Category Archives: Baking

January Resolution: New Food

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As I mentioned a while back in the month, I will be sticking to one resolution per month this year, and January’s resolution was to try new food. Specifically, I resolved to try something new each week. I would not say that I am not an adventurous eater, but I can’t try things that just sound inherently dangerous or outright gross. So puffer fish and chocoate covered ants were just out. This was a bit of a cheat for me because I had voluntarily tried brussel sprouts within the first week of the month, before I put together my resolutions for the year, but I hope you will just forget that.

Each week I considered what my food adventure would be. I did not limit myself to just produce – although that is where my failings lie – but I did try a bit of this and a bit of that.

Week 1 – Brussel Sprouts – brush with a bit of olive oil and roast; I will try these again.

Week 2 – Cinnamon Chicken – ever since I saw a Little House on the Prarie episode where Laura switched out the cinnamon for cayenne pepper before Nellie Olson made cinnamon chicken for Almanzo Wilder, I have wanted to try this dish. I posted on Facebook for food ideas and my friend Brianna sent me the recipe. It was quite good! More savory than sweet because there is no sugar.

I served it with brown rice and green beans and it was a nice change to our regular fare of “chicken something” and veggies. It takes two tablespoons of cinnamon, so poor Almanzo having to politely eat chicken with two tablespoons of cayenne pepper on it!!

Week 3 – Pineapple Melon – I have seen these in the grocery store and wondered about them. Since it was something I doubted I would ever try unless under duress, I purchased one and Melody and I tried it a day or so later.

I sliced it, not knowing what the inside would be like, but somehow not expecting what I found:

This thing is seedy and around the seeds is a gelantanous goo. This wasn’t looking good. I pried out a small piece and put it in my mouth…and immediately spat it out! This thing is horrid! I can only liken this fruit to the consistency of the inside of a tomato (and you all know how I feel about THAT) and bitter, sour, unpleasant. Yuck! Melody tasted a bit and enjoyed pulling the seeds out more than eating it. I threw the whole thing in the trash and shudder when I recall the taste.

Week 4 – Graham Cracker Cake – In an attempt to redeem my tasting tribulation of the previous week, I made a vintage recipe called graham cracker cake, except I didn’t have graham crackers, so I crushed Nilla Wafers. This cake was very good though I think I might have not baked it long enough. It acted a bit like a sponge or angel cake at first, but soon fell while it was cooling. The recipe card didn’t indicate how long to bake it, so next time I’ll try it for longer. It’s worth a second attemp and yes, we did eat it all even if it was a bit messed up.

With a bit of whipped cream, it redeemed the new foods resolution completely! I didn’t mind trying the new foods and I will continue to try to work more foods into our dietary routine. I’ve got a turnip or two in my fridge right now and I’m actively looking for preparations, plus I’ll be trying some new recipes for my sister site Gram’s Recipe Box as the months progress. All in all, I’d call January’s resolution of new foods a success!

I was in a magazine!

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Recently my friend Suzanne Broughton, who is an editor over at OC Family magazine, asked me if I would like to have one of my recipes featured in the May issue of the magazine. Well, that didn’t take long to think about and of course I said YES! It was tough trying to decide which of the many favorite recipes I would choose, but after a bit of thought I selected the brownie recipe from my Grammie Hennie. They are so easy to make it’s almost a crime, and any time I make them, there are only crumbs left in the blink of an eye.

I featured this recipe over at Gram’s Recipe Box a while ago and it’s a popular post over there. Now for your reading pleasure and my bragging rights as modest as they may be:

Click on the image for a larger view. Take a look at the current edition at OCFamily.com or click here to get to the May edition.

Using the Wilton Cookie Shape Pans Successfully

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Did you – like me – fall prey to the skillful marketing folks at Wilton? They had these cookie shape pans on sale at Target, Walmart, and elsewhere. Yes I bought them. Yes I was frustrated because they didn’t carry any instructions or even tips. Yes I was downright irritated that my first batch was awful. They overflowed the shape and were uncooked in the centers. I was disgusted with the whole thing. But since I am not the type to give up easily, I tried again.

So, in case you – like me – want to use these pans to spite Wilton, here are a few pointers. I used Pillsbury gingerbread dough, for no particular reason, just what I had on hand. The large batch of dough made about 36 cookies. Good luck!

1. bring your dough to room temperature if it’s refrigerated.

2. take a bit of dough, enough to make a 1″ ball, and make a ball.

3. press the dough ball into the center of the shape, then work outward into the nooks and crannies of the design. For the more oblong shapes, make a log out of the dough, the do the same as with the ball.

4. the dough should not fill the entire shape to the top. It needs room to expand, so fill it no more than 3/4 full.

5. bake as per your recipe’s instructions.

6. let cool 2-3 minutes after baking before trying to get them out of the pan. I had to use my fingernail to loosen the cookies.

7. once cooled, decorate. I used Betty Crocker Cookie Icing.

I may never use these pans again, but Wilton did not win! I successfully made cookies with their pans, and although they look nothing like the cookie examples on the Wilton site, they tasted fantastic. So there.  :-)  

And you thought modern baking was time consuming?

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This is a fun little piece my mother passed on to me. First is an excerpt from Martha Washington’s letters to her grandmother. Note, I have written these exactly as they are printed, with the exception of using the modern “s” in place of the Georgian f shaped s to make it easier to read.

To make a great Cake

“Take 40 eggs and divide the whites from the yolks and beat them to a froth then work 4 pounds of butter to a cream & put the whites of eggs to it a Spoon full at a time till it is well work’d then put 4 pounds of sugar finely powdered to it in the same manner then put in the youlks of eggs & 5 pounds of flower & 5 pounds of fruit. 2 hours will bake it add to it half an ounce of mace & nutmeg half a pint of wine & some frensh brandy.”

Now, if you can find a pan big enough to bake this cake, you may want to ice it, right? Below is an excerpt from The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse.

To Ice a great Cake another Way

“Take two pounds of double refin’d Sugar, beat and sift it very fine, and likewise beat and sift a little Starch and mix with it, then beat six White of Eggs to a froth, and put to it some Gum-water, the Gum must be steep’d in the Orange-flower-water, then mix and beat all these together two Hours, and put it on your Cake; when it is bake, set it in the oven again to harden a quarter of an Hour, take great Care it is not discolour’d. When it is drawn, ice it over the top and sides, take two Pounds of double refin’d Sugar beat and sifted, and the Whites of three Eggs beat to a Froth, with three or four Sponfuls of Orange-flower-water, and three Grains of Musk and Amber-grease together; put all these on a Stone Mortear, and beat these till it is as white as snow, and with a Brush or Bundle of Feathers, spread it all over the Cake and put it in the oven to dry, but take Care the oven does ot discolor it. When it is cold, paper it, and it will keep good five or six weeks.”

Next time on the The Colonial Baking Show, we will share a modernized version of Martha Washington’s Great Cake, be sure to tune in to see us try to wrangle a 20″ cake pan into a wood fire oven, only on The Food Nutwork…

The strange competition for recipe cards

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Since I started my other blog, Gram’s Recipe Box, back in March, I haven’t had to worry too much about source material, because I was working my way through the old recipe box. Now that I’m reaching the end of the cards, I’m seeking new source material. My friend loaned me some cards from her family and my sister is working on some others that she has. In the meantime I figured I’d look on eBay, the great garage sale of the internet.

It’s amazing what people will put on eBay, and it’s even more amazing that there are lots of people out there bidding on that stuff. I did a quick search on vintage recipe cards and there were numerous auctions for old boxes of recipe cards. Many were handwritten notecards, much like Gram’s. Many were big collections of clippings, handwritten cards, and those funny Betty Crocker cards from the 70s.

What is more amazing is that there is a strange competition for these cards, with a few buyers paying up to $75 for a collection of old recipe cards. I find that very weird! I bid on six auctions and on three of them, I was outbid in the last few seconds of the sale! Now, that’s not unusual, but the fact that it’s on something that I think of as somewhat low on the “hot item” list is what throws me.

But, this tells me something much more important. All of these auctions said “great estate sale find!” noted in them. Meaning they were left as junk by the relatives of some deceased lady who collected recipes her entire life. It seems there are enough people who either don’t have their own family recipe books, or they just love old recipes, that these old recipes, almost lost to the ages, are now a “hot item” for collectors.

The moral of the story is to pass on the recipes from your family. Even if you don’t cook, please pass them on to someone who will appreciate them. As I’ve learned through my recipe project, recipe cards hold a lot more than ingredients and instructions on them.

We’re back and we’re baking again

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I had to take some time off because honestly keeping up with one blog is time consuming, but three is really taking up a lot of my time! So, I’m ahead on Gram’s Recipe Box, Past Periods Press is good until July, it’s my chance to focus here for a minute.

We are going to be meeting my friend Kate and her family at the Aquarium of the Pacific tomorrow. Kate and I have never really met in 3D, just online through our mom’s group. Her daughter Jordan is Melody’s age and they have a younger son, Ben. All of us are excited for the day! Pictures to follow I’m sure.

Somehow I missed a round or even two of Baking Gals. It’s okay though, because I think I really needed a break. I signed up this month, and we baked for Matt Mobley, currently stationed at Ft. Hood, which we all know is A. the scene of the terrible massacre last year, and B. a bivouac center where units are deployed overseas. Hopefully these treats will reach Matt and let him and his buddies know we wish him the best.

We went old school again and dug up a recipe from “All My Best” which is the cookbook my mom put together of her favorite recipes from a lifetime of cooking. When I realized how simple Grammie Hennie’s brownies were, that’s what we went with. Keeping with my vow of quality over quantity, I figured I’d make a batch of brownies, include gum/mints/candy and ship. Well, hm, the brownies turned out so good that there were only about half a batch left. So, I though well, I’ve got a brownie mix here, I’ll make those. Yes, we made them, but they are seriously substandard compared with Grammie’s. 

Here we melted the butter and unsweetened chocolate. Ghiradelli, because my store was out of Bakers, but still delicious. Next, I have been itching to use this pan, which is one reason we went with brownies this month. It’s really a scone pan, but Joyce the Tea Lady told me it’s great for brownies. My batch of mix could have made a dozen very plump brownies, but it stretched to 15 okay.

The brownies were insane yummy while still warm from the oven. So yummy that I made a second batch of Grammie’s recipe the next day so my family could enjoy a few. The remainder were boxed up to go to Matt.

As you can see, I also stuffed a box with regular treats. Finally I made a batch of Munchie Dudes crackers. Melody is delighted because she usually only gets these at Gramma & Papa’s house. I will be shipping these on Monday since our local post office isn’t open on Saturdays anymore. Ah, government cost cutting.

Baking

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I have been doing a lot of baking recently, not just for the Baking Gals organization, but for my new website Gram’s Recipe Box. Here’s a rundown on what we have been baking.

Operation Baking Gals (Give A Little Support)

4 doz cinnamon sugar cookies

1 pound cake

1 doz cranberry orange scones

These were all shipped to Bruce MacRitchie in Afghanistan, along with a bag of Jolly Ranchers, jelly beans, gum and mints. This round I think I learned that I need to bake less. It need to be less about the quantity and more about the quality. Next round I think I’m going to make cookies OR brownies, but not both.

Gram’s Recipe Box

Coffee Cake

Applesauce Cake

Chocolate Syrup

Coffee Cake (again)

The fun of these recipes is sometiimes figuring out exactly what she was thinking or how things were supposed to go together. I made one coffee cake that didn’t bake right because I put it in the wrong kind of pan. You might never think that the type of pan is just as important as what goes into it! The cake tasted very good, but I wish I had thought about that a little bit more.

Round 18 is open on Baking Gals, and I encourage you to join up if you can. This is the time of year they need us most, because the holiday season is past us and people are not in the “spread the love” sort of feeling. With Independence Day coming up in a few months, this is a great time to heat up your patriotic cookie recipes. :-)

Gram’s Recipe Box

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This past weekend, my mom gave me a tremendous gift, although at the time I didn’t know it. I thought she was asking if I wanted a little box. It was white, showed years of use, and was clearly a recipe box. I didn’t know what to think at first, then I looked inside. Where I assumed it would be empty, it was in fact full of recipe cards. They were my grandmother’s recipe cards.

Since Grandma Pat – or Gram as we called her in later years – passed away in 1982, I have fallen out of practice at recalling her memory quickly. She used to do this funny little story called The Crooked Mouth Family and I would laugh every time she told it. She also would softly say “purr, purr” when something was particularly tasty or special, something I have said myself from time to time. How I could have forgotten these special memories is really a testament to time wearing away at our minds. I was a tender 14 years old when she passed and she had been very ill for quite some time. It wasn’t an exact shock, but it’s never easy. It was the first death I was really cognizant of, being as my grandfather had passed away a few years earlier and didn’t make as much of an impression on me.

As I looked at those recipe cards in that old wooden box, so many of those wonderful memories came flooding back over me. I remembered the funny little rhymes and ditties she taught me, and I was especially good at remembering them. I remembered the red mittens she had made me which I treasured for years after they no longer fit, and hardly wore in the first place because it doesn’t really get all that cold here in California. I could remember her smell and her smile, her funny sense of humor and her playing Blockhead with me at the kitchen counter. Grandmothers are truly one of the most wonderful things in the world.

So, later that night after my mom gave me the box, I was thinking about it and what to do with it. I didn’t want to put it in a drawer or cabinet to be forgotten. It seemed like something I wanted to share somehow. Being the digital age – and having access to decent equipment and a husband who can help when pressed into service – I realized I could start a blog about the recipe cards. My first idea was simple: post a scan of the recipe cards with minimal commentary, as often as possible, daily preferred. As I sat in the chair at the hair salon waiting for my color to set and my friend to finish with her other customer, I set up a new blog via my iPhone. (My goodness I am getting pretty geeky, aren’t i?) 

Almost the most difficult part of this process has been settling on a color scheme and design! I wanted something that reflected Gram’s love of home, crafts, and family, while keeping it within the 21st century. Plus, WordPress.com, the host I use, has very few themes available that are not techie. I finally settled on one, posted the first few recipe cards, told a few friends, and hoped for the best!

I hope you will make some time to visit Gram’s Recipe Box. Since the site launched yesterday, I’ve gotten some great feedback from friends and family. Yes, I will be making as many of the recipes as possible and posting pictures and a blog post about my experience. My mother may be consulted often. My sister may be called into service. It’s a family treasure, after all. Hopefully, you will share the treasure with me!

Week in review

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Last week was eventful and the upcoming week is shaping up to be busy as well. It’s the way life speeds by that gets me every time!

In the last week, we celebrated Auntie’s birthday, she and I went to a Victorian tea (as the Victorians), we found out our dog is fat, John and Melody finished watching all the back episodes of Kimba, we finalized the details for Melody’s birthday party, I cooked a delicious Cheddar Chicken Soup, Nano had 3 teeth pulled, Melody is increasingly stubborn about potty training, John worked about a million hours, we cleaned the spare room enough that it will soon be a guest room, and I baked for our latest soldier through Baking Gals.  Whew!

 

My company has announced a “get fit” program and a bunch of us at work have been walking during our lunch breaks. It’s great and I really felt it the days we didn’t walk due to rain. It’s also fortuitous for Nano because he needs to lose 2 pounds. He’s only 11 pounds but he should be 9. My little doggy is fat, lol. However, it’s more serious than that. He has heart disease and something called a collapsing trachea, which causes him to cough a lot. The doctor thinks that the extra fat around his neck is pressing on his trachea and causing breathing troubles. Nothing to joke about, the dog gets less food and more walks. On top of that, poor guy had to have three molars pulled. Ouchie!

Melody’s birthday is coming up next weekend, and pretty much every day, she asks “is it my birthday today!?” with such a look of excitement and eager joy that I almost want to tell her that it is her birthday, lol. I really can’t wait until Saturday to be able to tell her “yes, Melody, today is your birthday!” We are planning a bouce house (weather forecast is sunny), friends, food, and a Tinkerbell cake. Thursday I will be taking her and some of her daycare buddies to the Santa Ana Zoo, along with Rhonda our babysitter. I’m really looking forward to it!

This morning, she was tired and did not want to get out of bed. She lay there watching as I was gathering clothes for her. She then told me “Mommy, I have a headache. When someone has a headache they have to rest and stay in bed.” I am so not looking forward to her trying to get out of going to school! I can only conclude she got this idea of staying in bed from me, since a couple weekends ago I had a terrible migraine and stayed in bed half the day..

During some of our cleaning of our spare room, I was forced to deal with my old records. You remember those things…vinyl, big pictures on the jackets, lyrics on the inside sleeve? Yeah, so back in the late 80s and early 90s, I collected Depeche Mode records. Specifically I was addicted to British and West German imports. I’d play them once (maybe) to record the music onto a tape and then never play them again. The West German ones were all colored vinyl, beautiful royal blue, neon orange, lemon yellow. I carefully stored them in plastic sleeves to protect the jackets, and never stored them in a garage or attic. Well, this paid off – figuratively and hopefully literally! I was about to send them to Goodwill when I decided to Google “who buys Depeche Mode records” and found a dealer in England. They have made me an offer for some of these records, and that should help out a bit toward my trip to Tennessee in April.

Yowza, how could I have forgotten to mention that I booked our trip to Knoxville?? Melody and I will be visiting the Hall family at the end of April! It will be Melody’s first trip on an airplane; in fact, her first trip anywhere. John of course offered to pay to have Tara come here, but I really want to go there, ha ha. I will even get the chance to see a real Civil War battlefield, AND go to Dollywood! Melody tells me “Mommy, we are going to Hollywood with Cassidy!”

This past weekend we baked for our latest soldier, CPT Steven Wisniewski. CPT Wisniewski is an Army pilot flying Apache helicopters in northern Iraq. He’s young, having graduated from high school in 2001, where he participated in football, wrestling and track. He also loved the arts, participating in the school choir and drama group, National Honor Society, Latin and Spanish clubs. To balance that, he earned his Eagle Scout in Troop 101 in Ohio. CPT Wisniewski went on to Ohio State University where he earned his degree in Engineering with an emphasis on Industrial Design & Systems Engineering. Wow. For this very worthy soldier, we made Cinnabon cookies, merengues, and heart shaped oreos. I hope to get in one more batch of white chocolate chip cranberry cookies and ship this all before the weekend. It won’t reach him by Valentine’s Day, but I hope he will know we are thinking of him and wishing him and his buddies a safe and happy Valentine’s Day.

CPL Wisniewski reminds me a little bit of my cousin George. He has the same zest for life, a few of the same interests – choir, flying, sports – and was also from Ohio. Every part of my being asks that George watch out over this young soldier and keep him safe.

We have been doing a lot of cleaning, getting rid of, donating. One group that has gotten all of our gently used baby gear is a support group for the families of deployed Marines out of Camp Pendleton. I recently received a sweet thank you note from a young lady who took a bus from Corona to Irvine in order to collect my old Pack N Play and high chair. The families of our deployed military suffer so much, it makes my heart break. Having seen some of my friends go through the struggles of being wives of deployed military, I am happy to give up the things we don’t need to someone who needs them so much. The support group is like a Goodwill, but the family pays nothing. If you find it in your heart to make a donation to any organization that helps out like this, please consider it. It makes a big difference!

Our Deepest Thanks

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Today is Veteran’s Day. Days like today mean more than light traffic on the freeway, no school, mail or banking, although it seems some people only look at it that way. This is a tradition that started with a great relief that the War to End All Wars was over. That is certainly reason to celebrate! You might have heard of Armistice Day, or maybe not. Let’s learn a little bit about this holiday that we don’t really celebrate any more.

World War 1 was raging in Europe since 1914 and America had become involved in April 1917. At the time it was referred to as The Great War, and really, it was a great and terrible war with battle tactics that shock our senses still today. Trench warfare was bloody and almost certainly fatal to participants. Initially, America had adopted a policy of neutrality, both militarily and in terms of ongoing trade and finance. The President at the time, Woodrow Wilson, was seen as a peacemaker who sought treaties and peaceful resolution to the war on several occasions. Up until Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare in January 1917, he was seen to have given every effort to keep America safe while helping to broker peace in Europe. Within the first three months of 1917, seven American merchant ships had been sunk and Germany was caught trying to incite Mexico to join with them against America. Wilson and Congress had had enough, and in April 1917 war was declared.

In just over one year, the United States sent almost five million men to war in Europe. Of those, we lost 116,516 and over 200,000 were wounded but not mortally. When you factor in all military and civilian casualties during the course of the war there were 16 million deaths and 21 million injured. Just to put that into perspective, the total number of dead is equal to twice the modern population of New York City.

America’s entry into World War 1 is often seen as the catalyst to bringing the war to an end. The Allies and the Germans were tired. They had been fighting since 1914. Germany was fighting on multiple fronts and the surge of fresh troops from America overwhelmed them. In 1918, an Armistice was announced to take place at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month – November 11 at 11 a.m.

Soldiers of the 353rd Infantry near a church at Stenay, Meuse in France, wait for the end of hostilities. This photo was taken at 10:58 a.m., on November 11, 1918, two minutes before the armistice ending World War I went into effect – image from the US Department of Veterans Affairs

The Treaty of Versailles was signed in June 1918, bringing the Great War to an end.

In 1919 the first Armistice Day was proclaimed by Woodrow Wilson, and he stated “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.” The day was intended to be a reflection on all that had been lost to restore peace in the world. Through the 1920s, these celebrations were carried out with great success and included the dedication of a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetary on November 11, 1921. By the end of the decade, Armistice Day had been proclaimed a state holiday in most states and was Federally recognized. By 1938, it was established as a holiday for Federal employees, and most states followed suit.

By 1954, the number of veterans in America had swelled to the hundreds of thousands due to World War II and the Korean War, and President Eisenhower passed legislation changing Armistice Day to Veteran’s Day so as to include all veterans of all wars.

There has been a little fiddling with the date of observance over the years, but tradition kept bringing it back to November 11th, regardless of what day of the week it fell.

The holiday is meant to be a time to recognize our great heros at home and work toward peace abroad. So, today, if you can find it in your heart, please thank a veteran for all they have done for our great country and the preservation of peace in the world.

Sources: US Department of Veterans Affairs, The History of Veteran’s Day