Appetizers - Celery Pinwheels

I'm on my third time through the cook book now, sort of.  Last time through I skipped some of the short sections.  Maybe I'll hit each section again this time.  With only 9 recipes to the Appetizers section though, hitting the section too frequently will make me exhaust the section and see me drinking consomme... bleh.  But I had an excuse to make celery pinwheels, we were going over to grill with friends and visit with people.  So I got to foist questionable sounding food on friends.  Amazingly enough, they're still friends, hooray!

Pinwheels.  Everybody loves pinwheels, right?  I remember waving them in the air at some little town parade.  I remember taking one out of some little garden where they were put in the ground around the flowers.  I vaguely remember some funny old children's show called Pinwheel, or more precisely I remember the theme song for the show.

I don't remember anything about the show or where I might have seen it though since we never had cable.  Looking for this video clip got me deep down a wikipedia rabbit hole and lead me to another show that a just barely remember, that had a mannequin that came to life or something depending on whether it had its hat on.

The internet is nuts.  Why would I ever have thought about this old show that I maybe saw only a handful of times.  But I digress.

Aaron and Sarah's 5th Annual Pie-Off

As I may have mentioned last year, having a pie party may be the best idea I've ever had.  I mean there is only goodness that comes from a party like this.  It has three of the most important things needed in a party:  pie, friends, and more pie.  This year, we had a total of 22 pies, more than any previous year, so if anybody walked away without a distended stomach, that was their own fault.  I got pictures of almost all of the pies and their makers.  I'll provide a little commentary where I remember things, but my goal was simply to have some of every pie at the party so there is plenty that I simply don't remember.  Now without further ado, the pictures I had time to take:

Tammi and her Rumrunner Pecan Pie and her apple pie pops

Tammi posted a link to the recipe to her pecan pie.  She has won prizes in the past, and always brings good stuff.  This pie had a delightfully rummy taste that didn't overpower.  It was thoroughly enjoyable.  She won the State Fair Wannabe prize for her apple pie pops.

A Look Back and Wisdom of the Ladies

As I finished the Ranger Cookies post, I realized that I'd reached the end of the cook book for the second time.  Now granted, I skipped over the shorter sections the second time around in order to not finish those recipes there much faster than those from the longer sections, but still I feel like this is something of an accomplishment.  26 recipes later, the sense I get is that though food has changed pretty drastically 60+ years, there are some commonalities between the kitchen experiences of the Ladies and what I know today.

Despite a general change in tastes and ideas about food, it is clear to me that there was a strong sense of pride in the food prepared by the Ladies back in 1951.  Of course, recipes self-selected for submission in the cook book were deemed to be good enough in some sense, and probably did not include some of the mundane day to day recipes that were just knocked out when time was short or the cook was tired.  Though life seems to be faster and the day shorter now than what it was 60 years ago, how could a family's (and likely a mother's) schedule not get over-booked and rushed at times?  I'm sure the Ladies didn't submit their equivalent to my "boil pasta, add a jar of sauce, eat cold frozen peas" meals that occasionally make an appearance on our table.  Sometimes dinner is little more than providing sustenance for the family at the end of a long day.  Other recipes though, demonstrate a real sense of pride.

In my mind dishes like sour milk orange cake and carrot ring were probably dishes that were made with  pride or were appropriate for company.  Yes, the carrot ring was pretty terrible to my eyes and tongue, but it had an aesthetic that I think was probably appreciated (based on my limited knowledge of food from the era).  The recipes I made were generally pretty bland compared to what is found more commonly today, but I don't think that really should diminish what the food represented for the Ladies.  Any recipe I would submit to a cook book would surely be something I enjoy, and would enjoy sharing with others and likewise this sense of generosity, caring, and accomplishment shines through (even if some flavors don't) in the recipes of the cook book.  So though the recipes I enjoy to make and share are pretty different from the recipes the Ladies seemed to have liked and shared, I really think I would have enjoyed sharing a kitchen and cooking time with any of them.

--------------------------------------------

Moving on.  I was looking through the first section or two of the cook book trying to decide what to make next when I came across some little bits of wisdom from the Ladies tacked onto the end of the Appetizers section.  So without further ado, Lady wisdom:

Next time:  Appetizers

Fancy Cookies - Ranger Cookies

Ranger cookies.  What are ranger cookies?

Ford Ranger cookies?

Ford shut down the Ranger factory in St. Paul and discontinued the line.  Now there is no factory, no jobs... and Ford is relaunching the Ranger.  Lame.

 Lone Ranger cookies?

Lone Ranger cookies wouldn't have a racist caricature of a side-kick. 

 New York Ranger cookies?

As a Minnesotan, I should probably have an opinion about this.

 Park ranger cookies?

The most helpful cookies around.

 Power Ranger cookies?

They'll defeat... ummm... whatever they defeat.  Hunger, I guess.

 Walker Texas Ranger cookies?

This cookie is probably a jerk.

Whatever ranger cookies are, they're in the Fancy Cookies section of the cook book.  Last time in this section the Powdered Sugar Cookies looked nice, but were lacking in the flavor department.  I guess all we can do is make these cookies, figure out what a ranger cookie is, and give 'em a try.

Vegetables - Harvard Beets: The Return of Mrs. Gust Haugen

Beets.  I like beets.  It took me a long time to realize this was the case though.  Growing up, any beets I had came from a can, and there isn't much that comes out of cans that is really worth consuming (exceptions include baked beans, beer, tomatoes, and various varieties of legumes).  So for a long time at best I was indifferent to beets.  It wasn't until Sarah and I got a CSA box from Featherstone Farm that I had beets by choice.  I will say though that week after week of beets and more beets became something of a chore to eat, but I did learn that beets can be quite good... but not always.  Roasted beets = good.  Beet soup = edible.  Beet salad = good.  Beet hash = funny looking, but alright.

There's one thing though that always strikes me as a little strange about beets, they have tails.  Here's a picture of some of our beets from the farmers' market.

Sweet, innocent beets.

 The tails remind me of rat tails though, and together they make me think about rat kings.

EEEK!  Go away beet king!

Anyway...

This summer, we've been getting beets from the farmers' market more or less regularly as James announced that he likes them.  So seeing a beet recipe in the vegetable section of the cook book seemed like a good idea... or an idea at least.  I was a little concerned though because none of the recipes on the page had a name after them except for the last one, and that name was Mrs. Gust Haugen.  This seems to indicate that each of the recipes on the page were provided by Mrs. Haugen, which filled me with trepidation.

Let's review briefly, our previous submissions by this lady.

Cabbage Rolls: Meh
Carrot Ring and Creamed Peas: RUN AWAY!
Norwegian Meatballs: Meh -

(Meh + RUN AWAY! + (-)Meh)
-------------------------------------------    = Bleh
                       3

If Mrs. Gust Haugen wants to pass this class, she's going to have to step up her game.  Let's see how she does.

The Pie-Off is Coming

Sarah and I are hosting our 5th Annual Pie-Off (I keep capitalizing this differently) soon and we're pretty excited about it.  If you can read this and you're in the Twin Cities area, you're invited.  Here's the deal:

When:  Saturday, September 19 at 4pm
Where:  Newell Park in St. Paul - 900 Fairview Ave N., Saint Paul, MN  55104
Who:  You and your family or a friend
Cost:  A pie!
Why:  Pie!

If you don't remember from last fall, this is essentially sanctioned gluttony.  People bring pie, everybody eats far more pie than is reasonable, and then we vote on "best of" for different categories.  Pies don't need to be entered into specific categories, rather once everybody is done eating we will vote on what pies we think best represent which category.  This year our categories are:

Pretty Pretty Princess
'Merica, the Pie
State Fair Wannabe
Not a Pie, but Nice Try
No Kids Allowed

Whether you are an experienced pie baker, or haven't yet ever made a pie of your own, you're welcome to come.  Bring a pie, bring something to cut and serve your pie with.  We will supply paper plates, forks, and coffee for people as well as some small prizes for the winning pies.  I wold just ask that you let me know if you are interested in coming so we can be sure to have enough supplies for everyone.  Hope to see you there!

Part Two of a Twofer: Candy - Cracker Jack

Candy candy candy.  As much as I love you, I am never confident.  If you'll remember the last time I got to this section, the results were poor.  That just didn't work out well.  I had high(er) hopes for this cracker jack recipe.  Who doesn't like caramel corn?  I'll tell you who.  People who say kair-a-mel.  They don't like caramel corn.  They're just cynical, angry people.  Let's not give them any more of our thought, 'cause even candy that doesn't turn out right is still good and sweet and we don't need to be brought down by those weirdos.

Cracker Jack memories.  The first distinct memory I have of Cracker Jack (capital C and J, here), was when I was probably seven.  We lived in Fargo, and I walked with a friend to a convenience store and was really excited to use some of my own money to buy come Cracker Jack.  Something tells me my mom didn't know about this.  I was buying my own candy, and there was going to be a toy!  I know I'd had it before or I wouldn't have been so excited.  The candy itself must have been good (how could it not be?), but I remember being disappointed by the toy, whatever it was.  Whatever it was I pulled out of that box, it must not have been as good as a previous prize.  One upon a time, it seems like the prizes were pretty good.  Check it out.  I'd be willing to bet that whatever I got back in the early 80s was probably better than what is in boxes of Cracker Jack today.

Well, being as that I was seven, I was probably not capable as being as unhappy as this guy was.  Though I will agree, a pencil topper and a "fun fact", would make me pretty sad.  At least, if I make my own cracker jack (small c and j), I could put my own prizes in.

Part One of a Twofer! Salads: Macaroni Salad

Holy moly, I'm so far behind in updating this blog.  Bad blogger, bad.  It's like I'm letting my education and fathering my children get in the way of exploring the food of the 50s.  Stupid education.  Stinky kids.  Seriously though, I made these two dishes back in April or May and it's been weighing on my mind ever since that I've not yet written about these two very special recipes.  But taking prereqs for nursing school and keeping busy with the boys has kept me pretty busy.  Fear not, faithful reader, I have not abandoned the cook book.  I may not be posting once a week like I did last summer, but I am hoping to update at least monthly.

OH, and lest I forget, Aaron and Sarah's 5th Annual Pie-Off is coming up soon.  We've got over 20 people (plus associated family members) who have RSVPed, so I expect that we'll have at least 20 pies to stuff ourselves with.  This year's Pie-Off categories are:

• Pretty Pretty Princess
• State Fair Wannabe
• Not a Pie, but Nice Try
• 'Merica, the Pie
• No Kids Allowed

If you are interested in joining us, let me know in the comments.  All you need to do is bring a pie, even if it is your first ever homemade pie, and show up ready to stuff yourself.

So now, on to business.  As it has been a couple months, I won't be able to go in as much depth as I usually do simply 'cause I don't remember all of the details.  Oh well.  So first is...

Preparation - Macaroni Salad

There aren't any glaring issues with the recipe, but considering that canned pineapple is the most colorful part of this salad, it's pretty clear that this would make a great addition to one of the white dinners I had growing up.  Who needs color anyway?  The biggest issue I see is with the apples, and the issue is actually two-fold.  It calls for "delicious apples".  Fortunately, it doesn't call for Delicious apples, because Red Delicious apples are atrocious.  It wouldn't surprise me if it was Red Delicious apples that were used simply due to market share at the time, but I'm just going to pretend the recipe author meant delicious with a small 'd', and was thinking about one of the great varieties developed by the U of M.  The second issue with the apples was the amount.  The apples I bought weren't huge, but six apples seemed like a lot.  So I decided that apples in 1951 were probably smaller, so I just used three apples.  But I'm getting ahead of myself here.  On to the recipe!

I'm done blocking out the other recipes.  I don't know why I did that in the first place.

Oh no. No more Jell-O

Forgive me for not having posted much in a while.  I am now two dishes behind and may wind up doing  a mega post with both macaroni salad and caramel corn.  One was eaten quickly, and the other was frightening.  I'll let you guess which was which.  The reason for my tardiness in updates has to do with it being the end of the semester, and my classes are keeping me pretty busy.  I'll be done in a couple weeks, so I'll be able to get caught up and even do a couple more recipes before the start of summer term.  And by the way, I got into the nursing program!  So I'll be busy for the foreseeable future, but I'll be back on the road to steady employment.

Anyway, with this sad little update, I thought I'd share this bit of disturbing news in as much as Jell-Os demise would make doing 90% of the salad section recipes impossible.  Oh no!  Horror of horrors!  And by that I mean, what a relief.

Here's the article from the Strib.

Happy cooking.

Meats & Hot Dishes - Macaroni and Cheese

We are into the most frightening depths of the cook book.  This and the next section frequently cause me to wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat with a paralyzing that some mayonnaise or cream of soup is coming up the stairs to get me.

Don't fall asleep.  Cream of soup's gonna get you.

Previously when I came to the Meats & Hot Dishes section, I made Chow Mein Hot Dish, and it was pretty terrible.  In returning to the section, I didn't want to cherry-pick the best looking or the worst looking recipe on the second page of the section.  It isn't my intention to skew perceptions (too much) of the food of this time period by making things look consistently horrendous, nor by downplaying some of the culinary poor decisions of the age either.  That said, I also don't want food to go to waste.  That last point made me pass on the Tuna Fish Loaf.  2 cups of "tuna fish", with little more than 1/4 of a teaspoon of green pepper or pimiento for seasoning.  Yeah, no thanks.  Instead, I hesitatingly went with the macaroni and cheese.

We make macaroni and cheese regularly here at home, both boxed and home made.  While I am not particularly interested in eating packaged ramen noodles any longer, I don't turn up my nose at boxed mac and cheese.  But given the choice between that and home made mac and cheese, there is no question.  So though, I wasn't inspired with confidence by the recipe, I thought it would be worth a try.

Why did I start blocking out the other recipes on each page?  That was silly.  Too bad I don't have an unaltered scan of this page any longer.  Oh well.

TV Show: Back in Time for Dinner

Using the Hola VPN extension, we watch some programs on the computer that would normally be region blocked.  That is, we can shows on the BBC website, shows from Australian television, and the like.  Normally, the interwebs can tell that we don't live in the U.K. nor Australia, but Hola makes it look like we do.  It's pretty great.

While looking for something to watch the other day, I came across Back in Time for Dinner.  The idea is that a middle-class English family is having their home transformed to look like a typical home would throughout the post-war decades in England.  This is a lot of fun to watch, and is of course of interest to this blog.

Though there are some similarities between what they showed in the episode on the 1950s to what is in our cookbook, there are some pretty serious differences as well.  The food that the mother - and only the mother - cooked for the first few days (one day for each decade) was pretty attrocious:  National bread, drippings (rendered fat), boiled potatoes, and cabbage, and that's it.  This due in no small part to post-war rationing.  Even after rationing ended in the middle of the decade, the food wasn't all that great, but at least it would have started to look familiar to our Ladies in Thief River Falls.  For example, for the coronation of the queen, the mother tried to make a fancy gelatin salad that was supposed to look like a crown.  It looked like something straight out of the cook book... even though it was a complete failure.  Sorry, English mother.

It was also interesting in that the crew of the show transformed the ground level of the family's home to look like a home would have sixty years ago.  Instead of an open floor plan, they created a small closed sitting room, a very small formal dining room, and a VERY different kitchen.  The wife had no refrigerator, and instead had a larder - essentially a pantry with marble shelves to keep food slightly cooler.  There were no convenience appliances (until later in the "decade"), so everything was done by hand.  Attached the the sink was a set of rollers for squeezing the water out of washed clothes.  This was something of an indication of how much time the poor woman spent in the room.  Though in the modern iteration of this family, the father did most of the cooking he had instructions to generally keep out of the kitchen.  Instead between cleaning, prep, cooking, and cleaning some more, the seemingly spent almost all of her waking hours in that room.  Considering the poor quality and limited amount of food she had access to for the first few years of the decade, it was a pretty thankless job.  Her family was clearly not a fan of what she spent hours making.  Even once the decade progressed and she was given a few convenience appliances (a mixer, etc), she didn't spend any less time in the kitchen as she prepared meals that were more ambitious and time intensive; something I imagine our Ladies of Zion could probably identify with.

One of the nicest parts of this episode was when some local women from their town who were housewives during the 50s were invited over to watch the coronation on a vintage TV and to have tea and some food.  Though the 50s were clearly a difficult time in the U.K., these old ladies were delighted to be brought back in time to see the house the way it had been transformed, and to see the kitchen in particular.

I am really looking forward to the next episodes as the family explores the food and culture of the next few decades.  I heartily recommend this show.

OH!  Hey!  The first episode is on Youtube.  I tried to embed it, but it's not working for some reason.  Here's the link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDuGNwJ2pCo

Norwegian Dishes - Norwegian Meat-balls

Consider this a cautionary tale of the dangers of not respecting authority, and following directions.  I blatantly disregarded the wisdom of one of the Ladies, Mrs. Gust Haugen, who gave us such classics as Carrot Ring (*hork*) and Cabbage Rolls, by not reading all the way through the recipe before getting started and by missing the time listed to finish the recipe.  Ok, so maybe it's not a particularly exciting or suspenseful story and its one I've been a part of many times, so you'd think it would be a lesson learned for me.  But I guess I don't operate like that.

Once upon a time, in a land not far from here on a Monday not long ago, a dad had to make dinner.  Meatballs!  Meatballs will be a great dinner.  He had a recipe for meatballs that includes a gravy, "I'll cook up some kind of vegetable to go with them,and we'll have a great meal," he said.  "What could go wrong?  Nothing!  I'll even plan ahead."  This is where things took a turn for the worse.  And by worse, I actually mean better... sort of.

Ok, I can't keep that up.  Too much work.

So, meatballs.  Norwegian meatballs.  Whoever heard of Norwegian meatballs?  Doesn't Ikea have a patent on any and all Scandinavian balls of meat?

It certainly looks that way.  I guess even Martha had to pay up.

I guess the Ladies probably didn't have an IKEA to go to to get their meatballs, and this wasn't a time too far removed from Swedish/Norwegian animosity.

No, 46 years isn't very long at all.

Norwegian/Swedish animosity certainly was a part of my family history.  I don't remember the whole story, but as I recall it had to do with my great grandparents on my mother's side.  They lived in Fargo, and the Swedish son taking a Norwegian bride caused no small trouble for his family.  Correct me if I'm wrong, family, but I think his family came from a line of relatively prosperous merchants or maybe even lesser nobility in Sweden.  Her family, however.  Well, does it even matter?  She was Norwegian!  His mother, my great great grandmother, apparently wouldn't even let her new daughter-in-law into the house.  The porch was close enough, thank you very much!  I don't imagine my great great grandmother would have troubled with Norwegian meatballs.

The Ladies of Zion, however, had no problems with them.  Me?  Well, yeah, there are some problems, but we'll get to that.

Pies & Desserts - Marshmallow Pie

I have a theory.  It is known that animals don't all perceive color the same way.  For example, dogs only perceive two different colors.  It has also recently come to light that penguins can only taste salty and sour flavors.  This seems a little surprising since you would think that tasting umami would be a useful and beneficial thing for them and their fish diet.  But apparently, they can only taste sour and and salt.  I'm not suggesting that we are part penguin, but rather that we've only evolved to taste the five basic tastes in the last fifty years.  Hear me out.  At some point in time, probably in the 80s, it became beneficial for people to be able to taste more fully.  Before this time, people only had receptors for salty, sweet, and umami.  Suddenly, in evolutionary terms at least, it became critical for people and their offspring to be able to also taste bitter and sour.  That this corresponds with the rise of coffee and beer culture is not a coincidence, I think.  So mates were chosen based on whether or not they had fully developed taste receptors, and successful sex-selection rapidly worked to provide our current population with all five tastes we are familiar with today.  This explains why flavors from our cook book are so muted.

It can be the only explanation as to why our food is so much better and flavorful today.  I am ready to accept my Nobel Prize for medicine/physiology now.  You can learn about how to nominate me here.

I bring this all up because on the day I made the following marshmallow pie (that doesn't taste like much) was the day that Twins pitchers and catchers reported to spring training.  Think about it.  It makes perfect sense.  Even if it doesn't, I'm going with the idea.  If you don't see the connection, you're probably not thinking about it enough... or maybe you're one of those genetic hold-overs who can't yet taste bitter and sour... weirdo.

Go Twins!

Preparation

So... marshmallow pie.  It was a little tough deciding what to make this time around.  Last time, I made mock apple pie, which was a fun experiment and that was good enough that I made it a second time.  As you can see, the second page of the Pies & Desserts section also has a rhubarb pie recipe, that is a custard pie.  I really like rhubarb custard pie, so much so that it is one of the pies that I make the most frequently, using my mom's (great grandmother's?) recipe.  But as it isn't remotely rhubarb season, I decided to pass on that one.  That, and the fact that we are in the middle of marshmallow season, I needed to use up the marshmallows we recently picked from the mallow orchard last week.  So marshmallow pie, it is.

C'mon Mrs. Minnie, don't do us wrong.

My biggest concern about the recipe is how marshmallows may have changed throughout the decades.  There are so many new additives and ingredient substitutions, I was a little unsure whether or not today's marshmallows would behave like Minnie's marshmallows did.

How much corn syrup, modified food starch, etc. were in the marshmallows of 1951?

I suppose I didn't need to worry too much though, because if marshmallows don't melt when people want to make s'mores and rice crispy bars, they would buy them.

Anyway, here are our ingredients for the day:

Should be easy as... well... pie.

So first thing we need to do is to make the graham cracker crust.  Graham crackers go in the food processor with the butter.

C'mon crackers, crush!

After I dispatched the reluctant graham crackers (Why won't you break down evenly?  Why is my life so hard?), I put the butter and crumb mixture into a pie plate.  I was a little concerned because there didn't seem to be enough butter and the mixture seemed pretty dry and crumbly.  There was also a lot of crumb mixture.  But we need to follow the recipe, so we'll do the best we can.  Sarah has much more experience with graham cracker crusts than I do, as she's been making me birthday cheesecakes for 9 years (best birthday tradition ever), so I didn't feel really confident about pressing the crust together.  I did seem to remember hearing something about pressing the crumbs into shape with a glass though, so I gave it a shot.

Though I'm no longer a Teamster, I'm proud to have been one.  Solidarity forever!

The crumbs were dry enough though, that this didn't work so well, so I improvised.

This worked reasonably well.

Into the oven the crust went, and though it was thick and crumbly, it looked pretty good.  

Look how clean our stove top is!  Let's pretend that this is how it looks all the time!

Dance Break

About this time, A Prairie Home Companion came on.  Though he is a Minnesota institution, I don't have a whole lot of time for Garrison Keillor nor that show.  So it was time to put some music on.  Because it was the start of spring training, and we're dreaming about spring, I decided to put some latin music on.  Putumayo is great stuff.

Sarah and I can dance like that, but we're self-conscious about it, so you'll have to take my word for it.

So now your instructions are to listen to the music while you read the remainder of this blog post.

The music immediately got the boys dancing and in their natural blurry state.

James Blurry Olson and Thomas Wigglemonkey Olson

GAME ON!

Unfortunately, I only had twenty big marshmallows, so I had to take some from the "trail mix" that Thomas had brought home from pre-school.  Fifteen mini marshmallows are the same as one big marshmallow, right?  Accuracy is of utmost importance here.  So we melt marshmallows with the milk and then add the chipped chocolate.

No, James, you can't have a taste.  It won't taste good, and we need all the flavor we can get.  Remember, we have evolved taste buds.

An oddly satisfying process.

Lastly, we pour, and then let the marshmallow mixture set in the refrigerator.

I totally did this without making a mess.

Yes, Sarah, you may have some lickins.

Lastly, after I had read all of the articles about the Twins in the newspaper, and after the boys had finished dancing and wore themselves out (for a few minutes at least), the pie finally set and I sprinkled some more graham cracker crumbs on top.

Da-daa!

Layers?  Strata?

Tasting and Reaction

My willing guinea pigs were Sarah and James.  James was particularly excited about the idea of marshmallow pie.

Chomp!

James – Yum!  It smells like marshmallows.

Sarah – What are you tasting?

James – Mostly the marshmallow, but a bit more the chocolate.

He then expressed confusion where the marshmallows are

Sarah – It kind of reminds me of a s'more.  It also kind of reminds me of those powdered hot chocolate mixes with the marshmallows in them.  It seems like a waste of a cup of whipped cream though.

Me – I think you said that before.

Sarah- *laughs*  Oh yeah, was that for the carrot mold salad?

Nope, it was the fruit salad.

Sarah – James, do you like the pie?

James – Yeah.

Sarah – What was your favorite pie?

James – This one.  This is the best pie I ever had.

Sarah – Is this better than the pie we had last fall with the eyeballs? [from the Pie-Off]

James – No.  Too silly.

Sarah – So this pie is serious?

James – This is my favorite pie.

Sarah – I think you should market this to Betty’s Pies.  They’re a North Shore tradition!

This is an inside joke on our part.  We like Betty's Pies about as much as we like A Prairie Home Companion.  If you want pie up on the north shore, go to the Rustic Inn Cafe instead.  

Me – It’s marshmallowy… and sweet… and kind of that’s about it.

Sarah – I think you’re right in that there is too much graham cracker crust.

Me – As crumbly as the crust was, it’s holding together relatively well.  But yeah, it is a little thick in places.

Sarah – It might be good with a more solid layer of melted chocolate on the bottom.  Especially since it separates a little, you’d have three separate layers.

Me – It needs more chocolate.  It seriously needs more chocolate.  I can actually taste the chocolate for once though, as opposed to some of the other recipes.  Instead of one square of chocolate though, I’d maybe use three or four squares.

Sarah – So this is something you’d make again?

Me – Probably not for us, but it’s not bad.

Sarah – So maybe a layer of chocolate on the bottom and a layer of chocolate on the top.

Me – It’s rather better than I expected.  Though there is far more generic sweet than flavor, it’s not bad at all.  I do have a pretty substantial pile of graham cracker crumbs left on my plate.

Sarah – It’s pretty sweet.  Maybe that’s where more unsweetened chocolate would help.

Me – Yeah, I think it’s a good thing this didn’t use sweetened chocolate.  That’d just be overload.  So on a scale of one to ten, where would you put this?

Sarah – On a scale of all pies?  Ever?  In existence?

Me – Sure.

Sarah – I mean, it’s not a pie that I’d specifically seek out to eat.  That said, it’s taking a lot of willpower to keep from eating and eating and eating it.

Me – I’d agree with that.

Sarah – I was just thinking of some of the Pie-Off pies, and it’s definitely better than some of those.

Me – That’s pretty high praise.  I don’t know that it’s so good that I would plan on making this for us again.  There are plenty of pies that I like more.

Sarah – Right.

James – Every time you make a pie now, we should have lots and lots of marshmallows. Marshmallow pie.  You should make more marshmallow pie.  Of all of the pie in the whole wide world, let’s have this one.

*he continues to chant, “Of all of the pies in the whole wide world, of all of the pies in the whole wide world…”  and then kind of skats to himself while working on his puzzle.

Me – I guess I’d give it a solid five.  It’s not bad, it’s not great.  I’d take a good fruit pie or a custard pie over this pretty much every time.

Sarah – I’d say four or five.

So there are some serious issues with the pie.  The flavor is very one-dimensional, that is sweet.  There is almost no chocolate flavor at all.  There is too much graham cracker crust that doesn't hold together particularly.  I think that Sarah is right in that it would benefit from a good layer of chocolate melted on the bottom, or perhaps a rich chocolate mousse.  But all that said, the pie isn't bad.  I can't say that I was particularly excited about making a marshmallow pie, but it was easily better than expected.  I'm not sure I would go and make it again, but James does think it is the best pie in the world, so we'll see.

Next time:  Norwegian Dishes!

Great Depression Cooking

I found a video series hosted by a charming older woman who lived and ate through the Great Depression.  She's got quite a few videos where she makes and talks about the food she and her family ate through those tough years.

The depression had been over for more than a decade by the time the cookbook came out, but doubtless the values and experiences of that terrible decade would have informed the Ladies who contributed their recipes.  It's fun to listen to Clara and her stories while she cooks.  Enjoy.  I think Ill pass on Poorman's Meal though.  Hot dogs are not my idea of good food.  I suppose when it ultimately comes down to it, you do what you have to do.

I have another food post in the works, but classes, homework, and the sickness that just don't seem to be leaving this house are putting marshmallow pie on the back burner.  I'll probably have it up within the week.

Cookies - Orange Cookies

Last time we visited the Cookies section, we made Fancy Chocolate Refrigerator Cookies.  They were fancy looking, and had a decent texture, but were a little bit lacking in the flavor department.  I picked these orange cookies simply because I had all of the ingredients in the kitchen.  I'll admit a little hesitation though since it's not often that you see fruit flavored cookies.  In general fruit flavored things seem like they can be a bit of a gamble.  Naturally or artificially flavored, sometimes fruity things are great, sometimes they kind of suck.  Here's my comprehensive evaluation of fruity foods.

If apples are so good, why is apple juice so bad?

Someone at Kemps should be fired.

There's a reason why people have been drinking wine for millenia

There's no reason why anyone should eat these.

Your guide to freezies.

If you're going to have a popsicle, there's only one choice.

Sugar, flavored sugar no matter the color. 

Watermelon flavored anything is wrong.

There you have it.  Now you can go forth into the fruit flavored world with confidence.  So with that, we move into orange cookies.  They could be good, they could be the cookie equivalent of watermelon snow cones.

Cakes: Sour Milk Orange Cake

It's winter break time at the Olson house, and nobody knows what day of the week it is.  That's just the way we like it.  Neither Sarah nor I have had to go to work now for almost two weeks and won't be going back for a couple more days.  Time for projects!  Time for playing outside!  Time for cooking!  Time for family and friends!  Time for family and friends to be subjected to sixty year-old recipes!  I intended on making a few more recipes than I did, but there is still time to do one more after this, I think.  As I mentioned previously, we are into our second time through the cook book.  I skipped appetizers and breakfast cakes, as those are pretty short sections, and have moved onto the pretty large section on cakes.  If you'll remember, last time in this section, I made Scripture Cake, which was something of an adventure.  While there are some unanswered questions in our recipe this time around, it isn't quite as mysterious as the Scripture Cake was.

Making the sour milk orange cake was another case of me not looking at the recipe very closely before jumping in.  I got started making the cake before realizing that I didn't have dates.  I'm also not sure I would have picked this recipe had I seen it required dates.  I am not the biggest fan of dates.  Maybe it's just a matter of not having had good dates or fresh dates, I don't know.  Dates will always remind me of a long car ride with Sarah and her folks maybe eight years ago from Sierra Vista, Arizona to San Diego.  It was a long day of driving along I-8 through lots and of desert.  After several hours, we were in need of gas and a rest stop, so we stopped in Dateland, Arizona.  There were signs advertising date products of all sorts and that seemed to be about it.  Desert, and dates.  We all got out of the car to stretch our legs and made our way to a building where we could get a snack.  I don't recall whether or not we got a "world famous date shake" or not, but we probably got some ice cream.  At the counter was a rather bored-looking teenager.  Making friendly conversation, I asked her what she liked to do in her free time in Dateland.  She replied without hesitation, "think about getting out of here."

So now every time I have anything with dates, I think about that bored, stuck, teen-aged girl in Dateland.  Hope you made it out of Dateland and to somewhere more interesting.

There's no place like home, right tragic teenager??