Family Food Fads

Mama brought me home a wonderful book from the library, Fashionable Food:  Seven Decades of Food Fads by Sylvia Lovegren.  It traces the food crazes from the 1920s to the 1990s and thus charts America's always-odd relationship to food.

You know how Michael Pollan says something akin to "eat what your grandmother would recognize as food?"  Well, I think I might have to go back further, because my grandmother started cooking in the 1920s and 1930s and, after reading this book cover to cover in just two days, I can spot the trends.  It's fascinating to know that her Tomato Aspic (yes, she made it and she I even tried it once as a tween; ick.), my dad's fondness for canned pear halves filled with cottage cheese (and sometimes wasn't there cheddar on there, too?) on a bed of lettuce as well as for canned asparagus, the family devotion to yams with marshmallows on top at Thanksgiving, and open-faced bacon, onion,cheddar, and pickle sandwiches browned in the oven come from this era?  From Gommie's mom, in the 1940s, comes Eggs a la Goldenrod and chocolate chip cookies.  Later, from the 1950s, there would be Spam cooked with brown sugar, canned baked beans mixed with bacon and bell pepper and brown sugar, shish kebabs, and Chex mix, called "trash" in my family.  There were even examples of foreign food fads, with hamburger chow mein and spaghetti with sauce from a jar, way back when Chinese and Italian were foreign.  As Gommie learned to cook as a newlywed and then a mom in the 1960s and 1970s, we get pot roast with the ubiquitous Lipton's onion soup mix (one of my all-time favorites), green bean casserole, chili con carne, Swiss steak, grasshopper pie, pumpkin bread, California dip (said onion soup mix in sour cream), rum or Tipsy balls, Tang tea, and lemon bars.  I was floored that I knew so many of the dishes from home on a regular basis and could recognize the rest from friends or one-time experiences, like nut-covered cheese balls, Jell-o Poke cake, chiffon pies, chocolate truffles, those creamy marshmallow-fruit cocktail salads, three-bean salad, and several others.

The recipes for many of the above are a bonus to all of the history (and many of the recipes are included just for edification, sounding awful), from the effects of Prohibition on fine dining (ruined it and the American palate) to the struggles of cooking under the ration system during WWII, which was then followed by the excesses of meat and alcohol in the 1950s.  A side narrative involves the influence of refrigeration and the obsession with chilled or frozen dishes.  And throughout most of the decades there was, according to Lovegrean, a huge separation between food for women and food for men, most clearly delineated by ladies luncheons and the tearooms of the 20s and 30s and the barbecues of the 50s.

What's also fascinating about the book is the continuity of sweet, creamy/gooey, and processed food (oh, the love of mini-marshmallows, Miracle Whip, Cool Whip, creamed condensed canned soup, and canned fruits and vegetables) from the 20s all the way to the present--oftentimes all mixed together!  What doesn't continue is the focus on homecooked food.  Intriguingly, Lovegren focuses on the homecook until the 1980s when all the foods and fads she discusses are clearly restaurant-based, with Alice Waters and California Cuisine, Wolfgang Puck, Paul Prudhomme, etc etc etc.  Even the recipes she includes in this part are beyond the pantry and skills of many regular homecooks.

I wonder, if she could add the last few decades, what she would write?  What were the trends of the 00s and now the teens?  She'd have to write about the rise in gluten-free and other allergen-free diets, the anti-carbs diets, the Paleo diet, and all the vegetarians and vegans.  Also, there would need to be something about the influence of the Food Network, internet food sites, the demise of Gourmet, and even Pinterest.

And yet still I make for my kids some of those dishes my mom made for us from her mom and my dad's mom.  Only, I don't use dried onion soup mix anymore.  Just real onions.


Next up:  The History of Food in 100 Recipes by William Sitwell, which is much less likely to be familiar, as it starts with ancient Egyptian bread, Viking dried fish, and Roman cheesecakes!

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Note:  These are all taken from my family recipe archives and are not from the book!

Milk Toast or Eggs a la Goldenrod

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon flour

milk

hard boiled egg

toast

            Brown flour in melted butter, until thick paste.  Add milk slowly, forming white sauce.  Pour over toast, grate egg, add salt and pepper to taste.

                                                                                                                       

Gommie Hungry

Mom's Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 ½ cup sifted flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup shortening

¾ cup brown sugar (firmly packed)

¾ cup granulated sugar

2 eggs (Eggbeaters also work)

1 teaspoon hot water

1 cup nuts

2 cups oatmeal (quick or regular; uncooked—old fashioned regular are best)

1 teaspoon vanilla

14 oz. chocolate chips

            Cream shortening until soft.  Add sugars gradually, cream until light and fluffy.  Add eggs (1 at a time), beating after each.  Add vanilla and hot water.  Sift in dry ingredients.  Add nuts, oatmeal, and chocolate chips.  Bake at 375°F for 8 minutes. 

                                                                       

Bammie (Gommie's mom)

Spam

¼ cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon vinegar

¼ teaspoon mustard

liquid from spam or 2 drops of water.

            Pour mixture over spam.  Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes.

                                                                                                                        Gommie Hungry

Baked Beans

4 slices bacon

½ cup chopped onion

2-1 lb. can Pork and Beans

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon mustard

1 teaspoon ketchup

chopped bell pepper

            Cook bacon until crip, drain and crumble.  In 2 tablespoons of drippings cook onion and bell pepper unil tender but not brown.  Add with bacon to beans and other, mixing well.  Put in 1 ½ quart casserole dish.  Bake uncovered at 350°F for 20-45 minutes.

                                                                                                                       Gommie Hungry

Trash 

1 box Crispex (2+ quarts)

2 quarts stick pretzels

2 quarts Cheerios

4 tablespoons Worcestershire

1-2 teaspoons garlic powder

1-2 teaspoons onion powder

            Spray with Pam.  Microwave 8-10 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes.

Gommie Hungry

Pot Roast

3 lb. roast (chuck, pot, shoulder)

1 package dry onion soup mix

2 cups water

6 potatoes, peeled, cut in 1” cubes

1 onion, cut 1” squares

1 package carrots, peeled and sliced

1 green pepper, cut 1” squares

            Place roast in pan with soup mix and water.  Cover with foil; bake 350°F for 2 hours.  Add potatoes, onion, carrots, and pepper.  Cover with foil and continue to bake until tender (45 minutes).

Gommie Hungry

 Hamburger Chow Mein

1 lb. ground beef

1 chopped onion

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 cup diced celery

1  1/2 cup water

1 small can sliced water chestnuts, drained

14 oz. bean sprouts, drained

4 1/2 oz. sliced mushrooms

1-2 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons cornstarch in 3 tablespoons water

            Brown beef with onion, add salt, pepper, celery and water.  Bring to boil.  Cover and simmer 15 minutes.  Add remaining vegetables, heat until hot.  Combine cornstarch and water; add to mixture.  Cook until slightly thickened, stirring constantly.  Serve over hot cooked rice or chow mein noodles.

Gommie Hungry

Green Bean Casserole

2-16 oz. cans whole green beans, drained (can also use frozen)

1 can Cream of Mushroom soup

½ cup milk

Dash pepper

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1-2.8 oz. can of French-Fried Onions

            Combine soup, milk, soy sauce and pepper.  Stir in green beans and ½ can of onions.  Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes or until hot; stir.  Top with remaining onions.  Bake 5 minutes.

                                                                                                                       

Gommie Hungry

Swiss Steak

1 pound beef round steak, cut ¾ inch thick

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 tablespoon cooking oil

1-16 oz. can tomatoes, cut up

1 small onion, sliced and separated into rings

½ cup sliced celery

½ cup sliced carrot

½ teaspoon dried thyme, crushed

            Cut meat into 4 serving-size pieces.  Trim fat.  Combine the flour, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.  Coat pieces with flour mixture.  In a large skillet brown meat on both sides in hot oil.  Drain fat.

            Add undrained tomatoes, onion, celery, carrot, and thyme.  Cover and cook over low heat about 11/4 hours or til meat is tender.  Skim fat.  Serve with hot rice or noodles. 

Gommie Hungry via Better Homes and Gardens

Pumpkin Bread

Makes 2 loaves

3 cups sugar

3 ½ cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons each nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and cinnamon

4 eggs

2 cups fresh or canned cooked pumpkin

1 cup oil

½ cup water plus ½ cup apricot or peach brandy (or another ½ cup water)

1 cup each chopped pecans and raisins (optional)

            Preheat oven to 325°F.  Combine sugar, flour, soda, salt, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and cinnamon in large electric mixer bowl.  Mix eggs pumpkin, oil, water (or brandy) and combine with dry ingredients; beat until well mixed.  Fold in pecans and raisins.  Bake in large greased Bundt pan until cake tests done, about 1 hours and 30-45 minutes.

                       

Gommie Hungry

Tipsy Balls

Makes 100 balls

small 12-oz. box vanilla wafers (3 cups)

4 jiggers whiskey

3 tablespoons karo syrup

1 cup powdered sugar, dissolved (?)

2 cups chopped nuts (fine)

            Mix, roll in balls, coat in powdered sugar. 

Pop's mom

                                                                                              

Crème de Menthe or Grasshopper Pie

Just a note—Crème de Menthe gets much stronger with age! 

2 cups whipping cream

7 oz. marshmallow cream

¼ cup crème de menthe (or to taste)

            Whip cream and then add crème de menthe.  Then add marshmallow cream.

Pour into crust.  Freeze.  Remove from freezer 20 minutes before serving.

Crust

1 stick melted oleo

24 chocolate cookies (1 ½ cups crumbs)

            Combine and form to pie plate, chilling for 1 hour before filling.

Gommie Hungry

Tang Tea aka Russian Spice Tea

1 cup instant tea

1 cup lemonade

1 cup Tang

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

            If pre-sweetened ingredients are used, no additional sweetener is needed.  Otherwise, add 1 cup sugar.

Lemon Bars

Makes 25 bars

1 cup flour

½ cup butter, softened

¼ cup powdered sugar

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons grated lemon peel, optional

2 tablespoons lemon juice

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

2 eggs

powdered sugar

            Heat oven to 350°F.  Mix flour, butter, and powdered sugar.  Press in ungreased quare pan, building up ½ inch edges (8x8 or 9x9).  Bake 20 minutes.

            Beat remaining ingredients with electric mixer on high about 3 minutes or until light and fluffy.  Pour over hot crust.

            Bake 25-30 minutes or until no indentation remains when touched in center.  Cool completely in pan on wire rack.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Cut into 1 ½-inch squares.  

Gommie Hungry

And as an added bonus, 

Mrs. C's Cheese Ball

2 packages cream cheese

1 can deviled ham

            Mix cream cheese and deviled ham.  Chill.  Serve with crackers.

Another Nighttime Success

I'm working my way through some of my cookbooks again, trying to find new recipes to entice the kiddos.  Cabbage soup a la Mark Bittman was a success the other day; last night Katie Workman's The Mom 100 Cookbook's veggie stir-fry was a success.

Yes, I do see the irony in relying on some white woman's exact recipe for a Chinese stir fry, an art in itself, for my half-Chinese kids.

But they loved it.

I adapted the recipe somewhat based on what I had in the fridge and the kids' own preferences.  Really, saute any stir-fry-friendly vegetables in a little oil and garlic and then add her sauce.  She called for snap peas; I used yellow bell pepper and baby corn.  She advises tofu; I skipped that for a vegetarian meal but might add chicken next time.

Here's the sauce:

Veggie Stir-Fry Sauce
1 cup stock
1/4 cup tamari or low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
(you can add a little sugar if you like it on the sweet side)

Saute chosen vegetables in olive oil, adding garlic and ginger.  Then simmer them in the above sauce until tender.  Serve over rice or even noodles.

adapted from Katie Workman, The Mom 100 Cookbook

Hard at Work

I've been busy compiling all of the recipes from this blog in a single, homemade cookbook--almost five years of recipes!  I hope to have it done by the 5th anniversary of my blog, in August, and available to readers, free, in pdf format.  It's over 300 pages already and I still have 2012 to add!  And three months to go.  I imagine it's close to 1,000 recipes.  And maybe an index!  Of course, there will be odd formatting, typos, and a lack of alphabetical order, but it will be comprehensive.  It's been fun to revisit posts and memories, even at breakneck cutting-and-pasting speed.

It's also a great distraction from all the stress, from which we are working hard not to buckle under.

The Cookbook is Done!

We submitted the school cookbook this week!  I'm so excited.  For two months and more, we've discussed and debated doing a cookbook, then solicited and finally begged for recipes, finally editing and designing the final book, with has 239 recipes!  Thanks, Mommy Goose, for hanging in there as my cookbook buddy.

And I submitted 17 (which wasn't the most)! Including many family favorites already featured on this blog:

• Orange Biscuits
• Cocoa Crinkles
• Dutch Baby Pancakes
• Slow Cooker Dal
• Slow Cooker Moroccan Stew
• Pork Chops and Sauteed Apples
• Crispy Kale "Chips"
• Holiday Punch
• Pasta e Lenticchie
• Broccoli Noodle Soup
• Chicken and Dumplings
• Muffalettas
• Strawberry Bread
• Mix-in-the-pan Chocolate Snack Cake
• Panettone Bread Pudding
• Brown Sugar Shortbread
• Snow "Ice Cream"
• Buttery "Twin" Bread

When It Rains . . .

It's an apt idiom with this unseasonably spring-like weather, but I'm actually talking about my projects.  I'm busy right now with two very different projects:  the elementary school cookbook and the historic house curriculum on the Revolutionary War.  And despite trying to schedule those so they didn't happen at the same time, they are.  Between now and mid-February, I will gather more than 150 recipes and edit them, then organize and arrange the cookbook and place the order (thankfully Mommy Goose is my co-cookbook editor!).  And, for the historic house, I need to research and write several fact sheets on women, maritime trade, African freedmen and slaves, taverns and travel, and the house, as well as write instructions for the archaeological activity and edit the teacher packet.  Plus lead four docent training sessions on said topics.  And that doesn't include my usual Daisy troop leader responsibilities, nor our gig teaching about Chinese-Americans for the multicultural program at school. I'm not complaining, though.  Not at all.  I like cooking.  I like history.  And most of all, I like to feel useful.

Even if it is cutting into my rigorous schedule of "Glee" reruns and blogging!

Dutch, Dutch, Baby

In our post-Gommie departure, post-pediatrician visit, post-tire episode haze, we went to the store and I bought a cookbook. As you know, the kids and I bake, a lot, one of Sis's favorite cookbooks being her Sesame Street baking book. But Mama rightfully pointed out that perhaps if I got them more interested in cooking entrees, they might expand their eating. And yesterday, there was a Sesame Street cookbook with meals in it and lots of pictures. We've taken to it immediately, flipping through it twice this morning just for fun.

And then they decided on the Dutch Baby Pancake for breakfast, for which I had all the ingredients. What a funny, puffy, very entertaining food--it looked like a fantastical desert landscape in the oven and then deflated some on being removed from the heat. The kids devoured the whole thing with applesauce and apple butter (the original recipe includes skillet apples but we weren't interested this morning). Yum!

Okay, so it's not exactly a dinner food, but it was something new.

-=-=-=-=-=-

Dutch Baby Pancake

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1/2 cup low fat milk

1/2 cup flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 425F. Grease a 9" nonstick cake pan, shallow baking dish, or skillet with an ovenproof handle.

Crack the eggs into a bowl. Then use a fork to beat together the eggs, oil, and milk until smooth. Stir until well-blended.

Add the flour, sugar, salt, and cinnamon to the bowl. Stir until a smooth batter forms. A few lumps are okay. Pour the batter into the greased dish.

Bake the pancake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350F. Bake until the pancake is very puffy and lightly browned all over, about 5-8 minutes.

Note: it will deflate upon leaving the oven, so be sure the kids get a look before you take it out! Also, it is easiest to cut with scissors.

C is for Cooking: Recipes form the Street

One Thousand and One . . . Recipes?

Who needs one thousand of anything? Okay, there are those Arabian nights and Scheherazade's tales, but does anyone need 1001 cookie recipes? Or muffins? Or cupcakes? But the titles abound. Even when the numbers aren't quite so high, it's still fairly absurd: 365 Vegetarian Soups, 501 Muffins, 660 Curries, 100 Ice Cream Desserts, 50 Ways to Cook Most Everything. Or even, while not numbered, How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.

It's like gluttony in a whole new way. It's not even really about baking much less eating 1001 cookies or muffins, but owning, collecting, possessing the ability to do so. To have the option. The choice. We Americans love both collecting and choices, as well as cooking, and together, these have combined to create a mania for these comprehensive recipe collections (though, in fairness, the last two, by Mark Bittman, really aren't in the same category as many of the others. But the title connects them to the same trend.).

And I'm as guilty as the next cookbook buyer, owning several of the ones I've mentioned. Note I said "owning," not using, because I buy the books but don't often use them. I just thumb through them for ideas or just entertainment. It's like enjoying the cookie without eating it. Which, I suppose is less gluttonous than actually eating the cookie, but it all stems from the same place, some kind of internal need for satisfaction, satiation, that has not been met. In fact, recently, I came across two cookbooks, one on muffins, one on cookies, which together would have given me more than 1000 recipes, and I was obsessed: in addition to those recipes, there were charts and lists in the back for combining ingredients to make toppings and fillings and frostings and glazes, which would then produce even more variations on the recipes included. I was fascinated, no I was gluttonous. Here were 1000 recipes I didn't have. I wanted them, I needed them.

Until I looked closer. Not only were the recipes somewhat suspect--raw eggs in uncooked frosting, anyone?--but the pictures, when you actually studied them, showed products created by inexperienced cooks--overbrowned cookies, quick breads with huge domed and cracked centers. I had been lulled into liking the books by the sheer quantity of recipes alone, not the quality, which is exactly the problem with these kinds of books.

With our love of collecting and choice, sometimes I think we've forgotten to be picky, to be discerning, to be educated, or just to know when to stop, when enough is enough. More just isn't better. And I'm as guilty as the rest, having many more than 1001 recipes for cookies and muffins and cupcakes and soups and ice cream and vegetables and everything. But I'm increasingly conscious of the ridiculousness of it. And so I left those two cookbooks, the ones on muffins and cookies, at the bookstore, not beguiled by 1001 new things, even with a handy do-it-yourself list in the back. (I'm not giving up cookbooks in general, especially the historical, unique, or essay-based ones. Those offer food for the soul and the mind, and not just food to fill the stomach.)

Though, I did write down a few frostings. Without raw eggs. It's a small step in the right direction.

Cooking with Kids

Today's NYTimes ran an overview of cookbooks for kids. Neither the phenomenon nor the books they mentioned were particularly new to me. Smartly, the kids' cookbooks are next to the Thomas train table at the bookstore! I will take a look at Kitchen Playdates--we already do art and story playdates, why not cooking? I bake with the kiddos 2-3 times a week, mostly cookies, cakes, and quickbreads. Yesterday we made a whole 2-layer chocolate cake with frosting for our friends who were coming over--and when Sis related how we did it, she said, "I was in charge of sugar. Buddy was in charge of flour. Mommy helped."

While I usually adapt my own recipes, since they can't read yet anyway, we do have a few cookbooks for kids. I like Dunington's Greatest Cookie Book Ever, as I've posted before. We have Emeril's book out from the library but most of the foods aren't for the picky toddler set (Sis still won't eat sauce, legumes, or any meal that has foods combined, like a casserole; Buddy would prefer to eat fruits. I don't really need a cookbook for what's left after these criteria are met). We haven't moved into cooking meals together yet, mainly because I don't want their hands on raw meats or knives, but the day will come. They do watch, sometimes, especially if I'm preparing the crockpot in the morning after breakfast.

I still have my very first cookbook, Kim's Cookbook for Young People. My mom gave it to me for my 9th birthday. Ironically, I'm not sure I ever cooked from it. It's a light blue, spiral-bound book that came in a box with plastic cover. I loved the delicate and sweet illustrations of children picnicking. I also received a red birthday card (from people whom I don't recall at all--Mom, who was Auntie Char? And Uncle something-with-an-H but not the obvious answer? It's hard to read) as a child that had 13 pages of baking recipes, with a little girl chef coming out of a window with a tray of treats on the cover. Again, I don't think I ever cooked from them. When I helped my mom, we always made her recipes, too--chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, chicken and dumplings. But I think I valued that the card and the book addressed me as someone who could cook, that even as a child I had a role in the very grown-up mommy world of the kitchen. I'm hoping my kids feel like the kitchen is as much theirs as it is mine and that food is a joy and a job for all of us.

Playdate, anyone?

-=-=-=-=-

HERSHEY'S "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

* . 2 cups sugar
* . 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* . 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
* . 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* . 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
* . 1 teaspoon salt
* . 2 eggs
* . 1 cup milk
* . 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* . 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* . 1 cup boiling water
* . "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING(recipe follows)


Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.

VARIATIONS:
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.


"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Hershey's Cocoa box

An Ode to Moms who Cook

Today, I was privileged to see the labor of love of one of my friends. Upon the death of her mother, she took away a 20 gallon tub of recipes, cookbooks, and clippings from her mother's home and began to compile them in notebooks. It was the one thing she had wanted. And today she showed me the first of the binders. In the outside slip cover, there were tattered handwritten recipes for Ricotta Cheese Biscuits and Scotch Oatmeal Shortbread (plus another I can't recall). Just reading them evoked a sense of warmth and comfort . . . and made me hungry. Inside was page after page of magazine clippings, handwritten recipe cards, commercial recipe cards (you know, the ones we all get in the mail), Weight Watchers recipe cards from the 1970s (for the baby-weight, my friend explained), and so much more. Highbrow recipes from Jean Georges Vongritchen and then not so highbrow ads from Campbell's soup, featuring "recipes" for combining their soups into "Pearoom" (pea and mushroom soups combined, and the like). And lots of casseroles. There were old recipes but also new www printouts from the Food Network, attesting to her mother's constant and continuous interest in new foods. Lots of Italian but also a variety of other genres of foods. It must have been a challenge just to sort all the little scraps of paper. But my friend remembers her mother--an amazing cook--making many of the dishes, and so compiling the paper must have been like sitting down to another homecooked meal (which I experienced, in a way--my friend sent me home with a delicious eggplant rollatini that they were having for dinner, straight from her mom's notebooks. YUM!) It's a real treasure she's made, one that no doubt her own daughters will value as well.

My own mom is a great cook too. And I want her recipes and books (as well as my Grandma's Dresden, hint hint). My mom has a great clippings file and books with asterisks and notes. One of her favorites is America Cooks, the Junior League collection, but she also uses the identifiable red and white checkered Better Homes and Gardens binder as a standard. My compilation of her recipes is mainly electronic, though I have several handwritten sheets of paper too as well as a cookbook she made for me on her first computer when I went off to school that includes many family favorites (plus my own edition of BH&G, which I was thrilled to receive one holiday). For years, almost since I first had my own kitchen in grad school, I've been compiling family recipes--I currently have three books of more than 700 pages total of recipes from family, friends, and my own experiments. All with notes and comments on the origins and experiences of the meals. This blog actually derives from those cookbooks, which I've been keeping for 15 years. I've recently been adding recipes from my maternal great grandmother, and paternal grandmother to the books; the one who typed all of her recipes on discreet little cards and the other whose scrawling handwriting fills the pages of a tiny notebook. And recently, when a dear family friend passed away unexpectedly, my mom mailed me photocopies of her recipes for Chicken and Sausage Gumbo and Red Beans and Rice, which I then cooked in her memory. I've also been hounding my partner to gather her mother's recipes, especially as her mother doesn't cook from directions (mine thankfully does, down to the teaspoon, so it's easy to compile, though the dishes are never exactly the same--she knows how she alters recipes but she doesn't always write it down). DP's family is Chinese with Thai influences so just getting the names of ingredients into English can be a challenge. But these collections, like my friend's, will be a great gift to our children.

Who are thankfully sound asleep with no trouble, on this, just their third night in big kid beds.

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Red Beans and Rice
This recipe comes from Miss Betty, complete with tips on ingredients—Camellia beans and Tony’s Creole Seasoning. I think this was my first Cajun food, sitting at her kitchen table with a bowl ladled from a simmering pot. DP and I made it at the end of the week of September 11, 2001, in NYC, but with Goya beans and Chicken Apple Sausage. Not exactly authentic but comfort food nonetheless. And it was perfect! Just what we needed. We made it again when she passed away last year (and numerous times in between).

1 lb. kidney beans (preferrably Camellia)
1 large onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons ground bay leaf [or 2-3 whole leaves]
1/3 cup bacon drippings [or 3 pieces of bacon]
2 lb. smoked sausage
garlic salt, salt, pepper [or 1 tablespoon Tony’s]

Wash beans. Fill pot with water (2-3 quarts). Add onion, celery, green pepper, parsley, bay leaf, and bacon drippings. Bring to boil uncovered. Simmer and keep adding water until beans are softened, and gravy and beans are desired consistency (we added 1 quart more), approximately 2 hours. Add sausage, then Tony’s. Simmer uncovered about ½ hour longer. Turn off heat, let rest for 30 minutes. Make rice. Serve.