LET THEM EAT SOUP!

This should have been before the last post. And I can’t find the original date I may have posted it – in 2009, I think. I know I have some photographs somewhere of some of my soups/tureens. Have to do a search for those too! -  sls

LET THEM EAT SOUP!

There is nothing like soup. It is by nature eccentric: no two are ever alike, unless of course you get your soup in a can.” Laurie Colwin, ‘Home Cooking’ (1988)

“From time immemorial, soups and broths have been the worldwide medium for utilizing what we call the kitchen byproducts or as the French call them, the ‘dessertes de la table’ (leftovers), or ‘les parties interieures de la bete’, such as head, tail, lights, liver, knuckles and feet.”                            –Louis P. De Gouy, The Soup Book (1949)

AND MY FAVORITE, FROM LEWIS CARROLL:

Beautiful Soup

BEAUTIFUL Soup, so rich and green,
Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!

Beau–ootiful Soo-oop!
Beau–ootiful Soo-oop!
Soo–oop of the e–e–evening,
Beautiful, beautiful Soup!

Beautiful Soup! Who cares for fish,
Game, or any other dish?
Who would not give all else for two
Pennyworth only of Beautiful Soup?
Pennyworth only of beautiful Soup?

Beau–ootiful Soo-oop!
Beau–ootiful Soo-oop!
Soo–oop of the e–e–evening,
Beautiful, beauti–FUL SOUP! 

After writing a poem about soup for my poetry group, I was asked to post something on my Blog about making homemade soups. Soup is probably my forte–what I do best under the best or even the worst of conditions; when the pantry is well stocked or when I am scrounging through the frig for any leftovers suitable for a soup pot. My sister Becky had a name for the latter; she called it “clean-out-the-refrigerator-soup”. But here’s the thing –You can buy dozens of cookbooks devoted to soups/stews/chowders/bisques–a soup by any other name…but you don’t really need any cookbook or recipe to make a good pot of soup. All you need are some ingredients. One of my favorites is a leftover pot roast. The next day I dice up any left over meat, discarding fat, bones, gristle. I put it into the pot with the leftover gravy- and add some water. Then I add whatever leftover vegetables are in the frig. If there AREN’T any, I begin peeling potatoes, onions, and carrots, dicing everything to add to the pot. When it’s a beef soup that is cooking, I love to add a cup of dry barley a few hours into the cooking period. It makes such a great hearty soup. And for a little more heartiness, I like to add about a cup of burgundy wine. But if you don’t have any barley, you can add some rice – leftover or otherwise. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Clam chowder is definitely hard to beat, especially if it’s made in a healthy way. This Hearty Clam Chowder from Eater’s Digest and JohnsHopkinsUniversity’s School of Public Health in Baltimore also contains only 380 milligrams of sodium, not bad for a “soup” dish.

Hearty Clam Chowder

Makes 9-10 servings

5 medium potatoes, pared and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3/4 cup chopped green onions, including tops
1/2 cup diced celery
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1/4 diced red or green bell pepper
1 tsp. minced garlic
2 cups water
2 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. salt (or to taste)
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
Dash of hot pepper sauce
Two 6-1/2 oz. cans of minced clams
1/2 cup flour
2 cups unsweetened soymilk

Place potatoes, green onion, celery, carrot, bell pepper and garlic in large pan. Mix in water, butter, salt, Worcestershire and hot pepper sauce.

Bring to a boil, cover, and cook 15 minutes over medium heat or until potatoes are tender. Drain clams, reserving liquid and adding water, if necessary, to make 1 cup. Combine clam liquid with flour and stir to make a smooth paste. Pour flour paste into vegetables and cool, stirring, until mixture thickens. Add clams and soymilk. Continue cooking until chowder is hot.

My Clam Chowder:

5-6 potatoes, peeled and diced

1 onion, finely chopped

2-3 carrots, shredded

1 cup sliced celery

1can evaporated milk (12 oz) (you can buy evaporated skim milk if you are counting calories)

1 can undiluted Cream of Mushroom Soup

2-4 cans of minced clams, including broth

Salt & pepper to taste

Fresh parsley, if you have it, otherwise dried parsley flakes

Cover the potatoes, carrots, celery and onion with water in a medium size pot until tender, then add the undiluted cream of mushroom soup and evaporated milk. Add the clams (I like a lot of clams. I see recipes using one 6 ounce can of clams and wonder – where’s the fun in that?) If you can get BIG cans of minced clams, like they have at Costco, all the better. Cook it all and add seasoning to taste.  If it’s not thick enough by dinner time, add instant potato flakes to make it thicker. Another great addition is clam stock which is sold in small round jars, about 6-8 ounce size. It will last a long time and adds infinite flavor to the clam chowder. Leftover mashed potatoes can be added to the pot or even some leftover carrots, if you have them. I also like adding fresh sliced mushrooms to the soup (but feel free to add a couple of cans of bits & pieces mushrooms if you have them around).

This soup is really good with hot garlic bread. I remember one time, my brother Bill & I returned from a trip to Oak Glen (California)  to buy apples – and I made a quick pot of clam chowder when we got back home. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day. The apples became applesauce.

GINGERY PUMPKIN SOUP (this is very low in fat)

2 tsp vegetable oil

2 shallots, minced (2 TBSP)

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger*

2 cups pumpkin puree

2 cups reduced-sodium defatted chicken broth

1 cup orange juice

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp minced orange zest

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

A pinch of ground cloves

2 TBSP minced fresh parsley (optional) -but if you don’t have fresh, use dried.

1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds (also optional)

Heat oil in soup pot over low heat; sauté the shallots, onions, and ginger in the oil until the onions are soft and golden. Be careful not to scorch the ginger. Add the pumpkin, orange juice, broth, salt, zest, pepper and cloves. Simmer for 10 minutes over medium heat. Garnish with parsley and pumpkin seeds, if desired. Makes 4 servings.

(Sandy’s cooknote: *Fresh ginger can be purchased in small jars and comes already finely minced. But if you buy fresh ginger–I have a tip for you. I’ve heard Rachel Ray tell viewers to freeze it. But I peel the ginger and pack it into a small clean jar and then cover it with sherry. It keeps indefinitely in the refrigerator this way and the sherry takes on the flavor of ginger and can also be used in other recipes.)

POTATO SOUP

3 medium potatoes

1 quart milk

1 small onion, sliced

2 TBSP flour

3 TBSP butter or margarine

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp celery salad

few grains cayenne pepper

1 tsp chopped parsley

Cook potatoes in boiling salted water until tender. Mash until smooth. Scald the milk with the onion, remove the onion and add the milk slowly to the potatoes, stirring constantly. Melt half the butter or margarine, add half the dry ingredients & stir until well mixed and add to the hot soup. Boil for 1 minute, strain and add the remaining butter and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Makes 6-8 servings (You could easily top this off with a bit of bacon and grated cheese!)

FAST & FIT POTATO CHOWDER

1 TBSP butter or margarine

1 cup chopped leeks or onions

1 cup diced red or green bell peppers

2 lbs (6 medium) potatoes, diced 1/2″

3 cups chicken broth

2 tsp dried thyme leaves

2 bay leaves

1 cup low fat milk

1 package (10 oz) frozen corn, thawed & drained

1/4 cup cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper to taste

In microwave, melt butter in a 2 to 3 qt casserole dish on high 1 minute. Add leeks and bell peppers; microwave on high 3 minutes. Stir in potatoes, broth, thyme and bay leaves; cover and cook on high 17 to 20 minutes. Remove and discard bay leaves. Remove 4 cups cooked potato with a slotted spoon and put into blender; add milk and puree until smooth. Return mixture to dish. Stir in corn, parsley and cayenne; season with salt and pepper; heat on high for 3 minutes. (If desired, pass bowls of shredded cheddar cheese, crumbled cooked bacon, drained canned clams or cubed cooked chicken or ham to stir into soup). Makes 6-8 servings.

CROCK POT DOUBLE CORN AND POTATO CHOWDER

3 large baking potatoes, peeled and diced

1 onion, diced

1 can cream of corn

1/2 to 3/4 bag frozen corn

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Black pepper

1 1/2 cups diced ham or 10 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled, or 1 1/2 cups roasted red peppers, cut to bite size, plus a pinch of crushed rosemary. Put all ingredients in the slow cooker; stir and cook on low 6 to 8 hours or until potatoes are tender.

MEXICAN POTATO SOUP

3  slices bacon, diced

3 large potatoes peeled and cubed

5 cups water

1 cup tomato sauce

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 Can (7 to 8 ounces) diced green chilies (buy the mild unless you are used to the hot or jalapenos and can handle the heat)

1/2 pound sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded

In a large skillet, brown bacon. Add potatoes and stir to coat. Add water, tomato sauce, onion and salt. Reduce heat to simmering and cook 1 hour. Divide chilies and cheese among bowls. Spoon hot soup over chilies and cheese and serve. Makes 6 servings.

MOM’S POTATO SOUP

(This is an old recipe from my mother’s collection)

2 ½ cups diced peeled potatoes (about 6 large)

2-4 cups water

1 TBSP salt

1-2 stalks celery, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

4 TBSP butter

¼ tsp pepper (white is best but not necessary)

¼ tsp celery salt

¼ tsp garlic salt

4 cups milk

Place potatoes in large heavy pot with 2 cups water. Add salt and cover and bring to boil. Reduce heat and cook potatoes until almost tender. While potatoes cook, sauté the onions and celery in 4 TBSP butter. Add pepper, celery salt & garlic salt. Stir onion mixture into the undrained potatoes. Add milk and more water if needed or desirable. Soup should be only slightly thick. Heat mix to boiling and reduce and simmer gently until flavors blend and mellow. Serve with either chopped chives or parsley afloat the steaming soup. Add a dollop of butter too. Serve with crisp crackers.

 Mexican Tortilla Soup

Weight Watchers style

8 ounces cooked, skinless, diced chicken

1 cup sliced or diced carrots

2 cups sliced thin celery

2 cups shredded or chopped cabbage

1 cup chopped onion

½ cup mild chilies

1 cup green beans

1 can whole kernel corn

½ cup diced bell peppers

1 qt tomato juice

1 qt V8 juice (or 2 quarts tomato juice)

1 qt tomatoes

2-3 chicken bouillon cubes

Water, if necessary, to make 6 quarts

Cook until all the vegetables are done. Add salt & pepper and any other seasonings

you like. I added chili powder to give it a little kick. You could also add tomato sauce or tomato paste. As listed, total is 16 points. One cup equals 1 ½ points

To make tortilla strips, cut 1 or 2 flour tortillas (I like to dry them out on a cookie sheet in the oven – but my old stove has a pilot light that is always “on” so there is just enough heat generated to dry out herbs or tortilla strips).

(Sandy’s cooknote:  Until a few years ago, we had never heard of Mexican Tortilla soup -I think it’s a relative newcomer to the culinary landscape – like cilantro. Twenty years ago you couldn’t find cilantro anywhere; nowadays, most supermarkets carry fresh cilantro and if you can’t find that you can buy freeze-dried cilantro. I have to admit cilantro is an acquired taste. As for Mexican tortilla soup, now you can find dozens of recipes. I began experimenting with making this soup, after the first time I tasted it in a Mexican restaurant. Living in California, we have a lot of exposure to good Mexican cuisine.

This next recipe is El Torito’s Tortilla Soup recipe from the LA Times SOS column 1990-91 and it may have changed since then. The point I am trying to make is that you can make Mexican tortilla soup a lot of different ways and if you leave out the shredded cheese, it’s a fairly low-calorie, low-fat recipe.

To Make EL TORITOS TORTILLA SOUP

4 CORN TORTILLAS

oil

2 ½ cups fish stock

¼ cup tomato sauce

2 TBSP diced celery

2 TBSP diced onion

2 TBSP diced green pepper

2 TBSP diced tomato

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp ground oregano

1 bay leaf

salt

¾ cup shredded Jack cheese

¾ cup shredded cheddar cheese

Cut tortillas into strips. Deep fry in hot oil until crisp*. Drain on paper towels and set aside. Combine fish stock, tomato sauce, celery, onion, green pepper, tomato, white pepper, garlic powder, oregano, and bay leaf in saucepan. Season to taste with salt. Bring to boil and simmer 20-30 minutes.  To serve, place tortilla strips in bowl.  Cover with shredded cheeses and add broth. Makes 4 servings.

(*Sandy’s cooknote: I would not, personally, deep fry tortilla strips – I always cut them into strips and dry them in my oven. I also prefer flour tortillas over corn. If you can’t oven dry them without heat, I would suggest – cut the tortillas into thin strips and spread them out on a cookie sheet covered with foil. Dry them on the lowest oven temperature until crisp. We also prefer to put the tortilla strips on TOP of the bowl of soup, not under it – and then top it off with a little grated cheese – and, if you have it, a slice of avocado makes a nice presentation. Tastes good, too. Also, if you don’t have fish stock and don’t know how to make it – use a vegetable stock or even chicken broth made with bouillon cubes. It all works. One of these days I will write something about making your own basic stocks – which can be frozen until you are ready to use them).

Here’s one more recipe for Tortilla Soup and it’s pretty simple and straightforward:

TORTILLA SOUP

10 CUPS strong chicken broth

2 cups diced onion

¼ cup oil

6 cloves garlic

2 cups cooked chicken

2 tsp ground cumin

1 can Rotel tomatoes with green chilies

1 15-oz can stewed tomatoes

1 ½ tsp salt

½ cup chopped cilantro (optional)

¼ cup grated cheese per bowl

tortilla chips or corn chips

In a large pot, sauté onion and garlic until soft. Add broth and other ingredients except cheese; bring to a boil and simmer at least 30 minutes. Before filling bowls, put a few tortilla chips or corn chips in the bottom of the bowl. Add soup and top it off with a bit of grated cheese.

T.G.I. Friday’s French Onion Soup

3-4 medium to large onions

3 cans of beef broth

water

Worcestershire sauce

butter

Sargento cheese (Italian blend) 8 oz. bag (recommended)

French baguette

2 bay leaves

Dash of garlic powder

Dash of both salt and pepper

Slice the onions into rings and sauté in butter in a skillet until tender. Turn crock pot on to low and put in the cans of beef broth, bay leaves, dash of garlic powder and salt and pepper, 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, and 3/4 cup of water. When the onions and butter mixture is tender then also add them to the crock pot. Cover and cook for at least 3-5 hours on low. At this point you may want to taste the soup and see if you would like it a little weaker–if so add a little water or chicken broth. Also, at this time remove the bay leaves and discard them.  When about ready to serve, slice bread into thin slices and toast in oven on 350 or in toaster oven until just crusty. Put toasted slices (1-3) in bowl and cover with the cheese (adjust cheese to your liking). Then cover bread and cheese with hot soup. The cheese will melt and the bread will rise to the top. Source: The Secret Recipe Forum:

(Sandy’s cooknote: Personally I like to add about a cup of burgundy wine to my French onion soup. But then I like Burgundy wine in a lot of my soups and stews. I have a big jug of Burgundy wine in the pantry that is used exclusively to cook with).

Here is my favorite recipe for Cream of Broccoli Soup.  When you buy a head of broccoli, peel the stems and cut them up and cook them along with the florets.  After dinner, put the cut stems and the leftover florets into a blender and puree. You need about 2 cups of puree to make the soup. (Save a couple cooked florets to add to the soup bowls)
Then, next day, melt 3 TBSP butter in a large, heavy saucepan over moderate heat. Blend in 3 TBSP flour; add 2 cups milk, and 2 cups broth (chicken, beef or vegetable). Heat, stirring until mixture boils; turn heat to low.  Blend in the broccoli puree, and add 1 tsp salt and a dash of white pepper.

Optional: pinch each of cardamom* and mace or ¼ cup grated mild Cheddar or Gruyére.
Using the same proportions of butter, flour, liquid and puree – you can also use this same recipe for cauliflower, onions or leeks, or cabbage. For carrot or green pea soup, use only 2 TBSP Butter and 2 TBSP flour – adding 1 tsp grated orange rind, or 1 tsp of nutmeg for flavoring.  This soup lends itself to most any vegetable, or combination of vegetables, that can be pureed and can be enhanced with your favorite seasoning.

(*Sandy’s cooknote: Cardamom! If you don’t have this spice in your kitchen cupboard or the spice rack – you are missing out. Cardamom–per Spice Islands–enriches diverse cuisines from Indian to Scandinavia. Its exotic flavor complements sweet cookies, breads and pastries as well as savory meat stews and curries. One of my favorite ice-box cookie recipes is a cardamom cookie. And from Google: “Once considered one of the world’s most precious spices—reserved for holidays, weddings and other special occasions—cardamom is captivating a new generation of admirers. With a hint of clove, the spiciness of ginger, and overtones of vanilla and citron, cardamom can add layers of complex, subtle flavor to any dish…”)

I thought I’d close this with MY poem about soup.

A BOWL OF SOUP

What is as fine as a bowl of soup

In a tureen, carried hot to the table,

Or a beef stew simmered with veggies and meat,

As wondrous as an old Aesop fable;

I love noodle soup or a tomato bisque,

My chili falls into this category,

French onion soup with melted cheese,

Russian Borscht served in all its beet glory.

Mushroom soup! PepperPot!

Or a Consomme!

Won Ton Soup! Morel Soup!

Cream of Pea and crackers on a tray!

Black Bean Soup! Cabbage Soup!

Or a pot of New England Chowder!

(Not for me Manhattan style–

For that I’d have to take a powder!)

Perhaps some Mulligatawny Soup,

Or some Minestrone!

I’d even eat some Bouillabaisse,

As long as it’s not boney!

Bring me a bowl of Orleans gumbo, 

Or any soup that’s bold,

Or let us have gazpacho that’s

Always served up cold.

Serve me cream of celery soup!

Carrot soup with Curry!

Bring me soups that cook all day

But dish up in a hurry;

Serve me spicy peanut soup

Or turkey soup with rice–

I’d gladly eat green lentil soup

But meatball soup is also nice.

Soup for breakfast! Soup for lunch!

Soup for a late night supper;

Let me have a cup of soup,

For a pick-me-upper.

Let me have War Won-Ton Soup,

Or Tortilla soup that’s spicy,

Let me have a cockle soup

Or lobster bisque that’s pricey!

Serve me cock-a-leekie soup

Or Egg Drop soup from China,

Serve it fancy, serve it plain,

I’m never going to mind-a,

Soups can be hearty or else light -

Feed one or feed a troop -

I’ll never tire or get enough

Of delicious homemade soup.

–Sandra Lee Smith

Happy Cooking! Sandy

 

 

LET THEM EAT (MORE) SOUP

LET THEM EAT MORE (VEGETABLE) SOUP

(originally posted on my blog in 2009)

It started innocently with my sister requesting a recipe. I thought she said “pea soup” But I learned the next day, I misunderstood. She was making a vegetable soup.  I can’t imagine how I heard “pea” when she said “vegetable”.

While waiting for her to arrive at my place, I looked up, and copied a slew of pea soup recipes. She didn’t want pea, she wanted vegetable. Oh, well, I said. Who really needs a recipe for making vegetable soup?  You just toss whatever you have on hand into a pot, add water or some cans of vegetable broth – and voila! You have vegetable soup. Then, of course, I began searching through my soup files for vegetable soup recipes and, admittedly – there are a lot of varieties.

Then, today, I wanted to use up a lot of leftovers in the vegetable crisper so I decided to make chicken/vegetable/tortilla soup, I had some leftover chicken breasts, about half a head of cabbage, plenty of carrots and celery–I also had some slightly old flour tortillas that would work nicely in thin strips dried in the oven–and a package of taco seasoning mix for flavor. (My reasoning being: I am going on vacation in a week, and anything in the refrigerator that doesn’t get cooked, thrown out, or frozen – will be a soggy decayed mess when I get back).  My chicken/vegetable/tortilla soup has turned out very nicely.

What you do is, fill a bowl with soup; sprinkle on some dried tortilla strips, and top it off with a sprinkling of grated cheese. A slice of avocado is also nice if you happen to have some on hand. It was a nice variation of my sister Becky’s clean-out-the-refrigerator-soup.

But getting back to vegetable soup – vegetable beef, vegetable chicken, plain vegetable soup – there are a lot of recipes from which to choose  (My sister pointed out – I didn’t have a recipe for vegetable soup on my BLOG. MY BAD. Mea Culpa.  So, brace yourself because I am about to rectify that omission.

This first one from my card file is very old, written in real ink and the card has yellowed. (I collect old, filled recipe boxes so sometimes there’s no telling where some of my recipes came from. No directions are provided.  (Do you really need directions to make soup?)

To make this vegetable soup, you will need:

VEGETABLE SOUP

2 quarts quartered tomatoes

2 dozen medium carrots, sliced

2 quarts cut green beans

2 cups chopped celery

½ cup chopped parsley

1 small head cabbage, chopped

4 small onions, chopped

½ cup rice or barley

2 quarts hot water

meat

Sandy’s Cooknote: I suspect this recipe was for canning vegetable soup.  But in today’s world? Make it up and freeze it in batches suitable for your household. I absolutely love the Gladlock 2-quart rectangular plastic containers. Once you freeze the soup, pop it out of the plastic container and put it into a Ziplock bag, then label it with a black marker. At my house we call these “bricks”. (I trade my bricks to girlfriend MJ, in exchange for doing all my sewing and mending. I-do-not-sew.  It’s a satisfactory barter system. She doesn’t like to cook).

And when a recipe for vegetable soup just provides you with the innocuous direction of “meat” – you can use a pound or two of stewing meat, almost any kind of beef cut – but my favorite meat to add to any vegetable soup is a 7-bone or chuck roast, already cooked and presented in one meal – then the leftovers cut up and turned into soup. Leftover gravy from the roast and any leftover vegetables can also be added.

Here is another old recipe called SKINNY SOUP for the simple reason that it’s made up mostly of vegetables, some high fiber, with a little leftover turkey meat, chopped up – if you have it on hand. If not, leave it out. It will be fewer calories.

SKINNY SOUP

To make SKINNY SOUP, you will need:

3 stalks celery, diced

3 large carrots, diced

1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

1 sweet onion, diced

½ head cabbage, sliced

½ pound fresh or frozen cauliflower cut up

2 medium potatoes, diced

1 cup frozen peas

3 cups water

2 cups leftover turkey meat, chopped (optional)

1 46-oz can tomato juice, preferably low sodium

2 TBSP fresh dill or 1 tsp dried

2 TBSP fresh basil or 1 tsp dried

1 tsp garlic powder

½ tsp ground pepper

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for topping (optional)

Prepare all vegetables. Use a large soup pot. Add all vegetables, turkey (if using), water, tomato juice and spices. Bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered 45 minutes to an hour or until vegetables reach your desired tenderness. Top with  Parmesan cheese when presenting in a soup bowl.  Makes 10 servings.

LISA’S THREE INGREDIENT VEGETABLE SOUP

This recipe was sent to me by Lisa, a penpal who lives in Ithaca, New York. To make Lisa’s Three Ingredient Vegetable soup, all you will need is:

1 16-OZ pkg Bird’s eye frozen mixed vegetables*

1 46-oz can tomato juice

1 3-oz pkg ramen oriental noodles with beef flavoring

Mix vegetables and tomato juice in a 5 quart pot. Heat to boiling. Add noodles and    flavor packet. Simmer 15 minutes; stirring occasionally.  8 servings.  What could be easier?

*Sandy’s cooknote: Canned or frozen mixed vegetables are my culinary best friend; I like to keep a lot of them on hand; they’re great in all kinds of soups and stews.

ALL NEW BASIC SOUP

To make ALL NEW BASIC SOUP, you will need:

5 medium carrots cut into 1” slices

3 medium celery stalks, sliced

3 large onions, chopped

1 large clove garlic, minced

2 cans (28 oz) tomatoes in juice

1 small head cabbage, sliced thin

2 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into 1” slices*

2 pkgs (5 oz each) baby spinach leaves (or use 1 10-oz pkg chopped spinach

½ cup fresh parsley or ¼ cup dried parsley

2 chicken flavored bouillon cubes

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

12 cups water

Coat an 8-qt pot with Pam. Over medium-high heat, add carrots, celery, onions and garlic. Cook 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and their liquid, breaking up the tomatoes with a fork or side of a spoon. Add the cabbage, parsnips, bouillon  cubes, salt & pepper and water. Heat to boiling over high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally until all vegetables are tender. Add more salt & pepper if desired. Makes about 25 cups.

*Sandy’s cooknote: I am not fond of parsnips. Ditto turnips. I would use a couple of medium size potatoes instead.

This next one is titled Mexican Vegetable Soup and appears to be a promotional recipe card from French’s since it called for an envelope of French’s Chili-O Mix.  Use a package of what ever chili seasoning mix you prefer.

To make MEXICAN VEGETABLE SOUP, you will need:

2 pounds beef soup meat plus soup bone (if you can find a soup bone nowadays! – back in the day, my childhood, you could get a soup bone from the butcher free)

2 TBSP salad oil

1 envelope chili seasoning mix

6 cups water

1 1-lb can tomatoes

1 can beef broth

1 1-lb can cream style corn

1 small summer squash, peeled and sliced

Cut meat in 1” cubes. Brown in oil in soup kettle or Dutch oven type pan. Add chili seasoning mix, water, tomatoes and broth; cover and simmer 1 ½ hours or until meat is tender. Add corn, carrots and squash; cover again and simmer 30 minutes. Remove soup bone. 6-8 servings.

Sandy’s cooknote: If you can’t lay your hands on a soup bone, don’t worry about it. Just leave it out. And if you don’t have any canned beef broth – dissolve 1 or 2 beef bouillon cubes in hot water and use that instead (TIP: Always keep chicken and beef bouillon cubes on hand!)

The following is a simple vegetable beef soup that is made with ¾ of a pound of extra lean ground beef. Three quarters of a pound? Why such an odd amount? I would use a pound of ground beef.  This recipe would be easy enough to throw together for a quick dinner – ready in an hour; serve with crackers or garlic bread.

VEGETABLE BEEF SOUP

To make VEGETABLE BEEF SOUP, you will need:

3 medium carrots, chopped

2 large potatoes, cut into small cubes

1 medium onion, chopped

3 ribs celery, with tops, chopped

½ tsp salt

1 tsp freshly ground pepper

About 3 cups shredded green cabbage (1/2 head)

¾ (or 1 lb) extra lean ground beef

1 quart tomato juice (low sodium if you are watching your salt)
dashes of Tabasco sauce (optional)

Combine carrots, potatoes, onion, celery, cabbage, ground beef (uncooked), salt and pepper in a large soup pot. Add enough water just to cover the vegetables and ground beef. Add tomato juice last and bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer at least 1 hour. Meat should be cooked and vegetables tender. Stir soup occasionally to break up the ground beef. Add a few squirts of Tabasco sauce if you want to give it a little zing.

Makes 10 servings.

This next recipe contains uncooked broken spaghetti, which is a twist – but reminded me that my sister Becky, whenever she made her clean-out-the-refrigerator-soup, would chop up any leftover spaghetti and add it to the pot near the end of cooking time.

To make MULTI-VEGETABLE SOUP you will need:

2 TBSP butter or margarine

2 TBSP cooking oil

1 cup thinly sliced carrots

1 cup thinly sliced zucchini

1 cup thinly sliced celery

1 cup finely shredded cabbage

1 large onion, chopped

2 beef bouillon cubes

2 tsp salt

8 cups boiling water

1 tsp Accent (optional)

1 can (16 oz) stewed tomatoes

¼ cup uncooked broken spaghetti

½ tsp thyme

Heat the butter or margarine and oil in a pot.  Add carrots, zucchini, celery, cabbage and onion; cook uncovered abut 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the bouillon cubes, water, salt and Accent (if you are using it) to the vegetables. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered, about 30 minutes.  Stir in the stewed tomatoes, spaghetti and thyme.  Cook 20 minutes.  Serve hot from a tureen. You can serve with a bowl of shredded parmesan cheese- personally, I like to have some hot garlic bread as an accompaniment.   Makes about 2 quarts soup.

This next recipe sounds like something someone created when the vegetable garden was overflowing.  You could make the soup with or without meat – if without, add a few beef bouillon cubes for flavoring.

To make GRANDMA’S HARVEST SOUP, you will need:

1 ½ pounds beef stew meat, trimmed and cubed

1 tbsp vegetable oil

10 medium fresh tomatoes, peeled and cut up

2 cups tomato juice

2 medium size onions, chopped

1-2 garlic cloves, minced

½ tsp pepper

2 tsp salt (optional)

6 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

5 carrots, cleaned and sliced

2 cups frozen or fresh corn

2 cups frozen or fresh green beans

2 cups frozen peas

3 ribs celery, sliced

1 cup sliced butternut squash

¼ cup finely chopped fresh parsley (or 1/8 cup of dried)

1 tsp sugar

In a Dutch oven, brown meat in oil over medium high heat. Add tomatoes, tomato juice, onions, garlic, pepper and salt. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer 1 hour.

Now add potatoes, carrots, corn, green beans, peas, and celery. Cover and simmer an additional 30 minutes. Add squash and simmer 10-15 minutes more or until meat and vegetables are tender. Stir in parsley and sugar.  Makes 8-12 servings.

Sandy’s cooknote: Well, I think that’s enough of vegetable soup–it should give you something to work with. Don’t be afraid to use what you have on hand. And when you are chopping up celery or carrots (I like to have the Food Network on while I am puttering around in the kitchen), chop extra and freeze it in 1 cup portions in plastic ziplock sandwich bags–then when you are ready to make some soup, you already have some of the ingredients on hand and can just toss them into the pot. My sister Becky used to dump small amounts of leftover vegetables into a large plastic container and kept it in the freezer for making pots of soup.

appy Cooking!

WHEN LIFE HANDS YOU A LEMON

April is Lemon Month! Did you know that? I have been trying to verify that statement which I found on a Soup Plantation flyer but so far have been unable to confirm that any day or month is Lemon Month.  I found an interesting website on Google that lists all the days of the year and alongside it are the various foods for each date. No lemons. (there are some interesting foods listed for April—check www.tastespotting.com/features/aprilfood.

 But, if you were to find yourself marooned on a desert island and could only choose one fruit tree, you might give serious consideration to choosing a lemon tree.  Certainly lemons are one of the most versatile citrus fruits available to us today.

Here in Southern California we tend to take lemons for granted – I know I did when we lived in Arleta and had several lemon trees. And then Bob and I planted a Meyer lemon dwarf tree to add to our orchard!  Generally, if someone has a lemon tree or two, they are always trying to find someone who wants them.

It is thought that lemons were first discovered in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains, near the birthplace of Omar Khayyam, and that the Arabs who discovered them also were first to make lemonade.

There is some question as to when lemons were first brought to the New World. Food historians agree that the Spanish explorers were responsible for introducing lemons to the Americas; some historians believe that Columbus brought lemon seeds with him on his second voyage and that the first lemons grown in the New World were on the island of Haiti.

Florida was at one time the largest producer of lemons but a freeze in 1895 destroyed the crops and they were never replanted.  Today California is the greatest lemon-growing state, producing about 85% of the lemons consumed in the United States and Canada. Here in Southern California, the Land of Lemons is Ventura County, the largest grower of the county’s biggest crop. According to the University of California Extension Service in Ventura, about half of the U.S. lemons regularly come from Ventura county trees. The value of lemons in 1991 surpassed strawberries and even Valencia oranges.

Lemons are an excellent source of Vitamin C. The fruit and juice can be used in hundreds of recipes; the rind can be shredded and used in various recipes and the oil goes into making lemon flavored extract, while lemon juice can be substituted for vinegar in any recipe except pickling recipes which call for vinegar.  Not only that, lemon juice has dozens of household uses, from removing stains to being great as a hair rinse.

You are probably familiar with some of the more common uses of lemon juice, such as sprinkling it on fish or adding it to homemade cocktail sauce…a slice of lemon in a glass of cold water is simply delicious…and is considered to be an aid to digestion. While most of us know that lemons are a fine source of Vitamin C, not all of us are aware that, despite their acid taste, lemons produce an alkaline reaction in the body. They contribute to needed mineral supplies of calcium, phosphorous and potassium.

The best way to judge lemons is by their weight; heavy fruit contains the most juice. The skin should be oily and elastic.  Lemons with large knobs on the ends will have less juice than those with sharply pointed ends. Also, pay attention to the color of the lemons.  Deep yellow colored lemons are usually fairly mature and less acidic than those that are lighter or have a slightly greenish hue.  Four medium size lemons weigh about one pound, and one medium size lemon will usually yield about three tablespoons of juice.  For the highest juice yield, have lemons at room temperature and roll them on a hard surface before squeezing. You can also put a whole lemon into the microwave for a minute which will make it easier to juice. One medium lemon will yield three teaspoons of grated peel (which can be frozen and used as needed).  Five to six lemons will provide 1 cup (8 ounces) of lemon juice. Not only are lemons high in pectin and can be used with almost any other fruit to make jams and jellies, you can even make your own homemade pectin with lemons.  Making your own pectin IS time consuming, but if you make a lot of jelly and jam, it may be worth the effort…during my last visit to the supermarket, I priced some powdered pectins at close to $4.00 a box. Yikes!

If you are the fortunate owner of a lemon tree, you probably have more lemons than you know what to do with…I know, I had lemon trees and I was constantly giving lemons away. In addition to all the lemon pies, custards, pound cakes, cookies, sherbets, and mousses that you can concoct with lemons, you can also use them in a variety of pickling and preserving recipes. First, I’d like to share with you the following recipe for making

LEMON PECTIN EXTRACT:

Seeds and coarsely ground white pith of 5 to 6 large, thick-skinned lemons, about 1 1/2 pounds or the equivalent weight in smaller lemons,

3 tablespoons citric acid or tartaric acid (citric acid is made from citrus fruit and labeled sour salt; it can be found in the spice rack at most supermarkets…tartaric acid is made from grapes and is sold by wine supply shops)

6 quarts water

Using a swivel blade peeler, remove and discard the zest (the shiny yellow outer peel–save it for another use or freeze in a plastic container), from the lemons but do not cut deeply; the pectin is in the white pith beneath the zest. It won’t matter if the peeled fruit is tinged a pale yellow.  Squeeze the lemons, reserving seeds, pulp and pith. Save the juice for another use.  Grind the pulp and pith coarsely, and measure. You should have about 2 cups. Place this, the seeds, 1 tablespoon of citric or tartaric acid, and 2 quarts of water in a 4 quart saucepan.  Let stand, uncovered, at least 2 hours, then measure the depth of the pan’s contents and make a note of it. Bring the mixture to boil over medium heat, stirring often to prevent sticking.  Boil rapidly until it is reduced by half.  Stir often toward the end of the cooking period, which will take at least an hour or more.  When the depth measures half of the original figure, pour the extract through a strainer or colander lined with 4 thickness of damp cheesecloth of at least 2-quart capacity.  Return the pulp to the saucepan, add another tablespoon of either citric or tartaric acid, and 2 more quarts of water, and measure and cook as you did the first batch.  No presoaking is necessary for this or the third and final batch.  The second and third batches tend to reduce more rapidly than the first.  Strain each batch when done, into the first one.  When you strain the third batch, squeeze the pomace (pith) to extract as much liquid as possible.  Put the extract through a clean, dampened jelly bag or two thicknesses of dampened cheesecloth, without squeezing. Let it drip several hours, until you have 6 cups of cloud liquid.  If you plan to use it within the next few days, refrigerate the extract in clean, tightly covered jars.  To store for future use, bring the extract to a boil in a 1 1/2-quart saucepan, then pack, boiling hot, into sterilized half-pint jars and seal. Process in a boiling water bath 15 minutes.  Store as you would for jelly.  Before using, always shake or stir the extract to mix in the sediment that settles during storage.  Makes about 4 1/2 cups. You will need 4 to 6 tablespoons of  homemade lemon pectin for each cup of fruit mixture to be used in making jam or jelly.

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LEMON MARMALADE

12 THIN SKINNED LEMONS

3 ORANGES

3 QUARTS WATER

SUGAR

WASH AND SLICE THE LEMONS AND ORANGES AS THIN AS POSSIBLE.  ADD THE WATER AND LET STAND OVERNIGHT. NEXT DAY, COOK THE MIXTURE SLOWLY OVER LOW HEAT UNTIL TENDER (ABOUT 2 – 2 ½ HOURS). MEASURE, THEN ADD AN EQUAL AMOUNT OF SUGAR AND COOK UNTIL THE JELLYING POINT IS REACHED.  POUR INTO HOT STERILIZED HALF-PINT SIZE JARS AND SEAL.

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LEMON MARMALADE #2

9 LEMONS

6 CUPS WATER

SUGAR

Cut the “knobs” from the ends of the lemons and discard.  Slice fruit as thin as possible; place in a pot with 6 cups of cold water.  Let stand overnight. Next day, cook mixture until tender-about 25 minutes.  Allow to stand overnight.  Measure fruit and liquid and add 2 cups of sugar for each pint of fruit and liquid.  Cook in small batches of 2 – 2 ½ cups to jelly stage (about 10-15 minutes per batch). Pour into sterilized jars; seal.  Process in boiling water bath 10 minutes.

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LEMON  CHUTNEY (MAKES 4 TO 5 PINTS)

6 LEMONS, PEELED

1 CUP ORANGE MARMALADE

1 CUP CIDER VINEGAR

2 1/2 CUPS WATER

3 CUPS SUGAR

1 TSP GRATED FRESH GINGERROOT

1 TSP GROUND NUTMEG

2 GREEN APPLES, PEELED, CORED, AND DICED

4 CUPS FRESH CRANBERRIES

1 CUP RAISINS

SECTION LEMONS AND CUT SECTIONS IN HALF; DISCARD SEEDS.  IN A LARGE POT, COMBINE LEMON SECTIONS WITH REMAINING INGREDIENTS.  BRING TO A BOIL, STIRRING CONSTANTLY. REDUCE HEAT AND SIMMER 45 MINUTES OR UNTIL SLIGHTLY THICKENED.  POUR INTO HOT STERILIZED JARS.  ADJUST LIDS AND SEAL. PROCESS IN A BOILING WATER BATH 8 MINUTES.

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SHARP LEMON SAUCE

(This sauce is very sharp and may not be right for everyone on your gift list – those who enjoy sharp flavored foods will love it!)

12 medium size lemons

3 tablespoons mustard seed

1 tablespoon tumeric

1 tablespoon ground white pepper

1 1/2 teaspoon whole cloves

1 teaspoon ground mace

3 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons salt

Grind rind from lemons; squeeze juice.  Place rind and juice in a heavy pan along with remaining ingredients and allow to stand for 2 hours.  Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, and simmer gently for 30 minutes.  Pour into a 2-quart crock or glass jar with a tight fitting lid and allow to stand 2 weeks, stirring daily.  At the end of two weeks, whirl in blender until smooth.  Fill hot sterilized jars with the mixture and seal; process in a boiling water bath 10 minutes.  (Serve as a condiment with fish or seafood).

MOROCCAN PRESERVED LEMONS

(Preserved lemons are often used in North African cooking; they’ll add a salty tartness to chicken, lamb, and vegetable dishes. Be sure to cover the lemons completely with salted lemon juice before sealing the jar.  The pickling juice can be reused and is handy to keep in a jar in the kitchen; replenish it with odd pieces of lemon.)

5 lemons

1/3 cup salt, – more if desired

1 cinnamon stick

3 cloves

5-6 coriander seeds

3-4 black peppercorns

1 bay leaf

freshly squeezed lemon juice

Quarter the lemons from top to bottom to within 1/2″ of the bottom; sprinkle salt on the exposed flesh, then reshape the fruit.  Place 1 tablespoon salt in the bottom of a sterilized 1 pint canning jar.  Place in the lemons and push them down, adding more salt and the spices between the layers. Press the lemons down to release their juices and to make room for the remaining lemons.  If the juices released by the lemons does not cover them, add freshly squeezed lemon juice – NOT commercial lemon juice and NOT water). Leave some airspace before sealing the jar. Turn the jar upside-down to distribute the salt and juice and then let the lemons ripen in a warm place for 30 days.  To use, rinse the lemons as needed under running water, removing and discarding pulp if desired.  There is no need to refrigerate preserved lemons after opening.  They will keep up to a year and the pickling juice can be used several times during the course of a year.

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PICKLED LEMONS

12 LEMONS

2 TABLESPOONS NON-IODIZED SALT

3 1/2 CUPS WHITE WINE VINEGAR

12 WHITE PEPPERCORNS

A LARGE PIECE OF DRIED GINGERROOT, MASHED

3 TABLESPOONS WHITE MUSTARD SEEDS

2 GARLIC CLOVES, CRUSHED

Using a sharp knife, cut skins of lemons lengthwise without cutting pulp.  Rub salt into cuts. In a shallow bowl, let lemons stand 5 days in a cool place.  Turn lemons occasionally.  Drain; reserve liquid.  In a large saucepan, bring reserved liquid, vinegar, peppercorns and ginger to a boil.  Reduce heat; simmer 5 minutes.  Add lemons;  simmer 30 minutes.  Wash and sterilize 5 half-pint jars; keep hot until needed.  Using a slotted spoon, pack hot lemons in hot jars.  Add mustard seed and garlic to liquid.  Increase heat; bring to a boil.  Remove ginger; skim off foam.  Ladle hot liquid over lemons.  Wipe rim of jars with a clean cloth; seal; process in boiling water bath 5 minutes.  Let mature 1 month before serving.

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LEMON MARMALADE #3

6 LEMONS

1/8 TEASPOON BAKING SODA

1 1/2 CUPS WATER

5 CUPS SUGAR

1 POUCH LIQUID PECTIN

Remove peel from lemons and discard white membrane.  Cut peel into slivers. Section lemons, remove  seeds, and chop pulp.  Set aside. Combine peel, baking soda and water in a large microwave safe bowl.  Cover and microwave on HIGH until mixture boils, about 6 or 7 minutes.

Remove from microwave oven and stir in sugar and reserved fruit.  Return to microwave, uncovered, and microwave on HIGH until mix returns to a boil, about 18 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Boil at least 1 minute. Remove from oven and stir in liquid pectin.  Skim off foam.  Let rest 5 minutes, occasionally stirring gently to distribute fruit. Carefully ladle into hot sterilized jars; seal. Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath.  Makes 3 12-oz jars.

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LEMON GINGER MARMALADE

1 POUND LEMONS

3 SLICES FRESH GINGER

WATER

3 1/2 CUPS SUGAR

DAY 1: QUARTER LEMONS LENGTHWISE. REMOVE SEEDS, SLICE THIN, LEAVING PEEL INTACT. MEASURE LEMON PIECES AND GINGER SLICES AND COVER WITH AN EQUAL AMOUNT OF WATER IN A MIXING BOWL.  LET STAND OVERNIGHT AT ROOM TEMP.

DAY 2: BRING LEMON MIX TO A BOIL IN A HEAVY 4-QT STAINLESS STEEL POT. REDUCE HEAT TO A SIMMER & COOK FOR 15 MINUTES.  COOL TO ROOM TEMP AND LET STAND OVERNIGHT AGAIN.

DAY 3:  MEASURE THE MARMALADE BASE. ADD AN EQUAL AMOUNT OF SUGAR AND WARM THE SUGAR IN THE OVEN AT 250 DEGREES FOR 10 MINUTES. ADD SUGAR 1/2 CUP AT A TIME, ALLOWING MIX TO RETURN TO BOIL BEFORE ADDING MORE. CONTINUE COOKING UNTIL MIX COMES TO JELLYING POINT, WHICH IS 8 DEGREES ABOVE THE BOILING TEMPERATURE ON YOUR CANDY THERMOMETER. THIS WILL HAPPEN WITHIN 10 MINUTES.  REMOVE FROM HEAT; SKIM OFF FOAM. LET STAND 5 MINUTES. STIR, THEN POUR INTO HOT, STERILIZED JELLY JARS TO WITHIN 1/2″ OF TOPS. SEAL, PROCESS IN A BOILING WATER BATH 5 MINUTES.

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There are numerous recipes for making Lemon Curd.  Don’t be discouraged by the name–Lemon Curd is very much like lemon pie filling with bits of peel; it’s delicious and can be spooned onto cakes or used as a dessert topping, or as a filling for tarts.  None of the recipes in my collection call for processing the Lemon Curd in a canner – however; even though it requires refrigeration, it will keep for months if properly refrigerated. Be sure to use a double boiler when you make lemon curd–the eggs will curdle over direct heat. I use a large stainless mixing bowl that goes with my Kitchen Aid mixer and place this over a pot of simmering water.

ENGLISH LEMON CURD

1/4 CUP BUTTER

1/2 CUP HONEY

1/2 CUP LEMON JUICE

1 EGG

2 EGG YOLKS

GRATED ZEST OF 1 LEMON

Melt butter in top of double boiler set over simmering water.  Stir in the honey and cook for a moment, then add the lemon juice.  Beat together the egg and egg yolks; stir them into the lemon mixture, continuing the cook and stir until the mixture thickens, which may take as long as 10 minutes (it will thicken more as it cools).  Add the lemon zest.  Pour into a pint size jar and cover.  Keep refrigerated.

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This next Lemon Curd recipe is, in all honesty, my favorite of the Curd recipes.  I think all the lemon peel gives it a wonderful flavor.  If you have a lemon tree in your back yard–as I do–and find yourself with more lemons than you know what to do with, try making up a few batches of this Lemon Curd.  Accompanied by a small loaf of lemon bread, it makes a wonderful homemade gift for someone special!

LEMON CURD #2

4 LEMONS

2 CUPS GRANULATED SUGAR

5 EGGS

1 STICK (4 OZ) BUTTER (don’t substitute)

Scrub lemons; grate the lemon rinds finely.  Cut the fruit in half and squeeze out the juice. (Note: 1 good size lemon should produce about 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, or a total of 12 tablespoons of lemon juice for this recipe). Place the rind in a bowl with the juice, sugar, beaten eggs and butter cut into small pieces.  Place the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, making sure that it does not actually touch the water.  Cook the mixture, stirring occasionally, until it begins to thicken.  Pour into warmed jars and cover.  Keep refrigerated.

Hint:  You can make orange curd using 4 oranges, or grapefruit curd, using 3 grapefruit, or even tangerine curd, using 10 tangerines and the juice of 2 lemons.

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LEMON HONEY JELLY

3/4 CUP LEMON JUICE

2 1/2 CUPS HONEY

1/2 CUP LIQUID PECTIN

Combine lemon juice and honey. Bring to a full rolling boil.  Add pectin, stirring vigorously.  Boil about 2 minutes.  Pour into hot sterilized jars.  Seal.

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LIGHT LEMON MINCEMEAT

This recipe comes to us by way of Canada. It can be used as a pie or tart filling or used to fill homemade cookies.  You can pour it into sterilized jars and attach to it a card with suggestions for using mincemeat.

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 cup raisins, blanched, drained and chopped

3 1/2 cups apples, peeled, cored and chopped  (4-5 apples)

1/2 cup pecans, chopped

1/2 cup lemon marmalade

2 cups white or brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground ginger

2 tablespoons dark rum

Combine all ingredients.  Spoon into sterilized jars, label and store.

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FRESH LEMON EXTRACT

2 TEASPOONS GRATED LEMON ZEST

1/2 PINT VODKA

MIX, LET STAND 4 WEEKS, SHAKING THE JAR OCCASIONALLY.

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LEMON MINT JELLY

1 1/2 CUPS FRESH LEMON JUICE, STRAINED

1 1/2 CUPS WATER

1 1/2 TEASPOONS MINT EXTRACT

1 PACKAGE POWDERED PECTIN

4 1/2 CUPS SUGAR

Combine lemon juice, water and mint extract in a medium size pot. Stir in pectin; bring to a rolling boil over high heat.  Add sugar and return to rolling boil.  Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat; skim off foam if necessary.  Pour into hot, sterilized jars, leaving 1/4″ headspace.  Seal; process 5 minutes in a boiling water bath.  Makes about 4 half pints.

The following recipe is from a very old regional cookbook published in 1874…but syrups are very basic and easy to make.

LEMON SYRUP:

1 1/2 LBS of granulated sugar for each pint of lemon juice.

Add some of the peel, cut into slivers. Boil all together for 10 minutes, then strain, bottle and seal with a cork or a tight fitting lid.  Mix lemon syrup with iced water to make lemonade.

Yum!

Happy Cooking! Sandy

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

SHAKESPEARE’S JULIET ASKED,
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

WHAT’S IN A NAME?  A lot when you are coming up with the title for a community cookbook!   I love a clever name, something that makes the title stand out and makes you want to learn more about it.  This is exactly what I thought when I saw

PUTTIN’ ON THE PEACHTREE by the Junior League of DeKalb County, Georgia  - or

COLLARD GREENS, WATERMELONS AND “MISS” CHARLOTTE’S PIE by the Swansboro United Methodist  Women –    or -

SUGAR SNIPS & ASPARAGUS TIPS, by the Woman’s Auxiliary Infant Welfare Society of Chicago.

Intriguing titles, aren’t they? Do you want to learn more? I hope so!

First in this trilogy of community cookbooks is PUTTIN’ ON THE PEACHTREE subtitled Dining in Atlanta Style, compiled by the Junior League of DeKalb County, in Georgia, and first published in 1979. By the time the sixth edition was published in 1991, over a hundred thousand copies of Puttin’ On the Peach Tree were sold.

In the Introduction, the Junior Leaguers write, “Our forebearers  brought to this  country a knowledge of sensible, life sustaining food. They combined that knowledge with the bounty from the Georgia soil and called it “Southern Cooking”.

The native Indians added appreciation of the gifts of woods and waters.

Country folks taught us that good food shared with good friends is reason enough for a celebration.

Shy mountain women proved to us that food speaks clearly of love when the tongue cannot.

City sophisticates helped us find creative expression in cooking for the sheer fun of it… Elsewhere, they write,

“Wherever you cook. There’s a phrase for it:
In the city, it’s putting on the ritz,

In the country, it’s puttin’ on the dog.

In some places in between, it’s puttin’ on your best bib and tucker

and in Atlanta, it’s PUTTIN’ ON THE PEACHTREE!

It speaks of entertaining people you care about and doing it well.  It’s Dining In, Atlanta Style”

The Junior Leaguers who compiled this oh-so-southern- cookbook did a fine job; they must have been enormously gratified that this cookbook—their project—has done so well—and no wonder!

Starting with Appetizers and Beverages, I found recipes I have not seen elsewhere – recipes such as Antipasto Spread and Artichoke Spread, Homestyle “Boursin” and Beer Cheese Dip, Hot Cheese Puffs and Crab Meat Hot Dip, as well as unusual recipes such as Fried Gyoza (Pot Stickers), which reflects on how much this country has broadened in its culinary endeavors, with recipes from other countries wending their way into community cookbooks!

In the chapter for SOUPS you will find a Puree of Asparagus Soup (which I look forward to trying), as well as a Cauliflower Ham chowder, Clam Bisque, and a New England Style Clam Chowder that I most definitely will make.  There is an unusual recipe for Chicken Soup with Meatballs that really sounds interesting and a Hangover Soup that also sounds like fun (hangover or no) and a Vegetable Soup made with Ground Beef…these and other recipes are sure to whet  your appetite.

In addition to many southern favorites, you can broaden your horizons with an inclusion of Cold Hungarian Tomato Soup, Stiriai Meteit (noodle pudding), Bogracs Guiyas (Kettle Goulash) and Erdelyi Zsivanpecsenye which translates to Bandit’s Meat—plus a recipe for Pork Paprikash which perhaps needs no translation. I was delighted to also find a recipe for Ron Cohn’s Palacsinta, a kind of crepe that I have written about before on this blog. My siblings and cousins and I grew up on Palacsinta, which we referred to ignominiously as “German Pancakes” as we spread them with jam and rolled up, to eat on our way back to school after having lunch at Grandma’s.

Amazon.com has copies of this cookbook starting at one cent and going up to 3.63 for pre-owned copies. New copies are available starting at 6.50.  Alibris.com has hard-bound pre-owned copies for 99c!  I think the 1979 edition may have originally been published in a hard bound copy.  **

Next, COLLARD GREENS, WATERMELONS AND “MISS” CHARLOTTE’S PIE by the Swansboro United Methodist Women is a thick spiral bound cookbook first published in April, 1993, with additional copies being published a few months later, in August, 1993 and a third printing taking place in July, 1994.

In the Introduction, we are asked “Who are these women that took on such a challenging task? The names and faces have changed throughout the years, but they are the ones who have helped     pay or paid the preacher’s salary, light bills, painting bills, and maintenance and repair bills: replaced furniture, cleaned the church, provided altar flowers, visited the sick and poor, provided food trays, clothed the needy, supported the Methodist Orphanage, and countless other things!

How did they accomplish so many things? Traditionally, these women have held a variety of fund raisers, such as turkey dinners, bazaars, flea markets, silent auctions, homes tours and others to help support the church, community, individuals, missions, and outreach ministries. Nothing changes with the publication of this cookbook – their work continues!

From Collard Greens, Watermelons and “Miss” Charlotte’s Pie we present to you a collection of recipes from parishioners, friends, former members, family members and other generations of the Swansboro United Methodist Church.

Each tested recipe has been carefully edited in an effort to clarify both ingredients and instructions…”  The church members also shared with us recipes from three earlier cookbooks published by the United Methodist Church in 1968, 1977, and 1985…”

I haven’t taken the time to count all the recipes in “Collard Greens, et al” but at a guess, I’d say there must be over four hundred.

Look for Lemon Cake Pudding, as this is something I was making years ago and can vouch for.  Mexican Lasagna is another. If you have the patience for it, making Watermelon Cookies is a good project to do with children (or in my case, grandchildren) – they are sure to be a hit at any party. Another easy one with only four ingredients is Almond or Pecan Roca. “Miss” Charlotte’s Strawberry Glaze Pie is certainly a wonderful dessert to surprise dinner guests with. Speaking of “Miss” Charlotte, there is a fascinating biography on her to be found on page 3. “Miss” Charlotte, who was in the first graduating class at Duke University in 1925 and married Alton Fields in 1933.

“Miss Charlotte’s” life reads like something Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings or Lee Smith might have created as a character in one of their books. I believe I found the grave sites for both “Miss” Charlotte and her husband, Alton, by doing a Google search. If my calculation is correct, they were married for 65 years and she lived 9 years after him.

What delights and charms me most about COLLARD GREENS, WATERMELONS AND “MISS” CHARLOTTE’S PIE is the dedication to the people of Swansboro United Methodist Women while composing a cookbook that is chock-full of wonderful recipes and unexpected newsy tidbits such as the history of newspapers in the area.

COLLARD GREENS, WATERMELONS AND “MISS” CHARLOTTE’S PIE by the Swansboro United Methodist Women is available on Alibris.com starting a $2.95 for a hard bound copy. It is also available on Amazon.com starting at $2.67 for a pre owned copy.

*I want to point out that sometimes a private vendor has a new copy of a book priced at the most scandalous ridiculous prices. Whenever I see prices such as these, I totally ignore them. I can’t imagine anyone being interested in spending hundreds of dollars on a single book when a perfectly good pre-owned copy, often in like-new condition, can be had for far less.  Just letting you know – if I don’t post a NEW price on a book, it’s because the new prices are ridiculous.

The third cookbook I want to share with you today is “SUGAR SNIPS & ASPARAGUS TIPS” compiled by the Woman’s Auxiliary Infant Welfare Society of Chicago and published in 1991. The organization alone is enough to pique anyone’s interest, including mine and I was not disappointed. In 1911, the Chicago Milk Commission joined with the Children’s Hospital Society to combat the city’s spiraling infant mortality rate. The new organization was named the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago and its mission was to provide well baby care and to instruct mothers how to feed and care for their infants…today the Infant Welfare Society operates pediatric, dental and gynecological clinics and a Home Based Visiting Program…in Chicago. The services continue to expand every year as does the demand for high quality preventive and affordable health care.

I can’t help but wonder how many young lives might have been saved if, back in 1911, programs like the Woman’s Auxiliary Infant Welfare Society of Chicago had been available in hundreds of other cities throughout the U.S.A.  One of the claims of the Infant Welfare Society is that no one is denied care because of inability to pay.  The Woman’s Auxiliary, composed of 34 centers and a membership of more than 1200 volunteers, also offers a Teen Clinic to meet the increasing needs of adolescent boys and girls for medical care, health information and psychological counseling. Other services include laboratory screening and testing, pediatric, cardiology, vision and hearing screen, nutrition counseling and a learning-through-play program.

The photography for Sugar Snips & Asparagus Tips was provided by Laurie Rubin Photography and is spectacular.

The many recipes in Appetizers range from cold appetizers, spreads and dips to hot appetizers, dips and spreads and include such tantalizing dishes such as Asparagus Canapés, Chutney Party Pinwheels, Sesame Chicken Wings,  and Phyllo Spinach Diamonds, a recipe I used to make and thought would be great to serve again at a party. These and other appetizer recipes will whet your appetite and provide inspiration for your next dinner party or family get-together.

There are soups and salads which include a recipe for Rich Cream of Asparagus Soup and Old Fashioned Oxtail Soup, both recipes I plan to try, but you may also be interested in the Jamaican Pumpkin soup, or Fabulous French Onion Soup. Under Salads there is a recipe for Orange Asparagus Soup, and A B C Salad (Avocado, Bacon & Chicken Salad) and others with ingredients you may be aware of, such as Jicama, but don’t know how to use; Try Jicama, Mango and Papaya with Citrus Dressing. Perhaps one of the most enticing things about a community cookbook is the discovery of foods we might not know about, with recipes that give you an idea of how it can be used.  I have always thought Jicama tasted like a cross between a potato and an apple.  I like the salad dressings of Mock Caesar Dressing, Onion Chutney Dressing and Hazelnut Vinaigrette, just to name a few.

Under the chapter titled Eggs & Pasta, be sure to check out Scrambled Eggs with Asparagus and Sweet Red Pepper or consider the Spinach and Ricotta Tart (I love anything made with spinach or asparagus!) There is also a recipe for Marbleized Eggs that you might want to try – it only requires two ingredients!  And a cookbook with “Asparagus” in the title wouldn’t be complete without Asparagus Quiche, would it?

These and many, many more recipes from the Woman’s Auxiliary, Infant Welfare Society of Chicago, are just waiting for you to discover them. Amazon.com has the book priced at $12.94 for a new copy, or 35 cents for a pre-owned copy.  On Alibris.com, I discovered numerous pre owned copies for 99c. Take your pick!

What’s in a name? Everything, if you are putting together a fund-raiser cookbook.

Happy Cooking and even happier cookbook collecting!

Sandra Lee Smith

 

 

A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS…COOKBOOKS, OF COURSE!

In the past, I have attempted to review several cookbooks in one fell swoop, with the idea that perhaps I can pass along information on some exceptional community cookbooks. There are, unquestionably, hundreds – perhaps thousands – of new cookbooks being published every year; no one can possibly keep up with all of them. What I have been doing in the past few months is putting together some short stacks of cookbooks I feel are too good to get lost in the shuffle. (and no one knows better than I how easily cookbooks can get lost in the shuffle!)

So, with this thought in mind, let me share some of my favorite cookbooks with you and maybe something in this presentation will kindle a spark with other like-minded cookbook collectors (rest assured; if you have more than a few dozen cookbooks, you are a collector). I remember when I had only 300 cookbooks and thought I was hopelessly addicted to cookbooks. That was a long time ago and now I have no idea how many cookbooks are in my collection.

The first book I want to write about is not a community cookbook per se, but it is a nicely spiral bound cookbook by a woman named Linda Burgett. The title of the book is MILD TO WILD Mexican Cookbook/ More than 400 Recipes to delight your imagination and tickle your taste buds. Linda comes by writing a cookbook honestly; her parents, Sharon McFall and father Gene McFall are the authors of BUSY WOMEN’S COOKBOOK, COOKING WITH WILL ROGERS, GET ME OUT OF THE KITCHEN and JUST AROUND THE CURVE COOKBOOK.

Linda lives in New Mexico (a State more and more responsible for producing cookbook authors) with her husband and son. Linda enjoys entertaining and collecting recipes at the many functions she attends. Her husband’s love of spicy Mexican food and her son’s desire for milder versions inspired her to write MILD TO WILD MEXICAN COOKBOOK.

This cookbook kicks off with a Wild Sauce and Kickin’ Ketchup plus a variety of salsa recipes. There are a number of easy to prepare recipes ranging from Green With Envy Salsa to Black Bean Salsa, Aloha Salsa and one of my favorites, Pico de Gallo Salsa, a Restaurant Style Salsa and many hot salsa recipes. There are many other  salsas and dips from which to choose, including a Layered Dip similar to one that has made its way into many American homes since (I believe) the first one I ever saw in print was in a woman’s magazine around 1980—but there is an Avocado Layered Dip that I think would be a good change of pace.

But Mexican food is a great deal more than salsas and dips—I’ve been marking with post-its recipes for chicken enchiladas and chicken fajitas, Spanish Spinach Enchiladas  and easy Cheese Enchiladas. There are over 400 recipes in MILD TO WILD, from tamales to burritos and dozens of mouth-watering recipes in between.

I found MILD TO WILD on Amazon.com, listed at $18.80 for a new copy or starting at one cent for a pre-owned copy. It is on Alibris.com for 99c for pre-owned copies. If you like Mexican food, you will love MILD TO WILD Mexican Cookbook **

For sheer attractiveness I’d have to give high marks to PUTTING ON THE GRITS presented by the Junior League of Columbia, South Carolina. The art-deco-ish design of the cover and throughout the book is sure to charm anyone who is partial to the art deco look (Personally, I love it. Whenever I am in Cincinnati, I love visiting the old train depot (now housing several museums) with its 1930s art deco designs). First published in 1985, Putting On the Grits has gone through five printings by 1993 (and perhaps more since then).

From Appetizers ranging from Spinach Cheese Squares to Spicy Chicken Tidbits, from the incredibly easy to prepare Hot Bacon Bits, to Marinated Shrimp, these and many other recipes will whet your appetite. There are a wide variety of soups, salads, breads, vegetables and side dishes from which to ooh and ahh and dash off to the kitchen to try.

I am admittedly partial to southern recipes so a chapter titled Southern Classics certainly caught my eye. Whether it’s Buttermilk Biscuits or Hot Pepper Jelly (to put on the hot buttermilk biscuits!), Shrimp Pie or Crab Cakes, Southern  Baked Grits or Sausage and grits Casserole, Fried Green Tomatoes or Blackberry Jam Cake—you will surely find a southern favorite to add to your culinary repertoire.

Putting On the Grits may be out of print but copies are still available. I couldn’t find a listing on Alibris.com but Amazon.com has over a dozen copies starting at $10.92 and some new copies priced at $29.98. ***

One of my favorite cookbooks to come from the Finger Lakes Region is titled THRU THE GRAPEVINE, and was compiled by the Junior League of Greater Elmira-Corning, Inc. and was published in 1991.

This is a big thick cookbook which had gone through seven printings as of  February 1994 including a Southern Living Hall of Fame Edition).   Over a thousand recipes were submitted by members of the Junior League of Greater Elmira-Corning. Inc. The 635 recipes contained in this book were tested and retested for quality, selected and edited for clarity by the Junior League members. Included with the many specially chosen recipes there are illustrations of famous sites such as Bluff Point and Glen Iris Inn, Taughannock Falls and Watkins Glen Gorge—Watkins Glen Gorge!!  I have been keen to return to upstate New York ever since my family visited it when I was 15 years old, and my brother was stationed at an air force base (no longer in existence) in the finger lakes region.

I can’t begin to do this cookbook justice; the sheer volume of recipes is overwhelming. There is something for everyone and you will spend weeks, if not months, working your way through the more than six hundred recipes.

Alibris.com has copies priced at $4.89 and up, while Amazon.com  has pre owned copies starting at $5.00.

On this happy note, I will bring this post to a close for tonight. I hope one of these    cookbooks piques your interest. All three are spectacular.

Happy Cooking & happier cookbook collecting!

Sandy

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOST ARTs

Perhaps, to some people, they weren’t “arts” at all. To the people who lived and worked in those decades where “conveniences” were far and few in between, things like growing your own herbs or making your own soap simply fell into the vast cauldron of work that had to be done.

About a decade ago, Bob and I embarked on a quest to learn how to do some of those mostly forgotten tasks, such as making our own soap and having our own herb garden.  As you may know, we had been doing a lot of canning for more than ten years—growing and canning (or freezing) our own tomatoes, beans, corn, peaches and other fruits and vegetables. We had a small grape arbor in Arleta, which yielded plenty of grapes from which to make unsweetened grape juice or grape jelly. We also had peach, orange, tangerine, lemon, fig, and olive trees.  Several times we’ve made our own sauerkraut. Bob backed the car into my huge crock one day, so I sauerkraut making was put on a back burner until we could acquire another one—and the replacement crock is far  more superior than the old one had been. If anyone is seriously interested in making your own sauerkraut and obtaining a worthwhile crock, write to me and I will dig out the booklet about the crock. It was rather expensive – however, shipping was free so that was a plus.

My sister’s mother-in-law had given me that first crock, which I deeply regretted  losing. Mostly, I make a lot of jellies and jams, coming up with some of my own original combinations (like Hunka Hunka berry jam and Grammy’s Christmas Jammy that we give to friends and relatives at Christmas). I also make a lot of chutneys, relishes, conserves, fruit butters—and apple sauce.  We had a young apple tree that began producing tart green apples, like a Granny Smith. It was hard to leave that tree behind when we moved to the Antelope Valley, but a few years ago, we bought a new apple tree and last year it began to produce a nice green tart apple, also similar to granny smiths.

More recently, I began experimenting with concocting my own herb/spice mixtures from things like parsley, carrot leaves, celery leaves, tomatoes, chives, cilantro, garlic, and chili peppers, dehydrating and then crushing the mixture so that I could use it as a seasoning substitute for salt. (It started when I began wondering just how much of a vegetable could be dehydrated. I bought carrots with the fern-like green tops still attached to them, and dried them in my dehydrator. It worked!

Bob made grape wine a time or two and one of our friends made a special label for us. (I confess, I was not really very impressed with the home brew. I’d rather stick to White Zinfandel—but Bob drank it.

My Grandpa Schmidt had a small grape arbor and made his own wine. I couldn’t be in our little arbor, picking grapes, without thinking about my grandfather, tending his grape vines. (My brother tells the story about how, after grandpa died, my father, uncle and aunt found some very old bottles of grandpa’s wine in his wine cellar and proceeded to get blitzed on it).  Even though my grandfather passed away when I was only eight years old, when I am in our grape arbor, I feel connected to him.  **

A lot of people would say “why bother?”  Why go to all of that work when you can just go to the local supermarket and buy a jar of applesauce, or jam, or jelly or a bottle of grape juice?  Why, indeed?  As I sit here at the computer, I am asking myself that very question. Why did we do it? Why am I continuing to make jams and jellies, apple sauce and apple butter?

I think part of the answer to this question has to do with soap making. Yes, soap. But not your ordinary scented body-and-bath soap. The soap I am talking about is a brownish- colored heavy duty soap, sort of like bars of Fels Naptha or LAVA. As far back as I can remember, my mother made this lye-based soap once a year. It was used for many different things—scrubbing floors or our bare feet, after we’d been running barefoot all day during the summertime. During World War II and long after, my mother would shave up bits of this soap to do the wash. She never purchased store-bought laundry detergent.  We called it “work soap” and I always thought that just meant it could be used to do a lot of different jobs.

However, a few years ago, I made a curious discovery; years ago, in Cincinnati, there was a heavy-duty soap similar to this called Werk’s Tag Soap.  As a matter of fact, there is even a Werk Road in Cincinnati, where my high school was located. Our “work” soap was actually named after the Werk soap which, I believe, was named after the family that manufactured it.

My mother continued making her work soap even long after she and my father retired at a mobile home park in Largo, Florida. She’d save all bits of grease – bacon grease, chicken fat – until she had enough to make a batch of soap.  When my mother passed away in September, 2000, her “recipe” for making soap went with her. I couldn’t find directions written down anywhere in her recipe box. No one else in the family seems to know exactly how it was made.   For a time, I thought perhaps she learned how to make soap from her mother, my Grandma Beckman – but recently, one of my cousins set me straight. “Grandma Schmidt made that soap, too” he recalled.

I saved cans of grease in the freezer until I thought I had enough, then one day perhaps five or six winters ago, we followed the directions for making lye soap that I had found in a cookbook. Everything seemed to be progressing smoothly until it separated – one of the common problems with soap-making (generally caused by stirring it too fast—and the faster we stirred, the more it separated) – but even so, we finally poured the finished product into shallow wax-lined box lids (I am not sure what my mother used for molds), and after it had “set”, we cut it into bars. I left it on the front porch for about two weeks to ‘age’.  As a final test, I sent a couple of bars to my brother, Jim—who declared it a close clone to mom’s “work” soap.

Why did I feel obligated to make a batch of this soap?  Because, if I didn’t, the art of making “work soap” would have died with my mother. Since then, I discovered (thanks to the Internet) that soap making is far from really being a “lost art”—but it’s comforting to me, and my siblings, to hold a bar of this soap in our hands, and recall how our mother made it, once a year—and how we used it for everything, from scrubbing floors to washing the dog.  And, I think I will attempt to make another batch but will follow some of the directions that I found on the Internet, next time.

Incidentally, Bob thought it was the best thing in the world for washing really grubby hands after you’d been working under the car or out in the garden.

Then I began experimenting with making my own ‘from scratch’ salad dressings.  I’ve made Ranch and Blue Cheese dressings by the quart, for years – but was interested in a red wine vinaigrette that I could season with my dried-veggie-concoction.  It took several batches to get the vinaigrette just the way I like it—but more importantly, it tastes so much better than commercial dressings.  I feel the same way about Ranch dressing. What you buy in a bottle doesn’t begin to compare with making it with the powdered Hidden Valley Ranch dressing made with buttermilk. Ok, so I’m cheating a little bit by using the powdered mix and I “doctor” the whole thing a bit to suit us.

One day my sister called, saying she was making tacos and didn’t have any taco seasoning mix. Hold on, I told her – I think I have the directions for making that from scratch. I did and I emailed the recipe to her. She says she makes ‘her own’ mix all of the time now.

My grandmother made all of her own noodles—she’d have them drying on the backs of all her wooden kitchen chairs (I haven’t gotten into noodle making just yet – and think I just might have to invest in a pasta machine for this)—but we often make beef jerky, from London Broil when it’s on sale. (A dehydrator is a handy thing to have, and we own two of them—Bob found the second one at a yard sale and bought it for a dollar).

Some of you are undoubtedly too young to remember this, but in the 70s, everyone began making sourdough starter to make their own sourdough bread. We also had yogurt makers to make homemade yogurt. I still have a sourdough starter in my refrigerator.

I discovered a book called “Lost Arts” by Lynn Alley. It’s a guide to making vinegar, curing olives, crafting fresh goat cheese, making simple mustards, baking bread and growing herbs. We had several olive trees in our home in Arleta, and attempted to cure our own olives one year.

As for baking bread – well, I’ve been baking bread most of my adult life and I’ve written about it a few times. When I was a child, my mother made her own bread, two large loaves, twice weekly. She baked the bread in large turkey roaster pans and we took homemade bread so completely for granted that having a sandwich made with Wonder Bread was something of a novelty. When my sons were small, I began experimenting with making various kinds of bread – my favorite being pumpernickel –and I often put the dough, in a large Tupperware container, inside the car to “rise”.

Lynn Alley’s chapter on bread making is a great deal more creative than even I  want to be – she includes information on growing your own grain, milling grains at home, and creating your own leavening (I’ve done the leavening – that’s easy enough and there are a lot of recipes for making sour dough starters) – but if you are just starting out and don’t have a bread machine, try your hand at one of the many recipes for making quick breads – pumpkin, zucchini, banana nut. They’re easy to make and a freshly baked loaf of banana nut bread is so rewarding.  Small loaves of homemade fruit breads accompanied by a small jar of homemade jelly make a nice gift, too. When I was in Ohio one year, I made fresh banana nut bread for my nephew and his son – they didn’t even wait for it to cool off and polished off the entire loaf in a few minutes. You’d have thought I’d given them the crown jewels.  (My nephew, Russ, was stationed in San Diego when he was in the navy, in the early 1980s. Whenever he had a free weekend, he got on a Greyhound Bus and came to visit us in the San Fernando Valley. I often made banana nut bread for him to take back with him to the ship, to share with his friends. He has the fondest memories of those loaves of bread!)

I’m going to share one more of my “lost arts” with you and I am sure you’ll think I’m one brick short of a full load when I tell you this. I asked Bob to put up a clothes line for me and it was one of the things he accomplished before he became too sick to do anything but sleep.  (The hardest part of this project was finding some of the plastic-coated clothes line—most stores no longer carry clothesline!  But we persisted and did eventually find clothes line, and at the local hardware store, bought a bag of spring-type clothes pins (first we bought a package of peg-type clothes pins, the kind being used mostly, these days, for craft projects. As a matter of fact, that package came from a craft store). But I discovered that the peg-type clothes pins were hard to work with. Maybe they really aren’t made to hang clothes with, anymore!  Plastic spring-type clothes pins have a tendency to break apart easily. Initially, I wanted a clothes line to hang things of mine that shouldn’t go into the dryer – and my little area rugs that have rubber backings. I also wanted to be able to hang sheets and pillowcases on the line.  But the wonderful smell of air-dried laundry soon converted me – I began hanging most of the laundry out on the line (weather permitting). It takes a few minutes. It smells great. And – I was curious to see how much I might be able to save on our gas bill.

A lot has been written in recent years about old-time ways of doing things, forgotten recipes, lost arts.  Why the great interest? Obviously, given the number of books dedicated to these subjects, I’m not alone in my interest. And, I don’t have a burning desire to be a child again – our childhood, that of myself and my siblings, friends and cousins, wasn’t always all that easy. (My son Steve likes to roll his eyes and say “yeah, ma, tell us again how you had to walk ten miles to school in the snow, barefoot…”)

I never said we walked ten miles. We did walk—all the time, everywhere. (And, in the summertime, we were barefoot).  A couple of years ago, when my youngest brother Scott drove me around my childhood neighborhood of Fairmount, I was shocked and dismayed how much it had shrunk in size, and diminished in grandeur. The distance between our house and the school is probably not more than a mile but it was up hill and down, and seemed a long way for a child’s short legs. We walked to and from school in any kind of weather and I sometimes ran home for lunch, or else we walked to my grandmother’s house on Baltimore Avenue, up the street from St. Leo’s, and had lunch there. There was very little money for anything but you could always get fed at Grandma’s. I think food was her universal remedy for everything that ailed you.

One of the things that kids did around the neighborhood was to go around and collect soda pop bottles which could be redeemed at a corner grocery store for two cents each. Rarely did any of us have any spending money. Allowance? What was that? No one received an allowance.  When I became old enough to babysit, most of my spending money came from babysitting the neighbors’ children. And allowance or no, children were always expected to help with household chores. One of my earliest childhood chores was hanging socks on a wooden rack (in bad weather the rack could be propped open over a floor register, where the heat came up from the furnace. You also stood over a register to get warm while you got dressed on cold winter mornings). We were expected to wash and dry and put away dinner dishes, scrub floors, and—for the boys—mow the lawn, shovel snow, and clear the sidewalks in bad weather. My brother Jim had several part time jobs by the time he was about 12. One of these early jobs was “setting pins” at St. Bonaventure’s Bowling Alley in South Fairmount. Before automated pin setters were invented, young boys would have the job of setting up the bowling pins. There was a space between two alleys where a boy could sit, and set up the pins on either side of him. I’m amazed just thinking about it. Can you imagine a young boy being allowed to do something like that today? He could have easily gotten knocked silly by one of those bowling pins. I imagine many boys did get hurt doing this job.

Jim also delivered newspapers and in his early ‘teens, began working as a box boy at a food distribution company where one of our uncles was employed.  The neat thing about this was that my brother was allowed to bring home certain foods which had expired dates on them. We got a lot of canned biscuits that often exploded when we opened them—canned biscuits were a new thing in the early 1950s, and we didn’t care if they exploded. We baked them and ate them anyway.  There was also a new cookie mix that only required the addition of water and maybe an egg – I loved those cookie mixes.

Perhaps this explains the popularity of books such as Marguerite Patten’s “We’ll Eat Again”, a memoir of rationing in Great Britain during World War II, and cookbooks such as “Forgotten Recipes” and “Depression Era Recipes”, and magazines like “Reminisce”. It’s not so much that we long to relive those days as it is that we don’t want them to be forgotten. Who will remember these things when we are gone?
If you are interested in finding copies of any of these books – Lost Arts can be purchased on Amazon.com, pre-owned, for $5.00.  Forgotten Recipes can be found on Alibris.com starting at 99c for a pre-owned copy. Amazon.com has copies of Forgotten Recipes starting at one cent. You will pay $3.99 for shipping and handling but have the book for $4.00. Depression Era Recipes is on Alibris.com priced at 99c and up for a pre-owned copy. Amazon.com has copies starting at one cent & up for a pre-owned copy. Amazon also has new copies priced at $6.74. “We’ll Eat Again” by Marguerite Patten is higher priced at most websites although I did see one paperback copy on Amazon for 99c. My copy was a gift from a penpal.

A word of caution – when you type in any of these titles at either Amazon or Alibris, similar titles by other authors crop up and I could easily go on a wild spending spree and buy dozens of books.  It appears I am not alone in my quest to keep Lost Arts from becoming lost forever.

Sandra Lee Smith

 

 

 

 

SHEILA LUKINS ALL AROUND THE WORLD COOKBOOK

In the Introduction to ALL AROUND THE WORLD COOKBOOK, author Sheila Lukins writes, “Much of my childhood was spent in awe of the magical songs, stories and mysteriously foods that my grandparents brought with me when they emigrated to America from Russia. My grandmother would tell me wonderful tales about growing up in Kiev, as she nimbly made tiny meat pastries or crepes to be filled with cherries or sweetened cheese mixtures…”

She continues, “I can’t remember which came first, my desire to visit their far away land, or my wish to cook like my grandmother. Throughout the years, these memories blended”.

Thinking back on those times, Ms. Lukins realized that is was then that her book was born. ALL AROUND THE WORLD COOKBOOK, published by Workman, (1994)  is a big, thick, wonderful culinary magic carpet ride.

Sheila Lukins lived in Paris by the time she was in her late twenties; later she would form her own catering service which grew into a partnership to open The Silver Palate Specialty food Shop. A line of packaged foods and three cookbooks followed and eventually the Silver Palate business was sold.

Lukins explains how, after a trip to Spain, she was having lunch with her publisher and editor, “waxing ecstatic about tapas bars, olives, and the new influence of Mediterranean cuisine that was taking America by storm” when her publishers proposed to send her “AROUND THE WORLD” to “adopt, assimilate adapt and create” for her next cookbook. (Don’t you just love it?)

Ultimately, Ms. Lukins visited 33 countries over a two year period. She says she sometimes encountered political hot spots, including her first stop, Russia, the home of her grandparents.

I hardly know how to fit this enormous, wonderful book into a brief review—nothing I can say will do it complete justice. I was delighted to find a number of unusual condiments and spices, recipes for preserved lemons and Thai pickled carrots, tomato apricot chutney and salsa…you know how partial I am to “accompaniments”. There is even a recipe for kiwi salsa!  (It wasn’t too long ago that most Americans didn’t know what kiwi was – nor did we know, a few decades ago, how diverse “salsa” can be…we’ve come a long way, baby.)

But in case your taste buds lean in another direction, there are hundreds—some four hundred and fifty—of other recipes ranging from angel berry trifle to chicken satay, from tapenades to banana bread, and from Andalusian Steak Rollos (a beef steak with Serrano ham) to Dublin’s corned beef and cabbage.

Sheila Lukins fills the pages of her cookbook, not just with recipes but also with stories and anecdotes, tantalizing bits and pieces of her travels to whet your appetite. She tells, for instance, of marketing in Budapest. Budapest! My paternal grandfather came from Budapest!!

She writes, “Budapest’s Grand Central Market, to my great disappointment, was closed during my visit. This grand iron and red brick structure built in 1895 at the foot of the Liberty Bridge, will be closed for major restoration for several years. But I did find a small cozy makeshift market in some old warehouses where a handful of the vendors had set up shop. I knew I was in the right place when I saw all the dried peppers strung outside the entry way…” (by now—lo these many years later—the Grand Central Market and Liberty Bridge should be back in business!)

Under Island Secrets, Lukins tells us, “In Montego Bay, I spent lots of lunchtimes at the pork pit, sitting with the locals at green picnic tables under palm trees, heavy with ripe coconuts, eating jerk pork and chicken…at this roadside joint (literally) with trucks and buses rattling by, the great Jamaican barbeque was served up in plastic baskets lined with paper. Along with the pork and chicken, I devoured yellow yams roasted in foil and deep fried cornmeal crullers….”

I almost feel like I went along for the ride.  ALL AROUND THE WORLD COOKBOOK is the kind of cookbook you will treasure for years to come. It has a delightful easy-to-read and enjoy format and is also a good companion cookbook to Sheila Lukins’ U.S.A. COOKBOOK, published in 1997. A few of my favorite recipes from ALL AROUND THE WORLD COOKBOOK would be Island Grilled Red Snapper, Jerk Pork Ribs Jamaica, the Indonesian Sweet Garlic Sauce and Casbah Carrot Soup from Morocco.  This cookbook will surely use up an entire packet of those little square post-its as you choose recipes to try. And, having mentioned Sheila Lukins U.S.A. Cookbook, I’ll have to provide you with a review of that cookbook as well.

Amazon.com has ALL AROUND THE WORLD COOKBOOK priced at $19.99 for a new copy, or starting at one cent for a pre-owned copy, or 99c for a collectible copy. Alibris.com has copies of this cookbook starting at $1.50.

Happy cooking! Even happier cookbook collecting!

Review by Sandra L. Smith

EVERYBODY’S MAKING UP LISTS (SO I WILL MAKE UP MINE)

Don’t look now but everywhere you turn, a magazine or newspaper is offering a list of some kind.  Parade magazine (the supplement that comes with my newspaper) offered a list of  PICKS – 13 things  for us to look forward to in 2013. Only two of the 13 things impressed me, personally – #2 is Maeve Binchy’s final novel, titled “A Week in Winter”. I have read all of Binchy’s books so I’m sure I will buy this one.   And a Johnny Cash Museum opening in Nashville is something to anticipate, I think.  My youngest son and I are big Johnny Cash fans. I was thrilled when this son became a fan—it was something I could share with him. I am not impressed with the rest of the list which includes a Revamped American Idol (I don’t watch this program) and Stephen King’s JOYLAND – I don’t read Stephen King. One aside – I DID read some of King’s earliest books and loved them. Then he became “too far out” for my taste.

From Travel & Leisure comes a list of “13 for 2013” – the places to go this year, which includes Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Gold Coast, Australia, Charlevoix, Quebec – and not to be outdone, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I am more impressed with Bon Appetit’s list of TOP 25 FOOD TRENDS although now I am forced to confess, I am not sure exactly what the top 25 food trends are meant to be.  I’m guessing it’s the article titled STARTERS, the BA 25/what to eat, drink and cook in 2013.  Number 5 features the Good & Evil chocolate bar that costs $18 so I guess some of us (me, anyway) will be sticking to Hershey’s cocoa or the Baker’s unsweetened chocolate bars. Number 15 on the list is Fresh Horseradish which I probably won’t buy anymore; it was something Bob loved and before he got sick, we bought fresh horseradish, converted it into little jars of horseradish sauce and I still have some in the freezer!  Number 16 is a new gadget so you can mill your own flour. That, and the rest of the 25 didn’t impress me much—but overall, this issue of Bon Appétit for January 2013, is worth the purchase if you aren’t a subscriber because it’s the Cooking School Issue and is packed with information from making roasts to salads to sauces and sweets.  It also contains a meat lover’s guide to vegetables.  A must issue for serious chefs and wannabes everywhere.

That said, you might want to check out the FOOD & WINE issue for January, 2013 – it contains Best Recipes & Food Trends for 2013 which includes America’s most exciting new restaurants and their top recipes. The cover features Spice-Rubbed Roast Chicken & two sauces—and out of all the recipes featured, I think this is the one I am most likely to prepare.

From Family Circle magazine for the new year is a list of 35 Ways to be Healthier but the Slow Cooker Suppers may be at the top of my list—while Conde Nast Traveler offers Gold List, World’s Best Places to Stay and features 510 (yes, five hundred and ten) top hotels, resorts and cruise ships. REDBOOK offers 23 Speedy Ways to get Organized while HOUSE BEAUTIFUL features 101 Kitchen & Bath Ideas.

Following is the Cooking.com list of its top choices for favorite recipes:

1 potato and cheddar cheese soup

2 sweet potato casserole

3 chocolate cream cheese brownies

4 CHICKEN NOODLE CASSEROLE

5 EASY PEACH COBBLER

6  OLD FASHIONED MEAT LOAF

7MINI SAUSAGES AND MUSHROOM QUICHES

8 LAYERED POTATO AND CHEESE CASSEROLE

9 ORANGE SOAKED BUNDT CAKE

10 PULLED PORK WITH CARMELIZED ONIONS

11LEMON SNOW DROPS

12 PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE SQUARES

My fav choice from this list was the Orange-Soaked Bundt Cake – but I do love orange in any recipe. You need to go to Cooking.com to get the recipe, though.

I turned my mind to favorite cookbooks – specifically lists of favorite cookbooks and the first to pop up on Google.com is a list from Epicurious.

This is what Epicurious had to say:

“First on the list is (quite naturally) THE EPICURIOUS COOKBOOK: MORE THAN 250 OF OUR BEST LOVED FOUR-FORK RECIPES FOR WEEKNIGHTS, WEEKENDS AND SPECIAL OCCASIONS By Tanya Stelle and the Editors of Epicurous  (clarkson Potter, publishers)

Second on their list is BOUCHON BAKERY BY Thomas Keller and  Sébastien Rouxel (Artisan)  Third is HOMEMADE PANTRY by Alana Cjernila (Clarkson Potter, publishing) which features 101 foods you can stop buying and start making yourself –such as vanilla extract. I have been making my own for a long time but  the book looks like something I will want to add to my collection.

#4 on the #Epicurious list is a book titled ROOTS: THE DEFINITIVE COMPENDIUM WITH MORE THAN 225 RECIPES, by Diane Morgan.

#5 on their list is a book titled, simply, SALADS by Mindy Fox (Kyle Books, publisher) while

# 6 is SEAMUS MULLEN’S HERO FOOD by Chef Seamus Mullen (Andrew McMeel, publisher) followed by

#7 SECRETS OF THE BEST CHEFS, by Adam Roberts (Artisan, publisher) and   #8  is SOUVENIRS by Hubert Keller, and is a food memoir published also by Andrew McMeel.

#9 is VIETNAMESE HOME COOKING by Charles Phan – and last but not least is

#10 VINTAGE CAKES by Julie Richardson (Ten Speed  Press) (note to self: write something about the vintage cookbooks in my collection).

You  can obtain more detailed information on all of these cookbooks by going to www.epicurious.com  and there is a list of top ten for 2011 as well. I am going to be totally  honest with you – I guess it’s my meat-and-potatoes-midwestern mentality, but out of all these books the ones I am most likely to check out when I go back to Barnes & Noble is  Vintage Cakes even though I have a very old cookbook of vintage cake recipes. I like the idea of Souvenirs, but I do enjoy food memoirs and have a fairly respectable collection of these books. I am very likely to buy HOMEMADE PANTRY if it lives up to my expectations.

MY FAVORITE TEN COOKBOOKS FOR 2013

I would like to give a special salute to the following cookbooks – some may not be your favorites and some may be books you haven’t even heard of. But a request I  received the other day for a particular recipe from a Meta Given cookbook, (thanks to Mary Jane for requesting it), made me stop and think about the cookbooks I turn to most often when someone  (including myself) is searching for a particular cookbook.

So #1 on my list today for best ten reference cookbooks is META GIVEN’S cookbook.  When I was a teenager, a copy of Meta Given’s “The Modern Family Cookbook” appeared in our family bookcase (a little cherry wood bookcase with glass doors, that my younger sister now has). I think it was a book club offering but that baffles me as neither of my parents ever joined a book club. I have a vague memory of my mother refusing to pay for it and so it languished on the family bookshelves until I began to read it and eventually claimed for my own. And, to add to the mystery, there is no indication on the inside pages of the cookbook that it was ever a book club selection.  The original copyright was 1942. This edition was copyrighted by Meta Given in 1953, which sounds about right to me.

Not surprisingly, the pages most stained are those with cookie recipes on them- rocks and hermits, gum drop cookies, something called cocoa Indians, lemon drop cookies and molasses drop. My mother turned me loose in the kitchen when I was 9 or 10 years old and most of the time, I baked cookies.

I now own a copy of the original 1942 “Modern Family Cookbook” which is somewhat thicker and heavier than the 1953 edition. But in 1947, Meta compiled “Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking” which is in two volumes. I had to laugh at myself; I thought I only had a copy of Volume I, but when I began going through some of my old cookbooks in our new built garage library, I found a copy of Volume II. So, it’s “Meta’s Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking that I am elevating to first place”. You name it and chances are, you will find it in one of these two volumes.

#2 in my list of favorites is “Ida Bailey Allen’s Service Cookbooks, volume 1 and 2”.   The cookbook I grew up on, and learned to cook from, was – as I have written before in Sandychatter—an Ida Bailey Allen Service cookbook that I believe my mother bought for a dollar at Woolworth’s. (I now have that very cookbook, the Service Cookbook, which is certainly battered, tattered and stained. Years later I searched for, and found, more pristine copies).  When someone requests a long forgotten recipe, I have often found it in one of Allen’s cookbooks. She was a famous radio recipe personality back in the day and I wrote extensively about her in my article “I LOVE YOU IDA BAILEY ALLEN, WHEREEVER YOU ARE”. It had this title because this is another one of those instances where I have been unable to learn what happened to the cookbook author when she disappeared from public view. Ditto Meta Given! I am still trying to discover where Given went when she retired!

#3 on my list of favorites “AMERICA COOKS” by the Browns, – Cora, Rose and Bob Brown. Published in 1940 by Halcyon House, “America Cooks” presents favorite recipes from 48 states (Hawaii and Alaska were not yet states in 1940).  I’ve read “America Cooks” many times—and it was “the” book that led to my quest to find other cookbooks like it; cookbooks with America in the title, regional cookbooks that were still regional before the USA became so homogenized. Now I have an entire bookcase with cookbooks bearing the name “America” in their titles but I still love “America Cooks” the best. Thanks to my penpal Betsy, who introduced me to The Browns’ cookbooks, I began collecting all of their titles. All of their books are truly the kind of cookbook you can sit down and … read like a novel. And much to my surprise and delight, earlier this year—or maybe it was the year before—a descendant of the Browns discovered by Blog and wrote to me.  And thanks to one of them, I managed to find a copy of the Browns’ Vegetable Cookbook, the only one out of the series that I was missing. For me, exchanging messages with someone from this Brown family was sort of like Paul Harvey’s famous last line “now you know the rest of the story.” I heartily recommend ANY of the Browns’ cookbooks as great additions to your cookbook collection.

#4 on my list of top ten for 2013 is another one for which my Sandychatter subscribers write requesting a recipe. The title is “THE MYSTERY CHEF’S OWN COOKBOOK”.  The Mystery Chef was a man named John MacPherson who hosted a Philadelphia cooking program “The Mystery Chef” on NBC in 1949. It was one of NBCs first daytime programs and the show ran on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from March 1^st through June 29.

MacPherson was a former chemical engineer who arrived in the USA from London in 1906.  He started on radio in the 1930s when he took over a program for a friend and soon began to share his love of cooking with his listening audience. His “Mystery Chef” radio program   ran from 1932 to 1945 – a period of time in which radio recipe programs were in their heyday. (What baffles me is that I never came across the Mystery Chef when I was writing about radio recipe programs…first for the Cookbook Collectors Exchange, and more recently, on my Blog. Please see “When Radio was King” a post I entered on my blog on June 21, 2009). Radio recipe programs were enormously popular almost from the inception of radio and continued for decades. NOW you have television recipe programs, a forum that started very simply and has grown until we have the Food Network and dozens of television chef celebrities!)

MacPherson’s programs featured recipes for a limited budget, which makes perfectly good sense considering that in the 1930s the USA was in the throes of a Great Depression. He was very popular with thousands of people who requested copies of his no-fuss recipes. In 1934 MacPherson copyrighted his recipe book which was published in 1936 under the title “The Mystery Chef’s Own Cook Book” by Longmans, Green and Co.  And why he had the name of the Mystery Chef will most likely make you laugh, as it did me.  MacPherson writes, in his cookbook, that having a job as a radio cooking show was considered beneath him, by his family, particularly his mother. So he didn’t use his own name, and became famous simply as “the Mystery Chef”.  Every so often someone who remembers the Mystery Chef radio program or had a Mystery Chef cookbook, will write requesting a favorite recipe. So, The Mystery Chef has spot number 4 on my list.

#5 on my list is cookbook author Jean Anderson’s “AMERICAN CENTURY COOKBOOK”, the most popular recipes of the 20^th century and although Anderson has written numerous cookbooks, American Century Cookbook is my favorite reference book. (I wrote about Jean Anderson in January of 2011 and you can find a bibliography in that blog post).

#6 of my favorite cookbook authors is Myra Waldo, another prolific cookbook author who compiled dozens of books, most out of print and some only to be found in tattered condition.  I wrote about Myra Waldo originally for the Cookbook Collectors Exchange quite some time ago; I updated and wrote about her again in 2011 on my blog.  My favorite cookbook—and there are dozens from which to choose—is “COMPLETE MEALS IN ONE DISH” published in 1965.  The author and her husband traveled throughout Europe—Robert Schwartz never seems to be addressed by name, he was always referred to as “My husband”—and each chapter is introduced with a delightful short story of where they traveled and what they saw, and how they happened to discover this dish or that. I was so intrigued with the short stories that I leafed through the entire book and read them all first, before the recipes.

Like Ida Bailey Allen and Meta Given, Myra Waldo disappeared from the public eye—I’m not sure when—and for years (prior to the Internet), I was unable to find any trace of her. It broke my heart when I finally discovered, recently, while updating my information on her – she retired in Beverly Hills, California, and passed away just a few years ago. What I wouldn’t have given to talk to her!  (Please refer to my blog post “Where’s Waldo”, from January, 2011, for a bibliography of her cookbooks—and be forewarned! There are a lot of them!  Sometimes putting together a bibliography is as challenging as writing the article itself.

#7 which a lot of American cooks might think should have been #1 (but I have spent my entire life marching to the beat of an off-beat kitchen drummer) would have to be JOY OF COOKING. The Joy of Cooking is one of the United States’ most-published cookbooks, having been in print continuously since 1936 and with more than 18 million copies sold. It was privately published in 1931 by Irma Rombauer, a homemaker in St. Louis, Missouri, who was struggling emotionally and financially after her husband’s suicide the previous year. Rombauer had 3,000 copies printed by A.C. Clayton, a company which had printed labels for fancy St. Louis shoe companies and for Listerine, but never a book. In 1936, the book was picked up by a commercial printing house, the Bobbs-Merrill Company. Joy is the backbone of many home cooks’ libraries and is commonly found in commercial kitchens as well.

The book was illustrated by Rombauer’s daughter, Marion Rombauer Becker, who directed the art department at John Burroughs School.. Working on weekends during the winter of 1930-31, Marion designed the cover, which depicted St Martha of Bethany, the patron saint of cooking, slaying a dragon. She also produced silhouette cutouts to illustrate chapter headings. Much slimmer and more conversational than later editions, the original Depression-era edition included sections on canning, pickling, and instructions on how to use meats such as squirrel, possum and raccoon—all recipes that can be found in Meta Given’s cookbooks. Well-worn copies of the book from the library of Julia Child are on display at the National Museum of American History.

In 1962, a revised edition of Joy was published, the first since Irma Rombauer’s death. This edition was released without Marion Becker’s consent. Subsequent releases of the book in 1963 and 1964 were essentially massive corrections, and Becker was known to swap copies of the 1962 edition for later corrected versions.

This edition was published in paperback format (most notably, a two-volume  mass market paperback edition) . It is still widely available in used bookstores. The 1964 edition was also released as a single-volume comb-ring bound paperback mass-market edition starting in November 1973 and continuing into the early 1990s.  The 1975 edition was the last to be edited by Becker, and remains the most popular. More than 1,000 pages long, it became a staple in kitchens throughout the country. Though many of the sections may feel dated to the contemporary American palate, many home chefs still find it a useful reference and it is still widely consulted. The foreword to this edition explains that Becker’s favorite recipes include “Cockaigne” in the name, (e.g., “Fruit Cake Cockaigne”), after the name of her country home in Anderson Township, near Cincinnati, Ohio.  The 1975 edition remained in print, primarily in various inexpensive paperback editions, until the 75th Anniversary edition arrived in 2006.

After the 1975 edition, the project lay unchanged for about 20 years. In the mid-1990s, publishers Simon and Schuster, which owns the Joy copyrights, hired influential cookbook editor Maria Guarnaschelli (who I have never heard of), formerly of William Morrow, and editor of works by Jeff Smith and others. Guarnaschelli, under the supervision of Rombauer’s grandson Ethan Becker, oversaw the creation of the controversial 1997 edition. The new edition kept the concise style of its predecessors, but dropped the conversational first-person narration. Much of the book was ghostwritten by teams of expert chefs instead of the single dedicated amateur that Irma Rombauer had been when she created the book. The 1997 version is fairly comprehensive, covering a great deal of detail that is not traditionally part of^] American cooking; however, it deleted much information about ingredients and frozen desserts.

Originally sold with the title The All-New, All-Purpose Joy of Cooking, it was reissued in February 2008 with the title The 1997 Joy of Cooking after being sold for some time alongside the 2006 edition. In 2006, a 75th Anniversary edition was published, containing 4,500 recipes and returning Rombauer’s original voice to the book. The new version removes some of the professionalism of the 1997 edition and returns many simpler recipes and recipes assisted by ready-made products such as cream of mushroom soup and store-bought wontons. The 2006 edition also reinstates the cocktail section and the frozen desserts section, and restores much of the information that was deleted in the 1997 edition.

The new version includes a new index section called “Joy Classics” that contains 35 recipes from 1931-1975 and a new nutrition section.  So now you know the rest of THIS story (whew!)  I have several old and battered Joy of Cooking cookbooks in my collection as well as a copy of the facsimile edition of the first Joy. At least I think it’s the first. With so many editions, who can tell? (Quick aside – I first started thinking about JOY when I was visiting my brother Jim and his wife Bunny, in Michigan years ago. I think it was for their daughter/my goddaughter’s high school graduation and she is now married and the mother of two little boys. Bunny had the book out to make cream of asparagus soup and it was the most battered tattered cookbook of my acquaintance—held together with rubber bands.  **

Rombauer had no need to write a dozen or two other cookbooks; she made her fortune with just one. But thinking and writing about Irma Rombauer reminded me of another one of my favorite cookbook authors—Marion Cunningham who passed away not long ago. Marion wrote perhaps half a dozen cookbooks but may be most famous for her re-write of the Fannie Farmer cookbook.

So #8 on my list is a toss-up between Marion’s re-write of the famous Fannie Farmer Cookbook and another one that I simply love, Marion’s “LOST RECIPES” published by Alfred A.  Knopf in 2003. I love it for its title and for what it represents – recipes being lost to us, keepers of the flame, collectors of old recipes, old favorites connecting the past with the present.  Marion believed that families were becoming lost and disjointed, families not sitting down together at meal times. I wanted to tell Marion that I cooked meals throughout all the years my children were growing up—we sat down to eat at 6 pm and there were often several droppers-in who knew I made dinner every night and they also knew no one was ever turned away. And for almost all the years Bob and I shared a life together, I made dinner almost every night, until he got too sick to eat. I still cooked for him but a meal might consist of macaroni & cheese when he could no longer enjoy most foods. But it’s a pleasure to me to report that my youngest son and his family, at least, have dinner at the table, together, at 5:30 almost every night. The torch has been passed.  Discover LOST RECIPES for yourself.

And #9 is a companion cookbook, in my mind, to #8. Number 9 is “AMERICA’S BEST LOST RECIPES” published by Cook’s Country Magazine in 2007. I wrote a poem for my poetry group about this collection of Lost Recipes so I will share it with you:

The editors of Cooks Magazine/ published A cookbook that is titled/                  AMERICA’S BEST LOST RECIPES/

121 kitchen-tested heirloom recipes

too good to forget

and it is a beautifully bound book

with hidden wire ring binding

and filled with a some recipes

I have never heard of,

Although there are others

I am familiar with:

Nine Day Slaw,

24-hour Salad,

German Potato Soup,

Beefy Bean and Barley Soup,

Brunswick Stew,

Kolaches,

Monkey Bread,

Wacky Cake,

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake,

Lazy Daisy Cake,

Hummingbird Cake,

Orange Kiss Me Cake

Nesselrode Pie,

lackberry Cobbler,

Peanut Blossom Cookies,

Brown Sugar Fudge and

Buttermilk Candy–

But I have to confess –

I never knew any of these recipes

Were lost–

 The people at Cooks Magazine

Had only to give me a call;

I could have told them none

Of the recipes were lost.

I have all of them in my

files,

Especially peanut blossom cookies–

I make those every

Christmas

For my son Kelly

ho loves them.

Maybe some people just

Didn’t know  where to

look For them.

**

#10 is a repeat of my 2011 list, “500 TREASURED COUNTRY RECIPES” from Martha Storey and Friends –from Storey Books in Vermont. Why do I like it so much?  Whenever I am searching for a recipe “500 Treasure Country Recipes” is probably the next book I will pluck off my shelves. Occasionally, I’ll be searching for something to include in an article on my blog – or I might be searching for something unusual, like Vinegar Candy – because someone wrote and asked me about it. I love the format of “500 Treasured Country Recipes” and I like that it includes many preserving recipes, whether it’s a canning recipe or drying or freezing the harvest. Published in 2000, it’s still very up-to-date eleven years later. It really is a TREASURE.

You may have noticed, there are a lot of famous cookbook authors whose cookbooks I have left out –that’s because I prefer to focus on the cookbooks I really do use and refer to often. So, what’s YOUR favorite cookbook? And why?  And be glad I only selected ten, not a hundred, of my favorites. Actually…the more I browse through my cookbook shelves, the more I find “favorite’ cookbooks”.

Happy Cooking and Happy New Year!

Sandy

NEW YEAR’S EVE & NEW YEAR’S DAY MEALS FOR GOOD LUCK !

Throughout most of written history, we know that people have eaten certain foods on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day, hoping for riches, love, or other good fortune.  For people of some nationalities, ham or pork has long been consideredthe luckiest thing to eat on New Year’s Day.  You might wonder how the pig became associated with the concept of good luck but in Europe during medieval times, wild boars were caught in the forests and killed on the first day of the year.  Since pigs are associated with plumpness and getting plenty to eat, it might be one explanation for having pork on New Year’s Day.

Austrians, Swedes, and Germans frequently chose pork or ham for their New Year’s meal and brought this tradition with them when they came to America. Germans and Swedes often picked cabbage as a lucky side dish and in my parents’ home, pork and sauerkraut was served at midnight on New Years Eve, along with mashed potatoes and creamed peas. (It might not have been so lucky, going to bed after eating such a hearty meal as after midnight!)

Turkey is considered lucky in some countries; Bolivians and residents in New Orleans follow this custom.  Fish is considered lucky food by people in the northwestern part of the United States who may eat salmon. Some Germans and Poles eat herring, which may be served in a cream sauce or pickled. Other Germans eat carp.

Sometimes sweets or pastries are eaten for luck. In the colony of New Amsterdam, now New York, the Dutch settlers still enjoy these treats. Germans often ate doughnuts while the French have traditionally celebrated with pancakes. In some places, a special cake is made with a coin baked inside. (Curiously, my German grandmother fried doughnuts with a coin inside each – on the Feast of the Three Kings, or the Epiphany, celebrated January 6^th). Such cakes are traditional in Greece, which celebrates Saint Basil’s Day and New Year’s at the same time. The Saint Basil’s Day cake is made of yeast dough and flavored with lemon. The person who gets the slice with the silver or gold coin is considered very lucky!

Many of the luck-bringing foods are round or ring-shaped, because this signifies that the old year has been completed. Black-eyed peas are an example of this, and they are part of one of New Year’s most colorful dishes, Hoppin’ John, which is eaten in many southern states. Hoppin’ John is made with black-eyed peas or dried red peas, combined with hog jowls, bacon, or salt pork. Rice or other vegetables may be added. The children in the family might even hop around the table before the family sits down to eat this lucky dish. In Brazil, lentils are a symbol of prosperity, so lentil soup or lentils with rice is traditional for the first meal of the New Year.

Thousands of miles away, the Japanese observe their New Year’s tradition of eating a noodle called toshikoshi soba. (This means “sending out the old year.”) This buckwheat noodle is quite long, and those who can swallow at least one of them without chewing or breaking it are supposed to enjoy good luck and a long life. (Or maybe the luck might be not choking on the long noodle!)

In Portugal and Spain people have an interesting custom. When the clock strikes midnight, people in these countries eat twelve grapes or raisins to bring them luck for all twelve months of the coming year.

The ancient Romans gave gifts of nuts, dates, figs, and round cakes. Northern Italians began the new year eating lentils to symbolize coins. In the Piedmont region of Italy, the New Year’s Day meal of risotto signified wealth with its abundance of small grains. Another Italian custom is to eat sweets for a year of good luck. It can be as simple as a raisin or a more elaborate, almond-filled cake in the shape of a snake. As a snake sheds its old skin and leaves it behind, this cake symbolizes leaving the past behind as a new year begins.

In Spain, you are promised good luck in the new year if, at midnight, you eat one grape with each stroke of the clock.

Dumplings are a traditional New Year’s food in northern China. Because they look like nuggets of gold, they are thought to signal good fortune.

The Vietnamese celebrate their new year in late January and eat carp – a round-bodied fish thought to carry the god of good luck on its back.

Cambodians celebrate their new year in April by eating sticky rice cakes made with sweet beans.

In Iran, the New Year is celebrated in March, when grains of wheat and barley are sprouted in water to symbolize new life. Coins and colored eggs are placed on the table, which is set for a special meal of seven foods that begin with the letter “s”.

I posed this question – special foods to welcome in the New Year – to some friends. Lorraine wrote that at her mother’s they always had Menudo on New Years; she says her friend Geri always has Black Eyed Peas. My friend Patti who lives in Cincinnati wrote “Sauerkraut, Limburger cheese & Pickled Pigs Feet…I did not partake”.

Penpal Penny who lives in Oklahoma wrote “Here on New Year’s Day ……black-eyed peas and hog jowl……for good luck, greens…..for financial good luck then of course you have to have cornbread and fried potatoes. I always fix slaw though any kind of greens will do. You just want to make sure you eat PLENTY of both of the peas and greens!! Good ole poke salad  ( or as the old timers would say…. poke salit ) would be wonderful with it….some years I’ve lucked out and found plenty in the spring and had a bag or two in the freezer.”  And girlfriend Sylvia wrote, “We eat black eyed peas!!  I think that is a southern thing…”

From my penpal Bev, who lives in Oregon, I received this email, “My family had no New Years Eve or day traditions…When I was 40 became acquainted with a shy, soft spoken…gal when I went to ChemeketaCommunity College. She was taking classes as background for writing. and had in her mind a book she wanted to write…To my surprise, she was a member of MENSA. That was probably the first time I had ever heard of that elite society. Anyway, she and her husband invited us to their home for New Years Day, and served some type of beans. Seems to me it was limas. Have you heard of that before? This couple had lived in Japan but I can’t imagine beans being a good luck dish from that part of the world…” (In a subsequent email Bev decided it might have been black-eyed peas they were served).

Marge wrote “My grandmother was a first generation American born of German immigrants in Nebraska.  While that was not our usual New Year’s fare, we ate sauerkraut often especially in the winter time, and she used pork tails in hers often and often pork ribs while she cooked the kraut.  I rarely make sauerkraut though Dorman likes it.  I know some people make (sauerkraut) with bratwurst sausage…”

Chris wrote “As far as New Year’s Eve, I remember my grandpa always bringing home herring. It came in a squat jar in kind of a vinegar sauce. I don’t buy it anymore but it’s pretty popular in the grocery stores around here during the holidays.”

Rosie wrote “I never had anything special for New Year’s Eve or Day but Bernie always used to eat pickled herring on New Year’s Day before we were married.  It meant a prosperous year or something.  He’s German and Belgium so I’m assuming it’s one of those traditions”

And in my household, we returned to the custom of pork and sauerkraut, reflecting the German heritage of both Bob and myself.

This New Year’s Eve, my penpal Bev and her husband Leroy will be here for dinner and we are going to have sauerkraut (homemade!) and sausages. I cooked two corned beef briskets yesterday in my pressure cooker so we can have Reuben sandwiches the next day. When I was visiting them in Oregon in October, they took me to a wonderful German restaurant in Portland and we enjoyed Reuben sandwiches.  I may have lost a little of my connection with German and Hungarian cuisine and maybe this New Year’s dinner will be an opportunity to re-connect. I would love to share more of my German Hungarian roots with you!

May 2013 bring us all good luck and happiness.  Thank you for being such loyal subscribers to the Sandychatter blog.

Sandy@sandychatter

 

HOMEMADE CHRISTMAS CANDIES

HOMEMADE CHRISTMAS CANDIES

*This was originally posted on my blog in September, 2009–I made a few changes.

As promised, the following are from my personal recipe boxes and are favorites I have been making for many years. The first two are recipes for making Buckeye Balls. Any good Ohioan knows what Buckeyes are, and most probably have a recipe or two for making Buckeye Balls candy (You can also buy them in almost any good candy store in Ohio) but they aren’t hard to make and it’s an easy enough recipe to make with children. (This is the second year that my sous chef grandson has made buckeye balls; we buy suitable small containers with clear plastic covers to put them in, for him to give to his favorite people).

The first Buckeye Ball recipe is from my sister Becky’s collection and is in her handwriting. I have a lot of her recipes and my ultimate goal is to get them put together in a cookbook of just her recipes. She was an excellent cook, as all Schmidt & Heileman family members knew.

To make Becky’s Buckeye Balls you will need:

½ pound butter

1 pound jar peanut butter

1 ¼ cups powdered sugar (5 cups)

12 ounces chocolate

¼ bar paraffin

Have ingredients at room temperature. Mix together the butter, peanut butter and powdered sugar; mix well and shape into balls (bite size); then chill*

When the balls are thoroughly chilled, melt 12 ounces of chocolate and ¼ bar of paraffin in top of a double boiler.  Coat each ball and place on wax paper. (to make it look like a real buckeye, you need to dip the candy balls into the chocolate but not quite covering it all. There should be an uncovered spot on top of each ball.

*Becky wrote chill but didn’t say – she assumed everybody knew–it may be a lot easier to chill the buckeye balls if you place them on cookie sheets to chill. If you line the cookie sheets with wax paper, you can use the same cookie sheets again after the candies have been dipped.

This next recipe is similar.

BUCKEYE BALLS #2

To make Buckeye Balls #2, you will need:

1 jar (16 ounce) creamy peanut butter

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 ½ (16 ounce) packages  powdered sugar

1 (12 oz) package Nestle Toll House semi sweet chocolate morsels

2 TBSP shortening

Beat peanut butter and butter at medium speed with electric mixer until blended. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating until blended.  Shape into 1” balls and chill 10 minutes or until firm.  Microwave chocolate morsels and shortening in a 2 quart glass bowl at HIGH 1 ½ minutes or until melted, stirring twice.  DIP each peanut butter ball in melted chocolate until partially coated and place on wax paper to harden. Store candy in airtight container. Makes 7 dozen.

CREAMY NUT TOFFEE

This recipe has been in my files so long – it was typewritten on an index card; I don’t know how many years it’s been since I have even owned a typewriter.

To make Creamy Nut Toffee you will need:

1 cup sugar

½ tsp salt

¼ cup water

½ cup butter

1 cup chopped walnuts (divided in half)

1 12-oz package semi sweet chocolate chips

Combine sugar, salt, water and butter in a medium size saucepan. Cook to light crack stage (285 degrees on your candy thermometer). Add ½ cup chopped walnuts and then pour onto a well greased cookie sheet. Cool.  Melt the semi sweet chocolate pieces (over low heat, top of a double boiler). Spread half of the chocolate on top of the candy; sprinkle with half of the remaining chopped walnuts.  Cool. Turn the candy over and repeat with remaining chocolate and nuts. When cool, break toffee into small pieces.

**

VERY GOOD ENGLISH TOFFEE

To make Very Good English Toffee, you will need:

½ cup finely chopped peanuts

½ cup butter or margarine (if using margarine don’t use a soft spread)

1 cup granulated sugar

Line a 12×10” with aluminum foil; shape piece of foil to about 10×8”. Sprinkle chopped nuts in pan and set aside. In 1 ½ quart pan, melt butter over medium heat. Immediately begin to stir in sugar with a long handled wooden spoon. Continue to cook over medium high heat about 6 or 7 minutes or until mixture turns golden, stirring only enough to prevent burning. Pour over nuts in prepared pan. Cool, break into pieces.  Makes ¾ pound.

AUNT ANNIE’S VERSATILE WHITE CHOCOLATE CANDY

Aunt Annie wrote on the recipe card, “I have used all kinds of nuts and different kinds of pretzels and it all turns out good!”

To make Aunt Annie’s Versatile White Chocolate Candy, you will need:

1 pound white chocolate

4 TBSP grated paraffin

1 ½ cups stick pretzels, broken

1 ½ cups cocktail nuts

- or peanuts

- or mixed nuts

or cashews

Melt white chocolate and paraffin in the top of a double boiler.  Stir in broken stick pretzels and your choice of 1 ½ cups of nuts. Drop by teaspoon onto cookie sheet sprayed with Pam.

(Sandy’s Cooknote: I have a recipe similar to this in my files; it was called Sticks & Stones.

HOLIDAY SUGARED WALNUTS

I have been making all of the variations of this recipe for so many years, I no longer remember where I originally got it. This is my favorite confection recipe to make up (I could make up three or four batches in one evening, after work). My penpal, Bev, has been keeping us supplied with walnuts from their walnut tree in Oregon–I keep them in the freezer so they won’t go bad.

To make Holiday Sugared Walnuts you will need:

1 ½ cups sugar

½ cup liquid*

1 tsp light corn syrup

¼ tsp salt

2-3 cups walnuts, halves or whole pieces

Cook first 4 ingredients to soft ball stage, (236 to 240 degrees F); remove from heat; add walnuts; stir until creamy; turn onto foil, separate pieces and let cool.

*To make Orange Flavored: ½ cup orange juice; 1 ½ tsp orange rind

To make Sherried Walnuts: ½ cup sherry wine, ½ tsp cinnamon

To make Spiced Walnuts: ½ cup water, ½ tsp EACH nutmeg & cloves and 2 tsp    cinnamon

To make Minted Walnuts: ½ cup milk, green food coloring, and ¾ tsp mint flavoring, stirred in after cooking milk, sugar, corn syrup & salt, but before you add the walnuts.

CHRISTMAS YULE LOG:

To make Christmas Yule Log you will need:

1 6-oz package butterscotch chips

1 8-oz package cream cheese

1 tsp vanilla

1 lb powdered sugar

Chopped nuts

Melt chips in pan; add cream cheese (room temperature will blend better) and mix. Next add vanilla extract and stir in 1 pound package of powdered sugar.  Cream in mixer; put in refrigerator to chill.  When chilled, form into logs. Roll in chopped nuts. Return to refrigerator until solid enough to slice. (This is a very rich candy. You will want to make the slices thin).

DIVINITY (Basic recipe)

To make Divinity you will need:

2 ½ cups granulated sugar

½ cup light corn syrup

½ cup hot water

¼ tsp salt

2 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup nuts, chopped (optional)

Combine sugar, corn syrup, water and salt in a large saucepan. Cook, stirring just until sugar is dissolved but not after mixture begins to boil. Cover pan for 3 minutes to let steam dissolve sugar crystals on side of pan to prevent graininess in Divinity. Clip candy thermometer to side of pan.

Cook mixture, uncovered, to 238 degrees on candy thermometer (soft ball stage). While syrup is cooking to temperature, beat egg whites until stiff in a medium size bowl. When syrup reaches required temperature, slowly pour half of the hot syrup into the beaten egg whites in a slow but steady stream while beating continuously. Place remaining syrup back on the stove to cook to 258 degrees (hard ball stage). Continue beating the egg white/syrup mixture while adding the remaining syrup and the vanilla, until the mixture forms stiff peaks. Stir in nuts, if desired.  Drop mixture by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper and let cool. Store in tightly covered container.

Variations:

Cherry Divinity: Substitute ¼ cup maraschino cherry juice for ¼ cup water in basic recipe. Stir in ¼ cup chopped maraschino cherries just before spooning out.

Chocolate Divinity: Stir ¼ cup semi sweet chocolate pieces into basic recipe until melted, just before spooning onto wax paper.

SEE’S FUDGE

See’s Candy is a famous candy store in Southern California. I didn’t come across this recipe, though, until after I had already posted the fudge recipes.  (Discovered in October of this year that Oregon has Sees Candy stores!)

To make See’s Fudge, you will need:

½ cup butter

1 6-oz package of semisweet chocolate pieces

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups granulated sugar

1 (5 ¾ oz) can evaporated milk

10 large marshmallows

1 cup chopped nuts

Combine butter, chocolate pieces, and vanilla in medium size bowl. Set aside.  Place sugar, evaporated milk and marshmallows in a medium size saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring frequently.  Reduce heat to low and cook 6 minutes, stirring constantly.  Pour hot mixture over ingredients in bowl.  Beat with electric mixture until fudge is thick and dull (this doesn’t take long). Stir in nuts.  Pour into a lightly buttered 8” square baking pan. Refrigerate several hours. Makes about 36 squares.

I found another fudge recipe in my files that I thought you might enjoy. It’s called Ribbon Fantasy Fudge. To make Ribbon Fantasy Fudge, you will need:

3 cups sugar

¾ cup solid stick margarine (not a soft spread)

2/3 cup evaporated milk

1 6-oz package of semi sweet chocolate pieces

1 7-oz jar of marshmallow crème

1 tsp vanilla

½ cup peanut butter (crunchy or cream style)

Combine 1 ½ cups sugar, 6 tablespoons of the margarine, and 1/3 cup evaporated milk in a heavy 1 ½ quart saucepan; bring to full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Continue boiling 4 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Remove from heat; stir in chocolate pieces until melted.  Add 1 cup (1/2 jar) marshmallow crème and ½ tsp vanilla; beat until well blended.  Pour into a greased 13×9” pan.  Repeat with remaining ingredients, substituting peanut butter for the chocolate pieces. Spread over chocolate layer. Cool at room temperature; cut into squares. Makes 3 pounds.

MAPLE PRALINES

To make Maple Pralines you will need:

2 cups granulated sugar

2/3 cup milk

1 cup maple syrup

2 cups pecans

Boil sugar, milk and syrup until mixture reaches 238 degrees on a candy thermometer.  Remove and cool. When it is lukewarm, beat until it is smooth and creamy. Add nuts and drop on wax paper making little mounds.

Happy Holiday baking and cooking!!! Yum!  And one final note about making Christmas candies–you dont really need to make a LOT of different candies. Become proficient at making ONE candy, such as fudge or divinity or pecan pralins – and the world will beat a path to your door. You will become KNOWN for your speciality candy.

Sandy