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A happy autumn greeting from the Open Line. Summer has slipped away and a new season presents itself for inspection. We should say summer washed away this year with so much extra rain. Looking back to the last month of summer on the Open Line, what a busy month. So many pickles found their way into jars. So many grapes turned into jelly and jam. A card written in Norwegian from Wisconsin and the days we spent trying to get it translated. The nice lady from Coates and Clark and her "Idiot's Delight" stitch. What a busy month. From that busy month on the Open Line, here is one of the best collections of recipes yet to come to you in our monthly bulletin.
May I add a personal thanks for your nice cards to Debbie while she was in the hospital. Your mail and inquiries were very heartwarming to Barbara and me and brought much cheer to Debbie during her two weeks at St. Lukes. She was able to start school sound, healthy, and happy. A very sincere thanks from the Loyds for your thoughtfulness.
Our first recipe this month is another cake you'll add to your favorites with the Iowa Chocolate Cake and the Milky Way Cake. While it doesn't use the candy bars it sounds like in the recipe, the finished product tastes just like it.
PETER PAUL MOUND CAKE
1 package Duncan Hines Devil Food
Cake Mix (this one does the best, but can use
other brand)
4 eggs
1 package instant chocolate pudding
¾ cup cooking oil
¾ cup water
Mix all ingredients at once. Makes 9 x 13 inch cake. Bake 35 minutes at 350°. FROSTING: Boil 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk until it begins to thicken. Remove from heat when it reaches the consistency of thin gravy. Add 20 marshmallows, and 14 ounces of fine coconut. Mix well and spread over cooked cake. Taste will improve if cake is served the next day.
While we are talking about delicious desserts, here is the lemon pie that makes its own topping that turns out to be a cake. Mrs. Hovorka found it in her recipes and called it in for the Open Line. This is the original form of the delicious dish.
PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH PIE
1 cup sugar
¼ cup flour
¼ cup melted butter or margarine
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, separated
2 lemons juice and grated rind
1 cup milk
1 9 inch unbaked pie shell
Combine sugar, butter, flour, salt and egg yolks. Beat until smooth. Beat in lemon juice and rind. Add milk, beating slowly. Beat egg whites stiff but not dry and fold in. Bake pie shell at 350° for five minutes. Pour filling into hot pie shell and bake for 40 minutes or until filling is firm.
CHOCOLATE SAUCE FOR HOT FUDGE SUNDAES
Blend 1 cup sugar, 1/3 cup cocoa, 2 tablespoons flour, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Add 1 cup boiling water and one tablespoon butter and cook until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add ¼ teaspoon vanilla.
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Mrs. Harold Iburg of Williamsburg, Iowa used this recipe to win one of Dean Landfear's Voice of Iowa weekly contests looking for Dagwood Sandwiches. It's quite a sandwich.
GRILLED CHEESE SUPREME
10 ounces of ground beef
2/3 cup finely chopped celery
½ cup finely chopped onion
6 tablespoons tomato paste
1½ teaspoons chili powder
¾ teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon horseradish mustard
¾ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
½ cup water (approximately)
18 slices Colonial Sandwich Bread
12 slices Processed American Cheese
Softened butter
Mix beef, onion, and celery together in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Cover and cook 15 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, chili powder, sugar, horseradish mustard, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Add enough water to moisten. Cover and continue to cook 15 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, spread 2 slices of bread with butter. With a 3 inch round cutter, cut out centers from remaining 6 slices of bread. Preheat frypan or broiler. To assemble sandwiches, place 6 buttered slices on board, buttered side down. Cover each with 1 slice of cheese. Place bread slices with centers removed over cheese. Spoon ¼ cup of beef mixture into center and cover with slice of cheese. Close sandwiches with remaining bread, buttered side up. Grill on both sides until golden brown.
Here is another hot meat dish you'll want for your table. Left over pork and beef can be used in this recipe as well as fresh meat.
FRUIT DUMPLINGS
Boil 2 medium potatoes. Drain and cool. Beat the potatoes and 2 eggs together with mixer. Add about 4 cups of flour until dough is barely sticky. Wrap each big blue Italian plum (unpeeled and unseeded) with dough. Just pull off enough dough to cover plum with about ¼ inch thickness. Place in boiling salted water. Let dumpling boil until it rises to top (about 15 minutes). Remove with spoon. Put in bowl. Sprinkle sugar over them to taste. Top with about ¼ pound melted butter. Makes about 16 dumplings.
MOCK CHICKEN LOAF
1 pound pork
1 pound beef
4 eggs
6 slices bread
salt, pepper, and sage to taste
Boil pork and beef and cut into small pieces when done. Beat eggs and cut bread into small pieces. Combine all ingredients. Moisten mixture with broth in which meat was cooked. Bake in greased baking dish for one hour at 350°.
Here is two cookie recipes, both receiving their share of requests on the Open Line and both a natural for the bulletin.
APPLESAUCE COOKIES
½ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup applesauce
2¼ cups sifted flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
¼ teaspoon cloves
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup raisins
½ cup nutmeats
coconut if desired
Cream shortening and sugar and add remaining ingredients. Bake at 400° for 10 to 12 minutes on greased cookie sheet.
Here is another Bohemian recipe that is easier to fix than it is for me to say. Let's just call them fruit dumplings. This recipe calls for the big Italian plums, but other fruit can be used.
LUNCH BOX COOKIES
2 1/3 cups sifted flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening (margarine)
¾ cup sugar
1 package (6 oz.) butterscotch
pieces
2 eggs
Extra granulated sugar for dipping
tops.
Sift flour, baking soda, and salt together. Cream shortening and sugar. Melt butterscotch pieces over hot but not boiling water. Blend into creamed mixture. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well. Mix in sifted dry ingredients. Form into balls about 1/3 inches in diameter. Roll or dip tops in sugar, Place on ungreased cookie sheet several inches apart and bake at 350° for 15 minutes. Makes 24 3½ inch cookies.
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If your family likes buckwheat pancakes, then why not have them every morning? Here is the old fashioned way to make the starter and the wheat cakes.
STARTER:
1½ cups flour
½ cup pure buckwheat flour
1 package dry yeast (softened in
lukewarm water)
1/3 cup sugar
Mix the above ingredients with enough water to make a thick sponge. Cover tightly and set in a warm place four or five days, stirring sponge down once or twice daily.
TO MAKE PANCAKES WITH STARTER:
To the starter add 1 cup white flour and 1/3 cup pure buckwheat flour the night before you plan to have the pancakes. Cover lightly with cloth. Next morning, combine ¼ teaspoon soda, ½ teaspoon salt, 3 teaspoons of sugar in a cup and fill with lukewarm water. Stir into batter. Bake pancakes on hot griddle. Always have approximately two cups batter left from one day to the next for the starter. Using this as the starter, repeat the above directions. Can be used as long as two weeks. (Mrs. Tow, Cedar Rapids, Iowa).
TO FREEZE MUSHROOMS: Wash, trim and sort. Cut larger mushrooms into quarters. Dip mushrooms for 3 minutes in a mixture of i tablespoon lemon juice to a quart of water or 1 teaspoon ascorbic acid to a quart of water. Scald small, whole or sliced mushrooms for 2 minutes. Scald large or whole mushrooms for 4 minutes. Cool, package, and freeze.
APPLE BUTTER
Cut four pounds of apples in pieces. Dust and remove the bad spots, no need to peel or core. Cook in 2 cups of mild cider vinegar or water until soft. Put through sieve. Measure pulp. To each cup of pulp measure out ½ cup sugar. Combine sugar and pulp with a few grains of salt, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 teaspoon cloves and ½ teaspoon all spice. An optional ingredient, the juice of one lemon and grated rind can be added. Cover . and cook over low heat till sugar is dissolved. Uncover, cook quickly until thick and smooth when you spoon a bit on a cold plate. Stir with wooden spoon while cooking. Makes 10-6 ounce glasses. Also makes peach, plum and apricot butter.
HINTS AND HELPS
Baked apples and cold weather just naturally go together, but their relationship will definitely be improved by the addition of a piece of peppermint stick candy slipped into the center of each apple.
If your oven doesn't turn out baking powder biscuits with the desired golden brown top, add a teaspoon of sugar to the dry ingredients next time you make them. When baked, they will have a lovely golden color.
To prevent fish from sticking to the skillet, add a bit of vinegar to the fat. This not only prevents sticking, but adds a delicious flavor to any fish.
Put a ball of string in a plastic funnel (color to match kitchen), hang a small pair of scissors beside it...and you'll never have to "hunt" again.
Keep a bag of marbles in your clothes basket, and on windy days, drop 1 or 2 in each stocking before hanging out to dry. They will provide enough weight to stop the wind from tangling the hose, but not enough to pull the stockings out of shape.
Experienced cooks do a roast with the fat side up. The juices soak down into the meat and keep it basted and moist.
A ring mold gives a new appearance to the familiar meat loaf. Fill the center with rice cooked in tomato juice, mashed potatoes or potato salad.
Lemon juice beaten into white frosting that has become too hard will soften it.
Cake may be crumbled on a cookie sheet and placed beneath a broiler flame until crisp and brown. It can then be mixed with crushed candy crumbs (take your rolling pin) and used on ice cream as a crunchy topping.
Cut a slip from your favorite rosebush and stick the stem into a white potato. The moisture will make the slip develop roots. Remove the slip and plant. Cover the tiny shoot with a glass fruit jar and leave it for a year or so. Keep moist at all times.
If a creaking door is driving you crazy, rub the hinge with a lead pencil.
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Here is a recipe that is a lot of work, but worth every minute of it. A nice way to use fresh grapes.
CONCORD GRAPE PIE
4 cups Concord grapes
1 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons flour or 2½
tablespoons minute tapioca
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
Pastry for 9 inch double crust
Skin grapes, saving skins, and put pulp in saucepan without water. Bring to boil. While hot, put through strainer to remove seeds. Combine strained pulp with skins. Mix sugar, salt, and flour together. Put about ¼ of this mixture on bottom of pastry lined shell and mix remainder with grapes. Add lemon juice. Turn into crust and dot with butter. Cover with top crust and bake in hot oven at 450° for ten minutes, then reduce heat to moderate oven and bake at 350° 25 to 30 minutes longer.
GRAPE JELLY #l
1 gallon grapes, with stems removed
¼ cup water
3 cups sugar
pinch of salt
Boil grapes in water very slowly until pulps and skins start to separate. Strain juice and measure out two cups of grape juice. Bring juice to real hard boil and pour over sugar and salt. Stir until dissolved. Pour in glasses and allow 2 days to jell.
GRAPE JELLY #2
1 cup grapes, uncooked, whole
1 cup sugar
Cook together 20 minutes from boiling
point. Run through strainer and seal in jars
immediately.
GRAPE JUICE
Wash and stem grapes. Put in kettle with just enough water to show through the grapes. Bring to roiling boil. Boil 15 minutes. Strain. To each quart juice, add ½ cup sugar. Boil l0 more minutes. Seal while hot.
If you need a low calorie jam for the table, here is one for the grapes.
LO-CAL GRAPE JAM
5½ pints of grape pulp and
juice
1¼ cup minute tapioca
9 teaspoons artificial sweetener
Cook until it thickens to a test jam.
Now for some more pickle recipes,
These are mostly left over from last month but
still in time to be used this year.
CHERRY DILL PICKLES
Make a brine with 1 cup salt and five quarts of water. Pack 3 to 4 inch cucumbers. In large crock or jar, putting a layer of cherry leaves and dill between each layer. Fill jar. Pour brine over them and let stand 2 weeks. Pour off brine. Wipe cucumbers dry. Cut into 1 inch pieces. Pack into fruit jars, but not tight. Add a few mixed spices (stick cinnamon and whole cloves). Make a syrup of 1 cup vinegar and 1½ cup sugar. Let come to a boil. Pour over pickles and seal. Do not boil spices.
SWEET DILLS
4 cups dill pickles, cut into chunks
½ cup cider vinegar
3 tablespoons pickling spices
1 tiny red pepper
3 cups sugar
Combine ingredients in a large bowl. Cover and let stand seven to ten days in refrigerator, stirring once daily.
ICICLE PICKLES
6 pounds of medium size cucumbers, each cut in 4 to 8 pieces according to size of the cucumbers. Soak in ice water for 3 hours. Drain and pack into jars adding:
6 pickling onions
1 piece celery
1 teaspoon mustard seed
Bring to a boil for syrup:
3 quarts white vinegar
3 cups sugar
1 cup salt
Pour over cucumbers and seal at once.
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