Chili Casserole

Chili Casserole (A Casazza Family favorite!)--Lisa, GA


Brown in skillet: 1 1/2# ground turkey(or ground beef- if using ground beef, drain after browning) with 1 large onion (chopped)and one large green pepper (chopped)

Add 1 pkt of taco seasoning, mix in well.

Add:

1 can (15.5 oz) kidney beans (undrained and slightly mashed)
1 can (11 oz) whole corn (drained)

Place above mixture in greased 2 qt casserole.

Mix 2 packages Jiffy corn mix with 2 eggs and a can of creamed corn.  Pour Jiffy corn mixture over meat layer and top with 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese.

Bake at 400F for 20-30 minutes until browned and cheese is melted. Let stand for 5 minutes.

Zuchinni ("Apple") Crisp

The Zuchinni ("Apple") Crisp--Lisa, GA


6-8 cups zuchinni (Peel and cut to remove seeds and chop in to make 1/2 inch cubes;  cook zuchinni in 2/3 cup lemon or apple juice unitl just softened (about 8-10 minutes).

Mix:

1/2 to 1 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 crust mixture (recipe follows) to thicken

Crust:

2 cups flour
3/4c butter/oleo
1/2-1 c sugar

Blend til crumbly.  Pat 1/2 of remaining crust in 9x13 pan and bake at 350F for 10 min.  Spread zuchinnin misture over crust and sprinkle rest of crust mixture over the top.  Bake at 375F for 30 min. Serve with ice cream! (YUM)

(For the life of me this truly tastes like an apple dessert!...who knew?--Lisa's commentary)

Sand Art Brownies

Sand Art Brownies—Karen, SD


Layer in a quart jar:

½ c. and 2 T. flour
½ t. salt
½ c cocoa
½ c. flour
2/3 c brown sugar
2/3 c. white sugar
½ c. chocolate chips
½ c. chopped nuts
½ c. white chocolate chips

Pour contents of jar in a mixing bowl. Add: 1 T. vanilla, ½ c. oil, and 3 eggs. Mix well. Pour into greased 8x8 pan. Bake at 350 for 25/27 minutes.

Pickled Eggs

Pickled Eggs—Karen, SD (from her soon-to-be-published book “The Callie Stories”)

12 hard boiled eggs, peeled. Place in a half gallon jar.

Cook and peel 3 beets, and slice. Canned beets can be used.

Mix and bring to a boil:

1 c. beet juice, from cooking beets
1 t. sugar

1 c. vinegar
¾ t. salt

½ t. cloves
¼ t. allspice

Take off heat and add sliced beets. Cool slightly. Pour over eggs and refrigerate 2 or 3 days before eating. Gently shake jar every day so eggs color evenly. They look very pretty sliced over potato salad.

Oven Pancake

Oven Pancake—Karen, SD


Beat 3 eggs with a fork to blend. Slowly add ½ c. flour, beating constantly. Stir in ¼ t. salt, ½ c. milk, and 2 T. melted butter. Grease a 10-inch skillet (handle must be removable or heatproof) and pour the batter into the cold pan. Slip it into a 450 degree oven. Bake 18 minutes then bake 10 minutes more at 350 degrees. The results will have you popeyed.

It’s traditional to serve an Oven Pancake with melted butter, powdered sugar, and a lemon wedge. You can also head up a box of frozen strawberries or any fruit sauce.

HoBo Cake

HoBo Cake (Baked Bean Cake)—Karen, SD


16 oz. can baked beans—beat with mixer until very smooth. Add ½ large can pineapple (crushed), 2 c. sugar, 2 c. flour, 2t. soda, ½ t. salt, 1 ½ t. cinnamon, 4 eggs, 1 c. oil. Mix well. Bake in a 9x13 pan 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees. Frost with cream cheese frosting.

The Cake and The Sauce

The Cake and The Sauce—Karen, SD (Mom won a dessert contest at Rendezvous with this recipe. As the story goes she burnt the cake and had to cut part of it off but plenty of caramel sauce hid the mistake.)

The Cake:

1/3 c. butter
1 egg
1 c. sugar
1 c. flour
1 t. soda
1 t. cinnamon
2 ½ c. peeled, chopped apples
½ c. chopped walnuts

Cream together butter and sugar. Add egg and mix well. Sift dry ingredients together and add with apples and nuts. Mix well; batter will be stiff. Pour into greased pie pan and bake in preheated Dutch oven for about ½ hour. Watch closely. Cut into wedges and serve with warm Carmel Sauce.

The Sauce:

1/2  c. white sugar
½ c. brown sugar
2 t. cornstarch
½ c. butter
½ c. cream
1 t. vanilla

In a small saucepan blend sugars and cornstarch. Stir in cream; add butter and cook gently over fire, stirring, for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Cool to lukewarm…will thicken as it cools. Serve over Apple Spice Cake. A sprinkling of walnuts over the top adds to the goodness.

Apple Cake In A Jar

Apple Cake In A Jar—Karen, SD (Mom got this recipe from Jake’s mom Mary Ellen the one time they met each other.)

2/3 c. Crisco shortening
2 2/3 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 t. cinnamon
2 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
½ t. baking powder
½ t. nutmeg—optional
3c. flour
2/3 c. water
3 c. grated, peeled apples
2/3 c. raisins-dusted in 1T flour
2/3 c. chopped nuts

Mix ingredients in the order given. Mix well each time. Sterilize wide mouth pint jars—8 per batch. Grease jars. Fill with batter ½ full. Bake on milled rack of oven for 45 minutes at 325 degrees. As soon as the cake is done, take out one jar at a time. Wipe the rim, and put hot lid on and screw down. Let set to cool; the jar will seal itself. (Do not process further.) These cakes have a shelf life of 1 year.

The Big Pour

Days 317-319, June 15-17, 2011
Mom and Charles’ Driveway—free

With the trees all bucked up, branches burned, and logs tucked away for winter burning, it was time to build the form for the new shed. The challenge was that the old slab was staying and Jake had to figure out a way to extend the slab and to fill under the old slab where dirt and rock had washed away over the years. I left him to his own devices and head scratching and decided to go shopping with Mom and Lisa. Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t like to shop but I was able to find 4 books for 10 cents each at one of the local thrift stores.

By the time we got home Jake and the guys had the forms built and dirt packed in for the big pour and they were hungry. I had made chicken noodle soup, using some of the leftover teriyaki chicken, the day before so Lisa got busy and made another batch of her wonderful bread. This time she made some of it into cheesy rolls to have with the soup…a meal fit for royalty. The evening was spent sitting in the shade outside of our camper watching Ben mow the lawn with the riding mower. Ben was in his glory; Charles got his lawn mowed while sitting and drinking a Mikes Hard Lemonade.

Yesterday was the big day of pouring the addition to the slab. Jim, Lisa and family decided to postpone their departure to head home so they could stay around and help with the heavy lifting and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Jake more relieved. Given that he had been looking down the throat of lifting and mixing 67 bags of concrete at 60 pounds each with just the help of a 70-year-old man and me, the addition of Jim, Steven, and Ben’s muscles was deeply appreciated. I was relieved, too, and so thankful. The sun beat down on the guys all morning as they mixed and poured bag after bag…all Charles had to do was run for more concrete and worry about the mixture being too wet. I’d say that Steven did the bulk of the heavy lifting throughout the morning and he proudly wore the dust and dirt to prove it. Mom and Lisa ran and got pizza for lunch and before we knew it the time had come for the Casazza’s to hit the road. After showers, that is.

That evening Jake and I took the Thunderbird into town to visit the Lindamoods, a family I had nannied for in Boston way back when who had since relocated to Sioux Falls. I was amazed when I learned from Carol in Cedar Rapids that they lived in the same town as my folks! I had fallen out of touch with the Lindamoods years ago so it was a real treat to see them again and get caught up on their lives and the lives of their kids. It’s hard to believe that the little girls I took care of are now through college and one just got married. How is that even possible…

 Last night a noisy thunderstorm jolted us awake during the wee hours. The lightening lit the inside of the camper and the thunder rolled on for 5 to 10 seconds at a time. Briefly I considered making a dash for the safety of the house but then scolded myself for being a “woos”. After the stormy night we slept in late, happy with our decision to stay an extra day in Sioux Falls just to hang out with the folks without errands to run and projects to do. Well, we still had projects but they were our projects. Jake fussed over the converter in the camper since it seems to have pooped our and I tied myself to the computer to try to get caught up after many days of ignoring my writing. Mom kept me company and loaded me up with tons of recipes for the website. I posted them right away and look forward to trying them out once I get home.

Mom repairing Jake's favorite hat.

Tonight we all loaded into the red Meteor, with a “3-on-the-tree”, to try out the new casino buffet that just opened a few days ago. The food was just your basic bland buffet food but the meat carver was generous with his portions so the guys were happy. Afterwards Charles took us for a spin through the countryside and we enjoyed the cool evening air rushing through the windows.

Aunt Ruth's Jello-o Salad

Aunt Ruth’s Jell-O Salad

1 package lemon jell-o
1 package lime jell-o
1 can lemon pie filling
1 can crushed pineapple (undrained)

Dissolve the lemon and lime jell-o in hot water according to package directions. (Do not add cold water.) Add lemon pie filling and crushed pineapple and mix. Chill until set.

Can also be topped with Cool Whip when serving.

The Family Reunion

Days 314-316, June 12-14, 2011
Mom and Charles’ driveway—free

Sunday was the big family reunion! Along with the gallons of potato salad made a few days before, Mom served pulled pork, a wonderfully sweet and savory bean dish, and a type of “heavenly hash” with Cool Whip, mandarin oranges and pistachio pudding. Lisa threw together a big salad and I made the bacon-wrapped, brown sugar coated hotdog recipe that Kate from the cruise taught me when we visited her in Pennsylvania. You can never have too much food. It would be simply terrible if we ran out of anything while the reunion was in full swing.

Relatives started arriving around 11:00, more food in tow, and it was non-stop visiting and catching up for the next several hours. Lisa, Steven, and I hadn’t all been around “family” since our dad’s funeral back in 2001 so we had stories to tell and stories to hear. We also had to accept the fact that everyone, ourselves included, looked and is so much older. We missed our Aunt Marge and Uncle Art since they both passed away a few years ago but thoroughly enjoyed the “next generation” of young people and toddlers. Family reunions are odd: where I used to fit in so easily I now feel like an outsider. Part and parcel of growing up and moving away, I guess. Jake suffered through it all with gracious aplomb. That evening after all of the extended family left we all just sort of collapsed into food and talk comas, occasionally debriefing each other about the afternoon and what tidbits of information one person got that the rest missed out on.

After a tremendous thunderstorm during the night, the next day was a workday. Charles and Mom wanted a building torn down…the project that started this whole family get-together…so all the men with their muscles and bravado attacked the shed with mighty heaves and ho-s. They made quick work of the old shed and our new nephew by marriage, Stephen, got to learn how to use a table saw to cut the boards into pieces. His wife (our niece) Alise watched nervously as he mastered the blade…I told her, “try being married to a guy who uses a chainsaw to do finish work” but I don’t think that comforted her. While the men grunted and sweated, we women folk took to the kitchen and watched my sister Lisa make her wonderful potato bread rolls. I posted the recipe back when we were at their place outside of Atlanta in December. Lunch was a combination of sandwiches and leftovers…the rolls are for breakfast!

Today has been both a workday and a day of relaxation. We started out with wonderful frosted cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then quickly got to work cutting down dead trees in preparation for Charles’ new shed. It was hot and sweaty work but with so many hands helping it went fast. Lisa’s husband Jim and her son Ben got to run the tag line to help the trees fall in the right direction and nothing was broken and no one was hurt in the process. We were done by noon. Since we had a good-sized bonfire going, Mom brought out hotdogs with all the fixings to roast for lunch. Half way through the roasting the skies opened up and chased us inside…South Dakota rainstorms are not like rain in the Pacific Northwest. When it rains in South Dakota, it really comes down so it’s pointless to try and wait it out. We enjoyed our lunch inside and then the rest of the afternoon was spent watching TV, napping, and chatting. Nice of Mother Nature to give us an excuse to relax.

Dad's Fried Chicken

Dad’s Fried Chicken--Kate, Sioux Falls, SD

Dip chicken in egg wash, dip in flour, and then fry it in lard in a cast iron skillet for 15 minutes on each side, only turning once. Season with salt and pepper when it’s done frying.

Kate's Easy Chicken

Kate’s Chicken--Sioux Falls, SD

Boneless chicken breasts
Cream cheese
Parsley
Any spices that you have on hand

Mix the cream cheese, parsley and spices. Beat the chicken breasts flat and spread the cream cheese mixture on the middle. Roll the breast up, brown it off, and bake it.

Kate--Sioux Falls, SD

Kate—Sioux Falls, SD

“This barbecue sauce is made by a retired professor from MU (Missouri University) and I’ve forgotten what his field is. I kind of think he in vet medicine but I don’t remember. He’s a real, real good friend of my husband’s ex-wife’s parents. He makes it in his basement on Thursday nights with the help of one high school boy. No one knows the recipe. Kraft has offered him as much as 2 million dollars for this recipe. He just looks at ‘em and says “no”.

So about me…Harry Truman used to come into my father’s restaurant all the time. He would be going between St. Louis and Kansas City and he’d come in. My dad’s restaurant was in Moberly, Missoura…it’s the intersection of 63 and 24. And we had one end of the counter that just had 3 bar stools on it and he would always sit in the middle one of the 3 stools and the Secret Service would all sit around this big table we had in the front. He would order a nickel cherry coke and that’s all he ever ordered…a nickel cherry coke. And he’d drink his coke and the Secret Service would just be staring at everybody in the restaurant and it was kind of crazy.

Harry Truman came to my parent’s place because it was at the intersection and it was the only restaurant there…well, there was one across the street but it was such a dive. Whenever I was mad at my father I’d take money out of the register and go across the street and eat. It didn’t take me too long to figure out how bad the food was. Daddy had really good food so the Secret Service, they usually ate and had whatever they wanted and he (Truman) would just drink the cherry coke. On my husband’s side, his grandfather…I believe it was, or his uncle, I don’t remember which one…walked with Harry every morning. They lived close to each other in Independence and they would go for a walk every morning.

Omar Bradley, General Bradley, would come for supper and I would be requested to have supper with him. I always sat at the table and was never introduced to anybody; it was just like I was the grandchild, sitting there. There would always be a group of…oh…15 people. As soon as he (Bradley) came in he would call Daddy and ask if I was home and if I was would I join them for lunch or supper. I have no clue why he requested my presence…I didn’t even know who he was until I was an adult. We’d have plate specials…my daddy was a good cook…whatever was on the special is what they ordered. I probably ate with him at least 2 or 3 times a year.

The thing that is so funny is that I went to the movie “Patton”, as did half the world, and Karl Malden played Bradley but Bradley is this tiny, tiny little wisp of a man and so Karl Malden fit my image better of what I thought a General should look like.

My job at the restaurant from the time I was 8 was that I ran the dishwasher. I had wooden box that I stood on and my grandfather also worked the dishwasher so I got to spend a lot of time with him that I wouldn’t have normally got to spend with him. Working at the restaurant totally influenced me as an adult because my parents moved out when I was 10 and they lived on their farm and I lived in the restaurant. I lived upstairs in the 3-room apartment and I was the only person so I ran my own life since the time I was 10. I decided when I’d go to bed, when I’d eat, when I’d do anything. I worked at the restaurant until I was 30; my husband and I would work it on the weekends and we’d take food home with us and that was our pay. I never cooked but I did a lot of potato peeling. My God did I peel potatoes. We had a potato peeler, we had a machine to do this, but it didn’t do it well enough to suit my dad because he was a perfectionist about that kind of thing.

My dad’s specialty was fried chicken. He’d fry at least 750 chickens on Sundays. He’d also do 3 turkeys and some other kind of meat, like beef…and that was our Sunday noon. We also had a pie lady…Polly Vergis. She was half Native American, half black, and she could bake a pie… She had no recipes. She’d just come in and make her pie crust and make her fillings and bake pie. Any kind of fruit pies, any kind of cream pies, she could make them. She baked a lot of custard pies because that was my mom’s favorite and my favorite was pecan so we got a lot of pecan and she made wonderful peach pie and a pineapple pie. It was fabulous. She didn’t have anybody that watched her. She baked in the extra kitchen and she always was by herself. She didn’t want anybody in there with her when she was cooking.

My daddy didn’t use recipes. It’s a shame because when we had our bakery he made a German cheesecake and he got the cheese from Germany, he had a supplier over there. I don’t know what kind of cheese it was, I just knew that it came from Germany and no one ever saw it…he dealt with it. And this cheesecake was so fabulous that people would drive down from St. Louis, 125 miles, just to get this cheesecake. They would order it and he’d make it for them. But it was fabulous cheesecake. You have to have the secret ingredient, the German cheese, and I don’t even know what part of Germany he was stationed at when he found this cheesecake. He had a recipe written down for it some place but I never knew where and he went to the grave not telling anybody.

He was real quirky about some things. Some things he didn’t care if you knew but some things he was possessive about. Daddy would give you any recipe you wanted but it only took you making it one time to know that he’d left out an ingredient. Or he’d change something. I had him several different times give me his pecan pie recipe and he was always changing the ingredients. I had recipe card after recipe card that I’d compare and they’d all be different. I finally figured out my own kind of recipe and I make that one.

But I don’t do things that are hard…I don’t like to cook. Bread and biscuits…I don’t do either one. The biscuits come out like hockey pucks…it’s awful. I can’t even buy frozen bread at the grocery store and bring it home and bake it. The yeast Gods hate me.”

Cocoa Mix

Cocoa Mix—Karen, SD

1 lb jar white coffee creamer
14 c. powdered milk
6 c. powdered sugar
1 c. chocolate breakfast drink powder
1 c. cocoa
1 t. salt

Whisk all the ingredients together and store in an airtight container. Mix with hot water to taste…about 1/3 c. to one cup boiling water.

Victory Brown Bread

Victory Brown Bread from WWII—contains no sugar as it was rationed—Karen, SD

In a pan put:

1 ½ c. raisins
2 t. baking soda

Pour 1 ½ c. hot water over the raisins.

In a bowl beat together:
2 eggs
1 ½ c. sorghum or molasses
1 ½ t. vanilla
3 T. melted lard
½ t. salt

Add:

1 ½ c. flour
1 ½ c. crushed corn flakes
¾ c. chopped walnuts (optional)

Add raisin mixture to dry mixture and mix well. Grease some tin cans. Fill them ½ full with batter and bake at 325 degrees for about an hour, depending on the size of the can.

Roasted Chicken and Vegetables

Roasted Chicken and Vegetables, a Rendezvous Recipe-Karen, South Dakota

Grease a Dutch Oven.

In one snug layer in the bottom of the oven place a 3-pound fryer—quartered, 2 onions—quartered, 2 large potatoes—quartered, 4 carrots—halved. Over that pour 2 T. water, 2 T. butter, salt and pepper to taste and a 1 t. dried rosemary. Roast over coals, placing coals on the top of the Dutch Oven as well, until tender—about 1 ¼ hours. Watch the coals closely as you want to keep an even fire…you may need to replenish the coals at times. Serve with baking powder biscuits and coffee.

Beef Jerky

Beef Jerky—Karen, SD

Partially freeze a lean roast. Slice in thin strips.

In a large glass bowl mix:

2 15 oz. bottles Worchester Sauce
15 oz. soy sauce
1 scant teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 t. smoked salt
½ t. black pepper
½ t. paprika
1 t. garlic salt (or garlic powder)

Add the meat to the seasoning mixture and let marinate for 24 hours. Drain the meat in a colander and lay the strips over oven racks. Bake for 4-6 hours at 175 degrees or until desired dryness.

Buttermilk Soup

Buttermilk Soup—Birgit, Denmark

Beat until well mixed:

1 qt. buttermilk
3 egg yolks
½ c. sugar

Add 2 lemons sliced and slightly squeezed. Taste. Add more sugar or lemon to taste. Serve in a bowl with crumbled rusks. You can also float lemon slices on top.

Forever Refrigerator Pickles

Forever Refrigerator Pickles—Karen, Sioux Falls, SD

Put in a glass gallon jar:

8 cups unpeeled cucumbers, sliced thin
2 onions, sliced thin

In a pitcher mix:

2 c. sugar
1 ½ c. cider vinegar
2 T. salt
1 T. celery seed

Pour the liquid mixture over the cucumbers/onions. Cover and store in the refrigerator. Shake occasionally so that the sugar doesn’t settle. Good to eat after 2 weeks. Will keep forever or until gone, whichever comes first.

Gooey Butter Bars

Gooey Butter Bars—Kate, South Dakota

1 box lemon or yellow cake mix
½ c. melted unsalted butter
1 egg

Beat well and press into a “cake” pan.

8 oz. cream cheese—room temperature
3 c. powdered sugar
1 egg

Beat well and pour over the cake mix. Bake at 350 degrees until toasty brown, about 25-30 minutes.

"Home", old cars, and a Pioneer Village

Days 311-313, June 9-11, 2011
Mom and Charles’ driveway—free

Amazingly it was downright chilly when we left Spirit Lake to head to my mom’s place in Sioux Falls, SD. We chatted with Lisa and Mike for a little while over coffee and then it was a straight shot west on Hwy 9. Luckily there was a free dump station at the local community park in Spirit Lake so we were able to take care of housekeeping chores in advance of the week we would be parked in my mom’s driveway.

We got “home” around 11:00 am, had a quick bite to eat, and then it was back in the car for me. Mom had to go to her writing group in Harley, IA and wanted me to go along for the ride and to meet people. I was happy to accompany her since I spent my entire childhood in Hartley and wanted to see my old stomping grounds…I also wanted to see my mom in action in her writing group. My mom recently has had some short stories published and is currently working on her own book of Callie Stories, set to be published this month. Check your local amazon.com. At writing group I was asked to tell a little about myself and what Jake and I are doing…it felt very much like being back in school and telling the class what I did over the summer.

Next stop was Everly, IA, home of Jean Tennant otherwise known as my mom’s publisher. I got to sit and watch while Jean and my mom sifted through a pile of sketches and pictures and figured out what went with which story and where. It was fun to watch the process. We got treated to a terrific Midwest thunderstorm that afternoon that flooded the streets and rained hail down on neighboring counties. Luckily the storm passed by the time Mom and I headed home and the rain had completely stopped by the time we picked up Jake and Charles to go out for dinner at the Fryin’ Pan.

Temperatures were mild when Friday rolled around, thankfully, since Mom and I had cooking to do. We made a quick trip to the local Sam’s Club to pick up last minute ingredients and then it was back home to steam up the kitchen. My sister Lisa and her tribe were set to arrive that day and a family reunion was scheduled for Sunday so we took full advantage of an empty house to get a handle on the food, of which there is never enough at these family shindigs. Mom whipped up potato salad and rhubarb cobbler while I baked chicken for Buffalo wings and tried to burn the house down grilling teriyaki chicken. A visit from mom’s friend Kate that afternoon signaled an end to the cooking and later in the day my brother, sister and brother-in-law showed up with all the kids in tow. Let the mayhem begin! We dined on taco salads and stayed up late catching up and getting our feet tickled…a strange family tradition.



Charles showing the boys how to handle a rifle!



Today has been amazing! We all got up early and started washing and polishing Mom and Charles’ old cars; their Model A car club had organized a ride called “Drive Your Inheritance Ride” and we all got to pick a car to make the 50-mile drive to Worthington, MN. Jake and I chose the 1956 powder blue Thunderbird roadster, a car that I first drove 20 years ago the summer Mom and Charles got married. All in all we made a parade of 8 cars: three Model A’s, one ’57 Chevy, a 1948 blue Frazer, a ’48 maroon Ford Coupe, a ’51 yellow and green Pontiac hardtop, and our Thunderbird. We were quite the spectacle going down the road and the waves, honks, and smiles from people along the way just added to our good time.

In Worthington we made quick work of a pizza buffet (at a prolific Midwest chain called The Pizza Ranch) and then made our way to Pioneer Village. Pioneer Village is a compilation of 48 buildings that have been moved to one area to create a village that is typical of communities in the Midwest at the beginning of the 20th Century. The car club had been given special permission to drive the old cars into the village and take pictures at the old gas station…it was almost like being on a Hollywood set. We ambled around the village enjoying the all the antique items and attention to detail in the buildings. My favorites were the General Store (“If we don’t have it, you don’t need it!”) and the sod house; Jake liked the Red Garter Saloon and the Barber Shop.

Back at Mom’s, the members of the car club joined us for sandwiches, salads, chips, and cold beverages and my aunt and uncle Patty and Bill from the Twin Cities surprised us by showing up the evening before the scheduled family reunion. We were glad they did since it gave us a chance to have quality time with just them before the main event. Tomorrow….more family and food!

Marilyn--Mt Vernon, IA

Aunt Marilyn—Mt Vernon, IA

“My main memory of cooking as a kid was peeling a huge pan of potatoes every day. Eleven o’clock would roll and around and there we’d be peeling potatoes. And that story goes back to when Mother and Daddy were first married. You mother and I have decided that our mother didn’t know much about cooking when she got married. She was probably the one who sat around and let somebody else do it. So they had farm workers helping Daddy and Mother had to fix dinner and they passed the potatoes around and the bowl didn’t even go all the way around the table. And Grandpa held the bowl to Mother to fill it up with more potatoes and there were none, which must have been a disaster because they probably just had bread then. So after that Mother always made sure that we had lots of potatoes. We’d never dream of eating the potatoes with the skin on. Mother was just a crab, I don’t know why, but you had to take the little eyes our and all the skin and after they were cooked she’d fuss, “yeah, you didn’t do a very good job with that.” So the next time you’d know you’re going to do a better job.

Cooking wasn’t interesting at all. I tried to make interesting things and when I went to Ames as a Home Ec. student we learned to make chocolate pudding from scratch. I thought it was wonderful and I made it and Mother said, “well is that any better than what comes out of the box.” Talk about cooking experiences, huh?! And we always had lots of good meat, growing up on the farm. We had lots of eggs, lots of fresh chicken…you went out on the chicken yard and caught the chicken with a stick with a little hook on the end. The idea was that you couldn’t chase the chickens unless you were going to catch one so that was kind of fun. We always had lots of chicken. Mother always fried all the meat to death…it was the style of the day, I realize that…but I must say that Daddy never complained about anything. We had standard recipes and lots of vegetables. She’d make things…(then Marilyn had a second thought about what she was going to say and instead interjected, “crab, crab, crab…sorry Mother!”) But I’ve always said she had 6 nice children and she didn’t enjoy any of it. So it was just put you down, put you down all the time but perhaps she didn’t even know what she was doing.

So we didn’t try very many things new until I suppose in the 50’s or so and then she started making a new recipe on Sundays. We baked bread so we all learned how to make bread real early. And there were always all these pans to clean up from the baking of bread. Bread, chocolate cake, cherry pudding… I will say that Mother always set the table. We always had our places at the table. I can’t imagine what would have happened if we’d eaten in the living room.

Mother canned a lot of cherries and peaches, we kids thought that those were delicious. We didn’t make many things with applesauce. Most of my recipes are dessert-y things…maybe there are four recipes that are meat. So that goes along with what I was saying, it was very uninteresting. Tuna fish and noodles was just a real treat because we didn’t have it very often but I imagine that one can of tuna was mixed with 12 oz. of pasta. And goulash was made using elbow macaroni. One pot of soup would get worse and worse and worse because it’d be heated up again and again and the potatoes would bet mushier and the noodles would get bigger and bigger. Nothing was wasted. And we didn’t have very many carrots because Grandpa Jones did not like carrots. Fresh lettuce in the spring would be made with that sauce that is sugar, vinegar and cream to make a dressing. We had cabbage and coleslaw.

When I had my own kids I branched out. I’d say we had lots of casserole type things where foods were mixed together. Spaghetti was an item that my mother never served so when I had spaghetti, to me that was special. And then your mother was the first one to make pizza…it was the most wonderful thing. She made a yeast dough crust and she’d use tomatoes and onions, oregano, and hamburger and the aroma of that stuff coming out of the kitchen was to die for. And I know that you can look up the recipe what she used, it was either in the Ladies Home Journal or the McCalls. It was wonderful. When I had my own family then we had goulash, we had spaghetti, we had potato soup and sandwiches. I made puddings and jell-o until I realized that the kids didn’t like it at all. We had lots of fried chicken and chicken and noodles and every week we’d have a roast. I’d get a 3-4 lb. roast and we’d have hot roast beef sandwiches.

(At this point I asked Aunt Marilyn to tell me about when she hurt her fingers.)

I hurt my fingers as a kid making 7-minute frosting. I had the chocolate cake done. I put the beaters in the mixer and the mixer was on the counter and I had my fingers in the beaters when I plugged it in. Your mom said I was shrieking and screaming but you just go into shock. I went running outside carrying that heavy mixer head and I think I was going to go get help to get my fingers out of the beaters. The two beaters were connected together. I got outside and here comes Daddy coming up from the shop and in his hands he had a pair of pliers. So he bent the beaters and got my fingers out and picked up a pile of snow from the yard and packed it around my fingers. Then we went up to the doctor’s office, Dr. Wagner, who happened to be in his office. The doctor sat there talking to Daddy and putting the fingers back together. It was so awful.”

Karen (her sister/my mom):  One of the things that she didn’t put in is that our dog Spike felt so bad because she was crying that he came over and put his head under her arm and jerked it a little, but her hand still wasn’t free from the mixer.  It hurt her more and certainly didn’t help.  What some people won’t do to get out of doing dishes.

Using a straw cooker

Straw Cooker—Aunt Marilyn, IA

Take a box and fill it with straw, leaving a spot for a container in the middle (like a jar, an old bowl covered with aluminum foil, or the ceramic inside of a crock pot). On a stove, bring to a boil what you want to cook—generally a soup or stew. Place the soup or stew in your container, cover, and place in the box filled with straw. Pack additional straw around the container and on top of it as insulation. The heat from bringing the food to a boil will continue to cook it inside the straw cooker.

(I'm looking forward to trying this out!--Laurel)

Marilyn's White Chocolate Candy

Marilyn’s White Chocolate Candy--Iowa

Melted white chocolate
1 lb dried apricots--snipped
2 cups of pecans—toasted
1 c. dried cranberries

Mix in small batches and pat in a pan and let harden.

Butter Cookies

Butter Cookies—Aunt Marilyn, Iowa


¾ c. butter
1 c. powder sugar
1 egg
1 t. almond extract
1 ½ c. flour

Mix all ingredients together and chill for an hour. Roll out about ¼” thick and cut into desired shapes. Bake at 350 degrees for 7-9 minutes. Makes about 3 ¼ dozen.

Kringla

Kringla (Norwegian cookies)—Aunt Marilyn, Iowa
(This is my mom’s recipe, via Marilyn.—Laurel)

1 c. sour cream
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
½ t. soda
1 t. baking powder
1 T anise seed
½ t. salt
flour to make a stiff dough

Mix the dough and chill. Roll the dough into long ropes (like you’re playing with Play Dough) and cut into 8-10” lengths. Twist the lengths into pretzel shapes. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Store in a covered container to let the anise flavor meld.

Ketchup

Ketchup—Marilyn, Iowa
(This recipe was used by my Grandma Jones and modified by my Aunt Marilyn. Please read the recipe through before using as the steps are not readily apparent.—Laurel)

Cook and strain:
4 qt. Tomato pulp
3 red peppers-chopped
3 med. Onions—chopped

1 c. sugar
1 ½ c. vinegar
2 t. celery salt
2 t. ground mustard
1 T. whole allspice
1 T. whole cloves
1 T. cinnamon
1 t. paprika
2 t. salt

Tie the spices in a bag and cook with the pulp for 1 hour. Remove the spice bag. Add vinegar and sugar and cook until thick. Add the salt last.

Cherry Pudding

Cherry Pudding—Aunt Marilyn, Iowa
(This originally came from my Grandpa Jone’s mother, Elizabeth Sass—it’s “antique-y”, as Aunt Marilyn puts it.--Laurel)

Dough:

1 c. sugar
½ t. salt
1 T. butter
1 c. cold water
1 egg
1 t. baking powder
flour to make a stiff dough

For dressing, mix:

1 pint sour cherries—pitted
1 ½ c. sugar
1 T. butter
2 c. hot water

Pour over batter and bake at 425 degrees until a straw/toothpick comes out clean.