From The Recipe Drawer - Stuffed Frankfurters

When we bought the farm from my mother in law, it came with a recipe drawer.  Her recipes, recipes from aunts, friends, sister in laws, mostly in family members handwriting. This year my daughter and I are on a mission to try each of the recipes in the drawer.

Another one from the Union County Christian Academy Cookbook.  

I think these are meant to be eaten as is, but I served them with hot dog rolls anyway.  

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Lemon Lime Cake - From the Recipe Drawer

Lemon Lime Cake by Patsy Truckenmiller

(see the transcribed recipe at the bottom of this post)

So much for not eating out of boxes..  LOL!  

Bake the lemon cake mix following the directions on the box.  Cool thoroughly.

Two packs of lime jello, mixed with 2 cups of hot water

Poke the cake all over with a fork, 

I wasn't sure all of the jello would soak in.. it would probably do better in a cake without the "pudding in the mix", but this is what was on sale this week. I drained it off, then slowly poured it back over a second time, and it all soaked in.

Put in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.

I like this icing a lot!  Two packs of dream whip, 1 cup of milk, mix until it starts to thicken, then add vanilla & instant pudding.  Lemon pudding for this cake, but for a "regular" cake I think I would use vanilla pudding.  It's not cheap to make, dream whip is $3 a box.. but it is really good!

Lemon Lime Cake by Patsy Truckenmiller

Cake:

1 lemon cake mix

2 3oz boxes of lime jello

Topping:

2 envelopes of dream whip

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 lemon instant pudding

Step 1

   Bake cake as usual

Step 2

   Dissolve Jello in 2 cups of hot water

Step 3

   Jab holes in the top of  the cake with a fork, about an inch apart. Pour jello mixture over the top of the cake.  Place cake in refrigerator until cold.

Step 4

   Make topping.  

   2 envelopes of dream whip with 1 cup milk and vanilla. Beat until partly thick.  add instant pudding and beat till thick.  Add yellow coloring if desidred.  Spread over cake.

Must be kept in the refrigerator to stay nice.

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Taco Quiche

Supper Monday night was Taco Quiche, refried beans, & Lemon Lime Cake for dessert.

The taco quiche is one of my new favorite recipes. So quick and easy, it uses up eggs, and is really good!

For the crust:

Tortillas.  You can use either corn or flour, I used flour here because I had them.  Use 3 or 4, tear them in half if needed to make them fit, overlapping, in the bottom of the pan.

For the quiche:

Dice & saute an onion (I used a vidalia)

Brown 1 lb of ground beef in taco seasoning

mix together and place on top of the tortilla crust

top with 8 ounces of shredded Montery or Colby Jack Cheese

In a bowl, mix together 1 cup milk and 4 eggs.  Whisk well, then pour over the meat & cheese.

Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes, until set & starting to brown lightly

For the toppings:

Salsa

Chopped lettuce

Chopped Tomato

Chopped avacado

Sour Cream

Hot Sauce

From the Recipe Drawer - Goulash

What I used:

I ended up doubling the recipe.  It only calls for half that box of macaroni, and half that bottle of tomato juice.  I also added salt & pepper.

There was more cheese to add to individual bowls.  My normal goulash does not use vegetables, chili powder, or cheese, and I usually use canned whole tomatoes and a little spaghetti sauce instead of the juice and tomato sauce.  I like the addition of vegetables and will probably do that in the future - although I'll use frozen instead of canned, it is cheaper.  We loved the addition of cheese, and the chili powder is a nice touch.  

The Recipe Drawer

When we bought the farm from my mother in law, it came with a recipe drawer.  Her recipes, recipes from aunts, friends, sister in laws, mostly in family members handwriting. My daughter & I have been working through the drawer, trying as many of the recipes as we can.

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Vintage Cooking Items Defined

When we bought the farm from my mother in law, it came with a recipe drawer.  Her recipes, recipes from aunts, friends, sister in laws, mostly in family members handwriting. My daughter & I have been working through the drawer, trying as many of the recipes as we can.  In this process, we have come across some ingredients that we had to define before we could use them.  I'll continue to update this post as we work through the drawer and find more ingredients we don't quite understand at first.

Canned Milk
Both evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk, come in cans - but in vintage recipes that call for canned milk, they typically mean condensed milk.

Mangoes

When transcribing my husbands grandmothers cookbook, I came across a recipe that used "mangoes" where it did not sound like mangoes would have been used.  Especially since this is a depression era cook, and mangoes are not grown anywhere near us.  If they DID have access to mangoes in this area in 1935, I am sure they would have been way too expensive for most of the housewives to ever use.  

So I asked my mother in law, and she explained that a mango is a bell pepper.  I found this site that speculates on why, based on the word meaning pickled and stuffed pickled peppers being so popular..  it's a theory, anyway.

Oleo 
Oleomargarine is the full term - it was the margarine of the 1950's.  In the recipes in the drawer here at the farm, I substitute half shortening/half butter for oleo.  I do not like margarine, but if I use just butter it often is not the right consistency. 

Originally margarine could not be colored yellow, as dairy farmers did not want it to be confused with butter.  It was sold white, and you could add yellow food dye to color it yourself.  In the ad above, you could buy it with the dye pack right in and mix it without putting it in a mixing bowl.

     

Sour Milk

Sour Milk is buttermilk  

Or, take 1 cup of water, remove 1 Tablespoon.  Add 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice, or vinegar.

Spanish Style Tomato Sauce

In a goulash recipe, I came across the ingredient "One small can Ideal spanish style tomato sauce".  I wasn't sure if this was spaghetti sauce, or a certain kind of tomato sauce.. the recipe also called for tomato juice, so plain sauce feels like overkill here. 

 I cannot find anything on the "Ideal" brand.  The best I could find was this description of the Goya tomato sauce: "Traditional Spanish style all-purpose tomato sauce made with rich tomatoes, peppers, and spices. Recognized for its consistency and multiple uses, it adds a special flavor to your meals"  

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Walking the cows home...

My husband, walking the cows home after they went to visit neighbors 2 miles away.

I didn't grow up on a farm. I openly admit that I do not know what I am doing most of the time, even after living here for 9 years. I really do not like inconveniencing others, and we seem to do a LOT of that since we moved here.  One of the reasons I did not want to raise cows is because when they get out of the fence, they travel.  I don't know what makes them leave acres of pasture, with water troughs, to walk across many acres of  varying hays, so they can stand in someone's manicured, flower bedded, UNfarm front yard, but they all seem to have that basic instinct.

It hasn't happened in a few years.. but this week it did.  My husband walked them home, across a neighbors farm.  I will remind him of this every time he gives me a hard time for giving the cows treats and hand feeding them.  They aren't skittish, and they will walk right with us, hoping for treats.  

After they returned, I posted this photo, and a few others on facebook, and I was surprised by how many commented about remembering doing this many times when they were younger.  Apparently we aren't the first to have cows escape the fence.  Maybe we aren't QUITE as bad at this as I had feared.

Day 9, Thursday: A moment in your day (this can be just a photo or both a photo and words)

Where is my gas tank?

I rarely put fuel in our vehicles, that is a job my husband takes care of for me.  Most of the time. Sometimes we drive a lot extra, and if he hasn't been in my car and doesn't notice, I may, occasionally, need to stop at a gas station if I want to make it home.  :-)  That happened this week, as we were headed home from our run at the lake, I realized my car was pretty much on empty, and i was driving right past the gas station to get home...

As I pulled into the station, I mumbled out loud "Which side is the gas tank on in this thing" and my daughter said "look for a little arrow on the display" pointing to my gas gauge.  Huh.  She was right - right beside the gas tank icon was a little tiny arrow pointing to the passenger side of the car, where the gas tank is located.  She said she saw the tip on Pinterest!  

(side note - why is it that I don't notice how dusty/dirty things are until I snap a photo of them with my cell phone?  I missed ONE week cleaning out the car, and this is how bad it is already...)

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Day 8, Wednesday: A piece of advice you have for others. Anything at all.