The DIY Diet

"Sometime during the fall season I’d like to make a trip ‘up north’," my elderly mother said when we were out running errands one day.  I said, "We can do that.  Would you like to go tomorrow?" I think I surprised her with my response.  "Yes," she said without giving it a second thought,  and we made plans to leave the following morning for our former Northeastern Minnesota home.  I made hotel reservations, we packed our bags, told my brother of our plans, and off we went.

Friday, the day on which we left the Twin Cities, it was a dreary, overcast day, just the sort of day on which I love to travel.  On those days there is no strong sun beating in through the windshield on me making it difficult for me to see or turning the fair skin on my driver’s side arm to beet red.  I’m also a dreary-weather person, I suppose, because I just love rainy, overcast days.  I particularly love those days when I can have my bedroom window wide open and sit on top of my bed with cozy layers of fluffy, comforting quilts pulled up around my neck while I read something of interest.  I feel the same way on the first snow day of the season.  I’m excited and exhilarated.  I feel a great love for the universe and its miracle of the fresh new snow.  My spirits soar though I don’t want to go anywhere.  I want to stay home with a good book, near a window, where I can watch the snow fall.  

When I lived in Northeast Minnesota, in a home in the woods that I designed for myself, my large, deep, soaking bathtub looked out through a patio door onto a deck on the back side of my house facing the dense forest.  I’d turn my inside lights off, the outside lights on, burn a candle at the foot of the tub, and relax as I watched the snow fall outside while I was sitting neck-deep in warm, bubbly water.  What luxury!   

For me, a really good book means some kind of reference book.  I know I’ve said before that I’m kind of odd that way.  I simply love books that teach me something, the step-by-step, do-it-yourself-type books.  I have dozens of them and wouldn’t part with a single one.  Believe it or not, I have a book that teaches you how to make your own shoes.  Of course, I’m going to try it "one of these days"!  

So my mother and I started our trek to Northeastern Minnesota, the one area of this whole world that I love more than any other.  The pine trees, swamps, boulders and mosquitos; the bitterly cold winter weather and cool, refreshing summers; the incredible, star-filled nights when the Aurora Borealis dances across the sky in a rainbow of soft but intense colors; the rocky, clay soil that makes raising a garden challenging; and the tough, sometimes difficult terrain of Northeast Minnesota, calls my name.  I’m a child of this country.  I belong to it. There is a beauty about this rugged country that defies description.  I feel it in my heart.  The clear, shimmering blue lakes and dense mixed evergreen and deciduous tree forests are in my soul.   At regular intervals during the year I simply have to go back ‘up north’.    

We drove north on I-35, stopped in Cloquet for lunch, then headed toward Duluth and the wonderful Lake Superior waterfront.  I stood atop Thompson Hill where the visitor’s center is located and looked down on St. Louis Bay, Duluth, and Lake Superior.  What a spectacular site with trees in every imaginable vibrant shade of green, gold, yellow, red, rose, rust, and orange set against the expanse of water reflecting gray because of the overcast skies.  The colors seemed even more dazzling with rain drops shimmering on the leaves.  When it is drizzling, the fog sets in and often you can’t see Duluth and the Harbor from up on the hill.  But that day it was different.  There was only a light fog so Duluth and its features were clearly visible.  

We drove to Canal Park, at Lake Superior’s shore, near the Aerial Lift Bridge at the Duluth Harbor.  I recalled what the waterfront was like when I was in college (early 1960s) at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.  There was the Aerial Lift Bridge over the ship’s canal, the Corps of Engineers building next to it, a plethora of warehouses, and the Club Saratoga, an adult entertainment club  featuring nude dancers.

I remember, as a lark, my college roommate and I asked for permission to ride with the Officer in Charge as he lifted the bridge to allow the ore boats and foreign vessels to enter the Duluth harbor area.  Were we crazy or what?  I’m scared of heights and I wanted to walk onto the open grid of the Lift Bridge, then climb the steep, 20+ open grid stairs up to the control house, then ride up into the air as the bridge deck lifted to allow vessels to pass beneath.  Crazy, crazy, crazy.  The Aerial Lift Bridge is still there, so is the Corp of Engineers building - which has been enlarged and also houses the wonderful Lake Superior Marine Museum - and the Club Saratoga.  But the warehouses have been converted into marvelous restaurants, hotels, and shops featuring the creative wares of hundreds of local and area artists and writers and chefs.  It has become a destination that attracts hundreds of thousands of people every year.  I’m so proud of what Duluth has made of itself.  It’s a joy to spend time there.

Sometimes in the summer I go to Duluth by myself and sit by the shore of Lake Superior to restore my soul.  I have a favorite place between Duluth and Two Harbors where I park my van in the shade of a birch tree.  I set up my patio umbrella, a comfortable chair and a footstool, and spend all day for several days sitting along the stony shore, reading or sketching or just watching the waves crashing against the boulders.  I take a cooler with me containing beverages, my lunch, and other snacks.  In the evening I treat myself to dinner at one of the many fine restaurants around Duluth, then head to my hotel for the night.  Talk about relaxing!

As you travel north from Duluth, into the region called the Arrowhead Country of Northeastern Minnesota there are large tracts of tamarac trees growing in what I think of as marginal lowlands.  These areas are refuges for birds and animals of many kinds.  The tamarac is a deciduous conifer tree that changes to yellow/gold before dropping its needles each fall.  Its wood is hard and burns very hot in a wood-burning stove.  When I visited some of the tamarac trees were an almost luminescent Granny Smith apple green with tinges of yellow and gold.  Some were already yellow moving toward gold with undercurrents of a lime-like green.  Tamarac at this stage are incredibly beautiful, a true feast for the eyes.  

We made a grand tour of only part of the area for there is more to see and do than one can possibly do in a weekend.  Outdoor enthusiasts love the area for the boating, hiking, biking, ATV, and snowmobile trails (more than 2,000 miles of groomed trails) and the fishing, hunting, camping, and bird and animal watching.  

We went through Aurora and noticed the new and upgraded buildings along Main Street, and the new Mesabi East High School.  We drove out to Giant’s Ridge Golf and Ski Resort where there are two 18-hole golf courses, The Quarry and The Legend, built on some of the most interesting northwoods terrain you can imagine.  The "Ridge" offers terrific alpine and cross-country skiing, and snowboarding at many ability levels.  The resort encompasses areas from the old Lake Mine open pit iron ore mine, now a great fishing hole with part of The Quarry golf course along side it, all the way along the west side of pristine Wynne Lake where there a condominiums and individual cabin-like villas as well as a hotel, The Lodge, built to accommodate both skiers and golfers.  The east sides of both Wynne and Sabin Lakes now offer beautiful wooded home sites as part of the Voyageurs Retreat development.  

We wound our way through the woods from Giants Ridge to Embarrass (the name originated from the French word ‘embarras’ meaning obstacle(s), what life was full of as early settlers tried to make a life for themselves there) and then to Babbitt on our way to Ely.  We love going to Ely.  I worked at resorts there a couple of summers when I was growing up.  One, Kawishiwi Lodge, is where the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness starts.  It’s about 24 miles out of Ely.  We had lunch at the Grand Ely Lodge on Shagawa Lake, stopped at Mealey’s to buy some hand-parched wild rice, noticed the activity around town as the visitors went in and out of outfitters and galleries, restaurants and gift shops, and the mukluk shop, where you can buy the lightweight, custom made, soft leather cold weather boots originally worn by native peoples of the Arctic.  We stopped briefly at the new Bear Center near Ely then headed toward Soudan, where you find the Soudan Mine Underground State Park, and on to Tower and to Lake Vermilion.  

When I was growing up our family owned a cabin on Birch Point, Lake Vermilion.  We spent many happy days there, often with extended family members, swimming, water skiing, fishing, cooking over an open fire, then taking hot saunas and jumping into the lake to cool off.  We ended the day sitting inside the cabin, the adults telling stories while we kids were tucked into bunk beds trying to keep tired eyes open so we wouldn’t miss anything.

We drove past the houseboat rental place over to Fortune Bay Resort and Casino also on Lake Vermilion.  They have an upscale 18-hole golf course, The Wilderness, on the lake shore, a beautiful hotel, and the Bois Forte Heritage Museum along with the casino to tempt visitors.  We continued our journey toward Virginia.  Near Virginia is an iron ore mining property, owned by US Steel, named after me:  the Connie Mine.  In 1975 I became the first female management employee of any Mesabi Range mining company though that had nothing to do with the naming.  It’s just a point of history.  As we traveled we noticed much that was new and different and much that was the same, giving us comfort as we continued our tour through long familiar territory.  

At Gilbert there is Minnesota’s first Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation Area.  It’s 1,200 acres and 30 miles of trails, scramble areas, training and special event facilities for ATVs, off road motorcycles, trucks and 4 x 4 jeeps.  This is an incredible recreational facility. 

Often when we are back in our home territory we go out to Skibo, where my cousin has a cabin in the woods east of Hoyt Lakes.  He and his family live in the Twin Cities area but spend as much time as possible ‘up north’.  There are about ten rugged individualists who have either homes or cabins in Skibo.  At least two families live out there full time. What electric power they have they provide themselves using generators.  They remind me of the self-sufficient folks I met living in Alaska.  They enjoy one another’s company and get together frequently on weekends for a variety of activities.  They hunt, fish, ride snowmobiles and four-wheelers, enjoy nature, read, share ideas by a campfire, play musical instruments and sing, attend nearby concerts and church, enjoy meals that they make utilizing the wild game they harvest.  My cousin makes a hearty chili using goose meat.  He says it’s tasty.  I haven’t tried it.

That finally brings me to the recipe for South American Special, the Red Hot Sandwich Spread.  Historically, we’ve made it in the fall because that’s when freshly butchered meat, peppers, and vegetables were available.  Now days we can make it any time of the year.  I’ve only made it by following the recipe exactly.  My cousin makes it from whatever meat he has available.  This fall already he made a batch using buffalo meat.  It was very good.  He shared some with me.  And, this recipe works for those of you who, for health reasons, follow the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

My family was first introduced to South American Special back in the 1950s.  White’s Cafe in Gilbert, Minnesota made and served the hot stuff, spread thinly on slices of French or Vienna-type bread.  My parent’s friends, John and Agnes, gave us the recipe.  They used to make it each fall and so did my parents.  I don’t know where the recipe originated and I’ve never seen it sold anywhere else in all of my travels.  White’s Cafe is no longer open either.  So here then is the recipe for South American Special.  You’re going to have to make it yourself to enjoy it.

The first recipe makes enough for freezing, the second recipe is sampler size.  Make the smaller batch to see if you like it, then make enough for the freezer.

South American Special Recipe

Here’s the scaled down sampler version of the recipe.  The same preparation method applies:

If you like things red hot, you can make this as red hot as you like by adding as many hot peppers as you like.  The hotter the better to my way of thinking.  Enjoy!