Day 32 - Saturday, October 4, 2014

Wednesday -rain
Thursday - sunny
Friday - sunny
Saturday - rain!

I got to visit the Nims house!  It belongs to the Academy in Historic Deerfield.  Two professors of the Academy live in it.

Unfortunately, it was a day of non-synchronicities, and I did not get to spend the time in the way I wanted.  I had forgotten my bag with journal, pencils, watercolours! So I did not get to return to the burial mound we had visited the previous day let along spend time there.

Instead, I went to stand for an hour, mountain pose, at the front door of the Nims house (Godfrey & Mehitable's lot; house rebuilt  in 1710 by son John (captured 1703, returned 1705); remodelled in 1728 and last year_to the displeasure of the Historic Society.)

In the evening, the Nims Family Association met for buffet dinner at Champney's within the Old Deerfield Inn.  I learned that hurricane Irene had caused damage to the Deerfield Inn and it had been closed for 2 years.  Delicious and beautifully-presented food, which ended with Indian pudding.  The pudding has cornmeal in it.  It reminded me of the spice cake I made in my younger days.

I have searched for a recipe:

Indian Pudding

4 cups milk
½ cup cornmeal
2 Tbsp. butter
½ cup molasses
½ cup maple syrup (preferably Grade B)
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ginger
Pinch nutmeg
2 eggs, well beaten

Preheat oven to 325°F.  Butter a 2-quart casserole dish.

In a medium pot, bring milk to a gentle simmer.  Very slowly whisk in cornmeal briskly to prevent clumping.  Cook for 20 minutes, adjusting heat to maintain a gentle simmer, until mixture has thickened and coats the back of a spoon well.  Remove from heat.  Stir in the butter, molasses, maple syrup, salt, and spices until well blended.  Temper the eggs, meaning slowly whisk in about ¼ cup of the hot pudding mixture to the beaten eggs, then return tempered mixture to the pot.  This prevents the eggs from scrambling.

Pour mixture into a buttered casserole dish and bake about 1½ hours, until center is set (the center will still be soft, but you don’t want it to look liquidy).  Some recipes call for a water bath (i.e., set the casserole dish in a larger pan, then pour boiling water into the outer pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the pudding dish), but I’ll be honest, I don’t bother.  This right here is the Indian pudding of my childhood.  Let sit at least 20 minutes.  Serve warm with vanilla bean ice cream.

Local Sources:
Milk: Our Family Farms of Massachusetts, Greenfield, MA
Cornmeal: Winter Moon Organic Farm, Hadley, MA
Butter: Mendon Creamery, Mendon, MA
Maple syrup: Williams Farm Sugarhouse, Old Deerfield, MA
Eggs: Chip-In Farm, Bedford, MA