Cookbook Countdown

This evening I made a recipe from "Southern Plate" ..... Mama's Taco Casserole.



It calls for instant Potato Flakes, so I bought some.

When the Handyman got home from work, he grabbed them and said 'THIS IS WHAT MY MOM FIXED....This is what we had when I was a kid." And then he opened the box and shook some out into his hand and stuffed them into his mouth. Again he said, "this is what we used to do when I was a kid."


Of course he said this muffled as the potato buds began to expand inside his mouth. Then he muffled, "or you can put some in a coffee cup with hot water from the sink, we used to have them as after school snacks."


Who knew that one little box of Potato Buds could excite him like that? Ahhhh.....memories.


**this casserole was met by approval from the whole family!


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COOKBOOK COUNTDOWN
The Wishram Washington Community Cookbook, 1993

This recipe comes to me via cookbook in an interesting way.
It's mine.   I have made it for years and have been happy to share it. My mother-in-law liked it so much she put it in a hometown cookbook, in her hometown.

We just called it "Skinny Cake", but my mother in law put it in the cookbook as "Skinny Chocolate Cake", whatever you want to call it, it's a really great sheet cake . (It just doesn't take a good picture)

SKINNY CAKE
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 cubes butter
4 T. Cocoa
1 cup water
2 eggs beaten
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla


Mix together the flour, sugar and salt, set aside. Melt together the butter, cocoa and water. Boil for 1 minute. Pour into flour mixture and stir to combine. Add eggs, soda, buttermilk and vanilla. Mix well. Grease and flour a jelly roll pan (you can use a cookie sheet with sides 17 x 11 x 1 inches) Pour batter into it and bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.


1 cube butter
6 Tbsp milk
4 Tbsp cocoa
simmer together until butter is melted. Add 1 box of powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional) and pour over hot cake.


This is a good cake for a pot luck or picnic when you have a crowd. We took it with us on our picnic to the desert on Sunday.
 

 

Cookbook Countdown and Weekend Cooking

I am making progress with my Cookbook Countdown. If I don't purchase another cookbook ever, and I make a recipe from 2 cookbooks a week...I should be thru my cookbook collection in about 4 years. That's Four years. I better get cooking.

This cookbook is from my mom's church. I use it all the time, it's one of those good "churchy" cookbooks, with everyone's best recipes.

As you can tell, this one is older....they typed everything up on a typewriter, made copys and put a spiral binder thru it...all themselves.

I'm not sure what "Koinonia" means. I think it's an Indian word--Native American. I'm not sure why they would use it.... maybe it means GREAT RECIPES!!

Inside the front cover is a very poorly photo-copied picture of my mom's church... the church I got married in 32 years ago.

We were invited to a BBQ, in hopes that the weather would turn nice--it didn't, and we were asked to take a salad. I made this macaroni/seafood salad to count towards my Cookbook Countdown. I'm also going to link to Weekend Cooking, a weekly meme hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Seashore Salad

1 Tbsp salt

3 qt. boiling water

4 oz salad or shell macaroni

3/4 cup salad shrimp or tuna

1/2 cup diced celery

1/2 cup sweet pickle relish

1/2 cup mayonnaise

chopped parsley

lettuce

Add salt to boiling water. Gradually add macaroni and cook until tender (about 10 minutes.)  Drain thoroughly.  Combine macaroni, shrimp, celery, relish and mayonnaise.  Toss lightly to mix well.  Arrange on lettuce in a bowl or on individual salad plates.  Sprinkle with chopped parsley.  Chill.

It was a good seafood/pasta salad. Not as good as my mom's, but then, she didn't put hers in this cookbook.


I would definatly make this one again, everyone seemed to like it. I've never actually used a recipe for a macaroni salad tho....
....this one had a lot more relish than I usually use. I usually use pickles, but the sweet relish was good with the shrimp.

Cookbook Countdown and Weekend Cooking--Blackberry Cream Streusel Cake

What could be better for "Weekend Cooking" than using one of my rarely used cookbooks and courting it towards my "Cookbook Countdown?"



Well....nothing. So I used a cookbook that I never, NEVER pull out and use. I took it with me on our drive to Reno last week, and found about TWENTY recipes that I want to try.


The cookbook, I'm talking about is "Morning Glories"; Recipes for Breakfast, Brunch and Beyond From an American Country Inn, by Donna Leahy.


Leahy and her husband are the proprietors of The Inn at Twin Linden in Lancaster, PA.


I just checked out their website and man oh man...it's beautiful!!
Check out their website!
(they also have a BLOG--check it out here)
 
I've had this cookbook for about 15 years, and had never, not once, used it, but I've decided that inviting friends for breakfast or brunch this summer is something I want to do.

While glancing thru it, I was just amazed at all the great recipes. Many I have marked and want to try.


This is one of them..... and it was so incredibly delicious, I can't wait to make it again for my friends.

Blackberry Cream Streusel Cake

with Cinnamon Cream


Cake batter and crumb topping
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 teaspoon almond-extract


Filling
8oz cream cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup seedless blackberry preserves


Cinnamon Custard Cream
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon


Cake and Topping: Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease a 9-10 inch spring form pan.
In a large bowl, combine flour and sugar. With a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly. Remove and reserve 1 cup of this.
Then add the baking powder, soda and salt, combine well.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, egg and almond extract. Stir this in the flour mixture and combine well.
Spread in the bottom of the spring form pan evenly.




Filling and Assembly: With an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, sour cream, egg, sugar and almond extract. Spread the mixture over the cake batter; spoon on the preserves evenly over the cheese mixture. Sprinkle the reserved crumbs over the top.
Bake for 45 minutes, until firm and lightly brown.

Cinnamon Cream: In a medium saucepan, combine the milk and cream and cook over medium heat until just ready to boil. Remove from heat. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and brown sugar until well combined. Pour the milk mixture into the egg mixture--slowly and whisk to combine well.
Prepare a large bowl with ice and water and a second empty bowl for the custard. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly until it just begins to thicken and coat the spoon. Immediately remove the mixture from the heat and pour it into the empty bowl. Submerge the bottom of the bowl in the ice water to stop the cooking and prevent over-thickening, and stir, until slightly cooled. Stir in the cinnamon.


Refrigerate until serving.
Serve each piece of cake on a pool of custard.


*Both the cake and the cream may be made up to 24 hours in advance and then reheat the cake until warm if desired.

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Weekend Cooking is a weekley meme hosted by Beth Fish Reads
Be sure and stop by for links to other great Weekend Cooks.

The Cookbook Countdown is my own challenge--to use every cookbook I own.
You can check that out too, to see how I'm doing.

Musing Monday and Cookbook Countdown and Weekend Cooking

  Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about picture books, but before I get around to answering that....I'm going to talk about "Iced Tea" and my cookbook countdown.

  All of you bookworms and book bloggers, who don't care about my "foodie" side, you can scroll down to the bottom OR (please don't) just, um, ignore me and my blog post. I'll never know.



  Iced Tea. I'm trying to give up drinking Pop ( mid-west, north and Pacific Northwest term for soda pop), so I thought I'd switch to iced tea. I've always "liked" iced tea, I've just loved pop more. Pop is not so good for us, as we all know, so I'm on the journey to switch to iced tea.


  All this switching got me to thinking....why didn't Sweetened Iced Tea make it out west? Or even to the north?
I posed this question to my friend April the other day, when she was over for a visit. I said, "Sweetened Iced Tea."
April said, "what?" And then she "tsk tsk tsked" me.
She took on a very arrogant attitude and said, "It's SWEET TEA". (she grew up in Virginia)


  My apologies for ever having said "Sweetened Iced Tea," to all my southern friends. I DIDN'T KNOW!!! Because....I've never had Sweet Tea, except for once when I visited Virginia 3 years ago. It's way too sweet for me and if the purpose of switching from pop to iced tea is cutting back on the sugar, I don't see the point of it.
Having said that.... I do realize that my Southern friends would find the thought of Tea without Sugar, HORRIBLE. I get it...really, I do. It's a western thing.... Iced Tea...without sweetener of any kind. Although some people will add some sugar and stir and stir it, until it dissolves, but I don't think it can compare to real "Sweet Tea" that you make with a simple syrup.


  So, why didn't Sweet Tea make it's way out west with the covered wagons? What happened? Why wouldn't it?
It's a mystery! Seriously.....the westerners who do use sugar in their iced tea (and, there happen to be quite a few of them) would save themselves a lot wrist action (stirring) and I'm sure it would taste a lot better than to have granules of table sugar that never really completely dissolve in a glass of cold iced tea.
 
  This morning as the Handyman and I were driving to the market, I asked him if he liked "Sweet Tea". He answered, "Huh? I like Iced Tea" (sorry again, we are ignorant Westerners when it comes to Sweet Tea), so on that trip home from the market, I thought to myself...I'm going to make some iced tea...FROM A COOKBOOK, so I can add it to my cookbook challenge   .....making still over 200 cookbooks to go.

I came home with the idea of trying an authentic "Sweet Tea", but I went with this more Western Version first.
( I will make Sweet Tea in a few days---and we'll have a competition. You never know, we might be Sweet Tea converts! My dad likes Sweet Tea infused with mint from his garden. And he lives in Washington State.)
As you can tell.....the Immaculate Iced Tea also has a "Sweet Tea" recipe, which I'll be using in a few days.

I bet you didn't even know that people actually write recipes for Iced Tea! I took me by surprise.    I will be submitting this to  "Weekend Cooking", a weekly meme hosted by "Beth Fish Reads".   This is a new meme for me, but I think it fits me to a tea---it's mainly for book bloggers who want to do a food realted blog.  And this blog is just the opposite!  I'm a food blogger who has just started to include my book blogging.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. To see who else is participating go to Beth Fish Reads, Weekend Cooking, here.

  Immaculate Iced Tea, from the "Beat That" cookbook by Ann Hodgman.

I've had this cookbook for about 20 years. It is the sequel to "Beat this" by the same author. She has great recipes for "every day" items. I like this cookbook, but I don't use it/them like I should. That's the downfall of having over 200 cookbooks.
This one really does have everyday dishes, with just a touch of something special....like a "tad bit" of horseradish in deviled eggs. I've been doing my deviled eggs that way for some time now, and no one has ever said "these are HOT", but they do eat them all..
And her apple pie... nutmeg or not? brown sugar or not? These are the things that keep me up at night. I can't remember just what she uses to make her apple pie a bit more special... that could be a post for another time.

(officially adding this cookbook to my cookbook countdown)

  The Iced Tea she makes is a great Iced Tea. It's fresh tasting and well...it's just good. I grew up with my mom making "Sun Tea", but it's been forever since I've had Sun Tea, but I think I like this better. It's a bit stronger. I remember the Sun tea being kind of weak. I guess that depends on how many tea bags one uses.
Anyway......

 Immaculate Iced Tea
10-12 tea bags, any type
1 teaspoon sugar
1 quart boiling water
3 quarts cold water


Place the tea bags in the bottom of a heat-resistant container. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar. "I don't know what the sugar does"--obviously it couldn't actually sweeten that much tea--"but it makes all the difference" says Hodgeman.
Pour 1 quart of boiling water over the tea bags and sugar; let the concentrate steep for a full 15 minutes. Add 3 quarts of cold water, fish out the tea bags and chill the tea until you're ready to serve it.

It. Is. Good.

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  Now, the "Musing Monday's" musing. Do you have a favourite picture book, either from your own childhood, or reading to you children?



  Well, I have to tell you, that I misread the question. I got all excited about which picture book had my favorite illustrations. So, even tho, these aren't my all time favorite pictures books, they rate right up there in the top 20.


  They are classic books, with classic authors and illustrators. And.....they are not in color.
Can you believe it? Not...in...color. How "old school" (is that still a term that is used?) is that? I like that old time illustration. But that doesn't mean I don't love the newer illustrators too...


Are you ready for the unveiling? okay.....
One of my favorite picture books is "Make Way for Ducklings" by Robert McCloskey.
I even own 2 copies....

How can one NOT just love these illustrations?

I can not WAIT to share them with my grandchildren!!
I know they will love them as much as me.

And I cannot forget "The Story of Ferdinand" by Munro Leaf, drawings by Robert Lawson.  I love Ferdinand!!

  As I finish this post, I have to show you my "children's library" which sits inside the closet of a guest room (my youngest son's room, when he lived here ), it is now where I keep all the children's books I have collected over the years. As you can see, I had a lot of picture books to chose from.

Cookbook Countdown, Library Loot and What's Outside My Kitchen Window

Last year, during the spring and summer, while my yard and garden were transforming, I took pictures of what was "Outside my Kitchen" window (and other windows), and posted them almost every Wednesday.

Today is Wednesday and I thought I'd show you that spring is indeed popping up out of the frozen northern Nevada dirt!

But first, let me tell you about another "cookbook countdown" recipe I made last night and for all the "book bloggers" who are checking out this post for my first ever "Library Loot" post, don't be discouraged, just scroll down to the bottom. (I'm putting everything on this one post today)

After posting a "Cookbook Countdown" the other day, I realized it had been well over a month, and if there is anyway at all that I'm going to get thru 200+ cookbooks, I better get my rear in gear. So last night I made a side-dish to go with our chicken, from "The County Fair Cookbook." (and I got side-tracked reading all the great stories--it had been awhile since I opened this one up). I made "Garrett McClure's New Potatoes and Peas in Cheddar Sauce". I  t wasn't very healthy, or fancy, but it was really good. Kind of like a "cheesy" creamed potato dish.

Garrett McClure enters his dishes in the Ford County Fair in Dodge City, Kansas.  In this cookbook, the authors take the United States in sections and have visited and interviewed many State Fair, blue ribbon cooks.  There are tons of great stories and old pictures.  If you like regional cooking at all,  you'll love this cookbook...just for a great read if nothing else.

I don't know Garrett McClure, but one thing I can say, is that "country" kids are so much more "community involved" than city kids. No, that's not fair...just involved in a different way, I guess.

I work for the Chamber of Commerce here in my little town, and whenever we have events that are more attractive to the ranching people, I notice they bring the whole family. For example, dances and concerts.... they bring the whole family, while if you live here in the city (town, really, since we are not big) we tend to get "sitters" for an event like that, so we can enjoy it with our spouses. Our "date night" if you will. I guess the ranching life just lends itself to more family oriented activities.
One does not get a "sitter' when you live on a ranch 80 miles from town.

But, back to Garrett McClure....a high-schooler, who has been in 4-H since he was nine, his main 4-H projects are Leadership, Gardening and food preservation.
He says, "I enjoy looking thru cookbooks. I don't know if cooking will be a career, but it is a pleasure"

You go Garrett!! Because your New Potatoes and Peas in Cheddar Sauce rocks!
It was really good, and had a bit of a spicy kick to it. Yummy.

The County Fair Cookbook
by Lyn Stallworth and Rod Kennedy, JR.
Garrett McClure's New Potatoes and Peas in Cheddar Sauce
Serves 8

2 pounds new potatoes, cut into 1-inch chunks, 7-cups.
3 cups chicken broth
2 T. butter
2 T. flour
2 t. dry mustard
1/8 t. ground red pepper
1 t. salt
1 cup milk
2 cups defrosted frozen peas
4 oz shredded cheddar cheese (1 cup)

1. Bring the potatoes and broth to a boil in a 3-quart saucepan. Cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender, but still firm. Drain and reserve 1 cup of broth for the sauce.


2. Make the sauce: melt the butter in the same saucepan, add the flour, dry mustard, red pepper and salt. Whisk over low heat until smooth and frothy. Let the mixture bubble for about 3 minutes, stirring often to prevent browning. Gradually whisk in the broth and milk. Increase the heat to moderate and whisk the mixture for 2-3 minutes until the sauce thickens.


3. Add the peas to the sauce and bring to simmer, stirring gently. Add the potatoes and stir gently to coat. Reduce heat to low and cover. Heat for 5 minutes, stirring once or twice. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese.


Serve at once.
We really, really liked this dish. It would go really well, with a Turkey at Thanksgiving time, or an old-fashioned Sunday dinner.

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What's outside my kitchen window?

GREEN STUFF poking thru!! Yay. Pay no attention to the fact that we didn't get all of our leaves out of the rock garden last fall....nor did I trim back flowers, so we have dead reedy things hanging around.

You just watch tho.... how much my yard can change in just a few months.
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Now for my new weekly Meme!!
Library Loot!
I'm so excited.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva (a striped armchair) and Marg  (reading adventures) which encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!


( Just click on Eva or Marg's names to take you to their sites with all the info about  Library Loot )

I decided, long before I found this meme, to use the library more this year. For one thing, I am running out of room to store my books, and another....I can't AFFORD to purchase every book I want, but I am like a kid in a candy store when I go into a library. I start grabbing until my arms can hold no more and then I request some they don't have.

(just fyi...I am on the library board...and.....I am always late in returning my books...it's a horrible old-librarian habit, because we've never had to pay late fees. It worked fine until someone wanted THE HELP, and I was not done with it...they actually wanted me to turn it back in!! I read very fast and then turned it in. LOL )
This week, I checked out 6 books. I guess 6 is not too bad.

I think the bag they gave me to carry my books is funny...

...."What's COOKING at your library?" Because first, this was/is a food blog. So, it's either a sign that I can do two blogs in one OR I am just easily amused by trivial coincidences.

My six books are:
You Remind me of Me by Dan Chaon
Book Sense; Best Children's Books complied by Book Sense
One Night Stands with American History by Richard Shenkman and Kurt Reiger
Sisters Choice by Emilie Richards
Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen by Susan Greg Gilmore
Still Summer by Jacquelyn Mitchard

We will see what all I can get accomplished, as I have a large TBR pile of my own books and two bookclubs with assigned books to finish by the end of the month too.

Cookbook Countdown and Musing Monday (even tho it's Tuesday)

I will get to my cookbook countdown as soon as I answer this....



When I was keeping up with my book blog, I always answered two "meme's" each week. Musing Mondays was one of them.
You are welcome to join along if you'd like...

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about dust jackets.



Do you prefer books with a dust jacket? What do you do with your dust jacket while reading? Leave it on or take it off? (Question courtesy of Kim from Page after Page)

Well, I just leave the dust jacket on. I use the flip-in part of it for my bookmark. I don't worry about keeping the dust jacket in perfect condition, altho I know a lot of people do. I guess if the book was borrowed, I might remove the jacket, but I like my books to look "used" and "well-loved". All of the sudden I'm noticing book jacket art. It's really becoming amazing...have you noticed? I just finished reading "Very Valentine" by Adriana Trigiani. That has one of the best "Dust Covers" I've ever seen. It would be sad, to me, if Book Jacket Art goes by the wayside just because of new e-readers, Kindles and Nooks, etc.


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And now, on to the Cookbook Countdown!
It seems that chocolate chip cookies must be in the air...I made some on Saturday and then today, I came upon this blog post at Cooking with Christine    I cant' wait to see all her Chocolate chip posts.

Chocolate chip cookies must be the most popular cookie of all time. I keep searching for the perfect cookie. A little bit crunchy on the outside, but chewy on the inside. The Handyman likes a softer, more cake like cookie, so sometimes I will make a banana chocolate chip cookie for him, (the bananas keep them very moist).

As I started typing this, it all seemed very familiar to me....It seemed to me, that I had posted about these chocolate chip cookies before....and after further investigation, I HAVE. But... I didn't count it as a "cookbook" in my "cookbook countdown"    so I'm just going to go ahead and add this to my countdown blog.  I made the cookies, but didn't show my cookbook... as you can tell, it's very well loved and used.
It's the Beta Sigma Phi "Comfort Foods" cookbook.  Not for sale except if you are a member of Beta Sigma Phi in 1990.  It's one of those loved "community" cookbooks, where everyone sends in their favorite, their "tried and true" recipes.
For the recipe for my  Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, just  click on this link.

This is Cookbook #16 in my countdown  (out of 200 20something cookbooks...I need to get on the ball. I'm getting older, I could die before this is all over ~grins~ )

The spiral binding is coming out.

I have written in the front cover, recipes I like.

And also used sticky note/tabs to mark things I want to try.

 
 

 

And made notes on certain recipes too. And this is kind of embarrassing. THERE ARE SPLATTER MARKS on the cookbook. (kinda gross too..... a thorough wiping down took place immediately after I saw this photo.... but it kind of reminds me of my grandma's cookbooks. And my mom's--very well used pages on very much loved recipes)

 

 

 

This is probably my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. Now I can't wait to see what cookie Christine is doing today! ( I just peaked and it's cookie with bacon! Let's go check it out! )