Definitive cornbread dressing

In the spirit of Thanksgiving and sharing, I am happy to present the absolute, the standard against which all others are to be judged, the definitive cornbread dressing recipe, updated by cornbread guru Bill Page. "Dressing guru" sounded a bit strange. This updates an earlier truncated version. Take some time to enjoy making this. Festina lente, y'all. 

Please note: it's dressing, not stuffing. 

Real Southern Cornbread Dressing

Making cornbread dressing is an art, not an exact science. 

This recipe makes enough dressing for a crowd of 30 or more. 

Experiment with the recipe to match what your family likes. 

Remember, cornbread dressing is a special type of bread pudding ... you need plenty of liquid to start with.

Do not cook the dressing inside or with the turkey. You run the risk of undercooking one item or overcooking the other. Just cook the dressing in its own pan.

Oil the roasting pan. I use PAM, but you can use butter or Wesson oil.

Most recipes call for equal amounts of white bread and corn bread. 

I use a little more cornbread, and a little less white bread, rather than a 50-50 mix, roughly 2/3 corn bread and 1/3 white bread.

For the white bread, use rolls or biscuits, not plain white bread. 

Buy the cheap kind of canned biscuits--those without butter or other flavoring. 

You can also substitute crushed unsalted saltine crackers for some of the white bread. 

Rip the bread into pieces about the size of the end of your thumb--it's therapeutic. 

I usually cook about 40 biscuits and 48 dinner rolls. This makes enough for me to eat a few while I am cooking. 

Cook this bread several days early, rip it up, freeze it, and then pull it out to thaw the night before the day you will cook the dressing. 

I make four 8.5 x 11 pans of yellow cornbread (each pan requires 3 packages of instant cornbread--so, you need to buy 12 packages total of cornbread mix). The corn bread should be crumbled into lumps. 

You can make the cornbread from scratch, but it will not improve the flavor. I cook the cornbread in advance, crumble it, freeze it, and put it out to thaw the night before. 

If you live in a dry climate, you can let the bread and cornbread sit out and go slightly stale (the mixture soaks up more liquid that way). Otherwise, you can lightly toast the bread, if you want. But, you can also use untoasted bread if you prefer. 

You will have bread left over after you assemble the dressing. This is okay --the exact amount you will need will vary depending on how dry it is and how much liquid it absorbs. Bread is cheap, and it is okay to throw some away (or feed the birds) -- but you don’t want to be left short when making dressing, trying to get more at the last minute.

I use two bags of frozen onions and 3 or 3.5 cups of chopped celery. 

Most recipes call for a lot more celery, but unless your crowd is a big fan of celery, err on the side of adding too little.

You can also keep some onion powder on hand, in case you decide you need more onion flavor at the last minute, after you have mixed up the raw dressing.

Sauté the onions and celery before you mix everything together. As my mother and my Aunt Madge both used to say, no one wants to bite down on a piece of raw celery. I do this the day before, when it is less hectic. 

I sauté the celery first in a little Wesson oil. While that is cooking, I thaw the onions in the microwave. 

Then I sauté the onions (separate from the celery), again using Wesson oil. You can use other vegetable oils, but avoid any with a strong flavor. 

After those vegetables are cooked, I mix in some of the butter (or margarine) and sage, and let those flavors meld together in the refrigerator overnight. I am not sure it makes a lot of difference, except that it is less work when I am actually putting the mixture together right before baking.

I add two or three small tubs of margarine to the dressing. You can use butter, if you prefer. This total includes the butter you already added to the onion / celery mix.

I can't tell much difference between using butter or margarine. The butter has a slightly better flavor, but it also makes the dressing greasier. Soften the butter/ margarine before you add it to the celery and onions – this makes mixing the ingredients much easier.

When its time to add the celery / onion mixture to the dressing, soften it first in the microwave. This makes it much easier to mix the ingredients.

A lot of recipes saw to use poultry seasoning. Well, I use sage, and only about half as much as most recipes suggest. I usually add two or three teaspoons of sage – sometimes just a bit more. This depends on how well your crew likes sage. 

The most important thing is, buy a new bottle of sage. Old sage doesn't have much flavor (which is a good thing, according to some people). 

Tossing out the old bottle of sage is a Thanksgiving tradition at my house.

Most recipes say add salt and pepper to taste. 

I *never* use pepper.

Salt may or may not be needed, depending on how salty your broth is.

I add 4 to 6 eggs slightly beaten. You really do not have to beat the eggs, but you will probably break the yokes when you crack the eggs, and beating them slightly does not add much labor to the overall process.

If you're concerned about salmonella, you can add the egg last – because all great cooks (ahem) taste the dressing as they go along. 

I've never heard of anyone getting sick from the eggs in raw dressing, and I don't worry about it (you can quote me on your tombstone).

But I would not feed raw dressing to a young child or to a person with health problems … why tempt fate?

You need to add chicken broth or bouillon. I use a mixture of canned broth and powdered bouillon. You can make your own broth but I can't tell much difference, except it's a lot more work to cook the broth first. However, the broth does smell wonderful when it’s simmering. And if you carve the turkey the night before, cooking the bones makes you feel really virtuous. As for me, I favor sloth. 

I generally use two 2.25 ounce jars of Weylen’s Chicken bouillon granules (mixed in 3 or 4 cups of water), plus 2 to 4 cans of low sodium chicken broth. You can buy the more expensive organic chicken broth, but I can’t tell any difference.

If you are worried about the dressing having too strong a chicken flavor, add less of the powdered bouillon granules to start with. You can always add more later, but you can’t take it out once it is in the dressing.

I add enough milk to make the mixture "soupy". I usually use four small cans of canned milk, which makes for a richer flavor. If you use regular milk, you may want to increase the amount of butter somewhat. 

If you need more liquid, you can add a little water, or plain milk. 

The desired texture of the raw dressing is hard to describe – it should be a bit thicker than lumpy oatmeal, and you should have a little free liquid around the edge of the pan. Remember, you want the raw dressing to be “goopy” – this is a bread pudding you are making. 

The raw dressing should taste about like the final product, after it has been cooked.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

It usually takes me 20 to 30 minutes to assemble the raw dressing – just about long enough for the oven to get hot.

Bake in a covered container. 

If you want, you can uncover the dressing for the last 10 to 15 minutes, either to brown the top of the dressing, or if you get too much liquid in the mix this will dry it out.

The cooking time depends partly on how much liquid you used. It typically takes between 1 ¼ and 1 ½ hours – sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. 

The dressing will stay hot for a long time, especially if you wrap the pan in clean towels.

Family recipe Monday: Late summer, early fall

Cottonwood stars, from New Mexico

Juvenile hawks. Photos courtesy of Tartan Girl

It's the end of August in a long, hot, and (for the Texas and New Mexico clan members) unbelievably dry summer. Everything seems to be moving toward fall much sooner than normal. Up on the northern prairies, the hawks and other migratory birds are gathering with nervous eyes to the south, and the grasses are rapidly browning. 

Tartan Girl shared photos of young hawks hanging out in teenage noisemaker mode in New Mexico. These guys are full-sized and -fledged, but still showing juvenile plumage. This will be their first fall, and they may need to keep moving to find adequate prey. She also shared a photo of the stars to be found at the base of cottonwood twigs. Find a cottonwood and check this out for yourself. 

Fall is in the air, even the hot, dry air. Here is a recipe for apple butter to capture the season.  

Apple butter

For 1/2 peach basket of apples

Peel, quarter and core apples. Put in oven at 200*F. Add 1/2 lb dark brown sugar, 1 T cinnamon, 1/2t allspice, smidge of clove (ground) or one whole clove. Allow to cook down. If not peeled, run it through a food mill. Let cook all day or longer.
--Gene Hess

Note: This goes in a heavy pot or Dutch oven. You may prefer to simmer this on the stovetop.

Happy Monday. Look for the stars wherever you are.

Family recipe Monday: pickled vegetables

Abandoned hotel, Fairburn, South Dakota

Last week may have set a record for the number of miles I have traveled in a 4-day period without ever leaving the state. 1300. 1300 miles, partly to teach a monitoring class, partly to pick up a major donation of fossils that needed to move from one end of the state to another. Week before last, I leased a trailer so that our field leader could bring in a huge plaster-jacketed fossil from Wyoming--one day ahead of heavy rains, as it turned out. I know everyone at the local U-Haul office by name and no longer think twice about driving a heavily loaded moving van. It would be nice if they had better shocks, though. It'd be even nicer if I hadn't been driving a heavily loaded U-Haul with no shocks at the same time that every Harley rider on the planet was on the road headed for Sturgis,weaving in and out of the lanes like enraged hornets. But all worked out well. 

The farmers' markets here are still a little low on produce, but the preserves and canned goods are starting to show up. Rhubarb jam, caramel apple butter, watermelon pickles....the canning season is upon us. I don't know how the older girls managed the hottest activity of the year in the hottest months of the year, but manage they did. 

We are all wondering if there will be apples, chokecherries and wild plums this year after the roller-coaster extremes of the weather. But the vegetable crops look all right for now. Here are a couple of recipes for vegetable preservation that will bring the summer garden to the winter table. 

Chow chow

1 medium head cauliflower, broken into florets

2 cups corn kernels

2 cups green beans, trimmed, cut into 1” lengths

1 each red and green bell peppers, cored, seeded

2 cups yellow wax beans, trimmed, cut into 1” lengths and diced (¼ ”)

2 cups peeled and diced (½”) carrots

1 cup white pearl onions

2 cups diced (½”) celery

2 cups peeled and diced (½”) seeded cucumbers

2 cups fresh lima beans

1 16-oz can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

6 cups white vinegar

6 cups granulated sugar

2 T coarse salt

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and lightly blanch cauliflower until just tender; remove to a large nonreactive pot. Repeat with the remaining 9 vegetables (all except the kidney beans), one at a time. Add the kidney beans, vinegar, sugar and salt to vegetables in the nonreactive pot. Stir and bring to a boil. Once the mixture comes to a boil, remove from heat. Pack the hot vegetables into 4 hot, sterilized quart jars. Process for 15 minutes in a boiling-water bath.

Dilled beans

2 lb. fresh green beans, trimmed

4 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 tsp. cayenne pepper

4 large sprigs fresh dill

2 ½  cups cider vinegar

2 ½  cups water

4 T coarse salt

Blanch the green beans in boiling water until tender but still crunchy (about 4 to 6 minutes). Drain. Place 1 clove of garlic, 1/4 tsp. cayenne (or more to taste) and a sprig of dill into each of 4 sterilized pint jars. Pack beans upright into the jars to fit within 1/4” of rim. Bring the vinegar, water and salt to a boil in a nonreactive saucepan. Pour the hot liquid into the jars, leaving ¼ “ of head space. Seal and process the jars in a boiling-water bath for 5 minutes. Store for at least 2 weeks in the refrigerator before serving. Serve cold. 

Happy Monday. Enjoy these shots from an abandoned hotel near here. 

There is preservation by ethanol....not recommended for sign carvers....

...and there is preservation by anything that kills everything. If they ask you to name your poison at this hotel bar, run like a citizen of Tokyo fleeing Godzilla.  

Family recipe Monday: small and light

It's really not the right time of year to think about heat in the kitchen. Or anywhere else. The stellar pioneer girls among us are sterilizing the canning equipment and getting ready to put up the fresh fruit and vegetables that are finally starting to show up after a cold, wet spring. The less-than-stellar pioneer girls among us are thinking that fresh peaches beat peach cobbler any old day right now, and can be improved only if they are in ice cream. Yeah, July is heating up and we are staring down the barrel of August, and trying to make enough iced tea to survive to September. We'll think about canning tomorrow, once we get off our fainting couch.   

Here are a few older cookie recipes, good for baking quickly and cooling thoroughly before eating. 

Melt in the mouth cookies 

Sift

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Cut in 

1 stick butter or margarine

Add

2 cups light brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup chopped walnuts

2 teaspoons vanilla

Drop by scant teaspoons (onto baking sheet). Bake at 400* F. Then hide.

--The Hess Family, who presumably hid the cookies, not themselves

Molasses cookies

1 cup molasses
1 teaspoon (baking) soda in 1/4 cup hot water
3/4 cup melted Spry (or oil)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon ginger
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon (baking) soda
Approximately 2 1/2 cups flour or until enough.

Cook in 375* F oven for 7-8 minutes.
--Louise Hastings

Note: you are not going to find Spry any more, except in Cyprus, apparently. Too bad: it was a classic advertising campaign. Use the shortening of your choice. Mix everything in the order given. These can be either rolled and cut or dropped, depending on your preference.

Oatmeal cookies

Mix together
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats

Cut in 1 cup shortening or butter until well blended.

Stir in
1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in 1/3 cup milk (sweet or sour)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar

Chill. Roll 1/8" thick. Cut out. Place (on) unreleased sheet. Bake 375* F 10-12 minutes. When cool, put together with jelly or jam.
--Dolly Hess

Those would go well with a nice sorbet, right? Happy Monday.

Aunt Jenny needs something stronger than milk, I think. 

Family recipe Monday: farm eggs

Farm eggs

The crops may not be doing well this summer (whether you are in the parched areas or the drowned ones), but the chickens seems to be fat and happy. Everyone not actually within the city limits (where chicken-keeping is banned) seems to have a dozen eggs to hand over in return for, oh, just about anything. Three wet summers and a couple of grasshopper explosions up here seem to have given the hens everything they need to produce thick-shelled eggs with neon orange yolks, often double. It's painful to have to go back to store eggs in the winter.  

Here are a couple of ideas for breaking eggs and making something even better than omelets. Not that there is anything wrong with the deceptively simple, perfect omelet...

Frittata

2 T olive oil

2/3 cup chopped onion

2/3 cup chopped green pepper

½ cup chopped unpared zucchini

½ cup diced skinned, seeded tomato

1 cup unpeeled diced (½") eggplant

5 large eggs

1/3 cup light cream

½ tsp. salt

Pinch of pepper

½ cup diced (½")bread

4 oz grated cheddar cheese

8-oz pkg. cream cheese, diced (½”)

In a 10" skillet, heat the oil. Add all the vegetables and cook without browning, stirring often, until eggplant is tender (~15 minutes). Beat eggs, cream, salt and pepper until blended. Add vegetables, bread and cheddar cheese. Fold in cream cheese. Pour into a well-greased 9” pie plate. Bake in a preheated 350^o F oven until a knife inserted in center comes out clean (about 30-35 minutes) Cool for 10 minutes and cut into wedges.

Oven pancakes

Preheat oven to 475^o. In a 9"x9" glass dish, place 3 T butter; melt in oven. Do NOT brown.

Remove from oven. Pour in well-mixed batter of

3 eggs

¾ cup flour, ¾ cup milk

Juice of 1 lemon (optional)

½ tsp vanilla (optional)

Bake 10-12 minutes or until puffed and golden. Serve with powdered sugar and lemon juice (traditional), berries, jam, syrup, toasted almonds or macadamias and butter.

Serves 3. If making for 4 or more, add 1 egg, ¼ cup flour and ¼ cup milk for each person, 1 extra tsp for each, and larger pan.

--Pat Monaco

Happy Monday, happy Fourth. 

Family recipe Monday: hot and sweet

View from the front door, June 24. That's rain + 50 mph wind + hail. 

Impressionistic view of the street completely awash. 

Yeah, about the weather up here.....it's still raining. And hailing. With dangerously high winds. And no one in the family enclaves of West Texas and New Mexico will speak to me about it, because they have triple-digit temperatures, fires everywhere and no signs of a let-up in the drought. No one is going to have any kinds of crops this year, I'm thinking. 


But the farmers' market has started up again, perilously close to the swollen Rapid Creek, and we are able again to get thick-shelled eggs with neon-orange yolks, gorgeous rhubarb stalks, and the world's most decadent triple-berry cinnamon rolls. It will be interesting to see how the selection of produce expands this summer. I have tomato and pepper plants that have not left the kitchen sill yet due to rain and hail outside. Look for recipes calling for three miniature tomatoes and two microscopic peppers later in the summer. 


Tartan Girl sent the following recipe, which turns out to be a winner. Caveat: if you are not a chile head, this may not be for you. Peaches and peppers are a magical combination, blending the heat and the sweet perfectly. Peach salsa is also another dynamite combination. I used mild Hatch green chiles (is there any other kind?) and fresh peaches. The cobbler was better the second day. Somehow it suited the aberrant chilly, wet summer day. 


From The New Mexican Connection: 

 Fiery fruit cobbler

2 cups flour

 3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup milk

2 tbsp water 

1 lemon, juiced for zest

3 pints of fresh peaches

3 frozen NMC Chiles, chopped

1 cup sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 450º. Mix dry ingredients well, then cut in the shortening until fine crumbs appear. Mix in the milk to form a ball that doesn't stick to the sides of the bowl. On a floured board, knead the dough to about 1/2" thick and cut into 2" rounds using a floured cutter.

Mix water, sugar and lemon juice and set aside until thickened. Sprinkle peaches and chile with syrup and stir. Place in the bottom of a 9x12 glass baking dish. Cover mixture with rounds. Brush dough with sweetened milk and dust with sugar. Bake for 30-45 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream or drizzled sweet milk. 

Make that high-quality vanilla ice cream and you're all set. Happy Monday. Hope everyone's weather improves. 

Family recipe Monday: cooking outdoors

Camp grill and stove made from old oven parts and petrified wood, Lemmon, South Dakota.

Definitely (one hopes) one of a kind. I want it.

With summer almost on us (never mind what the calendar says--in museum land, it's Memorial Day to Labor Day), it's time to start thinking about field work and field cooking. We have a lot of potential sites to cover and a number of people to feed.

Our dear friend Pat has made a second (third? fourth? and all concurrent) career as a gifted camp cook for paleontological projects. Her philosophy is that people work, sleep and get along better if they are fed well. That does not mean two weeks of reheated canned chili. She has a fat file of recipes for dishes that can be easily expanded to fit the number (and appetites) of people at hand, prepared easily, and adapted to local ingredients and conditions. Hers may be the only field expeditions on which people gain weight. Leftovers have never been a problem.

Here is a classic and one of Pat's standards, with her permission. This is for anyone who doesn't believe that camp cooking can be both easy and good.

Pat's green chile chicken/vegetable stew for a crowd

Saute in olive oil *(about 1/4 cup):
1 large onion, sliced
6 cloves garlic, halved

Cook until soft and add:
4 4-oz. cans diced green chile
2 28-oz. cans green enchilada sauce (salsa verde)

Cook briefly to combine and add:
2 T each: ground cumin, red chile powder, green chile powder*, ground coriander, chile-lime powder

Add and cook 15 minutes until soft:
6 medium potatoes (unpeeled, chopped)
2 zucchini, halved and chopped

Add:
1 24-oz packages grilled chicken strips
2 14-oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed
2 14-oz cans corn, drained
2 14-oz cans diced tomatoes (do NOT drain)
2 14-oz cans green beans (drained), ONLY if no zucchini available

Simmer on low for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Serve with tortillas, sour cream, and grated cheese.

*New Mexicans will point out that this is the Christmas combination: red and green chile combined. Reduce the green chile powder to make the stew milder.

Now get out there and find something.

Family recipe Monday: spring pies

Rustle of spring, 60 mph

It's been two weeks: two really hectic weeks involving 1500 miles of driving from here to Fossil Butte, Wyoming, and back. Since it was late April, we had typical lovely prairie spring weather: snow, wind, sun, more snow, more wind, hail, sun, and still more wind. I looked like Beethoven's surly sister and discovered several new and delightful respiratory allergies....but it was worth it. Details will follow as soon as I get the tumbleweeds combed out.
 

And what a strange and difficult two weeks it has been on the national and international scenes. It seems that we have all had more than our share of losses, disasters and sadness this year. But every year I trace in the family genealogy project has its sad spots. I think that we need to look forward, plant seeds, and move into the sunlight. It's here. The freeze appears to be over and everything is green.

Sturdy warm food does not seem as appealing now as cool light treats. Here are a few great warm-weather pies from the files.

Maud Bowen’s avocado pie

This came from a family in Sedona, Arizona. As a teenager, I visited great-aunt Blanche there in 1971, but needed something to do while Blanche played bridge. All day. Every day. Maud and her family knew all the places to see the area at its best. I would still rather hike than play bridge, any old day. When the family drove out to pick me up, Vada got this unusual and surprisingly good recipe. Only in Arizona...

1 3-oz pkg. lime or lemon-lime Jell-O
¼ tsp salt
1 cup boiling water
1 8-oz can crushed pineapple
1 T lime juice (or more)
1 avocado, peeled and halved
1 3-oz pkg. cream cheese
1 cup whipped cream (optional)
1 9” graham cracker crust

Dissolve Jell-O and salt in boiling water. Drain pineapple. Combine the syrup with lime juice and add cold water to make ¾ cup. Add to gelatin. Chill until very thick. Meanwhile dice half of the avocado. Mash remaining half and blend with cream cheese until creamy. Fold cheese mixture, diced avocado, pineapple, and whipped cream into Jell-O. Fill crust. Chill. If desired, garnish with pineapple or lime slices, or top with whipped cream.
--Maud Bowen

This next one is different in combining a custard preparation with Jell-O. Totally 1950s. I don't recall that there were ever any leftovers, though.

Pineapple and banana pie

Mix ½ pkg. orange and 1 cup pineapple juice. Separately, mix 1 beaten egg and ½ cup sugar. Bring to boil and cool. Mix with Jell-O. Add drained crushed pineapple. Slice bananas into a baked pie shell and cover with the mixture. Chill and top with whipped cream.

I actually looked into the word "chiffon" as applied to pie fillings, since etymologically it refers to silk fabric, and not all of the recipes I have make a smooth filling. All I could find was that "chiffon" shows up in reference to pastries by 1929, though the term for fabrics is several hundred years older. Which is no help. This is a nice icebox pie, though. "Tall can of milk" is 16 ounces or 2 cups of evaporated milk, chilled. I had to work to figure that one out.

Heavenly chiffon pie

1 pkg. strawberry Jell-O
1 #2 can crushed pineapple
1 tall can milk
1 cup sugar

Put pineapple in saucepan, add sugar and cook 3 or 4 minutes after it starts boiling. Remove from fire and add Jell-O. Whip milk which has been in icebox overnight. Beat until consistency of whipped cream. Add custard mix and pour in baked pie shell. Let set in refrigerator.
--Vada Brooks Johnson

Happy Monday, what is left of it. Celebrate spring as if it's the first one ever.

Family recipe Monday: cold and sweet

Bear Butte cloaked by an unexpected snowstorm

You'd think we'd learn, being on the prairie for some time now....but, no, we just had to go out birding and photographing on an April weekend, in spite of the weather predictions that went from a 30% to a 60% chance of "wintry mix." This is not a good mix when you are out on rural roads. But we are adventurous, daring, and not right bright, so out we went. I'll post a full account tomorrow, once I have the sleet out of my hair.

It was a tough week for many people, waiting to find out how the Federal (and, in our case, state) budget cuts would affect them and their communities. I'm happy to report that the museum is alive and well after the budget cuts. We will need to look at how we survive and thrive in a more austere economy, but we will be around to do that. Not all museums or agencies have fared so well, which is sobering indeed.

So we needed a change of scenery, a chance to get away from the budget migraines, some reassurance that life goes on. Well, it does. So does winter weather in the spring. Oddly, I really wanted something cold and sweet when I finally thawed out. Here are some suggestions from the Simple Gifts files that make a nice transition from winter to spring.

Cinnamon ice cream

1 ¼ cups half-and-half
2 ½ cups whipping cream
1 cup less 1 T sugar
1 stick cinnamon
½ tsp ground cinnamon
6 egg yolks

Warm half-and-half, whipping cream, sugar, and both kinds of cinnamon in a non-corroding saucepan. Steep for about 15 minutes, always keeping temperature below boiling. Taste once or twice; flavor will grow even stronger after ice cream is frozen. Whisk egg yolks just enough to break them up and pour in some of the hot mixture, stirring constantly. Return to the pan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the custard coats the spoon. Strain into a container, put cinnamon stick in for stronger flavor, and chill thoroughly. Remove stick and freeze in ice cream maker. Makes a generous quart. Spectacular on apple pie.

Lemon velvet ice cream

1 quart plus 1 1/3 cups whipping cream
1 quart plus 1 1/3 cups milk
4 cups sugar
2 tsp lemon extract
Juice of 8 lemons
1 T grated lemon rind

Mix together and freeze.

Berry sorbet

1 envelope unflavored gelatin
½ cup sugar
1 ½ cups water
2 cups puréed raspberries or strawberries
½ cup cranberry juice or black currant liqueur
2 T lemon juice
Whole raspberries or strawberries for garnish

Mix gelatin with sugar and water in a saucepan. Let stand 1 minute. Stir over low heat until gelatin dissolves, about 5 minutes. Cool to room temperature. Stir in berries, juice or liqueur, and lemon juice. Turn mixture into a shallow baking pan. Freeze 3 hours or until barely firm. With an electric mixer or food processor, beat mixture until smooth. Return to pan and freeze until firm, about 2 hours. To serve, thaw at room temperature for 15 minutes or until slightly softened. Spoon into serving dishes. Garnish with whole berries and serve at once. Makes about 8 servings.

Grape juice blanc-mange

Scald 3 cups grape juice in double boiler, adding ¼ cup sugar. Blend ¼ cup cornstarch with ¼ cup cold water and add to juice. Cook 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Add 1 T lemon juice, then cool slightly. Pour into sherbet glasses and chill. While hot, it is very thin, but it stiffens as it cools. It should be very delicate, not overly stiff. Serve with plain cream and powdered sugar.
--Louise Hastings

Happy Monday. It really is a new season out there; get out and celebrate it.

Family recipe Monday: Pennsylvania Dutch breakfasts

Myrtle Minerva Deppe Shaffner, Gene's grandmother

The recent wave of day-by-day Civil War Sesquicentennial accounts from 1861 news stories keeps reminding me that we could play out the whole conflict in our own house. I have all the Confederate relatives; Gene is a good Pennsylvania Dutch kid with deep German roots (and a Swedish line as well). There seems to be no crossover: he has no Confederates in his genealogical attic, and I can't find anyone on my side in a Union state by the time the Recent Unpleasantness broke out.

What surprises me is how similar some of the old family recipes are between our families. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised--the Honnolls in my family were of German origin, after all--but I would have thought that generations of increasing Southernness (if that's a word) would have caused a bigger recipe drift (if there is such a thing) than it did.

Gene's maternal grandmother Myrtle Deppe Shaffner came from a family of 18 children in the Berwick area of Pennsylvania. They were all farmers in the Susquehanna Valley area, raising crops and dairy cattle and, well, obviously, children. Some of the Deppes married their first cousins, also Deppes, which means that I have double Deppes in the genealogy, and that is one very different-looking family tree. But they were staunch German Methodists, and so were the Honnoll Confederates. I wonder if they couldn't have worked things out over a big Oktoberfest dinner, and skipped the war.

Here are a few recipes from the Shaffner side, guaranteed to please the palate and frighten the heart. The first one should have been run the day before Shrove Tuesday (=Mardi Gras), but this way you get nearly a year to get your heart ready for the delights. All comments are from Gene's mom Dolly, who would have been 76 this year. She collected the recipes from her family for years, and we are scanning them now.

Fastnachts

These are German doughnuts made eaten on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins. They are best eaten the same day they are made.

NOTE: Mother used to make these wonderful goodies. I would get off the school bus and hurry up the lane through wind and cold rain, usually in March, and when I opened the door I would be greeted by the aroma of sizzling dough. Although I’m not much of a doughnut lover, I enjoyed a few doughnut holes. Yes, they were made on Shrove Tuesday and they were devoured by Dad and my sisters and brother as fast as she could turn them out.

1 pkg. active dry yeast
1 C. scalded milk, cooled to lukewarm
4 eggs
1/4 lb. soft butter
2 1/3 c. flour
1/4 tbsp. sugar
1 qt. oil or melted shortening for frying
*XXX (confectioner’s) sugar for garnish

Soften yeast in milk; add eggs one by one, followed by butter, flour, salt, and sugar. Blend well by hand. Cover with a slightly moist tea towel and put in warm, draft-free place to rise until double in bulk. Punch down and let rise until double in bulk again.

To fry, use an iron Dutch oven or similar kettle. Heat oil to 350* F. Heap a tablespoon with dough & scrape it off the spoon with a table knife into the hot oil. Fry about 6 at a time to golden brown on one side the flip over to brown on other side. Remove with slotted spoon or tongs and drain a bit on brown paper. Roll in bowl of XXX sugar. or if you have a tin shaker, you can sift it on. Put on wax paper to cool.

*We also like cinnamon sugar on them. Just mix a bit of cinnamon with sugar & roll fastnachts in it. If you have a tin shaker, you can sift it on.
--Dolly Hess

German apple pancakes

4 eggs

3/4 c flour

3/4 c milk

½ tsp salt

1/4 c (4tbsp) butter divided

2 med apples sliced

1/4 c sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 400*. Place 2 9x1 1/12" round cake pans in oven. Beat eggs, flour, milk, salt in small bowl med speed 1 min. Remove pans. Place 2tbsp butter in each pan and rotate to coat. Arrange half the apple slices in each pan and divide batter between pans. Mix sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over batter. Bake uncovered until puffed and golden (20-25 min). Serve soon as they fall like souffles. Makes 4 servings.

Flapjacks

1 3/4 c. milk

2 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 pkg. active dry yeast

1/4 c. lukewarm water

3 tbsp. vegetable oil or 1/4 c. soft shortening

3 eggs, room temperature

2 c. sifted flour

Scald milk, add sugar and salt and cool to lukewarm. Meanwhile, sprinkle yeast on warm water & stir to dissolve. Add to cooled milk. Beat in oil, eggs, and flour with rotary beater or mixer on medium speed until batter is smooth. Cover and let rise in warm place until bubbly. Put in refrigerator overnight.

Stir down batter. Dip with a 1/4 cup measure and pour onto hot griddle - grease if necessary. Turn as soon as tops are bubbly. Bake to golden brown on other side. Serve at once.

Happy Monday. Hope your kitchen has wonderful aromas.



Family recipe Monday: Girl Scouts and brownies

Cranes in a frost-covered field, Kearney, Nebraska

It's been a long, long couple of weeks, and consequently a low-productivity time on Threads and Traces. My plans to keep up with the daily genealogy challenge for National Women’s History Month have been blown out of the water by both the expected and the unexpected. I expected to be delayed by the annual crane migration pilgrimage. I did not expect to be derailed by loss. It’s been a difficult time for so many of us as we suffered the loss of a dear friend.

Genealogy tells us so little about a person. It can only trace descent and familial relationships. The vibrant story of dear friends, pursued dreams, networks of love….all that is so much harder to capture. Occasionally we get a glimpse of the complex person behind the dry facts, but more often we have no way to trace the friendships that shaped her.

Last week we lost a true leader, a kind and hysterically funny friend, a dedicated and loyal Girl Scout, a scrappy lawyer and a feisty golfer. Sherry Peel was all of that and more. It’s just about impossible to imagine the world without her in it. Rarely, all too rarely, you find a friend who never wavers, stays the course, and picks up the conversation where you left off months or years ago. That was Sherry.

We worked together at a Girl Scout camp in our college days, a time I can't look back on without joy and laughter, even now. There is something magic about times like that, aided greatly by the glow of campfires and the sound of singing. Our youth is in each other's eyes.

The weather seems to have picked up the mood, rushing back into a snowy white-out winter blast on Sunday. That's right. April 3. But the grass is nevertheless greening, the hawks and cranes and migrating back in huge numbers, and spring seems to be everywhere, in not-so-subtle ways. We grieve, celebrate, and live.

If the genealogy work has taught me anything, it's the deep appreciation for the force that makes us survive, mourn, laughter, and find new hope. We will have a memorial reunion for Sherry in the fall, and I expect that the laughter will far outweigh the tears. That is what a good life lived well comes to.

I plan to bring a few many dozen brownies to this. It's so appropriate for this crew in so many ways, not just in the name. I hope that, during this, we will capture many of the stories and pictures that are lost in bare-bones genealogy. Our family is far greater than any family tree can ever show.

Cinnamon brownies

5 eggs (keep 1 white separated)
2 cups white sugar
2 cups brown sugar
5 tsp. cinnamon
1 ¼ cups melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour, sifted
1 tsp. baking powder
2 cups walnuts, coarsely chopped
2 cups chocolate chips
1 T water
2 tsp. cinnamon sugar (1 tsp. each)

Preheat oven to 350* F. Beat 4 egg whites, 5 egg yolks, sugars, cinnamon, butter and vanilla thoroughly. Sift flour and baking powder and add to egg mixture. Beat well. Stir in walnuts and chocolate chips. Grease and flour an 11”x18” sheet cake pan. Spread batter evenly in pans. Beat reserved egg white and 1 T water together, and spread over batter. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool and cut into 1 ½” squares. Will freeze. Store in airtight can or bag. Yield 6 dozen.

I may bring these along, too, mainly because they are so lovely and decadent. And they're easier to get down there in Texas. "Brer Rabbit molasses" is a single word in our family--no other brand need apply.

Praline cookies

2/3 cup margarine or butter
1 cup sugar
½ cup Brer Rabbit molasses
2 eggs
½ tsp. vanilla
1 ¾ cup flour
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. mace
¼ tsp. salt
1 ½ to 2 cups pecans

Slowly melt margarine. Cool. Add sugar and molasses. Mix well. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat well. Sift together flour, soda, mace and salt, then add to first mix. Drop by scant teaspoons on greased and floured baking sheet 2” apart. Bake in moderate oven (375* F) for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from pan immediately. Yield 8 dozen.

Happy Monday. Go hug a friend. Spring is here.