A Coalcracker In The Kitchen

 

Lori Fogg was the author of the blog,  “A  Coalcracker In The Kitchen” where she shared recipes, and stories based on her experiences growing up in the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania.  Fogg died in 2022, and her blog soon disappeared.  This is my attempt to save her recipes and her stories, for myself, mostly - but you all can see them this way too.  I've been converting them into printable formats as I go through,  on each page listed below you will find a photo you can right click on, save, and print, with the recipe.

There were more than 200 recipes on her blog.  I don't know if I will ever get through all of them.  Obviously I've started with the ones I most did not want to lose - such as the kolacky, which I make every year at Christmas time.

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INDEX
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• Boilo - My Post about Making Boilo is here
• Bundookies - Lithuanian Fried Pork Meatballs
• Clear Toy Candy - and a post about the history of Clear Toy Candy
• Crinkle Cookies, Super Easy
• Hermit Bars, Old Fashioned 
• Hog Maw
• Kolacky Cookies
• Liver & Onions
• Pepper Cabbage

Cookies:

• Crinkle Cookies, Super Easy
• Hermit Bars, Old Fashioned 
• Kolacky

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From her now archived blog:

What is a “Coalcracker” and what the heck are you doing in the kitchen?

“Coalcracker“: Affectionate term for a resident of Northeastern Pennsylvania, but particularly of the Anthracite (coal) Region (Scranton to the Lehigh Valley to Schuylkill County).

With the expansion of the mining and railroad industries. English, Welsh, Irish and German (the “Dutch” (Deutsch) in Pennsylvania Dutch) immigrants formed a large portion of the population, followed by Polish, Slovak, Ruthenian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Italian, Russian and Lithuanian immigrants.

The influence of these immigrant populations is still strongly felt in the region, with various towns possessing pronounced ethnic characters and cuisine. Throw in some influence from the Pennsylvania Dutch of the Schuylkill County and Lehigh Valley areas and you have a sampling of Coal Region comfort foods!

The Coal Region is a historically important Anthracite (“hard coal”) coal-mining area in Northeastern Pennsylvania in the central Appalachian Mountains, comprising Lackawanna, Luzerne, Columbia, Carbon, Schuylkill, Northumberland, and the extreme northeast corner of Dauphin counties.

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Many of her recipes can still, currently,  be found using the WayBack Machine Internet Archive:

https://web.archive.org/web/20221104165444/https://www.acoalcrackerinthekitchen.com/recipe-index-by-list/

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In a 2021 interview for The Keystone:

“They remembered the food, they loved the food, it was very comforting to them,” she said. “But their grandmother or their mother had it in their mind and they never wrote it down, and they couldn’t recreate the recipes.”

Her followers piled on praise and requested more recipes, so Fogg created her A Coalcracker in the Kitchen food blog and Facebook page in 2016. The website is a collection of over 200 recipes, including halupki, bundookies, bleenies, and three versions of shoo-fly pie. People have viewed her recipe for liver and onions more than 134,000 times."

https://keystonenewsroom.com/story/a-coalcracker-in-the-kitchen-webmaster-lori-fogg-shares-pennsylvania-dutch-recipes-traditions/

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Obituary

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Fogg, Lori Ann, 62, passed away August 3, 2022. Born July 6, 1960, to the late Harry and Glennis (Griffiths) Shuler. Also preceded in death by her loving husband James Fogg. Lori grew up in Schuykill County where she stayed until she met her husband James. The two then moved to New Hampshire in 2001 and lived until 2018. When they moved to Johnstown, PA. She enjoyed cooking so much she had a website “A Coalcraker In The Kitchen” where she shared recipes, and creative ideas based on her experiences growing up in the coal region of Pennsylvania. Lori also had a passion for animals and always had around five dogs. She regularly volunteered and donated to the Hillside SPCA animal shelter in Pottsville, PA.  At her request there will be no services at this time.