Bompie's War Work

My family is an Ocean Spray Cranberry family. We always drank the cranberry juice cocktail and had cans of both the solid and the whole fruit cranberry sauce in the cupboards. On the table at Thanksgiving there would be the platter of cranberry walnut bread (along with lemon bread) and dishes of both kinds of cranberry sauce. When I grew older and inquired as to why we relied on the canned cranberry sauce instead of making our own, I was told we did it because of "Bompie's War work".

Bompie was my mother's father. He had missed WWI by being at Yale. Though Yale did train him to be a member of the calvary if the war was still going on after his graduation. He said that the only horses Yale could get a hold of for training were swayback mules. They were the most uncomfortable things he every rode. The one that was assigned to him had a nasty habit of dumping him in the mud much to the anger of his instructor. Finally one day Bompie decided he was not going to let that beast dump again. That day as he was going around the ring, the beast did his fancy footwork that always tossed Bompie off, but this time Bompie held on as tight he could. He did stay on but not in the traditional way. All of the beast's wiggling and jiggling had caused him to slide with his arms around the neck of the beast and eventually he found himself hanging upside down under the animal's neck with his legs wrapped around the top of the neck. This did not faze the beast in the least and he kept going around the ring at a good clip. His instructor shouted, "Ellis, are you alright?" He shouted back, "Yes Sir!" The instructor then shouted, "Then stay like that!" Bompie rode upside down for the rest of the training session. After WWI ended and Bompie's calvary training along with it, he never had the desire to ride a mule or horse again.

By the time WWII came around Bompie was in his forties and too old to be called up. But since he was a patriotic man and felt called to serve his country in any fashion he could, he moved his family to Plymouth, Massachusetts. There, he helped the Ocean Spray Cranberry company balance its books for the duration of the war. This was Bompie's war work. I of course laughed at the idea that working for Ocean Spray could be considered "war work". But then my grandmother explained to me the vital role cranberries played in WWII. According to her, Ocean Spray made huge tray after huge tray of cranberry fruit leather. The leather was cut up into strips and sent overseas for the soldiers to eat. The vitamin C in the cranberries prevented scurvy among our troops. Who knew?

Now my own family enjoys the same cranberry bread that my grandmother and great-aunts used to make. I love to make it not only because I love the combination of cranberries and walnuts, but because it reminds me of Thanksgiving at my great-aunt and uncle's home with the family all assembled. My cousins, siblings, and I would be all running around upstairs through the hallways, jumping on the beds, having pillow fights or into my great-aunt's jewelry box trying everything on. One time we even got into the cedar closet with her ermine coats. The womenfolk were busy in the kitchen getting the 24lb turkey ready for the table and would only occassionally scream up the stairs for us to "stop horsing around". We never did. The menfolk were too cosy in the family room with a fire in the fieldstone fireplace watching the Detroit Lions to even care what we were up to. Those were fun days.

Cranberry Bread (from the Ocean Spray Company)

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon grated orang peel
1 egg, well beaten
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9X5 inch loaf pan. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a medium mixing bowl. Stir in orange juice, butter, orange peel and egg. Mix until well blended. Stir in cranberries and nuts. Spread evenly in loaf pan. Bake for 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely. Makes 1 loaf.

Comments

[Card's wife]

I love cranberry bread. But nothing can top the recipe I made this afternoon.

[Mrs. Peperium]

What nine layer dip or seven layer salad?

Tomorrow it's cook-off day. Should we drink, cook and blog? We've got a Russian coming so I'm even going to make my own pumpernickal cocktail bread. It's the least one cam do for someone who escaped the Iron Curtain. Besides Russians don't like turkey unless its sandwiched in between two slices of rye bread with a thick slice of swiss cheese, sauerkraut and some Russian dressing. I love a good turkey Rueben.

[Mrs. Peperium]

Is the Misspent One heading home to Chicago for the weekend? Or is he off to Boston to see the Blandings?

[Mrs. Peperium]

How's this for a recipe;

2 well-chilled bottles of Champagne
1 cup well-chilled cranberry juice cocktail, or to taste
3 tablespoons Grand Marnier, or to taste

In a large pitcher stir together well the Champagne, the cranberry juice and the Grand Marnier. Makes about 7 cups. Sevres 8. Gourmet, 1993.

Gourmet called it a Cranberry Champagne cocktail but doesn't Pilgrim's Progress sounds a bit more catchier?

[Card's wife]

I'm saving your seven layer dip and cheese log recipes for when Mr. P comes over. I know how much he loves them.

I feel like having a vodka and cranberry juice.

[Misspent]

I am going to Chicago and will see the Blandings there. It is the B's that live in Boston (actually they don't like in Boston, but Providence, RI).

[Mrs. Peperium]

How about a mulled cider? Cider, apple brandy, cinnamon sticks, cloves, gingerroot, nutmeg....Thanksgiving in a mug.

[Mrs. Peperium]

Misspent, aren't the B's the Blandings? Are you cooking the turkey this year?

[Mrs. Peperium]

Hey Misspent, if we do the Polynesian Night here would you please wear your coconut bra and grass skirt while you blog? It would just make things that much more Polynesian, wouldn't it Card's wife?

[Misspent]

Nope, because I will be arriving on Thursday morning. I have a class on Wednesday night.