Resolution #1: Lose Weight, 60's Style

This recipe for mushroom puree, for which there will be no picture because all the pictures turned out looking incredibly gross, will put you on the path to weight loss. It comes from Jean Nidetch's Weight Watchers Cook Book, 1966, which tells us that Weight Watchers was started by "six fat women." This book was a Christmas gift from my brother, but I'm sure he wasn't hinting at anything and really just wanted me to enjoy the lovely line drawings and helpful advice about which "festive dishes" will be loved by my "bridge ladies" (cheese aspic-shrimp patio platter, in case you are wondering).

We find in the "Unlimited Vegetables" chapter that mushrooms are (1) unlimited and (2) just like roast peanuts (see picture above). That is evidence that this book is not entirely reliable. Still, I bravely boiled some mushrooms with water and a little seasoning and declared it good. Actually, better than good because I can see using this as a base for a lot of different soups and spreads. Nidetch suggests adding tomato, spinach or skim milk for a soup, but I added a little vegetable broth, garlic and peas and served it with homemade rye bread.

Did you read that? Mushroom puree with peas? Sounds good, right? It was. But the pictures. Oh, my. Imagine brown liquid with some chunky brown pieces with bright little round things floating in it. The pictures were not pretty at all, but trust me, it's good. Just eat it by candlelight.

Mushroom Puree
Adapted from the Weight Watchers Cook Book, 1966. This recipe is pretty flexible and I think you can add just about any seasonings to it depending on what you like and how you'll use it. I happen to have dehydrated onion flakes (an impulse buy at Penzey's,) but fresh sauteed onions would be good if you're willing to lose a little of that 60's flavor.

1 pound mushrooms
1 Tbs caraway seeds
3 Tbs dehydrated onion flakes
Chives
1 tsp coarse salt
1/2 tsp grated pepper

Coarsely chop the mushrooms. In a heavy pot, combine mushrooms with one quart of water, caraway seeds, and onions. Let cook over moderate heat for one hour. Check occasionally and add water if necessary. Turn off the heat, place in refrigerator, and let flavors blend for a couple hours or overnight.

Put the stock back on to cook some more and add the chives, salt and pepper. Put everything in blender, or using an immersion blender, and blend until you have a puree. Use as a base for soup or spreads.

Butterless Kitchen

Between Thanksgiving and New Year's most of us find ourselves making and sampling (or scarfing) mounds of fatty foods. Given the current array of butter and cream cheese coming to room temperature on my counter right now in anticipation of hours of baking, Classic Cook's home is no exception. Thus, a newer book in my collection, "Gourmet Cookery for a Low-Fat Diet" offers a brief contrast to this seasons eatings. This book from 1961 shares dire warnings about the dangers of fat and gives us confidence to "[g]o into [our] butterless kitchen without despair, for now it can be done."

And, oh, the joy these authors have for fat free cooking! We will become the "Columbus of the kitchen, a Magellan of the markets" using this book that is destined to "become a kind of classic, a pioneer, a Dan'l Boone of what to eat and how to eat it." Oh my. That's a lot from one cookbook.

Here's something many people can get behind: the importance of alcohol. They dismiss the "Puritans" among us who don't drink alcohol because the authors "do like enlightenment, and therefore...pay heed to the dictum of science which says that alcohol is the purest food known." Well there we have it. It's scientific! I'm enlightened! Now bring on the bourbon!

But first, a recipe. My potato repertoire is pretty limited: oven baked potatoes or mashed potatoes. This recipe for Casserole Potatoes really isn't outstanding, it's just, well, potatoes in milk. The beauty of it how easy it is to modify, making it a good basic recipe to have. Get rid of the caraway seeds and add garlic or a little cumin or thyme. Add a little cheese and butter (ignore the fat free crowd!).

And remember, "ignore the dull, dreary rules, regulations and restrictions of the diet books and still feel confident entering the Kingdom of King Pausole."

Casserole Potatoes
Adapted from Gourmet Cookery for a Low-Fat Diet, 1961. Modify, modify, modify this recipe. I think more than anything it gives you the confidence that you don't need a recipe to make potatoes.

White potatoes
Butter
Caraway seeds
Salt
Skim milk

Preheat oven to 375. Slice some raw potatoes into a lightly buttered casserole. Cut them thin. Scatter some caraway seeds and salt in between the layers and pour in skim milk to a depth of about one inch. Cover, place in 375 oven for 30 minutes. Stir potatoes. Recover and place in oven for another 20 to 30 minutes.

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

Does Anyone Have a Recipe for These?

A very special recipe is coming soon, but for now, I hope you enjoy this...

Slump

This is an apple slump to wake me up from my blogging slump. I have good excuses: we installed bamboo floors in our condo; school started; and my crankiest cat, Lily, is on two medications and is wearing an Elizabethan collar and she is not happy. Because we continue to have large summer harvests from our CSA I have been doing a lot of cooking, but it has been more my go-to recipes than classic cooking.

But with an overabundance of apples in my kitchen this recipe for "apple slump" from 1964's The Bisquick Cookbook. This dessert is in the "Real Old Fashioned Favorites" section, and is an alternative version of their "apple pan dowdy." In addition to using up apples, it gave me the chance to use one of the kitchen tools that we rarely get to use: the apple peeler/corer/slicer. During a Pampered Chef party my husband got to demo this and thought it was the coolest kitchen gadget ever and the only one worth buying, never mind that it has somewhat limited utility to him it was a must have. He has used it a few times, always for the same recipe, but mostly it sits in the back of a cabinet. Because we have limited cabinet space in our tiny kitchen this seems like something I may give away, but it takes up little space and really does the job of peeling, coring and slicing apples (and potatoes) like nothing else can.

Now, you may ask yourself what role Bisquick has in a kitchen where whole foods are the center of most recipes. Regular Bisquick contains partially hydrogenated oil, and both regular and the "Heart Smart" versions contain bleached flour. I have tried the "Heart Smart" version and it is easy and convenient but decide some time ago to just make my own when I need it. For this apple slump recipe, I just made a quick batch using this recipe. I used a mix of regular and white whole wheat flour although I think straight whole wheat may have worked just fine. I'll try that next time.

The recipe in the book is pretty easy but I did make a couple small changes, like sprinkling the slump with cinnamon sugar, and decreasing the original amount of sugar given (mostly because I was using sweet apples, but I probably would have decreased it anyway). I also used soy creamer instead of cream and it worked fine.

Apple Slump
Adapted from "The Bisquick Cookbook," 1964.

6 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1/4 c sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
a little extra sugar and cinnamon mixed together

Shortcake dough:
2 cups Bisquick, or substitute
3/4 cup cream
2 Tbs sugar

Heat oven to 400. Place sliced apples into a greased 2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

Make shortcake dough by stirring together Bisquick, cream, and sugar. Knead 8-10 times. Flatten the dough and lay it over the apples. Prick the dough a few times to allow steam to escape. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Bake for 40 minutes.

(Interesting note from the book: "Louisa May Alcott's house was named for the original of this famous old dessert, 'Apple Slump,'--really an upside-down dowdy.")