Pear Coffee Cake

2 pears
1 1/2 cups flour
3 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup shortening
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbsp. butter

Sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Cut in the shortening until pieces are size of pea. Beat egg into buttermilk and add to dry ingredients. Mix only until all moisture is absorbed. Dough will be fairly stiff. Press lightly into an 8-inch pan. Peel and core pears and slice into 1/2 inch slices. Cover top of coffee cake with pear slices. Mix brown sugar cinnamon and butter and sprinkle over pears. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes.

Pear-Coconut Pie

Pastry for double pie crust
4 or 5 pears, sliced
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. grated orange rind
1 1/2 Tbsp. tapioca
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/3 cup coconut
2 Tbsp. butter

Line a pie pan with crust. Mix all ingredients except butter. Fill pan so that it is slightly rounded. Dot with butter. Fit on top crust. Bake at 425 degrees for 40 minutes or until crust is delicately brown and the pears are tender.

Sour Cream Cole Slaw

3/4 cup sour cream
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
3 Tbsp. vinegar
4 1/2 cups shredded cabbage
2 Tbsp. minced onion

Blend sour cream, seasonings and vinegar. Pour over cabbage and onion, mix well.

Cocoa Cream Cake

1/3 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, unbeaten
1 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 1/2 Tbsp. cocoa
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and mix well. Sift dry ingredients together. Add dry ingredients to butter, sugar, egg mixture alternately with milk and vanilla. Beat until smooth after each addition. Pour into greased and floured 8-inch layer pans. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Turn out on rack and cool. Fill with cream filling and frost with a mocha or chocolate icing.

Cream filling:
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup milk
1/4 pound butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. almond extract

Beat yolks until thick and lemon colored. Add sugar and milk and cook in a double boiler, stirring constantly, for about 10 minutes, until thick. Cool. Cream butter until fluffy. Add the cold custard and flavorings and beat until smooth. Spread between the layers of cocoa cream cake.

Beef Stroganoff

1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 1/4 pounds top round beef cut in strips
2 Tbsp. flour
1 cup water
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
3/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/3 cups packaged pre-cooked rice.
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups boiling water
2 Tbsp. butter

Melt 4 Tbsp. butter in a saucepan. Add onions and mushrooms and saute until golden brown, remove from heat and set aside. Melt remaining butter in skillet. Roll beef in flour and saute until browned. Add water, 1/2 tsp. salt, onions and mushrooms. Cover and simmer gently until beef is tender (about 1 1/2 hours). Add tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, sour cream, heavy cream and mushrooms. Heat thoroughly. Meanwhile, add rice and 1/2 tsp. salt to boiling water in saucepan. Mix just to moisten all rice. Cover and remove from heat. Let stand 13 minutes. Add 2 Tbsp. butter and mix lightly with fork. Arrange on platter and top with beef stroganoff.

Chocolate Sauce

1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. evaporated milk
4 ounces chocolate, chopped fine

Melt butter in top of double boiler. Add sugar and blend. Add milk and chocolate, mix well. Cook for about 30 minutes in double boiler. Makes about 1 cup of sauce. Serve hot over ice cream.

Cauliflower in Chipped Beef Cheese Sauce

Grandma loved her chipped beef and gravy on toast. So it was no surprise to find this recipe as an alternative method of making it.

1 1/2 to 2 pound head cauliflower
2 cups unseasoned medium white sauce
1 cup grated sharp cheese
2 ounces chipped beef

Soak cauliflower as normal in cold salted water for 1 hour. Drain, rinse and separate flowerets. Cook uncovered in boiling water until just tender. Meanwhile, make white sauce (4 Tbsp. flour blended in 4 Tbsp. butter, 2 cups milk stirred in and cooked over low heat until thickened). Stir cheese into white sauce until melted. Add chipped beef snipped into small pieces to white sauce. Drain cauliflower, pour sauce over and serve.

Popcorn Balls

Sorry about the late post - Blogger has been having problems.

In looking through the recipes, I came across this recipe for popcorn balls and it brought back a lot of childhood memories. A lot of messy fun to make and eat! At least it was as a kid.

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup water
2 Tbsp. vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
2 quarts freshly popped corn

Boil the sugar, water, vinegar and salt until the syrup forms a hard ball when dropped in cold water or until a candy thermometer registers 250 degrees. Add the vanilla, pour while hot over the popcorn and mix well. When cool enough to handle, grease the hands and shape into balls.

Southern Style Green Beans

Grandma (and grandpa) would spend winters in Florida after my grandfather retired. Knowing her love of cooking and collecting recipes, I'm sure this probably came from one of the relatives after a get together.

1 medium onion
2 Tbsp. fat
2 1/2 cups tomatoes
1 small bay leaf
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 1/2 cups green beans
2 Tbsp. flour
2 Tbsp. water

Mince onion, saute in fat. Add tomatoes, bay leaf, sugar, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove bay leaf. Add green beans (if using canned, drain). Make a smooth paste of the flour and water and add. Cook, stirring constantly until thick.

Baked Chicken Puff

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/3 cup milk
1 cup cubed cooked chicken
2 cups cooked green beans, drained
4 eggs, separated
1/4 cup shredded American cheese

Mix soup and milk in 1 1/2 quart casserole dish. Add chicken and beans. Bake in moderate oven for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, beat egg yolks well; add cheese. Beat whites until stiff and fold in egg-cheese mixture. Pour egg mixture over the top of the hot chicken mixture and continue baking for 30 minutes.

Apple Crisp

4 cups sliced cooking apples
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/3 cup sifted flour
1 cup corn flakes
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 cup butter

Place apples in a greased shallow baking dish, sprinkle with lemon juice. Combine dry ingredients, add melted butter and mix until crumbly. Sprinkle crumb mixture on top of apples. Bake in moderate oven for thirty minutes. Serve hot topped with whipped cream.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

3/4 cup oatmeal
3/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 pound, or 2 small bananas
1 egg, well beaten
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped walnut meats

Spread oatmeal on baking sheet and brown in moderate oven. White raisins or cut-up dates may be added. Cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Add to creamed mixture beating constantly, add nuts and cooled oatmeal. Blend thoroughly. Drop by teaspoonful on well greased baking sheets. Bake in moderate oven for 15 minutes.

Cranberry Sherbert

Before the advent of everything plastic, ice cube trays used to be metal. I remember that grandma had those big metal ice cube trays with the handle that you had to lift up to free the ice. The seperator could lift out for washing and it was this action that gave some ingenious cook to use them the bottom for making ice cream. This was a popular method for making ice cream dating to the 1950's.

2 cups cranberries
1 1/2 cups water
1 Tbsp. unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Cook cranberries in water until skins pop. Put mixture through a food press. Let gelatin stand in cold water, then add gelatin to hot cranberries. Stir in sugar and lemon juice. Pour into freezing tray and freze until a light mush. Remove from trays and beat well. Return to trays and let freeze, stirring once or twice before completely frozen.

Western Casserole

4 slices bacon
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
3 1/4 cups tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 1/3 cups pre-cooked rice
1/2 cup grated Cheddar cheese

Fry bacon until crisp. Remove from stove and set asied. Separate onion slices into rings and saute in bacon drippings for 3 to 4 minutes, until tender but not browned. Crumble bacon and add to onion. Add tomatoes, salt and pepper; mix well with fork, breaking up tomatoes. Add rice. Mix until rice is moistened. Bring quickly to a boil over high heat, uncovered. Fluff rice gently once or twice with a fork; do not stir. Cover and remove from heat. Let stand 10 minutes. Pour into greased casserole. Top with grated cheese. Bake in moderate oven 10 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned.

Penuche Icing

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
6 Tbsp. milk
6 Tbsp. shortening
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. vanilla

Mix all ingredients except vanilla and bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and boil for one minute. Remove from heat and beat until lukewarm. Add vanilla and continue beating until thick enough to spread. If icing becomes too thick to spread, add about 1 Tbsp. or more of cream.

Pineapple Cake

1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup undrained pineapple
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup cold water
3 egg whites

Cream shortening with sugar, add flavoring and pineapple. Sift flour, baking powder and salt. Add alternately with water to first mixture, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Carefully fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Pour into greased cake pans. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes.

Tuna Bake

Some of grandma's recipes are indeed dated. This one uses MSG!, which can be easily left out and still enjoy the goodness of a tuna bake before it came out of a box.

4 cups cooked broccoli
2 cans tuna
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. paprika
3/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. MSG
1 cup milk
2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup American cheese

Arrange stems of cooked broccoli in bottom of greased, shallow casserole. Stand blossoms around edge. Break tuna into fairly large pieces; place in casserole. Melt butter over low heat and blend in dry ingredients. Add milk, stir until thickened. Add soup and the cheese which has been broken into small pieces. Cook slowly and stir until cheese melts. Pour over tuna. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Banana Cake

1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. soda
3/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup mashed bananas

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add whole eggs one at a time, beat after each addition. Blend in vanilla. Sift dry ingredients together and add alternatively with milk. Fold in mashed bananas last. Pour into two 8-inch layer pans. Bake at 375 degrees.

Sugar Filled Biscuits

2 cups sifted cake flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
4 or 5 Tbsp. shortening
1/2 cup milk
3 Tbsp. butter
1/3 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Cut in shortening. Add milk and stir with fork until soft dough is formed (about 20 strokes). Turn onto lightly floured board and knead 20 turns. Pat or roll dough 1/4 inch thick. Cut with floured 1 1/2 inch biscuit cutter. Bake on ungreased baking sheet in hot oven for 12 to 15 minutes. Split hot biscuits and spread halves with mixture of brown sugar and butter. Heat 2 minutes in oven. Serve warm.

Fruit Sundae Cake

2 cups sifted cake flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. sugar
1/3 cup butter
1 tsp. grated lemon rind
3/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 unbeaten egg
1 quart vanilla ice cream
Sliced peaches and rasberries

Measure dry ingredients into sifter. Put butter in mixing bowl, stirring enough to soften. Add lemon rind, then stir in dry ingredients. Add milk and almond extract, mix until flour is dampened. Beat 300 strokes. Add egg and beat another 150 strokes. Pour batter into 9-inch square pan lined with waxed paper. Bake for 25 minutes in moderate over. Cool. Cut into squares and top with ice cream. Mix sweetened peaches and raspberries and spoon over ice cream.

Beet Relish

2 cups chopped beets
1/3 cup grated fresh horseradish or 1/2 cup prepared
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. sugar
1/3 cup vinegar

Mix well.

Apple Butter with Cider

Use only firm, ripe fruit. Wash, pare and slice apples. Use equal amounts of apples and cider. Cook until soft, stirring constantly. Press through colander, then a fine sieve for a smooth consistency. Add about half as much sugar as there is fruit pulp, and 1/8 tsp. salt for each 2 quarts of butter. Bring to a quick boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to cook until mixture thickens. When no rim of liquid separates around edge of butter when a small amount is dropped on a cold plate, butter is ready for jars. Pour at once into scalded containers, seal with paraffin and lids.

Jellies and Jams

Along the lines of the pickling tips from the other day, here is a combined list of items that were pasted throughout a scrapbook regarding jellies and jams.

Jelly Making
1. Discard stem and blossom ends of fruit; slice without peeling or coring.
2. Cook according to recipe in the amount of water specified.
3. Extract juice by draining through jelly bag or several layers of cheesecloth. Measure juice and heat to boiling in batches of 4 to 8 cups. (Jelly is clearer if allowed to drip through bag and not squeezed.)
4. Add amount of sugar called for. Stir until sugar dissolves, then boil rapidly to jellying point.
5. Skim jelly and pour at once into hot, sterilized jelly glasses, leaving 1/4 inch head space.
6. Pour a thin layer of hot paraffin over top of jelly after it is ladled into glasses. When cool a second layer of melted paraffin may be added. Cover and store in a cool place.

Jam Making
1. Remove blemishes or inedible part of fruit after washing.
2. Prepare fruit - crush, grind, slice, or chop according to recipe. Crushing is easy in a large flat-bottomed pan; mash a layer at a time.
3. Remove jam from heat when done; skim foam from top with metal spoon. Pour into freshly scalded glasses, leaving head space.
4. Seal jars at once with a thin layer of hot paraffin. A second layer may be added when first has cooled.

Heating is discussed in both the methods and the temperature of 219 to 223 degrees as given as the optimal temperature to cause a jellying point. This is given for if you are not adding pectin. Pectin should be added or else your fruit should be a mixture of ripe and slightly underripe fruit. The ripe fruit provides the flavor and the underripe fruit is needed for the pectin.

Remember to label and store in a cool, dry place. If they are put up in a damp place, there may be fermentation. After opening keep them in your refrigerator.

Here's a recipe for Peach Jam. Good Georgia peaches are really starting to show up in the market at a reasonable price.

4 cups prepared fruit
5 cups sugar
1 package powdered pectin

Pell and pit about 4 pounds of fully ripe peaches. Grind or chop fine. Measure 4 cups into large suacepan. Measure sugar and set aside. Mix pectin with fruit in saucepan. Place over high heat; stir until mixture comes to a hard boil. Stir in sugar at once. Bring to full rolling boil and boil hard for 1 minute. Stir constantly. Remove from heat and skim off foam with metal spoon. Stir and skim for 5 minutes to cool slightly and to prevent floating fruit. Ladle quickly into 9 medium glasses. Cover at once with 1/8 inch hot paraffin.

Corn Casserole

1 cup cream style corn
1 egg
1/2 green pepper
1 package link sausage

Add egg to corn, then add chopped green pepper. Put mixture into greased baking dish and arrange sausage on top. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour.

Stuffed Peppers

This recipe calls for bacon drippings and that brings back the memory of the coffee can filled with grease that grandma, as well as every good cook, had in the refrigerator. Only the best grease was carefully added to be used in recipes just such as this one.

1/2 lb. ground beef
1/2 lb. ground pork
1 small onion, chopped
1 quart tomato juice
1 or 2 eggs
3 Tbsp. uncooked rice
Salt, pepper and paprika to taste

Select and clean 8 to 10 green peppers and stuff with the above ingredients which have been mixed together. Place in a covered pan, pouring 1 quart tomato juice over all. Cook slowly until peppers are tender and rice is done. Brown 4 Tbsp. flour in about 2 Tbsp. bacon drippings. Take peppers out of tomato juice and add juice and sufficient water for a gravy to the browned flour, stirring smooth. Season to taste. Replace peppers in gravy and serve.

Pickling Tips and Dill Pickles

Grandma had cut a lot of recipes and such from the newspaper. Those she felt were most important were glued into a book. Here are several that deal with pickling.

Tips for Pickling:
Use good, clear vinegar which is free from sediment and is 4 to 6 percent acetic acid.

Choose fresh spices of the best quality. Whole spices are used for most cooked pickles; tie them in a cloth for cooking with other ingredients and remove before packing the pickles. This prevents darkening.

Be sure cucumbers are clean, firm and freshly picked. Choose uniform sizes.

Use enamelware, aluminum or stainless steel to heat acid pickling liquids for cooked pickles. Never use copper or a galvanized pail.

Use a crock or stone jar for brining and keep vegetables completely covered with brine while curing. One piece standing above brine may spoil entire batch.

Follow recipe directions and proportions for brine.

Remove scum as it forms on top of brine.

Causes of Defects in Pickles:
Hallowness - too much time elapsing between gathering and brining.

Shriveling - (occurs more often in sweet pickles) - Too strong salt, sugar, or vinegar solution, particularly in the early stage of pickling process.

Softening - Too dilute a brine or exposure of pickles above brine.

Spoilage or poor flavor - Too high temperature during fermentation (should not go over 85 degrees for best results) or too weak vinegar solution.

Toughness - Too much salt.

With that, here is recipe of grandma's for cucumber dill pickles.

40 or 50 medium sizea cucumbers
3/4 cup whole mixed pickling spices
Fresh or dried dill
2 cups vinegar
1 1/2 cups salt
2 gallons water

Wash cucumbers. Put half of pickle spices and a layer of dill in 5 gallon crock. Fill with cucumbers to within about 4 inches from top. Mix vinegar, salt and water; pour over cucumbers. Top with a layer of dill and remaining pickling spices. Cover with heavy plate and weight it so as to hold cucumbers under brine. Keep at about 70 degrees, removing scum as it forms. Let pickles ferement until clear, thoroughly flavored with dill and free of white spots when cut. This usually takes 2 to 3 weeks. Strain, bring brine to a boil and pour over pickles packed in hot, clean jars.

Ham Balls

1 egg
1/2 cup soft bread crumbs
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 pound ground cooked ham
4 peaches

Beat egg and add bread crumbs, milk, brown sugar, cloves and cooked ham. Shape into 8 balls. Grease a baking dish and place 8 peach halves, hollow side up, in it. Nest a ham ball in each peach half. Bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Stuffed Hamburger

1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 1/2 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp. chopped onion
4 Tbsp. chopped parsley
1/4 cup cooking oil

Mix these ingredients thoroughly but very lightly.

Stuffing:
1 1/2 cups stale bread crumbs
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup chopped peanuts
3 Tbsp. milk

Mix stuffing ingredients. In a 1 1/2 quart casserole with cover, alternate layers of meat and stuffing mixtures. Layers should be thin, so that there are several, beginning and ending with a layer of the meat mixture. Top with sliced tomatoes and strips of bacon. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, removing cover the last 15 minutes to brown bacon.

Barbecued Spareribs

4 pounds spareribs
3 large onions
1 cup catsup
1 cup water
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. paprika
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
4 Tbsp. vinegar
4 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 1/4 tsp. dry mustard

Cut spareribs into pieces, then brown in a baking pan over low heat. Combine other ingredients and pour over ribs in pan. Cover and bake for 1 3/4 hours at 350 degrees. Be sure to spoon sauce over ribs every 20 minutes and remove cover last 15 minutes.

Apple Sirup

I know the spelling mostly used today is syrup - but I wanted to keep the flavor of the recipes as they were written by grandma. And sirup was not only the correct spelling, it is still used.

1 cup diced apples
1/4 cup maple flavored sirup
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbsp. lemon juice

Combine and heat to boiling, then reduce heat and simmer until apples become transparent - about 10 minutes. Great for waffles or pancakes.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. cocoa
2 Tbsp. shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup peanut butter

Sift together flour, baking powder, soda and salt; mix in cocoa. Beat together shortening, sugar and egg; then stir in peanut butter. Gradually stir in flour, alternating with milk. Drop by teaspoon on greased baking sheet, press down with fork dipped in cold water. Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes.