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

THE ORIGINS OF WEIRD RECIPES

You have to stop and wonder, sometimes, about the origins of some recipes. I can imagine how some of them might have come about—I can picture myself making a chocolate cake and suddenly realizing I don’t have enough eggs or oil. I might think hmmmm, mayonnaise is made up from oil and eggs—I wonder if I can just substitute half a cup of mayo for the missing oil and eggs—and voila! I’ve just created chocolate mayonnaise cake. This makes perfect sense to me. And in case you are wondering, the recipe is very good. Equally delicious are chocolate mayonnaise cookies—I took them to work a few times and was almost embarrassed to divulge the recipe. What could be easier? Chocolate cake mix, some mayonnaise and one or two other ingredients.

But sauerkraut cake? Somehow I just can’t picture the lady of the kitchen thinking, gee, I don’t have any coconut for my coconut cake—maybe I’ll just open up a can of sauerkraut and rinse it off and no one will ever know it isn’t coconut…I certainly wouldn’t risk ruining a recipe I had already started, with an ingredient that is so totally off the wall. And what about avocado cake or pinto bean cake? What were those culinary artists THINKING?

You have to wonder about tomato soup cake too (granted, it’s delicious) – but whose idea was it to throw in a can of tomato soup to make a spice cake? Was it someone experimenting in the Campbell Soup Kitchen, or a housewife with a little too much time on her hands? (No one seems to know the origin of tomato soup cake although it does appear in some of the older Campbell Soup cookbooks. Note: the oldest reference I have found for tomato soup cake is in a 1940 cookbook.

There are a lot of off the wall (i.e. weird) recipes. Enough that in 1977 a local (Southern California) radio show host, Geoff Edwards of KMPC in Los Angeles, put together a cookbook of wacky recipes and titled it “YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING COOKBOOK”. Listeners sent in the recipes. All of the above were included—although I have seen them all elsewhere—and then some. There is even an authentic recipe for stuffed Roast Camel. Geoff said it was served sometimes at Bedouin weddings. Ew, Ew. That ranks right up there with Spam mousse, as far as I am concerned. I’ll take your word for it that it’s delicious. (Per Google, Tang is a sweet and tangy, orange-flavored, non-carbonated soft drink can be found at Tops, Wegmans, Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aide, Walmart, and Target—so it’s STILL available.)

As for tomato soup cake AKA Mystery Cake this appears to have originated in the 1920s when cake was usually topped off with Philadelphia Cream Cheese frosting and we all have to admit, that’s pretty good frosting. I especially like the cream cheese frosting with carrot cake—and although most of us have become accustomed to carrot cake and zucchini bread—don’t you have to wonder whose idea it was to toss these things into cake batter in the first place? That was before we took up gardening and discovered how zucchini can take over a back yard garden patch and your life. You have to DO something with all those squashes—friends and neighbors will only take so many zucchinis even if you resort to leaving them wrapped in a baby blanket on their front porch. (I once delivered a large zucchini wrapped in a baby blanket to a co-worker). And whether you make zucchini bread or cake – either, I guarantee, is delicious. One of my favs is a chocolate zucchini cake and as a result of the zucchinis taking over our back yard, I began collecting zucchini recipes until I had filled a recipe box with them.

Do you suppose that the lady (or man) of the kitchen was thinking – well, carrot or zucchini worked pretty good in a cake – I wonder what will happen if I try adding red beets – and invented Harvard Beet Spice Cake? Or was it just some exhausted mother tired of trying to talk her kids into eating their veggies? I know how that can go. I raised four picky eaters. They got it from their father, King of the Picky Eaters. I often resorted to subterfuge. I dearly loved a fish almondine recipe that my penpal Betsy, in Michigan, once sent to me. The fish was topped off with slivered or shaved almonds. No one in my household would eat almonds in a “food dish” though. So I blended the almonds with bread crumbs and used it as a topping over the fish. They never knew.

So, do you suppose that the original creator of pink beet cake was some harried housewife, exhausted from trying to get her kids to eat their veggies, so she dumped a can of red beets into the cake batter and thought to herself hmmm, there’s more than one way to…. Et al.

And every time I think I have said all I need to say on a subject, I happen to come across something else. While sorting through an overflow of cookbooks (I am always sorting through an overflow of cookbooks), I found one that looked interesting and hadn’t read…a book titled CARAMEL KNOWLEDGE by Al Sicherman. CARAMEL KNOWLEDGE was published in 1988 by Harper & Row.

The author joined the Minneapolis Star & Tribune in 1968. A copy editor since 1981, Siherman has been writing articles for the food section of the Star & Tribune. Mr. Sicherman is a kindred spirit, the kind of person who ALSO wondered about pinto beans and avocadoes turning up in your cake batter. He wrote a piece called “Things that go bump in the Oven” and speculated how Catherine Hanley ever came up with the Tunnel of Fudge Cake recipe—he even called her up to ask—and he wonders about things like Impossible Pies (which we all know and love). Well, all of us who are well versed in, and collect the Pillsbury Bake-Off books, know the Tunnel of Fudge story and it appears that Impossible Pies were an accident, created by some unknown person.

(I thought the first Impossible Pie was an impossible coconut pie—the recipe appeared in a 1974 Cheviot (Ohio) PTA cookbook that my sister Becky was involved in creating. Here’s what I uncovered sleuthing on Google:

The origins of Impossible Pie (aka mystery pie, coconut amazing pie) are sketchy at best. A survey of newspaper/magazine articles suggests this recipe originated in the south (where coconut custard pies are popular). It was “discovered” by General Mills (Bisquick) and General Foods, who capitalized on the opportunity to promote their products. Corporate recipes surfaced in the mid-1970s. There are conflicting reports about the dates of introduction. The earliest recipe we have on file was published in 1968. None of the ingredients are name-brand.
This article sums up the situation best:

“Amazing. Mysterious. It could be none other than Impossible Pie, one of the most successful corporate recipe projects in the U.S. food-marketing history. Versions of Impossible Pie were also named Mystery Pie or Amazing Coconut Pie. By any name, though, Americans took to the easy recipe that is adaptable for making both sweet dessert pies and savory meat, vegetable and cheese pies. Back when quiche was trendy, the Impossible Pie formula called for ingredients similar to those for quiche yet eliminated the need to make a separate pastry crust…Not one but two huge food corporations benefited by popularizing the simple recipe formula for the Impossible Pie mixtures: the two big “Generals.” One was the Minneapolis-based General Mills, home of mythical Betty Crocker and maker of Bisquick all-purpose baking mix. The other was General Foods of White Plains, N.Y., marketer of Angel Flake processed coconut…The real mystery: Where did this recipe originate? We know the two “Generals” took a basic formula and then developed variations to showcase their respective products. Lisa Van Riper, spokeswoman for Kraft General Foods, said the company’s well-advertised recipe for Amazing Coconut Pie, “was developed as a result of a creative adaptation of the Bisquick Impossible Pies. We took a Bisquick Impossible Pie and did a creative twist by adding coconut, raisins and some other things. That was developed in June 1976 by our test-kitchen’s task force from a recipe submitted by various sources. Essentially that source was the Bisquick Impossible Pie. The Amazing Coconut Pie recipe also forms its own crust–with the baking mix sinking to the bottom of a custard mixture–and has been used ever since 1976, according to Van Riper. General Mills’ Marcia Copeland, director of Betty Crocker foods and publications, recalls that “we first saw the recipe for (crustless) coconut custard pies in Southern community cookbooks.” So it was a grass-roots recipe first, origin unknown. Some very old community cookbooks contain pie recipes that make their own crusts just from flour; others call for homemade biscuit mix. Copeland said that the Impossible Pie phenomenon lasted from the late 1970s through the 80s…

And now you know the rest of the story. But let me add that I have friends who are still making impossible pies. Last year, I copied a bunch of the recipes and sent them to a girlfriend.

Back to CARAMEL KNOWLEDGE: Sicherman asked “Did you ever wonder, when you were eating a piece of bread, how in the world anybody figured out what yeast would do what it does in there? Or have you ever wondered what caveman reasoned that smashing a chicken egg into some other stuff would be anything but peculiar? (or how many times he did it before it occurred to him to remove the shell?)…”

Now this opens an entirely new vista: I haven’t been worrying about eggs and yeast, having been focused on strange things in my cake batter, but you get the picture.

And then there are all sorts of other peculiar things like mock apple pie, being made from Ritz crackers –another topic for another day. (See my article title “Mock Apple Pie and other Foodie Wannabees” posted on 2/6/11)

If you want to try some of these recipes, here goes:

To make IMPOSSIBLE COCONUT PIE
2 CUPS milk
¼ cup butter or margarine
1½ tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 cup flaked or shredded coconut
¾ cup sugar
½ cup Bisquick baking mix

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease pie plate, 9×1¼ x 1½ inches. Place all ingredients in blender container. Cover and blend on high 15 seconds. Pour into pie plate. Bake until knife inserted in center comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes. Cool.

One of my favorite Impossible pies is the pumpkin one – and since it’s just a few weeks until Thanksgiving, let me share this one with you too:

TO MAKE IMPOSSIBLE PUMPKIN PIE

1 CAN (16 OZ) pumpkin
1 can (13 oz) evaporated milk
2 TSP butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs
¾ cup sugar
½ cup Bisquick Baking mix
2½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease pie plate, 9×1¼ x 1½ inches. Beat all ingredients 1 minute in blender on high, or 2 minutes with hand beater. Pour into plate. Bake until knife inserted in center comes out clean, 50-55 minutes.

Zucchini Chocolate Cake

2 cups flour
1 tsp EACH baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon,
1l2 tsp each nutmeg and salt
1/4 cup cocoa
3 eggs
1 tsp each vanilla extract and grated orange peel
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups shredded unpeeled zucchini (3 or 4)
1 cup walnuts or pecans

Use shredded raw or pureed cooked zucchini (gives a finer texture) Preheat oven 350.
Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and cocoa and set aside.
In large bowl beat eggs very light. Gradually add sugar and beat until fluffy and pale ivory in color. Slowly beat in oil.

Stir in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk and zucchini. Blend well. Add nuts (if using). Put into sheet cake pan or 2 9″ layer cake pans. Bake 350 40-45 minutes for layers, 1 hr for sheet. Layers: fill and frost with icing. Sheet cake: while warm drizzle with orange glaze.

GLAZE: Stir in bowl, 1 cup powdered sugar, 5 tsp orange juice, 1 tsp shredded orange peel and 1 TBSP hot melted butter.

AL SICHERMAN’S SAUERKRAUT FUDGE CAKE (requires 10” tube pan)

2/3 cup sauerkraut
2¼ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2/3 cup butter or margarine
1½ cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
9 oz dairy sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup water
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

PENUCHE GLAZE:
¼ CUP BUTTER
½ CUP BROWN SUGAR
2 TBSP HOT MILK
¾ CUP SIFTED POWDERED SUGAR

Thoroughly grease a10” tube pan. Cut a ring of brown paper to fit the bottom of the pan and grease that, too. (*if you don’t have any brown paper, I think parchment paper will work just as well)

Drain and rinse the sauerkraut and snip it into very small pieces.

Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda, salt and cocoa. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy and add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla.

Alternately add dry ingredients and water to the butter mixture, stirring after each addition and beginning and ending with the dry ingredients Fold in sauerkraut and chocolate chips.

Turn into prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees 55 minutes to an hour, or until cake is springy. (Toothpick test won’t work). Remove from oven, cool 10 minutes; loosen cake from sides of pan with knife and invert on serving plate. Peel paper from the top.

Prepare glaze; melt butter and brown sugar together. Boil 1 minute or until slightly thickened. Cool 10 minutes, then beat in hot milk. Add sifted powdered (confectioners) sugar, stirring until glaze consistency. Drizzle over slightly warm cake.

QUICK CHOCOLATE COOKIES

1 PKG chocolate cake mix, 2 layer size
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
½ cup Miracle Whip dressing
½ cup chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until blended. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets* Bake 10-23 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Makes 4 dozen.

(*Sandy’s cooknote: I’ve said this many times. I don’t grease cookie sheets anymore. I use parchment paper, cut to fit the cookie sheets and you can use it REPEATEDLY. It works much better than greasing the cookie sheets).

PINTO BEAN CAKE

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 2 cups cooked pinto beans, mashed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 2 cups diced apple without peel

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease one 9 or 10 inch tube pan.
2. Cream butter or margarine and sugar together. Add the beaten egg and mix well. Stir in the mashed cooked beans and the vanilla.
3. Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground allspice together. Add the chopped pecans, golden raisins, and the diced apples to the flour mixture. Stir to coat. Pour flour mixture into the creamed mixture and stir until just combined. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
4. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 45 minutes. Dribble with a simple confectioner’s sugar icing and garnish with candied cherries and pecan halves, if desired.

Chocolate Sauerkraut Cake

¾ cup sauerkraut drained and chopped
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup butter
3 eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 cup water
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Sift all dry ingredients together. Cream sugar, butter and vanilla. Beat eggs in one at a time.
2. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture alternately with water.
3. Add sauerkraut mix thoroughly.
4. Pour into greased pan or pans.
5. Bake 30 to 40 minutes until cake tests done.
6. Frost

CHOCOLATE MAYONNAISE CAKE

Ingredients:
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Sift together the flour, cocoa, soda and salt. Cream together the sugar, mayonnaise, water and vanilla. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture; stir until well blended. Pour batter into greased and floured layer cake pans (or a 9- x 13-inch pan). Bake at 350°F. for about 25 minutes.

RED BEET CAKE
1 3/4 c. flour
1 c. oil
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. pureed cooked fresh beets (if using canned, drain and mash.)
6 tbsp. carob or chocolate
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix flour, soda, salt and set aside. Combine sugar, eggs, oil in mixing bowl. Beat in beets, chocolate and vanilla. Gradually add dry ingredients, beating well. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
This is an excellent cake. Healthy too. Very moist.

Chocolate Avocado Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour
6 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup soft avocado, well mashed, about 1 medium avocado
2 cups water
2 Tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8 or 9-inch tins. Set aside. Sift together all of the dry ingredients except the sugar. Set that aside too. Mix all the wet ingredients together in a bowl, including the super mashed avocado. Add sugar into the wet mix and stir. Mix the wet with the dry all at once, and beat with a whisk (by hand) until smooth.

Pour batter into greased cake tins. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cakes cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto cooling racks to cool completely before icing.
**
I read about a tomato soup cake “from Michigan” which made me wonder –DID tomato soup cake originate in Michigan? I turned to two of my favorite resources, AMERICA COOKS by the Browns, published in 1940 – attributes Tomato Soup Cake to Michigan, as do Larry Massie & Priscilla Massie in their fantastic cookbook “WALNUT PICKLES AND WATERMELON CAKE” which does indeed offer a recipe for tomato soup cake. Their recipe comes from a 1945 Kalamazoo community cookbook. Here is that recipe for tomato soup cake:

1 cup sugar
2 TSP shortening
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 can tomato soup
1 ½ cups flour
1 cup raisins
½ cup chopped nut meats

Cream shortening, add sugar, then tomato soup, then flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and soda. Then add raisins and nuts and bake in a loaf pan for about 50 minutes at 350 degrees.

And here is the Tomato Soup cake recipe in the Browns cookbook, “AMERICA COOKS”:

½ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup tomato soup, undiluted
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cloves
1 tsp nutmeg
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts

Blend the shortening with sugar. Stir baking soda into tomato soup and add to shortening/sugar mixture. Sift dry ingredients and add the mixture. Stir in raisins and walnuts. Pour into greased and floured 13” by 9” cake pan and bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes. Frost with a Cream Cheese Frosting.

To make the Browns’ Frosting for tomato soup cake:

1 pkg cream cheese
1 TBSP butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
Powdered sugar to spreading consistency

The Browns note that the shortening they used was Crisco and one entire can of Campbell’s condensed and undiluted tomato soup equaled one cup. Now this may be a minor discrepancy in today’s can of Campbell’s tomato soup, inasmuch as all of the soups measure a net weight of 10 ¾ ounces…but when you pour the contents of a cream soup into a glass measuring cup—it’s just a shade over 8 ounces. What to do? Use a can of tomato soup and go ahead with the recipe. I don’t think it will make any difference. If you are a purist, scoop away anything over one cup.

Happy Cooking!

Sandy

THREE QUITE UNRELATED COOKBOOKS AND SEVENTY YEARS – PART ONE

Quite unintentionally, three cookbooks ended up in a short stack together as I was engaged in my perpetual endeavor to find places for all the cookbooks on my bookshelves. Yes, there are a good many nice solid oak bookshelves throughout the house – many of them hold my collection of cookie jars and recipe boxes (you can’t imagine how much space cookie jars take up when you have a lot of them) – periodically I go on rampages with the cookbooks, thinning out their ranks a little—to make room for more. Anyway, I was sitting on the floor reflecting on how much of my life is spent trying to find space for books, when my line of vision fell on these three particular books. The oldest was first published in 1939, reprinted in 1940. The newest was published in 2009and the one in the middle, in 1996—a span of seventy years from the oldest to the youngest.

Not by any means are these three cookbooks representative of cookbooks in general—and we could spend days discussing all the different types of cookbooks. But I think they do provide some indication of the evolution of cookbooks in the past 70 years.

First then, is a book titled “WORLD FAMOUS CHEFS’ COOKBOOK/RARE OLD RECIPES, ARRANGE FOR THE HOMEMAKER.” This book opens with recipes from Grand Hotel, Stockholm. You may know that our word “smorgasbord” comes from the Swedish, famous for hors d’oeuvres and buffet foods. In the introduction to Smorgasbord, the author writes…While the American buffet table may sometimes be set with one side close to the wall, Swedish smorgasbord is always set so that guests may walk all around it. At one end is placed an assortment of sliced bread, including rye and slabs of Swedish bread; butter molded in fancy shapes and arranged on a bed of ice is found nearby, with suitable service utensil. As the fundamental meaning of the word “smorgas” is sandwich (I didn’t know that!) so the foundation idea of the “smorgasbord” is a “sandwich table”, therefore all kinds of pickled, smoked, dried and salted fish, as well as platters of cold meat cuts and cheese, always appear near the bread and butter supply. The guest helps himself to bread, butter, and an assortment of delicacies from which he may make his own “sandwiches”; however, neither sandwiches nor canapés, as such, ever appear on the authentic smorgasbord.

Then, around the table, are arranged an amazing array of colorful salads of which the Swedish herring salad is a ‘must’. Many clear aspic salads are included too. If the smorgasbord is to serve as a main meal, such as dinner or supper, and there are too many guests to seat at the tale, several hot dishes are also included as part of the menu.

The mistake that most American diners make, when they first see a smorgasbord, is over-emphasis on the appetizer angle. The epicure, however, soon learns that these delicacies are not meant to satisfy his appetite but to stimulate it, and he therefore deftly and delicately serves himself what might perhaps seem but tidbits to the gourmand—for he realizes that the smorgasbord either offers and entire meal or precedes a full-course one…”

What follows in this chapter is a tantalizing assortment of cold sauce recipes, chilled or jellied fish dishes—recipes for herring, crawfish, boiled crabs in Remoulade Sauce, Salmon Mousse with eggs and many others.

I am partial to recipes for relishes and “World Famous Chefs” offers a great selection—from Grape Catchup (which I’d love to try) to a standard tomato catchup, recipes for chutneys and pickled fruits and vegetables. I found a recipe for Spiced Grapes which made me chuckle – I thought I had discovered something new a year or so ago with an Internet recipe for pickled grapes – and here they are, in a 1939 cookbook!

“World Famous Chefs” offers recipes from the Netherland Plaza—I gasped to see it; this was a famous restaurant in downtown Cincinnati when I was growing up. Included in the book are many of the meat entrees served at the Netherland Plaza back in the day—including – be still my heart – a quite authentic recipe for Hungarian Goulash! (see recipe below). This section is followed by recipes from the Pennsylvania Hotel, New York—you must bear in mind, these were the top notch restaurants 70 years ago. If I were to choose one from the Pennsylvania Hotel, I think it would be the Chopped Cowboy Tenderloin Steak.*

Next is Hotel Adolphus, in Dallas, which opened its doors in 1912 and was still going strong in 1939. Chicken legs can often be purchased inexpensively, so I will include the Adolphus recipe for Deviled Chicken Legs.*

There are also recipes and chapters dedicated to Canadian Hotels as well as many others – but this is a book well conceived and curiously compiled. It was compiled by Ford Naylor and arranged and edited by Irene Hume Taylor, a home economics lecturer and writer/consultant. “Every recipe in this book,” writes Ford Naylor, with few exceptions, is a secret recipe which has been jealously guarded…” Well, the secret’s out. FYI, you know I generally try to find out through Google if a book I am writing about is available. Amazon.com has one used copy of “World Famous Chefs” listed at $29.95.

TO MAKE SPICED GRAPES YOU WILL NEED

4 LBS grapes
2 lbs sugar
1 tsp mixed spices
¼ up cider vinegar

Crush grapes in a preserving kettle; cook over gentle heat until seeds separate. Rub through fine colander. Add sugar, spice sand vinegar to pulp; cook 30 minutes or until slightly thickened. Pour into scalded jelly jars and seal.

TO MAKE THE HOTEL ADOLPHUS DEVILED CHICKEN LEGS YOU WILL NEED

12 cooked chicken legs
6 TBSP butter
1 tsp prepared mustard
¼ tsp pepper
½ tsp salt
½ tsp paprika
1 tsp vinegar
1 egg, beaten
¾ cup bread crumbs
3 cups hot seasoned mashed potatoes
1 ½ cups Bearnaise suace**

Put chicken legs under broiler for 10 minutes. Cream the butter, mustard, pepper, salt, paprika and vinegar together. Remove legs from heat, dip in beaten egg, then rub each with the butter mixture. Place in baking pan, cover with the bread crumbs and bake in a moderate oven until browned. Serve 2 deviled legs with a scoop of mashed potatoes and 4 TBSP Bearnaise sauce.

To make a simple Bearnaise Sauce you will need
1 shallot
½ tsp ground white pepper
Little chopped tarragon
Chervil
2 soupspoons white wine
5 egg yolks
1 lb sweet butter, melted
1 little chopped tarragon chervil
Cook shallot, cook with ground white pepper, tarragon chervil and w hite wine until no liquid is left. Cool it then add the egg yolks stirring well. Cook in double boiler until it starts to thicken, add the melted sweet butter very slowly. Strain, season, add the second chopped chervil. Serve with broiled meat or chicken. Serves 5.

Sandy’s cooknote: I know, I almost fainted over a pound of butter going into the recipe. But I THINK the leftover Bearnaise would keep a long time in the frig and would be available to go on other recipes for steaks or chicken.

From the Pennsylvania, here is their recipe for Chopped Cowboy Tenderloin Steak:

1 lb chopped steak
½ tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 tsp minced onion

Mix ingredients, then shape into small flat 4-oz cakes. Fry or pan broil in clear fat. Serves 6. Easy, yes?

And from the Netherlands Plaza, here is their recipe for Hungarian Goulash:

4 lbs beef from the neck or shoulder
2 onions minced,
Garlic, chopped
Salt, pepper, paprika,
2 tbsp flour
1 qt stock
2 TBSP tomato puree or paste
2 fresh tomatoes
2 carrots, diced
2 large potatoes, diced
1 tsp chopped parsley

Cut the meat into 2” cubes. Place in a frying pan with 1 TBSP of lard (or cooking oil) and brown for a few minutes. Remove the meat and place a stew pan. Add the onions, little garlic, salt, pepper, paprika and flour. Mix this well together. Add stock, tomato puree, chopped fresh tomatoes and bring to a boil. Then add carrots and cook for about 1 hour. Next add the potatoes and cook until tender. Place the stew in a serving dish and sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve, Serves 6.

(Sandy’s cooknote: Judy, if you are reading this, this one’s for you.)

Well, it wasn’t my intention to make this a two or three part post but I really got carried away with World Famous Chefs and OMG, I could spend another week rhapsodizing about it. I am trying to think where my copy came from – I THINK the book may have originally been one of my sister Becky’s.

End of Part One

Happy Cooking and Happy Cookbook Collecting!

Sandy

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

JAM SESSIONS

Even though I collect recipes, recipe boxes and cookbooks—and at first glance it might seem there isn’t any rhyme or reason to what I am collecting – there actually is a method to my madness. For instance, all of the canning/pickling/jam & jelly making/chutney cookbooks are in a single bookcase in Bob’s room. There is an old fashioned extra long recipe box decorated with a Pennsylvania Dutch design also in that bookcase – because it contains all the jam and jelly and chutney and pickle recipes that are on 3×5” cards, collected over a period of about 45 years. But in addition, there is a larger recipe tin, one that Gooseberry Patch sold a few years ago (it has a retro look) – and all of the recipe cards that are oversize are in that box. But wait—I’m not through; in the garage library are all of my three ring binders filled with recipes. There is one for chutneys, another for jellies and jams, several for pickle recipes. These are the 8 ½ x 11” recipes clipped from magazines where I wanted to save the entire article.

Before we moved to the high desert in 2008 we lived in a house in Arleta, in the San Fernando Valley, that boasted a yard with twenty something fruit trees, not including nut (walnut and macadamia) and a Concord grape arbor. We lived there for almost 20 years and made every effort to can/pickle/dehydrate or convert into jams and jellies, butters and spreads—all the harvest our trees produced.

Our new home has grape vines and we have planted 4 fruit trees so far. It may be a few years before I can drag out all of the quart jars again. Meantime, I rely heavily on anyone we know, or anyone my son and daughter in law know, who have fruit trees and more fruit than they know what to do with. It delights me no end that one of their friends has a lot of pomegranate trees. Now, here’s something you may or may not know about pomegranates. They are a pain in the behind to peel and retrieve all the little ruby bits of fruit. I think I have finally found a pretty good way to do it—something I saw on Google: you cut a big X in the top of the fruit, and then, holding it underwater in a big bowl, begin removing the peel and letting the beautiful fruit fall to the bottom. When I have enough of the fruit, I put it into large Zip lock bags and begin mashing it with my hands or a rolling pin….over and over until I have a lot of juice. Strain and pour into jars (We have a collection of one gallon pickle jars that I get out when I am making juice to make jelly/jam.

The ‘jack pot’ to converting the fruit to juice is making pomegranate jelly. Everybody loves it. My friends and their children all ask for it. We have also made pomegranate liqueur which, after it has aged for about ten years (if you can keep it that long) becomes like a fine brandy. I love to make liqueurs. We save up all the small glass bottles we can find, soak off the labels and have them ready for liqueurs ready to be bottled.

Another plus to living in the high desert is being near the Bing cherry trees –and cherry liqueur is another great gift to have on hand to give to friends for the holidays. One of the directions said to discard the fruit after aging it in vodka for a few months. Discard it? Not a chance. I have the now-almost-dried cherries in our second refrigerator and have used some of it in fruitcakes. One year, experimenting, I made a chocolate cherry Bundt cake with the cherries. Once the cherries have dried out from months of soaking in vodka, the seeds are pretty easy to remove.

When I was still employed full-time, I had a ready-made fan base in the department where I worked so I could give everyone a jar of jelly or jam at Christmas and still have a lot leftover for family and friends.
Well, I’m retired now so the recipients of our jellies and jams are my manicurist, the mail carrier, family and friends.

When did I start making jellies or jams? I’m not sure although I do remember (and so does my son Chris) that in the beginning I used baby food jars to put the jelly or jam into, and then sealed it with melted paraffin. It’s been years since I’ve done anything like that – we graduated to 8 ounce jelly jars that come with rings and lids and the finished product creates a vacuum seal when it cools (and lasts much longer than jam in a baby food jar).

We had enough fruit trees in Arleta to experiment with recipes and for about 15 years, we entered my jellies, jams, pickles, relishes and other good things into the Los Angeles County Fair. We had two fig trees; I made pickled figs and fig/almond relish, brandied figs and mock strawberry jam made with – finely chopped figs.

Well, you get the picture. I often thought maybe I was a squirrel in a former life; whenever the fruit on our trees began to ripen, I began to search through my recipes to see what I could make next.

Some of my most popular recipes weren’t made with the fruit from our yard – everyone loved a chocolate-raspberry spread I began making and I’d get a lot of requests for it.

Here, then, is the recipe for Chocolate Raspberry Spread. To make this recipe you will need:

5 cups prepared fruit (about 4 pints fully ripe red raspberries)
7 cups sugar
1 box fruit pectin (I prefer Ball low sugar pectin)
5 squares unsweetened chocolate
½ tsp butter or margarine

First, prepare your jelly jars. Wash the jars in hot, soapy water then place them in a large pot. Fill with water and bring to a boil. Wash the lids and rings. Put the lids into a saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Let simmer over a low flame to keep the lids hot.

Crush berries thoroughly, one cup at a time. Sieve ½ of the pulp to remove some seeds, if desired. Measure 5 cups into a 6 or 8 quart saucepan.

Measure sugar into a separate bowl. Stir fruit pectin into fruit in saucepan. Add chocolate and margarine. Bring mixture to full rolling boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Quickly stir in all sugar. Return to full rolling boil and boil for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with a metal spoon. Ladle quickly into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8” of the tops. Wipe jar rims and threads with a damp cloth. Cover with two piece lids. Screw bands tightly.

At this point, you can give the jars of chocolate raspberry spread a boiling water bath for 5 minutes—or if the jars were still very hot when you took them out of the water, and filled almost immediately after, they should produce a seal without the boiling water bath. You will hear a slight “ping” from each jar as it produces a vacuum. Spread sets slowly; allow about a week. Makes about 9 one-cup jars. Your friends will love you for this one!

This next recipe was originally called Triple Berry Jam; I renamed it Hunka Hunka Berry Jam. To make Hunka Hunka Berry Jam you will need:

5 cups prepared fruit (about 3 pints fully ripe strawberries, 1 ½ pints fully ripe red raspberries and 2 pints fully ripe blackberries (or any combination to make 5 cups – whatever is available or on sale).
7 cups sugar
1 box fruit pectin (My first choice is Ball Low Sugar Pectin
½ tsp butter or margarine

Stem and thoroughly crush strawberries one layer at a time. Measure 2½ cups into a 6 or 8 quart saucepan. Crush raspberries and blackberries, one layer at a time. Measure 2 ½ cups berries into the pot. Prepare jars and rings as instructed in directions for chocolate raspberry spread.

Measure sugar into a separate bowl. Stir pectin into the fruit in the saucepan. Add butter or margarine Place over high heat; bring to a full rolling boil stirring constantly. Immediately stir in all sugar. Bring to a full boil and boil 1 minute stirring constantly. Remove from heat, skim off any foam. Ladle quickly into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8” of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads with a damp cloth. Cover with two piece lids. Screw bands tightly. At this point, you can give the jars of jam a boiling water bath for 5 minutes—or if the jars were still very hot when you took them out of the water, and filled almost immediately after, they should produce a seal without the boiling water bath. You will hear a slight “ping” from each jar as it produces a vacuum. Makes about 8 one cup jars.

Note: when you use Ball low-sugar powdered pectin, you CAN reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe; you won’t get as great a yield but the jam will have a much fruitier taste. When I am using the low sugar pectin, I usually use about 4 cups of sugar for this recipe. Also note, the sealed jars of jelly/jam do not need to be refrigerated until you open them. THEN you need to keep the opened jar in the frig.

CANDY APPLE JELLY

You can make this any time of the year because it uses a commercial apple juice. Friends always loved this jelly too. To make Candy Apple jelly you will need

7 cups apple juice
1 cup red cinnamon candies (red hots)
8 cups sugar
1 box fruit pectin
½ tsp butter or margarine

Measure apple juice and cinnamon candies into a 6 or 8 quart saucepan. Prepare jars and rings/lids as directed in first recip. Keep lids hot until ready to fill jars. Measure sugar into separate bowl. Stir fruit pectin into fruit juice in saucepot. Add butter or margarine. Bring mix to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Quickly stir in all sugar. Return to full rolling boil and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with a metal spoon. Ladle quickly into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8” of the tops. Wipe jar rims and threads with a damp cloth. Cover with 2 piece lids. Screw bands tightly. If using boiling water bath, boil 5 minutes. Otherwise, let cool and check seals after the jelly has cooled.

TO MAKE POMEGRANATE JELLY you will need
4 cups fresh pomegranate juice*
¼ tsp butter
1 tsp lemon juice
1 package low sugar powdered pectin
2 cups sugar

Mix together pomegranate juice, lemon juice, the powdered pectin and the butter in a large pot. Bring to a boil. When boiling, add sugar all at once. Return to a boil. Pour into prepared jelly jars and seal with two piece lids. Let cool.

*Nowadays you can buy very good pomegranate juice. If you don’t have access to fresh pomegranates, you might want to make the jelly using something like POM pomegranate juice. I have also made jelly with some of the combination juices like cranberry and pomegranate juice. It all works!

GRAMMY’S CHRISTMAS JAMMY

This is something I made up one year. To make Grammy’s Christmas Jammy you will need

1 package dried cherries or dried cranberries
1 package dried mixed fruit, diced
4 apples, peeled, cored and diced
3-4 fresh ripe pears, peeled and diced
2 cups apple juice
2 cups cranberry juice (or pomegranate juice)
Fresh or frozen blackberries, strawberries, raspberries (I think I used about 2 cups each fruit)

Mix together all fruits. Measure 4 cups fruit per batch and use one package low sugar pectin per batch. Add 1-2 cups of sugar per batch, depending on how sweet you want it to be. Follow previous directions.

DUTCH APPLE PIE JAM

4 CUPS prepared fruit (Granny Smith apples) ½ cup raisins and 1 ¼ cups water
2 TBSP fresh lemon juice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground allspice
4 cups granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 box powdered fruit pectin
½ tsp butter or margarine

Peel and core apples; grind or finely chop fruit Add raisins and water. Measure 4 cups into a 6 or 8 quart saucepan. Stir in lemon juice, cinnamon and allspice. Have jars prepared and lids in boiling water; keep the lids hot until ready to use.

Measure sugars into separate bowls. Stir fruit pectin into fruit in saucepot. Add butter or margarine. Bring mix to a full rolling boil o high heat, stirring constantly. Quickly stir in all sugars. Return to full rolling boil and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; skim off any foam. Ladle quickly into prepared jars seal with two piece lids. Either give the jars a 5 minute boiling water bath or let cool once they are sealed.

(If your jars are hot and the flat lids have been kept in hot water, and the mixture is hot, you should get a proper seal. The purpose of putting the lids into hot water and boiling them is to get the sealant material on the inside of the lid to soften, so that when you put the jam or jelly into a jar, and seal it, you will get a firm seal. You won’t get a proper seal if the lids haven’t been in hot/boiling water long enough).

Any jars that do not seal properly should be refrigerated and used promptly. Properly sealed jellies and jams will keep for many months in a cool dark space.)

Tips for jelly & jam making – buy canning jars at yard sales or flea markets; you can use either 8 ounces or pint jars. Make sure there are no cracks or chips in the jars. If you have enough 8 ounce canning jars, all you will need to buy are the lids and rings.

Look for fruit that is on sale; you can prep the fruit by removing stems, rinsing berries off and then dicing or slicing…you can pack it into plastic freezer bags or plastic containers and freeze it until you are ready to make jelly or jam. Mid summer temperatures of over 100 degrees isn’t the best time to start making jelly.

TO MAKE POMEGRANATE LIQUEUR YOU WILL NEED:

2 CUPS pomegranate juice
2 cups sugar
2 cups vodka (you don’t need an expensive vodka for this recipe. Just buy what ever is on sale).

Mix it all together, pour into a large jar and store it in a cool dark place (a pantry if you have one). Every so often give the jar a good shake to make the sugar dissolve. This needs to age 3 to 6 months before rebottling it into small bottles to give as gifts.

Happy Cooking & Happy Cookbook 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

MAKING ECONOMICAL MEALS

For most of my married life, which was for 26 years, we were scrimping to get by, raising four sons on an often non-existent income. My then-husband was self employed for most of those years, and it was generally feast or famine. I tell you this only because I learned early on how to really stretch a dollar. For 12 of those years I was also a stay-at-home mom. I shopped carefully with coupons when we did have some money, and made the most of the supermarket sales. Meals were often planned around the best of those weekly sales. I also did a lot of refunding along with some of my penpals, so we often exchanged refund forms and the proofs of purchase, as well, if we had extra. Refunding was collecting proof of purchases from groceries and sending them, generally with the cash register receipt included and a form – to a manufacturer who then, in turn, sent you cash rebates or coupons good for free groceries or other premiums. I was not above taking my sons with me to dumpsters behind Laundromats to get the proofs of purchase from empty boxes of detergent and laundry softeners. I saved all the cash rebates for an entire year to pay for a trip for all of us to Cincinnati, our home town. Often there were really great rebates for things like basketballs or dolls or other toys that I’d pack away for birthday and Christmas presents. When we did have some money for groceries, I stocked up on staples—rice, beans, cereals, spaghetti, canned goods, powdered milk—things you could always make a meal out of, when there wasn’t much in the refrigerator or freezer. One of my sons says, today, that he loathes spaghetti dinners; he feels like that’s all we had when they were growing up. I’m not that crazy about spaghetti myself, anymore.

What I learned back then, though, is to make the most out of a small amount of meat which led to a lot of really good recipes such as Beef Burgundy or Pepper Steak – both made from London Broil or flank steak purchased when it was on sale. The Beef Burgundy became a favorite to serve to unexpected guests; over noodles or rice it was a very fine dinner. It really wasn’t a foreign concept; my mother raised her family in the depression and war years, and we grew up on many one-dish meals. A few years ago I read somewhere how these one dish meals are much healthier for you. Who knew?

My sons often brought friends home with them for dinner—and so did my husband. It was not unusual to have up to half a dozen unexpected guests. You can generally handle this easily with one dish meals, sometimes just by adding a few more potatoes or carrots.

There is a cookbook titled “STORIES AND RECIPES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF THE 1930s by Rita Van Amber and one of her recipes is something called Garden Casserole, which the author says was made by the roaster full when she was growing up and there was seldom any left. The following is a reduced recipe:

GARDEN CASSEROLE

Grease a casserole very well. Slice
2 onions into it
Add: 4 potatoes, sliced thin then add
2 cups corn, canned or fresh
1 lb pork sausage, fried and drained
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper

Pour 2 cups canned or fresh tomatoes over all. Buttered crumbs can be added as a topping. Bake, covered, 30 minutes. Uncover and finish baking until done and a crusty brown.

The following is ANOTHER LAYERED GARDEN CASSEROLE. Season with a little salt and pepper between each layer:

1 layer potatoes
1 layer onion rings
1 layer dry rice (3/4 cup)
1 layer peas
1 lb ground beef, fried and drained
1 quart tomatoes
3 slices bacon

Bake 2 hours in a slow oven or until done. Cover first half hour, then continue baking uncovered.

The following is my recipe for pepper steak; I think I have been making it for well over 30 years. It’s one of those recipes you know by heart and can throw together on short notice. If the meat is partially frozen, you can make very nice thin slices. This recipe makes a lot – but it reheats very well for a leftover dinner.

TO MAKE PEPPER STEAK you will need

2 – 2 ½ lbs London broil or round steak, cut into thin slices
½ cup solid shortening such as Crisco
2 cans (16 ounce total) tomatoes
2 ½ cups water*
1 chopped onion
2 small cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
6 TBSP brown roux**
4 large green bell peppers (or a mixture of colored peppers if they are plentiful and inexpensive
2 cups carrot strips
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms (optional)

Brown meat in Crisco; drain off excess. Drain tomatoes, reserving liquid. Add reserved liquid, water, onion, salt and pepper to meat in skillet. Cover and simmer 1 hour or until meat is tender (if sliced very thin it will cook faster). Uncover. Add Worcestershire sauce. Stir in roux. Cook until thick and bubbly. Cut green peppers into strips and add to meat with drained tomatoes. Add partially cooked carrots (I precook them for about 5 minutes in the microwave). Simmer 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, if using. Cook a few more minutes until mushrooms are tender. Serve hot over cooked rice or noodles.

*Sandy’s Cooknote: The original recipe calls for 2 ½ cups of water. I like to replace at least half of the water with some Burgundy wine. The alcohol cooks off; it just gives your Pepper Steak a richer flavor.

**Sandy’s Cooknote: To make a roux: Blend 1 cup solid shortening Crisco with 1 cup flour until smooth. Stir in 2 TBSP Kitchen Bouquet. Keep refrigerated in a covered container until needed. To use the roux, use 3 TBSP roux for each cup of liquid and cook until thickened. Roux will last indefinitely in the refrigerator. (it will keep a long time on a pantry shelf, too). A roux is one of those neat little tricks for making a good gravy every time. You’ll find it’s indispensable.
~~
Another long-time favorite main dish recipe is Beef Burgundy. Like Pepper Steak, it can be tossed together on short notice; once you have the dish mixed and cooking, you can make up a salad and get water boiling for the noodles or rice. I could generally get this meal on the table in about an hour.

TO MAKE BEEF BURGUNDY you will need

1-2 pounds of top sirloin or London broil or flank steak*
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
1 8-oz can Burgundy wine**
½ lb sliced raw mushrooms
salt, pepper, pinch of oregano and marjoram
Rice or noodles

Slice meat very thin (it will slice thin if you have it partially frozen). Brown the meat in a small amount of butter or oil, along with the onion. Add tomato sauce, wine, and seasonings. Cover and simmer 1 hour. Fifteen minutes before finishing, add mushrooms. Serve over rice or noodles and sprinkle with a bit of parsley, if you wish.

*Sandy’s Cooknote: Watch for sales on London Broil, flank, or top sirloin. That’s when I stock up on this cut of beef.

**Burgundy wine is fairly inexpensive. I buy a big jug of it for under $10.00 and keep it on hand just for cooking. Personally, I don’t like to drink red wines but I love to cook with them.

WORLD’S EASIEST POT ROAST

You probably know this – I can’t imagine anyone not knowing how to do this simple pot roast. You just tear open a couple long sheets of heavy duty Reynolds Wrap. Set a pot roast – any kind of beef roast such as chuck or 7-bone – in the center. Pour a package of onion soup on top. Then peel and slice carrots and potatoes and put them around the meat. Bring the ends together to make a tight fitting ‘envelope” and put it on a baking sheet or set it into a large baking dish. Let it bake most of the day at a low temperature. Voila – you have dinner. But here’s where you can get really creative. It’s the main reason I like to cook a BIG pot roast, just to have the leftovers.

NEXT DAY BEEF STEW

Cut up the left over beef discarding any visible fat or bone. Put it into your crockpot. If you have some left over carrots or potatoes, cut them up and add to the pot. Pour on any leftover gravy from the roast. Add a package of frozen mixed vegetables. If you happen to have any other leftover bits of things, like corn or peas or tomatoes – almost anything can be added. If it seems too dry, add some water or even a little Burgundy wine. Cover and let it cook on low until dinner time. I have a son who thinks this smacks too much of a soup and isn’t “right” for dinner – but if I have cooked noodles to be served with it, he’s fine. The noodles make it acceptable. If the stew doesn’t seem stew-ish enough or there isn’t enough gravy, toss in a can of cream of mushroom soup. You can also thicken it a little with some Kitchen Bouquet roux.

Another recipe using leftover pot roast is

SECOND DAY BEEF MUSHROOM BURGUNDY

You will need:

1 cup beef gravy
2 cups diced leftover pot roast
¼ lb fresh mushrooms, sliced
2 TBSP Burgundy wine
Hot cooked noodles
Chopped parsley

Mix and heat all except noodles and parsley. Pour over noodles and sprinkle with parsley.

Another great recipe for using up some leftover meat (which can be turkey, chicken, ham or crumbled cooked pork sausage) is my

STUFFING AND “WHATEVER” CASSEROLE

You will need:

¼ cup butter or margarine
½ medium onion, chopped
¼ cup diced celery or green pepper
3 medium zucchini, cut into ¼” slices
1¾ cups water
1 (6 oz) package chicken flavor stuffing mix
¼ cup chopped nuts, optional
2 cups diced cooked turkey, chicken, ham or crumbled pork sausage

In a 2-quart microwave safe casserole, combine butter, onion and celery. Microwave on high for 3 minutes or until veggies are barely softened. Add zucchini, water and herb seasoning packet from the stuffing mix box. Microwave on high to boiling, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in stuffing mix. Cover and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Gently stir in diced cooked meat. Microwave on defrost or medium, uncovered, 12 to 15 minutes or until heated through. Makes 6 to 8 servings. To cook in a conventional oven; drizzle about 2 TBSP butter over the surface of the casserole and bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until heated through.

Years ago, I thought I was inventing something new the first time I made what I labeled “Mexican Lasagna” using leftover taco meat, flour tortillas or leftover tortilla chips, some salsa and whatever else I had on hand at the time. Nowadays I can find a host of similar recipes, sometimes labeled as enchilada casseroles. One favorite is this simple vegetable casserole dish:

VEGETABLE ENCHILADA CASSEROLE

You will need:

1 TBSP vegetable oil
2 cups diced zucchini
1 cup chopped onion
2 cups packed coarsely shredded spinach
1 cup frozen corn
1 jar (17.5 oz) enchilada sauce
12 corn tortillas
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack or Cheddar cheese
chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Preheat oven 350. In 10” skillet over medium high heat, heat oil. Add zucchini and onion and cook 5 minutes or until golden brown and tender. Add spinach and corn. Cook and stir until spinach wilts.

In a 3 qt shallow baking dish, spread ½ cup enchilada sauce. Place 6 tortillas, overlapping as needed, to cover the bottom of the dish. Spread with half of the remaining enchilada
Sauce. Top with vegetable mixture and half the cheese. Top with remaining tortillas and enchilada sauce. Bake 20 minutes. Top with remaining cheese and bake 5 minutes or until cheese melts. Cut into 6 squares and garnish with cilantro.
~
One of my absolute favorite (and easy) dinners is roasting a small whole chicken. There is almost nothing to it – I place a whole defrosted young chicken on a large piece of foil, having washed it out and removed any giblets (which you can cook to make some chicken stock). I pat it dry and then spray it with Pam. I put a sprig or two of rosemary and a couple slices of lemon into the cavity, then sprinkle lemon pepper seasoning over the outside of the chicken. You can add peeled and cut potatoes and carrots at this time.
Wrap it all up and seal; place it on a rimmed cookie sheet or a shallow baking dish and bake it in a hot oven – I generally start at 375 degrees and lower the temp to about 350 when it’s well into becoming roasted. Or if I have a lot of time, I put it into a slow, 325 degree oven and just let it cook most of the afternoon. The last half hour, uncover the top to let the breast brown. Baste if needed. About this time I siphon off a lot of the liquid to make into gravy. You can mix it with your chicken stock and thicken it with corn starch.
It makes a nice, easy dinner – and we generally have leftovers that can be used for another meal.

Leftover cooked chicken can be used in many different ways – for enchiladas, tacos,
Taco salad, chicken salad. Another really easy recipe that uses leftover cooked chicken is:

CHICKEN & TORTILLA ENCHILADA BAKE

You will need:

1 jar (17.5 oz size jar) enchilada sauce
9 corn tortillas (6” size)
2 cups chopped or shredded cooked chicken
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the bottom of a 9” pie plate, spread ¼ cup of the enchilada sauce. Pour remaining enchilada sauce in a shallow dish. Dip 3 tortillas into sauce to cot. Place them into the pie plate, overlapping as necessary. Top with half of the chopped cooked chicken and ½ cup cheese. Dip 3 more tortillas into the enchilada sauce and place on top of the chicken/cheese. Top with remaining chicken and ½ cup cheese. Dip the last 3 tortillas in enchilada sauce and place on top. Spread with remaining enchilada sauce. Bake 25 minutes. Then top with remaining cheese. Bake 5 minutes or until cheese melts. Cut into wedges.

Don’t have any enchilada sauce where you live? Here is a simple recipe to make your own:

ENCHILADA SAUCE

¼ cup cooking oil
2 TBSP flour
¼ cup California chili powder
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
1 ½ cups water
¼ tsp ground cumin
Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

Heat oil in skillet; stir in flour and chili powder; turn down the heat and cook until slightly brown, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Gradually stir in the tomato sauce, water, and all other ingredients and cook until smooth and slightly thickened. You could easily double this.
**
Sandy’s Cooknote: I have a whole bunch more recipes for making economical and easy entrees but will have to continue this train of thought in another post. Happy Cooking!

HUNGARIAN STUFFED PEPPERS

The topic of stuffed peppers came up recently – a girlfriend said she was making them for the first time & I asked why she didn’t come to me for a recipe. Then I began searching for recipes for stuffed peppers – because I never had an actual recipe, per se, – it was just something you tossed together, often depending on what I had on hand.

My aunt has a recipe for Hungarian stuffed peppers that we put into the family cookbook and I dug around for some other recipes. Stuffed peppers, Hungarian or otherwise, is a most versatile recipe that you can make many different ways. In some recipes the peppers are parboiled first – I never did this. Ditto the rice. Why cook the rice beforehand when you don’t have to?

It seems to me that Stuffed Peppers have a Hungarian or German origin so I dug through some of my Hungarian cookbooks searching for recipes. However you make them, this is a most economical recipe when bell peppers are cheap and plentiful or you have a glut of them in your vegetable garden. We have a 99c store nearby and they sometimes have yellow, green, orange, or red peppers, about 3 to a package for 99 cents–I buy all the colors and spend an afternoon dicing them with my Vidalia onion chopper to keep available in the freezer. When you aren’t dicing up the entire pepper, always cut off the tops of the peppers, remove the seeds and membranes – and then finely dice the tops. Some of this can be mixed in with your ground beef (or chicken, turkey, or pork – whatever meat you are using)—the bits of peppers will give it more flavor. I just freeze all the remaining finely diced peppers for other recipes. Keep them tightly sealed in a zip lock bag in the freezer. They are great to toss into soups, such as Mexican Tortilla Soup, or you can toss a handful into a skillet of fried potatoes. Recently, the red bell peppers were on sale so I canned a dozen small jars (4 ounce size) of the chopped red bell peppers to make my own pimientos. They are also great to add to chicken or turkey enchiladas and the different colors make a dish look more attractive.
**
Did I ever tell you my stuffed pepper story? In Cincinnati in the 40s, 50s, 60s, bell peppers were called “Mangoes” (Long story, goes back a hundred years to pickled mangoes from India – anything stuffed was considered mangoed.) Well in 1962, now living in California, we became friends with this couple named Teresa & Jim –one day Teresa, asked what things I cooked for dinners and I mentioned “Stuffed Mangoes”.

“Really?” she asked “How do you make those?” and I proceeded to explain the recipe of using ground beef, uncooked rice, egg, salt and pepper, stuffing the peppers and cooking them in a tomato sauce gravy. She was completely baffled until we figured out, somehow, that MY “mango” was a bell pepper. I had never actually eaten a MANGO and didn’t know what one was—much less that it was a fruit. I never called a bell pepper a “mango” after that. I can still visit Cincinnati and hear people refer to bell peppers as “mangoes”. Incidentally, Teresa was a fantastic cook and my first introduction to “really good” cooking.

Here are some recipes for Hungarian Stuffed Peppers:
AUNT DOLLY’S HUNGARIAN STUFFED BELL PEPPERS

6 bell peppers
2 lbs ground chuck (or ground turkey or ground chicken)
1 cup cooked rice
2 eggs
1 /2 tsp paprika
1/8 to ¼ tsp ground cloves
1 tsp pepper
salt to taste
¾ cup chopped onion
2 tsp garlic powder

SAUCE:

1 (28 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (18 oz) tomato paste & 1 can water equal to tomato paste
1 tsp garlic powder
Salt & pepper to taste
Pinch of ground allspice
2 tsp paprika
(If mix seems a little bitter add a small amount of sugar)

Pre cook sauce in pot on top of stove until it starts to boil; turn off and let set. Mix together ground meat, rice, eggs, onion and seasonings. Stuff the peppers. Extra meat can be used to make big meatballs. Dip the tops of the peppers in flour and sear on stove top in hot skillet with a little olive oil. Place stuffed peppers in deep casserole and pour sauce in almost to the top. Slow cook low temp 2 hours or longer at 300 degrees. These can be frozen and will keep in the freezer for up to a year. (I would cook them 3 or 4 hours on low if using a Crockpot).

Aunt Dolly’s original recipe was huge. We tried to pare it down for the family cookbook. I think you could easily halve the amounts but make the full amount of sauce (which is actually very good) and then freeze any left over sauce for another time. One of the secrets of a good Hungarian stuffed pepper sauce is paprika powdered spice. And to make it even better, make sure you buy some authentic Hungarian paprika. It makes all the difference in the world!
**

FROM AUNT BECKY’S RECIPE COLLECTION:

Sweet and Sour Stuffed Peppers

2 each sweet red and green (bell) peppers
1 pound ground chicken
1 tsp salt
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup quick cooking rice
¾ cup bottled sweet and sour sauce
¾ cup boiling water
¼ cup chopped water chestnuts

Slice off the tops of the bell peppers; reserve tops. Remove membranes, seeds and stems. Invert peppers on wax paper. Chop tops (you will need ½ cup; save rest for other use).
Saute chicken, chopped peppers, salt, ginger and black pepper in oil in saucepan 8 minutes or until no longer pink. Sprinkle in rice, add sauce and boiling water; stir; return to boiling; cover; remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes. Stir in water chestnuts; turn into bowl. Wipe out pan. Add ½ cup water. Place steamer basket in pan. Divide chicken mixture among peppers. Place upright in basket. Cover; steam 10-15 minutes or until tender.
~~

CINCINNATI VERSION STUFFED PEPPERS

1 LB ground beef (or turkey or chicken)
Minute rice
4 bell peppers
Ragu sauce or undiluted tomato soup
1 chopped onion

Preheat oven 375. Cut off tops of peppers; and remove seeds. Boil peppers in salted water 8-10 minutes (until tender) Prepare rice (2-3 servings). Brown meat and onion; drain. Combine meat and rice. Heat Ragu sauce. Fill peppers with meat mixture. Put peppers in pan and pour sauce over them. You can spoon some of the sauce on top of the peppers for more flavor. Bake at 375 15 minutes or until heated through.

STUFFED PEPPERS MY WAY

1-1 ½ lbs ground meat (beef, chicken, turkey)*
4-6 bell peppers (you can freeze leftover cooked stuffed peppers with sauce for another meal)
1 cup uncooked rice (about)
1 cup chopped onion (about)
1-2 eggs (depending on size. If extra large 1 should be enough)
Your favorite spaghetti sauce (I like 3 cheese but buy whatever you like). I probably used 2 jars.
Seasoning to taste (salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder, a little paprika)

Cut the tops off the peppers. Remove seeds, membrane. Chop up the good part of the tops.

Mix together the finely chopped bell peppers (which can be any color you like), the uncooked rice, the chopped onion, egg and the meat. Add seasonings. Mix it up with your hands. If it seems a little dry add a little of the spaghetti sauce.

Now stuff the peppers. Put them into a deep casserole dish OR your crockpot. Pour the sauce over and around the peppers. Cover, either cook in the oven @ 350 degrees for 1-2 hours – or most of the day if you are cooking in the crockpot on low.

*this recipe works well with just about any kind of ground meat or poultry. I believe my mother made it with part ground beef, part pork. If you are counting calories, use ground chicken or turkey.

I found a great recipe for Hungarian Stuffed Peppers in a cookbook titles “COOKING WITH LOVE AND PAPRIKA, BY JOSEPH PASTERNAK. Here’s how you make

HUNGARIAN STUFFED PEPPERS IN TOMATO SAUCE (Toltott Paprika)

6-8 large green bell peppers
1 pound ground beef (should be lean)
1 pound ground pork
1 TBSP rice, boiled and drained
½ medium onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
salt
1 tsp pepper
½ tsp paprika
2 TBSP shortening
2 TBSP flout
1 1-qt, 14-oz can tomato juice
2 8-oz cans tomato sauce
2 TBSP sugar

Cut the stems from the green peppers, remove the seeds and membranes and parboil for 5 minutes in water to cover. Drain. Make a stuffing of the meat, rice, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and paprika. Taste to be sure it is well seasoned since a well seasoned mixture is very important to good stuffed peppers. Stuff the peppers with this mixture. Make a roux of the shortening (*you need something like a solid shortening, such as Crisco) and the flour. Let it brown slightly, then stir in the tomato juice and tomato sauce. Let the sauce come to a simmer and add the sugar and a little salt. Place the stuffed peppers upright, one next to the other, in a pan or pot (or deep Corning ware dish) that can be covered and pour the sauce over. Cook and cover over low heat on top of the stove for 1 ½ – 2 hours. Arrange the peppers on a serving platter and pour the sauce over them, then serve hot.

*Sandy’s Cooknote: if you don’t have any solid Crisco shortening, use butter. A little trick I learned years ago is mixing Crisco solid shortening and flour together—you just mix flour into about half a cup of Crisco until you can’t add any more flour – then mix in some Kitchen Bouquet—about a tablespoon or two. Mix well. Then just store this in a tightly covered jar with your spices; you will have a good roux ready to use at any time. This is great for making brown gravy.

From another authentic little book titled Hungarian Cookery Book by Karoly Gundel comes a recipe called “Stuffed Paprika” – paprika is the Hungarian word for pepper.

You will need

12 green peppers
1 lb juicy pork (best part of neck)*
2 oz. rice
Tomato sauce
1 oz onions
1 clove garlic
1 egg
Salt, pepper

Cut the paprikas round the stalks with a sharp, pointed knife, and remove the stalks and seeds. Wash the paprikas and remove the inside ribs. Mince the pork and mix it with the onions and garlic which has been finely chopped and fried; to this add n egg, the rice (parboiled), pepper and salt. Stir the mixture well with a wooden spoon to distribute the ingredients evenly among the meat, and fill the paprikas with it. Put back the tops of the paprikas that were cut off with the stalks (but not the seeds) to make lids. Place the stuffed paprikas in a sauce pan; cover with tomato sauce, and let them simmer for about an hour and a half over a slow fire.

For the tomato sauce, make a delicately browned roux of 1½ ounce of lard and a tablespoon of flour. Add 10 gills** of tomato puree, stirring all the time and season with salt and a teaspoonful of sifted sugar. Serve the paprikas in a deep dish with the tomato sauce poured over them.

*You might want to consider a good ground sausage, such as Jimmy Dean brand for the pork. My brother uses ground pork, like Jimmy Dean brand, in his Cincinnati chili.

**A gill is an old measurement that equals ¼ of a pint. That would make a gill 4 ounces. Ten gills, then, would be equal to 40 ounces or five 8-ounce cups of tomato puree.
~~

Another Hungarian stuffed pepper recipe was found in Jolie Gabor’s Family Cookbook, published in 1962. Jolie was the mother of the famous Gabor sisters.

To make Jolie’s Stuffed Green Peppers you will need:

6 medium sized green bell peppers
1 lb chopped beef
½ tsp baking powder
2 slices bread, softened in wine
1 egg
1 TBSP catsup
½ cup boiled rice
1 cup stewed tomatoes
1 cup tomato puree
¼ cup sherry wine
¼ cup water
2 TBSP lemon juice
1 TBSP brown sugar
4 to 6 gingersnaps

Wash and dry firm green peppers; cut off stems and removed seeds and pulp with a sharp knife. Parboil peppers in boiling water for 5 to 10 minutes.*. Remove them from water and drain well. Sponge them dry.

Place chopped beef in a mixing bowl; add baking powder**, softened bread, egg, catsup and boiled rice. Toss with a fork until completely blended. Stuff peppers with meat mixture, rounding the mixture at the top.

Heat stewed tomatoes, puree, sherry wine, water, lemon juice and brown sugar. Place stuffed peppers in an upright position into the hot tomato sauce. Cover, cook gently for an hour. Soften gingersnaps*** in a little warm water; stir them into the sauce. Spoon sauce over each pepper and serve very hot. Serves 6.

*Sandy’s Cooknote: Personally, I think 10 minutes is way too long to parboil the peppers. I wouldn’t pre cook them any longer than 5 minutes.
**Sandy’s Cooknote: This is the first time I have found baking powder in a stuffed pepper recipe. I can’t imagine what the purpose is, but if you are being true to the recipe, go ahead and add it. Couldn’t hurt!
***Sandy’s Cooknote: As for the gingersnaps – a lot of European recipes have gingersnaps in the recipe to achieve a particular flavor.

No time to make stuffed peppers? Here is a recipe for UNSTUFFED PEPPERS:

2 cups uncooked instant brown rice
12 oz. lean ground beef
1 tsp olive oil
1 each red and yellow pepper, cut in strips (or use what ever colors you can find)
2 cups bottled marinara sauce
1 tsp fennel seeds (optional)
½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Bring 1¾ cups water to a boil in a medium size saucepan. Add rice, cover and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat; let stand until ready to serve, at least 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add ground beef and cook. Breaking up clumps with a wooden spoon, about 3 minutes or until meat is no longer pink. Remove to a plate; set aside.

Heat oil in skillet; add peppers and sauté over medium high heat 3 minutes or until lightly charred in a few places. Add sauce and fennel seeds, if using. Bring to a simmer; cover and cook 3 minutes or until peppers are tender.

Stir in beef; heat through. Spoon rice on serving plates; top with beef mixture and sprinkle with cheese.
~~

Before I finish this post, I wanted to share with you a recipe for making meatless stuff peppers. This is called

HERB STUFFED PEPPERS

4 large green or red bell peppers
1 cups cooked rice
1 small onion, minced
1 can tomato sauce
1 TBSP parsley
1 tsp oregano
1 TBSP basil
1 tsp granulated garlic
½ cup cheddar cheese, grated

Cut the stem out of the top of each pepper. Remove all seeds and core. Wash peppers. Place them into a pot of boiling water and cook for 10 minutes. Drain. Saute onions, adding tomato sauce and herbs. Simmer 10 minutes. Add cooked rice and cheddar cheese, mixing together well. Place peppers in a baking dish and stuff them with the rice mixture. Bake at 350 degrees about 30 minutes.
~~

A final word (or two) about making stuffed peppers. If you are on a tight budget, you can make these using less meat (say half a pound of ground beef or chicken) but increase the amount of rice. Or make them with another kind of grain, such as couscous. Add more onion or other vegetables. And I have stated earlier – I never pre-cook the rice when I am making stuffed peppers. I just think that’s extra unnecessary work. When I was making stuffed peppers for a family of four sons, I wanted to get everything cooked as quickly and efficiently as possible. I might make up the peppers the night before and put them into a crockpot to cook on low, in the morning. Or, throw it all together and into a hot oven as soon as I got home from work. They could be baking while I made a salad and maybe some mashed potatoes to go with the stuffed peppers (my children loved mashed potatoes with the tomato sauce gravy). You just have to make sure the rice is well cooked before serving them—so use Minute rice; it cooks faster. Much as I enjoy cooking, I don’t believe in making extra work for myself—and I don’t have a dishwasher. I AM the dishwasher.

At a later date if you are interested, I will share some other stuffed pepper recipes that I have culled from my recipe card files.

Happy Cooking!
Sandy

TEN BEST RECIPES FOR THE DECADE

My current issue of “O” magazine (May, 2010) is their tenth anniversary issue and so it contains a lot of lists of ten (You can find the ten best recipes as per O on the www.oprah.com website as well, if you are curious and not a subscriber.

But here’s the thing – out of the ten recipes, there was only one I was remotely interested in and that was Maya Angelou’s recipe for banana pudding. I printed that recipe and THEN realized it contains eight eggs. I don’t even make my own angel food cake because it takes too many eggs (and an angel food cake mix does a very good job, thank you very much). One of the recipes I couldn’t even pronounced (Pappardelle with peas and parmesan-ok, I got the peas and parmesan part. I have never heard of PAPPARDELLE. (Neither has my spell check). Finally figured out it is a kind of pasta.

For those of you who want to know these things, here is a list of the 10 best recipes of the decade, per “O” magazine:

1.Hudson Valley Club Sandwich (it looks good but I would never actually make it)
2.Cornmeal Crust Pizza with greens and ricotta (no one in my household would eat it)
3.Maya Angelou’s Banana Pudding (looks good – but eight eggs?—on the other hand, it only contains 3 tbsp butter)
4.Pappardelle with peas and parmesan (No one in my household would eat this either)
5.Maine Crab, Green Apple and Avocado Salad with Parmesan Tuiles. (Never heard of Tuiles and apparently, neither has my spell check. I would order this in a restaurant if it were on the menu—but would never make it)
6.Red Pepper & Fennel Soup (Fennel? I don’t think so. For the same reason as #2 and #4)
7.Bolognese Sauce (is that anything like Ragu?)
8.Grilled Lamb Chops and Zucchini with mint (ok on the lamb chops and zucchini. Not ok with the mint. Same reasons as #2, #4, and #6.
9.Sausage Rolls with Worcestershire Sauce (uh. No.)
10.Mushroom Quesadillas on whole wheat tortillas (sounds ok to me but no one in the family would touch a quesadilla that wasn’t a CHEESE quesadilla, or a cheese and chicken).
11.Bonus Egg Salad with Tarragon Mustard (ok for the egg salad but not tarragon mustard, for the same reason as #2, #4, #6.

No offense to Oprah and her editorial staff but obviously we don’t move around in the same circles. I am your typical now-retired housewife/mother/grandmother who is involved in my children’s and grandchildren’s lives. When I was still working, I took brownies and cookies to the office all the time. I also brought in bagels, cream cheese and guacamole once a week.

My youngest son and his family have dinner with us twice a week, because his wife is taking night classes to get her teaching degree. I take my granddaughter to school twice a week. We’re more of a Tupperware party, Saturday mornings at the park watching children play softball, baking cookies or cupcakes almost every week kind of household. As a matter of fact, three or four times a year my grandchildren and my sister’s children come over for a cookie and craft project to get Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day, Halloween officially under way. When my daughter in law takes my cookies to work to share, her coworkers want to know “Did GRAMMY make these?” and they quickly devour all of them.

So I am going to provide MY best ten recipes for the decade and if you have others you prefer, feel free to drop me a line and give me YOUR favorites. And, incidentally, MY ten favorites for the past decade are probably the same choices I would provide for the decade BEFORE that as well. (I have a huge recipe collection-but these are still the most outstanding favorites):

MY TEN:

1. Beef Burgundy with either noodles or rice
2. Pepper Steak, also over noodles or rice
3. Aunt Annie’s Chicken Paprika
4. Linda’s Chicken & White Wine
5. Aunt Sandy’s California Style Chili
6. Crisp Little Lemon Cookies
7. Sandy’s Fudgy Wudgy Brownies
8. The Original Toll House Chocolate Chip cookies
9. Bob’s Favorite Caramel Corn Popcorn
10.Spinach Delight

Well, I could easily double or triple this list because there are so many family favorites but these are probably the crème de la crème—or–the recipes most often requested. Aunt Annie’s Chicken Paprika was selected by Gooseberry Patch and appears in their recently published cookbook “Dinner on a Dime”. Some of these recipes may have already appeared on my Blog—but I don’t want to make life difficult for any of you, so I am going to provide all ten recipes!

1. BEEF BURGUNDY

1-2 lbs top sirloin
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
1 8-oz can Burgundy wine
½ lb sliced raw mushrooms
salt, pepper, dash of oregano and marjoram
Rice or Noodles

Slice meat very thin (it will slice better if it’s partially frozen). Brown in a small amount of butter or oil, along with the onion. Add tomato sauce, wine, and seasonings. Cover and simmer 1 hr. 15 minutes before finishing, add mushrooms. Serve over rice or noodles and sprinkle with parsley, if you like.
**
2. PEPPER STEAK

1 ½ lbs beef round steak or London Broil, cut ½” thick
¼ cup Crisco solid shortening
1 8-oz can tomatoes
1 ¼ cups water
½ cup chopped onion
1 small clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3 TBSP brown roux (see following recipe)
2 large green bell peppers*

Partially freeze meat and cut meat in strips 3” long and ¼” wide. In large skillet, brown meat in hot Crisco; drain off excess fat. Drain tomatoes, reserving liquid. Add reserved liquid, water, onion, garlic, salt and pepper to meat in skillet. Cover and simmer 50-60 minutes or until the meat is tender. Uncover and stir in the Worcestershire sauce and brown roux. Cut the green peppers in 2” long strips and add to meat along with the drained tomatoes, which have been cut up. Simmer 5 minutes more. Serve over hot cooked rice or noodles. Serves 6.

*If red, yellow, orange peppers are in season and not terribly expensive – they make a great looking presentation to this dish, instead of ordinary green bell peppers. Sometimes I add fresh sliced mushrooms as well.

To make Brown Roux:

Blend 1 cup of flour and 1 cup Crisco solid shortening until smooth. Stir in 2 TBSP Kitchen Bouquet. Refrigerate in a covered glass container and use as needed.
**

3. AUNT ANNIE’S CHICKEN PAPRIKA

1 ROASTING chicken (about 4 lbs, cut up)
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
Flour
3 large onions, sliced
2 TBSP Hungarian paprika
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 cups water
3 chicken bouillon cubes
6 young carrots, peeled and sliced

Mix flour, salt and pepper in a paper bag. Coat chicken pieces two at a time in the bag. Brown a few pieces of chicken at a time in a Dutch oven or large pot. Remove pieces as they brown. When all chicken is browned, sauté 3 large sliced onions in the oil. (If oil is too dark, discard & start with 2 TBSP of fresh cooking oil. Add 2 TBSP paprika, the chopped garlic, 2 cups of water, 3 chicken bouillon cubes, and sliced carrots. Bring to a boil; add chicken. Simmer 1 hr. Serve with noodles.
**
4. LINDA’S CHICKEN AND WHITE WINE

4 boneless chicken breasts
4 slices Swiss cheese
1 stick butter or margarine
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
¼ cup white wine (Asti Spumonti)
1 box Garden Herb Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix
¼ cup water

Preheat oven 350 degrees. Clean chicken breasts and put in baking dish. Cover chicken with cheese. Mix undiluted soup mix with water and wine and pour over chicken. Melt butter and stir in stuffing mix; spread over chicken and soup mix. Bake 1 hour.
**
5. Aunt Sandy’s California Style Chili

3-4 pounds ground beef (or ground turkey, or ground chicken)
3-4 Bermuda onions, finely chopped
2 quarts whole canned tomatoes
2 large cans kidney beans
1 large can tomato sauce
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 cans diced Ortega chiles
1 pkg Lawry’s chili mix, or chili powder to taste
1 pkg (or less) Cincinnati chili powder mix, if you have it
Salt and pepper
Chopped garlic or garlic powder

Brown the meat; drain off any excess fat, and add remaining ingredients. Our pots of chili tend to grow and grow until I have enough to feed an army. Cook several hours. Should be served over cooked, drained spaghetti and topped off with grated cheese, chopped onion and oyster crackers. This is how Cincinnati chili is served at chili parlors in Cincinnati. Mine is a combination of California and Cincinnati.
Leftover chili freezes well.
**
6. CRISP LITTLE LEMON COOKIES

1 box (18.5 oz) box pudding-included lemon cake mix
1 cup rice krispies cereal
½ cup butter, melted (1 stick)
1 egg, slightly beaten

In large bowl combine all ingredients. Mix well. Shape into 1” balls, pressing firmly. Place 2” apart on ungreased baking sheet (I like mine lined with parchment paper) and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven 9-12 minutes or until lightly golden brown around the edges. Cool 1 minute then transfer to wire racks to cool. Makes 3 to 4 dozen cookies. Nice to drizzle a little lemon glaze over them for an extra touch! I also like to grate some lemon rind into the cookie dough.
**

7. Sandy’s Fudgy Wudgy Brownies

1 cup butter or solid stick margarine (don’t use soft spreads)
4 oz unsweetened chocolate squares
2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs, beaten
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
1 cup all purpose flour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease & flour a 9” square baking pan. Melt butter and chocolate over very low heat in a saucepan. Remove from heat, let cool a bit, then add the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix. Stir in flour. Add nuts last. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 40-50 minutes. Cool completely before cutting. Can be frosted with any kind of chocolate frosting – or – before they cool, sprinkle on some chocolate chips and let them melt, then spread over the brownies. Can top with more chopped nuts.
**
8. Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12 oz) Nestle Toll House semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven 375 degrees

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, granulate sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts.
Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake 9-11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

*Ok, I bake them at 350 degrees about 10 minutes and don’t add nuts. And I use parchment paper on my cookie sheets all the time.

9. Bob’s Favorite Caramel Corn

14 CUPS POPPED CORN (about 3 packages of regular size microwave popcorn)
2 CUPS BROWN SUGAR, PACKED
1 CUP BUTTER (2 STICKS)
½ CUP LIGHT CORN SYRUP*
1 TSP SALT
1 TSP BAKING SODA

Removed any unpopped kernels and put corn in buttered metal container (I use a large roasting pan and just spray it with Pam) – keep warm in a 200 degree oven. Mix sugar, corn syrup, butter and salt in a heavy pot. Bring to a boil, stirring, for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add baking soda. Stir well. Pour over popped corn and mix well with buttered forks or tongs – to distribute evenly. Bake in oven for 1 hr at 200 degrees, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool completely and break into clusters. Makes 3 ½ quarts

I use 3 packages of microwave popcorn and skip adding more salt. I figure the microwave popcorn is already salted enough. This makes a very big batch. Oh, I add salted peanuts to the popcorn when I am putting it into the oven to stay warm.
Maybe about a cup or so? So it’s more like cracker jacks.)

10. Spinach Delight

2 packages frozen chopped spinach
½ lb cheddar cheese, diced or shredded
½ cup butter, diced
6 eggs
2 cups cottage cheese
¼ cup flour
Salt & pepper to taste

Cook the spinach and drain thoroughly. Combine with remaining ingredients, adding flour a little at a time. Stir until just mixed. Pour into a buttered 2-quart baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Serves 8-10.

We served this at countless holiday parties – back in the day when I was having big Christmas parties. People who claimed not to like spinach…liked this.

Those are my Top Ten for the Decade.
Feel free to share your favorite ten with me!

Happy Cooking!
Sandy