially when there is a Bears or Packers game on TV. They are situated in that part of northwestern Illinois where there is just enough spill over of Packer fans to fill the place up. The Bears players would make Ridott's their first stop after breaking training camp when they used to play in Platteville. They would haul ass out of town and the last one to reach Ridott's would have to buy for the rest of the team. At least that's the legend that is perpetuated by the owners of the bar.

Anyway, the burgers are excellent. These thick half pounders are cooked on a very small, well seasoned griddle. Don't expect to get your food quickly, they take their time. This is a very limited menu-in fact, there is no menu at all. Just Burgers. And chips. And beer.

Not sure this helps given your geography, but it's the best I can come up with.

Buddy

Ridott Corners Tavern
1862 South Rock City Road
Ridott, IL 61067-9608
(815) 235-2451

Thanks... I know the place but have never been there. Will check it out.

corn_n_beans

I always had the fantasy of moving away from the City and getting a small farm, having a truck garden and maybe sheep...until some friends of mine actually did it, and I saw the reality of rural life. They moved out to the middle of Michigan and lived there for several years - until the opportunity arose to come back, and they were Chicagoans again in the blink of an eye. While they appreciated their time there, things that are simple here were a lot harder there - finding a job, going to see a movie, finding indoor fun for the kids on a rainy day, socializing...

While Cathy is absolutely right about making your own ethnic food (hopefully if you live out in the country you've found yourself with the corresponding amount of free time) but there's a reason why the City is densely populated and the country is not; Urban life is built around interdependance, while rural life is about independence - the difference understandably causes culture shock. It makes you appreciate the people who first came over from Europe; they moved from a correspondingly urban environment to what really was wilderness - without even familiar plants and animals, weather, or terrain. I can't imagine what that must have been like - I get antsy when I go on vacation for a week.

Cathy2 gave you some excellent advice. I'm 65 miles west of Chicago, and choices out here are limited as well. Although I must say I know the region where you are living, and it is pretty isolated. Take joy in some of the best produce you will ever get in your life out there. Buy your meat local, and you will know what real beef and chicken are suppose to taste like. I am learning myself how to cook some of the different ethnic dishes. Ingredients are available on line. Maybe some of your new friends will want to join you in learning. Chances are you are smack dab in the middle of some people with strong German roots. Go to any Lutheran church supper and you might be impressed. My church is gearing up for the annual pork and saurkraut dinner, and I'm looking forward to it! What you seem to be yearning for may not be locally available, but with some effort, you can have it and so much more. (Note: the glass is always half full in I'm life). Life is what we make of it!

razbry,

Do you mind posting on those church suppers?

On Saturday, four of us traveled into Wisconsin. We stopped by New Glarus, WI hoping to find beer and walked into a German Oktoberfest. There was a Lutheran church of Swiss roots having a church supper in honor of the harvest. We surprised the organizers by purchasing one meal only to photograph and taste. It consisted of Swiss meatballs, smoked ham, mashed potatoes, Swiss carrot salad, green beans, a Swiss cracker, rye bread, homemade pumpkin pie and a raisin bar. We all liked the meatballs and carrots, everything else was ok to mediocre.

Regards,

When you live in the country, there are fewer restaurants than there are in the city. That is not such a bad thing. People actually take the time to prepare meals at home. Having been the recipient of many of those fine meals - often made with home produced products, I really don't eat out much.

One meal that I was NOT looking forward to was prepared by my MIL who broke out some of the canned beef from one of the steers that they slaughtered. Actually, it ended up being one of the best beef meals that I had in a long time. The beef was much more flavor filled than I had expected.

The church ladies that I know all cook from scratch as opposed to the standard offerings you find in many restaurants. (You ever notice that if an item is a success in one place, it becomes the menu item everywhere - i.e., fried green beans).

Personally, I feel more isolated in the large cities than I did in rural areas. When you had a problem in the country, a couple calls to neighbors who bring a lot of assistance quickly. Of course, you are also supposed to be part of the community, which is a reason that a lot of city folks never get acclimated to a different style of life.

I posted this in the Hospital food thread, but if you're near Rochelle, IL, the hospital food there is all home made - it's real pie, home made meatballs, etc. Check out the hours, because it's not open for very long each day, but it's really good and a very good deal.

I grew up in corn and beans country -- but moved away as soon as possible. Anyway, just think if you were in, say, rural Italy, or Greece. You'd be loving the local fare. So make the best of the local fare that is available. I agree with an earlier post about local meat lockers. You might even be able to score some real lard for pie crusts! And the farm stands out there have to be wonderful in the summer and fall.

And try to like the local food. As I mentioned in the Chicago-to-Bloomington thread, the local fare there is fried chicken and steak at bar/restaurants. It can be darned tasty. And pork tenderloin sandwiches. I missed all of that when I lved in NYC, even though I was literally surrounded by great restaurants.

Take heart -- at least you don't live in a chain restaurant hell, and you ARE close enough to Chicago suburbs or Madison to get to some civilization relatively quickly.

OK...church suppers. I'll give you the best one I know of. They have a supper every month. The menu is different each month. This month (Oct. 4th) is Roast Beef. You get everything family style, and homemade pies and desserts. Seatings are at 5 and 6:15PM. The seniors usually show up at least an hour before the 5 PM seating to get a place. (First come, first serve) This is a tiny church basement, so they squeeze you in. However, they always sell out. Price: $8.00 for adults, $3.50 for children.
Place: Kingston United Methodist Church
115 W First St.
Kingsgton, IL. 60145
815 784-2010

HI,

I just checked to find it is 63 miles from home with an estimate travel time of 90 minutes. Thank you for the tip, I hope to make it there in the next few months.

Regards,

Corn&Beans, what town are you in? I am about an hour SW of Rockford in Sterling.

razbry wrote:OK...church suppers. I'll give you the best one I know of. They have a supper every month. The menu is different each month. This month (Oct. 4th) is Roast Beef. You get everything family style, and homemade pies and desserts. Seatings are at 5 and 6:15PM. The seniors usually show up at least an hour before the 5 PM seating to get a place. (First come, first serve) This is a tiny church basement, so they squeeze you in. However, they always sell out. Price: $8.00 for adults, $3.50 for children.
Place: Kingston United Methodist Church
115 W First St.
Kingston, IL. 60145
815 784-2010

In early February, a friend and I headed out to Kingston, IL to meet LTH member razbry for a church supper. On this occasion, the dinner featured chicken, though we have been recommended to return for the popular Swiss steak and Thanksgiving dinners.


The volunteers hosting this event arrive at 8 AM to begin preparing dinner, though for the popular Thanksgivng dinner it is 5 AM. There are two seatings at 5 PM (with the Senior citizens arriving as early as 4 PM) and 6:15 PM. For the popular Swiss Steak dinner, they arrive even earlier and numbers are given out for the second seating. As people leave the first seating, numbers are called for the second seating to allow prompt seating.



Once you have claimed your seat, you immediately go over to the dessert table to select a piece of homemade pie or cake. The desserts to the left of the red ribbon are sugar free.




Taking a few pictures of the food aroused people's interest in our activities. They invited us to the kitchen to see their efforts before they were served:

A platter of chicken:


Sour cream coleslaw with marshmellows:


A roaster filled with homemade gravy. Not apparent in this picture, there were chucks of chicken in the gravy:


While this may not be the best picture, clearly the potatoes are freshly mashed sitting in a waterbath to stay warm until serving:


Dinner was served family style with large platters circulating the table. We were fortunate to have a volunteer's grandaughter overseeing our table. If anything ran low, then Taylor raced off to get more.

razbry with our dear server Taylor:


After dinner, we visited razbry at her home. It was too dark to see her raspberry plantings, though I hope someday to visit her u-pick farm. She very kindly served us some homemade damson plum liquor, which was a smooth, easy to drink and only later realize the impact.

In a moment of show-and-tell, we saw razbry's WSM, frozen meatballs following Stagger's mom's recipe and bacon wrapped Italian sausage aptly named bacon explosion recently discussed on LTH. While in many respects strangers, we knew quite a bit about each other from having read each other's posts.

Razbry, thanks again for offering information on your local church supper.

Regards,

My pleasure!

Cathy2 wrote:

razbry wrote:OK...church suppers. I'll give you the best one I know of. They have a supper every month. The menu is different each month. This month (Oct. 4th [2008]) is Roast Beef. You get everything family style, and homemade pies and desserts. Seatings are at 5 and 6:15PM. The seniors usually show up at least an hour before the 5 PM seating to get a place. (First come, first serve) This is a tiny church basement, so they squeeze you in. However, they always sell out. Price: $8.00 for adults, $3.50 for children.
Place: Kingston United Methodist Church
115 W First St.
Kingston, IL. 60145
815 784-2010

In early February, a friend and I headed out to Kingston, IL to meet LTH member razbry for a church supper. On this occasion, the dinner featured chicken, though we have been recommended to return for the popular Swiss steak and Thanksgiving dinners.

As the next Swiss Steak Day is fast approaching (Sat, Oct 3), I thought this would be a good time to report on our meal from last April. We returned to Kingston to meet razbry for Swiss steak, the most popular of the monthly Church dinners. I really enjoy these events. Sharing a home-style meal and a slice of pie with a table of friendly and interesting strangers is a refreshing break from Chicago.



Following the usual protocol, we grabbed our slice of pie from the dessert table before sitting down. I was alerted to the rhubarb meringue pie which didn't disappoint. This was an excellent plate of food even with the canned green beans. The potatoes and gravy alone would be worth the trip though the corn and steak weren't far behind. Almost as good as my mother's.