Recipes: where do we get them? How do we use them?

I liked Tammy Keith’s column in a recent Sunday’s Tri-Lakes supplement of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette about her husband cooking dishes from recipes in OLD cookbooks. Though I have a shelf of cookbooks, when I need a recipe now, I cheat and go online instead of pulling down one of the books. I have a pear-motif, straight-sided bowl in which I deposit those recipes I clip or copy.

The latest addition to the stash is a Breakfast Casserole that I thought I was going to make when the classmate who usually brings one said she wasn’t coming to the breakfast at my house. I had all the ingredients. I had just gotten the Pyrex dish down from the cabinet when she emailed that she could come after all and bring a casserole. I hoisted the dish back to the cupboard. When other overnight company comes, I’ll be ready.

Next is a Five-Minute Fudge recipe from Heloise. Then a Grandma Murray’s Apple Cake recipe from July 2017’s Arkansas Living that I DID make, only I used pears instead. That dish went to a family gathering last October.

From the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, I clipped Murlene’s Black-Eyed Pea Salad I (one) in December of ’17. As I look at it now, I realize I have all the ingredients on hand. Excuse me while I whip it up—kitchen-test it, if you will. . . .

Okay, all done. Now it must cool and absorb the flavors.

The next in my bowl is Heloise’s recipe for peanut brittle. For some reason (I haven’t yet asked) Harvest Foods quit stocking raw peanuts, which I’ve been buying and parching for a long spell. The ones already roasted aren’t nearly as flavorful as the raw ones.

Then here’s a Pumpkin Pie Cake from ADG’s Joe Riddle, clipped in the fall of ’14. When Billy was little, and we had a jack-o’-lantern each year, I’d make pies after Halloween, freeze them and take to our Thanksgiving gatherings. I have a poem somewhere that essentially says, “Halloween’s Jack- o’- lantern is Thanksgiving’s pie.

Now, my mouth’s watering. A Southern Pimento Cheese recipe, clipped back in 2014, makes me hungry. But I don’t have pimentos on hand. (Put them on the grocery list, please.). I also like onion rings.  Here’s a recipe that BAKES them. I’ve written “Doable” on the yellowed paper.

If a recipe turns out well, even eight Christmases ago, tape it to an index card and write when/ where it was served. This one, Mom’s Easy Pound cake I made for the choir party and the poets’ meeting. Here is the recipe: 1 box yellow cake mix; ½ cups water, sugar, oil; 2 tsp. melted butter; 4 eggs; 1 tsp. vanilla. Mix ingredients. Bake one hour at 325 degrees in a Bundt or tube pan. Also freezes well.” – from Sharon Ridgeway, Alexander AR. My note says, “Delicious!”

Finally, let me taste the Black-Eyed Pea Salad . . . You get veggies and protein in one dish, plus the tang of vinegar! Not bad, as our choir director used to say after an anthem. Not bad at all.

               

c 2018, PL d/b/a lovepat press, Benton AR USA