Depression Cooking

Time is flying and Baby Classic Cook is due on Tuesday. I have been doing a lot of cooking some from new cookbooks, some from old, but I just haven't gotten around to posting anything for awhile.

If the baby isn't here in the next couple days I will probably post a new recipe. Until then, I am really digging this series of videos about depression era cooking. Check it out!

Everthing Old is New Again

Since moving into a small condo I have discovered the thing I miss the most about our old house: the garden. In it we had strawberries, rhubarb, horseradish, cucumbers, zucchini, many varieties of sweet and hot peppers and tomatoes, eggplant, lots of different herbs, and whatever else caught our attention at the nursery. Neighbors were encouraged to pick strawberries and vegetables from our garden when we realized we couldn't eat all that we planted. Some food was composted, but most went directly onto our plates or those of our co-workers and neighbors.

We didn't grow the variety of things we could find in the supermarket or even the variety of vegetables we get in our share at the CSA, like beets, greens, asparagus, and potatoes. We sometimes tired of the produce from our garden, the glut of zucchini, the strawberries that we sometimes let rot until only the birds would eat them. But mostly we enjoyed it, building menus around whatever was in season. I never ate raw tomatoes until my husband planted tomato plants in the backyard of the first apartment we ever rented together. That summer not only did I start eating tomatoes, we had tomato sandwiches many nights in a row for weeks on end and never got tired of them.

In this day of war and rising food (and everything else) costs, I have been reading some about victory gardens. During World War II, people were encouraged to grow their own gardens and not waste food. Today, it seems the messages we receive from society, both government and private industry, is that we need to support businesses and the economy more, not less, and the idea of victory gardening is anathema to that. And food waste is rampant in homes, colleges, and restaurants. But I don't know that the spirit of victory gardening was ever new or has ever disappeared: I see it in the "good life" of the Nearing's, and the communes of the hippies, and in the simple living movement.

Even if you can't grow vegetables because you have a shady balcony, like us, or just don't have time or energy to grow your own garden I think we can still live the spirit of the victory garden. Eat locally. Eat seasonally. Don't waste food.

There are many resources out there to get us started on all of this, and I think this video is an inspiring place to start (and it mentions victory gardens!). Also check out the 100 Mile Diet, Local Harvest, and the Wasted Food blog.

Oh no! I Have to Bring Something!

My Christmas gift to you is this trio of super easy, super fast sweets to mix up and take with you to every home you visit this holiday season. If you throw the gingerbread in the oven, make the Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars, take the gingerbread out of the oven and make the Coconut Drop cookies you can have all three of these treats done in about 2 hours.
Most of the ingredients are probably floating around your cupboard already. A couple weeks ago, my husband was startled to come home and find on the counter a big jar of creamy hydrogenated sweetened peanut butter because I read that our usual natural peanut butter shouldn't be used in cookies. But now I have a big jar of creamy hydrogenated sweetened peanut butter begging to be used, and the Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars use a full cup of it. I see more of these in our future.

Quick Gingerbread
Adapted from Kitchen Tested Recipes: By the Home Economists of the Famous Sunbeam Mixmaster The King of Food Mixers, 1933. As you can see in the picture I added a glaze to mine. The glaze is a little melted butter, a little water, a smidge of lemon extract, and a lot of confectioner's sugar. I glazed the gingerbread while warm so some of it melted into it.

1/2 c molasses
1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 c flour
1 egg
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 c butter filled to 1 c with boiling water

Heat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Pour into a greased 8" x 8" baking pan. Bake 30 minutes.

Coconut Drops
Adapted from Festive Foods: Wisconsin Gas Company, 1971. I did not have cans of coconut so I used about 12 oz of sweetened coconut in a bag and it worked just fine. I dipped the bottoms in melted dark chocolate. These would be really good with added craisins or pecans.

4 cans (3 1/2 oz each) coconut
1 can (15 oz) sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 325. Mix coconut and condensed milk. Drop about a tablespoonful at a time on a greased baking sheet. Bake about 20 minutes.


Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
Adapted from Festive Foods: Wisconsin Gas Company, 1971. I didn't have rice cereal or corn flakes on hand so I substituted 3 cups of another cereal (a high fiber one, so treat eaters beware!).

1/2 c light corn syrup
1/4 c brown sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups rice cereal
1 cup corn flake cereal, slightly crushed
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine syrup, sugar and salt in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, extract, cereal and chocolate bits. Press into buttered 9" x 9" pan. Chill about one hour. Cut into small squares.

Recipes Listed by Cook Book

A periodically updated list of my cook books and the recipes that come from each one.










250 Ways to Serve Vegetables

Mashed Turnips











Better Homes and Gardens: Recipes from Famous Places

Pumpkin Muffins









The Bisquick Cookbook, 1964

Apple Slump













Boston Cooking School Cook Book

Book Review
Chocolate Cake
Cranberry Sauce
Curried Green Tomatoes
Eggless Chocolate Cake
Fifty Basic Recipes
Mashed Potato Baskets
Orange Frosting
Peach Muffins
Rhubarb Filling
Sauteed Mushrooms and Green Beans
Scalloped Sweet Potatoes and Apples
Snow Cake
Southern Corn Pudding










Festive Foods: Wisconsin Gas Company

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
Coconut Drops











Gourmet Cookery for a Low-Fat Diet, 1961

Casserole Potatoes












Just How: A Key to the Cook-Books

Tapioca Pudding












Kitchen Tested Recipes

Baking Powder Biscuits
Party Cookies
Quick Gingerbread













Purity Cookbook: The Complete Guide to Canadian Cooking

Tangy Mashed Sweet Potatoes












Putting Food By, 1974

Sun-Cooked Strawberry Jam














Rumford Complete Cookbook

Flaky Pastry
Oatmeal Crisps











Slenderella Cook Book
Book Review
Cucumber Salad
Onion Soup
Whole Wheat Bread











Three Meals a Day: Cooking, Table, Toilet, Health

Floor Wax
Frugal Graham Flour Muffins
Griddle Cakes












Weight Watchers Cook Book
Mushroom Puree









Recipe cards, new cook books and other miscellaneous recipes

Brown Sugar Cookies
Lebkuchen
Sweet Potato Pecan Burgers
Oven-Baked Brown Rice

Brunch-alicious

Having friends over for brunch is one of my favorite ways to entertain. I don't feel pressured to make fancy food and I don't fall asleep during the party. And if brunch is followed by a rocking game of Guitar Hero III, well, even better! In case you're wondering, I ROCK!

Ahem. Back to brunch food.

I like to keep it simple, so we had pretty standard fare: eggs baked with gruyere and onion fresh chives from our CSA, fried green tomatoes also from our CSA, upside down cranberry ginger cake made using this recipe, biscuits, cooked apples, and what we affectionately call "half-eaten" banana bread (a lovely chocolate-chip banana bread that our guests brought and apologized for taste-testing--who can blame them?).

Two recipes are classics: cooked apples from Slenderella and biscuits from Kitchen Tested Recipes. The apple recipe was simple and just okay, so I won't bore you with the details. But I am providing the biscuit recipe below because they're worth making. I made no ingredient substitutions in this recipe but because I don't have a stand mixer (someday, someday) I just beat everything by hand and it turned out just fine. As a matter of fact, I imagine the only reason this includes mixer instructions is because it's in a Mixmaster cookbook because I've always read that one should be careful not to overmix biscuits.

Baking Powder Biscuits
Adapted from Kitchen Tested Recipes: By the Home Economists of the Famous Sunbeam Mixmaster, 1933. The one reason I hesitated to post this is because it calls for 4 teaspoons of baking powder. If you use the standard stuff you buy in the grocery store the flavor might be off because you will taste the aluminum in it. I highly recommend for your tastebuds and your health that you buy non-aluminum baking powder like this one. I'm placing my preparing-for-holiday-baking order with King Arthur soon so if you know me in real life and want me to order some for you, I will.

I think you could use butter instead of shortening, or try a shortening without trans-fats like this one.

Also, I suggest sifting the flour before measuring. I prefer recipes that list ingredients by weight but since most of them don't I've found that sifting, or at least stirring the flour and lightly scooping it into the measuring cup, is more likely to get you the right amount of flour.

2 cups flour (sift before measuring)
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
4 Tbs shortening
3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 450. Place flour, baking powder, and salt in large mixing bowl. Mix on low for one minute or whisk together. Cut shortening to small pieces, then mix on medium for 3 minutes (or blend by hand with a pastry blender). Add 1/2 of the milk, working only enough to combine the ingredients. Add the rest of the milk and mix.

Turn out on a floured board, pat or roll about 3/4 inch thick, and cut with biscuit cutter.

Bake for 15 minutes at 450.

Swirly Sweets

After my utter failure with a recipe from the "Kitchen Tested Recipes" cookbook, maybe I shouldn't have tried again so soon, but I did. I chose the easiest recipe I could find and one that I was pretty sure didn't actually require a Mixmaster. Since there are "[n]o hot, perspiring days in the kitchen, once you have MIXMASTER," I decided to wait until a nice, cool day because I didn't want to risk it.

These party cookies could not be easier, unless you bought those slice and bake rolls of who-knows-what available in the refrigerated section of your grocery store. There is no cooking time included in the original recipe, so I included an estimate of what worked in my oven. The rolling is a little tricky since the dough is a little sticky, and I ended up placing it between two sheets of waxed paper and that worked fine. Parchment paper or plastic wrap would probably work, too. I'm sure yours will be much lovelier than mine, but I wasn't feeling particularly patient and layered the dough in three layers, flattened it, and then rolled it creating a bit of a mess. The recipe below contains the correct instructions to flatten it and roll it like a jelly roll.

And in case you're wondering, there is not really anything redeeming in these cookies. There is lots of butter, refined sugar, and white flour. They are buttery, but not too rich or sweet and taste surprisingly good with a glass of dry red wine.

Party Cookies
Adapted from "Kitchen Tested Recipes" (1933).

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
3 Tbs milk
1 1/2 cups flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
Scant cup of chocolate chips or food coloring

Cream together butter and sugar. Mix in egg. Alternately add 1 Tbs of milk and 1/2 flour (three times) to the butter mixture, scraping the sides as you mix. Divide the dough into two parts. To one half of the dough, add melted chocolate or a few drops of food coloring and mix well.

On waxed paper, roll out one section of the dough about 1/4 thick. Evenly spread the other half of the dough (with chocolate or food coloring) on top of the original dough. Cover with another piece of waxed paper and roll until thin. Roll up (jelly roll like) and place in refrigerator until firm.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 9-11 minutes.

The King of Food Mixers, and a Failure

The cookbooklet "Kitchen Tested Recipes" from Sunbeam Mixmaster, the King of Food Mixers (1933) has recipes ranging from mashed potatoes to meatless stew. In between every recipe and on full page ads, the Mixmasters let you in on little secrets: no static in the radio while MIXMASTER runs...MIXMASTER attachments are not trashy...it is impossible to injure yourself with a MIXMASTER food chopper and meat grinder attachment...

There are lots of promising, basic recipes in this book, like popovers, biscuits, angel food cake, orange marmalade, and waffles. Some sound a little unusual, like stuffed peppers that list prunes as an ingredient, spinach loaf, and corn fondu (sic), but even those have potential. The print is tiny so they could fit many recipes, and snippets of wisdom, and supportive letters, into just 40 pages.

The dozens of letters alone are worth the price of the cookbooklet. This kitchen appliance is "indispensable," "perfect," "the pride of my kitchen," and "the finest gift my husband ever gave to me." My favorite is a letter from Mrs. B.E.S from Ithaca, NY who is quoted as simply saying, "MIXMASTER...is the joy of my life!" Sigh.

Now, don't try to print the coupon on the right and use it for your own MIXMASTER attachment because it expired August 30, 1933. Even if you could use it, how would you decide which attachment to get? The mayonnaise oil dropper? The slicer and shredder? The potato peeler? The coffee grinder? The can opener? The knife sharpener? The silver polisher? The grapefruit reamer? The choices are almost endless! (After reading the next paragraph, I'm sure you'll be able to guess which one I would choose).

Rather than attempt one of the standard recipes, I decided to try to make mayonnaise. Now, of course, I don't have the Mixmaster mayonnaise oil dropper attachment (as a matter of fact, I don't have a stand mixer at all; someday, someday). Pressing ahead, I dripped, dripped, dripped oil into a raw egg and just couldn't get it to emulsify. Making mayonnaise is apparently a tough process and after two ruined batches and wasted oil and eggs, I gave up. I don't think that speaks to the quality of the recipe at all, but to the technique of the cook. I think my mother will be glad to hear this recipe didn't work, because she would not sleep for days if she knew her daughter was eating something with raw egg in it. But I am going to try it again someday...salmonella here I come!