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.

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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.