THE KITCHEN DIARIES – COLLECTING RECIPE BOXES

I began collecting cookbooks (primarily church-and-club type) over 45 years ago. Soon after, I discovered a “manuscript” cookbook – or more accurately, it discovered me. I was rummaging around in a used book store in Hollywood when the owner said “I have something interesting in a cookbook – let me show it to you”. It was a small 3-ring binder with an old leather cover and it was filled with hand written recipes as well as hundreds of clipped-and-pasted on recipes. Its owner had kept her notebook cookbook for decades – and I bought it for about $10.00 (which doesn’t sound like much, now, but at the time I was raising my family and it was a lot) – but I had to have it. Over the years, I’ve found a few more manuscript-type cookbooks but they’re really scarce. My theory is that this type of cookbook remains in the family. I don’t believe that the owner of that first manuscript cookbook, whose name, I discovered, was Helen, had any children. Surely, one’s children would never allow something so precious to end up in a used book store.

Then I became interested in recipe boxes when I found an old, green, wooden recipe box in Ventura, California, at an antique store. It was packed with the former owner’s collection of recipes. I was so intrigued by this type of collection – what I think of as a kitchen diary – that I began a diligent search for filled recipe boxes. These are just about as scarce and hard to find as handwritten cookbooks. Often, you can find recipe boxes – in thrift stores or antique shops –but they are usually empty. I think the storekeepers don’t imagine anyone would be interested in the contents, which are often scrappy little pieces of paper, recipes clipped from the back of a bag of macaroni or flour, recipes written on a piece of envelope, – but over the past 15 or 20 years, I’ve managed to find quite a few of these filled recipe boxes. One time my niece, who lives in Palm Springs, found three of them for me at a yard sale; it helps that so many people know about my fascination with old, filled recipe boxes.

Another time, a girlfriend of mine was telling me about helping a friend of hers clear out her mother’s apartment, after her mother had passed away. “Oh,” I said “Ask your friend if her mother had any recipe boxes”. She did – and I got it. She also had, and gave to me, several cookbook autographed by cookbook author Mike Roy, with whom her mother had been acquainted. On yet another occasion, I was given half a dozen filled recipe boxes that had belonged to the aunt of a woman I worked with.

Now, I collect all types of recipe boxes but the ones I cherish the most are those filled with someone else’s recipe collection. One of these boxes is so old that the contents are extremely fragile and bits of paper disintegrate whenever you handle them.

Yard sales where I live rarely yield such treasures although once we were at an estate sale and I happened to find a cardboard box – shaped like a file drawer – filled with handwritten recipe cards on oversize cards, about a 4×6” size. I was able to buy it for $2.00. Part of the charm, or intrigue, of owning these boxes is going through them piece by piece, and trying to learn something about the person who compiled the box. I leave all of these boxes exactly “as is” because I feel to change them would change the integrity of the collection.

What makes these recipe boxes so enticing? I think old recipe boxes, filled with someone’s collection of recipes, are a window into our culinary past. Eventually, no doubt, someone else will discover these treasures, too, but in the meantime, I like to think that what I have is a fairly unique collection.

– Sandra Lee Smith

GRANDMA BECKMAN’S COOKBOOK

Recently, I flew to my hometown of Cincinnati to spend a few days with relatives and friends. Originally, the “plan” was for me to fly to Ohio in August, when my son Steve & his wife were driving to Cincinnati for their vacation. Steve had not been to Cincinnati since he was ten years old and for Lori it was a first. I was to be the ‘in-between’ introducing them to all the relatives on both sides of Steve’s family – although I have been divorced for over 25 years, I have maintained a warm and loving relationship with my in-laws.

However, the health of my significant other, Bob, took a turn in August and I was unable to find anyone willing to check on him every day. We had misjudged when my daughter in law would be returning to the high school where she teaches. So, my son decided to book a flight for himself to California and the new “plan” was for him to be Bob’s caregiver for a week, while I took a short vacation. (Perhaps I should note, I had been Bob’s caregiver 24/7 for the past year without any kind of a break). My daughter in law rebooked my flight and I was scheduled to fly to Cincinnati on my birthday in September.

Even the best laid plans, etc etc – and Bob passed away September 22nd. Steve cancelled HIS flight and to make a long story even longer, I did fly to Cincinnati on September 28 after several hectic days of making arrangements with a mortuary to have Bob cremated. (Steve has rebooked HIS flight and will be arriving October 22nd – my granddaughter is thrilled; Steve is her favorite uncle).

I was reluctant to go, after all the stops and starts and worried constantly about my little Jack Russell terrier, Jackie, that she would be lonely and confused – first Bob’s departure, then mine. But, going to my hometown was healing and one of the greatest rewards was a reunion with two Beckman cousins I had not seen for over 50 years. A third Beckman relative is my cousin Irene with whom I have had a warm relationship throughout our lives. We even made our first communions together, and were partners walking up to the church.

The day after my arrival, the three cousins arrived at my nephew’s house (where I stay when I am in town) and we spent 7 hours talking non-stop and sharing photographs and memories. And Irene – who the family calls Renee—presented me with a birthday present – Grandma Beckman’s cookbook.

Now, a word about Grandma Beckman’s cookbook – I didn’t know it existed until a few years ago, when searching for a particular family recipe. Renee told me that she had Grandma Beckman’s cookbook, into which Grandma had written many of her favorite recipes. I was astonished when I first learned about the cookbook –I had NO idea it even existed. As for my paternal grandmother having a cookbook – that grandmother barely wrote English and all of her recipes were in her head. The wise one in the family was my Aunt Evelyn (whom we all call Aunt Dolly, a family pet name) who learned Grandma Schmidt’s recipes by standing by her side, watching every step of making strudels and noodles and Hungarian goulash. We finally published a family cookbook in 2004 and called it “Grandma’s Favorite” in honor of that grandmother.

But back to Grandma Beckman’s cookbook! The book itself is in a truly battered, tattered condition with the covers falling off and held together with old tape. Published in 1889, “OUR HOME CYCLOPEDIA COOKERY AND HOUSEKEEPING” was published by the Mercantile Publishing Company in Detroit, Michigan. There is no byline but the inside page offers a copyright by Frank S. Burton, 1889. (That being said, my favorite research resource, Google, offers a listing of this cookbook by the Library of Congress and indicates the author as Edgar S. Darling).

It would have been a contemporary cookbook when Grandma B. was a young woman and my copy shows a great deal of wear and tear, with some of the most stained pages are under the Dessert section. Did Grandma B. make a lot of pies? I don’t know. The only thing I clearly remember her making for us were some corn pancakes or fritters, once when she was visiting us. I admit, I am appalled by recipes for collared eels and cods’ head but a recipe for cooking beef kidneys rang a bell in my mother’s long forgotten recipe repertoire. Kidney stew with noodles appeared frequently on the dinner table. (Also bearing in mind, before and during World War II, “organ meats” or “offal” were cheap and unrationed. While browsing through the pages of Our Home Cookery, I also noticed a recipe for “mock duck” that is exactly the way a mock turkey recipe was made by my sister in law years ago. Interesting!

But it isn’t the printed pages of “Our Home Cookery” that captures my attention; it is, at the back of the book, recipes written in Grandma B’s own handwriting. This is really the piece de resistance in this copy of “Our Home Cookery”.

First there is a recipe for Blackberry Wine, followed by recipes for mustard pickles – there are some pages of recipes clipped from newspapers or magazines – a recipe for “stuffed and baked mangoes” (but the mangoes in this recipe are bell peppers…in Grandma B’s time—as well as my mother’s –bell peppers were called “mangoes” and I don’t think that was common anywhere else in the USA (write to me if you know otherwise!). Grandma’s stuffed and baked mangoes appear to be the same recipe my mother used. This is followed by a recipe for Upside Down cake, then one for Apple Sauce cake and a third for Angel Food cake—both of these pages are heavily stained . The following page contains recipes for “Hungry Cake”, one for cookies and another for cream puffs. (my mother made cream puffs; they may have been the same recipe—I will do my best to type up some of these recipes.) Next page contains recipes written in pencil for lemon snaps and “Churngold Dutch Apple Cake” – Churngold was and still is a brand-name for margarine. Margarine has been around since 1869.

Some of the pages are missing, ending on page 395 with directions for “keeping apples fresh all winter” and “curing ham or other meat for smoking”. Per Google and an entry for the cookbook by the Library of Congress, the book should have had 400 pages.

Here is the recipe for stewed kidneys, as directed in “Our Home Cyclopedia”:

Split the kidneys and peel off the outer skin as before (in a previous recipe titled Kidneys, Broiled or Roasted); slice them thin on a plate, dust them with flour, pepper and salt; brown some flour in butter in a stewpan; dilute with a little water; mix smooth and in it cook the sliced kidneys. Let them simmer but do not boil. They will cook in a very short time. Butter some slices of toast and lay on a hot dish and pour over it the stewed kidneys, gravy and all.

*Sandy’s cooknote: my mother cooked noodles to place the cooked kidneys onto. And I may be mistaken but I think my mother soaked the kidneys, like liver, in a bowl of vinegar before cooking it).

GRANDMA BECKMAN’S BLACKBERRY WINE

To every gallon of berries take one gallon of water; let stand 2 days and 2 nights covered with mosquito bar [netting] then strain.

To every gallon put 3 lbs of crushed sugar [before granulated was invented—you had to do your own crushing of the sugar) and dissolve & stir well; bottle and let stand open 2 days, then put the corks on loosely until fermentation ceases then put corks on tight but not too tight for fear of bursting bottles.

STUFFED AND BAKED MANGOES*

½ lb each ground pork and beef
½ cup of rice
1 onion, chopped fine
2 tomatoes
Cayenne pepper
1 egg

Mix with cracker crumbs and fill mangoes* put into pan and cover with tomatoes or pureed tomatoes.

(*Sandy’s cooknote: I have written about bell peppers being called “mangoes” in several of my earlier posts. As far as I know, bell peppers were called mangoes only in the Midwest or around Cincinnati. I remembered seeing bell peppers advertised as “mangoes” in supermarkets when I was 18 or 19 years old. In 1961 when Jim & I first moved to California, we met a wonderful couple named Teresa and Jim Keith. Teresa was a seasoned cook from Louisiana. When she asked me what I cooked, I mentioned “stuffed mangoes” (not KNOWING that mangoes are a fruit and well known in California). “Oh?” she said. “How do you make those?” and I proceeded to describe mixing together ground meat, rice, tomato sauce and egg and “putting that into the mangoes and cooking it in tomato sauce”. I don’t know how we ever figured out that MY mangoes were not HER mangoes. But this begged the question, in my mind, HOW bell peppers came to be called “mangoes” in the Midwest. I finally found an explanation in one of my canning cook books. See footnote below.) Meanwhile, here is Grandma
Beckman’s Applesauce Cake recipe:

GRANDMA B’S APPLESAUCE CAKE

1 ½ CUPS sugar
¾ cup shortening
1/8 tsp allspice
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cloves
¼ tsp nutmeg
1½ cups unsweetened apple sauce
1 ½ tsp baking soda
¼ cup water
1 cup raisins
2 cups flour
Bake ¾ hour. Makes 1 large loaf

(*Sandy’s cooknote: Grandma doesn’t offer any directions. SHE knew how to make her applesauce cake and the cookbook wasn’t intended for other eyes.

So, what I suggest is this: cream together sugar and shortening. Sift together the flour, baking soda and spices. Add it the shortening and sugar mixture. Mix well. Stir in the raisins, applesauce and ¼ cup water. Mix well. Place into a large greased and floured loaf pan (or two smaller ones) and bake at 350 degrees.)

I had a second thought – maybe you should plump up the raisins with the ¼ cup water and then let it cool before adding to the cake.

Grandma’s Churngold Dutch Apple Cake

2 cups flour
½ tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
2 TBSP sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
3 TBSP melted churngold (*use margarine or butter)

Beat egg until light and add milk alternately with dry ingredients. Add churngold and beat light. Spread dough ½” thick in greased tins. Arrange with apple slices in rows sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. (presumably, then bake @ 350 degrees until the cake is done.)

Sandy’s footnote: *In Jeanne Lesem’s cookbook “Preserving Today” she writes,[about Mock Mangoes] “Mangoes were a popular nineteenth century pickle in the United States—not the aromatic tropical fruit we savor today, but stuffed fruits and vegetables in a sweet-and-sour sauce, somewhat similar to authentic Indian mango pickles. William Woys Weaver writes in A Quaker Woman’s Cookbook (1982)’They became popular in England during the eighteenth century, mostly as a less expensive substitute for the real imported article…the pickle was popularized in this country through English cookbooks…Green bell peppers were generally used for ‘mangoes’ in Pennsylvania and western Maryland, and muskmelons in Tidewater Maryland. Other cooks used tomatoes, peaches or cucumbers.”
**

Coincidentally, “Our Home Cyclopedia” was reprinted in 2010 and is available on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites. Barnes & Noble prices start at $23.26 while Amazon offers the book for $26.41 new or $19.95 used.

Happy Cooking and Happy Cookbook Collecting!
Sandy

WOK PRESENCE OR CULINARY ALCHEMY*

For maybe over five years I have been searching for a quote – a particular food quote.

I searched high and low and far and wide, somewhat under the impression that it was something that perhaps M.F.K. Fisher or Elizabeth David had written. Needless to say I didn’t find it in either of their books that I have on my shelves. I searched through three books of food related quotes and did an extensive search on Google without having any success.

What the quote related to is the name of that “thing” – the subtle changes that occur when cooks trained in the same kitchen making the same dish, following the same recipe–end up with different results. Also got to thinking the other day as I was watching “Chopped” on the Food Network – that what they are doing is a take-off on this quote I am searching for. On Chopped, the contestants are given 3 or 4 of the same ingredients and in a specific amount of time, have to create a dish–appetizer or an entrée or a dessert.

They present their dish to the judges who decide which dish is the best and one contestant at a time is “chopped” or eliminated from the competition until finally one chef is declared the winner. You all are probably familiar with this show so perhaps I am unnecessarily digressing.

I accidentally found a quote recently while searching for something else. It was something Karen Hess wrote about in her outstanding book “THE CAROLINA RICE KITCHEN….THE AFRICAN CONNECTION”. Ms. Hess was referring specifically to African American women who, during the times of slavery, left their thumbprint on everything they cooked. They were a part of the south but they brought with them African influences which eventually changed the palate of southerners. Ms. Hess writes that the Chinese have a name for this, those subtle changes, and they call it Wok Presence. (*I wrote an article for the Cookbook Collectors Exchange years ago, titled “OUR AFRICAN HERITAGE” which appeared in the Feb/March 1996 issue of the CCE – which was how I was led to The Carolina Rice Connection by Ms. Hess).

Another cookbook author, Rosa Lewis, had a somewhat different take on the same concept and wrote, “Some people’s food always tastes better than others, even if they are cooking the same dish at the same dinner. Now I will tell you why–because one person has more life in them–more fire, more vitality, more guts–than others. A person without these things can never make food taste right, no matter what materials you give them, it is not use Turn in the whole cow full of cream instead of milk, and all the fresh butter and ingredients in the world, and still the cooking will taste dull and flabby–just because they have nothing in themselves to give. You have got to throw feeling into cooking.” – and no, this is not the quote I have been looking for.

I have been aware of these subtle changes for most of my adult life. It’s why a recipe can be published in a cookbook with exact directions and measurements and my results may not be the same as your results. And there may be a dozen reasons why not.

In the early 1980s, when I was living in Florida, I became even more acutely aware of this difference as I tried to share some favorite recipes with my next door neighbor. She would come crying to me “My cookies burn! They don’t turn out like yours!” – I was baffled – after all, it was the famous Toll House cookie recipe on the back of every package of Nestle’s semi sweet morsels. How could it be different? I went over to her house to watch her bake the cookies and discovered that she would put two cookie trays, side by side – wedged in really, on a rack. The air couldn’t flow; the bottoms of the cookies burned.

I have been a great proponent, ever since, for baking two trays of cookies on two separate racks and switching them, top to bottom, bottom to top half way through baking to assure even baking, so the hot air circulates.

But “Wok Presence” can affect us in many other different ways. For instance – a girlfriend of mine says my ranch dressing tastes better than hers. I discovered she uses Kraft Miracle Whip salad dressing. I use Best Foods Mayonnaise (Hellman’s if you are East of the Mississippi). Another time I discovered that a friend used a Polish Kolbasz for the Hungarian Layered potato recipe. You really need Hungarian Kolbasz to make an authentic Hungarian Layered potato casserole. That’s not to say that your dish won’t taste good. It just won’t taste AS good. It’s like – the difference you will get if you use margarine instead of real butter in a recipe. It will be ok. It just won’t be great.

Wok presence can be affected by the type of baking pans you use and the length of time something, such as a drop cookie, remains in the oven. I had this girlfriend at work who made such wonderful chocolate chip cookies. I asked her what the secret was. She replied that she under baked the cookies; she would take them out of the oven a few minutes early and let them stand on the cookie sheet on a counter until they were cool enough to remove.

Such a small change but it made the difference between soft and chewy – and crisp.

I adopted her under baking rule with most butter cut out cookies that I make – when they are brown around the edges yet firm enough – I take them out and let them stand on the cookie sheets for a while before transferring to wire racks to finish cooling. And cookie sheets! The kind of cookie sheets you use can make all the difference in the world with your finished product. Now I replace cookie sheets every few years – and I use parchment paper on all of them, all of the time. It works better than the aluminum foil I used on the cookie sheets for years.

Now I have two grandchildren who are learning how to make cut out cookies, how to bake them – and the “funnest” part, how to decorate them. They are learning hands on with grammy giving them a wide berth but at the same time, often tossing in a suggestion that will produce a better cookie. It’s a math lesson at the same time, as my nine year old grandson learns how to use measuring cups and measuring spoons and why the measurements need to be exact. But I digress.

The more I think about this – the more certain I am that someone else, a famous cookbook author (and I am still leaning heavily towards Elizabeth David) said that the FRENCH have a name for it, those subtle differences that take place when two chefs – cook the same recipe, with the same ingredients – but each will turn out differently. There is a NAME for this and I am going crazy trying to pin it down.

If anyone knows what that something else is, please write!

Happy Cooking!
Sandy

*WOK PRESENCE appeared originally in July, 2009, on my blog.

UNCLE BOB’S HOUSE

When we discovered we would have to move, in 2008, I was able to spend most of three months “dismantling” the house in which my significant other, Robert, (no relation to Uncle Bob) & I had lived for 19 years. When we moved into that house on my birthday in 1989, we had a great deal less than what we managed to accumulate in the nineteen years that followed. We had far fewer books, for one thing, and many less cookie jars. A friend helped Robert & my son, Kelly, and I move from a little bungalow in Van Nuys to the sprawling house in Arleta. We had so much space in that big old house, we didn’t think we’d ever fill it up. But fill it up we did.

Anything anyone didn’t want any longer—we happily accepted. My dining room table & chairs – once belonged to the mother of my friend, John. My kitchen table sat in the backyard of my friend Luther until we coaxed his landlady to let me have it. I have bookcases that had belonged to my former coworker, Mary Jo, and an old coffee table that I love was once my friend, Mary Jaynne’s. Mary Jaynne & her husband Steve also once owned the bar that is now in my family room.

Friends & family members knew we’d take any and all cast-offs, and the house on Arleta Avenue was truly a house of castoffs. You could go from room to room pointing out which pieces of furniture had once belonged to someone else. We filled the walls in almost all of the rooms with bookcases and filled the bookcases with books—mostly cookbooks. The only rooms without bookcases were the kitchen, pantry, laundry room and bathrooms. Bookcases even filled the hallway.

Well, moving from 3000 square feet (roughly) to 1500 square feet is a challenge. We’ve been in our new digs for almost three years and are still getting settled. And many things had to be sold or given away. The Lancaster and Burbank Friends of the Library have received boxes and boxes of books and the Boy Scouts of Palmdale received truck loads of things for their rummage sale.

I am telling you all of this because I want it understood that I know a little about dismantling a house—but Uncle Bob’s house was unquestionably a far greater challenge for my girl friend, on whose shoulders responsibility for the house fell, along with her husband, Steve sister Diane, and brother Ron.

Uncle Bob, who is formally known as Robert G. Mooney, didn’t have any children of his own. He did have a loving wife with whom he shared his life for 52 years and I’m told theirs was a true lifelong love story. Their niece, Mary Jaynne, – my best friend – used to spend summers at their house when she was a child, and because she was the closest relative to Uncle Bob, finding a new home for Uncle Bob – who could no longer live alone – fell on Mary Jaynne’s broad shoulders. She, her husband Steve, and sister, Diane, found an assisted living facility that met with Uncle Bob’s approval and bit by bit they got him settled in his new home.

I first learned about Uncle Bob years ago when MJ asked us to save all the little pull tabs on cans of aluminum soft drinks or beer. Uncle Bob was a member of Foresters and as a project, the group collected the pop tops and donated the money to Ronald McDonald’s House. They collected over 4, 000,000 tops and Uncle Bob counted every one of them.

We began saving all the pop tops and would give them to MJ once or twice a year. Mary Jaynne discovered, when they began cleaning out his garage, four more boxes about 14”x14” and about 12” tall, full of the can tops. She took them to the Ronald McDonald house in Bakersfield.

Then it became Mary Jaynne’s next responsibility to dismantle Uncle Bob’s house.

How does anyone even begin to dismantle a house in which the occupants lived for over fifty years? It was surely the most daunting task MJ ever took on. They had yard sales and sold things for next to nothing. Mary Jaynne tried to find homes with people like me for the things that had been Uncle Bob & Aunt Joey’s treasures, people who were sure to love and appreciate them. After a lengthy search she found Aunt Joey’s recipe box. Aunt Joey was Uncle Bob’s wife who died from Alzheimer’s in a nursing home when her loving husband could no longer take care of her.

I inherited Aunt Joey’s recipe box – and a handwritten recipe journal – along with some cookbooks and stacks of recipe clippings – and (be still my heart!) close to a dozen old, 50s style aprons that I have washed & ironed and hope to have posted on my blog. I also inherited a wonderful old 1950s deviled egg dish and some 50s tins; I am still working my way through the treasures that found their way to my door.

Aunt Joey had recipes – but, surprise, surprise! So did Uncle Bob! They both enjoyed cooking and I’m told that Aunt Joey was a wonderful cook. Uncle Bob lent a hand mostly with barbecuing but also for get-togethers with their church.

Uncle Bob was in the army from 1942 to 1945 and he was an army cook. I have in front of me several army cook manuals – the Technical Manual for the Army cook, dated April 24, 1942, a smaller manual dated July 1, 1942, a Baking Manual for the Army Cook dated October 5, 1943 and a Technical Manual for cutting up beef, dated July 1, 1943 (that could start with “take one cow”). I like the recipes for cookies – for oatmeal cookies you will need 5 pounds of sugar, 2 pounds of lard, 5 pounds of flour, 2 pounds of oatmeal—oh yeah, a pound of raisins and six eggs. (I hope the army had industrial electric mixers to put this cookie dough together! I certainly hope that the army cooks didn’t have to mix everything by hand!)

Another item from Uncle Bob’s pantry is a tea caddy that is the size of a small child’s ball—but absolutely perfect for someone like myself, who makes various pickled fruits from time to time—pickled watermelon and Hot Hawaiian pineapple pickles, pickled cherries and sometimes pickled cantaloupe.

Along with the army manuals is a “Service Writing Tablet” with Robert G. Mooney printed neatly at the top of the cover. This appears to be a school writing tablet for prospective army cooks (I had no idea that the army cooks had special training—but it makes perfect sense). The pages are full of handwritten recipes and directions, written in pencil, and on the last page, in large red handwriting are the words “Very Good!” written, presumably, by the army class teacher.

Aunt Joey’s family was Italian and so her small cookbook collection leans towards Italian recipes. Italian food was also Uncle Bob’s favorite. And, Aunt Joey’s Italian mother lived with them for about ten years, back in the day, and she made Italian “gravy” every Sunday morning so they could have spaghetti and Italian gravy (I would call it a sauce) with whatever was on the menu for Sunday night dinner.

Also, Aunt Joey & Uncle Bob got married in 1943, when World War II was in full swing. Wheatless Wednesdays and Meatless Mondays were encouraged by the government as a way of everybody being able to “do their part” in some small way. (And if you were Catholic, there were meatless Fridays, as well.) Aunt Joey’s collection of recipes contains a number of meatless recipes, such as cashew loaf and cashew patties.

Here, then, are a few recipes from Aunt Joey’s recipe box, written in her own beautiful handwriting:

For fun, here is Aunt Joey’s recipe for Cashew Loaf (presumably cashews were a lot cheaper in 1942 than they are today):

CASHEW LOAF

Mix all together, bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes:

½ onion, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 #2 can Chinese noodles
1 cup whole raw cashews
1 can cream of mushroom soup
½ soup can water
½ cup American cheese (grated)
Optional: ½ can diced fried chicken
~~~
MEAT BALLS* & SAUCE
Combine, form balls & brown in oven:
1 cup cracker crumbs
1 cup bread crumbs
5-6 eggs
1 onion, chopped
½ cup walnuts, chopped
½ tsp sage
½ tsp poultry seasoning
1 TBSP soy sauce
¾ cup grated cheese

While the meat balls are browning in the oven make a sauce of 1 small can tomato juice
1 can stewed tomatoes
½ cup chopped onion
½ tsp garlic salt
½ tsp salt
½ tsp parsley
½ cube butter (half of one stick. One stick of butter or margarine is 4 ounces. Half that would be 2 ounces)

Pour sauce over balls and heat in oven until hot & bubbly.

(*Sandy’s cooknote—if there is too much grease in the pan, I would drain off the excess before adding the sauce—also, there is no meat in these meatballs.)

From one of Aunt Joey’s cookbooks, titled “Favorite Italian Cookbook/from Northern to Southern Italy/500 Special Edition Recipe/sponsored by the Los Angeles District Council of the Italian Catholic Federation” (a title that is almost as long as those on very old cookbooks from the early 1900s) I came across a recipe titled “Spaghetti Gravy” and I really felt obligated to share it with everyone.

Here, then, is Spaghetti Gravy:
1 clove garlic
2 TBSP olive oil
¾ lb ground beef, veal or both
½ lb pork sausage
3 to 4 cans canned tomatoes
6 can tomato paste
¾ cup chicken broth
3 bay leaves
¼ c. dried basil
¼ c. dried thyme
1 TBSP salt (or salt to taste)
½ tsp pepper
2 chopped onions (optional)

Brown onion, garlic and meat in hot olive oil. Add remaining ingredients and simmer at least 1 hour. Remove bay leaves and pour over spaghetti. (my mother never put onion in her spaghetti sauce—said it was too sweet.) If uou like a darker color add red wine to sauce (1/2 cup).

ITALIAN SWISS STEAK (Bistecca Alla Italiano Svizzero)

(I often wondered where I found my recipe for the Swiss Steak, that I began making in the very early days of married life. I think now is was most likely something my sister Becky learned to cook and served to her family. Her first husband, Sam, was Italian and this recipe is similar to what I began cooking in the early 1960s. My sons all loved Swiss Steak and it was made with an inexpensive cut of beef):

1 ½ lbs round steak, 1” thick.
3 TBSP flour
1 package spaghetti sauce mix (such as French’s)
2 TBSP olive oil
2 large onions, sliced
1 tsp sugar
2 cups water
½ cup red wine

Cut the steak into serving pieces. Mix flour with a tablespoon of spaghetti sauce mix. Coat steak on both sides with this mixture. In a large skillet, brown meat on both sides in hot oil; remove from pan. Separate onions into rings; add to skillet & cook until lightly browned. Return steak to pan with remaining spaghetti sauce mix, sugar, water & wine. Cover pan and simmer 2 hours or until meat is tender. Serves 4.

Sandy’s cooknote: I used to add some chopped bell pepper to my Swiss steak recipe. My sons all loved Swiss steak with a big bowl of mashed potatoes to go with.

THE MOONEY’S FAVORITE HOT CHICKEN SALAD
Combine:

2 cups diced fried chicken (leftover fried chicken would be good for this or you could pick up a few pieces of fried chicken at the supermarket deli section).
2 cups diced celery
1 cup mayonnaise
½ cup slivered toasted almonds
1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ACCENT
2 TBSP lemon juice
3 or 4 hard boiled eggs, peeled and diced
Pour mixed ingredients in a greased casserole dish. Top with 1 cup crushed potato chips or chow mein noodles and ½ cup grated cheddar cheese. Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly.

AUNT JOEY’S RICE VERDE preheat oven 350 degrees

Combine:
3 cups cooked rice (This would be a good recipe to use up leftover rice)
¾ lb grated sharp cheddar cheese
2 TBSP chopped pimiento
¼ tsp Tabasco sauce
½ cup chopped mushrooms
2 cups sour cram
½ cup sliced olives
Bake in greased casserole at 350 degrees for ½ hour, uncovered.

AUNT OLIVE’S KENTUCKY CARROT CAKE* preheat oven 350 degrees
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 cups grated carrots
1 ½ cups oil**
½ cup walnut meats, chopped (You can substitute chopped pecans if you wish)
2 tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
4 eggs (let eggs come to room temperature)
1 8½ oz can crushed pineapple, drained—save the juice

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Bake in a greased & floured pan 8×13” at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until done.

Icing: Combine ¼ cup butter or oleo (margarine) ½ lb powdered sugar, small package of cream cheese, ½ tsp vanilla. Beat mixture until fluffy. Fold in 2 TBSP crushed pineapple. If desired sprinkle with finely chopped nuts to garnish.

(Sandy’s cooknote: Personally, I would double everything—it’s easier to measure, too. Use ½ cup or 1 stick of butter. Use a 1 lb box of powdered sugar and an 8 ounce package of cream cheese–and if you have the time, sift the powdered sugar – it will blend better. Leave out the crushed pineapple in the icing. Add a little of the pineapple juice to make the icing the proper consistency. Use the drained crushed pineapple in the cake recipe.)

*Aunt Olive was Uncle Bob’s Aunt.

**regarding the 1½ cups cooking oil that goes into most of the old carrot cake recipes, I discovered you can substitute ¾ cup applesauce for half of the oil.

Sometimes we wonder what became of things like a recipe box full of handwritten recipes and magazine clippings, or perhaps a particular cookbook that someone had kept for years, making notations from time to time on the margins of the pages. My friend Nancy tells me that sometimes these discarded treasures end up being swept up to give to a junkman so the house can be painted and vacuumed for the next occupants. Uncle Bob can rest assured; his and Aunt Joey’s recipe collection has fallen into the right hands and will be handled with care for many years to come.

Happy Cooking & Happy cookbook (or recipe box) collecting!

Sandy

WEIRD FOOD & WEIRD RECIPE REQUESTS–DISCOVERING TARO ROOT

It is not unusual for me to receive emails, text messages or even real telephone calls from friends, my friends’ children or their grandchildren, former co-worker or relatives back in Ohio—asking for a particular recipe or directions for cooking some obscure food. I think the last one was from a girlfriend in Oregon asking about quince. What did I know about quince? Almost nothing – it was right up there with loquats. We had a volunteer loquat tree down in Arleta in my back yard and I knew NADA about making jelly out of loquats. But we figured it out. If it grows on my property, I’ll find out a way to use it. And last January my friend Bev brought me some quince jelly to try. I want to say that I tried some quince wine her husband made but I can’t say I liked it.

Well, there is no guarantee you are going to LIKE everything you make or bake or cook with an obscure ingredient, like quince. Or loquat. And there may be a lot of things you have absolutely no interest in trying – like rattlesnake meat (ugh) or little fried fish balls that have eyes looking back at you—something a neighbor in Simi Valley tried to coax me into trying way back when. I told her I couldn’t eat something that was looking back at me.

Well, this friend of mine called a few days ago and asked “What do you know about Taro cake?”

“KARO cake?” I inquired, not understanding.

“No, T-A-R-O, TARO, he repeated.

Well, not a lot. I wish he had asked about KARO as in syrup because I know a lot more about the latter than the former. But I love a challenge and said “I’ll get back to you on this”.

Ok, from Google I learned: Taro is native to Southeast Asia. It is a perennial, tropical plant primarily grown as a root vegetable for its edible starchy corm, and as a leaf vegetable and is considered a staple in African, Oceanic and Asian cultures. It is believed to have been one of the earliest cultivated plants. Colocasia is thought to have originated in the Indo-Malayan region, perhaps in eastern India and Bangladesh, and spread eastward into Southeast Asia, eastern Asia, and the Pacific islands; westward to Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean; and then southward and westward from there into East Africa and West Africa, from whence it spread to the Caribbean and Americas. It is known by many local names and often referred to as ‘elephant ears’ when grown as an ornamental plant.

The best description I have found for taro root comes from Grace Young in the Glossary of “The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchern”. She writes, “The starchy root vegetable is six to ten inches lon, four inches wide and cylindrical. The skin is dark bron, hairy, and very dusty. The taro rot should be firm and heavy. Never choose taro root that has been sliced on either end. Check the root carefully for mold spots. The texture is starchy and reminiscent of a potato. It is used in braised dishes and in Taro Root Cake. Raw taro rot is said to cause itchiness when touched with bare hands so many people wear rubber gloves when handling it. The flesh is potato colored with fine flecks an doccasional blush spots; it turns a pale lavender color once it is cooked. Store as you would a potato and use within one week”.

From Wikipedia I learned: Taro cake is a Chinese dish made from the vegetable taro. While it is denser in texture than radish cakes, both these savory cakes made in a similar ways, with rice flour as the main ingredient. When served in dim sum cuisine, it is cut into square-shaped slices and pan-fried before serving. It is found in Hong Kong, China, and overseas Chinatowns restaurants. Other ingredients often include pork and Chinese black mushroom, or even Chinese sausages. It is usually topped with chopped scallions. Well, I know Dim Sum and have eaten it with my girlfriend Liza at the Chinatown in downtown Los Angeles. But what about taro CAKE? I wondered.

Then I found references to Grace Young and her cookbook “The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen” – a cookbook I have, and in which she shared a recipe for Taro Root Cake for Epicurious in 1999:

Taro Root Cake (Woo Tul Gow)

yield: Makes one 8-inch cake, about 48 slices

Writes Grace: “Homemade taro root cake is unsurpassed if the home cook doesn’t skimp on the ingredients. Thick slices of taro cake, richly flavored with scallops, mushrooms, shrimp, Chinese bacon, and creamy taro are pan-fried until golden brown and fragrant. My Auntie Ivy’s mother, Che Chung Ng, makes such a recipe and is famous in the family for both her Turnip Cake and Taro Root Cake. Every New Year, she cooks several cakes and gives them away as gifts to close family members. Nothing is measured exactly, and it is impressive to see her produce cake after cake, especially because she is over eighty years old. Spry and agile, she cooks with full energy and total intuition, never missing a beat. She kindly taught me this recipe and the one for Turnip Cake. Wear rubber gloves when handling taro, as some people can have an allergic reaction to touching it. Also use rice flour, not glutinous flour!

Ingredients
• 1/4 cup Chinese dried scallops (gown yu chee), about 1 ounce
• 8 Chinese dried mushrooms
• 1/4 cup Chinese dried shrimp, about 1 ounce
• 6 ounces Chinese Bacon (lop-yok), store bought or homemade
• 1 large taro root, about 2 1/4 pounds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 cups rice flour
• vegetable oil, for pan-frying
• oyster-flavored sauce

Preparation

In a small bowl, soak the scallops in 1/3 cup cold water
for about 2 hours, or until softened. Drain, reserving the soaking liquid. Remove and discard the small hard knob from the side of the scallops. Finely shred the scallops.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, soak the mushrooms in 1/2 cup cold water 30 minutes, or until softened. Drain and squeeze dry, reserving the soaking liquid. Cut off and discard stems and mince the caps. In a small bowl, soak the dried shrimp in 1/3 cup cold water for 30 minutes, or until softened. Drain, reserving soaking liquid. Finely chop shrimp and set aside.

Cut the bacon into 3 equal pieces and place in a 9-inch shallow heatproof dish. Bring water to a boil over high heat in a covered steamer large enough to fit the dish without touching the sides of the steamer. Carefully place the dish in the steamer, cover, reduce heat to medium, and steam 15 to 20 minutes, or just until bacon is softened and there are juices in the dish. Check the water level from time to time and replenish, if necessary, with boiling water. Carefully remove the dish from the steamer and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, wearing rubber gloves, peel taro root and cut into 1/2-inch cubes to make about 7 cups. In a 4-quart saucepan, combine the taro root, 1 teaspoon salt, and about 1 1/2 quarts cold water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 15 to 20 minutes, or until taro has turned a pale lavender color and is just tender when pierced with a knife.

Remove the bacon from its dish and reserve the juices in the dish. Cut off and discard the rind and thick layer of fat underneath. Cut the remaining meat into paper-thin slices and then finely chop. In a 14-inch flat-bottomed wok or skillet, stir-fry the chopped bacon over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, or until meat releases fat and just begins to brown. Add the minced mushrooms and shrimp, and stir-fry 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in pan juices from the bacon and remove from heat.

Drain the taro in a colander, reserving the cooking liquid. Return the taro to the saucepan, add the bacon and mushroom mixture, and stir to combine. In a large bowl, combine the rice flour and the reserved mushroom, scallop, and shrimp soaking liquids, stirring until smooth. Stir in 1 cup of the reserved hot taro broth. Pour this batter over the taro mixture in the saucepan. Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and stir until combined. Consistency will resemble that of thick rice pudding. Pour the mixture into a heatproof 8-inch round, 3- to 4-inch-deep, straight-sided bowl, such as a soufflé dish.

Bring water to a boil over high heat in a covered steamer large enough to fit the dish without touching the sides of the steamer. Carefully place the dish into the steamer, cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and steam 1 hour, or just until cake is set and is firm to the touch. Check the water level and replenish, if necessary, with boiling water. Carefully remove the bowl from the steamer and cool on a rack about 1 hour. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 to 4 hours.

Run a knife along the edge of the cake to loosen sides. Place a cake rack over the bowl and invert to unmold. Flip the cake right-side up onto a cutting board. Wrap the cake in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

When ready to eat, cut the cake into quarters. Cut each quarter crosswise, not into wedges, but into two 2-inch-wide strips. Cut each strip crosswise into scant 1/2-inch-thick slices. This is the typical way of slicing a cake Chinese style.

Heat a 14-inch flat-bottomed wok or skillet, over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Add just enough vegetable oil to barely coat the wok. Add the taro cake slices in batches and cook for 2 to 3 minutes per side, until golden brown. Serve immediately with oyster sauce.

(I wonder if my friend wears rubber gloves when peeling taro root?)

But be not dismayed! We haven’t given up – although it appears to me that in addition to being enormously popular with the Chinese, taro is a favored dish—in whatever form—of the Vietnamese as well. I became acquainted with several Vietnamese women at a manicurist salon I favored for many years, until we moved to the desert. From the Vietnamese then comes this:

To make a Taro and Coconut cake

You will need:

•
• 2 cups hot, peeled and cooked mashed taro
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 cup freshly grated coconut
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 tsp. each ground nutmeg and cinnamon
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Butter a shallow 8 inch. cake pan. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Combine the hot taro with the melted butter, mashing again as you work in the butter. Add the coconut, sugar and beaten eggs, and mix in well. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, milk and vanilla, and beat all together by hand or with an electric beater for 1 minute. Pour into cake pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour (or until firm). Remove from oven and cool completely. Sprinkle top with sifted icing sugar if desired. (Flame Tree Cookbook by Sue Carruthers)

Well, while you are searching for taro or quince or loquat, I will try to focus on something simple. Like rhubarb. Or radish or turnip cakes. Or maybe something like strawberry shortcake!

But in the meantime, for some good reading and recipes, I recommend “The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen” by Grace Young and if anyone is interested, I will write a review of the book. Meantime,

Happy Cooking and Happy Cook Book Collecting!
Sandy

MORE COOL RISE DOUGH RECIPES

First, the BASIC cool rise dough:

Cool Rise Sweet Dough for Cinnamon Rolls

Stir together in a bowl:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp dry yeast (or 2 little packets)
½ cup (1 stick of butter), softened to room temperature

Pour in 1 1/2 c. very hot water. Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Add:
2 eggs (at room temperature) and
1 c. flour
Mix on high speed for 1 minute.

Gradually add in 2-3 more cups of flour until the dough is thick and elastic, pulling away from the side of the bowl.

Turn dough out onto counter. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into two balls. Roll out one ball at a time. Roll out into a rectangle that is roughly 10×14 inches. Spread melted butter over the top of rectangle to within 3/4″ of edges. Sprinkle sugar on top of the butter. Sprinkle cinnamon on top of that. Distribute raisins over the butter/sugar/cinnamon. Starting with one side, roll up the dough into a long, thick roll. Slice into individual rolls and place in a 9×13″ pan on their sides. I try to get 12 rolls out of each ball of dough and put 12 to a pan.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-24 hours. The flavor really improves if you refrigerate this recipe overnight. Before baking, remove from fridge and let sit on the counter for at least an hour.
Bake at 350° until golden brown. Remove from oven. While they’re still hot, drizzle some glaze over them.

Serve warm. Glaze: a cup of powdered sugar, a drizzle of melted butter, and just enough milk or lemon juice to make a runny glaze.

ADAPTED FROM NANCY REAGAN’S MONKEY BREAD RECIPE

In addition to the regular ingredients for cool rise dough, you will need additional butter, about 1 stick, melted and cooled.

Make up basic cool rise dough. After it has risen for 20 minutes, punch the dough down and shape into a log. Cut dough into 28 equal pieces. Shape each piece of dough into a ball and dip in melted butter and roll in cinnamon sugar. Place the balls of dough in the bottom of a greased and floured tube pan (like an angel food cake pan). Layer the balls of dough about halfway up the pan, leaving enough space for the dough to rise. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Let the pan come to room temperature the next morning, then bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.

*Chopped walnuts or pecans sprinkled throughout the pan would be a nice addition, I think.

Once, I made up the cinnamon roll dough as directed, and cut it into slices – but instead of putting them in a baking pan, I laid them two deep in a greased tube pan. Refrigerated and then let them rise the next day as usual – it made a very pretty presentation. Very nice with a glaze drizzled over them.

JULEKAGE

Julekage is a popular Norwegian bread for the Christmas holidays. Can be served frosted or unfrosted.

In addition to the ingredients needed to make a batch of Cool Rise dough, you will need

1 cup raisins
½ cup finely chopped citron or candied peel

When you have blended the ingredients, by hand add the raisins and citron* or candied peel. Knead the dough either with a mixer dough hook or by hand on a floured surface until smooth and elastic. Then put into a greased bowl, cover and let rise for 20 minutes. Punch the dough down and divide into two parts. Shape each half of the dough into a round loaf. Place each round on a greased cookie sheet and cover with foil and/or plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight. Next day, let the dough come up to room temperature before baking at 350 degrees 45 to 50 minutes, until golden brown. If too dark cover loosely with foil the last 5 to 10 minutes of baking. Remove from cookie sheet; brush with melted butter. Cool. Drizzle with powdered sugar glaze, if desired. Makes 2 loaves.

*Sandy’s cooknote: does anyone really like citron? And what the heck is it? Well, citron is like a lemon but has less acid. You may want to substitute some candied lemon peel for the citron.

HOLIDAY WREATHS

Prepare Cool Rise dough as directed – however, when you are mixing the dough, prior to kneading it, add the following ingredients by hand:

½ cup candied cherries, chopped
½ cup mixed candied fruit

Continue with kneading the dough and let rise. Punch down dough. Divide into two parts. Divide each half into 3 pieces. On lightly floured surface, roll each piece to a 24” rope. On greased cookie sheet, loosely braid 3 ropes from center to ends. Form into a circle, pinch ends to seal. Cover, refrigerate overnight. Next day, bake the wreaths at 350 degrees until golden brown. Re move from cookie sheets and cool. Drizzle with powdered sugar, if desired. Can garnish with candied cherries.

HOLIDAY KRINGLE

Prepare Cool rise dough. After you let the dough rest 20 minutes, punch down the dough, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Next day, prepare your choice of filling (see below). Divide the dough into 2 parts. Roll each half to an 18×6” rectangle. For either the cranberry or the cherry filling, brush a 3” center strip of the dough with egg white. If making the Butter Pecan filling, omit the egg white and spread the 3” center with the butter-sugar mixture; sprinkle half the nuts over dough which has been spread with butter-sugar mixture. If you are making either cranberry or fruit filling, spread that over the egg white mixture. NOW. Fold one long side of dough over the filling. Then fold over the other side overlapping dough by 1 ½ inches. Pinch edge and ends to seal. Place seam side down on greased cookie sheet. Form into a horseshoe shape or a circle; pinch ends together to make the circle.

Cover, let rise in a warm place until light and puff, 15 to 20 minutes. Bake at 400 degrees 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown. Remove from cookie sheets, cool. Sift powdered sugar over top before serving, if desired.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF FILLINGS

Cranberry Filling

1 cup chopped cranberries
½ cup chopped nuts
½ cup raisins, chopped
½ cup sugar
¼ tsp ground mace
½ tsp ground allspice
In a small bowl, mix all ingredients.

Candied Fruit Filling

1 cup chopped red and green candied cherries or candied fruit
1 cup chopped nuts
In a small bowl, combine cherries and nuts.
Butter Pecan Filling
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup butter or margarine
½ tsp cinnamon
1 cup chopped pecans

In a small mixer bowl cream sugar and butter and cinnamon until fluffy. Set creamed mixture and pecans aside.

** note:400 degrees for anything other than a baked potato makes me nervous. This is what the recipe called for but I think I would change it to 350 degrees.

–Happy Cooking and Happy cookbook collecting!
Sandy

GROWING UP WITHOUT ELECTRICITY, GROWING UP WITH OUTHOUSES

Compiled by
Sandra Lee Smith

Note: Once again our online retiree group has (along with solving many of the problems of the world), reflected on issues such as growing up without electricity…to growing up with outhouses).

Marge Sallee wrote:

Thomas Edison did us all a big favor when he invented the light bulb. I just can imagine living as the pioneers did when their activities were pretty much limited to daylight hours. Thank goodness we were all born when had a lot of the comforts were pretty common place. Dorman’s family lived on a farm in the Ozarks, and electricity didn’t reach them until after WW II. He was probably 10 years old then. One of the first places they wanted it was in the dairy barn so they could use milking machines. Their lives changed drastically once the power line was connected to their house. They bought a refrigerator, a cooking stove, lights throughout the house, etc.

Growing up, even in a big city, we accepted what we had because at the end of the Depression, and then WW II years, most of us lived with some of those inconveniences. We even felt like our house had more than most of the neighbors. After the war when the economy switched over to manufacturing more things for the home, we all moved up in comforts. It was usually one thing at a time — a hot water heater, a refrigerator, a stove that used gas or electricity. We lived in that house I was born in, until I was a sophomore in high school, to an updated older house that had a furnace in the basement. But looking back over all these years, we had a great life in that house on the Platte River in Denver. We never felt deprived though we knew we didn’t have everything.

Marge Nagy wrote:

Marge, you mentioned how Dorman grew up without electricity. Me, too, until I was about 4. And even after we had electricity, I recall it wasn’t all that predictable and a lot of evenings it was out. We used oil lanterns – smoky and smelly! We got running water when I was 7, before that we just had a hand pump in the kitchen sink. The old coal cook stove had a reservoir on the one side, we filled it with water and it would heat when the stove was on. Needless to say we didn’t have a lot of hot water in the summer as the stove was only on to cook meals! We finally got a bathroom put in a few years later – used the old pantry to make a bathroom. I was very happy to not have to use a chamber pot or wade through the snow to go to the outhouse in the winter!

I have fond memories of that old cook stove – and that’s what I learned to cook on because we never had a gas stove until I was in my teens. The oven was always warm if the stove was being used, so in the winter my grandmother often opened the oven door, pulled up a chair and propped her feet on the oven door to keep her feet and legs warm. I remember sitting there with her many a time – eating our soup for lunch, etc. I also remember some days when the door was really hot when first opened and how our shoes would start to smell from the heat burning the soles!

In the living room we had a big coal heater; I recall a hole cut in the ceiling (which was the floor of the bedroom above) for the heat to rise up there. All that work and dust with the ashes.

I always say I’m glad I was born on the cusp and didn’t have to live my whole life that way. My Mom worked very hard hauling wood, hauling water. We did not have central air, just a cook stove and an oil heater.

Sandy wrote:

I have to confess I have lived with electricity and running water all my life BUT when I was about 12, my parents bought a cabin on the Whitewater River, and it didn’t have running water or indoor toilet–and if I remember correctly, no electricity either. I remember lanterns. I hated the outhouse. I was always afraid of going out there at night – fearful something was going to reach up inside the toilet and grab me by the butt. I still hate outhouses.

Marge Nagy wrote:

On an added note – to those of you who grew up in the outhouse era. I recall when friends came to visit, or if we visited with people who had an outhouse, before going home all the women usually wanted to use the outhouse. ALL the ladies went at once, and went in the outhouse at once if there was room. Definitely was no privacy and I always hated that. Even in later years, I recall my mother and her sister often going into a restroom together (if we were on a vacation trip or something of that sort). I’d always wait until they came out, then I’d go in ALONE!

Doreen wrote:

This was a common etiquette for business dinners. After the dinner you would invite the ladies to freshen up and all of you would go together. I hated it too, but oh the confidences divulged in the washroom made it very interesting. I think this was something that happened in the day when the men worked and the women were included in the social aspects, a form of bonding – I guess.

Sandy wrote:

This made me laugh because I have this one girlfriend who is Mexican American and HER best friend is also Mexican-American; they ALWAYS go to the bathroom together no matter where they are. They did this when they came to visit me at my house. I thought maybe it was an ethnic thing. I have no desire for company when I am doing my business.

Doreen wrote:

Another thought in the outhouse era, they may have banded together for the novelty or protection from who knows what at the outhouse. My Aunt Carrie had a twin outhouse clearly marked his and hers. It was whitewashed and her side had a child-size hole to suit the smaller butts, with a step stool to climb up. They always had lids. On the outside she painted red and yellow flowers and it was very colorful.

The path leading to the outhouse passed through her flower garden and it wound around so you couldn’t just go straight to the outhouse you had to wind along the garden path. Because it would be muddy when it rained, she had fieldstone rocks embedded in the soil and you didn’t have to get your good shoes muddy.

Outside the outhouse was a foot scraper for those muddy trips and inside a piece of home hooked carpet on the floor. On the walls she hung posters and cartoons chosen at random or provided by friends so while you waited for natures call you could always read something. The inside always had flypaper hanging to catch the pesky flies so the experience was quite pleasant.

My mother had a chamber pot in her bedroom and the girls in the family were allowed to use it. Only overnight though or in severe winter weather. She always kept the pot emptied and scalded it with hot water and put a teaspoon of chlorine in the bottom to keep the odor down. She also had a washstand in the bedroom with a pitcher of water to wash our hands in. This washstand was only for bathroom purposes. In the porch we had a family sized washstand that was used for everyday cleanups and before and after meals.

In the winter a barrel behind the coal and wood stove sat full of water (melted snow) and it was always warm from the stove. When the barrel was full my Mom would wash clothes. The men and boys usually hauled the water or snow in on a daily chore but sometimes I would be on call to do this job. I expect some of today’s back problems come from that early wood and water work.

Elinor wrote:

I grew up in San Francisco. Even the cheapest flats we lived in had a bathroom and electric lights. But we spent one summer in Calaveras County,Calif., about 5 miles from Angel’s Camp where they have frog jumping contests..My step-father and two other men had a lease on Michel Mine and they built 3 cabins. Ours had a separate room for me.
I was about 15. Outside my room was the generator and boy, was it noisy, but it produced the electric for our lights. There was an outhouse up the hill of course. Down at the stream was where we kept bottles of milk cold. The store was 35 miles away. We went there once a week and if we forgot anything we did without. My Mom cooked stacks of pancakes for breakfast and big pots of stew or beans or spaghetti for lunch and dinner. My brother, my cousin and uncle worked on the mine too. Gold was $35 an oz but getting enough ore to sell was a long. hard job for the crew. My step-dad decided the real gold was in the city where he worked on roofing jobs. Once we took a trip to the city and came back to find our cabins had been broken into, even windows were stolen. That’s when we gave up and went back to the city. Later my step-father joined the Seabees (construction branch) so he wouldn’t be drafted.

Doreen wrote:

Yes, the toilet is a great leveling ground. I remember at work we had a number of well dressed female executives who never fraternized with staff in the coffee room or elsewhere (parties etc). However, in the bathroom it was totally different. They had tears over their husbands, their children, their lack of promotion and they were well supported by the underlings.
**

LET THEM EAT CAKE – UPDATED!

There are probably thousands of cake recipes. First there are all the cakes made from scratch and nowadays there are the hundreds of cake recipes that start out with a cake mix. I wouldn’t say one kind is better than another – I think they are all good!

Years Ago – back in the 70s – I spent a week in Michigan with my penpal Betsy and her family. I took along my two youngest sons and my sister Susanne. That trip was most memorable, especially a day we went blueberry picking at a berry farm. I took back to my parents home a Styrofoam cooler filled to the top with blueberries and used them every way imaginable. I canned blueberries in a sauce and made strawberry-blueberry jam – and we enjoyed my brother bill’s first wife’s Aunt Mary’s blueberry cake. So, this recipe has always been Aunt Mary’s Blueberry cake:

You will need:
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup shortening, melted
½ cup milk
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 cups blueberries (fresh, if available)

Topping:
½ cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup flour
¼ cup butter

Mix together sugar, shortening, egg and milk. Sift in flour, baking powder, and salt.
Fold in blueberries. Pour batter into a greased and floured 8” square pan. Mix together topping ingredients and sprinkle over the batter. Bake in preheated 375 degree over 25-30 minutes.
**
While I am on the subject of cakes, here are a few of my other favorites including another for blueberries,

Mary Jaynne’s Blueberry Cake

You will need:
1 pint whipping cream
1 (8 oz) and 1 (3 oz) packages of cream cheese, softened
¾ cup sugar
3 (3 ounces each) packages of lady fingers
1 (20 0z) can blueberry pie filling (I used two)
chopped nuts (I used diced almonds)

Whip cream until stiff and set aside. Next, beat the cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Fold whipping cream into cream cheese mixture. Open lady fingers to separate into single pieces and stand enough up to line inside sides of a 10” springform pan. Line bottom of pan with layer of lady fingers, cutting up some to fill in empty spaces. Add 1/3 of the cream cheese mixture. Cover with half of the blueberry mixture. Top with another layer of the lady fingers, 1/3 of the whipped cream mixture and remaining lady fingers. Cover with remaining whipped cream mixture and sprinkle with nuts (if desired. Not everybody likes nuts, I’ve discovered). Chill at least several hours; overnight is better. Makes 12-15 servings.

LAZY DAISY PUMPKIN CAKE

You will need:
1 package yellow cake mix
2 eggs
¼ cup water
2 tsp baking soda
1 can (16 oz) pumpkin
2 tsp pumpkin spice mix

Grease and flour a Bundt pan* Blend all ingredients and beat 4 minutes on medium speed with an electric mixer. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan. Dust with confectioners sugar if desired.

Sandy’s cooknote: This one has been around a long time – maybe since the 1970s also. I have been partial to cake recipes that start out with a cake mix for a very long time.

Sandy’s Cooknotes: You can substitute a tube pan or use loaf pans if you don’t have a Bundt pan. Also, I think this recipe precedes the advent of cake mixes that have pudding in the mix. I would suggest using a Duncan Hines yellow cake mix, which doesn’t have pudding mixed in.

MY FAVORITE CARROT CAKE

You will need:
3 cups finely grated carrots
2 cups flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 ½ cups vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
¾ cup crushed pineapple (drained)
½ cup nuts (optional)

Blend sugar and oil with electric mixer; add eggs and blend well. Sift together dry ingredients and add to the egg mixture. Then add carrots, nuts, and well drained pineapple last. Pour into a greased and floured 8×13” pan or 9×13” casserole pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes.

Frosting:
You will need:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
¼ pound (1 stick) butter or margarine*
1 lb box powdered sugar, sifted

Cream together cream cheese and butter; add vanilla extract. Then blend in powdered sugar, a little at a time. Spread over cooled carrot cake. Sprinkle on additional chopped nuts if desired.

Sandy’s cooknote: Be careful using margarine in recipes. Make sure it’s not one of those spreads that are mostly oil. There are several brands that are the regular margarine. I think Imperial is one of the brands you can still safely use in baking. Personally, I use butter almost exclusively–I buy it whenever I can find it on sale and keep it in the freezer.

Sandy’s Cooknotes: This is from a 1971 PTA cookbook that I edited. Back then we were not as conscious of fat grams and too much sugar (obviously). I think one of these days I am going to see if I can reconstruct this cake using less oil and sugar, maybe try using Splenda. But this is the original and it’s a great cake.

ROSALIA’S BANANA CAKE

You will need:
1/2 CUP shortening
¾ tsp baking soda
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour (sifted)
2 tsp baking powder
¼ cup sour milk*
½ tsp salt
3-4 ripe bananas
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Cream sugar and shortening. Beat eggs and add to mix. Add flour and other dry ingredients. Add sour milk and mashed banana. Add nuts. Pour into prepared greased and floured loaf pans. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Sandy’s Cooknote: This is another recipe from our 1971 PTA cookbook and Rosalia made this cake many, many times over the years. And if you don’t happen to have some sour milk laying around the house, all you need to do is add a small amount of vinegar or lemon juice to regular milk and voila! Sour milk!

GRANDMA GLASS’ LAZY DAISY OATMEAL CAKE

You will need:
1 ¼ cups boiling water
1 stick butter
1 cup (dry) oatmeal
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/3 cups flour (all purpose)
1 cup chopped walnuts

Pour boiling water of oats. Add butter and let stand, covered, 20 minutes. Then add sugars and eggs, mixing well. Sift together dry ingredients and add, stirring in nuts last. Pour into a greased 9×13” pan. Bake at 350 degrees 35 minutes.

TOPPING FOR LAZY DAISY OATMEAL CAKE:

You will need:
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 small can (5 oz) evaporated milk
1 cup coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts

Mix topping ingredients in a saucepan; bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Pour over
Hot baked cake. Place cake under broiled for 1 minute but watch carefully as it burns easily. Cool on wire rack.

Sandy’s Cooknote: Grandma Glass was my girlfriend Connie’s mother. I think the first time I tasted this cake was at a Tupperware party at Connie’s house, when her mother was living with her. I had to have the recipe! This has been a tried and true favorite for decades. Try not to think of all the calories and fat grams. Eat a very small piece!

ZUCCHINI PISTACHIO CUPCAKES

These are so yummy! Good to make when pistachio nuts are in season.

Ingredients:
• One 18.25-ounce box Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Classic Yellow Cake mix
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 large zucchini (about 10 ounces), shredded
• 1-1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• Grated peel and juice of 1/2 lime
• 1/2 cup roasted, salted pistachio nuts (about 4 ounces), chopped
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two 12-cup muffin pans with baking liners. In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, cinnamon, cardamom, pepper and cloves. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil and milk. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until smooth; stir in the zucchini.
2. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pans, filling each cup two-thirds full. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool.
3. Sift the confectioners’ sugar into a medium bowl. Whisk in the lime peel, lime juice and 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon water until smooth. Cover each cupcake with the glaze and sprinkle with the pistachios.

RICH CARAMEL CAKE

Ingredients

1 pkg (18.25 – 18.5-oz.) chocolate cake mix
1 can (14 oz.) Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 pkg (14 oz.) caramels, unwrapped
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Directions

Heat oven to 350° F

Prepare cake mix as pkg directs. Pour 2 cups batter into greased
13×9″ baking pan, and bake 15 minutes. In heavy saucepan over low
heat, melt caramels and butter. Remove from heat, add condensed
milk, mix well. Spread caramel mixture evenly over cake, spread
remaining cake batter over caramel mixture. Top with nuts. Return
to oven; bake 25 minutes longer or until cake springs back when
lightly touched. Cool. Garnish as desired. Store leftovers covered
at room temperature

Miss Grace Lemon Cake Copycat Version

I love making this recipe in mini-bundt pans to give as gifts when I meet girlfriends for a luncheon.

1 (18.2) oz package lemon cake mix
1 (3 oz) pkg lemon-flavored gelatin
3 eggs
¾ cup cooking oil
¾ cup water (I used half lemon juice)
lemon glaze*
shredded lemon peel from 2 lemons**

IN bowl of electric mixer, combine cake mix and dry gelatin powder. Add eggs, oil and water/lemon juice. Beat at low speed to combine ingredients, then increase speed to medium & continue beating for another 2 minutes. Divide batter into 6 greased and floured mini-bundt pans (or 1 regular size Bundt pan). Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 45-50 minutes for 1 cake (or until done using the mini-Bundt pans***) (until toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean) . Cool cake in pan 10 minutes, then invert cake onto serving plate. While cake is still warm, use thin skewer to poke holes over surface of cake. Spoon warm lemon glaze over cake until all of it is absorbed. Cool.

*Lemon Glaze: combine 2 tbsp melted butter with 1 ½ cups sifted powdered sugar and 3-4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice. Mix until smooth.
**Shred the peel from 2 lemons; cook in a little butter for a few minutes, then stir in a few tablespoons of sugar, – continue cooking until the peel is candied but not brown. Sprinkle over the cake(s) after adding the glaze.
***Using the mini-bundt pans, I baked the cakes for 15 minutes (on a cookie sheet), then turned them around & continued baking; I think they were done in about 30 minutes. I used the toothpick test and also watched to see if the cake pulled away a bit from the sides of the pan.

Happy Cooking!
Sandy

THE DINING ROOM TABLE

THE DINING ROOM TABLE
AS TOLD BY
THE RETIREE-GROUP

These comments were inspired by an article I shared from My Daily Meditation.
The article dealt with how tidy we keep our work space. However, this was written sometime prior to 2008 when we moved to the desert. Now–I still have a dining room table–but my “office” is a corner of the family room and is more cluttered than ever before. The overflow all ends up on the dining room table. But here’s what we wrote about our dining room tables a few years ago:

Sandy wrote:
Ok I am guilty big time of this – my office is a TOTAL MESS; there is a lesson to be learned here, somewhere….if only I could find it.

Sharon wrote:
Ha ha..now there’s just me here in the house (so) my dining room table is covered with scrap-booking projects, along with bills, etc, but I DO know where everything is. I’m organized in my clutter…and I eat in my rocker in front of the TV or radio…which I was never allowed to do when growing up! If I plan to have company for a meal, I will have to clean the table off or cover it with a cloth or newspapers…

Marge Sallee wrote:
Sharon — Your comments about your dining room table brought a big smile to my face. We must be sisters under the skin. I spend most of my time in the study, and it gets out of hand at times. But I have an ongoing battle with the dining room table. The house is laid out in such a way that the table is the command center of the house hold. I have finally trained Dorman to use a box for the newspapers when he is finished with them, so that stack usually is under control (totally absent most of the time). The mail is always sorted there and too often the File 13 items never get to the trash but linger on the table. We always have space for us to eat on one end, but if Wendy and the children come to have supper with us (often fast food that she picks up on the way over), my first response is “Give me a few minutes to get the table cleared off.” So much of the stuff is really put there by Dorman himself, but it seems to be that whatever lands on the table is MY responsibility. Now that I use the walker more, it is very hard for me to carry things to put them away. I manage. Sometimes he is very helpful and other times, I just stuff things into a bag and carry it dangling.

That table is my trial, but I haven’t been defeated yet — overwhelmed at times, but not defeated.

Doreen wrote:
In a condo we have a combined dining room and living room with a large table. I have two leaves I can add to it. When I have a project I add the leaves and we eat at one end. It is always busy it seems, but if I clean it off it seems the whole place is clean.

Regarding the mail, I finally got an upright wicker basket and all mail comes in and goes into the basket. Next to the basket is a garbage can. If it’s junk mail, immediately goes into the bin. The opened mail often ends up back in the mail basket. Every 2-3 days I go through and divide the junk from the magazines from the bills etc. and file the remains. Before the mail basket – it ended up on the kitchen counter, usually while I was making supper and as in many households it became my responsibility to deal with.

I think all homes should be built with a Christmas tree closet (where the tree slides in and out – still decorated perhaps) and a mail station. In Saskatchewan we definitely require large entries. We have boots, coats and require space to store the shoes and we have more clothes than many parts of the world because of temperature changes. However, new homes are still being built with the 4X4 entry and the double closet door. I want a 10X12 entry with an attached bathroom facility and closets for coats, boots and shoes.

Sandy wrote:
Here are my comments about the dining room table – most of the time when I am doing projects, I work in my office on a large folding table (that never seems to get put away) and for the past week I added a card table to work on also – because I have the stacks of old photographs spread out everywhere. When I stopped scanning old photos to take a break and work on my current photo album, I used the folding table which is actually better, height-wise, because I can sit in my chair while working.

Our office has become very crowded. I have two desks – one is for the computer & printer…and Bob’s “desk” is a drafting table. There are four bookcases in here (granted two are small) plus a filing cabinet, All mail goes onto the other desk and my system is somewhat similar to Doreen’s – I go through the mail and junk gets shredded right away-magazines are separated from catalogs and a lot of the catalogs go into the trash.. I keep bills in a kind of holder that Keara made for me years ago with decoupage photos of Savannah on the outside–and try to remember to go through them about once a week. Letters that need answering (snail mail) are to the left of my computer and there is a stack of things I am working on (writing) also on the left. On the big folding table are box lids filled with my scrap-booking stuff and stickers.

Occasionally I will move to the dining room table to work on something but it’s already a catch-all (my purse, keys, outgoing mail and anything else that hasn’t made its way to the other end of the house (folded laundry) as well as bags of things I always have filled to give my sons when they drop by (cookies, magazines, coupons). We seldom EAT in the dining room unless there is company…most of the time Bob & I sit at the kitchen table or–when he’s in the mood–we carry things down to the den. When weather is good we can carry things out to the secret garden but it seems like a lot of toting to me…I’d just as soon sit at the kitchen table, an old yellow Formica table. When I want to file recipe cards or sort receipts, I often move to the dining room to work. Mine has 3 leaves–most of the time it has either 1 or 2 of the leaves in it but even with 3 leaves, it’s a tight squeeze to get ten of us around it (Bob & I, two sons, two daughters in law, four grandchildren) – anytime we have more than that it generally turns into a buffet.

I liked Doreen’s idea of a movable Christmas tree – we have a walk in closet in the dining room and it’s packed right up to the door with Christmas stuff. Lately I have been feeling…we have way too much ‘stuff’….maybe it’s that time of the year and I need to do some de-cluttering again.

Marge Nagy wrote:
Well, gals, I don’t have to worry about my dining room table. I don’t have one! Of course there is the table in the kitchen – that seems to be where my “stuff” ends up–at least the mail. I do go through it, and throw out a lot, and then I have a pile on my computer desk that is snail mail to be answered. But there are always things on the table – things I need to read more thoroughly before I throw it out, or bills that need to be taken care of in a day or two, etc. etc. Periodically (like every 10 days or so) I try to sort through it, and even though I clear a lot out, there is still stuff there! Ha! I never was “Miss Neat and Tidy”!

Sharon wrote:
I think we use the dining room table for doing things because it is so central to all that is going on in the household. If I was to set up a card-table in the basement or in one of the spare bedrooms upstairs, I would no longer be within earshot of what is going on in the house. Think of everything I would miss!

Doreen wrote:
Well, it is true, the dining or kitchen table is the center of grand central station and we all do our best work where we can grab a coffee or answer the phone or the door and let the dog out or in. Just can’t shut us away with our important papers can they?
**

URBAN LEGENDS

Urban legends. Or urban myths. I’m sure you’ve heard a few–and possibly helped perpetuate some of the myths by passing them on to others).

Columnist Jack Smith (who authored quite a few books about life in Los Angeles) once wrote in the Los Angeles Times magazine (5-6-90) that the Urban Myth or fable is like the mythical dragon that can’t be killed. “Cut off its head,” wrote Smith, “It grows another.” (Urban legends were a favorite topic for Smith, who wrote more articles about them over the years)

One that made the rounds where I worked some years ago (and was written about in Jack Smith’s article) had to do with spiders. According to the story, this couple bought a cactus at a nursery and a few days later, noticed it was moving. They called the nursery and questioned them about it. The nursery man told them to call 911 and get out of the house immediately! So, the people called the police who sent out a bomb squad and they in turn covered the cactus with a big tarp and put it into the comb container. The reason for all this concern was that, (so the story goes) tarantulas breed inside this type of cactus which is supposed to blow apart with tarantulas flying everywhere. I think, in the version that circulated around my office the spiders had taken up residence in strawberry plants.

The best urban legends, according to Jack Smith (no relation) are those that MIGHT be true; some might even have a grain of truth in them. One popular myth is that New York’s sewers are infested with alligators, the progeny of baby alligators dropped into toilets by people who brought them back from Florida as pets.
In their book “There Are Alligators in Our Sewers”, authors Paul Dickson and Joseph Goulder reported an interview with a former sewer commissioner who said that in 1935 his men discovered 2-foot alligators in the sewers and cleaned them out with rifles and poison. This urban legend continues to perpetuate, assisted no doubt by a Hill Street Blues episode years ago, which dealt, lightheartedly, with alligators in the sewers.

Jan Harold Brunvand is a writer who has capitalized, royally, on urban myths and legends, having authored “Curses! Broiled Again!”, “The Baby Train and Other Lusty Urban Legends,” “The Vanishing Hitchhiker: as well as several others. You will find the stories entertaining and may even recognize some that you’ve heard about or read about in the newspaper, passed along as gospel truth.

And what does all of this have to do with cookbooks or recipes?

Just this: while clipping recipes from a stack of old newspapers (my project every two years while the Olympics are on TV), I happened to come across an article by food writer Jan Malone who says, “In what has to be a classic example of ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’ Neiman Marcus has put a chocolate chip cookie recipe on its website.

“For years,” writes Malone, “Neiman Marcus has battled an urban legend that will not die. A ‘friend’ of the initial e-mail writer has lunch at the store’s Neiman Marcus in Dallas, eats a wonderful cookie, asks for the recipe, is told it will cost ‘two-fifty’; she thinks its two dollars and fifty cents but it’s really two hundred and fifty dollars She is so incensed when she gets her credit card bill and the store won’t refund her money, that she gets even by sending the recipe to every e-mail address she knows.

“Sometimes this tale of the greedy corporation,” Malone continues, “victimizing the small consumer who gets revenge…has a different villain. In fact, the same story circulated in the 1930s about a red velvet cake from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York”. THAT recipe “cost” $100.00 but hey, times were tough, it was the depression and all.

Malone says she has written about the cookie myth several times and one time encountered a guy who was offering a reward if the ‘friend of the email sender’ could produce a credit card receipt for the $250 purchase but so far there have been no takers.

Still, writes Malone, people refuse to believe that the story is a hoax even though Neiman Marcus says it never served cookies in its restaurants until recently and that it always shares its recipes free of charge.

NOW—as an update—I wrote my original story about urban myths for the Cookbook Collectors Exchange in 1998. While going through my notes, I wondered if the cookie story was still making the rounds –so I Googled it. AND the answer is – YES, the cookie myth is still making the rounds – but NOW if you type in “chocolate chip cookie myth” on Google – one of the sites that pops up is from – none other than Neiman Marcus with the recipe AND their offer – copy it, print it, pass it along to your friends and relatives. It’s a terrific recipe – and it’s FREE.
So how did this story ever get started? According to Los Angeles Times writer Daniel Puzo, “Pat Zajac, a Neiman Marcus spokesperson in Dallas, said that the tall tale has been circulating ever since she went to work for Neiman Marcus in 1986. The first newspaper story she saw on the bogus cookie recipe appeared in 1988…”

“One of the most interesting aspects of this phenomena,” says Puzo, “is that no one ever knows the exact source…the information is anywhere between third and 17th hand information…”

So as I dug through mountains of food-related clippings and files (you wouldn’t believe what I save) I happened to come across the very same recipe and the SAME story – but wait! Now it was titled “RECIPE FOR MRS. FIELD’S COOKIES”!
My recipe-sleuth buddies, Pat & Stan, who used to provide much research assistance, searched on the internet for information about the NOT-Neiman Marus $250 cookie or the Waldorf Astoria Red Velvet cake. They were richly rewarded for their efforts although Pat remained non-plussed. “I never even HEARD of the expression ‘urban legend’,” she told me, “Until you brought it up!”

One of the more interesting finds in their internet exploration, was a story about a $25 Fudge cake that appeared in a 1948 “Massachusetts Cooking Rules, Old and New”, which came with the following explanation:

“This friend had to pay $25 upon receipt of the recipe from the chef of one of the railroads. She had asked for the recipe while eating on a train. The chef gladly sent it to her, with a bill for $25 which her attorney said she had to pay. She then gave the recipe to all her friends, hoping they would get some pleasure from it”. Sound familiar?

The Neiman Marcus cookie recipe was also reproduced in Regina Barreca’s 1995 book “Sweet Revenge: the Wicked Delights of Getting Even” where it was passed along as a tale one of her students received off the computer in March, 2994, supposedly a true story that happened to one “Donna Anderson”.

As to why these legends take on a life of their own, despite persistent and detailed debunking, one internet writer explains, “It’s the classic David and Goliath story”. It is, after all, the little guy smacking the big heartless corporation a swift one right across the nose, something both you and I have longed to do….”
I have copies of the $250 chocolate chip cookie recipe, complete with its urban legend—and the recipe is actually quite good—and I have seen the $100 Red Velvet Cake recipe in many old cookbooks, complete with the Waldorf Astoria’s Urban Legend. No mention of the Red Velvet Cake can be found, however, IN the Waldorf Astoria Cookbook. My researchers spent countless hours trying to track down the original, digging through stacks of old cookbooks and piles of clippings.
As it turned out, it was my dauntless researcher, Pat, who finally tracked it down with the help of her Arkansas Aunt Sharlette—who was in her 80s at the time I originally wrote this piece in 1998. Not only did Aunt Sharlette have the recipe WITH the Waldorf Astoria Red Velvet Cake title FROM the 1930s—but she also had $100 also written across the side of it. Aunt Sharlette had gotten the recipe from her mother. Aunt Sharlette (who had an excellent memory) recalled that the story was of a couple of diners at the Waldorf, who asked for the recipe for the delicious chocolate cake they had had for dessert. Then they were told that the recipe would be $100—and now, as Paul Harvey would have said, you know the rest of the story. What gives me pause, in all of these cases, is that the recipes in question ARE really wonderful—you don’t need an urban legend tacked on to make them great.

To Make “Neiman Marcus” chocolate chip cookies:
Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder
1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream the butter with the sugars using an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy (approximately 30 seconds)

2. Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract for another 30 seconds.

3. In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture at low speed for about 15 seconds. Stir in the espresso coffee powder and chocolate chips.

4. Using a 1 ounce scoop or a 2 tablespoon measure, drop cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Gently press down on the dough with the back of a spoon to spread out into a 2 inch circle. Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned around the edges. Bake a little longer for a crispier cookie. Yield: 2 dozen cookies

To Make Mrs. Field’s chocolate chip cookies:
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Total Time: 32 minutes
Ingredients:
• 4 cups flour
• 5 cups quick-cooking oatmeal (measure first and then blend to a powder in food processor)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups butter at room temperature (do not melt the butter beforehand)
• 2 cups granulated white sugar
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 12 ounces chocolate chips
• 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate bar, grated
• 3 cups chopped pecans or other nuts
• 1 cup raisins, soaked in hot tap water for 15 minutes, drained and patted dry (optional)
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375 F. Line baking sheets with Silpat baking liners or parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, oatmeal powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until fluffy.

Add flour mixture, 1/4 at a time, blending until combined.

Fold in chocolate chips, grated chocolate, pecans, and raisins, if using.

Scoop out balls of dough about the diameter of a golf ball. Place 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Yield: about 112 cookies

Note: This recipe makes a lot of cookies. You can cut the recipe in half – or do as I do; make the entire batch of dough. Bake a few dozen cookies. Then I shape the remaining dough into balls using a cookie dough scoop. I put the scoops of dough into 2-quart plastic Gladlock containers and when it’s full, cover and put it into the freezer. You have instant cookies whenever you feel like baking a few more.

This recipe made the rounds in my office in the early 70s with no attribution. I have no clue about its origin, but it has become a mainstream standard. It is an urban legend similar to the Neiman Marcus cookie. Mrs. Fields’ spokesperson has denied this emphatically, saying they have never sold their recipe to any individual. However, this recipe actually makes good cookies, very similar to the soft, chewy ones sold at her stores. As you can tell from the ingredients, they are far from heart-healthy, but they sure are good. Here is how the legend (I repeat…legend…) goes:

A woman who works with the American Bar Association called Mrs. Fields Cookies and asked for the recipe. She assumed it was a $2.50 fee, and she charged it to her credit card. It was not $2.50 but $250.00. In order to get her money’s worth, she shared the recipe with everyone.

If you google Waldorf Astoria cake, you will get over 29,000 hits—from which I must surmise that urban legends notwithstanding, the cake is alive and well whether the price on it is $25 or $100. Or $250.00 for that matter. I just want to add that the first time I tasted red velvet cake, my friend Sylvia had made it for one of our parties and I assumed (incorrectly, as it turns out) that the cake was something native to her hometown in Oklahoma.

To make the Waldorf Astoria $100 chocolate cake:
You will need:
1/2 c. butter
4 squares bitter chocolate
1 tsp. salt
1 c. nuts, chopped
2 c. sugar
2 c. cake flour, sifted
2 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. milk
2 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and sugar. Add melted chocolate and eggs. Sift dry ingredients together and add alternately with milk. Add vanilla and nuts. Put batter in layer pans (greased and floured) and bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Top with $100 Waldorf Chocolate Frosting.

To make the $100 Waldorf Astoria chocolate frosting:

1 lb. powdered sugar
1/4 lb. butter
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 egg, beaten
1 c. chopped nuts
2 squares melted bitter chocolate or 1/4 c. cocoa, dissolved in sm. amount water
1 tsp. vanilla

Beat egg and add lemon juice. Add butter, chocolate and vanilla. Add sugar gradually, beating all the while. If frosting is too thick, add hot strong coffee or cream, as much as is needed to make frosting thin enough to spread.
Last but not least, the famous (or infamous) Red Velvet Cake:

Waldorf Astoria Red Velvet Cake

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 ounces red food coloring
• 2 tablespoons cocoa (heaping)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vinegar

FROSTING
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup butter (must be butter)

Directions:

Prep Time: 15 mins
Total Time: 45 mins

* Cream shortening, sugar and eggs.
* Make a paste of food coloring and cocoa.
* Add to creamed mixture.
* Add buttermilk alternating with flour and salt.
* Add vanilla.
* Add soda to vinegar, and blend into the batter.
* Pour into 3 or 4 greased and floured 8″ cake pans.
* Bake at 350°F for 24-30 minutes.
* Split layers fill and frost with the following frosting.
* Frosting: Add milk to flour slowly, avoiding lumps.
* Cook flour and milk until very thick, stirring constantly.
* Cool completely.
* Cream sugar, butter and vanilla until fluffy.
* Add to cooked mixture.
* Beat, high speed, until very fluffy.
* Looks and tastes like whipped cream.

As a final word – urban legends continue to proliferate. Many are so disgusting that I wouldn’t even THINK of sharing them with my readers, even if they ARE myths, legends, completely untrue. If you want to find out for yourself, just Google “urban legends” and spend the next hour making yourself completely grossed out. As for ME I think I will make some Neiman Marcus or Mrs. Field’s cookies. Or a Waldorf Astoria Red Velvet cake – YUM!

–Sandra Lee Smith