Salt Rising Bread, by Mary S.

12 hours.  That is how long it took to make this bread.  It is very interesting.  I was expecting something like sourdough, but it isn't.  The texture resembles my daughter's gluten-free bread.  The flavor is good.  If I ran out of yeast, and all my neighbors did too, and all the grocery stores burned down, this would be a handy recipe to have.  Otherwise, I am not sure that it is worth the effort.  Mary must have had a handy way to keep the starter at 110 degrees, but the only thing I could think of was my oven, but the lowest temperature on it is 170 degrees.  So I set the timer and turned it on every hour for 10 minutes.  That worked OK, but it was a lot more effort than yeast bread.  I would be interested to learn the chemistry of how the starter mix makes it all rise.

See the little bubbles

Salt Rising Bread by Mary S.

Step 1:  Starter
4 c water
1/2 tsp salt
4 heaping T whole wheat flour
2 tsp sugar
4 heaping T corn meal

Boil water and cool to 120 degrees.  Mix with other ingredients. Place where it will stay between 110-120 degrees for 7-8 hours or until it is foamy and bubbly on top. (I may have needed to let more foam form, but it had been 9 hours and I was impatient)


Step 2: Sponge
3 c scalded milk, cooled
3/8 tsp soda
4 c flour

Add to starter .  Beat well and keep between 110-120 degrees for 30-40 minutes, until it is spongy and risen a little bit.

Step 3:  Dough
About 6 c sifted flour

2 T salt
2 T sugar
6 T shortening
1 1/2 c scalded milk, cooled (115 degrees)
1 1/2 c warm water (115 degrees)

Add everything to the sponge and mix well.  Let stand 10 minutes.  Turn onto a floured surface and knead well, adding flour if necessary.  Divide into 6 parts and place in well greased pans.  Keep warm until light (I let it double, it may be better to let it rise more)  Bake at 375 for 10 minutes, turn down to 350 and bake another 25 minutes, or until done.  Oil top and remove from pans to cool.

Old Fashioned Hot Cakes - Mildred M.

Doesn't this make you want to go to I-HOP for some breakfast.  I just happened to have some raspberries to add interest to the picture.  When I tasted them I-HOP did come to mind.  They are very tasty and light.  I should have added a dollop of whipped cream and I would have been just right.  The recipe made 10, 4"-5" pancakes.  It was interesting.  The recipe I use, uses butter and you beat the egg before adding and beat just until mixed.  This one has you beat well after both liquid ingredients.  I wondered if this would have the flavor and lightness of my usual ones.  They did.  I think I would add the melted butter instead of the shortening again just for added buttery flavor.  Adding the egg unbeaten and beating in must break up the batter enough to keep it light.  I also just beat it with a spoon not a hand mixer (I don't have one) so it probably didn't develop the gluten as well as you might with a mixer.  I would use this recipe again they are very good.

Old Fashioned Hot Cakes - Mildred M.

1  C. Flour                                                    1/2  tsp.  Salt
2  T. Sugar                                                   1  Egg
2  tsp.  Baking Powder                                2 Tbs.  Melted Shortening
1  C. Milk

Sift dry ingredients into bowl and mix with milk and beat.  Add unbeaten egg and melted shortening and beat well.  Cook on hot, ungreased griddle until tops are bubbly.  Turn with spatula and cook until underside is browned to desired shade of brown.  Eat up and enjoy.

Fondant - Rua J.

Very unexciting picture.  I only made half of the recipe so I did not have sooooo much.  This made 2-3 cups of fondant.  The fondant is ripening now.  I am going to make my next candy with it.  I have to have Cream Caramels to make Merry Window Caramels so I made the caramel recipe also.  It is cooling.  So whoever has that recipe.  You do not need to do it unless you want to.  I will post it later.

Fondant - Rua J.

6 C  Sugar                                                      1/4  tsp.  Cream of Tartar
1/2  tsp. Salt                                                    6  Tbs  White Corn Syrup, Karo
2  C.  Warm Water

Mix dry ingredients.  Add Karo and water.  Put on medium heat and stir until sugar is dissolved.  Do not stir again.  Cook to soft ball.  Pour out onto bowl and let stand until cool enough to hold hand on the bottom comfortably, or pour out onto cold slab.  Beat until fondant creams and turns white.  Candy will form a large ball, pick it up and knead until soft and pliable.  Any lumps that form can be mashed between thumb and fore-finger.  Put into ungreased bowl.  Cover with folded wet cloth and let stand at least 24 hours to ripen.  It can stand several days if cloth cover is kept wet.  Fondant may now be flavored and make into coconut balls (flavored with grated rind of 1 orange or 1 lemon, and colored.)  (Can be made into peppermint-walnut rolls, colored green.  Peanut balls or used to dip nuts or caramels for Merry Windows.  (my recipe).  When melting fondant to dip the Merry Window caramels and cinnamon spiced nuts, add 4 drops glycerine per cup of ripened fondant.

Fried Onion Rings - Carma M.

Food for thought.  The onions used were the last of the ones grown in our garden in 2012.  The onions were very tasty before I started.  These onion rings are OK unless you worked at a local drive inn as a teenager.  Nothing beats what we learned to make as teenagers.  This breading would be good on zucchini spears or mushrooms or other deep fried vegetables.  I would add 1 tsp of sugar and double the salt.  Even after you salt them as you eat them they are still a little bland.  Frying them to a little darker color really does not add any flavor.  Light brown is OK.  The added sugar may allow them to brown a little more 

Fried Onion Rings - Carma M.

3/4  C.  Flour                                                       2 Tbs.  Cooking Oil
1/2  tsp.  Salt (already adj.)                                  1  Egg
1/2  C.  Milk                                                        3  lg. Onions Peeled
Cooking oil to depth of 1" in skillet

Sift flour and salt into a bowl.  Add milk, cooking oil & egg.  Beat until smooth.  Cut onions into 1/2" slices and separate into rings.  Dip each ring into batter.  Drain excess batter over bowl.  Drop a few at a time into hot cooking oil 37o F.  Fry 2-3 min. turning occasionally.  Drain on absorbent paper.  Sprinkle with salt.  Note: Fried onion rings may be cooled and frozen.  To serve reheat in oven 5 min.

Pecan Panoche by Rua J. & Chocolate Crackles by Lillian G.

I started the day thinking I would make a quick batch of penoche, and ended up spending the whole day in the kitchen.  I know how to make penoche, so no big deal, right? I put the ingredients in the pan and started it cooking.  My grandma's recipe usually takes up to 2 hours to cook, so I don't even check it for an hour.  This recipe says to cook it at a hotter temperature, so I decided to wait about a half our.  That is too long!!!  It was way past soft ball and almost past hard ball.  I thought, "That's OK, it will just be a little firmer when I stir it."  Wrong!  When I stirred it, it ended up really hard and crumbly, kind of like a smarty.  It still tasted good, but the consistency was strange and you couldn't cut it, you had to break off a chunk.

 Penoche is my husband's favorite, so he suggested that I try again and see if it is better if you do it right.  I checked it after 15 minutes this time and managed to catch it at a soft ball.  It stirred a lot easier and ended up the right consistency, but still a little crumbly.  The flavor was still delicious.  I put a lid on it and when I went to eat some for my after church snack, I found that it is a lot smoother the next day.  The recipe is really easy and it was nice not to have to buy cream to make it.  It is also a lot faster than my grandma's recipe.  I decided that it is good in a pinch, but, if you really want the good stuff, use Louise's recipe.

I tried to take a picture before the frosting set up

Now I had a pan of good penoche, and a pan of strange, chunky penoche that I didn't know what to do with.  So, I decided, chunky penoche isn't that different from toffee chips, I will put it in chocolate cookies.  I needed to try Chocolate Crackles, so I used that recipe.  I took some of the dough out to chill like the recipe says, and added half of the penoche to the rest.  (By the way, I hate chilling dough.  I don't want to wait, I want the cookies now)  The penoche crumbled enough to thicken the dough a little, so I decided to try to cook them without chilling.  They were flatter than pancakes.  Definitely chill the dough!  The dough is a lot like brownie batter, so I decided to cut corners and bake it in a pan like brownies.  This worked great.  Then I added a little milk to the rest of the penoche and melted it down, cooled it, and added powdered sugar to make penoche frosting.  The end result is a really rich and really yummy brownie.  Too bad I will never be able to duplicate it.

After all this experimentation, the dough was chilled, so I rolled the balls in powdered sugar and baked them.  They were not thick, but they weren't pancakes either.  They are gooey and yummy like a brownie cooked like a cookie.  I just wish the dough didn't have to chill.







Pecan Panoche by Rua J.

3 c white sugar
1 lb brown sugar (2 1/4 c)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
5 T corn syrup
2 c milk (I used 1%, whole milk would probably be better)
2 tsp vanilla
4 T butter
1 c chopped pecans

Combine dry ingredients in a heavy saucepan.  Add syrup and milk.  Stir, over medium heat, until boiling.  Boil on medium heat until mixture reaches softball stage.  DO NOT OVERCOOK!!!!  Remove from heat and add vanilla and butter.  Pour into a bowl and cool until just warm to the touch.  Beat until creamy and pour into a 9x9 pan.  Cut into squares.  Will be better the second day. (I'm not sure when you would add the pecans, my other recipe says to add nuts after you stir it.)

Chocolate Crackles by Lillian G.

4 heaping T cocoa.  (I used a tablespoon from the silverware drawer and heaped as much cocoa on it as I could)
3/4 c salad oil
2 c sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c chopped nuts
1 c powdered sugar

Combine oil and sugar.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each one.  Add vanilla.  Sift dry ingredients together and add.  Add nuts.  Dough is very soft.  Chilll several hours, or overnight.  Roll into walnut sized balls and roll in powdered sugar.  Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.  Makes 6 doz. 2" cookies

Molded Pineapple Salad -Veda M.

I accidentally remade this salad, but it was a lot better the second time so if you keeping track, you will want to update your book.

Anyway, I bought the lemon jello, they only had a small size so I assumed that was the right size, but after really looking at the recipe, I realized, it needed a large box of jello.  I really didn't want to run back to the store, I had already bought the ingredients for the previous remake, then bought the small jello, I decided just to make do.  So I used some peach jello I had.  I also omitted the cheese, I just couldn't bring myself to include it.  It was really good.  I don't know that I would use the nuts next time.  And instead of putting it in a "mold", I used a cookie cutter, but it was yummy, and the kids liked it.  

I took the recipe out to type and now I can't find it so you will have to look the recipe up.  :)

Five Minute Cabbage by Mildred M.

This was good.  We liked it, but we decided we preferred plain-old cabbage . If you are looking for a little variety, try this, but otherwise stick to cabbage cooked in water.

Five Minute Cabbage by Mildred M. 

1 quart shredded cabbage
2 T butter
2 T flour
2/3 C top milk or cream
2 C milk
1/2 t salt

Cook the shredded cabbage in boiling milk for two minutes, stirring always.  Add the flour and butter combined and boil for 3 min.  Add the salt and cream and serve as soon as it begins to boil again.

Pie Crust - Rua J.

 I do love pies!  I have made pie crust with lard for years.  Lately it is easier to just get out the shortening.  My what a difference.  Shortening pie crust is stiffer and firmer.  Lard pie crust is soft and pliable.  The only problem is this pie crust is TOO soft and pliable.  It fell apart as fast as I could put it back together.  It may have been too hot.  My hands are also way too hot to begin with.  Cold hands is not my problem. 

This crust compares to the topping on a restaurant meat pie.  It is so soft and flaky it just falls apart.  I choose to make it into a meat pie because I am tired of sweets.  What a wonderful idea.  I just took our left over veg. out of the fridge and put a thick white sauce with a little Velveta, onions and Celery Salt in it.  I might do a thicker crust over a glass bowl and just put it on the top like a restaurant does next time.  Gordon loved this.  We will do this "4" again.

Pie Crust - Rua J.

2  1/2   C.  Flour                                                     1  C.  Lard
1/2  C.  Cold Water                                                Dash Salt or 1/4 tsp.

Blend all ingredients in the food processor until mixed.  It won't take hardly any time.  Roll out on well floured pastry cloth.  This will make 2 8" double crust pies.  This crust is thin but ok.  I would probably use this for 1 and 1/2 pies or 1  10" pie.

Strawberry Jello Pie by Kathy N.

I have to start with my confessions.  I had some whipping cream in the fridge that I needed to use, and I have heard that you can whip evaporated milk in place of whipping cream, so I decided to whip the cream in place of the evaporated milk.  I don't think it made a huge difference, but it was yummy.  Confession number 2: I didn't put this in a pie plate.  When I crushed the graham crackers it made a ton, so I decided to put it in a 9x13 pan.  I think the pie crust would have overflowed.  I am not sure what 40 graham crackers means.  I used 40 of the little rectangles, or 10 whole big graham crackers.  I wasn't sure how much 2 squares of butter was either.  I used 2 tablespoons.  I think the crust would hold together better with more butter.  I might skip the crust next time and just make the filling.  That is how we did it for the gluten-free girl and it was just as good, so why go to more work and make separate pans?

This recipe was yummy, easy, and doesn't use anything that I don't keep in the basement, so it is definitely a keeper.  We will be experimenting with other flavors.

Strawberry Jello Pie by Kathy N.

1 pkg strawberry Jello ( I used a 6 oz pkg)

1/2 c water

1/4 c sugar

1 tall can evaporated milk, chilled, or 2 cans Bordens condensed milk, or about 3 cups whipping cream

1 tsp lemon extract

Dissolve Jello in water, add sugar and set aside.  Whip milk and add to Jello.  Pour into crust.

Crust:

40 graham crackers

1/2 c chopped walnuts

1 tsp cinnamon

2 squares melted butter

Combine and pat into pie pan.

Cranberry (Christmas) Jello Salad

I made this for our 4th of July barbeque.  I think the consensus was that it was fine.  Not bad, not wonderful, just fine.  I used my mini-nut chopper to dice everything, and it worked great, even the orange.  I cut them all a little while before I was able to add them, so chopping the apple with the orange helped keep the apple fresh.

The celery was a big sticking point for most.  Why add celery to a jello salad?  I would suggest just leaving the celery out.  I really liked the orange in it!  It added a bit of zing.  I think I will try that in a jello salad in the future.  The cranberries also tasted good, and I would definitely add them to a jello salad in the future.

Since this has cranberries, oranges, and nuts, I think it would be easiest and most appropriate around Christmas.  I had to make a special trip to the one grocery store in the entire valley that sells frozen cranberries this time of year.  At Christmas, I could have easily gotten them anywhere.

Sorry no picture!  I just didn't get one in the craziness of 4th of July.  It was dark red with little bits in it.  :)

Christmas Cranberry Jello Salad by Maude J
2 small packages cherry jello
1 3/4 C sugar (I only put in about 1 cup, and I dissolved it into the cranberries and orange and apple)
4 C water
1 orange (ground)
1 C chopped nuts
1 C celery diced
1-2 apples diced (I used 1 large apple)
2 C cranberries ground

Dissolve jello using 2 C boiling water, then 2 C cold.  Set in frig until syrupy, then add remaining ingredients and let set up.

Ice Box Dessert by Loleen G.

This was a fun little dessert.  My girls thought it was great fun to freeze things in the heart shaped ice-cube trays.  And they were able to help put the graham cracker crumbs in the tray, then on the top.  That said, the dessert probably isn't worth the time and effort.  Not only do you have to make a pudding, you have to whip the cream and the eggs whites separately.  All of these things lead to extra dishes. 

Also, it didn't freeze very hard.  I don't know if this is because of my freezer (which isn't the newest or greatest) or if the ingredients don't freeze hard.  The shapes started melting and losing shape after only a couple minutes on the counter.  If you could figure a way to serve them immediately after taking them out, then it would work better.  This might be worth it to impress people at a baby shower or something, but only if you have a cold house that won't make them melt too quickly.

Ice Box Dessert by Loleen G.
2 egg yolks
1 C sugar
2 lemons, juiced
2 egg whites
1 C whipping cream
Graham Cracker Crumbs

On medium heat, cook egg yolks, sugar and lemon juice until thick (boiling??).  Whip egg whites (I did it until I had stiff peaks) and cream (until stiff peaks again) separately.  Add these to above cooked mixture.  Put cracker crumbs in bottom of ice tray, then add mixture, then more crumbs on top.  Freeze in refrigerator (not sure what it means to freeze in refrigerator, so I put them in the freezer) overnight and serve plain or with ice cream.  (Can be halved, since I did it that way and it worked great)

Pie Crust - Mary Mae N.

I know we were suppose to do salad this week, but I didn't have the ingredients or the time to get them, but I did have the ingredients for pie crust and the pudding to go in the crust.  So, I will do a salad recipe next week, and you may enjoy this pie crust recipe this week.  

When I first saw this recipe, and it mentioned making tarts I decided to use the tins I got for my wedding 15 years ago, and have never used, and I am glad I did.  It took some hunting to find them, and I was actually afraid, that in a fit of decluttering, I had gotten rid of them, but they were finally located.   It is good they take up so little space because I really enjoyed making these tarts and want to get more tart tins.  One thing I learned was, that for pie, I like a thick crust, but for small tarts, a thinner crust is better.   That said, this crust was yummy and flaky.  The only issue I had with it was that it was very salty.  However, I think that is more a problem with the age of the recipe than a problem with the recipe, I assume recipes were just saltier then.  For me, in the future, I will half the salt in the recipe to 1 t NOT 2 t, which I did below.

As an FYI, I filled the tarts with Hershey chocolate and Hershey's white chocolate pudding and whipped cream and toasted almonds.  They were delicious!

Pie Crust

2 C flour
1 t salt
2 T vinegar
1 C shortening
1/3 C milk

Mix flour, salt, and shortening together.  Add milk and vinegar,  shape into a ball.  Roll into desired shapes.  Bake at 450 degrees for about 7- 10 minutes for small tart shells.  "Makes a flaky, delectable crust"

Creamy Lime Salad by Romaine F.

My mom says she remembers this from ward dinners.  I asked her if Romaine took home a full bowl and she said that people liked it.  This proves that tastes change, because I took it to the lake where we had 5 families and the overwhelming consensus was that it isn't gross, but no one would choose to make it again.  The mayo was really strong.  They didn't really like my mom's salad either.  Next time, we will take recipes we know are good.   I thought it would look pretty like this other creamy lime salad my grandama used to make that is so yummy, but it didn't. I was very disappointed.  The recipe says it serves 50, so I cut it way down, about 1/6 of the original recipe, which was a great idea becasue that served 26 with some left over.  I think if you left out the Mayo and the celery, it might be good but I don't think I would make the effort to find out.  I only give this recipe 2 stars, but I give my grandma's lime salad recipe 4 stars, so I will give you that recipe so you can use it instead.

Creamy Lime Salad by Romaine F.

The amounts I used are in parentheses

1 no. 10 can (20 oz can) crushed pineapple, drained

Pineapple juice and water to make 2 quarts (1 1/2 c)

4 tall cans (12 oz. can) evap. milk chilled 

2 qt. (1 1/3 c) cottage cheese

1 qt. (2/3 c) finely choppeed celery

4 t (2/3 t) grated lemon rind

1 c (3 T) lemon juice

1 qt (6 oz pkg) lime jello 

1 qt (2/3 c) mayonnaise

1 pt (1/3 c) cnopped nuts

4 t (2/3 t) salt

 Add lemon juice and enough water to the pineapple juice to make a total of 2 quarts liquid.  Boil half of the pinapple juice mixture, pour over the gelatin, and strir it until dissolved.  Stir in the rest of the liquid and milk.  Cool it until it is partially set up, stirring often to keep it smooth.  Mix the cottage cheese, pineapple, mayonnaise, celery, nuts, salt, and lemon rind into the gelatin mixture.  Chill until firm.  Cut in squares and serve on top of lettuce leaves.  Yield 50 servings. 

Make this recipe instead:

Jello Salad

2 6 oz pkgs lime Jello

1 pt whipping cream

2 8 oz pkgs cream cheese

1 qt pears, drained and diced

1 can pineapple chunks, drained (you can use the juice as part of the liquid for the Jello if you like)

Make Jello using 4 c hot water, but only 1 c cold water.  Chill until thick but not set up.  Whip the cream.  Whip the Jello separately, then whip the cream cheese into it.  Fold the Jello and whipped cream together and fold in the fruit.  Chill until set.

This salad is very versatile.  I have made it with strawberry or raspberry Jello and added strawberries or raspberries and it was really yummy.  I think you could make any varieation on flavor.

Rice Fruit Salad - Romaine F.

I thought this salad would taste like acini de pepe noodle salad.  It kind of did but the rice didn't take on the flavor of the other ingredients very well.  I peeled the apple because I cannot eat the peelings.  If you used red, yellow, or green apples, the peelings would give the salad a more appealing look.  I salted the water the rice was cooked in plus put some salt into the salad after it was mixed together.  I also left out the sugar because I thought it sounded too sweet with the marshmallows and pudding.  I was wrong.  I added about 1/3 of the sugar afterwards and it brightened the flavor a lot.  All of the sugar called for would be way to sweet.  We had a party at the beach last night with 4 families.  I 1/2'd the recipe so it was for 25.  Let's just say when I got home there was still enough left for 20 people.  Not a hit.  I did like it and if you needed something without a lot of sugar, it was OK without any added sugar.  I am giving it a 1.5 on public opinion but I thought it was a 2.

Rice Fruit Salad - Romaine F.                        (serves 50)

2  qts. Uncooked Rice                                          1  1/2  qt. diced Raw Apples
1  6 oz. pkg. Vanilla Pudding                                 3  C. Sugar
2  20 oz. cans Crushed Pineapple, drained             Salt to taste
16  oz. pkg. Miniature Marshmallows                    1  qt.  Whipping Cream whipped
                                                                             or. 2 - 8 oz. pkg. Cool Whip

Cook rice according to directions.  Cook pudding according to directions.  Mix rice with pudding and pineapple then cool.  Add marshmallows, apples, sugar and salt.  Just before serving fold in whipped cream.
Variations:  Use petite macaroni in place of rice and add chopped maraschino cherries and nuts.   Serve 50

Zweiback Pudding - Rua J.

I am a little prejudice.  Because of the name I thought this would be strange.  I was wrong it is quite tasty.  Two of my granddaughters liked it quite a bit.  (This is "edible" was the comment)  It is similar to graham cracker crust & topping with pudding in between.  If you didn't have any cookies or graham crackers for crust, this could be a possible replacement.  I thought I had regular bread crumbs, but I didn't, so I used "Kokkoman's Panko Japanese Style Bread Crumbs" left over from onion rings at Christmas time.  They are bread crumbs that stay crunchy when used for breading.  I am very glad I did.  The crust was a nice soft crust but the topping part stayed crunchy.  I have not had a lot of custards in my life but I love puddings in crust so it was good.  It called for meringue made with egg whites but there was not a recipe so I added one.

Zweiback Pudding - Rue J.

2  C. ground dry Bread Crumbs                                           1/2  C. Butter
1/2  C. Sugar                                                                       1 tsp. Cinnamon

Mix together.  Keep out 1 cup for topping.  Line 9" x 9" square pan with remaining crumb mixture.

Custard Filling

2  C. Milk                                                                            3  Egg yolks
1/2  C. Sugar                                                                       1  Tbs. Corn Starch
1  Tbs.  Butter                                                                      1  tsp. Vanilla

Mix all ingredients together except Vanilla  Cook on med/high heat stirring constantly until boils.  Boil 2 min.  Pour gently over crumb crust so you don't make holes in crust.

Meringue (from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)

3  Egg whites                                                                        1/2  tsp. Vanilla
1/4  tsp. Cream of tarter                                                        6  Tbs. Sugar

Beat egg whites with vanilla and cream of tarter until soft peaks form.  Gradually add sugar, beating till stiff and glossy peaks form and all sugar is dissolved.
Spoon over the custard pudding and seal all edges to pan.  Bake 20 min at 350o F.  Allow to cool completely and serve with a dollop of whipped cream.