Two From My Grandma's Recipe Notebook

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.

Still Breathing

I am in the middle of packing.  I am in the middle of dust and memories.  I am in the middle of what do I keep and what do I discard?  I am in the middle of not much fun.

The movers come on Saturday and I have to have every flat surface cleaned and every drawer cleaned out.   The kids are gone with the grandparents for the week and hubby is able to help at night.  But, this is a large burden.  I start a project, get halfway done and then the last bits of this and that just stump me.  I wish I had another me to help out.  I wish my Mom was here.   But, maybe that wouldn't be so good because she was more of a hoarder than I am.

Anyway, back to the dust, the boxes, the chipped ceramics I made in 6th grade, and my daughter's saved baby teeth.

We've lived here for six years.  That's the longest we've stayed in a house since we got married.  Since then our kids have grown from babies to a 9 and a 6 year old.  With their own stacks of treasures and memories. 
I need to move every year just to keep the clutter and dust at bay.  I don't think I could handle the stress though.

Stress is the Visitor Who Won't Leave

We closed on our new house yesterday.  I woke up with dread thinking about how I now have two mortgages.  Yes, I know we need to get our house on the market like yesterday. 
We planned the slow move on purpose but, it still makes me itchy. 

Hubby's Grandma passed yesterday.  She was a sweet lady.  She was always thinking of others before she thought of herself.  I'm glad her pain is over but I feel so bad for my husband's family.  She was much beloved and will be missed.  

I've been trying to homeschool the kids for about an hour everyday to help get them ready for the next school year.  I worry that I am not doing it well.  I've been concentrating too much on one area of concern for each kid.  I need a better lesson plan.  I need to branch out.  And also, I wonder how I can fit more school time into our craziness when we're supposed to be moving- well, like right now.  I'm supposed to be packing the car.  And driving an hour to the new house.  With the kids in tow. 

I guess I should get started then.

Pancakes the Eggless Way

The pantry is not empty yet. But the fridge contents are paltry. How many things can I make with one wrinkled apple, some homemade pickles, and a few yogurts?
Next week we begin moving and I am loathe to reload our fridge. I am out of homemade baking mix and just add water pancake mix. Betty Crocker and the Joy of Cooking did not provide a good eggless pancake recipe. Then I remembered the copy of Henry's Pancake Mix that I taped inside the pantry.
 Here's the recipe from Jon and Kate Plus 8

Henry's Pancake Mix
 1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. oil
1 1/2 cup milk *or more

 No eggs needed. I used half a cup of whole wheat flour.

Pantry Challenge: Fridge Food

When we're not eating out, I'm trying really hard to cook what we have here. Supplies on anything handy and quick are running low my friends. But, I've found an awesome new website that will definitely help me get creative with what I have on hand. It's called My Fridge Food and lists tons of recipes based on what ingredients you click on.

Good Eats and The Pantry Challenge

I admit I am not html savvy. I can't figure out how to make paragraphs yet on the new blogger. So pardon the jammed together sentences until I get a minute of my nerdy brilliant husband's time. We ate out last night because we had soccer practice. For breakfast we celebrated National Donut Day with a free donut from Krispy Kreme. Lunch was veggie sausages and orange slices. Snacks were cheese crackers and homemade wheat bread. For dinner we're having a tofu stir fry- which I need to get started on.

Pantry Challenge: Eat it, Don't move it

Our offer has been accepted and except for the final inspections, it looks like we're getting a new house in a month. So, I have a month in which to try to use up all the food in the house before we have to start moving. I'm still buying milk, eggs, and fresh fruit but I that's about it. We'll still eat out occasionally too. Because we can and because we like it. Today we've had- Scratch blueberry pancakes with banana slices and honey Yogurt Popcorn Apple slices and peanut butter dip Tonight we're having Biscuits and Gravy and orange slices. My next pantry will be half the size of our current one. So, I really want to eat as much as we can from our stores. We'll be eating lots of baked goods since I have so many mixes and flours and frozen fruit purees. Oh darn. If I remember correctly I seem to think that pantry challenge eating is pretty yummy.