OKMULGEE, Okla. – Like any good cook, Elizabeth ‘Libby’ Kaler knows her way around a kitchen – in spite of once ending up in the oven.

“It was my own fault. I can’t remember if my grandma was putting something in the oven or taking it out, but I’m sure I was all up in there being nosy, trying to see what was going on,” she said.

She laughs now when she talks about it. She doesn’t remember the pain, she says, but she does remember sitting in church with her arms bandaged up.

“I sat there picking at the tape hoping my mom wouldn’t see me.” She flashed a grin and chuckled at the memory.

It was her first mishap in the kitchen and she is certain she has many more coming.

“I burn myself more than anything,” she said.

She points out dark spots along each arm and the backs of her hands. “See?”

Kaler is the Executive Chef for Stone Blade, a restaurant owned and operated by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

She’s Creek, but wasn’t raised traditionally. What she knows about being Creek, she learned at her grandmother Nancy’s side in the kitchen.

“My mom could cook like none other. But the traditional Creek cooking I learned from my grandmother,” she said. “I wouldn’t know how to cook wild onions if it wasn’t for her. She’d say, ‘you pick ‘em and I’ll clean ‘em.’”

Her eyes glow when she talks about being in the kitchen with her mom and grandmother. She was always asking questions and getting in the way because she wanted to see what was going on and how they did everything.

“I think I enjoyed it more than they did.” She laughed and pulled out her phone to show a photo of her grandma Nancy. “If you met her, you’d remember her. She was ornery as hell,” she said.

Nancy was all of 100 pounds and drove a big rig up until she died at 74-years-old.

“She didn’t like to sit still for very long. It drove her nuts if she wasn’t doing something or going somewhere,” Kaler said.

Kaler seems to have inherited that ornery streak and desire to be doing something. If she’s not in the kitchen cooking, she is doing research on cooking – research that led to one special item on her Stone Blade menu – Plank Grilled Rainbow Trout.

“When the Creeks first settled in Oklahoma, it was in the northeastern corner of the state where all those rivers are,” she said. “Fishing was their main source of food. They’d build their campfires and grill that fish on wood planks over the fire.”

The name “Stone Blade” also comes from Creek history. Kaler says it is a tribute to Muscogee women. Muscogee women were more than mothers – they were also warriors, builders, farmers and craftswomen – and all of their accomplishments depended on a simple tool they kept close – a stone blade. The blade was used for cooking; skinning; tanning leather; making clothes; shaping bows; carving; preparing medicines and for protection. The blade was a resourceful tool Muscogee women always kept close at hand.

Kaler herself is a resourceful Muscogee Creek woman. She started early, in her mother’s kitchen when she was about 13-years-old.

“My mom is responsible for me being the main cook at home. When she was working for the post office they transferred her to another office miles away and she had to leave to work the night shift before dinnertime,” she said.

(She sighs heavily to make it sound like her mom planned it that way.)

“Everyone was wondering, ‘Who is going to cook dinner?’” She shrugs for emphasis.

Kaler cooked the family meal that first night her mother was gone.

“I looked in the fridge and the cabinets and tried to figure out what would go together. I think the first thing I made was a Mexican inspired casserole. We had some salsa and refried beans and some other stuff. It came out really good,” she said.

She enjoyed cooking and kept the job even after her mom got off the night shift.

(Just like her mom planned.)

Kaler grew up and entered culinary school. She graduated in 2009 and soon landed a job working at the historic Okmulgee Country Club. She was with the club when the Muscogee (Creek) Nation bought the property two years ago.

The tribe had to close the restaurant while they made much-needed repairs and remodeled.

She stayed on as Executive Chef and was instrumental in updating the well-worn kitchen – a kitchen that had been in operation since 1920.

“The kitchen was in bad shape. It needed lots of love before they (the MCN) could open it again to serve food,” she said.

Kaler recalled that the Nation had just purchased a retail property in nearby Jenks – a property that once housed a few restaurants – restaurants that had closed.

“I figured there was equipment just sitting up there, so I was all, ‘hmmm maybe we can just see what they have,’” she said.

She went “shopping” and came back with enough hardware to re-outfit her Stone Blade kitchen.

With her kitchen up and running, it was time to create a menu.

Her early experience raiding the cupboards made her a practical chef who says she prefers preparing comfort foods to using expensive specialty foods with ingredients are hard to come by.

“I like to take comfort food and put my own twist on it – make it upscale rustic. I keep it really simple.”

An example is her homemade potato chips. They’re just plain russet potatoes sliced thin then fried and seasoned.

“They’re one of our most requested items. Chief  (George) Tiger loves them. We know when he comes in to bring out the chips,” she said.

Caesar salad, chicken fried steak, a house burger and the chips are menu staples.

“It’s American cuisine. We take a little bit of everything from all over and put our own spin on it,” she explained.

Another staple is her Plank Grilled Rainbow Trout. She uses cedar planks over a gas grill to prepare it.

The plank keeps the fish from burning and the smoke from the cedar flavors the fish.

“The edge of the fish will brown from the cedar smoke. That’s where the best flavor is,” she said.

 She seasons the fish with salt and pepper and tops it with an herbed butter (see recipe on page 14).

Kaler fills out the menu with seasonal and weekly specials – depending on what is available at the time – just like cooking at home for her family.

“When fresh blackberries are available, I make a blackberry fry bread pudding,” she said. “It’s just like a traditional bread pudding, except I make it with fry bread. I crush blackberries into the bread and serve it with a white chocolate bourbon sauce topped with fresh blackberries.”

Kaler loves her job and says she remembers people by what they order.

“Our customers deserve the best. Whether it’s a Tuesday or the weekend, I always deliver my best,” she said. “If you love what you do, it shows on the plate.”

Stone Blade is located at 1400 S. Mission, in Okmulgee. Phone (918) 756-5774. Reservations accepted.

For Libby Kaler's Plank Grilled Rainbow Trout recipe, visit www.nativeoklahoma.us



Libby Kaler places a rainbow trout fillet on a hot cedar plank.

PHOTO BY LISA SNELL