Well, I made an unusually well received dinner tonight- a couscous salad and pork loin. I probably should try to keep up the streak. I need to use some asparagus tomorrow–any suggestions?

In any case, I think I will buy some good will on their part by making these Cheese Biscuits. The bread hater will be at a sleepover. The rest of the family will enjoy. Warning–these are more cheese straw or a cheese shortbread than biscuit.

Cheese Biscuits

1/2 lb butter
1/2 lb extra sharp cheddar cheese
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 red pepper

Cream butter, add grated cheese. Sift flour, salt and pepper. Add to cheese mixture. If too stiff, add a little cream. Flour a sheet of wax paper. Take out mixture in fourths–roll back and forth until you have a roll about the size of a 50 cent piece. Roll this in another sheet of wax paper and put in fridge to harden (overnight works well). When ready to use, slice down and bake on cookie sheet in 375 oven 10-20 minutes. This will keep in the fridge for some time and can be frozen.

~Mary Buckalew (from my great grand-mother’s collection)

I like spinach souffle but true souffles can be tricky and time consuming. This is not a true souffle in any sense of the word. Not a single egg. On the other hand it is full of retro yumminess-cream of mushroom! Cream cheese! French Fried Onion Rings!

Combine
2 pkgs chopped frozen spinach-thawed
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
Several drops of tabasco sauce

Top with 1 can french fried onion rings and bake at 325 25 min or until bubbly.

I was cleaning out the pocket in my fridge calendar. It has one of those pocketed white board sections. In it were a bunch of recipe cards…mostly not mine and mostly the newly graduated from college girl child’s cards. I am going to guess this one belongs to her mother, though if she doesn’t claim ownership…I will have to call girl child. It is one of the more bizarre recipes I have ever seen, fortunately I have never seen it prepared at my house.

1 pkg Kool-Aid (lime)
1 large can of pineapple juice
11/2 to 2 quarts of water
2 cups of half and half
2 cups of brandy
Grated Nutmeg

Combine sugar, water, in saucepan; bring to boil and cook 5 minutes. Cool at least 2 hours. Combine chilled sugar and water and the remaining ingredients, except the nutmeg. Stir well; serve over ice. Sprinkle nutmeg. Makes 3 1/2 quarts.

Guess what? In addition to the summer BlogHer Conference, there will be a Blogher Food in the fall this year. I hope to go!

Two BlogHer Conferences in one year…what fun.

I am on a cherry roll these days. Ok, not really, I just noticed that there are going to be two cherry recipes in a row. But, last night we were talking about Jell-o AGAIN. I may never live down the asparagus salad. There were threats of turning off the water if I tried to make the salad again. I said well I can use coke to make Jell-o. This was not believed.

You can. It is yummy

2 (3 oz) packages cherry Jell-O .
3 c boiling water
1 (12 oz) can Coca-Cola .
1 (21 oz) jar maraschino cherries

Mix Jell-0 and boiling water. Stir until dissolved. Stir in can of coke and drained cherries. Chill until set.

A funny thing happened on the way to writing this post. I baked a cherry pie. Ok, so that is all up to debate. I busily prepped dinner with Joe as acting kitchen grunt. I told him to get the pie dough out of the fridge. Yes, the fridge. I buy it in a box most of the time. After the bring to room temperature that worked out badly and the piecing it together in the pie plate, with boy child fixing it, I dumped the single can of cherry pie filling in and told Joe to put it in the oven. So, whether I made the pie or not was debatable and my kids love to debate.

I sang out “can she bake a cherry pie, Josie boy, Josie boy? Can she bake a cherry pie charming Josie?” as I served it. Then the recap and debate. Then mutterings about how I MAY be able to bake a cherry pie but I certainly can’t serve it. I replied with a “why do I cook for you ungrateful wretches?” and a smile.

Happy Belated Mother’s Day everyone. We had the Lemon Cheese Cake for dessert last night. Or at least some of us did.

My great grandmother made fabulous cakes. When she made her cakes, at night, she would put her butter and sugar on to cream with her 1930s Sunbeam mixer that she wouldn’t part with,  because she was a patch it until it couldn’t be patched anymore sort. Well into the 1970s she called to talk to my father, frantic. She said her mixmaster’s motor was burned up and she wanted him to fix it. He explained that there was no way to fix it and that parts weren’t available. She suggested my father’s father make new parts and then my father fix it.  He sent her a new one instead. She swore that it never creamed butter as well.

Most of the clipped recipes came from the Mobile Press Register in the 30s and 40s. This however is from a recipe card from her collection.

Lemon Cheese Cake

1 c butter
2 c sugar
3 c flour
1 c milk
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and sugar and add eggs one at a time. Beat well. Sift flour 4 times and add ½ flour, then milk, rest of flour, then vanilla. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

Filling

1 cup sugar
2 level tbs corn starch
Juice of 2 lemons
1 egg
1 stick margarine
1/3 c confectioners sugar
1/3 c grated cheddar cheese

Cook first 5 ingredients until thick, add powdered sugar and cheese, spread between layers of the cheese cake

Frost cake with a lemon butter cream icing or seven minute frosting

Well you ask me
to sing you a love song
and I smile ‘n say
Hold on
Let me think
~Melissa Ferrick, Love Song

And then I sing you a love song in a foreign language-the language of food, of recipes.You know this blog is your love song. You can pick out the words and hear the tune. But, will you ever understand it? I think you do now.

You have learned the words and the tunes. You have watched my movements as I flip through cookbooks, plan meals and dance my messy way through the kitchen. Just in case…let me explain a bit more because as I thought about how to talk about this curious mixture of love and recipes…I learned more about myself, you, and those whose recipes I cook.

Joseph says I cook because I love. Is that his epiphany or mine? Both I think. I do. I cook to woo. I cook to nourish. I cook to teach. I cook to love. Meals can show off. Meals can feed people. Most of all, my meals are a hug, a kiss, a wink, a thank you, a caress, and the recipes the love songs that play in my cooking.

That is the draw of old cookbooks and recipe cards. Sure, the commercial ones with their funny pictures and fussy ideas on keeping a home amuse me. The ones that sing to me though come from Junior Leagues, churches, Women’s Auxiliaries, ones handwritten on a recipe card, ones with names attached. Those women share the love songs they sang to their families and their friends through their cooking. The ingredients may be foreign or impossible to find in these times. (celery Jell-o for example) The ingredients may just hide behind another name: oleo, xxxx sugar, #2 cans.

But listen to the tune…you know this love song. This is the dinner made for a mother with a newborn. This is the cake made to celebrate a son’s birthday…his favorite. These are the pork chops and potato pancakes counted on to bring a smile to her father-in-law’s face. These cookies sing holiday tunes with Mama in the kitchen with excited children. She tucks these memories away as she tucks the cookies in tins to give to her friends. Recipes sing the love song of a cocktail party or a brunch filled with laughter and friends.The recipe that makes a full meal out of stale bread, an egg and a few slices of cheese? This is a longing love song to feed a family with a bare pantry and days to go before a paycheck.

This recipe? The chocolate fudge pie? It sings a love song of a mother distracting a brokenhearted teen daughter when she learned that not all friendships are forever. Look at this one! It is the recipe for the aspic that great-grandmother made for Sunday dinner. She never said I love you out loud…but she always had a cake on the glass cake stand in the dining room for you. Maybe the Lemon Cheese Cake? The Caramel Cake? Or the beautiful, slightly wicked Devil’s Food cake. Love.

This blog, these recipes, are my love song, their love song, a chorus of voices singing to you. Everything from my kitchen has heard my love song…from the mushroom dish to the hashbrown casserole to Mommy’s specialty and each family member’s special foods. Even the asparagus Jell-o, though no one liked the tune.

So, hold on, let me think, how strange at 39, I am sharing this love song.

It is Bread Pudding Recipe Exchange week. Bread pudding is a food I wasn’t fond of as a child but once I grew up and made my own for the first time, I fell in love with it. If you haven’t had bread pudding in years, give it a try. French toast in a casserole dish!

It is a great way to use up the ends of a loaf of bread or revive a stale loaf and a frugal dessert.

Here is how I do it:

Take about 5 cups of bread that you have torn into pieces. I like to use raisin bread, homemade breads, challah, etc for this but any stale bread works.

Warm 3 cups of milk in the microwave. Beat in 2 eggs, 1/3-1/2 cup of sugar (white or light brown sugar), 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg. I do this in the casserole dish I am going to bake the pudding in. Soak bread in milk mixture for 15 minutes. Stir lightly. If you would like to add raisins, add them at this point 1/2-1 cup. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until set.