Dig this retro gelatin dessert!

2 teaspoons plain gelatin
â…“ cup cold water
¾ cup apricot purée
¾ cup XXXX sugar
½ cup whipping cream or evaporated milk, chilled
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Soften gelatin in cold water. Heat apricot purée to  boiling, add sugar and softened gelatin and stir until dissolved. Cool until mixture becomes thick and syrupy. Whip thoroughly chilled cream or evaporated milk, using chilled bowl and beater. When stiff, add  lemon juice and continue beating until well blended. Fold into apricot mixture, turn into mold, and chill until firm. Unmold onto chilled serving plate. 5 servings. The Modern Family Cookbook

Another retro “Spanish” meat recipe. Reads more like sausage with tomato gravy to me. I would whip up some grits to go with. The simmer time seems way long to me. I would go with 30 min-45 mins. Check your sausage for doneness and remove.

1½ lbs pork sausage, country sausage
No 2. can tomato juice, or No. 2½ can tomatoes, strained
½ cup finely chopped onion
½ cup finely chopped green pepper
½ cup finely chopped celery
½ teaspoon salt
Dash of pepper
1½ teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons flour
¼ cup water
Grated parmesan cheese

Shape sausage into 10 patties and brown in hot skillet. Now pour off half the accumulated fat and add tomato, onion, green pepper, celery and seasoning. Cover and simmer 1 hour. Remove sausage to a hot platter. Blend flour and water and when smooth, add to tomato juice in which sausage was cooked. Stir until it boils and thickens. Pour sauce over meat; sprinkle with cheese. Serve hot. 5 servings. The Modern Family Cookbook

In order to cream anything you make a white sauce. Today’s entry into cream sauced goodness, defenseless shrimp!

Personally, I would skip the pickles and capers part and throw in a good couple of teaspoons of old bay seasoning and maybe a splash of sherry before serving over rice.

Creamed Shrimp

2 lbs. green shrimp, or 3 5-oz cans shrimp
4½ cups medium white sauce
2 tablespoons finely chopped sweet pickle or capers.

Clean and cook shrimp. Or clean canned shrimp by removing dark veins down backs, then rinse in cold water. Fold cooked or canned shrimp into hot white sauce in top of double boiler and continue heating over until they are hot through, abut 15 minutes. Turn into a serving dish and sprinkle pickles or capers on top.

The Modern Family Cookbook

It is Apple week here at retro food. I didn’t mean for it to be, it just happened. I can’t possibly share the menu recipe for escalloped apples without sharing the recipe right above it…one of my favorites: cinnamon apples.

Cinnamon Apples

5 tart cooking apples
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
¼ cup cinnamon red-hot candies (imperials)

Wash, pare and core apples. Make a syrup of sugar, water and red-hots. Place apples in the syrup and cook gently 15 to 20 minutes, until just tender, turning the apples frequently so all sides becume ocolored. Cool and serve in the syrup as a dessert; or lift out, draining throughly, and serve on lettuce leaves with mayonnaise as a salad. Syrup may be saved and used again, adding more water and a few more red-hots has needed. 5 servings.

Escalloped Apples

2 lbs. tart cooking apples
½ cup sugar
3 tablespoons buttter

Pare, core and thinly slice the apples. Arrange apples in 3 layers in a buttered casserole, sprinkling each layer with sugar and dotting with butter. Cover the casserole and bake in a 350° F. oven 30 to 40 minutes or until apples are tender. Serve hot or cold. 5 or 6 servings. The Modern Family Cookbook

I love Apple Cake, there is just something so homey about it.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted shortening (margarine works fine)
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
3 large tart cooking apples, pared, quartered, cored and sliced
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Sift flour, measure and resift 3 times with salt, baking powder and 2/3 of the sugar. Stir cooled melted shortening into egg and milk which have been beaten together, and add all at once to the dry ingredients. Stir quickly until flour mixture is just dampened; then stir 3 or 4 times more but not until smooth. Turn into buttered pan and spread out in even layer. Arrange apple slices in rows over top pressing sharp edges lightly into dough and sprinkle with remaining sugar mixed with the cinnamon. Dot with butter. Bake at 425, 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve warm with butter or lemon sauce. 5 to 6 servings. The Modern Family Cookbook

This is a lovely rich fruit cake that will hit your budget less than the Holiday Fruitcake.

For the blackberry jelly, use seedless blackberry jam, folks are suspicious enough of us retro fruitcakes er I mean of fruit cake without thinking the blackberry seeds are some nut shells or weird dirt or pits.

This recipe halves well and you can use all pecans if the almonds are too dear. If you don’t have cream leftover from something else, you can use milk with fine results. The canned fruit juice can be substituted with any juice. Orange juice works well.
I am also not averse to substituting ginger or cloves for the mace. Speaking of which, if you have a spice you use once a year-instead of buying a whole bottle, find a natural foods store that will sell you just the teaspoon or less you need from their “bulk” spices. This will improve the taste of your dish by using fresh spices each year AND save you money because you won’t be buying more than you need.

If you are short on loaf pans, clean empty coffee cans work well for fruit cake pans.

2 lbs. moist raisins
2 lbs. moist currants
1 lb. citron, finely cut,
1 lb. pecans, chopped
1 lb. almonds, blanched, sliced
4½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons nutmeg
1 teaspoon mace
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 lb soft butter
1 lb brown sugar
12 eggs
1 6-oz glass blackberry jelly
½ cup cream
½ cup canned fruit juice

Thoroughly wash and dry the raisins and currents; combine with citron and nuts. Sift flour, measure and resift twice with spices; mix 2 cups of it with the fruit and nuts. Cream butter until soft and smooth, blend in sugar thoroughly, and add eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg is added. Add blackberry jelly which has been thoroughly beaten up. Add remaining flour mixture alternately with cream and fruit juice, beginning and ending with a portion of flour and mixing well after each addition. Stir in floured fruits and nuts and mix until well distributed through the batter. Pack into loaf pans lined with 2 thcicknesses of greased brown paper or waxed paper. Bake the same as the Holiday Fruit Cake for 2½ to 3 hours, depending on size of the pan. Cakes are done when they pull away from sides of the pan and are firm to the touch in the center. The Modern Family Cookbook

This sounds good for any time of year. It does seem to be a good dish for a retro holiday buffet or winter festive meal in the south.

Keep in mind the French Dressing, is not the French Dressing of the bottles found in the store but more a vinaigrette. Don’t miss the note about the slightly different procedure if you want to use mayonnaise.

3 cups diced cooked sweet potatoes
1½ cups diced celery
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoon French dressing or Mayonnaise *

Combine sweet potoatoes, celery and salt. Add dressing and toss together lightly until all potato is coated. Either kind of dressing is good. If mayonnaise is used*, marinate the potatoes half an hour in French dressing in a covered bowl in refrigerator, then drain and add mayonnaise. Serve in lettuce cups. 5 servings.

Tis the season for cookies. Therese are “pressed” but not with a cookie press…just rather like peanut butter cookies with the fork tines.

2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup soft butter
½ cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg white beaten with 1 teaspoon cold water
Sift flour, measure, and resift 3 times with baking powder and salt. Cream butter well, blend in sugar, and add egg, beating vigorously until smooth and fluffy. Stir in flavorings, then add flour and mix well until smooth. Chill dough; then shape in walnut0size balls and press out flat with tines of fork. Brush cookies with egg white mixture and sprinkle with granulated sugar, crushed rock candy, or chopped nuts. Bake in a moderately hot oven (400° F.) for 10 minutes, or until delicately browned. Makes 2 to 3 dozen cookies. The Modern Family Cookbook

Classic comfort food from the ladies who lunch crowd…or what the rest of us ladies who don’t lunch always imagined they ate, so made anyway.
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
½ milk
1 teaspoon salt
3 egg, separated
2 cups shredded half-cooked carrots, 5 medium

Make a white sauce of the butter, flour, milk and salt. Pour hot sauce over the beaten egg yolks, stirring vigorously. Fold in carrots, then the stiffly beaten egg whites. Turn into a buttered 4-cup casserole and bake in a moderately slow oven (325°) about 1 hour. Serve at once. 5 servings.  (or 1.5 comfort food sized servings) The Modern Family Cookbook

More in the creative use of meringue and custard. Surely for a retro presentation this dessert can’t be beat…ok, so it could be topped by any number of Jello desserts but…it is still a good one

2 cups milk
½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
4 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla

Scald milk with 4 tablespoons of the sugar in top of double boiler. Beat egg yolks well, and slowly stir in the hot milk. Return to double boiler and cook over simmering water, stirring constantly until custard just coats a metal spoon. Remove immediately from heat, add vanilla and chille. Just before serving time, beat the egg whites until fluffy, add remaining sugar slowly and continue beating until very stiff. Drop meringue on top of chilled custard in individual serving dishes, and serve immediately. For cooked meringue, use only 2 egg whites and â…“ cup sugar, then poach spoonfuls about 2 minutes in simmering water, covered. 5 servings.

Note: 2 or three left-over egg yolks may be used in making this dessert, in which case smaller “islands” will result unless you can combine the smaller quantity of beaten whites with some whipped cream.