Category: family (Page 4 of 5)

Discovering My Grandmother’s Recipes: Trying Old Fashioned Cauliflower Slaw

February 18, 2014 / / 2 Comments

My journey to recreate all eleven recipes I found my grandmothers had submitted to their old church cookbooks has introduced us to Ship Wreck Casserole, Apricot jello “salad,” and cauliflower slaw.

This cauliflower slaw is mayo-laden, but intriguing with its use of caraway seeds and endive.

DSC_0152

I found the Good Seasonings salad dressing packets right next to the ranch. Either the company doesn’t seem to produce the Garlic, Herb & Cheese variety anymore or Target does not carry it. Therefore, I chose the Garlic and Herb version and added some grated parmesan cheese. Good enough, I suppose.

Two other adjustments I made included adding one teaspoon less of caraway seeds (because they just aren’t my favorite flavor) and reducing the cup o’ mayo to 1/3. When I saw the recipe called for one cup of sour cream and one whole cup of mayo, I tried to measure out the cup of mayo, but my hands just wouldn’t let me.

This was fine, though, because it created too much dressing.

The big question is how did it taste?

The salad was crunchy and delicious. I like liked all of these vegetables and apparently, I like Good Seasonings flavor, which, true to its name, has a pungent garlic flavor and scent. I was also surprised to find the caraway seeds lent a pleasant flavor.

Even Jake ate a serving, but commented it was overly rich. I’d have to agree.

To cut the richness and viscosity, I added red wine vinegar which helped.

Concluding Thought
I am fonder of this recipe than the previous two, though it isn’t particularly healthy. I could see myself making this again, but with adjustments to make the dressing lighter.

Cauliflower Edited

I have a weakness for rich, cheesy, creamy dressings, but even this was too much. You could easily make less dressing, add your favorite type of vinegar, adjust the ratios of sour cream and mayo, or substitute greek yogurt. Those who are opposed to utilizing seasoning packets could add their own coleslaw dressing or mix of garlic, herbs, and spices.

There are five recipes from Grandmother Jane that I still have left to try including her Old Southern Fruit Cake, Chicken Marengo, Salad With Cashew Nuts, Pilaf, and Crab Meat Casserole. I’m happy to say all except the Crab Meat Casserole are mayo-less! Stay tuned.

 

This Is How You Celebrate 100

February 17, 2014 / / 10 Comments

We returned home to the Twin Cities to celebrate birthdays.

This is how we celebrated Burrell’s 100 years.

Burrell Birthday #2

We call her our grandmother even though she’s technically my step-grandmother.

Her children went all out. The theme was yellow. There were lots of candles on her cakes of course, though not quite 100. People wore funny hats and we wandered among bouquets of yellow flowers. Friends and family came from all over and she delighted in her grandchildren.

The meal did her 100 years justice. One of Burrell’s daughters and her husband flew up from Florida and helped my godmother prepare the feast, since they love to cook. Chef Jeff, our family’s Most Interesting Man in the World made roast beef with horseradish, homemade marinara sauce, figs stuffed with goat cheese, marinated shrimp, and carrot-apple slaw to name a few.

Others contributed perfectly Midwestern sides like crock pot calico beans and that sweet, mayonnaisey broccoli salad I love that’s dotted with raisins, bacon, and red onion.

Before Burrell blew out the birthday candles, someone asked her to share her secret to life. She responded, “loving,” without a pause. I know Burrell also likes her morning coffee, a glass of wine in the evening, and eating some amount of real butter every day, so I hope those also have something to do with her long, happy life. I’m counting on it.

She used to swim laps in a quarry near her Iron Range home and she still swims laps at the pool, putting us all to shame.

Today, we gathered for my brother-in-laws birthday over steak, asparagus and popovers. Doggies love birthday steak, too.

Steak Dog CollageJeni loves popovers the best.

DSC_0150My mother-in-law recreated a recipe for chocolate bread pudding she found in her 1896 Fannie Farmer Cookbook.

Bread Pudding Collage

Living a part from our family and old friends can feel tough, but also makes our gatherings all the more special. We no longer take our time together from granted.

After this weekend of party food, I think it’s time to join the Mason City YMCA so I can try my hand at swimming laps and keep up with Burrell.

Update 1/5/15: Nearly a year has passed since I wrote this post. Burrell’s children are gearing-up for her 101st birthday party next month and we’re thrilled to attend. And we did end up joining our local YMCA. I tried my hand at swimming laps. It’s hard. Really hard. I think Burrell’s got me beat on this one.

swim

I took this photo before my first swim.

My Grandmother’s Apricot Salad: Where Jell-O, Orange Fruits, Ice Cream & Cream Cheese Meet

February 13, 2014 / / 7 Comments

Jell-O salads take courage.

I don’t know if Jell-O salad is a Midwest thing or a retro thing and I certainly don’t know how Jell-O to be referred to as a salad.

I’m really ok with Jell-O shots and just ok with Jell-O salad. I’ll eat it if it’s around, but don’t seek it out. That is, unless it’s one of the recipes I found my Grandmother had submitted to her old church cookbook

Jane Hill’s Apricot Salad was the next step in my journey to learn about my grandmother through her recipes. My previous adventure preparing Ship Wreck, the casserole my mom hated, left my husband begging me not to make another casserole yet, so I tried one of the sweet recipes she submitted.

RecipeThe recipe is vaguely written and the part instructing me to add a pint of vanilla ice cream to congealed and whipped Jell-O left me scared and confused. I allowed the ice cream to thaw until it was soft before I mixed it in. I’m not sure if that’s what I was supposed to do, but it seemed to work.

I’m also surprised I could even still find apricot jello.

Jello

Yup, they still make this.

Here are the canned apricots and mandarin oranges.

Orange fruit

After I mixed the congealed jello and fruit with the softened ice cream, I poured it into a pan to set up further in the fridge.

jello collage

Then, I prepared the topping by mixing a can of crushed pineapple with a box of cream cheese. I like pineapple and I like cream cheese so I figured I’d enjoy them mixed together. Wrong. They seem like innocuous ingredients but when I mixed them together, the emanating smell made me gag. I also didn’t like what I tasted, so I kept it in a separate bowl to serve on the side.

I want to honor my grandparents’ recipes by preparing them exactly as written, but I also don’t want to waste food. Sometimes practicality must rule over authenticity.

Finally, I toasted some walnuts to sprinkle over the top. Here’s the final assembly:

bowl of jello

Closing Thoughts:
All in all, the Jell-O turned out better than I expected, minus the cream cheese topping. Jake and I were surprised by how much we liked the jello-fruit-ice cream component of the dish. Apricot jello has pleasant, fruity and floral flavors. This layer doesn’t fully set up and remains soft like a pudding and may have benefited from the fact that I used a high quality ice cream.

Jake skipped right over the cream cheese and pineapple topping by substituting a dollop of whipped cream. I added a spoonful of the topping but removed it after one bite. I just can’t.

Like the Ship Wreck, I can’t see myself preparing this recipe again, but it felt exciting (and a little scary) to try walking in my grandmother’s footsteps for a moment, even if it did involve combining apricot jello and cream cheese.

So This Is The Casserole My Mom Hated: Ship Wreck

February 6, 2014 / / 11 Comments

My mom hated three foods: Fish, city chicken, and ship wreck. It’s no surprise she never prepared these in her own kitchen.

I never really knew what city chicken or ship wreck was, but often mentioned these foods to her because she would go on lighthearted rants about how much she hated them and they always made me giggle.

City chicken was a dish her own mother used to make (quite frequently, I take it), and she described it as skewers of chewy, dry cubes of meat. On the other hand, ship wreck was a dish her mother-in-law Jane prepared and she never actually described it so I assumed it was too horrible for words.

Imagine my surprise when I found Jane’s recipe for ship wreck in her old church cookbook. I found nine other recipes Jane had submitted to the cookbook which inspired me to embark on a journey to cook them all.

I never really knew my grandmother Jane. She had suffered a stroke that made it hard for to speak by the time we could form memories and she passed away when I was in sixth grade. Plus, my grandparents all lived out-of-state.

I do know that she loved us, as she would always give me a special figurine from her collection when we visited, and I can already gather that she loved to cook.

What better way to kick off this journey by beginning with ship wreck.

Her recipe for ship wreck is vague, like many other recipes in this old church cookbook, which meant I had to guess in places. I’m sure I will be much the same someday, as I find it nearly impossible to stick to a recipe or measure anything exactly.

Did this ship wreck actually taste like a ship wreck? Let’s find out!

DSC_0152

Ingredients:
1-1/2 lb. ground beef, seasoned and browned (I used 1 lb. lean ground beef and seasoned it with salt, pepper, and half a
leftover packet of Goya Sazon).
Sliced onions (about 1/2 onion)
Sliced raw potatoes (2 small organic russets)
1/2 can kidney beans
1/4 cup uncooked rice
Chopped celery, if desired (I used two small stalks)
1 can cream of tomato soup (I have no idea what this is. I used a small box of tomato bisque).

Instructions:
“Top with one can cream of tomato soup and enough water to cover ingredients. Bake, covered, at 350 for 1 hr.”

I used a small glass baking pan. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to layer the ingredients in that particular order, so I did, starting with the ground beef on the bottom. The recipe called for a vague amount onions and potatoes, so I used enough of each to cover one layer. I also added salt and pepper to the layer of vegetables before I added the soup.

The rice was still raw after an hour of baking, so I baked the casserole until it was tender. Eventually, I uncovered the casserole because it was too liquidy. This allowed some of the water of evaporate, but caused the tomato soup to brown.

Final Thoughts:
Jake and I both liked the casserole. I didn’t like it enough to make it again, but am planning to eat the leftovers. Like Jake said, “How bad can it be? It contains basic ingredients we like, like beans, ground beef, tomato soup, potatoes. . . I’m not sure what was so horrific about ship wreck.”

I’d also like to confess that even though I had set out to prepare the recipes exactly as written, I cheated by adding extra seasoning and am sure my grandparents didn’t have access to fancy, boxed soups.

We’ll probably never know what exactly made ship wreck such a horror for my mom. Maybe one of my relatives can shed some more light onto this mystery.

This experiment was fascinating and I’m both excited and nervous about trying the more unusual retro recipes that involve copious amounts of mayo and jello (but not together, thank goodness).

Who Were Dorothy & Jane? Searching For My Grandparents In 11 Retro Recipes

February 5, 2014 / / 18 Comments

I hardly knew many of my grandparents.

My parents were the babies of their families. By the time my brother and I were old enough to know our grandparents, they were in declining health or deceased. The one exception was my Grandma Dorothy who lived until she was 94, though she spent her last years in confusion. And sadly, my own mom passed away from cancer two years before her mother Dorothy.

I may not have the opportunity to spend time with my grandparents or mom anymore, but I have a few of their worn and weathered church cookbooks. I feel so connected to them because they contain recipes my mom and grandparents submitted.

Church cookbooks are the best because you know someone didn’t submit a recipe unless it was a family favorite, ole reliable, or worth showing off. I know, because I remember my mom carefully choosing which of her favorite recipes she wanted to submit to her church cookbook.

This week my friend Beth wrote about the beauty of old cookbooks in her post Older is Sometimes Better and I’ll have to agree.

I am going to embarck on a journey to cook all eleven of the recipes my grandmothers had submitted to their church cookbooks.

photo-308I’ve already prepared a couple of them. You can read about how I baked my Grandma Bosson’s Grandmother’s Ginger Cookies  and prepared a cheesy green bean casserole recipe my mom had submitted to a gradeschool cookbook when she was in 1st. grade.

I want honor these recipes by preparing them as closely as possible, even if they don’t sound particuliarily appealing or contain ingredients like canned soups or jello. I’m especially excited about my Grandma Jane’s recipe called Ship Wreck because my mom often mentioned hating it. My brother and I never encountered Shipwreck, but my mom spoke of this casserole with so much loathing that it became legendary in my mind. Imagine my giddiness when I found my grandmother’s exact recipe.

Of all of my grandparents, I knew my Grandma Dorothy the best, but wonder who my grandmother Jane was. I’m hoping I’ll learn more about her. I’m sure we would have gotten along swimmingly because I can tell she loved to cook. We never tried any of these recipes growing up, so this will truly be an adventure.

From Jane Hill’s Kitchen:

  • Frozen Fruit Appetizer
  • Old Southern Fruit Cake
  • Crab Meat Casserole
  • Ship Wreck
  • Ham & Sour Cream Casserole
  • Chicken Marengo
  • Apricot Salad
  • Salad with Cashew Nuts
  • Old Fashioned Cauliflower Salad
  • Pilaf

From Dorothy Bosson’s Kitchen:

  • Hot Crabmeat Sandwiches
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