Garage Sale Treasures

How does a box of 6 binders full of clipped and hand-written recipes from the 40s thru to the 80s sound? My idea of treasure. Thank you Lois Tollefson, whoever you are, for your painstaking collecting and preservation over the years. Many of these recipes are from friends, so I'll start with one of those:

Kathryn's Layered Salad
Layer 1 --> etc.
1) 1/2 head lettuce broken up
2) 2 pkg frozen peas cooked and cooled
3) 8 medium carrots grated
4) 1 large onion diced
5) 2 c. diced celery
Do not stir above. Mix 1 c miracle whip and 1 T vanilla and 1 T vingar and 1 T sugar and put on top of layers. Cover with saran wrap and ref 24 hrs. She makes double recipe dressing.

It was the vanilla in the dressing that caught my eye with this. I would never have thought of that. Without trying it, I won't pass judgement.

Here's the next recipe on the page, just called "Esther's".

Esther's
1 head lettuce
1 lg red onion
1 lb bacon cooked, crumbled
1 head cauliflower flowerets
Break lettuce - layer in pan - onion sliced thin layer - bacon layer - cauliflower layer - cover with dressing.
1/4 c sugar
2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 c parmesan
Cover and refrigerate overnite.

Actually Donna or Susan gave her one more recipe written below those. It's just titled "Donna or Susan." Since Donna's name is underlined, Lois must have decided it was Donna's recipe after all. Or maybe they both make it but Donna makes it better.

Donna or Susan
1 2 lb can french green beans
1 2 lb can baby peas
1 large onion chopped
1 bunch celery chopped
1 green pepper chopped
1 sm jar pimento
Mix above and salt.

1 1/2 c sugar
1 c vinegar
1/2 c salad oil
1 T water
Pou over veg and marinate 24 hr.

Recipe-less

I've still been looking at too many cooking magazines lately. So another inspired but no specific recipe meal:

Grilled zucchini, sweet onion, red pepper, kale, and steak seasoning baked with fresh parmesan and crumbled ritz crackers.

Herb low fat cream cheese on a warm brown-at-home baguette, topped with hard boiled egg, watercress, tomato, and a little low fat mayo.

Very nice for a hot summer day.

Dinner is Late

About 7 months late. That's how long since my last post. Eh. Been busy. Here's another for old time's sake. I set dinner on the table and got out the camera. "This is going on the internet, isn't it," my partner stated. "Yup."

I don't have names or recipes cuz these are 'inspired' by various recipes I've looked at over the last week but I didn't follow anything. This is ranier cherries and fontina cheese on a pizza crust with a hefty dose of rosemary and tarragon from the plants my mother gave me for mother's day this year. Fabulous. 

Pork chops marinated in hard cider, black and red pepper, garlic, and onion. I used my panini grill--another big thank you, Mom, for getting me that for Christmas. I use it constantly.

Cucumber, tomatoes, red lentils, mung bean seeds, red onion, feta, and mint, in a dressing of raspberry vinegar, honey, oregano, basil, olive oil, and a pinch of salt, over a pile of spring greens.

If only my children would eat what I cook.

Potluck treasures

With Thanksgiving coming up, I’m looking back on various recipes collected from people at large gatherings and written into the margins of my main cookbook. Sometimes when you ask for a recipe at a potluck, you really mean it.

Penney brought this first one over for a holiday gathering for my spiritual group, it was so long ago I don’t remember which holiday, but let’s say sometime in fall or winter because its gooey and filling and would go well with a harvest theme.

Corn Casserole

1 17 oz can creamed corn

1 17 oz can whole corn with liquid

1 cup uncooked macaroni

½ cup melted butter

2 T chopped onion

2 T chopped green pepper

1 cup cubed processed cheese

Mix all the above and put in 2 quart casserole dish. Bake covered for 30 min and uncovered for 30 min at 350.

I don’t remember but I think the next one is Afghani. At least I have other Afghani soup recipes that use yogurt so it’s a safe bet. It’s also very healthy and tasty.

Yogurt Soup

1 med onion, chopped

½ stick butter

2 cup chicken broth

¼ cup pearl barley soaked overnight

¼ cup parsley

¼ cup dried mint

1 egg

2 cups yogurt

Lemon juice

Saute onion in butter. Add broth, simmer til just below boiling. Add drained barley and cook til tender, about 20 minutes. Add salt, pepper, parsley. Beat the egg and add it to the yogurt. Pour yogurt slowly into the broth, don’t boil or it will curdle. Simmer 10-15 minutes. Garnish with mint and a little lemon juice.

This next one took major arm twisting to get ahold of. I’ve never understood the idea of keeping a recipe a secret unless you’re like Colonel Sanders or something. So here I go, blowing all opportunities of becoming a franchise billionaire by posting the recipe for simply the best homemade ice cream EVER.

Liz’s Ice Cream

3 cups sugar

3 T cocoa

8 beaten eggs

As much milk as there is eggs

Mix the above and make into a custard on the stove over med heat, stirring constantly. Make sure you beat the eggs into it well or you will end up with scrambled eggs in your ice cream. It may curdle, and that’s okay.

Pour into ice cream freezer while still warm and add:

4 cups half and half

4 cups heavy cream

1 T vanilla

Freeze as directed.

I’ve also left out the cocoa and doubled the vanilla to make a vanilla version that was deadly good. Mexican vanilla. There’s nothing like Mexican vanilla in the world. And yet it’s illegal to sell it here, so get someone to sneak some across the border for you. It’s heavenly.

Tradition

I'm unimpressed. I pulled out the Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Cook Book from 1959 to see what ideas they might have for Thanksgiving. They have instructions for cooking a turkey, of course, nothing particularly riveting there, and roasting a chicken or cornish game hens. There's a recipe for giblet gravy, mushroom  wild rice, browned rice, apple-pineapple slaw, a jellied cranberry ring, and shrimp cocktail. Still not inspired. A recipe for tomato soup that involves combining canned tomato soup and beef broth. Whee. Orange-glazed sweet potatoes, butternut squash, pickled beets, and corn bread.

The page of "pretty trimmings" ideas doesn't wow me either. There's the idea of sticking chrysanthemums on the naked bone of the turkey legs, or poking spiced crab apples over them. There's the avant garde notion of blopping whipped cream on your pumpkin pie, or if you'd prefer, cut a slice of American cheese in half on the diagonal, and roll the resulting triangle into a cornucopia anchored with whole cloves. Arrange six of these in a pinwheel shape on top of your pumpkin pie. Cheese on apple pie: okay. Cheese on pumpkin pie: I don't think so.

I am neither comforted by old favorites or intrigued by new twists...and then I come to this:

"For tradition's sake, serve time-honored Creamed Onions. To lots of folks, it's not Thanksgiving unless this specialty is on the table. Our version has two Southern accents--cheese to enrich the sauce, peanuts for crunch and their own good flavor."

Creamed Onions
18-20 medium onions
1/3 cup salad oil
3 T flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup shredded process American cheese
peanuts, chopped

Peel onions and cook in a large amount of boiling, salted water until tender; drain. Blend oil and flour, stir in milk and cook slowly until thick, stirring constantly. Add the cheese and stir until melted. Add the onions and heat through. Place in vegetable bowl and sprinkle with peanuts.

Did I miss something? When did Creamed Onions become such a hallowed part of Thanksgiving traditions? I have never heard of this. My friends have never waxed nostalgically about their gramma's creamed onions. I don't remember Mr. Food telling us, "oooh, it's so good." Peppermint Patty didn't yell at Charlie Brown for not providing Creamed Onions as they sat around the ping pong table. There has to be some kind of editorial bias here: maybe it was traditional at HER family Thanksgivings but putting it in a book doesn't normalize it for the rest of us.

I'm going to write my own Thanksgiving chapter, it will include that great American favorite: hummus,  and that little pastel marshmallow overnight fruit salad my mom makes. What? That's what's on our table.

Soup

I'll be making some beef stew today, to serve later on in the week. Today I have time and besides, it's one of those dishes that taste better the next day. I don't need a recipe, but for curiosity's sake, since it was sitting next to the computer from yesterday. I thought I'd see what the Household Searchlight Recipe Book, 1936, had to offer in the way of soups.

Cream of Corn
1 cup corn
2 cups milk, scalded
3 T melted butter
salt and pepper
1 cup boiling water
3 T flour
1/2 T minced onion
1 T chopped celery leaves
Brown onion and celery leaves in butter. Add flour. Mix until smooth. Add milk slowly, stirring constantly. Add water. Cook over hot water until thick and smooth. Add corn. Season to taste. Heat thoroughly. If desired, celery salt may be used for chopped celery leaves.

While I do enjoy corn soup, it was this variation that caught my eye:

Pea and Peanut Soup
Substitute one cup pea puree or sieved peas for corn, prepare as cream of corn soup. Add 1/2 t finely ground peanuts to each serving.

That seems worth a try, especially when I can find fresh peas. Growing my own is difficult, given that rabbits have eaten the plants that last few years I tried. I will leave the next one up to other people. My kids love salmon but I can't stand it. I cook it anyway, even though it stinks up the house. I have a special pan reserved just for salmon after the incident in which I cooked pastry on a pan that had previously had salmon on it, not knowing that the oils would so stubbornly penetrate the pan, and served up fishy puff pastry to my guests. Salmon is so oily I can't imagine it needs the extra butter in this soup--or that it would not benefit from some kind of thickening.

Salmon Soup
4 cups milk
2 cups shredded salmon
2 T butter
salt and pepper
Combine salmon, butter, and milk. Season to taste. Heat thoroughly. Stir until well-blended. Serve at once.


Here's two more that are unusual for inclusion in the 'soup' category:

Jellied Fruit Soup
1 cup orange juie
1 cup pineapple juice
1 package sweetened lemon flavored gelatin
Heat juices to boiling. Add gelatin. Stir until dissolved. Pour into a shallow oblong mold. Chill until firm. Cut into cubes. Serve in bouillon cups with crisp crackers.

Chow Mein
1 lb diced lean pork, veal, or chicken
2 cups diced celery
1 t salt
2 T corn starch
2 cups chow mein noodles
2 cups water or meat stock
1/2 cup diced onions
2 cups canned bean sprouts
2 T soy sauce
Fry meat 5 minutes in fat. Add water or stock. Cover. Simmer until tender. Add celery and onion. Simmer ten minutes. Moisten corn starch in a little water. Add to first mixture. Add bean sprouts and soy sauce. Season to taste. Heat thoroughly. Serve over noodles.

Dinner for Dickens

Today's food experiment was steel cut oats. I'm a big fan of oats, and have an occasional hankering for oatmeal. I'd heard that steel cut oats were much better than the rolled oats most commonly available in the U.S., so why not? Got myself some from Bob's Red Mill and followed the recipe on the package which is essentially just adding it to boiling water and simmering for 20 minutes or so, with a little salt. It's almost like the recipe for Oatmeal Gruel in the Household Searchlight Recipe Book, 1936. How much easier could it be?

Oatmeal Gruel
1/4 cup oats
4 cups boiling water
salt
Slowly sprinkle cereal into rapidly boiling water. Boil rapidly, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes. Strain. Add salt to taste.

(Strain??? I thought gruel was just runny oatmeal. Are you straining out the excess water? Or straining out the oatmeal and eating the oatmeal juice. Ack.)

Well, Bob's recipe needed a lot more water and kept sticking to the bottom of the pan. And while it was cooking I did a little internet browsing and found versions where you brown the oats in butter first, and use various combos of milk, half and half, or buttermilk added in near the end of the cooking, all of which made me wish I'd waited and tried for something a little more elaborate.

However, when all was said and done, including vanilla, cinnamon, sugar, and a slosh of creamer...I am definitely a convert. The texture was different, creamy but more chewy, like risotto. I understand a savory version is made in Scotland and served on the side very much like risotto. I'm thinking there are tons of experimental possibilities here, both in the this-really-doesn't-count-as-breakfast-anymore-it's-really-dessert direction, and in the stuffing/pilaf/quinoa direction. I've definitely gotten my fiber for the day too.

In the same book, below the Gruel recipe, there's a recipe for Graham Mush. I'd say that the word 'mush' actually sounds more appetizing than anything called 'gruel', which I always associate with Ebenezer Scrooge, but once you scan the recipe you'll see that names, not unlike looks, can be deceiving.

Graham Mush
1 cup graham flour
2 cups boiling water
1 t salt
Sprinkle flour, stirring constantly, into rapidly boiling water. Add salt. Stir frequently to prevent lumping. Cook 30 minutes over direct heat or over hot water in the double boiler 1 hour.

I can't imagine this keeps from clumping. It sounds like a tasteless white sauce. Mmmm, please, sir, can I have some more?

As long as I'm on this page of the book, at the bottom is the recipe for rice. I've noticed that in these older books, rice is quite frequently cooked like pasta, as follows:

Boiled Rice
1 cup rice
8 cups boiling water
1 t salt
Wash rice thoroughly. Sprinkle gradually into boiling water. Add salt. Boil rapidly until rice grains are plump and tender. Pour into a sieve. Pour boiling water over rice until each grain is distinct. Reheat in a double boiler before serving.

Scary Candy

Halloween is busy and the whole weekend raced by. I was planning on posting some Halloween recipes but that will have to wait til next year. However, I have made a discovery that I could still say was Halloween-ish: Candy Making Revolutionized, Confectionary from Vegetables by Mary Elizabeth Hall, 1912. I don’t actually have the book, but I ran across the website Manybooks.net during my internet surfing. It’s full of free downloadable public domain ebooks, including a wealth of interesting old cookbooks. Thank you Project Gutenberg!

Now the first question on perusing this book is: are these actually edible? Are they even worse than receiving actual apples when trick-or-treating? Or is it possible that they could be a so-horrid-they-are-cool Halloween option? I’ll let you decide. But first, the advantages of these recipes:

“Mothers who formerly were all too often required to gratify their children's longing for candies that told a story--candies modeled or otherwise decorative--by giving them boughten confectionery that contained plaster of Paris, aniline dyes and other ingredients equally harmful, can now in

their own kitchen from nourishing and harmless vegetables fashion sweets that are just as beguiling to childish eyes.

Nor is this all. Children invariably have a craving for sweets that if allowed to run its course is almost sure to lead to indigestion and worse. On the other hand, if this craving is not satisfied, the children will be deprived of a food of the utmost value--a food element, indeed, that it is indispensable. Vegetable candy offers an ideal solution of this difficulty. Sugar it of course contains, but the vegetable base supplies no small part of the bulk; consequently children may eat their fill of it and satisfy their natural longing for candy without having gorged themselves with sugar.  Moreover, the vegetable base has virtues that are positive as well as negative; it itself supplies valuable food elements and equally valuable vegetable salts.”

Acquiring some of the equipment might prove challenging to modern cooks.

“A molasses-candy or taffy pull without a hook may be good fun, but it is hard on the candy as well as on the hands. A blacksmith can easily make the hook of round iron, about a half-inch in diameter and eighteen or twenty inches long. The rod should be bent until it forms roughly a letter J, with the tip about seven inches from the horizontal line. The top--the upper part of the horizontal line of the J--should be pounded flat, and two holes bored for screws. Be sure to attach the hook to the wall firmly, and about level with the shoulders. Hooks may be purchased for about fifty cents apiece, but those made by the blacksmith will do as well. Even with the hook, it is well to wear canvas gloves, so that the mass can be handled hotter, and in a more hygienic fashion than with bare hands. Canvas gloves are easily laundered--something which cannot be said of the expensive buckskin gloves recommended for this purpose.”

Time for some actual recipes!

"As the foundation for one sort of decorative confectionery, potato paste must be made. Steam or boil Irish potatoes, drain them, and force them through a fine sieve,--the finer the better. With one-half cupful of Irish potato, so prepared, mix one tablespoonful of corn starch. Gradually and carefully work in enough confectioner's sugar so that the mixture can be rolled. The "fine sieve," be it noted, plays a conspicuous and important part in the making of candy from vegetables. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that no vegetable particle will either soften in or cook up into syrup. While cooking, the vegetable particles are just as individual as though they were in separate vessels; consequently they must be kept circulating as uniformly as is possible through the syrup in order to prevent the accumulation of masses of vegetable matter of sufficient bulk and weight to sink to the bottom of the sauce pan and cause the mixture to burn. Moreover, should the mixture escape burning, it would develop gluey spots that would make the finished product lacking in the smoothness that is the ideal of the candy-cook. Flavor and color this paste to suit, place it on a surface well dusted with confectioner's sugar and roll it to the desired thinness. Cut it in shapes to suit. Cooky cutters or any other tin cutters may be used. More often, however, the amateur confectioner will prefer her own design.”

“Potato Caramel No. 1.

Stir well one pound of sugar, one cupful of milk, one cupful of Irish potato--boiled and sifted as directed before--two tablespoonfuls of butter and one-half teaspoonful of salt. Boil until thick, and thin with one-half cupful of milk, and again cook until thick; again thin with one-half cupful of milk and cook until the mass is of caramel consistency, tested in cold water. Stir as little as possible, but be careful that the mass does not stick to the bottom of the kettle. Pour on a well oiled marble between candy bars. Dry two days, cut in strips and dry again before finally cutting in squares. Place them in a cold place for several hours and then wrap them in parchment paper. They keep well. This is the kind of potato caramel that is especially good for chocolate coating, although all of the potato caramels can be chocolate coated. Make the caramels as above and allow them to dry in the open air for several hours and then cover with chocolate. The process is fully as laborious as it sounds, but the results are more than worth the trouble. The repeated cookings give the characteristic caramel taste and color.”

“=Carrot Rings.=--To make them, peel medium sized carrots and let them stand several hours in cold water. Cut cross-wise into slices about one-quarter of an inch thick and with a small round cutter or sharp knife remove the center pith. Drop the rings into boiling water and cook until tender. After they have thoroughly drained, drop them into a syrup made by boiling one part of water and three parts of sugar to two hundred and twenty degrees. Boil until the rings become translucent--probably about ten minutes. Dry on a wire rack, taking care that the rings do not touch. The next day, heat the syrup to two hundred and twenty-five degrees and again dip the rings and dry as before. If desired, when they are dry, fill the centers with bon-bon cream or marzipan. When this center has become firm, dip the candy into a syrup cooked to two hundred and twenty-eight degrees. Even if the centers are not filled, it is well to make this third dipping; the thermometer should, however, register two hundred and thirty degrees instead of merely two hundred and twenty-eight.”

“=Bean Taffy.=--Bean taffy easily takes first rank among all taffies--vegetable or otherwise. The taste is good beyond words, and the consistency is pleasingly "chewy" without being tenacious to the point of teeth pulling! Lima beans are the best to use as the basis because the skins can easily be removed, but ordinary dried beans may be substituted if care is taken. Cover the beans with cold water, let them stand over night, and the next morning boil them until soft, and force through a fine sieve to remove all the skins. Boil together two cupsful of granulated sugar, one-half cupful of water, a tablespoonful of butter, and one-half cupful of the beans, prepared as above. After the mixture has boiled thoroughly, add one cupful of milk. Add the cupful of milk, one-third at a time. Stir the mixture and let it boil a few minutes after each addition of milk. When the thermometer registers two hundred and forty-two degrees, pour the mass onto an oiled marble between oiled candy bars so that it will set about one-quarter inch thick. As with ordinary taffy, cut into pieces

of the desired size.”

Okay, definitely the trick not the treat.

Halloween eats

I’m still flipping through The Casserole Cookbook from the Culinary Arts Institute, 1954, looking for comfort, and I think it should be renamed The Innards Cookbook. (Has there ever been such a book?) First there’s beef and kidney pie, but there’s also Sweetbreads and Dried Beef casserole for those of you who think you aren’t getting enough pancreas in your diet, there’s Tongue and Greens, Smothered Liver and Onions, Liver and Rice Piquant, and Heart with Apple Raisin Stuffing. If we were being really honest about the composition of food, we could add the Frankfurter and Beans or Frankfurter and Potato Salad concoctions to the mix.  ("Hot dogs. You know what they're made of, Chet? Lips and assholes.") I really am not comforted. Queasy perhaps. On the other hand, Halloween is coming up and if I needed some kind of appropriate fare for that, I know just what book to turn to. Let's rename this The Culinary Arts Institute Zombie Cookbook.

This isn’t from any cookbook but I based it off of several ideas I found online browsing. I took the things I liked best and threw them together. Here is my Halloween offering at the staff potluck this morning.

Start with a bed of spring greens. Followed by:

Cooked lentils with a dressing of olive oil, garlic, no salt Greek seasoning, and red wine vinegar. (Chilled overnight.)

Butternut squash, baked with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, and red pepper flakes. (Chilled overnight.)

Feta cheese and lime juice sprinkled over the top.

You know what this needed? Some very thinly sliced red onion on top. But still not bad at all.

Cabbage paste

In our last round of Italian cooking versus French cooking from the Culinary Institutes' two 1954 books of the same, Italy had definitely pulled ahead with a simple crusty bread recipe and hearty polenta. Last night, France came back hard with the versatile and, at least in this neck of the woods, beloved cream puff filled with Chantilly cream and topped with a smear of chocolate ganache. Cream puffs are more than just those little addictive bites that come in a tub from the freezer at Sam's Club. The pastry can be used for almost anything and is so easy to make. Pipe it into long blobs and fill them to make eclairs, or slit them and make a strawberry shortcake. Pipe them in big rounds and fill them with chicken salad for lunch. Or add some herbs and a little hard cheese to the mix and make savory appetitzers for your next horse diverse tray. There is no actual cabbage in it unless you choose to put it there. I think the name comes from the roughly cabbage head shape that it puffs up into while it cooks. But hey, fill it with cole slaw? Sounds like another idea.

Pate a choux (direct translation: cabbage paste)
Bring to a rolling boil:
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup butter
1 T sugar
1/2 t salt

Add, all at once: 1 c flour

Beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a smooth ball. Remove from heat.

Quickly beat in, one at a time, beating until smooth after each one:
4 eggs.

Continue beating until mixture is thick and smooth. Dough may be shaped and baked at once or wrapped in waxed paper and store in refrigerator overnight.

Force dough through a pastry bag or drop by tablespoonfuls 2 in apart onto a lightly greased baking sheet. bake large puffs at 450 15 minutes. Lower heat to 350 and bake 20-25 minutes longer or until golden in color. bake small puffs at 450 ten minutes. Lower heat to 350 and bake 5 minutes longer. Remove to rack and cool.

Cut off tops and fill shells with chantilly cream, custard, any hot creamed mixture, or salad mixture.

As for the cream filling in this case: I whipped up heavy cream and added just a hint of sugar and real vanilla bean paste. Good vanilla is everything. And the ganache? That's melted dark chocolate with even more cream in it. I didn't have one left after band rehearsal.

Soupe or zuppa?

I’m trying to remember how old I was when my Dad made his now infamous potato soup. I think my next two siblings were toddlers but the others hadn’t been born. That means it was just me alone with his cooking skills—which might have extended as far as Arabian cooking but certainly had not made the cultural leap yet—actually, based on the matazeez incident in which he tried to poison my grandparents while he was dating my mother, I don’t think they extended that far—when my mom left him in charge of making dinner. Surely she meant to simplify things by suggesting he make potato soup. Maybe she even gave him instructions. I don’t know.

What I do know is that he winged it. Potato soup has to have potatoes so he cut some up in small pieces and boiled them. And boiled them. And boiled them until they jelled. The starch in a potato is a funny thing. It can suck up a lot of water like a sponge and form long sticky ropey molecule chains. This is why it’s good to let your potatoes drain awhile, or even reheat them in the pan a little to dry them off when you are making mashed potatoes. The starch cells can also collapse if handled with any force, like mashing or whipping them really hard in hopes of creating some kind of “creamy” base for the soup. I don’t believe it crossed his mind to use milk, or if it did, it was too late. The casein in milk (and butter) interacts with the potato starch to keep the starch from swelling and forming those long chains. Just try making mashed potatoes without either and see what you get.

As my mother tells the story, when she walked in the door she found us all sitting in silence around the kitchen table. I looked up at her and said, “I hope you’re hungry!” with all the contempt for her neglectful parenting that my preadolescent body could conjure. “What’s for dinner?” she chirruped. I held out my bowl, picked up my spoon, plunged it into the center of the white shimmering mass, and let go. It stood straight upright.

But let’s go back to Italy and France for our cuisine comparison. I love soup, including potato, regardless of any past trauma. Thank goodness my mom didn't tell my dad he should make some little hat soup for dinner. 

.

Cappelletti in Brodo (Little Hat Soup)

Prepare and set aside 2 quarts chicken broth

Combine and set aside:

 ½ cup (about ¼ lb) ricotta or cottage cheese

½ cup finely chopped cooked chicken

2 T grated Parmesan cheese

1 egg, slightly beaten

1/8 t salt

Few grains nutmeg

Few grains pepper

Prepare half recipe of basic noodle dough. Roll about 1/16 inch thick. Cut into rounds with 2 ½ round cookie cutter. Place ½ t cheese-chicken mixture in center of each round of dough. Fold each round in half, covering the mounds of filling. Dampen edges of pasta with water and press together to seal. Bring two extreme ends together. Dampen and press together to seal.

Bring broth to a boil and add pasta. Cook about 20-25 minutes or until pasta is tender. Test by pressing a piece against side of pan with fork or spoon. Serve with broth.

Pasta (Basic Noodle Dough)

Sift into a large bowl:

4 cups flour

¼ t salt

Make a well in the center of flour.

Add 4 eggs, one at a time, mixing slightly after each addition. Gradually add 6 T cold water.

Mix well to make a stiff dough. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead (page 6). Proceed as directed in recipes.

Potage Saint-Germain (Green Pea Soup)

Put into a heavy saucepan:

1 small head lettuce, shredded

2 cups shelled fresh green peas

1 cup water

½ cup chopped green leeks (green part only)

2 T fat

2 t chopped chervil

1 t sugar

1 t salt

¼ t pepper

Bring quickly to boiling and cook until peas are tender. Reserve 3T peas for garnish. Put remaining mixture thru sieve. Return sieved mixture to the pan. Reheat with 2 cups bouillon. Just before serving, blend in 2 cups cream and heat thoroughly. Garnish with reserved peas.

Can't have soup without some great bread, I'll have to do that comparison next time.

Cruciferous 'Za

When my mother gave birth to one of my sisters, she shared a hospital room with a very nice woman who also delivered a baby girl the same day. Now it is a fact that a woman’s hormones shift during childbirth in a way that affects her memory, so that she forgets much of the experience. This explains why there are second and third children, etc. Nevertheless, both my mother and her temporary roommate recognized each other years later when two of their other daughters became best friends. Their relationship blossomed and now each holds a place as an honorary gramma to the other’s biological clan. That means an exponential increase at family reunions and holidays along with accompanying recipes. I don’t have the one for her incredible Bok Choy Salad, but here’s the one for summer pizza.

Summer Pizza from Bernie

For 2 jelly roll pans spread 3 to 5 cans of crescent roll dough into the pans. How much you use depends on how thick you want the dough. Create edges up the sides of the pans. Bake 10 to 12 minutes in 350° oven. Put the following mixture on each of the pans. (I usually make two rather than double.)

2 8oz. cream cheese

3/4 cup real mayonnaise

1 T dill weed

1 t garlic salt

Mix and put on cooled crust

Cut up any kind of fresh vegetables you like and put on: green peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, olives, mushrooms, tomatoes, etc, Put grated cheese on top. Refrigerate.

Significantly less than 500 salads

[Less Than] 500 Delicious Salad Recipes from the Culinary Arts Institute, 1951, includes an interesting list of salad bowl combinations. My typical method is to open the fridge door and see what's lurking and needs to be used up, but if I actually checked this list before going to the grocery store, I might be inspired to something more than what comes prechopped in a bag.

Avocado, grapefruit, romaine
Avocado, orange, and watercress
Avocado, peeled white grapes, and chicory (seriously? I can't be bothered anymore to chop my lettuce but I'm going to stand around peeling a bowl of grapes?)
Avocado, tangerine, pecans and lettuce
Avocado, tart apple, and romaine
Chicory, escarole, and grapefruit
Chicory, shredded cabbage, lettuce
Escarole,chinese cabbage, watercress (Watercress has completely dropped out of fashion. It's hard to find here, which is a shame. Its short shelf life is probably the major factor; can't pick it before it's ripe, spray wax over it and ship it a thousand miles like everything else.)
Chinese cabbage, tomato, radish, olives
Endive, carrot sticks, grapefruit
Shredded carrot, chinese cabbage, and romaine
Orange, Bermuda onion, and romaine
Potato diced, celery, cucumber, green pepper, pimiento
Green peas, mint leaves, lettuce
Dandelion, escarole, pimiento, and onion (That's a rare appearance of dandelion as a green in something other than a survivalist/girl scout cook book.)
Lettuce, fresh spinach, watercress, radishes, carrot sticks
Cabbage, carrot sticks, diced apples, shredded green pepper

Things in this book that do not inspire me:
Tongue salad
Anything with canned peas
Pyramid salad (which consists of arranging celery and swiss cheese sticks in a teepee shape on your plate)
Jellied Salmon mold
Duck salad (which far from using duck, sticks a marshmallow on a peach half, with an almond stuck in it for a bill, sorry no pic included!)
Washington's Salad (which involves coating a banana with mayonnaise and rolling it in nuts to look like a log in which you place a small toy hatchet)
Tongue and cabbage salad
Black and white photos of salads, e.g.:

Here's one more recipe inspiration:
Peanut and Carrot Salad
2 cups grated carrot
1 cup ground peanuts
1 T grated onion
1/2 t salt
1/2 cup mayonnaise
lettuce or chicory
1 tomato cut into thin wedges
Combine carrots, peanuts, onion, salt, and mayonnaise. Mix lightly and serve on crisp lettuce, garnish with tomato wedges.

This would probably be surprisingly good. I tried my first african peanut soup about two months ago, and loved it, so peanuts are definitely worthy of a second look. I might have this salad for lunch, except I'm going to the World Food Festival, and eating beforehand is not on my agenda.

Nuts to you

I spent the day at a vintage goods and new crafts flea market. I picked up two new cook books and I wish I could have brought home more. But I settled on Menu Magic in a Nutshell by the California Walnut Grower's Association, which is probably from the 1950s, based on the illustrations, and yet another Metropolitan Cook Book from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.

Let's start with some Menu Magic. "Many a fine cook's reputation is based on a trick of kitchen magic--the little flick of the wrist that empties a cup of walnut kernels into some simple recipe! What menu magic these golden kernels work! How they add eye appeal, flavor, and food value to even old favorites! How they transform ordinary dishes into extraordinary treats!"

I can get into adding them to chicken salad, and maybe even the potato salad would be interesting to try, but I wish they didn't ruin a Pear, Cheese & Walnut Salad with celery. I'll have to come up with a good substitute. I do have all these darn apples rolling around the kitchen table.

Pear, Cheese & Walnut Salad
1/4 c cream cheese
1/4 cup celery, chopped fine
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped fine
cream
salt, pepper, and paprika
6 halves canned pears
mayonnaise
lettuce

Mix cheese, celery, and walnuts. Moisten with cream and season to taste. Place pears on lettuce leaves, fill centers of pears with mixture and garnish with mayonnaise.

Walnut Potato Salad
2 cups cold cooked potatoes
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1 small onion, minced
2 T parsley. minced
1/2 t salt
2 small sweet pickles, diced
mayonnaise
lettuce
walnuts
cheese wafers

Cut potatoes into small cubes. Mix potatoes and walnuts with onion, parsley, salt and pickles, using sufficient mayonnaise to moisten. Serve on crisp lettuce leave with small cheese wafers and garnish with walnut halves.

The recipes I really find interesting though, are the ones that use walnuts as a meat substitute: a vegetarian option for the Depression. If you had walnut trees and time and couldn't afford meat...

Walnut Loaf
2 cups cold baked beans
1 1/2 cups soft bread crumbs
3 T minced onion
1 t salt
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
2 T melted fat
1/2 t paprika
1 1/2 cups canned tomato juice
2 cups tomato sauce

Mix all the ingredients except the tomato sauce and put into a greased loaf pan. Bake in a moderate oven (350) for 60 minutes. Serve with or without a well-seasoned tomato sauce.

Walnut Sausage
1 cup soft bread crumbs
1 T butter
1 cup cooked rice
2 t sage
1/2 t paprika
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 t salt
1/4 t celery seed
1 t minced onion
4 T fat
crisp bacon as garnish
1 1/2 cups white sauce
Blend all ingredients except fat, bacon and white sauce. Shape mixture like sausages and brown well in the hot fat in a skillet. garnish with bacon and serve with a white sauce. (Okay, I know the fat and bacon are hardly vegetarian, but you don't have to have garnish you know, and you can always use a vegetable based fat instead.) (Do you usually garnish you sausage with bacon??)

Vegetable Loaf
1 cup canned or cooked peas
1 cup cooked, mashed carrots
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3 T minced onion
1 cup soft bread crumbs
1 cup milk
1 T melted fat
2 beaten eggs
1 t salt
1/8 t pepper
2 cups tomato sauce
Mix ingredients in order given, omitting tomato sauce, and put in a greased loaf pan. Bake in a moderate oven (350) for 60 minutes. Serve with a well-seasoned tomato sauce.

All in all, a fun little book to have picked from the tree. And remember: "[M]ake it a rule to "Just Add Walnuts" to at least one dish every day."

The best part of waking up, is oatmeal in your cup...

I can’t stand the taste of coffee. Not even double chocolate mocha with whipped cream on top. On the other hand, I love the smell of it, especially in the morning. It gives me cozy homey feelings. My partner is a coffee snob. He keeps whole beans in the freezer and grinds them as he uses them. On the other hand, he is also addicted to generic powdered coffee creamer, not milk, not cream, and no fancy flavors. This morning he was out and all I had to offer was a bottle of Belgian chocolate toffee Coffeemate creamer in my fridge. He wrinkled his nose but it was better than nothing.

The reason I had coffeemate was to pour over my oatmeal. That way I can pretend it’s chocolate ice cream. Work with me on this, sometimes you have nothing to binge on in the house and at least this way you can pretend it’s healthy. I realize that once you’ve poured Coffeemate over it, oatmeal has as many calories and fat as the ice cream you are avoiding. But think of the fiber!

I do love oatmeal. A day without oatmeal is like an egg without salt. I am addicted to granola bars, oatmeal cookies are my favorite, and there’s something comforting about a hot mug of belly sticking oatmeal as an evening snack. Consequently, I never make this recipe for oatmeal cake. It would be one of those things I have to shave a little bite off of every time I pass by. You know, just to even up the edges, until the whole pan is gone.

Oatmeal cake makes a nice change from chocolate and was often on the buffet when my parents had people over. I have no idea where my mom originally got it but she's made it as long as I can remember. Again, you can even pretend it’s healthy. Or substitute out some white flour for graham, throw in some shredded zucchini, carrots, or apples, or sub some applesauce for the shortening and make it healthy for real. I could suggest that lard would also be a healthier substitution but Fruitfemme won’t let me go there.

Oatmeal Cake

Pour 1 c boiling water oven

1 c oatmeal let stand

Cream 2 c brown sugar

1 c shortening

Add 2 eggs—beat well—add oatmeal.

Sift 1 c flour

½ t salt

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1 t cinnamon

Add to the above, mix well. Add 1 cup nuts and 1 cup raisins

Bake at 350° for 1 hour or til done.

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

3 T brown sugar

1 T cornstarch

½ t salt

1 t vanilla

1 T butter

Mix above ingredients and add enough boiling cream or milk to make a thick glaze. Frost while cake is still warm. Eat while cake is still warm.

Revolutionary Recipes

It doesn’t seem to matter how far back your go, gramma always cooked better in the past. I’ve got recent cookbooks, 100 year old cookbooks and I’ve seen 200 year old cook books, and no matter what they always speak longingly of recapturing some mythical magic that our foremothers had in the kitchen that we are now too busy, too sophisticated, or too ignorant to possess. We’ve always lost something ephemeral that that particular book will help us recapture.

Here Stokely-Van Camp gives us a pastoral Colonial setting (Conner Prairie Pioneer Settlement, Noblesville, Indiana, 1977) to set us back on the wholesome path of our ancestors and make us buy more canned green beans. This is probably the tail end of the bicentennial craze too. Ohmygosh, my brain goes strange places sometimes, anyone remember the Saturday morning cartoon The Funky Phantom? The Spirit of 1776.

Back to my theme. The first recipe I read in this book was far from promising. Something about canned green beans entombed in lemon jello makes me think they'd be more likely to incite rebellion than feed a revolution.

Green Bean Crunchers

1 can [1 lb] French style green beans

1 pkg [3 oz.] lemon gelatin

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

½ cup finely chopped onion

½ cup chopped celery

½ cup coarsely chopped nuts

Drain beans, reserving liquid. Add enough water to bean liquid to make 2 cups. Bring liquid to a boil and add lemon gelatin, stirring until dissolved. Dissolve unflavored gelatin in ¼ cup cold water and add to lemon gelatin mixture. Cool until slightly thickened. Fold in remaining ingredients. Pour into a 6-cup mold or 8 individual molds and chill until firm. Unmold on crisp greens and serve with Tangy Dressing.

That means we have to take a look at the Tangy Dressing recipe too. This is a little more appealing, though definitely on some other substance.

½ c unpeeled cucumber, grated and drained

1 cup mayonnaise

½ cup finely chopped green pepper

2 t white vinegar

½ t salt

Dash pepper

Stir all ingredients together and chill before serving. Makes about 1 pint dressing.

The following recipes, while not noteworthy on their own, have a whole new spin when juxtaposed with the lovely colonial women posed serving up the family dinner.  

Beans and Franks

(“It’s a tradition.” We are reassured. I’m sure that Betsy Ross had a big bowl beside her rocking chair as she sewed the first flag. They rise to the level of haute cuisine by reason of sautéing.)

3 T chopped onion

2 T butter

1 can [1 lb. 15 oz.] pork and beans

6 wieners, sliced penny style

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 t prepared mustard

1 t celery salt

Saute onion in butter until tender. Combine onion with remaining ingredients in a 2 quart casserole. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Polynesian Chicken

(May be served over rice. I have it on great authority that Paul Revere preferred his Polynesian chicken over mashed rutabagas.)

2 whole chicken breasts, halved

2 T shortening

1 can [15 oz.] tomato sauce

1 cup peach preserves

2 T chopped onion

1 ½ T soy sauce

¼ t ginger

½ cup toasted sliced almonds

In skillet, brown chicken in shortening, pour off fat. Combine next 5 ingredients and pour over chicken. Bring to simmer; cover and simmer 1 ½ hours, turning chicken after 30 minutes. Sauce should thicken. Garnish with toasted almonds.

I'll leave you with one more picture of the kind of spread so dear to the hearts of our founding fathers.