Shaker Pie

Our conversation a few days ago reminded me of an unusual pie that I haven’t made in a long time. It is called Sister Lizzie’s Sugar Pie. Sister Lizzie was from the South Union Shaker Village down in the western part of Kentucky and she has no last name in the cookbook. What a legacy! Remembered for a Pie!

Sister Lizzie’s Sugar Pie:

1 uncooked 8 inch pie shell
½ cup butter, soft
1 cup brown sugar
¼ cup flour
2 cups heavy cream
½ teaspoon vanilla (she used rosewater) (Grandmother used bourbon, naturally)
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Line a deep pie pan with pastry. Cream the butter by hand and spread half of it over the bottom. Sprinkle on half of the sugar. Repeat the layers and sprinkle the top with flour. Flavor the cream with the vanilla and pour over the pie. Dust with fresh nutmeg, grated on a nutmeg grater.

Bake for 10 minutes in a preheated 450 degree oven. Reduce heat to 350 and bake until a knife blade inserted in the center of the pie comes out clean. This will probably be about 25 minutes.

Serves 6 to 8 generously as it is rich.

Sister Lizzie’s note for this read, “This is a delicious pie, especially loved by children, and a good recipe to fall back on when the apple bins are empty in the spring.”

Hot and Spicy

I tried the South East Asian trick of serving hot and spicy food in hot weather last week. I am not sure that it made us feel any cooler, but Jezebel Sauce Appetizer certainly was a big hit at our potluck.

Jezebel Sauce Appetizer:

1 ¾ cups orange marmalade
1 ¾ cups pineapple preserves
¼ cup horseradish
1 ½ teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 ½ teaspoons crushed red pepper

Combine all in a bowl and mix well. Serve over a large (8 ounce package) cream cheese at room temperature along with mixed crackers like butter crackers

Polynesian Chops for a Summer Night

Max, as you know, I could forget meat for most of the summer, but the fam does not agree. If there isn’t meat on the table, it isn’t dinner in their opinion. Last night I was trying to come up with something different to use up some pork chops, and I remembered Polynesian Chops. It works well with chicken as well. Only don’t do what I did once and marinade the pineapple as long as the chops. They turn dark from the soy sauce and are salty. Not a pretty sight, or taste.

Polynesian Chops:

1 29 ounce can of pineapple slices
½ cup soy sauce
1/3 cup of oil
¼ cup minced onion
1 tablespoon brown sugar
½ clove garlic, crushed
6 ½ inch thick boneless pork chops

Drain the pineapple and save ½ cup of the juice. Mix the half cup of pineapple juice, soy sauce, oil, onion, brown sugar and garlic in a shallow bowl and mix well. Place the pork chops in the marinade and chill several hours. Turn several times.

To Grill: Drain the chops and grill to your taste. Place pineapple slices in the marinade and grill them as well using remaining marinade on both chops and pineapple.

Chops can also be baked for about 35 minutes.

Serves 6

Make up your favorite recipe for 6 muffins

That is a real helpful recipe, Erma. “Make up your favorite recipe for 6 muffins.” I know, you don’t measure either, when you fix cornbread. I will have to try it though. Cheese and fresh corn would be an interesting addition to corn bread.

Here is something from one of my grandmothers. She used to make this Pasta Shell Salad for a Crowd to take to family reunions, only she used regular macaroni. I don’t think shell pasta was around in her day.

Pasta Shell Salad for a Crowd:

1 16 ounce package shell macaroni
4 carrots, grated
2 green peppers, chopped
2 onions, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 cup mayonnaise
1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup vinegar
½ cup sugar
Paprika

Cook macaroni until al dente. Drain in a collander and rinse with cold water. Use a food processor to chop and grate all vegetables, and think to yourself how much faster and easier this is than the original recipe which hand chopped all of them. Mix vegetables and shell macaroni in large mixing bowl.

Whip the mayonnaise, condensed milk, sugar and vinegar in a small bowl. Stir into the macaroni with a large spatula. Chill overnight. When serving, sprinkle on paprika.

Serves 20

Cornbread Deluxe

You are absolutely correct, Max, Grandmother probably did add some bourbon to her Fried Green Apples. And, yes, she did have a shelf set aside for “spirits.” Only it wasn’t in her pantry where anybody could slip in and indulge. The “spirits” were on a top shelf in a kitchen cupboard, and no one, and I mean no one, ever messed in her kitchen. She probably knew to the exact drop how much was in each bottle.

She was a fantastic cook, and other than cakes, I never saw her use a recipe. Which is why I can only try and replicate what she cooked. This was one of her cornbread recipes. No one else I knew ever bothered to dress up cornbread at all.

Cornbread with Cheese and Fresh Corn:

Your favorite cornbread recipe made without eggs and sugar
½ cup grated yellow cheese, like Cheddar or Colby
1 cup fresh cut corn

Make up your favorite cornbread recipe for 6 muffins, but do not use eggs or sugar as this is not supposed to be sweet. Mix in the cheese and fresh cut corn.

Preheat your heavy corn muffin pan in a 400 degree oven. Take hot muffin pan from the over, spray with Pam, and instantly spoon in the cornbread mixture. The pan should be so hat that the bread begins to bake as you spoon it in. Return to oven and bake for 10 minutes or so. Tops of the muffins should be lightly browned, and the bottom crusts very brown. RUN the muffins from the pan straight to the table and eat.

For a bit of heaven, slice in half and slather with butter that will melt instantly.

Long Live the Apple

Erma, I am surprised at you. You sent me an old family recipe that doesn’t have bourbon in it? Now, I never met your Grandmother, but from all you have told me, when she would have been frying up Fried Green Apples, she would have pulled out her “Cooking Bourbon” and poured a little on those apples. Did her pantry have a whole shelf devoted to “spirits?” And if so, how did she keep the young boys out of it?

We have lost most of this year’s apple crop as well, but fortunately I had made so much apple butter and apple sauce last year that it won’t matter, and we can buy fresh apples. Think of what a disappointment it would have been in the past to families who depended on apples to break up the monotony of beans and squash. Not to mention that apples were one of the few fresh fruits that could be stored for most of the winter. Loss of the crop would have been a major blow to the family’s diet and survival.

One of my favorite ways to use up excess (boy, would a pioneer woman have bristled at the idea of “excess”) apples is in Fresh Apple Cake. Apple Cakes have been around for at least a hundred years, so when the zucchini squash became wildly popular in the early 1970’s, some bright woman (no doubt, in despair at the mound of green squash on her counter) decided in desperation to substitute zucchini for apples, and viola, Zucchini Bread was invented!

Fresh Apple Cake:

1 ¾ cups chopped, peeled apples
1 cup sugar
½ cup melted butter
1 egg
1 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup nuts
½ cup Drunken Raisins
1-2 tablespoons Powdered Sugar

Mix apples and sugar in a bowl. Let stand for 20 to 30 minutes. Add butter, egg, flour, soda, salt and spices and mix well with a wooden spoon. Stir in the nuts and raisins.

Spread batter into a greased 9 x 13 cake pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes until cake tests done.

Makes 12 servings. Best served warm. Better yet, eat it right out of the pan when it comes out of the oven.

You will note that I have substituted your Drunken Raisins for the plain Jane variety right out of the box. I can’t believe how much flavor the bourboned raisins add to anything that is baked.

Fried Green Apples

Yesterday, as I was thinking about how to incorporate all the fresh garden vegetables, and blackberries, into menus I realized that one fruit that was missing out of the mix was green apples. Thanks that to that late April freeze, we have hardly a dozen apples on any of our trees. Usually by now the trees are having their first drop of excess hard little green apples. As a kid it took only one encounter with a sour green apple to learn that they were unedible, and good for nothing but throwing at friends. But they do make delicious Fried Green Apples.

This treat must have developed back when you only ate what you grew so nothing could go to waste. A mess of Fried Green Apples could be made by the least skilled cook on an open hearth. All you needed was a heavy iron skillet over some coals, apples, and some sort of sweetener. I suppose pioneers used honey or molasses and ate them tarter than we do. Green apples for most farm families were the first fruits of the season, and what a treat it must have been to have some fresh fruit.

Unless you have your own apple trees, nobody fixes the Fried Green Apples anymore. I know Max, that you have some apple trees so you can try this heirloom recipe. If using the green apples, you will probably need to add a bit of water and cook longer on a lower temperature. Ripe apples cook up in as little as 10 to 15 minutes.

Southern Country Fried Apples:

6 apples
3 tablespoons fresh bacon fat, or butter
1/3 cup sugar

Peel, core, and slice the apples. (We sometimes did not even peel them.)

Heat the bacon fat, or butter, is a hot heavy skillet with lid. When the fat sizzles, add the apples. Cover and cook quickly. Cook until the apple slices are soft and there is still some juice in the pan. Time depends on age and type of apples.

Take off the lid and sprinkle the sugar over the apples. Stir and cook, uncovered, until the liquid is absorbed. Apples should begin to brown.

Serves 6

In the past, Fried Apples were served with the main part of the meal, just like a vegetable. My family prefers them as a dessert with biscuits or cornbread. The leftovers reheat well for supper or breakfast.

Some cooks gussey this up with cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, but then you have Apple Sauce or Apple Butter.

Rich, Sweet Tomato Dressing

Erma dear, I love my Shaker cookbooks too, and I have you to thank for taking me to Shakertown at Pleasant Hill. We have spent so many days wandering through the grounds and looking at all the exhibits and displays. I will even confess to snipping a few buds and seeds from herbs in their herb gardens to bring home.

Imagine the Shaker sisters cooking for a hundred or more at each meal in their giant kitchens, which they wisely placed partly underground for cooling, and then preserving, drying, canning. So many people think of the Shakers as one of those odd groups (okay, they were communal and celibate) who did everything in old fashioned ways like the Amish. What people forget is that the Shakers were big into inventing labor saving devices. If there were Shaker sisters today, they would be the first to use food processors, commercial mixers, and heavy duty baking equipment.

Recently I found some Washington State Walla Walla onions in the grocery. How they ended up here in Iowa, I do not know, but there were a couple small bags and I grabbed all they had. You know me Erma, I ate one straight out of the bag. I firmly believe that onions are a health food.

When we stayed at a little B and B outside Seattle several years ago, they served a salad dressing with Walla Walla onions. It works with other varieties as well, just not quite as sweet. This is a robust dressing with plenty of tang to enliven bland mostly lettuce salads.

Onion Dressing From Washington State:

1 small Walla Walla sweet onion
¼ cup catsup
½ cup salad oil
¼ cup wine vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 ½ teaspoons paprika

Finely grate the onion on a grater. Add everything else and whip with a whisk well. Refrigerate. Before serving you may need to stir the dressing again.

Makes 1 ½ cups

More Traditional Southern Cucumbers

So you have become a convert to the Shaker style of cooking? I often pull out some of my old Shaker cookbooks, and just read them. It was the Shaker cookbooks that first introduced me to the concept of using herbs in everyday cooking.

Think about it, when we were growing up, the average recipe called for salt and pepper as a flavoring. Cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla went into desserts, and that was about it. Herbs were exotic things we read about in historical books from the Medieval Period. Did you know anyone who grew their own herbs? Not likely.

Then as a teenager, Shakertown at Pleasant Hill near Harrodsburg, Kentucky opened up as a working museum. Their dining room featured real Shaker food served in that wonderful house with the two story spiral staircase, and out back was a Shaker style herb garden. They smelled so good. I was inspired to try and grow my own herb garden, and ever since herbs have been a part of our landscape.

Cucumbers with White Vinegar Dressing is something that appeared daily on the table here, and probably everywhere, when families ate whatever the garden produced. The Shaker touch was the addition of the chopped dill, which adds just a hint of additional flavor.

Cucumbers with White Vinegar Dressing:

3 medium sized cucumbers
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon finely cut fresh dill
Optional: One medium onion, cut in thick rings.

Wash cucumbers and cut off each end. (Rub the cut ends over your face and get an instant cooling facial). Leave the peel on unless you are using waxed cucumbers from the grocery. (Ugh!). Slice cucumbers very thin and place in a deep bowl. Sprinkle with salt. Stir a bit and then place a smaller heavy bowl, like a cereal bowl, to weigh the cucumbers down.

Chill in the fridge for a hour or two. Drain in a collander and wash with fresh water.

Stir the vinegar and sugar together until sugar is completely dissolved. Add cucumbers and dill, (and onions if using) and chill for an hour or so until serving.

Serves 3 to 6 as a side dish.

After you serve the cucumbers, you can use the left over marinade over a salad. It is quite mild and is excellent over plain sliced tomatoes.

Oven Fried Plastic

Erma, I’ve always loved your Corn Pudding, and never have mine come out quite like yours. Maybe Southern corn is different from Iowa corn?

I’ll bet you have green beans running out your ears just like we do. Are you canning or freezing any this year? I’ll can 20 or 30 quarts this summer, which seems like a nothing compared to when the kids were little. I swear my mother must have canned at least a hundred quarts of green beans every August, and in a kitchen that was not air-conditioned.

Freezing is certainly easier, but I prefer the canned taste for beans.

A funny green bean thing happened last week. Late one evening a neighbor called asking if I had a salad spinner, like the KitchenAid Salad & Fruit Spinner, she could borrow. She was freezing beans and wanted to get as much of the water off them as possible so she uses her salad spinner as a dryer. It seems that a few days before she had been using it and company was coming so she wanted to have a neat, clear counter in the kitchen. Instead of packing it away in the pantry, she stuck the spinner in the oven. None of us have ever done this, have we? As you can by now guess, she forgot it and it was Oven Fried Plastic. I am so glad that other people do these things. It just proves that we are all human.

Instead of freezing those excess beans, she should have made up Dilled Green Bean Salad From the Shakers. It is a shame that more people do not know about the Shakers and their ideas about food. I have you to thank, Erma, for introducing me to the Shaker way of life at Pleasant Hill, and for giving me their cookbooks. What a lovely mix of excellent food preparation ideas, and the history of food. This recipe sounds like the latest haute cuisine for a fancy New York restaurant when actually it is a Shaker invention from the 1830’s.

Dilled Green Bean Salad from the Shakers:

1 ½ pounds fresh green beans
Lettuce leaves

Dressing:

1 cup olive oil
4 tablespoons tarragon, or red wine, vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped chives, or baby green onions
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dillweed
Salt, pepper, sugar to taste

Wash and string, if necessary, the whole beans. Use whole. Cook in a covered sauce pan in salted, boiling water until just tender. Depending on the freshness of the beans this may be as little as 5 minutes, or as much as 15.

Drain at once in a collander with lots of cold water to stop the cooking.

Mix the Dressing ingredients together and pour over the beans. Chill for at least an hour.

To serve, drain the excess dressing off the beans and place 7 or 8 of the whole beans on a lettuce leaf. A slice of tomato and a green pepper ring will dress up the salad plate.

Serves 4.

Home Style Southern Corn Pudding

Max, what finally converted you to keeping Drunken Raisins on hand? Could it be the pickup nibbling a couple of iron-rich Drunk Raisins? I keep mine right above the stove so they are handy anytime I want a snack.

Recently I had a terrible Corn Pudding at a pot luck dinner. It was thin, runny and obviously made with a can of corn. I know that puddings are usually soft, but Corn Pudding, at least where I grew up, is dense and has little filler between the kernels of corn.

I suspect that Corn Pudding originated as a way to use fresh corn after it got a little tough for eating off the cob. At any rate, the old fashioned kind always had a slightly chewy top.

The secret to real Southern Corn Pudding is using fresh corn and scraping the milky part off the cob. That makes a thick binder of the milk part. When you make it with just plain corn kernels it isn’t thick, and even canned creamed corn won’t substitute satisfactorily.

Through the week, we had corn on the cob, or pan fried corn every day. On Sunday Corn Pudding would appear on the menu as a change of pace. It was also a staple on picnics as it was easy to carry and was good at room temperature.

Corn Pudding:

2 cups corn, cut from the cob
1/3 cup sugar
½ tea spoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
Scant 2 cups rich milk, or evaporated milk
3 tablespoons melted butter
½ teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
1 green or red pepper, cut into rings, Optional

Cut the corn off the cob with a downward slice. Then take your sharp knife and scrape all the remaining pulp into the bowl. (It is this lack of corn pulp that makes Corn Pudding made with canned or frozen corn not the real thing.) Beat the eggs and milk with a whip. Add the butter and corn pulp and stir well.

Butter the insides well of a 1 ½ quart casserole like the Corningware French Casserole. Sprinkle the nutmeg on top. Top with thin pepper rings if desired. They are mostly for color.

Bake at 350 for 35 to 45 minutes. A clean knife inserted in the pudding should come out clean and the top should be golden. The kernels on the top are supposed to be slightly chewy.

This makes 4 to 6 servings.

Liven Up That Squash

I’ve made your Blackberry Ice Cream, and you are right, it is one of the best I’ve ever tasted. With all the commercial flavors out there, you would think someone would market it.

Squash have taken over my garden, again. I went to a meeting last week, and two of the ladies came in with buckets of squash to give away. That is one way to dispose of the pesky over producers. How four or five hills of squash can produce hundreds of baby squash is beyond me. No wonder there are whole cookbooks devoted to zucchini and squash recipes.

Squash With Drunken Raisin is a well known staple recipe with one secret ingredient. The “secret” to this recipe is the Drunken Raisins. Erma, I learned from you to preserve all my raisins in bourbon. When they come out of the storage jar, they are already soft and the bourbon flavor comes through in the squash.

Squash With Drunken Raisins:

1 winter squash, or two small yellow crook necks
Butter
Cinnamon
Drunken Raisins

Cut squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Place in a covered casserole. In each half put a pat of butter, a shake of cinnamon, and a quarter cup or so of raisins. Pour in enough water to make about a quarter inch in the bottom of the casserole. Cover and bake at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes until soft.

Squash will be soft and sweet.

My husband is the one who thought of adding the raisins and naming it Squash With Drunken Raisins.

Died and Gone to Heaven Blackberry Ice Cream

We had a fresh Blackberry Cobbler yesterday, and, yes, mine bubbled over the sides too. As you know, Max, our blackberries were planted by the former owners of our house and are thornless. That is great, except that they are also seedy as can be. Too seedy for jam, and almost too seedy for cobblers. The first couple of years, I made jelly, and syrup, and juice, and wine, and still there were more berries on the vines. Then I found a recipe in Sunset Magazine for Blackberry Ice Cream. It is one of the best ice creams we have ever tasted.

It is time consuming. You have to pick the berries, then make the Sauce and chill it before you can start the actual ice cream, but wait until you taste the results.

Blackberry Ice Cream Sauce:

2 ½ quarts fresh blackberries
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 cup of water

In large sauce pan, bring the sugar and water to a boil. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Set aside and let cool 10 minutes.

Wash, pick over, and drain the blackberries. Puree berries in a blender. Rub the berries through a fine strainer into a bowl. Do a little at a time and be sure to press out as much pulp as possible. This can be slow. I use a wooden spoon to press the berry mixture against the mesh of the strainer and keep pressing until no more puree will come out. Discard the seeds. They should be very dry. This should give you about 6 cups of puree.

Mix the puree with the sugar syrup. Chill for up to a day ahead.

Blackberry Ice Cream:

Mix 5 cups of the puree with 1 2/3’s cup of cold whipping cream.

Pour into an ice cream maker. (Depending on the capacity, you may have to make 2 batches. No problem as the mixture keeps fine for a day or so in the refrigerator.)

Process until the mixture is firm enough to scoop, which is about 30 minutes with most makers.

Store in plastic freezer containers for up to a week. Lick off the dasher as a reward to the maker.

To serve, scoop into a pretty clear glass bowl or sherbet glass. This is rich so two small scoops from a ice cream scoop are plenty. Drizzle over some of the remaining 1 cup of blackberry puree, and a few fresh berries.

A very plain sugar or almond cookie goes well with this.

About 7 to 8 cups.

I suppose you could do the same with other berries like raspberries or strawberries, but we never have enough of those to try it.

Fried Green Tomatoes

The Albemarle Potato Surprise is certainly different, and no, Erma, I have never seen a recipe like it. I have fixed Broiled Tomatoes, and Potato Pancakes, but never thought of putting them together.

Since we’re talking tomatoes, we had our first tomato on the Fourth of July. They would have been earlier, but that April cold spell killed my early plants.

I have given your Fried Green Tomatoes recipe to all my neighbors so they can rush the season with “our first tomatoes.” Isn’t it funny how the first tomatoes get to the nice green stage and then just sit there, refusing to turn red?

I had never heard of Fried Green Tomatoes, this being long before the movie and book, until you told me of this old Southern treat. Then a few years ago when we were in England, our hostess served them for breakfast and said they were a ”traditional English breakfast item.” So, the question is, did you Southerners invent this dish, or did it originally come from England? Either way, I am sure that it began as a way to rush the season on tomatoes in the summer, or as a way to use up all the green tomatoes when the first frost threatened.

Fried Green Tomatoes:

Slice green tomatoes and coat each slice in seasoned flour and a little cornmeal. Fry until golden on both sides in bacon drippings. Some people sprinkle a little brown sugar on, or cream gravy, but they are best plain with a bacon slice on top.

Blackberries Are In

So, Erma, you have tomatoes in your garden? We have Blackberries! Which is almost as good.

As a child, I would go out and pick the wild ones in the fence rows, and always come down with both poison oak and chiggers, but the resulting blackberry jam was worth every itch. My grandmother made the best blackberry cobblers in the world. My grandfather would be out cutting hay or some other work in the far fields and he would find a mess of briars full of berries. No work was important enough for him that he wouldn’t stop and pick berries. In he would come to the house in the middle of the morning with his straw hat filled with blackberries, and for dinner (the noon meal for farmers) there would be a cobbler.

Grandmother’s cobblers were the deep-dish kind with a thick, sweet biscuit topping which I have never been able to replicate. This one with a pie dough pastry comes close in taste. Big hint, set your cobbler on an old cookie sheet as they always seem to bubble over the sides.

Fresh Blackberry Cobbler:

Pastry:
2 cups flour
Dash of salt
½ cup lard (Crisco today)
1/3 cup cold water
1 cup white sugar
¼ cup light cream

Blend the lard into the flour and salt with a pastry blender. Sprinkle on the water and make into a dough ball. Divide dough in half and let rest several minutes.

Roll out on lightly floured bread board with a rolling pin. Line a 8 x 8 heavy baking pan with the dough. Sprinkle on 3 tablespoons of the sugar on the dough, cover with wax paper and set in refrigerator until you are ready to fill the cobbler. Chill other dough half as well.

Filling:
5 cups blackberries
4 thin slices butter (about ¼ cup)
¾ cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch

Fill the crust with the blackberries. Lay the butter slices over the berries and sprinkle on the ¾ cup sugar mixed with the cornstarch.

Roll out the remaining dough. Wet the rim of the dough in the pan and place the top crust over, pressing down all around to make a good seal. (Blackberry juice can make a mess if it seeps out of the cobbler.) Trim the edges. Make any kind of decorative edge you like. Cut several slits in the cobbler so steam can escape.

Brush the top of the cobbler with cream (evaporated milk works too) and sprinkle on the remainder of the 1 cup of sugar from the pastry recipe.

My recipe says to bake in preheated 425 degree oven for 45 minutes. I usually find that 15 minutes at 425 and then dropping to 375 degrees is better, but then my Jenn Aire oven seems to bake faster and quicker than some others.

Serve warm. In the old days, the cook would have served it with a dollop of fresh cream. Today who has access to real fresh cream straight from the cow, and if they do, who can afford the calories?

Oh, How I Love Tomatoes

Isn’t it wonderful to be eating from our gardens? There is nothing quite like plucking a fresh tomato off the bush and eating it right there in the garden.

And then you walk into the grocery, and what do you see? Those same old perfect looking, and utterly tasteless, things they call tomatoes. About all they offer is color for your salads.

We have, I think, 13 varieties of tomatoes this year. Yellows, greens, multicolored, blacks, cherry, grape, and monster heirlooms. Each one with a different flavor. Some of the most interesting are the old varieties that came out of Russia and the former East Bloc countries. A lot of them are not uniform and pretty, and they don’t ship, so you will never find them in a regular market, but taste? Oh, how sweet they are.

Here is a simple recipe that is even better if the tomato is a mixed yellow and red, such as Mr. Stripy, or think of using a nearly black tomato like the Crimean.

Tomato Fans:

4 large ripe tomatoes
1 medium cucumber
4 lettuce leaves
Optional: vinegar and oil dressing

Core the tomatoes and slice each very thinly vertically, but not through the bottom. Slice the cucumber thinly. Insert cucumber slices between tomato slices. Serve on a lettuce leaf. You can drizzle a bit of any type dressing over, but with garden fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, it is not necessary. A great diet lunch.

Serves 4

Different Potato Recipe

Mmmm. Fish Fries. We had a lot of catfish in our Fish Fries, and the big ones down south were sometimes even held outside. Huge cast iron skillets over grills and pots of grease for the french fries and the Hush Puppies. I could eat my weight, which is considerable, in Hush Puppies.

I remember well the first time my husband, product of the West Coast, had Hush Puppies. We were down in South Carolina on a visit and stopped at a cafeteria type place for dinner. It had some nice looking fried fish and after ordering it, the woman at the serving counter asked if he wanted Hush Puppies to go with it. Only problem was that he couldn’t understand her thick accent and kept asking her what she was saying. I finally had to interpret, and we all learned that he had never heard of a Hush Puppie. I suppose that before the chain fast food fish places came along, people outside the south hadn’t heard of Hush Puppies. Needless to say, he was an instant convert to the cornmeal balls.

Now that fresh tomatoes are coming on in the garden, it is time to think of interesting ways to use them. Personally, I could eat a plate of sliced tomatoes for lunch and dinner and never tire of them, but there are those who want some variety.

I have seen this recipe in only one place. It is in a North Carolina cookbook from the early 1950’s, but the recipe was supposed to date from about 1900. The author explained that Albemarle was a county in North Carolina that was famous for its variety of potatoes. Wonder if they still have that local industry? This is almost a meal in itself. Just add a salad and dessert.

Albemarle Potato Surprise:

2 cups hot mashed potatoes
1 egg, beaten
dash pepper
1/2 cup grated cheese (any type you like)
Melted butter
6 Tomato slices
Butter bread crumbs
Additional grated cheese

Mix the egg, potatoes, pepper, and 1/2 cup of cheese together. Shape into thick patties. Place on a well-buttered baking casserole like the KitchenAid 3-Qt. Casserole, and brush with melted butter. Place a tomato slice on each patty, sprinkle with buttered breadcrumbs and a little cheese.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Serve at once.

Serves 6.

For efficiency, make up your regular mashed potatoes (plus 2 cups) one night for dinner. Please, no instant! Then prepare the Surprise the next day. Or to really cut down prep time, go ahead and make the patties in the casserole while fixing dinner. The next day all you have to do is slice the tomatoes and add the crumbs and cheese. Easy and quick meal.

Kool Kitchen Ideas

Erma, I wondered how long it would be before you would insert one of your infamous booze recipes. Are you sure the Shakers really used sherry, or any forms of alcohol? Isn’t this the group that practiced celibacy, and food reforms?

Fishing was always a big sport during the summer, and Fish Fry’s were a summer staple. Unfortunately, frying fish meant big cast iron frying pans filled with grease, and standing over that sizzling grease. Not a very cool activity. So someone came up with this oven substitute.

Now, I will be the first to admit, that this fish is not as crunchy as the pan-fried version, but it is not quite as calorie laden as the original, and who wants, even today, to stand over a skillet of hot grease?

Oven Fried Fish:

1/2 cup butter
2 pounds fish fillets
1 egg
1 cup cracker crumbs
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
dash of black pepper

Use a blender to crush crackers to fine crumbs. Add the seasoned salt and pepper. Whip the egg in the blender, or use a hand whip.

Melt the butter in a 15 X 10 baking pan, such as jelly roll pan, in a 375 degree oven.

Dip the fillets in egg, and then in cracker crumbs. Place each fillet in pan, carefully turning with a pancake turner so both sides are coated with butter.

Bake at 375 for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on thickness of fillets. They should be a light golden brown.

Serves 8.

P.S. Don’t forget a nice, cold Tarter Sauce and cold Coleslaw. You could even Oven Fry some potatoes while the fish is baking.

Keep Cool With Mushrooms

Maxine, you neglected to mention one of the basic food tricks for keeping cool in the summer, and that is, cutting down on your consumption of meat. Maybe it was a money issue, but hardly anyone ate a lot of meat in the summer when we were young. Most meals were vegetarian (we didn’t call it that). The absence of meat seemed to make the meal “lighter” and easier to digest.

One of the early groups to promote healthy eating, and vegetarianism, was the Shakers. For a number of years they followed a vegetarian philosophy, and even after they abandoned it, they minimized the consumption of meat. Mushrooms in Sherry Butter came from an old cookbook of the Harvard Mass. Shaker Village. It appears in one form or another in all my old Shaker cookbooks.

This Pre-Civil War recipe demonstrates how to substitute vegetables (I suppose a mushroom is a vegetable) for meat in the diet. Note that while meat was taken out of the diet, alcohol, in the form of sherry, was not. While this is served hot, the dill adds a cooling element and mushrooms are much lighter than meat, like a pork chop.

Mushrooms in Sherry Butter:

2 cups mushrooms
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon saltdash black pepper
1 tablespoon dry sherry wine
1 tablespoon fresh dill

Finely slice the mushrooms with a Santoku Knife. Sauté mushrooms in butter in a frying pan. Season with salt and pepper and cook stirring constantly for 2 to 3 minutes. Add sherry and dill. Serve over toast or with plain chicken.

Serves 2

Cook Cool This Summer

Your old Victorian Potato Salad sounds interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of cooling the potatoes in oil and vinegar, and then later adding mayonnaise. The pimentos would add both flavor and red color. I hate potato salad (no, I love potato salad!) that is pasty white in color.

Up here in the Midwest, German style Potato Salad is very popular, but it is usually served hot, or at least warm. I’ll have to try that recipe soon.

Another way we used to cope with summer heat was with cucumbers. Once they came on in the garden, hardly a meal passed (okay, Erma, we didn’t eat them for breakfast) with a side of cucumbers. Often there would be two cucumber dishes. One sliced raw on a plate with peppers, onions, tomatoes, and another slightly pickled bowl. Most women sliced onions and cucumbers in a bowl, then covered them with a little salt, dash of sugar, some vinegar and water, and served them cold. The more German or Eastern European cooks would mince fresh dill in this.

Is anything colder than fresh dill? Just thinking about it drops the temperature 10 degrees. I still will walk over to the dill plants when working in the garden and break off a sprig. Someway, just smelling dill makes me feel cooler.

I just found this old Polish recipe for cucumbers that is really better than it sounds. Every culture in Eastern Europe must have a recipe for Cucumbers and Sour Cream, and I love them all. The difference here is the boiling water treatment, which turns the cucumber, slices limp, but seems to take out some of the harsh taste that larger cucumbers can have. Today we pick our cucumbers no longer than 5 or 6 inches long, but people used to let them grow to a foot long so they were not as sweet as ours.

This recipe has 3 cooling elements: One, it uses dill: two, it is served cold; and three; it uses cucumbers which are a cool vegetable.

Remember; don’t waste the ends of the cucumber. Take those slices and run them across your face and cool down quickly. Why, in many famous spas, they give cucumber facials. Little do most women realize that wiping your face with a cucumber is a beauty treatment that has been around for hundreds of years.

Polish Cucumbers in Sour Cream:

2 large cucumbers, peeled
1/2 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed, or fresh if possible (Chives or green onions can be used)
dash black pepper
2 teaspoons vinegar

With a Santoku Knife, slice the cucumbers thinly. Cover the cucumbers with boiling water and let stand 30 minutes. Drain in a collander and cover with very cold water. Let stand 2 minutes. Drain again and chill in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Stir in all the remaining ingredients and chill for another hour or more to blend the flavors.

Makes 6 servings

More old ways to cope with summer heat

Max, you are so right. The effeminate younger generation does not know how to deal with the heat, except for turning up the air conditioner.

We also planned our kitchen use in the summer. We picked those vegetables at the crack of dawn so they were cool and wet from the dew. Our meals were almost entirely fresh vegetables and like you, we planned to eat a lot of leftovers for supper. When possible, we tried to can in the mornings before the kitchen reached triple digit figures.

Cool, hearty salads were a big part of every meal. Here is an example from an 1880’s cookbook of dealing with summer’s heat. Note that you can make this up hours, or a day in advance when it is cooler, and being served cold, it tricks the mind into thinking cooler. The difference with this potato salad is the pimientos. They are not there just for the red color, but if you have real, fresh pimientos, they add a rather different flavor. Cooling the potatoes in the oil and vinegar hints of a German Potato Salad, but then you add a little mayonnaise, which produces a rather traditional potato salad. I think you will enjoy this different salad.

I really don’t know why more people don’t raise their own pimientos. Canned pimientos are rather expensive and the fresh one taste so much better, and they are easy to prepare and freeze.

Potato and Pimiento Salad From the Victorian Period:

6 large potatoes
2 small cans pimientos, or 1 large red pepper (pimiento if possible)
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons parsley
2 tablespoons onion
2 hard-boiled eggs
salt and pepper to taste
4 tablespoons mayonnaise

In large pot like the KitchenAid Covered 3-Qt Pan, cover the potatoes with water, bring to a boil, and cook until just tender. Drain well and peel the potatoes. As soon as you can handle the potatoes, slice them and add the oil and vinegar. Stir and let stand for 1 hour.

Meanwhile in a food processor, mince the parsley, the onion, pimientos, and chop the eggs. After an hour, stir these ingredients into the potatoes along with the mayonnaise. Taste. You may want to add more onion, or mayonnaise. Store in refrigerator.

Cope with the Summer Heat

Erma, so it’s still hotter than blue blazes up there? Isn’t it terrible how hot it is this summer? Some national weather person was saying that this is the hottest summer in the last 20 years out in the West. Sure sign of Global Warming. So, it is a hotter than normal summer. Big deal. Someway I don’t think that having the hottest summer in 20 years is anything out of the normal. Some years are hotter and drier than others. With our advanced ages, I remember a lot of really hot and dry summers.

One of people’s problems with the heat and drought is that they have not learned how to live with heat. Both of us grew up without air conditioning, and we coped. Perhaps what some of our younger citizens need to learn is old-fashioned heat coping skills.

When I was growing up on the farm, Dinner was the middle of the day because men were out working hard in the fields. The kitchen stayed hot until noon with lots of cooking. But, Supper was a much lighter meal that involved only quick reheating or leftovers. All this method of coping with heat required was planning the entire day’s menu so that all cooking was over by noon.

Lunch, as a meal, was what women did for club meeting. No man wanted to eat Lunch.

One minor way to cope with heat was keeping plenty of snacks ready for anyone who came in hungry. There were always sweets and plenty of cookies for both working men and children.

This old Midwestern cookie was a staple. It used basic kitchen staples, was quick to put together, and it made 7 dozen cookies. This is one of those cookie doughs that you can keep made up in the refrigerator and make up quickly. One sign of the age of this recipe is that it calls for lard, and when did you last see a recipe calling for lard?

The top crinkles and it hardens as it cools. These are nice and crunchy and go well with ice cream, which is always good as a cooler.

Norwegian Molasses Cookies:

1 cup lard (or solid vegetable shortening)
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup dark molasses
5 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking soda
dash of salt
White sugar for topping

Cream together the lard and sugar until light and fluffy in a stand mixer. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the molasses. Use a spatula to completely clean out the Pyrex measuring cup of molasses.

Mix the flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually stir the flour into the creamed mixture. You will probably have to hand stir in the last of the flour unless you have a heavy-duty mixer. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill at least 1 hour in the refrigerator.

Taking about one heaping teaspoon of the dough, shape the dough into a flattened ball about an inch in diameter. Place 2 inches apart on a greased baking sheet like the Farberware Baking Sheet. Sprinkle tops well with white sugar, but do not press into dough. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes until golden brown. Tops should still be slightly soft as cookies set up as they cool. Allow to cool on sheet for at least 2 to 3 minutes. Complete cooling on mat.

These cookies harden and are mildly spicy.

Makes about 7 dozen.

Mahimahi Hawaiian Style with Honey Ginger Glaze

Well, Coconut Chicken with Fresh Fruit certainly uses lots of Hawaiian produce, and it sounds authentic. I will have to try it and let you know. Like a 2 week vacation in Hawaii makes me an expert?

Now I had Mahimahi Hawaiian Style with Honey Ginger Glaze at a little curbside place on the Big Island. The owner was a bit vague in telling me the recipe, which I wrote down on a paper napkin, but this seems to be about right. You can, of course, use other kinds of fish, but mahimahi is what he used.

Mahimahi Hawaiian Style with Honey Ginger Glaze:

4 mahimahi fillets, about an inch thick
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoon sherry
1 tablespoon grated ginger root
1/2 teaspoon finely shredded orange peel
2 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon oil
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
Lime wedges for garnish

Make a marinade of the honey, sherry, ginger root, orange peel, and garlic that has been minced in a grater. Place the fish in a shallow dish, like the KitchenAid Rectangular Bakeware, and pour the marinade over. Cover and marinate for 30 minutes, turning the fish occasionally.

Drain the fish and save the marinade.

In a large skillet, cook the fish in hot oil for 6 to 7 minutes. Turn the fish carefully with a turner and cook another 6 to 7 minutes. Fish is done with it flakes easily. Remove the fish and keep warm.

In the same skillet, stir together the remaining marinade and the cornstarch. Use the turner to loosen any brown bits on the bottom of the skillet. Bring marinade to a boil and cook stirring until the mixture thickens.

Spoon the glaze over the fish and garnish with lemon wedges.

Makes 4 servings

Coconut Chicken with Fresh Fruit

Max dear, I love your Hawaiian recipes. Only someone like you would have taken the dream Hawaiian vacation and spent it prowling through museums and collecting recipes. Did you actually ever get to the beach?

Let me guess, you did not eat a single meal at the hotel or chain food restaurants, did you? Tell me, do you think this Coconut Chicken with Fresh Fruit is REAL Hawaiian food? All I know is that it came from someone who lived in Maui for a number of years.

Coconut Chicken with Fresh Fruit:

1/3 cup coconut
2 tablespoons butter
8 large boneless chicken breasts, skinned
1 tablespoons fresh ginger
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 cup whipping cream
3 large ripe bananas, quartered
1 ripe papaya, peeled, seeded, halved and sliced
3 limes, cut into wedges

Toast the coconut in a 300 degree oven for 10 minutes on a cookie sheet like the FarberWare Nonstick Baking Sheet. Set aside to cool.

Chop the fresh ginger very fine in a food processor, or if fresh ginger is not available, substitute 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger.

In a large skillet with a cover like the KitchenAid Covered Stir-Fry Pan, brown the chicken breasts in the butter. Sprinkle on the ginger, 3 tablespoons of the toasted coconut, and salt over the chicken. Add the cream, cover and cook over medium heat for 12 minutes until the chicken is done.

Place the chicken on a large platter and arrange the fruit around it. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and sprinkle on the remaining toasted coconut. Garnish with limes to be squeezed over the chicken and fruit.

Serves 8.

Korean Barbecued Hamburgers

Hawaii is such a wonderful mix of Oriental cuisines. Korean Barbecued Hamburgers is preportedly an authentic Korean recipe, but I’m not so sure. Did the Koreans, before the American invasion, have ground beef?

The other thing that makes me question the authenticity of this recipe is that one of my Junior League cookbooks from the early 1960’s has an almost identical marinade to be used on chuck roast so that it will be tender as sirloin. And it is too. All you do is give the roast a liberal dusting of meat tenderizer and marinade for a couple of hours. Wouldn’t you know, that it would be a patrician Junior Leaguer who would be passing off plebian chuck roast as sirloin?

Korean Barbecued Hamburgers:

1 pound lean ground beef
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 cup minced green onion

Stir all of the above together and store in the refrigerator for several hours. Shape into 6 patties and grill or fry in a skillet.

Hawaiian Banana Up Side Down Cake

Max, here is a taste of Hawaii that anyone can enjoy here on the mainland. Think of Hawaiian flavors like bananas, ginger, sugar, and rum, and you have Hawaiian Banana Up Side Down Cake. Yes, Max, I can hear you now. “Erma, all this is a Pineapple Up Side Down Cake that uses Bananas.” And so it is, but the addition of rum and ginger to the basic yellow cake gives this a unique Island touch. Actually, this is a slightly updated recipe in a 1920’s pamphlet promoting bananas. There was a time when people didn’t know what to do with bananas. Obviously, they hadn’t tried Bananas Foster yet.

Hawaiian Banana Up Side Down Cake:

2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon rum
2 bananas, sliced into 1/2 inch slices
Red salad cherries, sliced in half
1 1/3 cups flour
2/3 cups of sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2/3 cup of milk
1/4 cup of soft butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line a 9 x 1 1/2 inch round cake pan with foil, or use a Silicone 9 inch Round Cake Pan.

Melt the 2 tablespoons butter in the cake pan in the oven. Then sprinkle the brown sugar over the melted butter. Pour the rum on slowly, and swish the pan around so the rum covers all the brown sugar. Arrange the banana slices and the salad cherries in a decorative pattern on the brown sugar.

In a mixing bowl of the KitchenAid Ultra Power Stand Mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and ginger. Add the milk, 1/4 cup soft butter, the egg, and the vanilla. Beat for about 1 minute until all is smooth. Carefully spoon the cake mix over the bananas.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and invert the cake onto a plate. Serve warm.

Serves 8.

Terrorism in England

As we celebrated our Fourth of July, we were watching the saga of the latest terrorists in England. They are all doctors? All I can say is, if their medical skills were on the same level as their terrorism skills, someone was getting bottom of the barrel medical treatment. Is there anyone in Great Britain who does not know that there are cameras everywhere?

Don’t you just love it? I mean the British reaction to terror attacks or disasters? All stiff upper lip, steely calmness, and determination that life will go on as before. In contrast to the American reactions to troubles, well, at least the media’s reporting, where the public appears to fall apart. Our public, or our media, needs to re-examine our British roots and develop the British attitude of we will not let anyone disrupt our way of life.

We have been talking about Hawaii and I wanted to send along a delightful Hawaiian vegetable dish that highlights the way Hawaiians blend cultures to come up with great food. This is a real summer dish as all the herbs and vegetables MUST be garden fresh.

Eurasian Vegetables:

1/2 pound green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 sliced water chestnuts
3 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons Peanut Oil
1 teaspoon tarragon, fresh
1 teaspoon basil, fresh
black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white wine
1 sweet red pepper
1 sweet green pepper
3 green onions, sliced on the diagonal
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon parsley, chopped fine

Heat the peanut oil in a wok, or a large skillet. Crush the garlic cloves in a garlic crusher and stir-fry for a minute. Discard the garlic. Ad the beans and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Add water chestnuts, tarragon, basil, salt, wine, and pepper. Cook 30 seconds. Finally add the peppers, onions, vinegar and parsley. Stir-fry for 30 seconds.

Serves 6.

Paris Seeks Inner Peace in Hawaii

Happy Fourth of July, Max! I’ll have to try your Maui Onion Pickle. Why does it have to take so long to taste the results? Yes, I know pickling is not a instant gratification thing. Still, a jar of those would go very nicely on a Fourth of July picnic. I actually have an instant pickle recipe (okay, it takes 24 hours) that I will send along as soon as I pull out my preserving cookbooks.

Ah, yes. Poor Paris is “getting in touch with her inner self” by enjoying herbal facials and Japanese massages. Question is: Does she have an “inner self” to get in touch with? I certainly haven’t seen any evidence of any kind of inner resolve, or “core values” as the Marines put it.

More likely, her family, or publicist, has sent her to a place without quite an many reporters where she can take advantage of all the free publicity by appearing in public with a big smile, and still be out of sight for her personal life. Has anyone recently gotten as much publicity out of a brief jail term?

This recipe could easily appear on the Hotel buffet for Paris. Hala-kahiki Pate was on a buffet we attended while in Hawaii some years ago, and I thought it is so cute. Pate, who but the rich would eat chicken livers and call it haute cuisine? The chef said that Hala-kahiki was Hawaiian for Pineapple, and I suppose he knew what he was talking about. Anyway, I didn’t have to ask for recipe, as it was nothing more than your basic pate, with Pineapple decorations. This does make a stunning display on a buffet table.

Hala-kahiki (Pineapple) Pate:

1 pound chicken livers
1 Maui onion
1 cup butter
3/4 teaspoon curry powder
3 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons brandy
Stuffed green olives, sliced
Fresh pineapple crown

Sauté the liver and onions in a pan with 1/4 cup of butter for 10 minutes. Add the curry powder, salt and pepper.

In a blender, process the livers with the remaining butter, cream cheese and brandy until very smooth. Mold into a shape that looks like the body of a pineapple. Cover and chill.

To serve, use the pineapple crown for the top of the pineapple and use the sliced green olives to simulate the rough exterior of a real pineapple.

Serve with mixed snack crackers as an appetizer or Pupu as the natives say.

Serves 1

Paris Hilton Escapes to Maui

Erma just heard on the radio that Paris Hilton is flying to Maui to recover from her “mind changing” experience in jail. How many other jailbirds can recover from spending their time in jail by taking a vacation on your family’s resort in beautiful, and expensive, Hawaii?

So much rehabilitation can occur while spending hours in the hotel spa, relaxing by the pools, and sunning on the private beaches. Throw in a little shopping, and gourmet dinners and voila, we have the return to sanity of a spoiled brat. Perhaps she can even work in her 40 hours of community service by making a promo ad extolling the benefits of a vacation, “in beautiful Maui.” What an ad campaign it could be: Maui, the Place to Recover and Get In Touch With Your Inner Self. There would be Paris, telling the world how she recovered from her dreadful ordeal by relaxing on Hawaii’s beaches. Of course, I’m not sure that it would exactly promote the tourist industry for the Islands. An ad campaign like that could backfire.

Better yet. Paris could make an ad for the Maui Onion Producers. Skimpily clad Paris is lying on the beach, munching on a big Maui Onion, and telling the world that one of the things that helped get her through those trying days in jail was the thought that once out she could indulge in her favorite vegetable snack, the fabled Maui Onion. Maui Onions are too wonderful in their own right to be hurt by an ad campaign like that.

I remember when we were in Hawaii, eating them just like an apple. Now true, I love onions in any shape, size, or form, but the Maui is the best for sweetness. The Pickled Maui Onion recipe below was given to me by a Hawaii native who served it as an appetizer. I have made it many times since with all kinds of onions and it is delicious.

Pickled Maui Onions:

1 quart of white vinegar
1 quart of water
1/3 cup rock salt, or canning salt
1/2 cup of sugar
3 large carrots
1 large green pepper
1 large red, sweet pepper
4 pounds Maui onions

With your Santoku Knife slice the carrots into thin slices. Slice both of the peppers into thin pieces. Slice the onions into thick rings and separate. Place all vegetables into a covered bowl, like the Pyrex Storage Bowls, cover with cold water and a tray of ice cubes. Refrigerate for several hours to crisp the vegetables.

In an enamel pot, like the KitchenAid Hard-Base Sauce Pan, bring the vinegar, water, salt and sugar to a full boil. Drain the vegetables in a colander. Fill large, quart or larger, canning jars or French canning jars with the vegetables and pour the boiling vinegar over them. Once the vegetables return to room temperature, seal the jars and store them in the refrigerator for a month before using.

Any kind of onion can be used, though the Maui and Vidalia’s make the sweetest pickle. For a yellow effect, add a 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric when boiling the vinegar.

Makes one gallon of pickle

Tradition of the Groom’s Cake

Max, NOW you send me your Wedding Cake Recipe. I remember how good it was. My cake skills aren’t quite up to this, but I certainly know friends who could make it. You have been corrupted by Booze Hound Erma. Put enough of the Grand Marnier on the layers, and who will care what the cake tastes like! Mix that cake with your Charleston, South Carolina Reception Punch and the guests will be three sheets into the wind.

I did talk Rachel’s new mother-in-law into a very old tradition. That of the Groom’s Cake. Since the groom’s family has no responsibilities, except the bride’s bouquet, this is a lovely finale to a Reception. Mrs. Roberts made the Groom’s Cakes months ago with a standard Fruitcake Recipe that was baked in sheet cake pans. She wrapped the cakes in cheese cloth, doused them with bourbon and brandy, and then let them age for 3 months. Every week or so she would add another sprinkle of bourbon and brandy so that by the time of the wedding, the cakes were nice and moist and fragrant.

What? You have never heard of Groom’s Cake? Well, Max, let me give you a little culinary history lesson:

From about the Victorian Period on, there was a tradition of the Groom’s Cake that seems to have gone out of style in the last twenty-five years. The groom’s mother was supposed to prepare it, and since it was originally a dark fruitcake, it could be prepared months in advance and left to age with lots of bourbon and brandy.

Each guest was given a piece to take home of the Groom’s Cake that was wrapped in a fancy little box and tied with a ribbon that matched the bride’s colors. Traditionally a groom’s family member was in charge of making sure that each departing guest was given their box of Groom’s Cake as they left the Reception. A fancy table was placed near the door with silver trays of these Groom Cake favors. Think of the smell!

Later, as fruitcake fell out of favor, (Remember that some of the earlier wedding cakes were made of fruitcakes as they could be made well in advance of the wedding. I think it was one of LBJ’s daughter’s weddings at the White House where the bride had trouble cutting the cake with the groom’s military sword because the cake was so firm. This is one reason brides turned to bland white cakes.) The tradition of the Groom’s Cake, at least here in the South became small pieces of a rich Chocolate Cake, frosted like a petit four as it was easier to make and did not require the month’s of aging. It seems to me in this age of elaborate and overdone weddings that someone would revive this custom as a wonderful favor to send home with the guests.

Erma Tip of the Day: When making a heavy cake, like fruitcake, in a sheet pan, line the pan with waxed foil (even in the Teflon coated pans), so when the cake is cooled you can lift the cake out easily. Use a pizza cutter to make the long, crisp cuts into bars. The pizza cutter works better than any knife.

Deluxe Wedding Cake for a Special Bride

I told you earlier this week that I would send you the cake recipe that we used for Mike and Barb’s wedding. If I were a amateur baker, I would not attempt this production, but for anyone with better than average baking and decorating skills, this really is not all that big a deal.

The advantage to this cake is taste. How many times have we all been subjected to the dry wedding cake with the awful frosting that looks good, but tastes like you are eating pure vegetable shortening? Which, of course, you are as it decorates and holds up well.

Some of these cakes taste like they were made and decorated a week in advance, and they often are. This one has airy, fluffy frosting and a minimum of cake decorations. Our only decorations were an antique bride and groom topper (okay, so it wasn’t exactly an antique, but it was the one from our wedding, and that makes it nearly an antique), a pair of classic Greek column cake pedestals, and a ring of pink roses, ivy, and fresh rosemary around the bottom layer of the cake. Equipment List: 1 12-inch round cake pan, 3 8-inch round cake pans, 1 5 inch-round cake pan, 4 cooling racks, pastry bag and fittings, 2 cake pedestals.

Basic Cake Recipe (Make this 3 times):

3 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup soft butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
food coloring, optional to match the bride’s colors

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Grease and flour the 12-inch pan. Wet a strip of toweling and wrap it around the outside of the pan. Secure with a safety pin.

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In a heavy-duty mixer, such as the Pink KitchenAid 5-Qt. Artisan Stand Mixer, beat the butter and shortening until creamy. Gradually add the sugar. Add the eggs one at a time and beating well after each one. Alternately add the milk and the flour mixture and finally add the vanilla.

Pour the batter into the pan and make sure the batter top is smooth. Bake for 40 minutes and test for doneness. Cake may take up to 50 minutes. The wet towel keeps the outer edges from over baking. Let cake cook several minutes in pan and then turn out on a waxed paper rack to cool.

Clean the pans and prepare the same recipe for a second 12-inch layer.

For the third making, prepare the 3 8-inch pans and the 5-inch pan, also with wet toweling. The 5-inch pan will take about 20 minutes, and the others 20 to 25 minutes.

The cakes can be frozen at this point for up to a week. Cake should be at least one day old to frost.

If desired, the layers can be tinted to match the bride’s colors.

The cake must be assembled the day of wedding to be nice and fresh.

Trim off any dark edges from the layers. With a long, serrated bread knife, slice each layer in half, except the smallest which is the Bride’s Cake.

On one of the cut sides sprinkle 1/4 cup of Grand Marnier and on the mate sprinkle on 3 tablespoons of orange-flower water (or 1/4 cup Grand Marnier).

Place the top half of one of the 12-inch layers on the cake plate, cut side up. Spread about 3/4 of a cup for the Butter Cream (below) on the layer. Place the matching half of the layer on top, cut side down, and spread with another 3/4 cup of the butter cream. Continue with the second 12-inch cake so that you end up with four layers each with butter cream.

For the second layer, you can simply start it on top of the 12-inch layers, or you can use a smaller plate and plan on having pedestals between the layers. Treat the 8-inch layers the same as the 12-inch layers.

Cover the 5 inch cake with a thin coat of butter cream. Spread butter cream all over the layered cakes and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours so butter cream becomes firm.

Orange Butter Cream:

6 egg yolks
2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoon grated orange rind
1 1/2 cups milk
7 sticks of soft butter
1/4 cup Grand Marnier

Beat yolks and sugar until mixture is creamy, but not foamy. Heat the milk and orange rind in a heavy saucepan until very hot. Remove from heat and slowly add to the egg yolks. Stir until well blended. Return to saucepan and cook custard, stirring constantly, for about 4 to 5 minutes. Custard will be thin.

Pour custard back into the mixing bowl and beat at highest speed until the custard is cool to the touch. Turn mixer speed to medium and being adding the butter in small pieces. When all butter has been added, beat at high speed until soft and fluffy. Blend in the Grand Marnier.

After Butter Cream on the cake has become firm, frost the cakes with Seven Minute Frosting (below). Be generous with the frosting so the cake looks soft and fluffy. Top the Cake with an Old Fashioned or Antique Bride and Groom Topper or some fresh flowers. Surround the bottom layer of the cake with fresh flowers to match the bride’s bouquet and colors.

Seven Minute Frosting:

2 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 egg whites
3/4 cup cold water
2 tablespoons vanilla

Mix everything but the vanilla in a large mixing bowl of at least a 5 quart capacity. Place over a large pan of simmering water. With an electric hand mixer, like the Pink KitchenAid 7-Speed Pink Mixer, beat at high speed for 5 to 7 minutes and the frosting stands up in peaks. Remove from the heat and continue beating until the frosting is cooled; this will be several minutes. Finally beat in the vanilla. Frosting must be cool so it will not melt the butter cream covering.

This cake will serve about 60 guests.

We had Kathy also make 4 or 5 sheet cakes that one of the waitresses began cutting and sitting out during the wedding. That way, the waitress wasn’t trying to figure out how to cut the main cake and keep up the guests