I'm unpacking (yes, still) and found an old notebook of my Grandma's before she was married. It's stuffed full of yellowed newspaper clipped recipes and pencil written recipes. It's hard for me to fathom that not that long ago my Grandma was a young lady with hopes of having her own family to love and feed one day. The notebook is worn and I have no idea if she ever used any of these recipes. I can't ask my Mom if she remembers any of them either. I'll just have to imagine that the ones I choose to make for my family are the same ones my Grandma made sixty years ago.
St. Patrick's Cookies
A good basic cookie recipe may be relied upon to fill the jar for St. Patrick's day dessert. These are the ingredients.
1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
3 1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Cream the shortening, sugar, and salt, add the well-beaten eggs, and vanilla. Mix and sift the flour and baking powder, and add to first mixture. Shape dough into a roll, wrap in waxed paper and chill. Roll out the dough in a thin sheet and cut, preferably with a shamrock cookie cutter. Press a green candied cherry in the center of each cookie or sprinkle with green sugar.
One Egg Cake
1 heaping cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup sweet cream
3/4 cup milk
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
Flavor
Beat the egg and the sugar together. Add to that the sweet cream and the milk. Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder twice. Add milk and flour mixtures half at a time. Add flavor, beating well. Makes two layers.
(I'm assuming flavor here is something like a teaspoon of vanilla or lemon extract.)
Weirdly, there are no baking instructions on these recipes. For my own oven I would bake the cookies on a greased cookie sheet at 350 for about ten minutes- checking them frequently starting at eight minutes. The cakes would be 350 in greased pans also and I would set the timer for two round pans at 20 minutes or 28 for a 9x13. You should use your own judgement though.
