Grandma's Kitchen

For Easter my mother gave me two recipe boxes that used to be my Grandma Carma's (thus you now know where my name came from). She doesn't know how the recipe boxes ended up in her possession, but seeing as how I am the adventurous cook in the family she decided to give them to me. I decided to type up all the recipes and any neat information that may have been associated with them. My goal is to get all of the recipes typed up and then "publish" the cookbook for close family members.

I am discovering that recipes have changed over the years. I know that is a, "No, really? DUH!" statement, but I've had to actually do my research. Many of the recipes do not have oven temperatures, but rather they refer to the "speed" of the oven; slow, moderate, fast. I had to explain to Ayron what the modern day word is for oleo. The word "nutmeats" made my laugh. Still cracks me up (I am juvenile in that sense, I admit it. But come on, can you imagine going to the store and asking someone, "Excuse me, where do you keep your nutmeats?"). There is one term that I still can't figure out. Peanut crunchies. It is for a cookie recipe. I have to wonder if my grandma was referring to crunchy peanut butter. If anyone knows what "peanut crunchies" are, please let me know!

It is interesting to read the extra information grandma put on the card. This lady was all about speedy frosting. I have several recipes for 5 minute and 7 minute frostings. She also had about 10 recipes for devils food cake. Oh, and if she could sneak dates (the fruit, not calendar dates) into the recipes, she would! I have some recipes that were my great great grandmothers. Some recipes (a majority of the bigger recipe box) were a class assignment for my grandmothers "home ec" class during her junior and senior year.

I never had the opportunity to meet my grandmother. Sadly, she passed when my mother was pregnant with me (now my parents choice is name become even clearer doesn't it?). I can't help but picture her in her kitchen cooking up some kind of vegetable stew and fresh bread while a devil's food cake is baking and she is whipping up some 5 minute frosting. I can see the red apple cookie jar on the kitchen table (funny story behind that for another time) and my mom and her siblings reading or doing homework. For some reason I picture my grandfather sitting at the kitchen table reading the paper and smoking a pipe. This is odd because as far as I know, my grandfather never smoked. But the pipe adds a nice affect doesn't it. Maybe too much "Leave It To Beaver" for me, who knows.

I just finished typing up all of the hand written recipe cards from the smaller of the two recipe boxes and I came across a radio "transcript" from WOWO that had been mailed to my grandmother (under her maiden name). It was from the August 15, 1946 broadcast of "Modern Home Forum." After I looked at the recipes and read the transcript I realized that all of the recipes had been submitted by my grandmother's Junior Brighton 4-H girls group. I found that kind of cool.

I am now inspired to attempt to bake a lot of the sweet treats that I came across! Needless to say I have started my shopping list. Tonight I am going to attempt to turn my grandmother's recipe for Applesauce Nut Bread into muffins.

Applesauce Nut Bread

2 C. sifted flour

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 C. coarsely chopped walnuts

3/4 C. sugar

1 egg

3 tsp. baking powder

1 C. applesauce

1 tsp. salt

2 T. melted shortening

1/2 tsp. soda

Sift together dry ingredients. Add walnuts. In mixing bowl beat egg; add applesauce and melted shortening. Add dry ingredients. Stir until just blended. Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake @ 350 for one hour.

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After I posted this, my aunt forwarded it to my uncle. This was his email response.

Also the kitchen wasn't big enough for the number of people in the picture, but hey Carm, it's your image, so its kitchen can be as big as you need! :)

"The pictures (and odors) _I_ remember involved me in the living room with my shiny new birthday stopwatch timing the strawberry jam; Sloppy Joes on Saturday evenings with Jack Drees narrating Saturday Night at the Races and all of us huddled around our "betting tickets" from Garden City Thrif-T-Mart; and the horrible smells of fried eggplant, fried green tomatoes, steamed dandelion greens out of the backyard, and a few other foods Mom liked but I couldn't stand. (Finally made my peace with fried eggplant, but that's about it.)"