Birthday-Cake Express

Happy Groundhog Day!
Happy Super Bowl!
Happy Valentine's Day!
Happy Presidents Day!
Happy Black History Month!
Happy Birthday!

February holidays, though a potpourri of national, reflective, historical and commercial observances, command respect and significance. The Favorite Recipes column in Grandma's notebook declares this by stating, "No month of the year lends itself to parties as does February." February? Ok, in our household that's true when you have a boy with a birthday like we do. According to Favorite Recipes, Max is in for a real patriotic treat:

Here's a suggestion for a party for a boy whose birthday falls on a patriotic holiday. A fort of logs formed the centerpiece. In the windows of this fort could be seen tin soldiers defending it, and around the outside small shrubbery and imitation grass lent a naturalistic effect. At each place was an individual birthday cake, each three inches square, roughly iced with green to simulate grass, and crouched on the "grass" holding tiny bows and arrows were small Indian dolls, such as can be bought inexpensively in sets. Forts built of bread sticks and filled with creamed chicken, hot chocolate, and cookies cut with Indian and Soldier cookie cutters held vast appeal and after the forts demolished, the defenders and assaulted alike dispatched, Mother read a story of the days when Indians roamed and forts were necessary holding wide-eyed youngsters spellbound with her carefully prepared recital.

Woah. To me, creamed chicken and cake don't even belong in the same sentence. Indian dolls and cookie cutters would only be found on the Antiques Roadshow. Not sure if I could get six or seven wide-eyed boys to listen to any story I had to read on any subject. I also could not submit Max or his friends to this sort of arrangement for his birthday for reasons social, historical and gastronomical. The choice for his birthday cake this year was the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine and the only "bad guys" in that series usually are mummies or monsters, not a entire culture.

But this Soldier and Indian cake column made me wonder: If the mothers of the late 1940s and early 1950s were looking to newspapers and magazines for unique birthday cake ideas perhaps this was a practice not that different from what we do -- the mothers of today. In the 21st century we moms face the pressures of Martha Stewart but we are armed with the resources of Pinterest!

I polled a few of the elders of the Nebergall tribe to see if they recalled from their childhoods any particular style of birthday cake. Aunt Sue remembers the "best cake ever" was an ice cream cake from Johnson's Creamery in Bloomington. Uncle Bill remembers two-layers cakes from a boxed mix (this does seem more consistent with Grandma who raved about the ease of a particular boxed cheesecake mix). My mom remembers her sister's party where Jell-O parfaits were served in lieu of cake. Hmmm...no elaborately staged or themed cakes? I suppose I've been watching too much Cake Boss.

Toward the back of the notebook I did find a more practical birthday cake suggestion, one that was more en pointe with my expectations of the era and yet felt surprisingly familiar as it uses supermarket staples to create a concept cake (Semi-Homemade, anyone?). Even though this cake is not Max's style,  it is indeed mid-century modern.

Birthday Cake Express -- From Woman's Day magazine, circa 1951

All you have to do it buy a couple of angel-food-cake bars, frost them, and decorate with candies.

Mrs. S. C. Stene of La Grange, Ill., who contributed the idea for this cake, says it makes a real hit with little boys. Here is the recipe:

2 12-ounce angel-food-cake bars
2 1-ounce semi-sweet-chocolate candy bars
Cake frosting
13 small chocolate-covered mints
4 large chocolate-covered mint patties
1 red gumdrop
Red candies

A cutting board or cookie sheet covered with colorful, washable, self-lining paper, folded under and held in place on the back with Scotch tape, makes a good base for this unusually long cake.

Place one angel-food-cake bar on the base. Cut a 4 1/2 inch piece from the end of the second bar, and place on the end of the first bar to make cab. Cut 2 pieces from one candy bar, to make windows for cab. Cut the second candy bar in half lengthwise. Use to make cowcatcher, trimming inside edges diagonally to form angle when pieces are fitted together. Cover cake with your favorite frosting. A pile of 5 small mints, with a drop of frosting between them to make the stick together, is the smokestack. While frosting is soft enough to hold candies, set the wheels, cab windows, smokestack, and cowcatcher in place, as show in the photograph. Use red gumdrop for engine light, red candles on cake.



Oh -- so how did Max's birthday cake turn out? Fabulously, I must say. I had a connection at a fantastic bakery called Moore Tastries. Now THAT is thoroughly modern.... and I think Grandma would approve.

No Appetizers, Please

We've made it through the holidays to the austere and dark month of January. Just when the holidays seem to be over we, in fact, have the next wave of food-related events -- the Super Bowl, Valentine's Day, and Mardi Gras take us all the way to Lent. Lent means no more indulgences, right? Oh, wait...that gets us to Easter, Memorial Day cookouts, Fourth of July, and then Labor Day....uh, so really the modern-day food calendar really runs from Halloween to Halloween, right?

For each of the aforementioned occasions, how many times has today's host/hostess asked willing guests to bring an "appetizer?" Sure -- it's the most common answer to the question, "what can I bring?" My most recent meeting with the Bunco group revealed this need -- a snack-type dish to pass and share with hungry Bunco girls. I was more than happy to oblige and at the same time have a reason to multi-task and again crack open the notebook.

Oh, wait. In Grandma's notebook there is not a single mention of the word "appetizer" or "snack". Nor is there a single "munch", "nosh" or "nibble". Nothing.

Technically an appetizer is something served before a meal to stimulate one's appetite but then I remembered. Mid-Century people did not necessarily snack nor did they eat appetizers before an everyday meal. As a matter of fact, Grandma herself called the act of snacking "lunching" and lunching is NOT something we did as a family. Sure there was an obligatory plate of shrimp or a cheeseball at Christmas but there were no recipes for them. So just how did the modern-day appetizer gain its prominence at America's gatherings?

James Beard, the renowned culinarian, notated ideas for small preparations of food in the 1940s in his books under the guise of "cocktail party food". According to lynnescountrykitchen.net, Beard in his cookbook “Hors d’oeuvre and Canapes” (1940), suggests that American cocktail appetizers evolved from the free nibbles set out on bars. Another theory is that prohibition launched finger foods, driving hard liquor out of the saloons in to the homes. But by the 1940's a whole new world of possibilities opened up. There were stuffed mushroom caps, numerous ways to stuff hard-boiled eggs, plus stuffed cucumber rings, artichoke buds, stuffed tomatoes and even stuffed dill pickles. This created a need for handy, smart snacks to soak up the booze.

In the 1950's cream cheese and sour cream based dips and spreads (French Onion anyone?) came on to the scene and were de rigueur along with the classic relish tray of celery, olives, and pickles. Did Grandma herself throw cocktail parties? I do not know. If she did, something close to the above offerings was probably served in the spirit of the current trends.

So today when we are talking chili con queso in a crock pot, pigs in a blanket, chicken satay, and antipasto plates it's an interesting commentary on our modern lifestyle. In some ways we have shifted from structured meals to finger foods. This type of of nibble-based entertaining I would guess is far more common than a traditional multi-course dinner party. Blame it on our television and automobile culture but the lowly appetizer has indeed evolved in this country since the 1940s.

Fast forward to today --  I did manage to put together an appetizer for the monthly meeting of the Bunco group. The recipe was not written down but one that I remembered my friend Bonny serving -- a layered dip with cream cheese, pesto, and toasted almonds served with wheat crackers on the side. All the girls that night brought snack foods that were not a prelude to any kind of meal but were a meal within themselves. Yes, we girls were lunching. That being said, appetizers are not in Grandma's notebook, but they are thoroughly modern.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you and all your kin!

No, I don't use the word "kin" in casual conversation but the song "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" does...and it also mentions figgy pudding....one recipe I don't have!

Today's recipe is a tried-and-true and it's one of the few I remember actually making along side Grandma, but for Halloween. I recall Grandma making her famous Popcorn Ball recipe twice a year -- Halloween and Christmas. When she lived in her mid century modern house, it was on a secluded street with very few trick-or-treaters so she would make the homemade popcorn balls, much to my dismay.

"But they are not store-bought!" I would exclaim -- at the dawn of the if-its-store-bought-it-must-be-safe era in the mid 1980s. But Grandma would just nod and smile and say that everyone on the block knew her and it was all right -- said in the same way she would bid at the local auction barn -- an all-knowing look and a nod.

The popcorn balls were placed precisely in a mahogany wood bowl by the front door each year for any neighborhood kids who would happen by. At Christmas that same bowl usually held Overnight Salad and I am pleased to have that bowl in my possession now. Though I did not get around to making them this year here is the newer, more modern version of Popcorn Balls courtesy of my Aunt Sue.



Grandma's Popcorn Balls -- Modern Version

3 bags of "natural" microwave popcorn (buttered versions won't work)
1 stick butter
1 cup Karo syrup
1 cup sugar
1 T apple cider vinegar

Pop corn and remove all virgins, up-popped kernels, divide between two 13x9 pans

Bring the other ingredients to a boil, once it begins to boil do not stir.  Let it boil at medium high heat for exactly 10 minutes.

Pour syrup over the two pans of popcorn and stir rapidly to coat the popcorn.  Form balls quickly.   This process is best done with two people, one stirring, while the other begins forming the balls.  Only a couple of minutes before the syrup sets up and the ball won't hold together.  Work very quickly.  Makes 12-14 large popcorn balls.

ENJOY!! 


Merry Christmas all!

Christmas Cheer

'Tis the Season to Be Jolly....

Harried....

Hurried....

Stressed-Out....

Exhausted....

Hello again Loyal Readers....It's been many weeks since my last blog post....not very Mid-Century Modern of me. By December 15 Grandma would have gifts for 20 purchased, wrapped and ready along with batches of cookies, divinity, and popcorn balls. She would have also been to cookie exchanges, holiday parties, church events, and then by Christmas Day she worked her magic celebrating with the family. Whew!

Today's 2000s woman (I need to coin a cool name....I am open to suggestions) has a bit of a different approach. Eliminate & Delegate. That's what my busy friends do and it works for them. Every year I say that I will Eliminate (never happens) and Delegate (I am warming to the idea) but it just doesn't seem like Christmas without certain tangibles. After all, in the 1950s it was up to the Woman of the House to create the Christmas magic and that, dear readers, is essentially still true today.

Like your family, Christmas with the Nebergalls always had certain Christmas culinary mainstays and I'd love to share ours with you today. I actually don't have the time to make the recipes today (Eliminate) but I'd love to encourage you all to try them (Delegate)....whew! That was easier to do than I thought! And I don't have a functioning candy thermometer right now and it's unseasonable warm and humid today (I have no moniker to insert here, just TWO excuses!)



Divinity Candy
This recipe is Nebergall lore. It's as special to our family as the secret recipe for KFC's secret blend of eleven herbs and spices. The only difference is that we are willing to share the secret with anyone. Just don't make this on a humid day. It may not set. 

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup water
2 egg whites, beaten to a froth

Cook the sugar, syrup, and water till it hard-balls in cold water then pour over the beaten eggs

This is the recipe exactly as written. You may want to google it for more info and specifics. 
This page of the notebook is splattered, torn and well-used... the most-used page in the book! 

Divinity was one of Grandma's trademarks. In college I once remarked to a friend that my Grandmother's divinity was the best in the world he requested it specifically for a music-school reception. Even though it was October, Grandma happily obliged. Grandma also once told me that if the phone ever rang while she was making the recipe she would promptly say to the bewildered caller, "I am making divinity and I must hang up."

Cinnamon Apple Salad

Some version of these apples appeared each Christmas -- I remember the apples both whole and in slices, though Grandma made the filling with cream cheese instead of cottage cheese and omitted the celery. The cinnamon candies are Red Hots and each year there was a discussion as to what store was still carrying them that year. Both recipes appear. Since the recipe had three entries in the notebook, I included them all here. 

6 apples

1/2 c cinnamon candies

 2 c. water

Red vegetable coloring (if desired)

1/4 c nuts

1/2 c chopped celery

1/2 c cottage cheese

Mayonnaise

Lettuce or endive

Peel and core apples leaving large opening. Combine candies and water. Bring to boiling point. Drop in apples and simmer just until tender. Remove and chill. Combine nuts, celery, and cottage cheese and moisten with mayonnaise. Fill center openings of apple and place on lettuce leaves or endive. Serves 6.

Cinnamon Apple Rings

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup water

1/2 cup red candies

4 apples -- peeled and cut into rings

1 t red coloring

Cinnamon-Apple Salad -- Better Homes and Gardens, November 1951

6 apples

1/2 cup red cinnamon candies

1/4 cup sugar

2 cups water

2 Tablespoons broken nuts

10 dates, pitted and chopped

1/2 cup diced pineapple

1/4 cup salad dressing

Pare and core the apples. Cook candies and sugar in water until dissolved; add whole apples and cook slowly until just tender. Drain. Chill. Stuff centers with combined remaining ingredients. Serve on lettuce or garnish with watercress. Serves 6

Next week: More holiday favorites! Stay tuned!

It's November. Where has the time gone? Since my last blog post (September!) there have been the usual day-to-day happenings of football games, school events, illness, social events, family gatherings....whew!

Today's recipe was perfect for our busy weekend...8 ingredients, done. Since the weather was spotty enough for an indoor kind of day cooking seemed like a good outlet. Chili was in the crock-pot and the extra hour from Daylight Savings Time left me an hour to squeeze in Apple Cake.

Jotted on the blank side of a bridge tally the recipe cautions the cook "No Liquid!". Yep -- a cake with no added liquid. This reminded me of the more modern-day Dump Cake but those usually call for a box mix and a can of pie filling. Not this Apple Cake....I was curious.



Apple Cake

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup oleo
1 cup flour
1/2 t soda
1/2 t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped nuts
2 cups thinly sliced apple

No Liquid!

Cream butter and sugar. Sift together flour, soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Add to sugar mixture. Add nuts and apples last. Bake at 325-350 for 30 minutes or until done. Serves 6.



I grabbed the ingredients -- by the way, I used butter not oleo. Ick. I also added a pinch of salt for good measure. Everything else was straight forward. Two cups thinly sliced apples equaled roughly 2 and a half apples, I used Honeycrisp. I poured the crumbly batter into a greased, square stoneware pan, baked for 30 minutes until slightly browned. Out of the oven the cake looked more moist than when it went in but some of the crumbles remained, kind of like a cobbler. I put the pan at the back of the stove until after dinner.

Later in the evening, with some sweetened whipped cream, I served the "cake"...call it cobbler really. It had a nice, sweet flavor quite a crunch around the edges but soft and juicy closer to the center. Next time I will bake a little less and perhaps even add another apple for more moistness. For a quick week-night dessert, this is a go-to. You're bound to have everything on hand!


It's been a year since Grandma's passing and though she's not around, working on this blog makes me think sometimes she really is around...like we are doing this together. In some ways, I suppose we are.

Soup can score -- Four and a half cans out of five

Crunchy Apple Dessert

Happy Fall! Though the Fall season doesn't technically begin until next week, Fall was in the air this weekend. Football, a trip to the apple orchard, perfect weather and a bonfire -- a recipe for fun.

With my fridge fully stocked with apples (Michigan ones.....the local orchard lost 70% of their crop this year to inclement weather)  I began the first in a series of apple-related notebook recipes. Today's installment is a hand-written recipe at the bottom of a well-splattered page. Whether or not Grandma ever made this one I don't know but it was worth a try.

Crunchy Apple Dessert 

1 cup sugar
1 T flour
1 t baking powder
2 eggs, separated
1 cup diced apples
1 cup nut meats
1 t vanilla
1/4 t salt

Sift dry ingredients. Add well-beaten yolks, diced apple, nuts, salt, and vanilla. Mix well. Carefully fold in beaten egg whites. Bake slowly, 1 hr. 350.


Upon the first read I figured this dessert would come out cobbler-like. At the store I stocked up on vanilla frozen yogurt and cool whip as accompaniments, the rest I had on hand.

Sift dry ingredients -- sift sugar? Ok, if the recipe says so. There was only 1 tablespoon of flour listed plus the salt and baking powder, in the sieve it went with the sugar. Done. One cup of apple? I put in a bit more, two apples total. One cup nut meats? I chose pecans and I coarsely chopped them. On to the eggs. I found the egg white thing to be strange but I dutifully hauled out the stand mixer and whipped the egg whites until soft peaks formed and yes, I carefully folded them into the rest of the ingredients listed. The batter came together nice -- oops -- almost forgot the vanilla. No pan size was listed so I pulled out a Pyrex pie plate, lightly coated it with cooking spray. Did they have that in the early 50s? No time to research that. Into the oven.

I napped on the porch. I awoke to the fragrant apple-pie-type-smell and took the dish out of the oven, nicely browned.

After dinner, moment of truth. I scooped the dessert into bowls and topped with vanilla frozen yogurt. Would it pass the test?

Crunchy Apple Dessert

Sadly, no. The taste was slightly confusing. Was it a cobbler or pecan pie? The nutty taste and the lack of apples really put it into the pecan-pie-with-no-crust category. If you are a fan, this might be a recipe for you but for me the texture was palatable, made light with the addition of the beaten egg whites, but nothing outstanding. The apples sort of disintegrated and it lacked the hearty apple substance I was looking for. No problem. There are plenty more apples in the drawer!


Soup Can Score -- One out of Five Soup Cans

Graham Bread

Happy Sunday all!

Today's item is called Graham Bread submitted by the very ambitious home cook, Mrs. Jesse Anderson. This particular clipping is from the column titled "A Little Bit of Everything", a column Grandma seemed to enjoy for there are dozens pasted in the notebook. Mrs. Anderson evidently submitted everything within the entire column for the tag line reads "Our thanks to Mrs. Jesse Anderson for the entire column". With all of her likely chores, Mrs. Anderson still had time to sit down and prepare a submission? The first recipe listed is Graham Bread, then White Cake (Inexpensive), Caramels, and an epic tome titled "How to Preserve a Husband". More on that later.

Now that fall is in the air, I chose Graham Bread to accompany a hearty Sunday vegetable soup. I liked the recipe did not call for yeast (yes!) and I happened to have graham flour on hand. It was meant to be.

Graham Bread

(1 large loaf or two small)
1 pint sour milk ( or 1/2 cup sour cream and 1 1/2 cups sour milk)
1 teaspoon salt
2 level teaspoons soda
1 cup sugar (scant)
2 cups graham flour (level)
1 cup white flour (level)

Nuts and raisins can be added if desired but very good without. Bake in bread pan in slow oven until thoroughly done 30 to 40 minutes (350 oven)


Like many of the clipped recipes in Grandma's notebook it is understood the home cook has a working knowledge of the proper sequence for the ingredients listed plus the appropriate technique. I have a clue for the most part -- like dry ingredients in baked good are usually incorporated into the liquid ingredients -- so I hauled out the mixer and started gathering ingredients.

With everything lined up on the kitchen counter I noticed there was no egg in the recipe. Interesting. How would the bread rise with no egg or yeast? Then I remembered my mom's recipe for an Irish Soda Bread where the acidity of buttermilk (or clabbered milk) reacts with salt and baking soda to provide loft. I ran to my card file and pulled it out -- sure enough the recipes were practically identical. I now knew how to proceed. No mixer necessary!

First I adjusted my pan size. The Irish soda bread mom makes fills a two-quart casserole, certainly not a loaf pan. That's why Mrs. Anderson said her recipe makes two loaves -- two full-size bread pans that is! I combined first all of the dry ingredients and a cup of golden raisins (better for baking than traditional ones, in my opinion) but no nuts. I then dumped the entire pint of buttermilk over the whole thing and I folded the batter just enough to make a moist dough. Into a greased Pyrex casserole it went and into the oven for 30 minutes. After 30, the toothpick test failed. Still doughy. No prob. Back in for 7 more minutes and this time  = success. From the other room Max inquired about the smell and asked if he could have some. Yep -- as soon as it cooled! I turned the huge loaf onto a cooling rack and then we sliced off an end....warm, fragrant, and hearty.

Later, with the bread accompanying the veggie soup, we slathered it with butter and I personally polished off two more pieces. Mmmm....the three of us declared it a success!!

Soup Can Score -- Five out of Five Soup Cans

This recipe will be a permanent fixture in our repertoire. Homemade, fresh bread with no preservatives in under an hour? You bet!




In this salute to Mrs. Jesse Anderson I share with you her essay on how "preserve" a husband -- and a lucky guy he is indeed. Read on:

How to Preserve a Husband

Be careful in your selection, do not choose too young and take only such varieties as have been reared in a good moral atmosphere. When once decided upon and selected, let that part remain forever settled, and give your entire thought to preparation for domestic use. Some insist in keeping them in a pickle, while others are constantly getting them into hot water. Even poor varieties may be made sweet, tender and good by garnishing them with patience, well sweetened with smiles and flavored with kisses to taste; then wrap them well in a mantle of charity, keep warm in a steady file of devotion and serve with peaches and cream. When thus prepared, they will keep for years.