Weekly Cooking (and related issues) Thread

[Jamestown1630]

My Grandmother, who largely raised me, was born in 1890. She lost her mother when she was only ten years old, and at that young age became largely responsible for her younger brother, while their father plied his trade as a small sailing ship captain in the Tidewater, transporting freight.

She married the first time at a very young age - and actually lied a little to do it, because she wasn't quite sixteen.

She died at the ripe old age of 94; and until the last six months of her life she was completely running her own household, doing the budgeting, the meal-planning, even some of the housecleaning.

All of which is to say that she was COOKING for people, for a very long time.

A few months before she died, she was bed-ridden and comfortable, but in-and-out of lucidity. We took care of her at home, and took turns sitting and talking with her. One day we realized that we had never gotten her Chicken Pie recipe. So, my brother sat with her, and asked her how to make the Chicken Pie; and Granny said, "well, first you get a chicken; and you take all its feathers off."

She was remembering the old days, when gathering food and preparing it was very different than it became in the mid to latter 20th century.

Granny's life was often difficult; and I think that after many decades of cooking, day-in and day-out for lots of people, she welcomed the new convenience foods that became available in her later lifetime. She loved cake mixes - Duncan Hines was always her favorite - and she became a great fan of Hamburger Helper; but I think she really appreciated the Lipton Onion Soup Mix when it came out, and she used it a lot.

Her Meatloaf was wonderful, and it always had the Lipton stuff in it. I'm not sure where she first found the recipe, but I know that 'Dear Abby' of the newspaper advice column fame, published a meatloaf recipe that included the Lipton Soup mix. If you look up 'Dear Abby Meatloaf Recipe', you'll find that a similar recipe also comes up as the 'Ann Landers' meatloaf recipe. (In the 1950's, the ladies styled as 'Abby' and 'Ann' were actually sisters, and rivals in the Advice Column business ;-)

I searched a long time for a meatloaf recipe that was really like my Granny's; and the closest one I found was one that claimed to be 'like Boston Market's'. I can't find the same one now, under that search - I think it was a 'Top Secret' recipe - and now there seem to be several recipes out there claiming to be 'like Boston Market'; but here's what we do (and I like the Friedman Sisters' idea of bacon on top, as a variation, q.v.):

Meat Loaf

2 eggs

4 T. sour cream

4 T. ketchup

4 T. flour

2 packages of onion soup mix, dry

2 lbs. of ground beef

Extra ketchup for the top

2/3 c. spicy V-8 Juice (or 1 can El Pato tomato sauce with jalapenos, and 3/4 can water)

Into blender put the first 5 ingredients exactly as given. Blend until smooth.

In medium bowl combine with beef. Mix well and shape into a loaf.

Bake in a greased pan at 400 degrees F for 60 minutes. After the first 20 minutes, add the El Pato and water around the loaf; return to bake for 20 minutes. After second 20 minutes, coat top with ketchup and return for final 20 minutes.

-JT

[Liz]

This would make a nice patriotic front door hangar
AND proclaim where your heart lies....at the same time.

Just paint the stars and stripes on a wooden or metal cross.

[V K Lee]

BACON LOVERS UNITE

BACON JAM - not something seen too often, never tried.

However, that might be changed soon.

This recipe offered for APPLE BACON JAM
http://spinachtiger.com/apple-bacon-jam-or-how-to-make-a-bacon-appetizer-that-rocks-the-party/