I promised Kyrie that we would have tea. I feel so frustrated sometimes because she is growing up so fast and I am so busy. I have never worked until the past two years so I have never had to turn down a tea party before. Anyway, we decided on Butterscotch Walnut cookies from an old Farm Journal Cookbook I have.

Once I had them mixed up the dough looked too gooey. I have had this problem with the Farm Journal cookie recipes before and I am not sure if it is a flaw in the cookbooks or the age of …read more

 
I don’t know too many people who don’t like pineapple upside down cake.  The thick, caramel syrup combined with juicy pineapple and paired with tender sponge cake is nearly irresistible.
So, last night, when trying to come up with a quick dessert to round out a spicy Thai meal Upside Down Cake was pretty much a no-brainer.  Which is good because my life has been hectic and chaotic lately.  And that, my friends, doesn’t begin to explain it.

When I read the challenge for this months Your Mother Should Know by Steph from Dispensing Happiness I knew that it was going to be more of a challenge for me than for most people. The challenge was to make something from the year before your mother was born…and my mom was born in 1918! SO…..

I love finding old cookbooks at thrift shops. The one pictured is the Rumford Complete Cookbook from 1943. Cost was, as I recall, one dollar but the value is priceless. I love paging through and reading the recipe notes penciled in so carefully by someone long ago.

 
When I was growing up we did not have President’s Day.  We had two separate holidays, one for Lincoln and one for Washington, usually giving us two four day school weeks in the middle of February.  You ate cherry pie on Washington’s Birthday, and a rolled chocolate cake made to look like a log on Lincoln’s Birthday.  Life was good.
I love the vintage cookbooks.  This recipe is from Better Homes & Gardens 1959 Holiday Cookbook, which is to my left,  falling apart, even as we speak.  The pictures in it are fantastic.   Not because the food looks so mouthwateringly good, …read more

 
While I was checking through old recipes yesterday I found this and it sounded so absolutely awesome that I am posting it.  I think I am going to add some pecans to it, though.
Cherry Refrigerator Roll Cookies

A reader, Donna, asked if anyone had the recipe for chocolate cookies from the 1950s 4-H cookbook. It called for cocoa. This is the only one I was able to come up with that might be it. Does anyone else have anything ? If you do, either email me or leave it in the comments…
Going through three generations of recipes, these were the closest I could get. There was a 4-H on the card..and it looked old.
Vintage 4-H Chocolate Cookies
Mix these exactly like written
1/4 c shortening
1 c brown sugar
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 …read more

I love it when you all send me your family recipes. Just send them, with a picture if you have it and I will do my best to get them online.
Can you ever have too many recipes for whoopie pies? I don’t think so.
Gloria has sent her mother’s  whoopie pie recipe. She says:
I’m wondering how old this recipe is if it uses a microwave! lol
I grew up in Maine and got this recipe for Woopie Pies from my mother. Don’t know where she got it. But it’s old!

Since we live in a 1910 house, once in awhile I treat myself to something that was made in 1910. I have collected a series of magazines, Ladies World, all published in 1910. I put them out according to the month or holiday,and so this month is the Christmas Issue. Now, people lived very differently in 1910 but it was such a fascinating time period to me…The foods and the recipes, the way they were written and presented all intrigue me. Following is an excerpt from an article called Sweets for the Christmas Table .

First of all, I know calas are not baked. They are fried. However not enough of you have tasted traditional New Orleans Rice Calas because if you had they would be plastered all over blogs everywhere, and they are not. I do try to concentrate on baked things mostly but sometimes we all need to widen our horizons. The texture of these fritters as you bite into them is heavenly, a quick intense burst of flavor and then the calas just melt away like cotton candy. It is amazing.
After I dropped Marc off at work this …read more