Foamy Sauce

1 egg
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c hot water
1 Tbs lemon juice or 1 tsp lemon extract

Beat the egg vigorously. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the hot water and stir vigorously. Add the lemon juice. Serve. This sauce may be reheated if desired.

Makes four portions.

Bettina's Steamed Fig Pudding

1 c flour
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp ginger
2/3 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 c molasses
1/2 c milk
1/2 c suet, chopped fine
1/3 c chopped figs
1/3 c stoned raisins
1/3 tsp lemon extract

Mix the flour, soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and suet. Add the figs, raisins, molasses and milk. Stir well. Add the lemon extract. Fill a well buttered pudding mould two-thirds full. Steam an hour and a half, with the water boiling. Serve hot with foamy sauce.

Makes four portions.

Browned Gravy

1 Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c water
1/4 c milk

Remove the breaded veal from the pan, and place on a hot platter. (Keep in a warm place.) Loosen all the small pieces of crackers and meat (if there are any) from the bottom of the pan. If there is no fat left, add butter. Allow the fat to get hot, and add flour and salt. Mix well with the heated fat, and allow to brown. Stir constantly and add the water. Mix well, and add 1/4 c milk. Allow to cook one minute, stirring constantly. If a thinner sauce is desired, add another 1/4 c of milk. If a thicker sauce is desired, allow to cook for two mins.

Makes four portions.

Breaded Veal

1 # veal round steak, cut 1/2" thick
1 Tbs egg (either the white or the yolk)
1 Tbs water
2/3 c cracker crumbs or dry bread crumbs
2 Tbs lard
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbs butter
1/8 tsp paprika

Wipe the meat with a damp cloth, and cut into four pieces. Mix the egg, water, salt and paprika, and dip each piece of meat into the egg mixture. Roll in the crumbs and pat the crumbs into the meat. Place the lard in the frying pan, and when hot, add the meat. Brown well on one side, and then turn, allowing the other side to become the same even color. Lower the flame under the meat, and cook 30 mins, keeping the pan covered. When the meat has cooked 25 mins, add the butter to lend flavor to the lard.

Makes four portions.

Second February Menu

So after the success of the first Feb menu (on Feb 3), I made the next menu on Feb 6th from Chapter CX. The menu consists of:

Breaded Veal
Creamed Potatoes
Browned Sauce
Spinach with Hard Cooked Eggs
Bread & Butter Spiced Peaches
Fig Pudding
Foamy Sauce



The breaded veal was delicious. I was so happy that my butcher had veal and I didn't have to do a meat substitute again. So tasty.


The creamed potatoes were delicious as always. I have made these several times since that first menu in January, as they're so easy to make (and I'd cooked extra potatoes with the first menu so as to have the pre cooked potatoes needed for THIS meal).


The browned sauce was pretty straight forward and oh so tasty. As mentioned, I love gravy. Sadly, it's still in my fridge and that's a long time... I've not been as good at utilizing the full kitchen for menus and remembering to use up things this month.


And now we come to the trouble makers. Let's start with the Spinach with Hard Cooked Eggs. The book doesn't give a recipe for this. At all. And I looked. So to the internet I go! Turns out it's a pretty straight forward and common dish. Hard boil eggs, peel and slice in half lengthwise. Blanche spinach, mix with a cream sauce, settle the eggs into the spinach and top with buttered bread crumbs and bake. I made a little extra cream sauce for the potatoes and used it here. Easy peasy. But I wish the recipe had actually been given.


Spiced peaches are something I made years ago when I got 40 pounds of peaches for free. Mine are cooked a little more than Bettina's but that's fine by me.


And for our last bit of annoyance, the fig pudding. This is one of those recipes that was designed for the fireless. Well, Bettina's fireless had ceramic heated stones at the bottom. She also had a tin pudding mold. I used a mason jar and tried to heat up a iron weight. Suffice it to say, the pudding was not cooked. Or rather, the outer 1/2" of the entire thing was cooked. So then I popped it on the stove and tried to do the boil thing. It STILL was being recalcitrant at being cooked! But eventually it was heated into submission. But it was an annoying process to say the least.


The foamy sauce was underwhelming. Can you see it on the pudding in the picture below? Nope! But it added a lemony zing to the otherwise not impressive-tasting pudding.

First February Menu

I realize that posting this late in the month makes it look like I've been slacking on the cooking front. Not true! I've just been slacking on the blogging front. The first menu that I made for February was Bettina's Valentine's meal for her and Bob (Chapter CXI). It contains:

Broiled Steak
Baked Potatoes
Macaroni with Tomatoes and Green Peppers
Bread & Butter
Cornstarch Fruit Pudding
Cherry Sauce


The steak tasted delicious, as steak so often does. The baked potato similarly.


But the macaroni dish! There was definitely some confusion in my mind regarding this one. Firstly, it calls for 1/3 c macaroni. Just think about how much pasta that is. It's like nothing. The directions call for layering the food stuffs, and there is no way that one could make layers out of such a small amount of pasta. So I used about a cup of macaroni. I suppose it's possible that this is more of a custard that has pasta in it, but I figured I wanted to eat pasta (even though it was odd having it in addition to a baked potato AND bread and butter).


The cornstarch fruit pudding also gave me trouble. It didn't thicken. At least, not well. I wound up freezing it to get a better consistency, which worked fine. However, then we had the actual flavor to deal with. It tasted like cornstarch mixed with fruit juice, which coincidentally is exactly what it was. C- in flavor, IMO. And the cherry sauce should have cooked for a lot longer than they recommended. Note: I used actual cherry juice rather than the syrup that came with canned cherries and perhaps therein lies some of my problems?


Posting this makes me crave that steak and potato deliciousness, even though I just ate. :)

Final January Menu

One whole month is done! I barely squeaked by, using the last day of the month for this. But this was a reasonably successful meal,for all that my husband was nervous. :)

Menu:
Roast Beef
Browned Potatoes
Gravy
Bettina's Jelly Pickle
Bread
Grapefruit Marmalade
Date Loaf Cake
Sliced Oranges

I had intended on making this menu Friday, but then we had friends over and I didn't want to have to buy a large enough roast. But I did use some of the supplies, meaning that another grocery run had to happen in addition to the butcher visit. Side note, my butcher will let me know the next time they get mutton, and there will be veal by the end of the week! I won't have to buy grocery store meat next time I have a veal menu! This is very exciting.


Anyway, I made the cake when I got home from Y's house and before my afternoon students. Be prepared for a lot of sticky chopping, for it takes a lot of minced dates to make a full cup. Also, I realized while making it, that a liquid was needed. It's very difficult to have vanilla be your only liquid... I added milk, and just poured until it was a quick bread batter consistency. Maybe 2/3rds of a cup?< Everything else was cooked back to back.


I started by making the gelatin. Easy enough, although I misjudged when to add in the pickles, and it didn't gel smoothly. (Also didn't unmould well.)


Next I started the roast andd the veg. I used the broiler for the first section of the cooking, and then fluctuated between 350F and 450F as it cooked, eventually needing around 1.75 hrs to cook.


I had potatoes (with some carrots for good measure) cooking with the meat the whole time.


We almost didn't get gravy because someone wheedled Yorkshire Pudding out of me, and that takes drippings. (Recipe from Fanny Farmer, courtesy of my Aunt C.)


Luckily, we had the "chicken carcass turning into stock" on the back burner, so I made chicken gravy to go with our roast beef. (My college experience taught me to never avoid free calories.)


Which leaves us at our bread and marmalade. I bought marmalade rather than make it (although recipe was given), but had to settle for orange as no one sells grapefruit marmalade.

Verdict? Pretty damn tasty. Roast took an hour longer than expected, the jelly is fine but way more than anyone could eat, ditto potato portion size, and I opted not to do the sliced oranges, even though I have them. It was just a little much. But the cake! Glorious cake. Soft, moist, sweet, just the right amount of texture. And I didn't need to use the mixer for it. I will be making this again.

Date Loaf Cake

1 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 c dates, cut fine
1/2 c nut meats, cut fine
milk*

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar thoroughly. Add the dates, nut meats, vanilla and milk*. Mix thoroughly, add the egg yolks and mix well.

Beat the egg whites until very stiff. Cut and fold these into the mixture. Pour into a loaf cake pan prepared with waxed paper. Bake in a slow oven for fifty minutes.

Makes 12 pieces.

* Editor's Note: the recipe did not originally call for milk, however it very greatly needed liquid. I added enough milk to make a wet batter, much like other quick breads.

Bettina's Jelly Pickle

2 tsp granulated gelatin
4 Tbs cold water
3/4 c vinegar from a jar of sweet pickles
2 Tbs sweet pickles, chopped fine
1 Tbs olives, chopped fine
1 Tbs spiced peach, chopped fine
1 Tbs pickled melon rind

Soak the gelatin in cold water for ten minutes. Heat the vinegar and when very hot pour into the gelatin mixture. Stir until dissolved. When partially congealed so that the fruit will not stay on the top, add the pickles, olives, peaches and rind. Pour into a well-moistened layer mould or four small ones. Set in a cold place one hour. Unmould.

Makes 4 portions

Browned Gravy

4 Tbs beef drippings
2 Tbs flour
1 c water
1/4 tsp salt

Place four tablespoons of beef drippings in a pan, add the flour and allow to brown. Add the rest of the drippings, the water and the salt. Cook two minutes. Serve hot.

Makes 6 portions

Brown Potatoes

6 potatoes
1 tsp salt

Wash and peel the potatoes. Sprinkle with salt. Forty minutes before the roast is to be done, add the potatoes. During the last ten minutes of cooking the lid may be removed from the meat and potatoes to allow all to brown nicely.

Makes 6 portions

Roast Beef

3 1/2 lb rump roast of beef
4 Tbs flour
2 tsp salt
1/4 c hot water

Roll the roast in the flour and set on a rack in a dripping-pan. Place in a hot oven and sear over all sides. Sprinkle the salt over the meat and add the hot water. Cover the meat and cook in a moderate oven. Baste every fifteen minutes. Allow fifteen minutes per pound for a rare roast, and twenty minutes a pound for a well done roast. When properly done, the outside fat is crisp and brown.

Makes 8 portions.

Cheese Wafers

6 salted wafers
1/2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs yellow cream cheese*
1/2 Tbs pimento, cut fine
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp paprika

Cream the butter, add the cheese, pimento, salt and paprika and mix into a paste. Spread carefully on top of the wafers. Place in a moderate oven until a delicate brown. Serve with the salad.

Editor's note, yellow cream cheese was also called New York cream cheese. It was a cheese that when grated and dried, would crumble into a powder. A modern substitute could be parmesan, either sprinkle can or grated cheese.

Light Rolls

2 Tbs sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c scalded milk
1/2 yeast cake
3/4 c flour
2 Tbs melted butter
1 egg, well-beaten
2 Tbs lukewarm water
flour

Add the sugar and salt to the scalded milk and when lukewarm, add the yeast dissolved in the lukewarm water, and three-fourths of a cup of flour. Cover and set in a warm place to rise. Then add the melted butter, the well beaten egg, and enough flour to knead. Let rise in a warm place. Roll to one-half an inch in thickness and shape with a biscuit cutter. Butter the top of each. Fold over, place in a buttered pan, close together. Let rise again for forty-five minutes and then bake in a quick oven for twenty minutes.

Hickory Nut Cake and Bettina's Confectioner's Icing

Hickory Nut Cake
1/3 c butter
1 1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
1/2 c chopped hickory nut meats
4 tsp baking powder
2 c flour
3/4 c milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp lemon extract

Cream the butter, add the sugar and mix well. Add the egg yolks, the nut meats*, and the flour and baking powder sifted together. Then add the milk, vanilla and lemon extract. Beat vigorously for two minutes. Add the whites stiffly beaten. Mix thoroughly and pour into two layer cake pans prepared with buttered paper. Bake twenty-five minutes in a moderate oven. Ice with confectioner's icing.

* Editor's note, if using an electric mixer, you might wait to add the nuts until just before the egg whites, stirring both in gently by hand.

Bettina's Confectioner's Icing

2 Tbs cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1 c powdered sugar

Mix the cream and extracts. Gradually add the powdered sugar sifted through a strainer. Add enough sugar to form a creamy icing which will easily spread upon the cake. (More than a cup of sugar may be needed.)

Bettina Salad and Salad Dressing

Bettina Salad
3 slices of pineapple
3 halves of pears
6 marshmallows
3 maraschino cherries
6 halves of nut meats
3 Tbs salad dressing
3 Tbs whipped cream
3 pieces of lettuce

Wash the lettuce and arrange on salad plates. Lay a slice of pineapple on the lettuce and half a pear, the hollow side up, on the pineapple. Fill the cavity of the pear with salad dressing, and place one tablespoon of whipped cream on top of the salad dressing. Arrange two nut halves, two marshmallows and one cherry attractively on each portion. Serve very cold.

Makes 3 portions.

Salad Dressing
4 egg yolks
1/2 c vinegar
1/2 c water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp mustard
4 Tbs sugar
1/4 tsp paprika
2 Tbs flour

Beat the egg yolks, add the vinegar. Mix the salt, mustard, sugar, paprika and flour thoroughly. Slowly add the water, taking care not to let the mixture get lumpy. Pour into the yolks and vinegar. Cook slowly, stirring constantly until thick and creamy. Thin with sour cream or whipped cream.

Chicken a la King

2/3 c cold, cooked chicken, diced
3 Tbs butter
1 Tbs green pepper, cut fine
1 Tbs pimento, cut fine
1/8 tsp celery salt
2 Tbs flour
1 1/2 c milk
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg yolk, beaten
3 slices toast

Melt the butter, add the green pepper, cook slowly for 2 minutes, and then add the flour. Mix well and add the milk slowly. Cook until creamy.

Add the celery salt and the salt. When very hot, add the beaten egg yolk. Mix well, and add the chicken and pimento. Reheat.

Serve very hot on hot toast. (Do not cook the sauce any longer than absolutely necessary after the egg yolk is added.)

Makes 3 portions.

Creamed Cauliflower

1 head cauliflower
4 c water
1 tsp salt
1 c vegetable white sauce*

Separate the cauliflower into sections, wash well and cook in boiling salted water until tender. (About half an hour.) Drain and cover with vegetable white sauce.

Makes two servings.

* Vegetable white sauce is made with a roux of 1 Tbs butter, melted, add 1 Tbs flour and cook briefly before slowly adding 1 c of milk, stirring to eliminate lumps. Cook until thickness desired. Will thicken when cold, if made ahead of time. To thin, add hot water.

Chocolate Nougat Cake and White Mountain Cream Icing

Chocolate Nougat Cake
4 Tbs butter
2/3 c sugar
2 oz chocolate
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs water
1 egg
1/2 c milk
1 1/3 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla

Cook the two tablespoons of sugar, water and chocolate together for one minute, stirring constantly. Cream the butter, add the sugar, the whole egg and the flour, baking powder and soda sifted together. Add the vanilla. Beat two minutes. Stir in the chocolate. Pour into two square layer cake pans prepared with wax paper. Bake twenty two minutes in a moderate oven. Chocolate cakes burn easily and they should be carefully watched while baking.

Ice with White Mountain Cream Icing.

White Mountain Cream Icing
1 c granulated sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 c water
1 egg white
1/2 tsp vanilla

Boil the sugar, water and cream of tartar together without stirring. Remove from fire as soon as the syrup hairs when dropped from a spoon. Pour very slowly onto the stiffly beaten egg white. Beat vigorously with sweeping strokes until cool. If icing gets too hard to spread, add a little warm water and keep beating. Add extract and spread on cake. Decorate with tiny pink candies.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

3 good sized sweet potatoes
2 c water
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbs butter
2 Tbs milk
1/4 tsp paprika

Wash the potatoes and remove any bad spots. Add the water, and cook gently until tender. Drain, and peel while still hot, by holding the potatoes on the end of a fork. Mash with a spoon or a potato masher, adding the salt, butter, milk and paprika. Beat one minute. Pile lightly in a buttered baking dish, and place in a moderate oven about twenty minutes until a light brown.

Makes two portions

Swiss Steak

1 lb of round steak two-thirds of an inch thick
5 Tbs flour
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 c water
1 Tbs onion
2 cloves
1 Tbs bacon fat

Wipe the steak with a damp cloth, trim the edges to remove any gristle, and pound the flour into the meat, using a side of a heavy plate for the pounding. This breaks up the tendons of the meat. Place the bacon fat in a frying pan and when hot, add the meat. Brown thoroughly on each side.

Lower the flame. Add the bay leaf, salt, pepper, onion, clove and water. Cover with a lid and allow to cook slowly for one and a half hours. More water may be needed if the gravy boils down. Pour the gravy over the meat when serving. This recipe is good for the fireless.

Makes three portions

Cranberry Jelly

2 c cranberries
2/3 c water
3/4 c sugar

Look over the cranberries, removing any stems and soft berries. Add the water and cook until the skins have burst and all the berries are soft.

Press through a strainer, removing all the pulp. Add the sugar to the pulp, and cook until the mixture is thick, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. When the jelly stands up on a plate it is done. Pour into moulds (preferably of china or glass) which have been wet with cold water.

Makes three portions

Baking Powder Biscuits

2 c flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbs lard
2/3 c milk

Mix and sift the flour, baking powder and salt; cut in the lard with a knife until the consistency of cornmeal. Add the milk, mixing with a knife. Pat into a rectangular shape, one-half inch thick, on a floured board. Cut with a biscuit cutter one and one-half inches in diameter. Place side by side in a tin pan. Bake in a moderate oven fifteen minutes.

Makes fifteen biscuits

Creamed Potatoes

1 c diced cooked potatoes
1 Tbs green pepper, chopped fine
1 Tbs butter
1 Tbs flour
1/2 c milk
1/4 tsp salt

Melt the butter, add the flour and salt, mix well, and add the milk slowly. Cook until creamy, and add the potatoes and the chopped green pepper. Serve very hot.

Makes two portions.

Caramel Custard

1 c milk
3 eggs
4 Tbs sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla

Melt the sugar to a light brown syrup in a saucepan over a hot fire. Add the milk and cook slowly until free from lumps. Beat the egg, sugar, salt and vanilla, and pour the liquid slowly into the egg mixture. Pour into buttered molds. Set the moulds in a pan of hot water and bake in a moderate oven until the custard is firm (about forty minutes). Do not let the water in the pan reach the boiling point during the process of baking.

Makes two portions.

Chicken Loaf

1/2 c cooked chicken
1/2 c ground, cooked veal
1/2 c soft bread crumbs
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp celery salt
1 tsp chopped parsley
1 egg
1/2 c milk

Mix the chicken, veal and bread crumbs. Add the salt, celery salt, parsley, egg and milk. Mix thoroughly. Bake in a well-buttered pan thirty minutes in a moderate oven.

Makes two portions.

Tapioca and Date Pudding

4 Tbs tapioca
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbs cold water
1 c boiling water
2 Tbs sugar
8 dates, cut fine
1 Tbs lemon juice
1 egg yolk
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla

Soak the tapioca in cold water for ten minutes. Add the salt and boiling water and cook in a double boiler until transparent. (About twenty minutes.)

Add the sugar and the dates cut fine, the lemon juice, egg yolk and vanilla. Remove from the fire and add the stiffly beaten egg whites. Pile the mixture lightly in glass dishes and serve cold.

Makes three servings.

Baked Tomato, Cheese and Rice

1 c cooked rice
1/3 c tomatoes
4 Tbs cheese, cut fine
1 Tbs pimento
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp paprika
1 Tbs flour
1/2 c milk
1 Tbs melted butter
1/4 c cracker or bread crumbs

Mix the rice and flour, and add the tomatoes, cheese, salt and paprika. Add the milk. Pour into a well-buttered baking dish. Melt the butter and add the crumbs. Spread the buttered crumbs on the rice mixture. Bake in a moderate oven for twenty-five minutes.

Makes three portions

Baked Veal Steak

1 slice of veal steak (three-fourths of a pound, one-half inch thick)
3 Tbs flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp paprika
2 Tbs bacon fat
2 Tbs water

Wipe the veal and cut off any rind. Mix the flour, salt, and paprika. Roll the steak thoroughly in this mixture.

Place the bacon fat in the frying pan and when hot add the meat and brown thoroughly on both sides.

Placethe drippings and the meat in a small baking pan. Add in the water, cover, and place in the oven. Cook one hour. More water may be added if necessary.

This is a good recipe for the fireless.

Makes three portions.

Recipe Update

My sister pointed out that most people would not download a book just to check for recipes. So I will be making separate posts for the recipes that used, and will link back in the original posts.

January Menu no 4

So I made the next menu yesterday, and had my buddy A over again with my husband and me. This meal was technically a luncheon for Bettina and her friends. My husband was very leery of this menu (and the next as well) because there are some very 20th century foods on these menus.

The menu is:
Chicken a la King
Toast
Light Rolls and Butter
Bettina Salad
Salad Dressing
Cheese Wafers
Strawberry Sherbet
Hickory Nut Cake
Candied Orange Peel

There were a few changes to the menu. Firstly, I skipped the candied orange peel. We didn't need more sugar. Secondly, I could not find strawberry sherbet, and I feared raspberry would be too sour. So I bought strawberry ice cream (although I forgot to serve it!)


The chicken dish was quite tasty - chopped chicken, from a roast I made that afternoon, in a cream sauce. My husband said it was a little bland. It was served on toast. The rolls were delicious and easy enough to make. This made pull apart rolls, which I didnt expect! The Bettina Salad worried my husband. It's a bed of lettuce, with a slice of pineapple, half of a pear, salad dressing in the hollow of the pear, whipped cream on top, a maraschino cherry, two walnut halves and two marshmallows. Yeah. It surprisingly wasn't terrible! I ate the components separately, and the pear plus salad dressing plus whipped cream was quite tasty. The cheese crackers were also on the side of the salad. This was also the first time I'd ever made a boiled salad dressing. Annoyingly, I had to reduce the recipe by three quarters, as the original recipe called for 12 servings and I needed 3.


The cheese crackers were easy enough to make, but I dont think that making a cheese spread and baking SIX CRACKERS is really a worthwhile use of my time. Just sayin'.


The cake went well, and easily. Although I subbed in walnuts as I couldn't find hickory nuts. Oh, and the frosting was delightfully easy, unlike last time's kerfluffle.


Round up, cheese wafers aren't worth time, and Bettina Salad is odd and awkward to eat. But everything else is worthwhile.

January Menu No. 3

I wound up making the third menu yesterday, as I am terrible at keeping to the schedule. But I had my buddy A over, and the three of us watched A Series of Unfortunate Events and ate the menu.

The menu was:
Swiss Steak
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Creamed Cauliflower
Bread and Butter
Chocolate Nougat Cake

This was a less successful meal. Firstly, I think that vegetables were smaller a hundred years ago. One cauliflower is more than two or three servings, and three good sized sweet potatoes is far more than what is needed for three people. Also, the cake was supposed to be frosted with white mountain icing, and boy oh boy is frosting an area that I am lacking! It's not a buttercream, it's beating molten sugar into beaten egg whites. And I think I'm going to cheat and use the mixer next time before I fully write off the recipe. Also the cake was so outrageously fluffy! I forget that that is a desired quality in cake, as it merely screams "box mix" to me, even though I know perfectly well that it's from scratch.

But dinner was very edible, and not terrible for all that the portions were skewed and it took longer than I would like. Boo. Oh, and for all that the meat recipe was supposedly good for the fireless, it was nearly cold when I pulled it out.

So this meal wont be repeated without some changes.

January Dinner no. 2

Coked the second meal today (I know, it was supposed to be Tuesday, but I didn't get around to making chicken for leftovers yet). Prep for the actual meal, I roasted chicken breasts for early dinner yesterday (and made chicken dumpling soup for midnight snack, yum!). I thawed the second package of ground veal. Cooked down cranberries for jam. And while making cookies this afternoon, I also baked all of the sad little potatoes we had in the house (they needed a lot of spots cut off, poor potatoes!). And then I was ready for this evening!

Menu:
Chicken Loaf
Creamed Potatoes
Baking Soda Biscuits
Cranberry Jelly
Caramel Custard

I was nervous about this meal. Many of the components needed to be in the oven damn near close to the same times. But, I came home from work, cooked the veal, added sugar and jarred the cranberries, and picked the chicken carcass. Then I made the loaf. While the oven was heating, I made the custard. Put both in the oven at the same time. Made the biscuits. Made the potatoes. And because all of the steps were back to back, I was able to use one bowl and one saucepan, just rewashing after every step. And then bing bang boom, dinner was all ready, all at once. Magic!

Both my husband and I feel this was a very successful meal. Add in a vegetable, and you have a very solid and well portioned meal for two! This will be happening again. I do find it amusing how everything is beige. :)

First Dinner!

Yesterday I cooked the first menu from the project. The official menu was:

Baked Veal Steak
Baked Tomato, Cheese and Rice
Bread and Butter
Tapioca and Date Pudding



I made the pudding yesterday afternoon, as it's to be served cold. Its a pretty easy recipe and went together quickly. It made three servings.



As my butcher does not sell veal, I bought two pork chops to make the meat dish, and used tomato sauce instead of chopped tomatoes in the rice. And how did it all turn out?



Delicious! It was a very tasty way to cook pork, and the rice tasted much as expected. The bread and butter tasted as expected. The only surprise was the pudding. Very lemony! Good, but uexpected for tapioca. Also the beaten egg whites did something unusual with the consistency. But very tasty!

Fireless Cooker: Success!

One of the things that Bettina goes on and on about is her fireless cooker. It's labor saving, it's money saving, it's gas saving. She waxed eloquent about it so much that I looked it up.

Turns out that a fireless cooker is a variation on an old fashioned passive cooker, specifically the haybale variety. You heat food to boiling, cover it tightly, and insulate the whole thing. This is best for foods which would normally be several hours at a low temperature to cook, e.g., beans, roasts, oatmeal.

So last night I made one. Although Bettina's was bought, and might have also had additional heating stones in a handsome piece of furniture, I made mine out of fabric scraps and my canning kettle.


I sewed two denim pant legs together and evened out the width to be roughly ten inches when stuffed (that being the height of my kettle). Using scrap fabric, I filled the pant legs, attempting to quilt panels as I went, with mixed results.



Turns out, my machine really hated this project and now needs as tuneup. (This is piggybacking my last project of a heavy wool coat, so it's had hard usage.) I then made a little pillow out of pockets to put in the center , directly underneath the pot, along with a few pieces of scrap cardboard to act as a heat shield. I then set up my cooker!


I curled the pant legs around the inside of the kettle, put the pocket pillow in the middle and the cardboard on top.


I then started oatmeal boiling in the asparagus kettle. When it was good and boiling, I put it in the fireless, put a pillow on top, and tied the lid on tightly. And so, more than 12 hours later, we had warm and cooked oatmeal for breakfast! I consider this project a success and am looking forward to repeating it.

Notes about the oatmeal: it clumped together outrageously, make sure to have a little extra water, or boiling water ready in the morning.

January Menu Planning

There are 5 menus for the month of January. This makes it an easy month to ease into the project. (The book itself starts in June, after the wedding of Bettina and Bob.) As I am near my butcher shop on Fridays, I have planned on having meat meals on Fridays. But quite a few of these recipes use leftovers, so I have also planned out the meals needed for leftovers.

Tomorrow, Thursday the 5th, I will cook rice for leftovers and bacon for fat.
Friday the 6th I will cook the first menu, specifically no. 2. As a sub for veal, I will purchase a pound of pork tenderloin, leaving leftovers. I will also need canned pimentos, tapioca pearls and dates.
Monday the 9th, I will make chicken and bread for leftovers.
Tuesday the 10th I will cook menu no.1, and need to make or purchase cranberry jelly.
On Friday the 13th, I will cook menu no.4, and need to buy 1# round steak, sweet potatoes, and cauliflower.
Friday the 20th, I need to purchase grapefruit marmalade, dates, oranges, and 2# rump roast to make menu no.6.
On Thursday the 26th, I will cook chicken and bread for leftovers.
On Friday the 27th, I will cook menu no.5 and will need to purchase canned pineapple, canned pears, maraschino cherries, marshmallows, whipped cream, legtuce, hickory nuts, strawberry sherbet.

New Year, New Project

As many people who know me have discovered, I enjoy collecting and reading vintage and historical cookbooks. This has led to some abortive attempts to do historical cooking projects.

But it is 100 years since the publish date of one of my favorite ridiculously cute and dated cookbook. A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband, with Bettina's Best Recipes; The Romance of Cookery and Housekeeping. Written by Louise Bennett Weaver and Helen Cowles LeCron and published in 1917 by A.L. Burt Company Publishers in New York.

This cute (and very heteronormative) book is written ss a novel about newlyweds Bettina and Bob and all of their young people friends. Each chapter ends with a menu of a meal, and the recipes to make them. Critics of this book find Bettina preach-y, and moderately obnoxious. I do find her emphasis on everyone finding life fulfillment as a married housewife irksome, but I accept it as the mores of the time. Also, I consider this book as a late adherent of the conversation novel, with a knowing teacher and uneducated student. Note: this book is available for free on Project Gutenburg.

So my goal for this year is to cook the menus listed in the proscribed months. I will start this Friday hopefully!