Posted on 08/17/2017 4:07:35 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
Its been very humid and muggy here the last few days, and Ive wanted fresh, crisp, and cold things to eat and drink.
This weeks newsletter from Lee Valley features a kickedup Bread-and-Butter Pickle:
http://www.leevalley.com/us/newsletters/Gardening/2534/Article3.htm
Ive been looking through Square Meals, a delightful book by Jane and Michael Stern which is, as the preface states, "about the friendly foods of childhood and the bygone dishes that were, not so long ago, in the repertoire of every homemaker".
It's a fun book, full of vintage/retro recipes, photos and drawings; and a lot of commentary on the food habits of decades past. In a section on The Cuisine of Suburbia, they describe a 'Luau in your Living Room' which includes this recipe for a cocktail called 'Apricot Slush':
Claire's Apricot Slush
6 oz. frozen Orange Juice Concentrate
6 ox. frozen Lemonade Concentrate
1/2 C. Sugar
6 C. water
1 Pt. Apricot Brandy
Blend and freeze. To serve, scoop 1/2 C. into a glass and fill with 7-Up
Serves 8
Another book I found at the thrift store recently is a tiny 1958 book of French recipes from the Peter Pauper Press: Simple French Cookery, with recipes compiled by Edna Beilenson. (You can still buy this little book through Amazon.) It included a dish that Id never heard of, but which is apparently a classic of French Bistro fare: Celeri Remoulade and it looks like an interesting celeriac alternative to Cole Slaw. Here is the Epicurious updated take on it:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/celery-root-remoulade-11069
-JT
Our instructor had us over for a cookout; he mixed the kraut with buttered noodles, a Pennsylvania Dutch dish, I think. Seems like it had celery seed or poppy seed. It was good, but the kraut was so mild, it tasted more like cabbage.
LOL! Maybe his wasn’t DIRTY enough, then :-)
Might have been caraway seeds.
But homemade tomato soup is a whole 'nuther animal. Most people might not like it. We'd (mom, dad, me whoever was making it) would sizzle a little onion in butter just until a little brown on some of the edges. Onion was optional; sometimes not.
Then add home-canned tomatoes or a lg can chopped with about 1/2 or more baking soda until they foamed (had to kill the acid). Then heat the milk in a different pan. Add the hot but not boiling tomatoes to the milk. Float a generous pat of butter on the top.
In 7th grade cooking class we made it with a white sauce. It didn't taste good at all to me. Yuck. Maybe someone else could jazz it up to where it would taste better.
Haven't had any of the family homemade version for years. I think it was a farm tradition to cook it that way.
That’s right. I remember now, the baking soda so the acid won’t curdle the milk.
I think I put a bay leaf in the tomato soup, too, come to think of it. I didn’t use a recipe, I just made it by taste
I have fond memories of my mom making strawberry shortcake like that. She used Bisquick for the shortcakes but I swear they just don’t taste the same when I make them. Could be they changed the ingredients in the mix.
We get great strawberries and sweet corn here in Tampa but I am having a real problem finding any good peaches so far this year. Got a few from Trader Joes at 89 cents A PIECE!, but they were awful. Those from California weren’t any better. I really miss Carolina peaches! They’re my favorite fruit, too.
My New Yorker husband LOVES noodles and sauerkraut but it grosses me out. Believe it or not, and I don’t know if this is a Northerner “thing”, but if I’m out he actually makes a meal out of canned baked beans and scrambled eggs mixed together! Double gross out!! ;o)
You can try Harry and David. All their fruit is fabulous, but they’re higher than a cat’s back.
The shortening in the bisquik years ago was different. Just make it from scratch with either self-rising flour and heavy cream, or self rising flour, shortening or butter, and milk. Easy leash. Tastes better than biscuit, too.
Brits eat plain pork and beans(without the pork) with their “full English breakfast”. They also eat “beans on toast”, often with a friend egg. Doesn’t sound all that great to me, either.
That Thai steak salad looks
Like a great summer dinner.
Hits all the flavor points......and is healthy as all get-out.
Why didn’t I do this sooner?! I finished one of Ruth Reichl’s memoirs and was in a certain mood so I ordered off EBay a stack of her Gourmet mag’s last year of existence. (2009) It arrived today and I splayed the issues out before my mom (who has Alzheimer’s, late middle stages). We are having fun looking through them. She is SO HAPPY looking at all the recipes and talking about food! She will get days of fun from these (and I am ripping out some cool recipes).
It’s great that there are things you can do that engage your mom and make her happy.
I know from my own experience taking care of my grandma in her last years, that this is a time in your life that you may remember as difficult, but also enormously rewarding.
(Remember to take care of Yaelle, too!)
So sweet.......a wonderful memory to have and to hold.
.....and you still have all the great recipes......
Just thought of this......
At the library you can get hold of lots of old cookbooks.....probably cookbooks of Mom’s era.
She might enjoy looking over those old-timey recipes.
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