Cooking with Andi and Jenny

In Trouble with Treasure, Andi and Jenny have a serious, life-threatening problem. Andi’s brother Mitch has been shot. By the time Cory helps the girls get Mitch inside the line shack (in the middle of the Sierra wilderness), he has lost a lot of blood. Cory heads down the trail to find help, leaving Andi and Jenny to care for a very sick young man.

The cabin is a big mess, thanks to the three outlaws who have been squatting there. Two are dead, but now the girls face the daunting task of cleaning it up and also finding something to eat, and something Mitch can eat. Their choices are limited. Jenny finally finds flour, lard, and leavening and knows she can make up some biscuits (though they won’t taste that great without milk or sugar).

Andi remembers there pack horses carried beef jerky, and although she has no liking for the tough, salty meat, she figures it might make a broth to give her brother some strength back and replace his loss of blood. She heats water over a hot fire. When it boils, she tosses the hunk of beef jerky in and lets it simmer for a very long time.

Long story short. Andi is successful, and although she made it much too concentrated to start with, she learned to balance the amount of water with the large hunk of jerky she used.

ANDI’S BEEF JERKY BROTH

Mrs. M wanted to see what such a concoction tasted like, and honestly, it was really good! Here’s the recipe for a tasty beef broth made from original-flavored beef jerky.

• 1 large package beef jerky (original flavor0
• 4 cups water. Bring to a boil. Simmer for a couple of hours or longer, until the flavor of the beef jerky seeps into the water.

SPLIT PEA AND JERKY SOUP

So, Mrs. M decided this might be a good base for split-pea soup. Andi would certainly have added dried split peas if she had found any in that ramshackle cabin. Here is a recipe for split-pea soup. My mouth is watering just writing this down.

• 8 cups water
• 8-ounce package of original beef jerky, chopped fine
• 2 and 1/2 cups dry split peas, washed
• 1 onion, chopped (or 2 tablespoons dried onions)
• 2 carrots chopped (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic power

Bring everything to a boil. Simmer two hours. Jerky is salty, so taste before adding more salt.

JENNY’S BISCUITS

Poor Jenny didn’t have much to work with for the biscuits, but she did her best and they turned out pretty well (being hungry helps). How did she bake them with no oven? She couldn’t just fry them in a pan. They would not bake evenly. Jenny used a Dutch oven with a special lid. She took some coals from the fire, spread them on the stone hearth, put the deep pan on top, close it down with the lid, and then . . . she scooped hot coals on top of the lid. Ta-da! Biscuits in an oven. In this image, you can see the Dutch oven on the coals, with the lid, also full of coals, being taken off the baked biscuits.

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup shortening (Jenny used lard)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder)
• 2/3 cup milk (Jenny used water)
• 1 tablespoon sugar (Jenny had no sugar)

Mix flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder together. Cut in shortening with two knives (like Jenny). Add milk and mix dough into a ball. Pat out and cut with a glass rim. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 450 degrees until golden.