Posted on 02/26/2015 2:58:16 PM PST by Jamestown1630
This week's thread is about Cooking With Kids.
When I was in elementary school in the early 1960s, every year the school would hold a book fair; students could look at new books and pick some out to buy.
One year I bought 'Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls', originally published in the late 1950s. I loved looking at this book, and learned a lot using the recipes.
For a children's book, it's a surprisingly comprehensive guide to basic cooking, with a lot of interesting presentation ideas, and even some decorative crafts. AND it includes campfire cooking!
I wanted to post a recipe from it that has become a staple for us; and it struck me to try and find the book on Amazon, even though I was sure it was OOP.
I was surprised to find that there is a 'facsimile' edition available:
http://www.amazon.com/Crockers-Facsimile-Edition-Crocker-Cooking/dp/0764526340
Some of the reviews indicated that it is somewhat edited, and not entirely like the original. BUT: one of the respondents subversively indicated that the original is available on archive.org! I was thrilled to find it - scanned complete with cooking splatters - and to look at the wonderful retro drawings again:
https://ia600506.us.archive.org/12/items/bettycrockerscoo00croc/bettycrockerscoo00croc.pdf
I hope that some of you will remember it, and enjoy looking at it again.
A recipe that I have used from this book countless times over decades, is adapted from the recipe for Spanish Rice (page 151 in the original):
Spanish Rice
Prepare One Cup of Raw White Rice (to make 3 cups cooked)
Heat Oven to 400 degrees
Fry 6 slices bacon until crisp; drain and crumble
Pour bacon grease from pan, leaving about 2 T
Add 1/2 C. minced onion and ½ C. diced green pepper (I usually use 3/4 C. of each).
Cook until onion is yellow
Add in fry pan:
the 3 C. Cooked Rice
2 C. diced, canned tomatoes (one regular can)
1-1/2 tsps. Salt
and the crumbled bacon.
Turn all into greased baking dish. Sprinkle top with grated Cheddar Cheese (as much as you like :-)
Bake 25-30 minutes, or until cheese melts and begins to brown.
My grandmother was cooking for all of us until about the age of 93 :-)
I remember cooking first from the Betty Crocker book, the sugar cookies; and there was a strange fudge recipe using cocoa powder that my brother loved - I made that for him every Christmas, for a very long time.
Another first thing that I recall making, is blueberry muffins - from a mix. We had just gotten a new stove, and I can still see that pretty new stove, and smell blueberry muffins.
I am so glad that you remember the book!
-JT
I make that white sauce and add a picked Dungeness crab to it. Make some toast ladle on the cream crab and I’m set.
Yeah, I can see that being an issue. Luckily I have a chest freezer so it just sits in there waiting for me to use it.
The only other thing with that machine (especially w/ the custard recipe) is I found that you need to sort of keep scraping the inside wall of it while it’s rotating (I just use a butter knife) to get it all mixed together properly. Small price to pay though for homemade ice cream imo.
I don’t make it, but I LOVE homemade ice cream. My mom make it for us.
That sounds great. Thanks.
We just eat it raw, egg yolks and all, as that is what my “healthy” recipe calls for. I’ve haven’t had much success at any custard as some of my yolks always cook in pieces.
Vanilla Ice Cream
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup maple syrup (the real stuff)
1 Tbls vanilla extract
1 Tbls arrowroot powder
3 cups heavy cream (raw if you can get it)
Beat the egg yolks and blend in remaining ingredients. Pour into ice cream maker and process according to instructions.
We sometimes have it for breakfast :)
Oh, my. Peanut Butter Fudge!! Please share the recipe. I’ve made chocolate fudge but never peanut butter.
My husband once told his mother that my molasses cookies were even better than hers. She didn’t look at or talk to me for about an hour!
I absolutely LOVE frozen custard. We have a friend who used to bring down a couple gallons of it every time he visited Florida from Milwaukee.
My kids love lemon curd. They practically cheer whenever they see a bag lemons in the fridge. I love having them help make it as it can be time consuming. One gets to zest every single lemon, squeeze out the juice and another can stand at the stove and stir constantly so we don’t end up with chunks of egg yolk in the curd.
They learn to cook and I can accomplish other things while over seeing the process.
/johnny
I have to confess, I get a bit nervous as I hand it to my kids- quick prayer for no bacteria in the yolks. Sally Fallon is just so convincing in her cook books about the benefits of raw eggs.
Been praying for you lately.
/johnny
Sounds good, and I’m not really much of a seafood eater.
I’ve noticed that as well. About ten years ago, we could always find pasteurized eggs in the supermarket; but we can’t find them anymore.
I know there’s a way to pasteurize them yourself, if you want to make eggnog; but I’ve always been leery of trying.
I’ll look it up.
-JT
Keep them working, Mom!
-JT
Luckily I never had that problem with my MIL. Maybe it was because she never had her hearing aid turned up?
LOL! I just saw your Shrimp Casserole recipe and commentary. If your 8 year old is your youngest I would get along well with him also. I’m pretty sure he’s right about seafood. :)
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