Commemorating The Nation's Anniversary-Day 4

Hubby Tony and I are learning a little bit about each of the States, and enjoying food from them as a way to celebrate the USA's 250th anniversary 

The project was back to me today. This is what I learned about my set of states:

• Nevada The state is known as "The Silver State" because of a silver rush in 1859, but today it is the largest gold-producing state (with approximately 64% of total U.S. output).
• New Mexico The state capital, Santa Fe, is 7,000 feet (approximately about 1.33 miles or 2.13 kilometers) above sea level, the highest in the nation.
• Maine Geographically, the state is bigger than the other five New England states combined, and 90 percent of it is covered in forests
• New Jersey The first organized baseball game took place in Hoboken on June 19, 1846 between the New York Base Ball Club and the Knickerbockers.
• Virginia The state flag is the only U.S. state flag to depict nudity. The state seal features Virtus, the Roman goddess of virtue, standing triumphantly over a defeated tyrant.

After coming up with my facts it was time to think about a food item. Although I adore anything covered in New Mexican red or green chile (or both, called Christmas style), after seeing what was in my freezer and pantry I decided to do a riff on Brunswick stew, a tomato-based dish simmered with meat, vegetables, and potatoes most likely created in Brunswick County, Virginia around 1828.

The original dish relied on whatever meat the cook could procure, usually small game like squirrel or rabbit. Today chicken is the most common protein, but I didn't have any chicken in the house. However, there was some sloppy joes in the freezer, left over from Tony's poker event a couple of weeks ago. I decided to 'procure' that and use it as the base for my dish.

Although I chose an unconventional meat, the rest of the dish used more conventional ingredients... chopped onion, tomatoes, corn, lima beans, and potatoes. Because the meat was already cooked and seasoned all I had to do was saute an onion and chop a potato, then add it to the pot with some broth, tomato puree, tomato paste, frozen corn, and limas. When the potatoes were cooked I added the thawed sloppy joe meat and some sweet and tangy barbecue sauce, then simmered to meld the flavors.

I served the stew with cole slaw and bread. A Brunswick Stew purist would probably balk at sampling mine, but Tony and I thought it was pretty darn good.