More Family Food Fad Fines

I had the wonderful opportunity to sit and talk about family recipes with Gommie's older sister, Aunt Quilt, inspired by my recent reading of Fashionable Food.  Here are some of the recipes I photographed, more for posterity than for reading off the blog (I have copies of the originals):

Red Velvet Cake--I think this is Bammie's recipe (Gommie and Aunt Quilt's mother) in Gommie's writing

"The Green Stuff"--A favorite in Aunt Quilt's family

Turtle Cake

Carrot Cake, the one Aunt Quilt made for Gommie's 60th, I believe

Part 2 of Carrot Cake

The famed cheesecake of Mrs. Korm

THE custard pie recipe Aunt Quilt uses, this time chocolate.  She made Coconut Custard for Gommie's birthday,  just omit cocoa and add 2 handfuls of coconut to the custard and then sprinkle more on top of the meringue (which is just 3 whites and 6 T sugar whipped)

Mmmm, I remember buttery-pepper Pasca Manale's shrimp from childhood.

I think I remember sour cream shrimp, too.

We did Bana Caulda at Aunt Quilt's house at least once.  You simmer the above in  an electric skillet then  cook beef, shrimp, fish, and vegetables in it.

Not the family's Shrimp Remoulade but one from the local department store.

Aunt Quilt is a great baker.  Here, Sally Lunn bread.

And biscuits.

Hmmm, I didn't know there was more than cheese in cheese grits.

Watergate Salad--with Cool Whip AND mini-marshmallows!

Aunt Quilt really likes this Milk Chocolate Bar Cake.

These are from Gommie's dessert recipe files, to supplement the ones from Aunt Quilt.  On the second day of our visit, Gommie had found her great-grandmother Grammy's recipes, stashed in a 1915 cookbook put out by a baking soda company, but I totally forgot to copy those before I left.  :(  Next time.  Here are ones I did remember to copy on the last day we were in Texas.

My own typed Coca Cola cake recipe

Bammie's Christmas Lizzies

Bammie's lemon pie, apparent in Gommie's dad's handwriting

A famous "Peach Pie-Cake" recipe

A recipe card Gommie typed for her "hope chest," from Bammie's recipes

They say this is a great Poppy Seed Cake.

Grandma Hungry's sister-in-law's lemon chess pie!

Lemon Chess Pie part 2

"Sister's pralines," meaning those of Grandma Hungry's sister Blythe

Terrible name, apparently good cake--with baby food!

Gommie likes these, too!

Handwritten version, by Gommie, of Mrs. Korm's famous Cheese Cake.

Bammie's Divinity

Bammie's "Red Cake," aka Red Velvet Cake

Bammie's recipe

I think these are Great-Grandmother Hungry's Forgotten Cookies.

Great-Grandmother Hungry's Date Pinwheels

Cont.

The custard pie again.

Part 2

Summer Fun 2013: Our Trip to Texas

 Day 1:  Travel days are the longest, but we still had half a day once we arrived in Texas.  So the kids went swimming with Gommie and Pop while Mama and I napped.  Then we all went out for Chicken Fried Steak (CFS, to insiders.)  Mmmmm, I love chicken fried steak.  And it would not be the only time I fell off the vegetarian wagon on this trip.  The peach cobbler was also incredible. Sis liked the onion rings, surprisingly, and Bud had the first of many seafood meals. And the surroundings, at a local diner, were as traditional as that red-checkered tablecloth.

Pop saved the above cartoon for us.  Mind you, upon entering Texas, Mama and I were no longer legally married, for the duration of our stay.  What a mind****!  And an injustice.

Day 2:  Another travel day, this  time to the coast where we'd spend the better part of the week.  But before we got on the road, we had some stops.  Mama, Pop, and Bud went together to get some yo-yos as a birthday treat for the kids and then had a big birthday lunch at a seafood restaurant.  The waitress apparently tried to give Bud a kid's menu, but Pop laughingly said Bud needed the adult menu.  And he sure did--he loved the huge Alaskan King Crab legs!

Meanwhile, Gommie escorted Sis (with me tagging along) on her very first trip to the American Girl store.  Sis, who had gotten an early birthday present in CT of two more AG dolls (some re-sales from a co-worker with a teenage daughter who had outgrown her Felicity and Elizabeth dolls), was ecstatic and wandered from display to display, admiring clothes, accessories, and such.  She actually didn't choose many (a birthday gift from Mama and me), preferring some pink matching clothes, a lunchbox, and a few other things.  Truthfully, I was probably more excited about the historical costumes than she was and got a hoop skirt with chemise and another Empire gown for my own doll.  Then we had lunch in the cafe, where they even had special seats attached to the table for the dolls!  We ate tiny, cute food, and then sang "Happy Birthday" to Sis.  It was very much a complete Disney-like experience.

Switching cars so that the kids road with Gommie and Pop, we made the Trinity of stops--the Buc-ee's rest stop, the barbecue place, and the other barbecue place!  They were supposed to stop, too, but the kids fell asleep and so they went straight to the bay while Mama and I made the stops.

I always buy Texas souvenirs at the Buc-ee's.  This sign above was the kids' favorite, when I showed them later.

The decor at the first barbecue place.  Dislike the heads but love the pinto beans, potato salad, banana pudding, and chopped beef sandwiches.  And the second of several huge glasses of sweet tea!

"The maize is as high as a toddler's eye . . . ."  This is pretty much the constant view on the way to the bay.  As someone said, "You can see for days!"

Second barbecue place, which we actually stop at for the baked goods:  Tex-Mex chocolate sheet cake with lots of little pecans, pigs in the blanket, jalapeno pan sausage bread, and of course these kolaches.  Sis loves apricot ones, eating about a dozen on her own during the trip.  I also like the cottage and cream cheese ones.  Bud likes strawberry and blueberry.  Pineapple were okay too.

Another common sight.  "Bale of hay, bale of hay.  Make a wish and go away.  I wish . . . "  Gommie has a part about kissing that I don't know and have never said.

The kids went straight to the beach with Gommie, where they met all their cousins (grandchildren of Gommie's first cousins, i.e. children of my second cousins??) and had a great time floating and playing.  They met so many people--my aunts and uncles and cousins and second cousins--and no doubt had trouble keeping track.

We also met Cousin Hungry, Aunt Banana's daughter!  She's 2 1/2 and very expressive, squealing and doing her "bopy" dance (some kind of "Hokey Pokey.")  She kept exclaiming, "We found the bay!  Bert found the bay!"  (Yes, she's in her "Sesame Street" phase.)  She followed the cousins around-"I'm going to find Bud"--watching them play and sometimes playing with them; they were intrigued with a young cousin. I wasn't there for it, but they all made lots of chalk drawings on the pavement under the house together.  She also liked Mama, who drew Sesame Street pictures for her and played with Bud's stuffed penguin with her.  She was cute about us, though not exactly up on the lingo: "Aunt Mama is Aunt Mommy's friend!"

Day 3:  The fourth of July.  We flew kites.  Bud had a penguin one; Sis, a cat.  Cousin Hungry even had a pink Cinderella kite.  And it was windy and the kites flew high.  Gommie even got out her stunt kite, which Mama enjoyed.  The cousins also played in the pool.  Sis even got her hair and face wet, prodded by Pop's $5 incentive for each dunk.  Pop even got in the pool and they enjoyed using his bald head for target practice with the water shooters Gommie had gotten!

At some point in the afternoon, a line of decorated golf carts puttered down the street in a first annual Fourth of July parade.  They even through candy, which Sis and Bud hastily retrieved.  A visitor at our house had a cart and so all the kids got to go for a spin with the parade.  Unexpected fun!  Afterwards, the cousins had a dance party, with Sis and Bud trying to teach Cousin Hungry the Gangnam Style dance.

That night, we all enjoyed local fireworks from a neighbor's porch.  Several groups of people, near and far, set off gorgeous fireworks from the ends of piers.  There were huge, almost professional displays.  Bud and Sis even agreed it was better than Disney World.  While it might not have been as intense or choreographed as Disney, it lasted longer and we had good, comfortable seats!  Needless to say, it was a late night.

Day 4:  Mama and I weren't sleeping at the bayhouse--which wasn't built in 1982 with grandchildren in mind!--but at a local hotel about 30 minutes away (have I mentioned this is a fairly sparsely-populated area? Though, not as sparse at West Texas.)  Each morning, we'd make some stops in "town" and then head to the bay.  This day it was bean and cheese wraps at Buc-ee's for breakfast and several containers of wonderful Blue Bell for later, plus frozen shrimp bait for fishing.

The kids had such fun fishing!  Pop had given our kiddos some long cane poles so there wasn't any real casting and reeling, just watching the cork and pulling to set the hook when the pole bent and cork went under.  And within minutes they all had a fish, even Cousin Hungry on her little pink rod and reel.  Over and over and over again they each caught catfish, smiling so proudly as they held them up.  Of course, this is "sports fishing," which means we threw everything back (besides, you don't eat these catfish!)  Pop does it quickly and humanely as possible, also being careful of the stinging fins.  Pop used leftover CFS and cheese weenies for chum, which must have been the main attraction to all the fish they caught.  That, or his good-luck ditty, "Fishy, fishy, nibble, nibble.  Catch no fishy, Ishkabibble!"  I joked that we might be catching the same fish over and over again, so many did they catch; they are on the bottom of the food chain, after all!  The kids even sorta believed me but, in truth, they were different sizes.  Of course, I had to tell the story about the time I caught a fish with no bait while posing for pictures for Gommie; they didn't believe me when I told them, until I pulled up the line when the pictures were done!  Bud now has his own story to tell:  at one point he yanked the line so hard that the cork etc flew up and landed on top of the corrugated roof of the boathouse; for a bit, we all thought he'd flung a fish up there!  

We kept the usual bay schedule--outside activity in the morning until lunch, then an inside siesta time with quiet activities (like playing Sorry) during the heat of the day, followed by one more outside time as the heat decreases, and finally a late dinner after sunset, "the nicest time of the day."  For dinner this night, after a full day of beach and pool time, boat rides, fishing, and game playing, we had a big crawfish boil.  Mama and Pop tended the giant pot of crawfish, shrimp, corn, potatoes, onions, salt, and Zatarain's crawfish boil spices.  Sis and I mainly ate the potatoes and corn, but Bud tore into crawfish and shrimp.

Day 5:  The night before, Sis asked if Gommie had forgotten the party she said she was going to have for Sis and Bud, since the day Gommie had mentioned had passed.  What a memory!  Of course, Gommie didn't remember and felt horrible.  So our morning outing involved purchasing party supplies. So we started the morning at the bay off by inviting all the relatives over to the house for a birthday celebration.  All of the cousins came, some with cards and little gifts of confetti poppers and kites and water balloons.  We exploded all the poppers, getting confetti everywhere to the delight of the kids.  Then we tried to light candles for the cake, but the wind kept blowing them out.  I think the kids maybe blew out one each!  Yum, cake and ice cream for breakfast!  Then the kids had a water balloon toss that got out of hand and lots of us ended up wet, which actually isn't so bad in the heat (though, we noticed it was hotter in Connecticut than in Texas most of the time we were down there.)

We said goodbye to Cousin Hungry, who cried some, "No bye-bye."  Sis and Bud agreed that Cousin Hungry was one of the best parts of Texas (followed by swimming with Gommie and Pop and their birthday lunches.)

We spent the afternoon visiting Aunt Sis and Uncle W.  It was a wonderful, beautiful visit, with the kids talking to their great aunt and uncle and drawing pictures for them (Sis gave her picture to Aunt Sis, for whom she is named, but Bud kept his so he could photocopy it.  In a twist, it was lost the next day when it fell out of his sketchbook and fell off the pier into the bay and Gommie couldn't retrieve it, to his deep sadness.  Luckily, I'd taken a quick picture of it, not included here.)  We had some ice cream and cheesecake, plus apples and cheese.  And more cousins came, my cousin and his daughter.  Aunt Sis, as you may recall, has had very serious health challenges in the last few years and is again feeling poorly.  In truth, having been on so many hospice visits, I expected her to look worse, but she could sit up and even walk a bit on her own--she even drank some beer and ate some food.  She looks very different, though, quite thin and with white hair which she no longer colors.  Still, I know she is weaker and still ill.  It was hard to say goodbye.  We didn't want to tire her out, but I could've stayed longer, wanting more time . . . but isn't that what we always want with loved ones?

On our way home, Mama and I made a few stops for some sunglasses for me and a restorative snack.  She loves to tell the story of how she first heard us talk of Whataburger, hearing it as "Waterburger," and thinking that sounded nasty.  But now she is a fan.  I like being able to get sweet tea wherever I go, though it is too sweet for me now straight and I have to mix it with unsweetened.  

Day 6:  Our last day at the bay.  We spent the morning fishing and visiting and watching rain clouds, which drenched us for awhile (very welcome, too.)  I also had a nice long chat with Gommie's sister, talking quilts and family recipes, which I'll share later.  Then Pop headed back in one car and the rest of us headed back in the other.

We stopped for barbecue at my favorite place, got some kolaches for Sis, and bought more souvenirs at Buc-ee's, mainly fudge and Beaver Nuggets (a sugary popped treat.)  I liked taking pictures.

That evening, Gommie took the kids swimming only to find the YMCA pool closed.  Generously, Granny Q let them swim in her pool.

For dinner, we ordered out South African--carrot bredie, pap, couscous, pilaf, mango coleslaw, roasted potatoes, various grilled meats, prawns, sticky toffee pudding, and South African milk tart.  I thought it had too much cilantro and too much spice, but everyone else seemed to enjoy their bits.  I liked Disney's take better!

After the kids went to bed (though we think they heard some of it), we watched Bernie, the Jack Black-Shirley MacClaine-Matthew McCanaughey movie about the East Texas funeral director who befriends and then later kills a mean local widow.  It's kind of a cross between Christopher Guest's movies and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.  The characters tickled Gommie, though were perhaps too close to home a la "Duck Dynasty."  I was intrigued that I felt sorry for Bernie but not his victim, just like the whole town!  If you get a chance, watch it.  I might watch it again.  Though, please note, this is not the Texas I grew up in.

Day 7:  Our last full day in Texas.  And it was a busy one.  Gommie took the kids to see Monsters University 3-D.  While they were gone, Mama and I went to our favorite Half-Price Bookstore.  We found some books for the kids, mainly games and fun facts, and for ourselves, cookbooks and drawing manuals and some history.  Then we had lunch at our favorite local Mexican place.  Chips and salsa.  Enchiladas and tamales.  Rice and beans.  Tres leches cake.  Mmmmm!  I always miss the food when I return to CT.

In the afternoon, we made our ritual pilgrimmage to Gommie's Mah Jongg group.  She's been gathering with these wonderful ladies for probably more than a dozen years now, every week, playing for quarters and supporting (and arguing with!) each other.  Before we went over, Sis asked how to play Mah Jongg and Gommie pulled out her set to give them lessons.  And they actually picked up some of the basics (more than Mama and I understand.)  It was good to see Gommie's friends and chat with each of them in turn.  (Hi Granny Q!  I'm writing this in one long spurt for you!!)

We watched Oklahoma with the kids, the Hugh Jackman version that Gommie prefers (Pop likes the original movie.)  Love the music, skipped the end with Jud's death.

Day 8:  And then we left, really early in the morning, leaving, we discovered later, the kids' toothbrushes and toothpaste and holders (Gommie, please keep the blue and purple holders for us; you can toss the rest.)

And I think that's it, though I imagine I've left a lot out (my timing is perfect--the kids just finished watching SW 3!  Sad they were to see all the Jedi and then Padme die.)  But, even if I missed some, you can still tell that we had a full, wonderful week.

Home, Sweet Home

We're back in Connecticut and settling in after being gone a week.  Well, the kids settled immediately and are back to playing Star Wars, freshly inspired by having recently seen Episodes 1 and 2 (an early birthday present.)  The cats, on the other hand, having spent a week together at the vet's in the kennel, are a tad high-maintenance.  Albus in particular is extra needy and cuddly . . . and is on me right now purring away.  As for us adults, the end of vacation entails unpacking, reorganizing, and catching up; it's a process.  One that I'm largely ignoring this morning.

Deep in the Heart

Be back soon, y'all!

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!

-=-=-=-=-=-

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.