Chesapeake's Favorite Quaff

The Orange Crush is hot stuff along the western shore of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. Not the Nehi of old, but the adult beverage of today. Versions ranged from Wow! to Huh? depending on whether the bar tender used fresh or canned orange juice.

Here's the recipe as prepared at the Chesapeake Beach Resort.

Chesapeake Bay Orange Crush

1 1/2 oz. orange vodka
2 oranges, juiced
1 1/2 oz. Triple Sec
Sprite

Start with the vodka, add the Triple Sec, then the orange juice and finally, top with Sprite.

Call it your anti-cold tonic.

Presidential Beans

President Teddy Roosevelt loved everything about the great outdoors - riding, fishing, hunting and eating - so naturally he fell in love with Yellowstone National Park. In 1919-20, 20 years after the president first visited the park, Roosevelt Lodge was built on the site of the old tented Camp Roosevelt near the North gate, known for its Roosevelt Arch.

Roosevelt Lodge is still popular with today's visitors and so are the famous Roosevelt Beans served there.

Here's the recipe for your favorite outdoorsmen.

Roosevelt Beans

Serves 8-12

1 pound hamburger or sausage
1/2 pound bacon in 1/2-inch dice
1 onion, 1/2-inch dice
1 16 oz. can pork and beans
1 12-oz. can kidney beans
1 12-oz. can Lima beans
1 12-oz. can butter beans
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 TBS. cider vinegar
1 TBS. prepared mustard
1/2 cup Ketchup
salt and pepper to taste

Fry meats; drain fat. Saute onion with meat. Stir in next 10 ingredients. (For a thicker dish, drain liquid from beans.)
Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes. Serve with cornbread.

Ron's Cowboy Beans

When Ron Reed of Clark, Wyoming isn't serving as the chuckwagon cook for round-ups or wrangling, you will see him cooking up Dutch oven biscuits, cowboy beans and cowboy coffee and giving samples to the dudes who wander by his chuckwagon outside the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming.

All of this is typical on-the-range fare for cowboys, now and in the past. The biscuits - they'd been sitting off the fire for a few hours - were on the dry side but perfect for sopping up the last bit of the delicious cowboy beans.

Here's the recipe for your favorite range riders.

Ron's Cowboy Beans

 6 cups pinto beans

              1 cup crisp bacon, crumbled

                 softball sized onion, chopped

2 TBS chili powder

Soak the beans overnight. Rinse. Put beans in a heavy pot - cast iron if you have it - and cover with water. Toss in all other ingredients and cook over medium to low heat for 2-3 hours, stirring and adding water as needed.

Season to taste and serve with your own corn bread or biscuits.

Reader request: Connemara Smoked Salmon with Lime Jam and Cream Cheese on Brown Soda Bread

Ask and you receive, thanks to the generous chefs at Ashford Castle in Ireland. When a reader emailed asking for a recipe I turned to the castle's U.S. PR rep Susan Meyers at Geoffrey Weill Associates in New York.

Faster than you could dance a reel or three she had it and a photo which, sadly, did not download.

So here you are, Pat. I've translated metrics into ounces and tablespoons so taste-test to what you remember.

Ashford Castle's Connemara Smoked Salmon with Lime Jam and Cream Cheese on Brown Soda Bread

3 slices  brown soda bread

2 3/4 TBS  lime jam cream cheese (see recipe below)

3 ounces  organic smoked salmon

3  lime segments 

1 ounce (scant) lime jam (see recipe below)

  

Spread lime jam cream cheese on bread. Layer with luxurious amount of smoked salmon and top with 1 lime segment per slice of bread.

Serve lime jam in side dish for dipping.

Lime Jam

20 portions

2 cups (generous) skinless lime

1 1/2 cup sugar

60  lime segments (10 per lime)

   

Cook skinless lime with sugar - sugar may caramelize slightly in the beginning - gently for about 10 minutes.

     Strain and chill. Store chilled, labeled and dated.

    Reheat when ready to use and add lime segments before serving. Jam keeps in refrigerator for  5 days, lime segments for 3.

 Lime Cream

4 cups (generous)  medium fat cream cheese

1/2 cup lime jam

             Combine and store chilled, labelled and dated. Keeps for 7 days.