Low Calorie Poppy Seed Bread Machine Bread

Max, dear, I just have to pass on this delicious Low Calorie Poppy Seed Bread from my neighbor Ellie Platt. Ellie’s mother was originally from Hungary and she is a fabulous baker. Her strudels are to die for. Anyway, yesterday she brought over a loaf of bread for me to try.

I could tell right off that it came out of a bread machine and you know that I am not a fan of bread machines. I love kneading bread. It’s so therapeutic. For five to ten minutes you can punch any irrating person you know.

But, this bread was really good and it is supposed to be Low Calorie. Ellie has been on a diet for a couple of months and the lack of good bread is killing her. Someone in her exercise class brought in this recipe and when Ellie heard it had poppy seeds she just had to try it. Since you love poppy seeds as much as I do, you really ought to try it.

This bread comes out with a lovely golden crust and little poppy seeds all through the bread. Ellie, good Hungarian cook that she is, upped the poppy seeds to 2 teaspoons.

Low Calorie Poppy Seed Bread:

1 1/4 cups warm water
2 tablespoons soft butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
¼ cup dried minced onion
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon pepper
3 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons dry milk powder
3 teaspoons active dry yeast

Place all ingredients in your bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer. Select the basic bread setting. After 5 minutes of mixing, check the dough and add 1 or 2 tablespoons of flour or water if needed.

Makes one loaf of 16 slices. Each slice is 100 calories, 2 grams of fat, 4 milligrams of cholesterol, and 20 grams of carbohydrates.

Unusual Potato Cakes

Max, you know how I love onions. I am convinced that part of my good health is due to eating lots of onions. The better half says that because I eat so many onions, no person, ill or well, will get close enough to spread their germs.

You know that I am NOT cooking until next week, but this recipe tempts me to break that rule. It was passed on by a good friend, who like us, lived in California for a while. She got it from someone from Spanish Forks, Utah years ago, and she swears that it is do die for.

Cris doesn’t know where Spanish Forks is and neither do I, but someone there sure knows how to cook.

Deviled Potato Cakes from Spanish Forks, Utah:

6 potatoes, cooked
1 4 ½ ounce can deviled ham
3 tablespoons minced onion
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1 tablespoon mustard
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup butter
1/3 to ½ cup evaporated milk

Grate the cooked potatoes with a grater. Combine the potatoes, ham, onion, flour, parsley, mustard and salt. Form into 6 to 8 patties. Brown one side slowly in butter in a skillet. Spoon the milk over the patties. Cook until the milk has evaporated and bottom of the patties are crusty. Carefully turn over with a pancake turner. Cook until the other side is crusty.

Serves 6 to 8.

Baked Onion Casserole from Iowa

I knew it, Erma. A week can’t go by with out you liquoring up a good recipe.

That Kentucky Prune and Black Walnut Bread sounds so good that I am going to make a loaf this afternoon. Lucky for me that I always have a jar of brandied prunes ready to use.

Brenda’s new daughter-in-law brought an interesting casserole to the dinner yesterday. Nice to learn that some of the younger women can cook. She said it was one of those dishes that her family always had, and she could not bear the thought of Thanksgiving without it.

It’s Iowa Baked Onion Casserole because her family is from western Iowa. Duh. Since you all love onions, I thought you might want to try this out.

Iowa Baked Onion Casserole:

2 pounds of onions, thickly sliced
8 slices buttered toast
¼ pound Cheddar or American cheese
2 eggs
2 cups milk
½ teaspoon salt
Dash pepper
1 tablespoon butter
Paprika

Cook the onions in boiling, salted water until tender. Place half of the toast in a 13 x 8 inch baking dish. Arrange a layer of onions and a layer of cheese over the toast. Repeat with a second layer.

Beat eggs slightly with a hand whip. Add milk, salt and pepper. Pour over the onions and dot with butter. Sprinkle on paprika. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

Serves 8

Thanksgiving Breakfast Bread

Happy Thanksgiving, Max. May you cook and eat all day.

I should have sent this recipe on to you yesterday so you could have it for breakfast today. So, I’m late, as usual. Make it up tomorrow as your family will be there all the rest of the week.

Ever notice that in all the hoopla over Thanksgiving Dinner, that the magazines ignore Thanksgiving Breakfast? And that is an important part of the holiday.

We usually eat the main meal in the middle of the afternoon, so you don’t want to spoil anyone’s appetite by having a lunch at noon. So breakfast is a must.

Oh, I know that most people just buy some doughnuts or Danish at the store and call it a meal.

I like to make a sweet bread and serve it toasted with butter or cream cheese.

There are several versions of Kentucky Prune Bread from the last century. Many are yeast risen. And no, I don’t know why so many Prune Breads have Kentucky in their names. We certainly never had a prune industry.

I like this one as it is a Quick Bread without yeast, and because with the prune juice you end up with a dark, moist bread that keeps well.

If you don’t have Black Walnuts (or your better half refuses to crack out a cup of nuts), you can use English Walnuts. It will have a slightly different flavor, but faced with the chore of cracking out a cup of Black Walnuts (there are plenty in our driveway right now that we are driving over to remove the hulls). Since driving over Black Walnuts doesn’t crush the shells, you can imagine what effort it takes to crack them open. We used to use an anvil and a sledge hammer. Believe me, there is a reason that you can’t buy nice plastic bags of Black Walnuts in the nut section of the grocery.

As you know, I only use prunes that have soaked for weeks in brandy in my kitchen. That does add an additional degree of richness to the bread. Also, as you know, Max, the baker should ALWAYS test sample the brandied prunes before using. Snack on a prune, or two, or three. Your outlook on life will mellow out appreciably.

Kentucky Prune and Black Walnut Bread:

1 cup prunes
½ cup prune juice
¼ cup orange juice
1 egg
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
1 cup black walnut meats

Original recipe: “Soak the prunes for one hour.”

Erma’s Recipe: Skip this step as you have already soaked your package of prunes in brandy for several weeks.

Drain the prunes well and cut into small pieces with kitchen shears.

Beat egg in a stand mixer, and stir in sugar and prunes. Add melted butter.

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together and add to the mixture. Alternate with the prune and orange juice. Be sure batter is well mixed.and add the chopped nuts.

Place in a greased bread pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.

Twist on Traditional Thanksgiving Raw Cranberry Relish

You know, Erma, that I always keep some Cinnamon Sugar made up in the spice cupboard.

Certainly not much could be easier to make up (although I hadn’t thought of using brown sugar instead of white), and what could be cheaper? Ever price those little bottles of Cinnamon Sugar in the spice section? Those people ought to be ashamed of themselves.

I’m going to have to try your Cinnamon Crunch Delights. You certainly can’t get much easier, or cheaper.

Like you, I am today in Full Cooking Mode.

By the end of the day, all my casseroles, rolls, pies, and other dishes will pretty much be fixed. All that remains in most cases is popping them in to cook. After about 20 years of the Thanksgiving Day Cooking Marathon (as you put it), I finally wised up and started a Cooking Plan. Basically that Plan is: Do everything possible the day before so all you have to do is keep track of the time stuff bakes (for some reason most of our traditional foods need to be baked), set the table (I used to do this the day before, but that was pre-cat days), and talk to the family.

I’ve scrubbed out the five gallon plastic soaking bucket and the frozen turkey will go it this evening. Maybe it is all in my head, but letting the turkey thaw in cold water seems to produce a moister bird. Since you passed on that tip to me, I have found that there is no such thing as a dry turkey. I will put up my 25 pound frozen turkey at 68 cents a pound against any “fresh turkey” in the gourmet meat markets. It’s all in the thawing and baking, baby.

I hunted out my old Meat Chopper/Grinder last evening. It is pretty much retired now by the food processor, but when it comes to Raw Cranberry Relish, I think it is better. The processor wants to turn stuff into mush, and we like our Relish with some body.

How about the price of fresh cranberries this year? Ouch!!

And how about the way the processors have reduced the bag size to 10 and 12 ounces instead of the old pound bags? Like we won’t notice? Probably most women wouldn’t, or at least no one seems to be complaining about this little trickery.

No matter what the price of raw cranberries, we have to have the Raw Relish. It’s such a nice contrast to all the other soft, white foods.

I know we both have been using the same recipe for dozens of years, but I found out last year that a pair of pears is a nice addition.

Cook on, Lady Erma.

Raw Pear/Cranberry Relish:

1 quart of cranberries
1 apple
2 pears
2 ½ cups sugar
2 oranges

Wash all fruit well and remove any seeds. Put all through a food chopper on coarse grind, or carefully use a food processor to pulse fruits coarsely. You want lots of texture. Stir in the sugar and store in covered container in the refrigerator for at least 3 to 4 hours. Overnight or several days is better.

This can also be used as a basis for a Cranberry Jello Mold. Simply make up one package of strawberry or cherry jello and let set until thick. Stir in 2 cups of the Pear/Cranberry Relish and one cup of chopped celery.

Thanksgiving Ideas for Stale Rolls

Went to the store today and came out with a pickup truck load of groceries. I was doing my part to help the economy–at least the grocer’s bottom line.

Now to begin The Cooking Marathon. Let the Baking Begin!!

So, I began with making several batches of Refrigerator Rolls.

Now, normally, in our house, a leftover dinner roll has a life expectancy of about 24 hours, if it is lucky. But last week, I baked up some extra rolls, stored them in one of those Tupperware thingies, and forgot all about them for four days. They probably would have reheated okay in the microwave, but I wasn’t in the hot roll mood.

Then I remembered this thing my mother used to do with old rolls. So, on Sunday morning we had juice, sausage and Cinnamon Crunch Delights (Okay, I added the Delights to the name.) Nobody guessed that they were leftovers and youngest son gave them a 9 ½ out of 10 for taste.

These are actually worth saving back a few rolls to go stale just to serve this Delight.

Cinnamon Crunch Delights:

Baked Dinner Rolls, at least a day old and up to a week old–staler the better
Butter
Cinnamon Sugar
1 cup white sugar (brown sugar makes a richer taste)
2 teaspoons cinnamon

With a serrated knife cut the rolls into 3 or 4 pieces. Spread generously with butter on all cut surfaces. Cover tops well with Cinnamon Sugar. Bake on a foil lined cookie sheet at 450 degrees until crispy. Ten minutes or so. Serve hot.

Thanskgiving Ideas

You are right, Max, Thanksgiving is our kind of holiday. I’m already cooking and hunting up favorite recipes. I don’t know about your house, but try a new recipe for Thanksgiving (in hopes that you can drop another dish) and it instantly becomes a “must have” dish. So the menu just keeps getting longer and longer.

You know how I am about Thanksgiving pies. There must be Mincemeat, Pumpkin and Bourbon Pecan–and only three of us for dinner!! We often don’t even get to the pies until late that evening or sometimes the next day after all the other stuff on the menu.

I’m thinking about adding a Kentucky Lemon Pie this year. One of the great aunts used to always bring it and with its nice tart lemon taste, family members would often eat a bit of this directly after the main meal. This is an old recipe from at least the 1930’s, and it travels well since it isn’t runny or covered with a meringue. Quite different than what most people think of as Lemon Pie.

Kentucky Lemon Pie:

6 eggs
Juice of 2 lemons
1 ½ cups light corn syrup
¾ cup sugar
1/8 cup butter
Grated rind of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon cornstarch
One unbaked pie shell

Beat eggs well in mixer. Add syrup and continue beating. Mix cornstarch and sugar and slowly add to the eggs. Grate the lemon with a grater. Juice the lemons with a citrus juicer. Add lemon juice, rind and melted butter to eggs.

Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake on lower rack of the oven at 375 degrees for 15 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 300 degrees for 40 minutes until pie is set. Remember that pies will continue cooking after they are removed from the oven.

Serve chilled and in small slices as it is rich.

Pre-Thanksgiving Ideas

Well, Erma, here we are at Thanksgiving Week. That wonderful holiday when all we have to do is cook. NO presents to buy or wrap, not a lot of decorating the house, no cards or thank you notes, no butchered favorite Christmas carols on the radio. Just food, food food!!

As always, the women’s magazines are full of advice for cooking that Perfect Turkey. Eeee gads. Could anything be easier? The only trick to a huge Thanksgiving dinner is timing–especially if you don’t have 2 ovens.

And don’t you just love it when the magazine writers suggest a small turkey breast so, “You don’t have leftovers.” Leftovers is what that huge turkey meal is all about.

Maybe Food Editors don’t want any leftovers, but I certainly do.

My friend Martha always gives away everything that is not eaten for dinner. What a dodo!

Fix enough for Thanksgiving Day, and you don’t have to cook for at least the rest of the weekend. How much better does it get? In fact the rule at my house is, all that I will do is reheat things until at least Monday, and then we get turkey sandwiches for the lunchboxes.

To me it isn’t Thanksgiving without that faithful Leftover Turkey Pie recipe you shared with me a lifetime ago. And what could be easier? Take a pottery pie plate or casserole, line it with leftover mashed potatoes, put down a layer of dry dressing, top with an inch or so of turkey bits left from stripping down the carcass, and pour over some leftover gravy. Top with foil or a lid and bake for about 25 minutes .Slice and serve with cranberry relish and reheated rolls. Divine!! And Easy!!

All good cooks have a Basic Casserole recipe that they pull out around Thanksgiving. Here is mine. Note that the amounts and ingredients are just general. As they say in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie about the rules for parley, “They’re not exactly rules, they are more like guidelines.” And Guidelines is what this dependable recipe is all about. You can use chicken, turkey, crab, imitation crab and two cups is just a guideline. The crumb topping can be anything you like, including crushed potato chips, chow mein noodles, or canned French Fried Onions.

I like to use some green onion tops and some chopped red pepper (Remember that if you are as thrifty as we are dear, you have frozen some onion tops and red pepper back when we were trying to give it away?) Mostly they just add a bit of color. Like any casserole, here is the chance to use up those bits of dried out cheese.

I usually halve this and it makes 3 dinner servings and 3 smaller homemade TV dinners for the next day. So, yep, it reheats in the microwave well.

The BASIC Casserole:

2 cups chopped Meat (Turkey, Chicken, Crab)
1 can (10 ounces) cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 cup sour cream
¾ cup mayonnaise
3 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1 can (4 ounces) mushroom stems and pieces, drained
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 cup shredded cheese (any kind, but cheddar gives a yellow tint to the casserole)
½ cup crushed cornflakes (buttered cracker crumbs, dry bread crumbs, even dry dressing)
2 tablespoons melted butter
Paprika
Choose From the following:
2 celery ribs, chopped
8 ounce can drained and chopped water chestnuts
Half a red pepper, chopped
Tops of several green onions chopped
Sliced almonds

Mix the meat, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, mayonnaise, eggs, mushrooms, onions, lemon juice. Select some items from the Choose From Section depending on your taste and what you have in the kitchen. Stir all together and place in a greased 13 x 9 inch casserole. I make half of this and use a 9 x 9 or 10 x 10 inch casserole. Sprinkle on the cheese.

Melt the butter and mix with the topping of cornflakes, cracker crumbs, or dry bread crumbs. Dust on some paprika. Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes until bubbley.

Serves 8 generously. More like 12 to 14 unless you are feeding fieldhands.

Sara Evans's Peas and Mushroom Alfredo

Tim McGraw may prefer that old fashioned, down-home style of cooking like Chicken and Dumplings, but not every Country Music Star eats Southern.

“Good Housekeeping Magazine” recently printed a Sara Evans’s favorite recipe. The “Cheatin’” and “Real Fine Place To Start” singer chose an Italian influenced entree that would appeal to an audience wider than her Country Music fan base.

Sara Evans’s Peas and Mushroom Alfredo is as up-to-date and trendy “As If” it came from a New York Bistro.

Sara Evans’s Peas and Mushroom Alfredo:

1 pound of fettuccine pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 10 ounce package sliced mushrooms
1 15 to 18 ounce jar Alfredo Sauce
1 10 ounce package frozen peas
1 to 2 cups grated Romano Cheese

Cook the fettuccini in a large saucepan, and set aside. Meanwhile in a large saute pan, heat the olive oil and saute the mushrooms until lightly browned. Add Alfredo sauce and peas and heat through. Grate the cheese with a cheese grater. Stir in one cup of the cheese.

Drain the fettuccini in a colander. In a large serving type bowl, toss the fettuccine and Alfredo sauce mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot with the remaining Romano Cheese.

Serves 6.

Tim McGraw's Chicken and Dumplings

Hallelujah! I have converted you to the True Religion of Cornbread!! No sugar, no soft fluffy cake, just that Good Old Fashioned Cornbread.

You mentioned Faith Hill and her Cornbread, so I thought of her husband Tim McGraw. I read an article recently that said he made his grandmother’s Chicken and Dumplings for Faith Hill back in the days when they were dating. It must have been good stuff–she married him!

His hit song, “Live Like You Are Dying,” is a good description of life in general, and his Chicken and Dumplings in particular. You need to savor this homey dish for who knows when you may eat it again.

Despite that Scots-Irish name of McGraw, these dumplings have a German noodle touch to them. I grew up with biscuit dough as dumplings, and I won’t tell you how many times my dumplings turned out to be sodden blobs of dough instead of light, fluffy dumplings. Tim’s are certainly easier.

Tim McGraw’s Grandmother’s Chicken and Dumplings:

1 small chicken
Water
Pinch of salt
2 cups flour
3 tablespoons Crisco butter shortening
½ cup buttermilk
1 egg

Boil the chicken in a large Dutch Oven pot with salted water until the chicken is falling off the bones. Remove chicken from the broth and when cool, tear into small pieces. Return chicken–sans bones–to the broth.

Pour the flour into a bowl, leaving a hole in the middle. Add the egg and enough buttermilk to make a biscuit dough consistency. Sprinkle flour on a cutting board, and roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Roll out fairly thin and cut in to squares. Carefully drop one square at a time into the boiling broth. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer until the dumplings are tender. The dumplings will thicken the broth until it is a creamy consistency.

Faith Hill's Cornbread

Erma, I’ll have to pass on those Shania Twain recipes to Mel. He does make a mean apple pie. No, that’s not right. His wife bakes a mean apple pie. Still not right. His wife bakes lots of mean apple pies. Like a dozen a day. Every day. All year long. Year after year.

And she must like Shania Twain. Or at least Mel plays her music a lot at the Diner.

Another Mel’s Country Music Special at the Diner is Faith Hill’s Easy Country Cornbread.
I just noticed that Mel’s favorite recipes and singers are all good looking female singers. Wonder if there is some connection here?

Anyway, this is Southern Cornbread as you taught me to like it Erma. I know that you throw up your hands in horror at the thought of The Sacred Cornbread being served like a soft, sweet cake. I don’t know if Faith Hill is a “Mississippi Girl’ or not, but she must be from way below the Mason-Dixon Line as her Cornbread is definitely Southern in taste and presentation. Faith must have had a grandmother like yours with a heavy, black cast iron skillet.

Mel often brings this Cornbread to the table straight out of the oven. You know what he looks like in his white apron. Imagine that big guy carrying a heavy black skillet with potholders, and then flipping out a giant cake of yellow cornbread on your plate. It just cries for a slathering of butter.

“There You’ll Be” with a piece of buttered cornbread in “Sunshine and Summertime.” Or Wintertime. Or Falltime.

Faith Hill’s Easy Country Cornbread:

3 tablespoons Crisco Butter Shortening
1 ½ cups Martha White Yellow Cornmeal Mix
1 egg
1 ½ cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place the Crisco in an iron skillet and melt the shortening in the oven.

In a mixing bowl, mix egg, cornmeal mix and buttermilk. Pour the melted shortening into the mixture, leaving a small amount in the skittle so the bread will not stick. Stir in the shortening. Sprinkle a bit of dry cornmeal mix in the skillet and then pour in the cornbread mixture. Bake at 500 degrees until golden brown.

EAT AT ONCE!!

Shania Twain's Apple Pie

If you haven’t made Shania Twain’s Canadian Bannocks, rush right out to the kitchen and whip up a batch. They are perfect for these crisp fall mornings.

Perfect for crisp fall evenings is Shania Twain’s Country Apple Pie. The Country Music Star’s addition to this classic fall treat is raisins. Perhaps that comes from her Canadian heritage? Her crust is a little different to with lemon juice, butter and egg yolk which makes for a rich, yellow crust.

Tune her “From This Moment On” on the CD player and crank out this luscious pie. When your man comes through the door, he’ll sing, “Honey, I’m Home” and dig into this pie. You’ll be singing, “Man, I Feel Like A Woman” after the kiss that this great pie will bring.

Shania Twain’s Country Apple Pie:

¾ cup light brown sugar
½ cup flour
¼ cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon salt
8 apples
1/3 cup raisins
Juice of one lemon
2 tablespoons melted butter

Shania says that the best apples for this pie as Granny Smiths. Peel, core with apple corer, and cut apples into wedges.

Make your favorite double pie crust, or try Shania’s version below, and place into a large pie pan.

Juice the lemon with a juicer. In a large mixing bowl, mix the brown sugar, flour, white sugar, spices and salt. In another mixing bowl, mix the apples, the lemon juice, butter and raisins. Add brown sugar mixture to the apples and lightly toss.

Spoon the apples into the crust and chill for 15 minutes. Roll out the top crust and place on pie. Use remaining dough to cut out decorations for the top of the crust. Beat one small egg with a tablespoon of water and brush over the top of the pie. Add decorations (like little apples or leaves) cut from the remaining dough and brush again. Sprinkle top with white sugar.

Bake in a 375 degree over for about 50 to 60 minutes until the crust is golden. Cool on a wire cooling rack. Serve hot or cold. Serves 10.

Shania’s Double Pie Crust:

1 ½ cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
Grated zest of a lemon
¼ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold butter
2 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening
1 egg yolk
3-4 tablespoons ice water

Mix flour, zest, salt, sugar in a mixing bowl. With pastry blender, cut in the butter and shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix ice water and egg yolk and stir into flour one tablespoon at a time until dough just starts to form. Divide dough in half, and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, or up to 2 days.

Shania Twain's Canadian Bannocks

To be truthful, Max, I have never heard of Carolyn Dawn Johnson, but if her music is a good as her Carolyn Dawn’s Chicken Asparagus Casserole, this gal is a winner.

A Country Music Star that even I have heard of is Shania Twain, and my son sent me a couple of her recipes. He tells me that she is from somewhere in northern Canada and spent some time as a cook in a tree planting camp. There she fried her Bannocks like a pancake over an open fire. Since Bannocks are in the same family as Baking Powder Biscuits, it is no surprise that Shania says that she used to eat these for breakfast with butter and raspberry jam. Actually they are good with any kind of jam or jelly.

Shania Twain’s Canadian Bannocks:

2 cups flour
¼ cup nonfat dry milk powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 teaspoon salt
½ cup raisins (omit if you are serving bannocks as a bread)
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil or melted butter
1 tablespoons melted butter, optional
1 to 3 tablespoons of sugar if you like sweet breadMaple syrup

Stir the flour, milk, baking powder and salt together in a mixing bowl. Stir in the raisins if using. Add the water, oil or melted butter and stir until the dough clings together--like biscuit dough.

Spread the dough in an 8 x 8 x 2 inch baking pan. Brush with the second 1 tablespoon of melted butter. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes or until golden. Serve with maple syrup, or blackberry jam, or cinnamon sugar, or any kind of sweet preserve.

Serves 6.

I think that Bannocks are an Irish or Scotch invention, aren’t they?

Country Music's Carolyn Dawn Johnson's Favorite Recipe

Shades of that old saying,” You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.” Only with you, Erma, it goes: “You can take the girl out of the South, but you can’t take the South out of the girl.” You went to Las Vegas and ending up eating Black-eyed Peas at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill! So, why did you go to Las Vegas in the first place?

Why don’t you just mosey up to Dutch’s Corners and eat at Mel’s Diner. It has all the Country Music that is fit to play–and some that is not.

Mel collects recipes from Country Music stars and often uses them at the Diner. This is one he brought to a community pot luck supper a while back. Mel plays Carolyn Dawn Johnson’s “Got A Good Day” all the time down at the Diner, and he says that she should change the title of the song to “Got A Good Recipe” for her Carolyn Dawn’s Chicken Asparagus Casserole.

Carolyn Dawn’s Chicken Asparagus Casserole:

1 ½ pounds fresh asparagus spears, cut in half
Cooking Oil
4 boneless, chicken breast halves–rather thin, not the monster ones
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 can light cream of chicken soup
½ cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon curry powder
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Lightly oil a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish.

In a large sauce pan, boil the asparagus for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain well in a colander, and place in the casserole. Arrange the chicken breasts over the asparagus.

In a mixing bowl, mix the soup, mayonnaise, lemon juice and curry powder. Pour over the chicken. Place the lid on the casserole and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle on the cheddar cheese. Return to oven for a few minutes until the cheese is melted.

Serves 6.

Toby Keith's Black-Eyed Peas

No, Max, I am not a Good Ole Girl heading off to watch NASCAR races, but I do like some Country Music. I have to. The only radio stations that we can seem to pick up in the shop are country. So, yes dear, I know who Martina McBride is–and her Favorite Smoked Pork Chops sound divine.

Want a real Country meal? Serve those chops with Toby Keith’s Black-Eyed Peas. As you know black-eyed peas are a Southern tradition on New Years. Supposed to bring you good luck for the next year. So, of course, when we were in Las Vegas two years ago on New Year’s Eve, we had to go to The I Love This Bar & Grill to have REAL Southern comfort food. That was a pretty good year for the company, so maybe there is something in that superstition.

Toby Keith’s Black-Eyed Peas as Prepared at the I Love This Bar & Grill:

1 10 ounce can black-eyed peas
4 strips bacon
2 tablespoons bacon fat
¾ cup of diced red onion
2 tablespoons Cowboy Mix (below)

Dice the bacon and place in a Dutch Oven type heavy pot. Along with the bacon fat and the red onion. Fry until the onion begins to change color. Add the can of peas and the Cowboy Mix. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes at a hard boil.

Makes 2 to 4 servings

Cowboy Mix:

4 tablespoons kosher salt
¼ tablespoon pasilla powder
2 tablespoons granulated garlic
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons black pepper

Mix and use where ever a Tex-Mex flavor is wanted. Store in a small, tightly covered container. This will “fire up” any thing it touches.

Martina McBride's Smoked Pork Chops

Erma Elizabeth McCall, I can’t believe that you are promoting a NASCAR recipe!! What is the world coming to?

You, who thinks the only proper racing involves four footed horses at Keeneland and Churchill Downs now has become a NASCAR fan? I just knew that somewhere under all that prim and proper Southern Lady facade, there lurked a hidden Good Ole Boy side of you. Next thing I know, you’ll be driving down to Talladega or Daytona and trading recipes out in the infield!! Dear, early senility may be taking over your por’ little brain.

So, just to keep up with your Down Home Country/NASCAR side, I’m sending you some Country Music star’s recipes.

Mel, from Mel’s Diner fame, right here in downtown Dutch Corners, has been featuring a pork chop recipe he says came straight from some big restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee. Mel loves Country Music (that’s all he plays at the Diner), and he especially loves Martina McBride. “Wild Angels” seems to play non-stop during dinner.

Any how, Mel went down to Nashville and ate at this place that claimed these Smoked Pork Chops were Martina’s favorite dish. Mel, naturally, conned the cook into sharing the recipe and it has been a staple at the Diner ever since.

With all of Iowa’s pork, any different recipe for the faithful pork chop is a welcomed friend. These have become something of a Saturday night Special at Mel’s, and he must make up a hundred or so each week.

P.S. You can reuse the marinade. With that whole vanilla bean, this aint a cheap brine. Just bring it to a boil after you remove the chops and store it in the fridge and it is ready for the next batch of Martina McBride’s Favorite Smoked Pork Chops from Cabana in Nashville, or from Mel’s Diner in beautiful downtown Dutch Corners.

Martina McBride’s Favorite Smoked Pork Chops from Cabana in Nashville:

6 large center-cut pork chops–make that HUGE thick chops

Marinade:

1 quart of water
¼ cup sorghum
¼ cup salt
1 teaspoon brown sugar
10 whole black peppercorns
2 cinnamon sticks
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out

Bring all the Marinade ingredients to a boil in a large saucepan. Simmer for several minutes and then cool to room temperature. Place chops and marinade in a large, covered casserole, and place in the refrigerator for one to two days.

Pat dry the chops. In a home smoker or good closed barbeque grill, smoke the chops at 160 degrees with fruit flavored wood chips until the chops reach at least 150 degrees. Use a thermometer to test.

Serves 6.

NASCAR's Tony Stewart's Shrimp

Well, Max, now that it FINALLY feels like Fall Football Weather, Tailgating Parties are becoming fun again. Of course, Kentucky’s recent exciting football wins–and spectacular losses–add to the Saturday afternoon excitement. Since I don’t care all that much about football, I concentrate on the Tailgate Party end of it.

Ours is a competitive bunch of Football Widow-Tag-Alongs. Every week it is who can come up with the most interesting dish. Last week’s hands down winner was Bev Miller with her “Tony Stewart Smoke’s Shrimp.” The fellows were inhaling this appetizer even before she told us that this recipe came from the well known NASCAR driver. At that point, all the men demanded another round of this neat grilled shrimp.

The Smoke’s in the name, according to Bev, is Stewart’s nickname. So we kind of have a little play on words here?

NASCAR or Tony Stewart lover or not, this is one Smoking Good Recipe!!

NASCAR’s Tony Stewart’s “Smoke’s” Shrimp:

One pound of large, uncooked shrimp
Garlic powder
Dried onion flakes
12 ounce package of bacon
Pepper
Jar (18 to 20 ounce) smoky style barbeque sauce

Peel, clean, and devein the shrimp, but leave the tails on. Rinse well. Dry with a paper towel and season with garlic powder, onion flakes, and black pepper. Guys like them SPICY

Pour the smoky barbeque sauce in a glass or corning wear type casserole, about 8 x 8 inches like the CorningWare French White Casserole. Cut each slice of bacon in half and wrap around a shrimp. Secure with a toothpick. Place shrimp in the marinade and store in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Grill the shrimp over low heat until the bacon begins to turn crisp. They can also be broiled in the oven.

Serves 6. That’s normal people. Hungry guys at a football game? Might serve 2 or 3.

Comfort Fish Chowder from Portugal

You’re right, Max. It’s always interesting to run across a recipe you think is your own that turns up in a culture far removed from yours. Stuffed Green Peppers were a summer Sunday dinner in my great-grandmother’s house. As soon as freezers came along, my family put up dozens of packages of the stuffed peppers so we could enjoy them all winter long too.

You know my dislike of fish in general, so when I recommend a fish recipe, you know it must be exceptional. This one is.

This dish was a staple of a neighbor back in Chicago. Her family were Portuguese fishermen who worked the ocean off Cape Cod and she said that this dish appeared often on the table. Her mother used whatever fish didn’t sell off the boat. I suppose it is the dill seed, bay leaf and cloves that make this Portuguese. Juana said the vermouth was often whatever was in the house, and the baking time and temperature depended on what her mother was doing at the time. Like most soup/stews, the longer and slower it cooks, the better.

Portuguese Oven Fish Chowder:

2 pounds haddock or cod fillets
4 potatoes
1 bay leaf
2 ½ teaspoons salt
2 cups boiling water
4 whole cloves
3 onions
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon dried dill seed
½ cup butter
½ cup vermouth or dry white wine
2 cups light cream

Peel and slice the potatoes and onions. Into a large, heavy casserole, place the fish, potatoes, onions, bay leaf, salt, cloves, pepper, dill seed, butter, wine and boiling water. Cover and bake at 375 degrees for about one hour. Break up the fish into large chunks. Heat the cream to scalding and add to chowder just before serving.

Home Style Lebanese Stuffed Peppers

Erma, only you would take a classic Mennonite Comfort Food like a Buttermilk Pie and add booze. Sometimes I think that you must have stock in a distillery, or get a kickback from the bourbon makers for promotion of their product. Well, see if you can add bourbon to this Comfort Food.

Almost every Eastern European country and much of the Middle East have their own versions of that old standby Stuffed Green Peppers. A Lebanese neighbor years ago shared with me what she called her favorite “real” Lebanonese recipe. My Polish grandmother’s Stuffed Green Peppers is almost identical. She used ground beef instead of lamb and brown sugar in place of the mint, cinnamon and cumin.

Isn’t it funny how the only difference between a Polish classic and an Lebanonese classic is the different herbs?

Home Style Lebanonese Stuffed Peppers:

6 large green peppers
1 ½ cups rice
1 pound ground lamb
1 (6 ounce ) cans tomato paste
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 teaspoon dried mint
Salt and pepper
Cinnamon and cumin to taste
Water

Cut off the tops of the peppers and hollow out. Combine the rice, lamb, one can of tomato paste and the seasonings. Stuff each pepper about 3/4’s full. Place the peppers into a dutch over sized pot. Mix the remaining can of tomato sauce and tomato paste with enough water to cover the peppers. Bring to a full boil.cover the pot, and simmer on low for one to one and a half hours. When serving, pour the juice over the peppers. I like to cook the tomato sauce down to a gravy thickness.

Comfort Food Buttermilk Pie

I tried your Mennonite Cabbage Salad yesterday and it is great. As you know, Max, I love tart sweet and sour salads. With the current price of lettuce (it was $1.69 for a miserable little head Saturday), we will be eating a lot of cabbage for salads around here.

Since we are talking about Comfort Food, and who personifies Comfort Food better than those German Mennonite cooks? Let’s not forget their rich, simple desserts Max.

There is never a time when any cook could not whip up a Mennonite Buttermilk Pie. The ingredients are kitchen staples, the prep time is minimal. Like you can stir it up while the oven is heating. If you don’t have real buttermilk on hand, you can substitute regular milk soured with a little vinegar or lemon juice until it curdles.

I like my Buttermilk Pies just a bit richer than most, so I use bourbon instead of vanilla which would probably cause some older Mennonite cooks to roll over in their graves. The choice is yours. It must be a regional thing. Southern cookbooks often use the bourbon while other regions of the country stick to the vanilla.

Mennonite Buttermilk Pie:

1 egg
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon butter
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup buttermilk
¼ teaspoon vanilla (I substitute bourbon and increase it to a tablespoon)
Unbaked pie shell

Cream the egg, sugar and butter in a mixer. Add baking soda and flour to creamed mixture, Add buttermilk and vanilla/bourbon. And place in an unbaked pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Pie will continue cooking after removal from the oven. Let cool completely before cutting.

Mennonite Comfort Food

Erma, your Mennonite Chicken Thigh Casserole reminded me of another classic Mennonite recipe. Our local Mennonites call this Cabbage Salad. Most anyone else would call it marinated cole slaw, and there are dozens of recipes for it. What makes this one different is that the cabbage and onions sit for a while with the sugar to make a kind of sweet brine.

This Mennonite Cabbage Salad would be perfect with your Mennonite Chicken Thigh Casserole. Like the Pennsylvania Dutch (after all, most Mennonites came from the same regions of Germany), our Mennonites like to combine sweet and sour dishes like the Cabbage Salad with a soft bland one like your casserole. Both of these recipe illustrate a facet of Mennonite cooking that you forgot to mention. Not only are their recipes inexpensive and use common ingredients, but they can be fixed whenever there is time and set aside to eat later.

Mennonite Cabbage Salad:

One large head of cabbage
One onion
1 cup sugar

Shred the cabbage and onion in your food processor. Stir in the cup of sugar and let sit for 10 to 20 minutes for sugar to melt into the cabbage liquids. Then make the Dressing

Dressing:

2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon celery seed
¾ cup vinegar
½ cup salad oil

Mix all in a sauce pan, and bring to a boil. Pour at once over the cabbage and let sit until completely cool. Stir several times. Place in a plastic refrigerator container and chill at least overnight before serving. This will keep for at least a week.

Makes 10-14 servings.

Mennonite Chicken Thigh Casserole

You made bread yesterday to celebrate the return of cool weather, and I cranked out an old Mennonite chicken recipe. I was busy picking up the house, doing laundry, and getting ready to work outside in the gardens pulling weeds, so I needed a take-care-of-itself kind of recipe.

Long ago, in another life, I worked with a reference librarian who demanded that the library buy a Mennonite cookbook as our standard reference tool. Jasper insisted that all basic cooking questions could be answered from this old classic and he was right. We didn’t have Mennonites in our section of Kentucky, but their style of cooking was just like the home food that I grew up with.

As is typical of Mennonite cookery, the ingredients are things that you always have in the kitchen, are cheap (few meats are cheaper than chicken thighs), and the result is a comfort food you associate with your childhood.

Mennonite Chicken Thigh Casserole:

¾ cup white rice
2 tablespoons minced onion
2 tablespoons minced celery
1 tablespoon minced carrot
¼ cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup butter
1 ½ cups water with 1 chicken bouillon cube dissolved in it
¾ cup milk
4 large chicken thighs
Seasoned salt that has paprika
Paprika

Grease a casserole that has a tight fitting lid, about 9 x 9 inches. Sprinkle on the rice. Mince the onion, celery and carrot and sprinkle on the rice. Dust on the flour and salt. Chop the butter into small cubes and place in the casserole. Carefully pour in the liquids. Arrange the chicken pieces on top and sprinkle with seasoned salt. Cover tightly and bake at 325 degrees for 2 hours until the chicken is tender. Toward the end of the taking, sprinkle on additional paprika for color. If the mixture is still too runny, remove the top for a few minutes additional baking and a nice golden top.

Serves 4.

Best White Bread

Now that it has finally settled down to our normal brisk Fall weather, I had to make bread today. My recipe comes from an old (1969) Farm Journal cookbook and was simply entitled “Best-Ever White Bread.” And it is about the best too. I added the egg for richness and came up with the Raisin Loaf from some other recipe.

Erma, your alcohol enhanced ways have rubbed off on me. I wouldn’t think of using raisins straight from the package in any of my cooking after I tried your trick of keeping several packages soaked in lots of bourbon so they are nice and plump, and extra flavorful. One should always “test” these raisins by eating a few while you are cooking. All women need the iron in raisins, and the bourbon sauce makes the cooking go faster.

I found this cookbook at my library on the library discard shelf. Each book was a quarter and there are some real dogs on the shelf, but occasionally you come across a real gem and “Homemade Bread” was a diamond in the rough. Over the past few years, I have collected all of the Farm Journal cookbook I can find. You know they are good because they are always stained and very used looking.

A highlight of each month as a child was the arrival of the “Farm Journal Magazine.” There was a kid’s page, and a nice women’s section with down-home, comfort recipes for farm wives who didn’t have access to a lot of fancy ingredients or time to prepare elegant meals.

Erma, if you ever come across some of their cookbooks, grab them. They are our kind of food. Their one on food preservation is my Bible on canning and preserving foods.

Farm Journal’s Best-Ever White Bread and Raisin Bread:

2 cups milk
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon lard or shortening (butter works too) (see how old this recipe is?)
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 package dry yeast
¼ cup warm water
6 to 6 ½ cups flour

Original recipe said: “Scald milk.” Today we only have to bring the milk up to medium warm in a saucepan, then stir in sugar, salt and lard. Cool to luke warm.

Sprinkle the yeast on the warm water and stir to dissolve.

When yeast is dissolved and milk mixture is about body temperature, pour the milk, yeast and 3 cups of the flour into a large mixing bowl. Beat with a wooden spoon until batter is smooth. You could also beat for about 2 minutes in a mixer.

Slowly begin adding the remaining flour until you have a soft dough that leaves the sides of the mixing bowl. Turn onto a lightly floured bread board. Turn the mixing bowl over the dough and let sit for at least 10 minutes.

Begin kneading by hand (or in a mixer with a dough hook) and knead for about 10 minutes. You may need to add small amounts of flour so the dough does not stick to the board. At end of the kneading, pour a bit of oil into the bottom of a mixing bowl. Turn the dough so that all surfaces and sides of the bowl are greased.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 ½ hours. Punch the dough down, and divide into 2 loaves. Place into two 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pans that are greased, if not Teflon coated. Cover and let rise again until doubled, which will be about an hour.

Bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes until a deep golden brown and hollow sounding when thumped. Remove at once from pans and place on wire cooling racks to cool. For a softer, shiny crust, lightly oil or butter the tops.

As soon as the bread is cool enough to cool, cut a slice to sample and slather on the real butter. This step is essential. You would not want to serve your family an inferior bread, would you?

To make a superb Raisin Bread (I always make one loaf Raisin Bread.) Go to the point when you have kneaded the bread well and divide in half. Set the plain loaf in one small bowl. For the other half spread the dough out with your hands and sprinkle on about ¼ of a teaspoon cardamon and a generous ½ teaspoon cinnamon. Knead for another minute or so until the spices are well mixed in the bread. A few streaks may remain, but that just adds interest to the loaf.

When the dough has raised, again pat it out into a rectangle. Sprinkle on a thin layer of brown sugar, a light dusting of cinnamon, and as many raisins as you like. Press raisins into the dough. Roll the dough up tightly so there are no air pockets in the dough. Continue as with regular bread.

This makes a wonderful breakfast toast by slicing and buttering one side of the bread. Bake in a hot 400 degree oven for several minutes, turn over and bake another minute or so until lightly toasted. Watch carefully as once it begins to brown, it cooks fast.

Old Time Hint: When you are shaping your dough into loaves, use a rolling pin to roll out the dough. This removes the bubbles of air that makes holes in the bread.

One Last Apple Recipe

I know, Max, that we have barely scratched the surface of apple recipes, but enough is enough! Still I had to share this one, last apple recipe with you. Except for the addition of the apples, it is your basic sweet potato casserole that everyone makes for Thanksgiving. The difference here is the apples and the fact that the fruits are left in chunks and not mashed as is usual.

No, of course, the original recipe did not call for bourbon, but bourbon and sweet potatoes just go together like crackers and peanut butter. They are a natural mix. This recipe came from a cookbook out of New England, and you know that they do NOT use bourbon. Such a shame too.

Apple Sweet Potato Casserole:

6 sweet potatoes, baked and peeled
6 Granny Smith apples, peeled
1 stick butter
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup maple syrup
Roughly chopped pecans
¼ cup bourbon

Use a fairly large casserole with lid, and grease well. Cut the potatoes and apples into small bite-sized pieces, mix, and put in the casserole. Pour the bourbon over the sweet potatoes and apples. Melt the butter and sugar in a small sauce pan. Add the syrup and pecans, and then pour over the top of the casserole. (Casserole can be fixed to this point up to a day early and held in the refrigerator. Allow to come to room temperature before baking the next day.) With cover on the casserole, bake for one hour at 350 degrees.

Serves 8 to 10 as a side dish. Reheats well in the microwave too.

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

Talk about unusual, Max, then check out this Shaker Apple and Pork Stew. It starts out kind of like a Pork Roast basted with applesauce, and then it adds carrots, potatoes, and onions like a beef stew. Come to think of it, I often add potatoes, carrots and onions to my pork roasts. So maybe this isn’t such an unusual recipe after all.

Shaker Apple and Pork Stew:

3 pounds boneless pork
3 pounds applesauce
2 tablespoons mixed cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg
6 small red skinned potatoes
3 carrots
2 onions
2 apples

Cut the pork into small cubes. In a heavy Dutch Oven, place the pork, applesauce, spices. Cover and cook on high heat for 10 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer for at least 4 hours. An hour before serving, add the unpeeled whole potatoes, the carrots that have been peeled and cut into large chunks, and the onions that have been quartered. About 15 minutes before serving, add the apples that have been peeled and sliced thinly. Serve in soup bowls.

Serves 8.

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

I knew it, Erma. I knew that some way or another you would work in the alcohol–even with the poor, teetollaling Shakers! I don’t see those quaint Shaker Sisters putting down barrels of home/village dried plums into barrels of brandy. If so, some of the Shaker brothers probably “sampled” the brew from time to time.

I have had your wonderful Brandied Prunes and they are addicting.

You mentioned your Shaker Apple Soup, and I thought of this odd Shaker Apple Curry Soup. Do you have any idea when curry powder came into use? Certainly not in the earliest years of the Shaker villages. This is a most unusual soup.

Apple Curry Soup:

2 large apples
2 onions
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon flour
½ teaspoon curry powder
2 cups chicken broth
8 ounces apple juice or white wine
3 ounces diced chicken breast

Peel, core and chop the apples and onions. In a frying pan, melt the butter and cook the apples and onions until they are soft. Add the flour and curry powder and cooking for 5 minutes more. Add everything else, except the chicken, and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain through a sieve and return to the pan. Add the chopped chicken breast just before serving.

Serves 4.

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

Looking through my Shaker cookbooks yesterday, I saw a recipe for Apple and Prune Stuffing, and I thought, how German/Danish/Swedish. There is nothing like a good Prune Stuffing for a duck or the Christmas Goose.

Then I began to read the recipe. Cracker crumbs? No biscuits or bread?

Then I got to the end and realized that it wasn’t the goose that the Shakers were stuffing. It was squash and onions and cabbage!

Bingo! I realized that this was one of those recipes from the meatless period. What an interesting blend of flavors this must produce. And how modern.

Naturally I had to laugh at the first part of the directions of cooking the prunes. Storing your prunes in brandy, like I ALWAYS recommend, means your prunes are nice as moist to begin with. With the packaging today, you probably don’t need to cook them either, but imagine how hard prunes must have been back in Shaker days.

Shaker Apple and Prune Stuffing:

Soak 6 whole prunes in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain and pit. Chop well. (If using prunes that have already been marinated in brandy as I suggest, you can omit the soaking.

Measure the prunes and add an equal amount of peeled, chopped apple. To this add 2 tablespoons cracker crumbs, 2 tablespoons butter, salt and pepper to taste.

Use this to stuff squash, onions, or cabbage. If you like a sweeter stuffing, add a tablespoon sugar and a beaten egg.

Yields about a cup and a half stuffing

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

Erma, when you sent me that Shaker Apple Omelet recipe a few days ago, I was reminded of a similar Shaker pudding recipe from the Watervliet Village in New York.

It is called Shaker Apple Cream Pudding, although I always serve it with a crust as a pie. You know my family. Anything so long as it is served as a pie.

Like your Omelet, you can begin with apple sauce and cut down considerably on the prep time. The Mennonites in our area make a version of this that they call an Applesauce Pie.

Shaker Apple Cream Pudding from Watervliet Village in New York:

1 dozen apples
6 eggs
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 cup heavy cream

Peel, core and cook with a little bit of water the dozen apples in a heavy, large sauce pan. When soft, strain through a colander, or use a food processor. Beat in the eggs, butter, sugar, nutmeg and lemon juice. Place in a casserole or pudding dish and bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Chill the pudding. Whip the cream in a mixer, and stir into the pudding just before serving.

Serves 8.

Filling can also be poured into a pie tin lined with a rich crust and baked as a pie. Omit the cream.

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

Let me know, Max, if you ever try that Shaker Apple Catsup. When the family says, “Pass the catsup,” you give them a jar of Apple Catsup. Wonder if they would notice the difference?

This Shaker recipe I have made many times. It is just your basic Apple Jelly with a twist: Ginger. The Shakers were almost as big on lemons as they were on apples. The believed, correctly, that lemons were good for you, and they ordered wagon loads of them. Knowing the Shakers, I will bet they even tried to grow them in their orchards. Cold climate or not.

To me, this is even better made with candied ginger that is finely minced. If your apples don’t cook up a pale pink blush, a tiny drop of red food coloring helps.

I included the Shaker sister’s comment from the original recipe just for fun. Think of cooking up a big batch of this in a huge copper kettle over an open fire. We don’t know how fortunate we are to have stoves that produce steady heat.

Shaker Apple Ginger Jelly:

3 pounds apples
3 cups light brown sugar
1 ½ cups lemons
2 tablespoons powdered ginger
1 teaspoon salt

With a grater, grate off all the peel from both lemons. Peel and chop the apples. Place in a heavy sauce pan and add the sugar, spices, grated lemon rind, the juice from the lemons, the ginger and the salt. Add just enough water to keep the mixture from burning. Cover and cook on the lowest temperature for 4 hours. Uncover, stir, and add water if necessary. “Great care must be taken to keep from scorching,” wrote the Shaker sister from Shirley Village.

Turn out into small jelly jars. Seal. Makes about 2 pints jelly.

Finely chopped preserved ginger slices can also be used.

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

Erma, I will bet that your Shaker Apple Soup dates back to England where the Shakers began. The English used to serve arriving guests with a cup of strong beef broth to take off the chill of winter travel. Not a bad idea even today, especially when you think of how cool (I called it plain cold!) most British homes are in the winter time.

Say the word Catsup today and everyone automatically thinks tomato. Of course, you and I know that catsup, or ketchsup as it is in most old cookbooks, predates the introduction of tomatoes into the everyday diet. Originally catsup was a condiment made with everything from fruit to green walnuts. No, I have never attempted Green Walnut Ketchsup, which begins with collecting green hulled walnut, but it sounds “interesting.”

The Shakers made Catsup with apples long before they were growing tomatoes. One of these years when we have tons of extra apples, I am going to try this recipe. I will bet that the Shakers served this as a condiment along with baked beef or pork.

Shaker Apple Catsup:

Pare and core 12 sour apples. Stew in a Dutch Oven with some water until the apples are soft. Press through a sieve.

For each quart of apple pulp add the following:

1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon powdered cloves
1 teaspoon dry mustard
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon salt
2 onions
2 cups cider vinegar

In food mill, chop the onion very fine. Add all of the above to the apple pulp in the Dutch Oven. Bring to a boil and simmer for at least one hour, or until the mixture is very thick. Pour into hot, sterilized pint jars and seal.

Makes 3 pints.

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

Have you seen the size of the bake ovens at the Shaker villages? They are commercial sized. Of course, Max, they had to be to feel the numbers that they did. As I recall, they did not bake bread every day, but only a couple of days a week. They had immense dough trays for mixing and kneading dozens of loaves of bread at once.

Shaker Apple Soup was probably served on one of the days when the Shaker sisters were busy baking or preserving food. It is simple and filling, and could sit prepared off to the side of the fireplace while other foods were being prepared.

This could be served in a cup on a cold, winter day without the cream which would cut down on the calories and fat content. With the amount of heavy work the Shaker sisters and brothers did calories and fat content was not a concern.

Shaker Apple Soup:

2 cups beef broth
1 tart apple, quartered, cored, and unpeeled
1 onion, quartered
1 ½ teaspoons of mixed cinnamon and nutmeg
4 tablespoons apple cider
1 cup half and half

In a double boiler with a lid, combine the broth, apples, onion, and seasonings. Cover tightly and cook for several minutes until the apple is soft. Strain in a sieve. Discard the pulp. Return liquid to the double boiler and keep warm. When ready to serve, add the cider and cream. Serve hot.

Serves 4.

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

Erma, as you know, I had never heard of the Shakers before I met you. Then I began hearing about their simple elegant furniture. We had some communal societies here in Iowa too, though not exactly like the Shakers. The big one, of course, is the Amana Colonies, and they were big on orchards and apples too.

I found this recipe in one of the Shaker cookbooks you gave me years ago and I had to try it. I used bacon instead of the salt pork and brown sugar instead of the maple. My, how times have changed. Can you imagine what this everyday dish would cost today to make if you used real maple sugar?

Can you imagine how many pies the Shaker sisters would have to bake to feed the hundreds of people who lived in their village?

Apple-Pork Pie from Mount Lebanon Village:

2 pie crusts, unbaked
2 tablespoons flour
½ cup maple sugar (may substitute light brown sugar)
½ cup white sugar
Pinch of salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
6 tart apples, pared and sliced
½ pound salt pork, cut into thin small pieces 1 inch long (substitute bacon)
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons butter

Line a medium sized casserole with half of the pastry.

Mix the flour, salt, sugars, and spices. Combine that with the apples and place half of the mixture into the casserole. Cover with half of the pieces of salt pork. Sprinkle with pepper. Repeat the layers. Dot with butter and fit on the other half of the pie crust. Cut several slashes in the top crust. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes and then lower the temperature to 375 degrees and continue baking for 50 minutes. Serve warm.

Serves 6 to 8.

Bacon may be substituted for the salt pork.

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

Max, can you name a fruit that has as many uses as an apple? Think of it. You can eat them raw. You can fry them. You can bake them. You can turn them into jelly. You can preserve them as apple sauce or apple butter. You can juice them. You can let the juice turn into vinegar or go to Hard Cider or Apple Jack–which can warm up the coldest winter evenings.

Growing up near the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill here in Kentucky, I was exposed to some of their old recipes and ideas about cooking. The Shakers, who were early into the health food diet, devised hundreds of recipes for apples. All of the Shaker villages had huge fruit orchards with hundreds of different kinds of apple trees. Their cookbooks and household guides are filled with references to what kind of apples to use for what purpose, and some of them are rather unique.

Take this Shaker Apple Omelet that dates from the early part of the 19th Century. There was a period when all the Shaker villages became vegetarian, and from that period came an emphasis on herbs and unusual main dishes that were meatless. This recipe came originally from the Watervliet Village in New York. Today we would serve this as a side dish or dessert, but for a while this was a main dish served without meat.

While more of a pudding than what we today think of an omelet, this is still a fine dish. To save on cooking time, one could begin with unsweetened apple sauce. This makes a nice presentation in individual casseroles.

Shaker Apple Omelet:

6 large tart apples
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup sugar
Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste
4 eggs

Peel and core the apples. Place in saucepan, cover with water and cook until very soft. Place in food processor and turn to sauce.

Add butter, sugar and spices and allow the mixture to cool. Beat the eggs with a hand whisk in a small mixing bowl. Stir into apple mixture. Pour into a medium sized buttered casserole, or two buttered pie tins.

If using 6 individual ramakins or small casseroles, reduce the baking time slightly.

Bake at 300 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes when top is lightly golden.

Serves 4 generously. Use with Roast Pork for a main side dish, or serve for dessert.

Danish Apple Dessert

Cod with apples and celery? Hummmm. Maybe.

The Scandinavians have some unusual twists to their cooking. It is sort of German, but with a Scandinavian accent. Like this recipe for Danish Apple Bars. The secret ingredient is crushed corn flakes of all things. When it cooks up, you never would guess that there are corn flakes in the filling, but it adds a different touch to a familiar apple bar recipe.

Beware, these are rich and fattening!!

Danish Apple Bars:

2 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup shortening
1 egg yolk
Milk
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup corn flakes, crushed
6 apples
1 cup sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg white

Mix as if making a pie crust the flour, salt, baking powder, sugar and shortening. Mix egg yolk, milk and vanilla to equal a generous ½ cup of liquid. Add to dry ingredients and mix well to form dough.

Divide the dough in half. Roll out to fit a 12 x 15 jelly roll pan. Over top of the dough sprinkle the corn flakes. Then make a layer of the peeled and sliced apples. Over the apples sprinkle sugar-cinnamon mix.

Roll out the remaining piece of dough for a top. Cut slits in it and seal the edges. Beat the egg white with a hand whisk until frothy and then use pastry brush to spread over the top of the bars.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes and then reduce the heat to 350 and bake another 35 minutes. While still hot, drizzle on the glaze below. Let cool and cut into bars while still somewhat warm.

Glaze:

1 cup confectioners’ sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup hot water–more if needed for spreading

Old Norwegian Fish and Apple Recipe

You are right, Max, we have been heavy on the apple desserts the last few weeks, and apples can be used in every course of the meal. Now here is a really old and unusual Norwegian fish and apple recipe. Tell me, Max, when was the last time you saw a recipe that included Celeriac in the ingredients? Just use some celery instead.

I know you are thinking, “Erma doesn’t really like fish, so why does she have a Norwegian cod recipe around?” Because, my dear, this is one of the few ways you can cook cod that doesn’t taste like fish. The Norwegians must tire of cod too, as my cookbook has dozens of ways to dress up the fish so it doesn’t taste like fish.

Baked Cod with Apples and Celeriac from Norway:

1 ½ pound cod fillet
½ a celeriac, or 1 stalk celery
4 apples, peeled
1 onion
4 tablespoons tomato puree
¼ pint rich milk
salt and pepper to taste

Place celeriac, apples and onion in food processor and chop finely. Spread vegetables in bottom of a shallow, buttered oven dish casserole with lid. Wash and dry the cod and place on top of the veggies. Season with salt and pepper. Mix milk and puree and pour over the fish. Bake in a hot (400 degree) oven for about 30 minutes.

Serves 4.

German Apple Dish

It can’t be fall without my making an apple cake we first had when we were living in Germany. I call it Bavarian for it was down in Bavaria at a country inn that I first had this treat. My German being what it isn’t, I couldn’t ask the innkeeper for the recipe. Which started the Great Bavarian Apple Cake Quest. I found out that there are hundreds of recipes for Apple Cake in Germany. Every cook over there has an Apple Cake recipe, but none of them were quite what I had eaten in Bavaria. I eventaully found a recipe close to the original from Bavaria in all places, a children’s cookbook from Rhode Island. The children had collected ethnic recipes from their families and published them in a little fund raising cookbook.

The German grandmother called her recipe Bavarian Apple Dapple Cake, but I don’t know what the Dapple refers too. Substitute Delicious for Dapple and you get the idea. This bakes up in a tube pan with a nice glaze that makes is so rich and fall-like.

Bavarian Apple Dapple Cake:

1 ½ cups oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts
3 cups peeled apples
1 teaspoons vanilla

Beat oil, sugar and eggs in mixer. Stir in the flour, soda, and salt. Coarsely chop the raisins, nuts and apples in a food processor. Add to batter with the vanilla. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 ½ hours in a tube pan.

While the Apple Dapple Cake is still warm brush on with a pastry brush, the icing. ½ cup brown sugar, ¼ cup butter and ¼ cup milk. Boil the icing mixture for 3 minutes.

Great Apple Salad

We have traded enough apple dessert recipes for each of us to have gained a dozen pounds. Here is an older Apple Salad recipe that isn’t so calorie laden. The dressing is not sugar laden, and the salad is quite good with no dressing at all.

Apple Salad:

4 large apples–mix of colors is nice
½ cup celery
½ cup small green grapes–seedless
½ cup chopped nuts, walnuts are best

Dressing:

2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk

Whisk the egg and milk with a whisk. Pour flour and sugar in a saucepan and then stir in the milk mixture. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook for several minutes until thick. Pour in covered plastic container, and store in the fridge.

Mix the apples, celery and green grapes in a bowl. Add dressing and toss. Sprinkle nuts on top.

Serves 10.

Make Your Own Apple Pie Filling

This recipe is not going to help you Erma, in your appleless state this fall, but you should file it away for next year. You love easy and cheap recipes. Well, this one fits the bill.

It assumes that you have an over abundance of apples (which is usually the case with you in the fall), and that you like to save money. Have you priced those little cans of prepared fruit pie fillings in the store? It is outrageous!! First off, one can of their filling does not a pie make. You need at least two cans. Secondly, it isn’t all that good. And Thirdly, who knows what sort of preservatives and such have been put in it!!

Since your apples are free (and going to waste on the ground anyways), about your only cost is the sugar. And your time which is about 2 hours tops.

The result is 7 generous quart sized pie fillings already made and sitting down on your basement shelves. Viola, you have an instant homemade apple pie. If you don’t feel like rolling out a pie crust, you can simply pour a can of this filling into a casserole, and top it with the Apple Crisp topping. Pop into the oven, and dessert is ready in 20 minutes.

Home-Canned Apple Pie Filling:

8 to 9 pounds firm apples
4 ½ cups sugar
1 cup quick-cooking tapioca
10 cups water
3 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon salt

Peel and slice the apples. Place in salted water to prevent discoloration while you are peeling the remainder.

Combine remaining ingredients in a 12 quart stockpot. Cook over medium-high heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes longer.

Drain apples in a colander . Add apples to syrup. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute longer.

Spoon apples into hot sterilized jars, leaving an inch headspace. Seal the jars and process in boiling water bath for 25 minutes. Use a large stockpot with lid for the waterbath.

Yields 6 to 7 quarts.

Old Fashioned Dried Apple Pies

Since we don’t have any apples this fall, I may have to break out the tub of apples that we dried a few years ago and use them in place of fresh apples.

All right, Max, I know those dried apples have been around for a couple of years, but dried fruit does not spoil!! That’s why people dried food. It lasted forever.

Fried apple pies are an Eastern Kentucky mountain tradition that dates back to at least the days of the early settlers. Medieval housewives dried apples, and probably so did the Greek and Roman housewives. Although I don’t think the Greeks had apples. The porbably would not grow well in their climate.

In some places, a dried apple pie was a traditional dish to take to a funeral. Probably because most pioneer housewives would have some dried apples at any time of the year, and pies transported well in buggies and wagons, unlike fancy cakes.

Small Fried Pies were also a staple in kid’s lunches back in the days of metal lunch boxes or earlier with lunch pails. Sweet, and not too messy.

You can make dried apples into a regular style pie, or the way I liked them, in small, handsized half moon fried pies. In the old days the pastry was made with lard, and then the pies were deep fried in lard. No wonder life expectancy was low!!

Today, most women bake their Fried Pies, but we still call them Fried. Makes perfect sense, yes?

This recipe is based on commercial dried apples that come in the cellophane bags. For homemade, really dry apples, you start with an overnight soak in the water. And you must make sure that you cook the apple mixture until it is VERY thick. Otherwise, you will have the liquid seeping out of the pies and running all over the cookie sheet. Which, of course, then proceeds to burn on to the pan and smoke up the oven. So, Max, remember, “cook until VERY thick.”

Apple Fried Pies:

8 ounces dried apples
1 cup water
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon almond extract
1 double pie crust pastry making

Cook dried apples in water in saucepan over low heat for about 30 minutes. Add sugar and spices. Cook 10 minutes longer. Remove from heat and add almond extract.

Roll half of the pie crust into a 12 inch circle. Spoon half of the apple mixture on to half of the circle. Fold the pastry over to enclose filling and seal the edge with a fork or a pastry crimper. Repeat with the remaining pie crust. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet that has been lined with foil to catch drips.

Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes until golden.

Yields 8 servings

Classic Apple Crisp Recipe

I’ve made your Apple Doughnut Muffins, Erma, and you are right, like the potato chip, “I’ll bet you can’t eat just one.” Bake up a batch of those, and you will attract the menfolk in from the yard like flies to honey.

Now for a nice “diet recipe” with apples, nothing can beat my Apple Crisp From Alabama. Wonder how an Alabama recipe ended up in this staunch Mid-Westerner’s file?

Anyways, it is “diet” because it includes that diet wonder food: Oatmeal. I say, include oatmeal in a recipe and it automatically is a diet recipe. Good for the heart and blood vessels the doctors say. You can make this without the oatmeal, but to my family, it isn’t an Apple Crisp without the oatmeal topping.

Apple Crisp From Alabama:

4 cups peeled apples
¼ cup water
¾ cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter
1 cup old fashioned oats (Optional)

Place the apples in a 6 x 10 inch baking dish. Add water. Mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt and oatmeal if using in a small mixing bowl. Cut in the butter until crumbley. Sprinkle over the apples. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes until apples are tender and the top is golden.

Yields 6 servings.

The oatmeal makes a more candy-like topping.

Celebrate Fall with Apples

Dearest Max, it has finally cooled down, and I am beginning to feel human again. Well, I’m never exactly human, but as human as I can be. It must be old age, but the extended heat has been a real trial for me–not to mention my poor yard and garden.

We haven’t a single apple on any of our trees, so I had to break down and buy some Jonathon Apples Saturday so I could make some apple recipes. It bothers my frugal Scotch soul to have to BUY apples, there are supposed to be free on my trees!!

I made the French Apple Pie with the Nutmeg Sauce from last week and it was delicious.

With Halloween coming, I also start thinking of pumpkins and doughnuts. As you know, I really don’t like the popular glazed doughnuts. My favorites are the cake type doughnuts. A Saturday afternoon treat would be to go to the hole-in-the wall Ward’s Bakery and buy one of their crunchy cake doughnuts dusted in powdered sugar. For Halloween, my mother could sometimes be persuaded to make up a big batch of our nutmeg flavored cake doughnuts. Alas, all the calories and fats in deep frying have made those treats a rare occasion.

Apple Doughnut Muffins are a compromise. They taste like a good cake type doughnut, but are baked. Calorie Enhanced they still are, but not quite a bad as deep fried. Problem is that they are so good, that one tends to eat more than one of them at a time. Diet Disaster.

Apple Doughnut Muffins:

2/3 cups soft butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
3 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of salt
½ cup oil
1 cup, chopped, peeled apple
Melted butter
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon

Cream the butter and 1 cup of sugar in the mixer until light and fluffy. Blend in eggs. Mix the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt in a small mixing bowl. Alternate blending in the flour mixture with the milk. Stir in the finely grated apple.

Spoon into greased or silicone muffin cups. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. As soon as you remove the muffins from the oven, dip them into the melted butter and then roll (or shake in a paper bag) in a mixture of the remaining cup of sugar and the cinnamon. Coat well.

Scandinavian Apple Dessert

While we were talking Danish aebleskivers, I remembered another apple recipe from Denmark and Sweden: Apple Coffee Cake. Scandinavians love sweets and coffee cakes of all varieties and this one is very simple. The different touch on this one is pouring the sour cream around on the top. This Scandinavian coffee cake is served hot and is best served warm–straight from the oven. The browned sour cream topping creates an unusual spiral effect.

Apple Coffee Cake:

1 ½ cups flour
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup walnuts
1 large apple
1 egg
½ cup milk
3 tablespoons oil
½ cup sour cream
½ cup sugar

Peel and grate the apple in a food processor. Chop the nuts in processor coarsely.

Mix and flour, ½ cup sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in large mixing bowl. Add the nuts, saving out a couple tablespoons for topping. Stir in the grated apple.

With hand whisk beat the egg. Then add the milk and oil. Blend and then fold into the apple mixture. Turn into a greased or silicone 9 inch round cake pan.

Spoon the sour cream over the top in a spiral fashion, leaving the center uncovered. Sprinkle the remaining ½ cup sugar over the top and scatter on the remaining nuts.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving. Serve in wedges.

Makes 6 large servings.

Like most coffee cakes this one is best straight out of the oven. Now that we all have microwaves reheating a coffee cake is a breeze.

German Heritage Red Cabbage and Apples

Since we are in such an apple mood (Great since apples are not very juicy this year), I thought of one of my grandmother’s special dishes: Cooked Red Cabbage and Apples.

Now, Max, this wasn’t the “alcohol enhanced” grandmother, but the one who learned to cook from her German mother-in-law. She spent the first year of her marriage living with the mother-in-law (not me, baby) and learning how to fix all my grandfather’s favorite dishes. This was one of them. Most Germans around home only used the red cabbage, but Grandmother insisted that her mother-in-law “insisted” (read demanded) that this dish must have the sweetness of apples. Note that this recipe is for 12 servings. Grandmother only cooked in large quantities.

This is a staple winter dish in homes of German heritage. Usually served with mashed potatoes or dumplings, and a beef roast that has lots of rich, brown gravy.

Red Cabbage with Apples:

1 head red cabbage
2 apples
½ cup onion
2 tablespoons butter
½ cup red wine vinegar
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt

Using the slicing attachment of your food processor, but the cabbage in to 1/8 inch strips. Peel and core the apple and also cut into 1/8 inch slices. Chop the onion in the processor.

In a large skillet or a Dutch oven, cook the cabbage, apples, and onion in the butter for bout 5 minutes.

Add vinegar, bay leaf, sugar and salt. Cover. Bring mixture to a boil; then reduce the heat and simmer 35 minutes until the cabbage is tender. Remove the bay leaf before serving.

Makes 12 servings.

Washington State Apple Brownies

I LOVE Aebleskivers!! I loved Solvang too. It is one of the cute little villages that still retains its charm.

Yes, Erma, I remember our first visit with the Republican Women’s Club. We both wanted to buy so much, and we couldn’t afford hardly anything. So we bought aebleskiver pans which were a lot more practical than silver and linens when you come down to it.

You might want to try this Apple Brownies recipe I picked up in Washington State a few years ago. Being the Apple Capital of the World, cooks there put apples in everything.

I’m not sure that this is really a Brownie. Borwnies have CHOCOLATE. I would call this more of a apple bread, but it is very good. These are really moist so you have to store them in a air tight container. Of course, usually there aren’t enough left to worry about storing them.

Apple Brownies:

½ cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 tablespoons hot water
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup nuts
6 medium apples, coarsely chopped

Cream the butter, sugar and eggs with a mixer. Add soda dissolved in hot water. Mix the dry ingredients in small mixing bowl. Fold into the creamed mixture. Fold in the nuts and apples.

Spray a large cookie sheet with sides (same pan you would use for a jelly roll). Spoon in the dough and smooth the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes. Cut into squares and serve.

Makes 30 brownies.

Keep in a tight container like the as these are very moist.

Danish Aebleskivers

Max, dear, we have been talking about apple recipes and that brought to mind Danish Aebleskivers.

Remember the first time we had them in Solvang in California? We were on a day trip to the Danish village and we saw them in every pastry shop in town? I ws looking for hand made linens and you were hunting for their famous china.

As I recall the only thing we came away with (so, we were so poor we couldn’t afford all the lovely imported items in the shops) was a Aebleskiver Pan for each of us.

I don’t know about you, but I had a few disasters–raw in the middle–aebleskivers before I mastered the trick of flipping them over with a wooden skewer. The first few kind of half turned and ran all over the pan. Now, that was back in my very novice cooking days, and everything was a potential cooking disaster.

We were back in Solvang a couple of years ago and I hesitated to order aebleskivers as I remembered how wonderful they were. I was afraid that they would not be a good as I remembered them, but they were.

What a shame that so few people have every eaten them. Everyone is always so impressed when I serve them. They think that I picked up this recipe when we lived in Europe. I wouldn’t want to disappoint them, so I let them think my pan and recipe came directly from Denmark.

Danish Aebleskiver:

Baked in a special pan, these light pancake balls are often served on Christmas Eve. This recipe came from Denmark in the 1890s.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons margarine or butter, melted
2 cups buttermilk
3 eggs, separated
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

In medium bowl beat egg whites until stiff peaks form; set aside. In large bowl beat egg yolks and sugar until well blended. Add all remaining ingredients except egg whites. Beat until smooth. Fold in egg whites until well blended.

Heat aebleskiver pan over medium heat until drops of water sizzle. Using about 1 tablespoon batter fill greased cups in aebleskiver pan about half full. Cook until lightly browned on bottom (2 to 3 minutes); turn with fork or knitting needle. Continue cooking until browned on bottom (2 to 3 minutes). Balls are done when wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Roll in sugar; serve hot. 35 pancake balls

Can add a dab of jam or fruit just before turning the aebleskiver over.

Unusual Apple Pie for Calorie Counters

Since all of us seasoned senior citizens seem to be counting our calories, I came across this slightly lower than usual caloried apple pie. It’s for calorie counters because you can make it with out the crust which saves a couple of calories. But in that case, Erma, I think it is not really a pie, but more of a pudding?

Strangely enough, this bakes up stiff enough that you don’t have to have a crust, and it cuts in nice wedges. Of course, to me, a perfect apple pie is one that when you cut it, the liquid runs all over the place and you have to spoon the extra over the cut pie.

That kind of runny, sweet mess also means that you had ALWAYS better put an old cookie sheet with foil under the baking pie to catch the spill overs. Nothing like trying to clean up burned-on apple pie liquid!!

Grated Apple Pie:

2 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons butter
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup cream or evaporated milk
5 large juicy apples
9 inch pie shell, unbaked (optional)

Blend all ingredients except apples in a blender for a few seconds. Slice the apples and blend again. When apples are cut fine, pour into an unbaked pie shell in a 9 inch pie pan, or into a 9 inch tart pan that has been lightly sprayed with Pam.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes until ingredients are set.

This will hold its shape without a crust.

Unusual Fall Apple Salad

Max, dear, you are so right about the fresh apples and fresh spices. I could not live without my nutmeg grater.

If you are looking for an unusual salad for the ladies, try this one. It is easy and blends some of my favorite foods: apples, peanut butter, and cream cheese. You can dress this up with a lettuce leaf as the base for the salad, or you can place a few purple, seedless grapes on the side, or some mandarin orange segments. Just about any fruit will work.

The Bretton Woods Dressing (wasn’t that a World War I battle? Or was it one of those arms reductions treaties that lead to WWII?) is good on most fruit salads and very nice on tossed lettuce ones too.

The leftover cream cheese-peanut butter bland makes a nice dip for apples and other fresh fruit.

Apple, Peanut Butter, and Cheese Salad:

2 Red Delicious Apples
6 ounces of cream cheese–room temp
½ cup chunky peanut butter

Blend peanut butter and cream cheese well, and form into small balls.

Polish and core the apples and slice into ½ inch thick slices just before serving.

Place apple slices on salad plate (lettuce leaf underneath is optional). Place peanut butter balls in center of apple slices. Drizzle Bretton Wood Dressing over.

Bretton Woods Dressing:

1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon paprika
½ cup apple juice (or another other fruit juice. If very sweet cut out sugar)
¼ cup lemon juice
½ cup olive oil
3 tablespoons sugar

Place all in a small mixing bowl. Chill and let set for several hours. Just before serving, beat dressing hard with a hand whisk.

Dressing is good on most fresh fruit salads and lettuce salads. The dressing helps keep the apple slices from turning dark.

Serves 4 generously