Grammy's Cooking and Other Hints

Morning from Grammy and Mama and me.  Heritage recipes and cooking hints make us think back to a special moment we spent with an ancestor.  I know I think of Grammy each day that I set out to cook her recipes or use her hints.

I remember days when I went to her house and the house smelled like sugar cookies.  And then I would see the big old aluminum dutch oven she kept her sugar cookies in. I would head right for it, but I had to ask if I could lift the lid to get a cookie.  That was her rule.   After the first day she would put the aluminum pan in the freezer and drag it out when she got visitors knocking on her door.

I treasure the days I spent with grammy during the last years of her life.  Her and I sat for hours discussing her life and household hints (with me writing them down) and going through her recipes.

I  don't want to let grammy's wonderful recipes slip through time.  I definitely want to preserve the heritage of my family and document grammy and mama's hints, knowledge and recipes.  Sure, some might not work in today's fast paced world, but who knows if you haven't tried them.

Here are a few things that explain the terms used in recipes.

1.  What is a moderate oven?  About 360 degrees F.  Slow oven is about 300 degrees F. Hot oven is about
400-425 degrees F.

2.  What is "butter the size of an egg equal to?  About 1/4 cup.  Butter the size of a walnut is 1 tablespoon. 

3.  What is "a teacupful" equal to?  About 3/4 cup.

4.  What is "a tumbler" equal to?  About 1 cup.

5.  What is "a peck" equal to?  Two dry gallons/8 dry quarts.  Four pecks equal a bushel.

6.  What is "a saucerful" equal to?  One cup.

7.  What is a dash or a pinch?  The amount that can be picked up between the thumb and the first finger....less than 1/8 teaspoon.

8.  What is "a gill" equal to?  1/2 cup

Grammy also told me about cutting fat into flour when making biscuits.  She told me if you didn't do it right, the result would be biscuits as heavy as a rock.  Here's how to do it according to grammy:  "Cut the fat (shortening) into the flour quickly and lightly.  Do not press down and mass the fat.  Cut in the fat until the shortening is in little particles and the flour resembles course corn meal.  Use two knives or a pasty blender (the best to use and they are cheap)."

Grammy also told me to always spoon flour into a cup and don't dip it.  It changes the volume.  Also always sift flour before it's measured as sifting changes the volume.

When grammy was raising a family, she not only was a mother but also a farm wife which meant she had to help with the milking, do the egg gathering, churning of the butter and help gramps clean the cream separator when he was done with the cream separation.  She had to take shortcuts in her household duties just so she could get everything done.  She didn't have pre-prepared meals like there are today.  Her hands were always busy and knarled from arthritis but she kept working each day from early morning until late at night.

Grammy liked to have her house smell good with the scents of the holidays.  She told me that she would make her own potpourri (but she didn't call it this....she called it house smellers).  The recipe she told me she used was:

 ~~  Slice pumpkin about 1/4 inch thick from the side of a peeled pumpkin and then chopped these slices up.  Dry them in a slow oven. When these are almost dry, sprinkle these pumpkin pieces with lots of cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg and stir.  After dried, mix these dried pumpkin pieces with cinnamon sticks, dried orange peel, whole cloves, and bay leaves.  Put the "house smeller" in a fancy bowl.

One day I was looking through grammy's ton's of recipes and household hints and found a piece of paper with the following written on it:

"Be grateful for your doors of opportunity

and for the friends who oil the hinges."

My grammy was grateful for just about everything.  She didn't have a lot of education but she knew more than most because of her common sense and her experience.  Come on back again and experience the goodness of the generations.   From grammy and mama and me, have a good old fashioned day.

Grammy's Medicinal Recommendations

Grammy wasn't a doctor or a nurse or a midwife but she sure knew her stuff when an ailment came along.  She didn't have a bag hanging from a belt like a medicine woman, but she had her tricks up her sleeve.

If I had an ailment, all I had to do was mention it to grammy and she would sort through her mind for the perfect solution to my ailment.

The one "tonic" she had for a cold was a Hot Toddy.  That hot toddy would kill you or cure you.  First of all she would say.....now you have to make this at home because I know your dad has some whiskey.  She would tell me she didn't keep whiskey in the house because she was afraid gramps would drink it.  Her recipe for the Hot Toddy was one shot of whiskey in a tea cup, then squeeze the juice of one lemon in the cup and add one tablespoon of sugar and fill with hot water.  I'd make that Toddy and start sweating profusely.  I guess that was the purpose....sweat out the cold.  I would go to bed that night still sweating, but awake in the morning feeling much better....thanks for grammy and her Hot Toddy remedy.

The "B" in Basil is for blood is what grammy always told me.  She said to go out and get some basil leaves and put it on your food so your blood flowed freely. 

Grammy always said ginger was the best spice to
have on the pantry shelf.  She said it could be used  to settle an upset tummy, as an antihistimine, for arthritis, to thin your blood, and a sore throat.  She always said to make a cup of tea and put ginger and sugar in it so it tasted good. 

Although I never had it before she told me her cure for ringworm.....put a penny in vinegar and let it sit until the penny is green.  Wash the ringworm with this vinegar penny water 2 or 3 times a day.

She told me that fig syrup was a very good laxative.  She said that many years ago you could buy fig syrup laxative but she always made hers by boiling the figs and adding sugar.  I know I have that recipe and will locate it. 



One time I got a cut on my arm when I was out in the barnyard.  She said to wash the cut with soap and water and to put honey on the cut.  She said the honey would kill the germs and would help heal the cut and would prevent a scar.  She was right....it did all of those things.  From personal experience I know that 1 tablespoon of honey mixed with one tablespoon of cider vinegar is the best thing for a sore throat.....take it several times a day....if you can get by the taste of vinegar that is.

Grammy didn't tell me but a dear friend of mine told me a home cure for hemorrhoids....she said to use Vicks Vapor Rub on the hemorrhoids....it worked!!!  I've told many people this and they have tried it and were totally surprised that it worked....then I told my daughter who is a medical practitioner....she told a person (she didn't perscribe it, just told them) who was having trouble and couldn't find a thing that worked......Vick's Vapor Rub worked for that person......it might sting for a moment then total relief.

Grammy also told me some funny medicine related things.  One day she said, do you know what "benign" is.....I said I think so....she said that is what you be after you be eight.  I laughed and laughed.  She said she went to a garden club meeting and they passed out a list with medical terms on it.  Here's some other of her medicine term funnies (you can see my grammy had a good sense of humor - like me):

**barium =  what they do after doctor's patients die

**fibula = just a small lie

**nitrates = cheaper than day rates

**medical staff = a doctor's cane

**morbid =  an offer more than I bid
**urine = opposite of you're out

Old Folks had their way of curing all kinds of things out on the farm.  Grammy knew so many things, but she probably had lots of experience being a farmer's wife with three kids to raise back when modern day cures didn't exist.

I'll keep on using old wife's cures.....maybe they help and maybe not, but it gives me peace of mind that I tried to do it as grammy said.  Come back again ya'll.  She's got more hints to share.

Old Time Candy and Brown Sugar

It must have been difficult to make homemade candy in the olden days.  There were no candy thermometers and most women used a wood cook stove.  I remember my grammy having a old wood cook stove for years in the kitchen but across the kitchen sat her modern two oven electric stove.  She liked to cook on the old wood stove plus it helped keep the house warm in the winter.

This is kind of like the wood cook stove grammy had in

her kitchen but not exactly.  Across the kitchen was her electirc stove.

This was like grammy's electric stove.

It had the deep well (once I burned my nose looking down in it.....it had a double oven.)

Grandma always made fondant, some was covered in dark chocolate and some was left white.  She also made a candy called Penuche which was a brown sugar candy with nuts.  I remember her making stuffed dates at Christmas and a butterscotch hard candy.  I found her recipes to share with you.  I'm sure you could apply modern ways.  Note that I have not made anything but the fondant recipe but I remember eating lots of the others as a kid.


PENUCHE CANDY

Three cups brown sugar, 1 cup cream, 1 teaspoon butter. Boil without stirring until a little dropped in cold water hardens like glass, then take off the stove and stir rapidly. Flavour with vanilla. Nuts can be added. Pour on buttered plates and cut in squares when it is hard. (from 1915 on the recipe)

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HONEY CANDY

One pint of white sugar, water sufficient to dissolve it, and 4 tablespoons honey. Boil till brittle (test in cold water).  Cool a while then butter your hand and stretch it until it is white.  Stretch into ropes and cut into bite size pieces.

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FONDANT - SOME WITH CHOCOLATE
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of milk
Mix and boil stirring constantly until the soft ball stage.  Pour on a damp platter without scraping the pan.  Let set in a cool place.  When the bottom of the platter feels almost cool, beat the candy until it forms a ball.  Work with hands until it feels soft and creamy.  Pat ouot about 3/4 inches thick on wax paper.  Cut into small pieces.  Place on a tray and let sit all night.  In the morning, dip in Baker's unsweetened choclate melted with about 1/2 inch square of parafine.  Take out with a fork and lay on wax paper.

NOTE:  My grammy made this candy every year.  Sometimes she would leave lots of the candy without chocolate and sometimes she would cover it all with chocolate.  I made it one time but I used semi-sweet chocolate that I bought at Michael's to cover the fondant. 

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BUTTERSCOTCH CANDY

2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons butter

Boil without stirring until brittle when tested in cold water.  Pour out on buttered plates to cool.  Break apart in pieces.

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STUFFED DATES
Wash and dry and pit the date.  Slit the side and fill with white fondant and a pecan nut and roll in sugar.

HINT FROM GRAMMY - HOW TO MAKE BROWN SUGAR

(when you run out) 

Simply take 1 cup of granulated white sugar and add 1 to 2 tablespoons of molasses (the more molasses you add, the darker the brown sugar will be). Mix the two ingredients with a fork until the molasses is absorbed and the sugar is brown (or I say put in a blender and mix).  Store in a container with a tight lid.  If you want light brown sugar use a smaller amount of molasses.

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Grammy was one of the most important people in my life.  She was special and helped shape me into the woman I am today. My mama was the most impotant but she had to go away to heaven when I was mighty young.   Love you grammy and mama.

This Is How You Do It - Folk Lore & Stuff

When a young woman starts out in life as a homemaker, she usually doesn't know much unless she was chief cook and bottle washer at home during her growing-up years.  It's not uncommon for the young woman to know nothing about cooking thus,  she will need lots of help in the kitchen and household. 

Grammy and mama helped me.  They told me how to do things in the kitchen.  These were household hints to make life easier and to give me "know-how".  Grammy and mama hints are priceless and oldies but still goodies.  I hope these might help you!  But remember some might be only folklore and not work for you......I offer no guarantee....just love and knowledge from old times.

1.   Dredge nuts in flour before adding to a recipe to help distribute them....dredge simply means mix the nuts in a small bowl with about 2 teaspoons of flour and then dump flour and nuts in the batter

2.   Potatoes soaked in salt water for 20 minutes will bake faster.

3.  Dry flowers with sand.  This won't work for white flowers and cactus and hyacinths.  Use white sand and cover the bottom of a deep dish.  Cover the flower, making sure you get the sand between the petals.  Completely bury the flower.  Check in a week by pouring the sand off.  If the sand appears damp, change the sand to get rid of the moisture (sand can be dried and used repeatedly).  Some flowers take a couple of weeks to dry.  

4.   Drive away fleas by sprinkling a few drops of lavendar oil.

5.   Lamp chimneys and other glass intended for heat will be less likely to break if put in a pan of cold water and bringing to a slow boil.  Boil slowly for an hour and let cool in the water before removing.

6.   Honey is good for a sore throat and bee stings.

7.   To remove onion smell from your hands, hold a stainless steel spoon in your hand under running water and rub your hands as if the spoon was soap...works!

8.   Use a piece of bread to pick up broken glass fragments.

9.   Nutmeg in a cup of boiling water will cure a violent headache.

10.  If you have the tendency to retain water, lemon juice in water is a natural diuretic.

11.  For an upset stomach and diarrhea, drink flat coke and eat crackers.  Especially the small amounts of flat coke every hour.  This will help prevent dehydration.

12.  A teaspoon of vinegar cures hiccups.  Also eating sugar or sucking on a piece of lemon will cure them.

13.  For a bee or wasp sting, place wet chewing tobacco on the sting and it will immediately be cured. (I know that this works!!)

14.  For a sunburn, evaporated milk on the sunburn will help it.

15.  Cure urinary infections with Alka Seltzer tablets.  Dissolve two tablets in a glass of water at the first onset of urinary tract symptoms.

16.  For toenail fungus, soak your toenails (toes) in Listerine.

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I can't dispute some of Grammy's old folklore because I've used them, but you know how folklore over time becomes legends in a person's imagination ..... and of course exaggeration overcomes the original hint.  So, I offer you my grammy's hints and folklore and you can use them at your pleasure.   Grammy was a smart person and she was old so she knew lots.   She never even saw a computer so what she knew came from the heart and her memory from years of practice and applying her knowledge.  

As I shuffle through the papers with her handwriting, I get a tear in my eye because I miss her.  But her hints and her knowledge lives on.  Be sure to come back again and sit a spell.

Old Fashioned Meats

Grammy had a zillion recipes for cooking meat.  Keep in mind when you were a farm wife in the olden days, you didn't waste!  Grammy and gramps were frugal! Everything was used from an animal.  It was common to cook kidneys, brains, sweetbreads, tongue, and heart.  I can remember my mama cooking heart for me when she cooked liver for the rest of the family....I didn't like liver when I was a kid but I do like it now.

I remember the first time I had a sliced tongue sandwich.  It was good.  Not that I want to cook one now but I was a farmer's daughter....we ate everything from the animal just like grammy.

SPICED COW TONGUE

Wash tongue carefully.  Place in kettle with 1 teaspoon of black pepper, 1 teaspoon of cloves, dash of allspice and 1 sliced medium onion.  A couple bay leaves adds to the flavor.  Simmer this slowly for about 3 to 4 1/2 hours.  The skin will begin to curl back when it's done.  Remove the tongue from the cooking liquid and peel off the skin. Put it back in the cooking liquid until the liquid cools so it can absorb the flavor.  Slice and serve.  Good hot or cold and is good with horseradish. 

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SWEETBREADS

Cut to separate into pieces.  Use an iron skillet with about 1 inch of fat. Dip sweetbread in egg and cracker crumbs and fry until brown and crisp.  Drain on brown paper sack.

Note:  As a kid, these were a treat at our house.  My mama or my sister used to cook these and we couldn't wait until supper.

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BEEF HASH

Can use cold boiled potatoes or cubed raw potatoes.  Use about 2 or 3 cups of cubed potatoes.   If using raw potatoes, cube and boil in a large skillet with 2 tablespoons onions first for about 5 minutes.  Add chopped or shredded leftover beef roast and about 1/2 cup chopped onion and salt and pepper. Cook for at least 20 minutes or until the potatoes begin to get a bit mushy and most of the liquid is gone.  (Can add liquid through cooking so it doesn't stick.)  Serve with chopped raw onion on top.

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These are grammy's and mama's simple old time recipes.  Some recipes from long ago can till be used if you have the taste for these type of foods.  Tongue can still be purchased at specialty stores, but I don't think sweetbreads are sold in general grocery stores.  A butchering plant can better inform you regarding sweetbreads.  Beef hash is still on our menu at home.

Grammy and mama's thoughts and recipes will be back another day.  Come back and sit a spell.  Keep the old fashioned way alive.

Grammy and mama said so is protected under copyright laws and cannot be used or reproduced.

Old Time Pies and A Crochet Doily Recipe

Grammy made the bestest pies.  Her pies were so good I wanted to eat the whole pie.  I know it was a lot of work making the crust and then the pie.  She had some "desperation era" pie recipes  which were used in lean years.  The first one is for Cream Pie, which is rich but doesn't even have eggs in the recipe. It has whipping cream which was readily available on the farm because of the milk cows.  The second is called Penny Pie, and is similar to the Cream Pie.

DESPERATION CREAM PIE

1/3 c. flour
1/2 c melted butter
1 c. brown sugar
2 c. whipping cream unwhipped
1 unbaked 9 ” pie shell

Blend flour into melted butter. Add brown sugar. Mix thoroughly. Add cream and stir until well-blended.
Pour into the pie shell and bake in a 375 dgreee oven for 50 -55 minutes (center will be jiggle a bit like Jello when done)  Cover the edge of crust with foil strips the last part of baking so it won’t overcook.
Cool . Serves 6-8

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PENNY PIE

1 1/2 c. sugar
4 tbsp. flour
1 egg

Mix and pour into unbaked pie shell, dot with 1/4 stick butter and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake 40 to 50 minutes at 400 degrees.

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Grammy always had tons of doilies around her house.  Some were flimsy and some were stiff and held their shape.  I asked her if she used starch and she said when she was young she used a doily syrup and then later on she used a thick starch when starch was really good, but at the time she thought starch wasn't much good any longer so she went back to using a syrup to make them stiff.  Here's her recipe for Doily Syrup.  I found this is good if your house is dry, but don't store these in a damp area.

DOILY SYRUP

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

Cook over low heat (but don't boil) until it's clear.  Remove from heat and let cool.  After cooled, dampen the doily with water, patting with a paper towel to remove excess water.  Dip dampened doily in the syrup and gently sqeeze the doily to remove the excess syrup.  Lay flat on a counter or piece of marble to dry....don't remove until completely dry.

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Grammy told me lots of things.  Be sure to come back soon to see what my grammy and mama says about lots of things.

"Grammy and mama says so" is protected under copyright laws. 

Hard Times Recipes

During the World War I and around 1914-1918, there was a shortage of just about all ingredients which would normally be used to bake or cook. 

Innovative cooks made up recipes to help satisfy the hungry sweet tooth.  One such recipe was called the "War Cake".  It was a dark, heavy cake that was mixed up in the same pan used for baking.  The cake didn't have the usual milk, eggs or butter....just no fuss ingredients which turned out a cake to satisfy the hungry kids and menfolk.

My grammy gave me this recipe and told me she used to make this for her kids and grandpa.  Hope you enjoy it.....I have made it several times and everyone seemed to like it; however, I mixed my cake in a bowl and baked it in a greased bundt pan for about an hour at 350 to 375 degrees.

War Cake
Mix two cups of brown sugar, two cups of hot water and two teaspoons of shortening  in a medium sized saucepan.  Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup raisins and one teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of cloves and boil this for five minutes.  Remove it from the heat and let it cool completely (important to cool completely).  Add three cups of flour and one teaspoon of baking soda that has been dissolved in a couple of teaspoons of hot water.  Mix well.  Pour into greased pan.  Bake at about 350 until done.

Note:  Grammy said she first used Molasses but the family didn't much like the cake made with molasses so she switched to brown sugar when she could get it....and they really liked it then.

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Through the years there were many "hard times" periods during which young mothers and housewives had to improvise.  Sometimes fruit at holidays was impossible to get.    Here are a couple of other recipes Grammy gave to me.

The first is Mock Apple Pie, which she told me she made several times at Thanksgiving, Easter and Christmas because she couldn't buy fruit due to shortages and price.

Mock Apple Pie

Any recipe for pastry for two-crust 9-inch pie
36 RITZ Crackers, coarsely broken (about 1 3/4 cups crumbs)
1 3/4 cups water
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Grated peel of one lemon
2 tablespoons margarine or butter
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Roll out half the pastry and line a 9-inch pie plate. Place cracker crumbs in prepared crust; set aside.
Heat water, sugar and cream of tartar to a boil in saucepan over high heat; simmer for 15 minutes. Add lemon juice and peel; cool.

Pour syrup over cracker crumbs. Dot with margarine or butter; sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll out remaining pastry; place over pie. Trim, seal and flute edges. Slit top crust to allow steam to escape.

Bake at 425°F for 30 to 35 minutes or until crust is crisp and golden. Cool completely

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Hominy Muffins

1 cup boiled hominy or other cereal

1 egg
1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tablespoons shortening

2 cups corn or wheat flour
4 teaspoons baking powder

Mix together hominy, salt, melted shortening, beaten egg and milk. Add flour which has been sifted with baking powder. Beat well and bake in greased muffin tins or shallow pan in hot oven 25 to 30 minutes.

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Important Baking Ingredient Hint From Grammy

Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate.  Baking powder is baking soda plus cream of tartar plus a starch (such as corn starch).

If you need to you can use baking powder in place of baking soda in a recipe but you CANNOT use baking soda in place of baking powder in a recipe.

Recipe for Bakingpowder:

1 teaspoon baking powder = 1/4 teaspoon baking soda + 1/2 teaspoon cream tartar + 1/4 teaspoon corn starch.  Use immediately and don't store on the shelf.

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Times were not always so easy as they are in today's world,  but a good cook could adjust and my grammy always did.  Perhaps some people have trouble even in these days and can benefit from the simple way to cook.  I love her recipes and will be back later to share some more with you.

Please note this blog is protected under copyright laws and cannot be used or reproduced.  

If It Wasn't Mama It Was Grammy Teachin Me

My grammy and mama taught me just about everything I know.  I thought I would start a new blog to share some of these wonderful recipes and how to's with others. For quite some time I have been writing another history and humor blog for my home town.  It also includes recipes so I will be using some of the recipes in my other blog to help complete this new blog endeavor.  Please feel free to visit my other blog at: 

http://yagottaknowthisaboutthat.blogspot.com/

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There always seems to be a need for a large pan of something sweet when you go visiting or to a cook out.  One of the best family recipes I have is for a jelly roll sized pan of french cookie bars.  This recipe has been in our family for a very long time and it seems I always have the ingredients to bake this, even when I'm out of stuff to make other sweet treats.

Filled with raisins and nuts, you can't go wrong.  A thin glaze of icing sets off your taste buds and makes you crave just one more square of cookie. Enjoy! 


 French Cookies

2 cups brown sugar
1 cup boiling water
1 tsp baking soda  (put in boiling water)
3 cups flour
2 eggs
1 cup margarine
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup raisins (boil in water and use remaining water as the above water.
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Note:  I put about 1 1/4 cup of water on the raisins and boil them and then measure out 1 cup of raisin water for the boiling water liquid.  Cream sugar and margarine.  Add soda to boiling water but don't add to sugar yet. Add baking powder and cinnamon to flour and then add flour mixture  to sugars and after thoroughly mixed, add boiling water with baking soda. Add raisins/nuts.  Pour into greased and floured jelly roll pan.  Bake 350 over, and check with a toothpick after 10 minutes.  This gets done fast (usually about 12-14 minutes).  Make a thin glaze with powdered sugar and water and pour over the hot cake.  Yummy.

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See Ya Next Time!