May, 2011

  1. Need Hope? Lemon Meringue or Lemon Cream Pie

    May 12, 2011 by Tarrant Figlio

    Recipe cardFeeling hopeless that you will get everything done you need to get done this week? Don’t. The week will march forth perfectly for you. Not enough? then maybe you need a little Bob Hope for hope this week.

    This recipe comes from my great grandmother’s collection. I have no idea where she clipped it from or when. I know it has been floating around since the 50s and perhaps earlier. Rumors say this was his mother’s recipe and Bob Hope’s favorite pie. This one has a nice option of skipping the meringue if you don’t want to fuss with one or if you just don’t like them.

    Bob Hope’s Lemon Meringue or Lemon Cream Pie

    3 tbs corn starch
    1 cup plus 2 scant tbs sugar
    4 tbs lemon juice
    grated rind of one lemon
    1 tbs butter
    4 eggs
    1 1/2 cups boiling water
    5 tablespoons sugar for meringue (or sweetened whipped cream or dessert whip for topping)

    Separate the eggs. One egg alone; three egg whites in a large bowl; all yolks together in one bowl. Beat egg yolks until thick. Combine with corn starch, sugar, lemon juice, lemon rind and butter in top of double boiler. Mix slowly. Add boiling water. Coook until thick, constantly stirring. Let mixture cool. Beat single egg white until stiff. After mixture coools, fold in the beaten egg white. Pour into a baked 9″ pie shell.

    For the meringue: Beat remaining egg whites until almost stiff. Then gradually add 5 tablespoons sugar, beating until meringue is very stiff. Swirl over filling. Bake at 300 for 30 minutes.

    Variation: Lemon Cream Pie–Pour custard mixture in baked pie shell. After baking cool and cover with sweetened whipped cream or dessert whip.

    Category retro food | Tags: | 1 Comment

  2. Dauphin Island Crab Gumbo

    May 11, 2011 by Tarrant Figlio

    Dauphin Island Crab GumboSome places hold on to your memories and you tell tale after tale about them. Dauphin Island is one of those places for my mother. When we were young, she spoke of summers there. I pictured my summer vacations at Virginia Beach–but somehow Mama’s vacations were better. In my head, she stayed right on the beach and ran wild in the summer heat and swam all day. As I got older, the stories changed a bit and she would have a dreamy look in her eye as she spoke of dates with my father where they went to Dauphin Island.

    I wish I could recall those stories better. I should pay attention when she shares them with my children. They sound different though. Is it her age and memory loss or is it my perspective as an adult that makes them sound different? I don’t know.

    I do know that whenever Dauphin Island is hit by a hurricane, a flood or is otherwise in the news, Mama fusses. Some part of the landscape of her youth is wiped away with disaster, since she hasn’t been there in probably forty years or more. It stays frozen in her mind like the times she spent there.

    This recipe makes fine use of the culture and the seafood of Dauphin Island. My mother and great-grandmother have several versions of it in their collection of recipe cards. I suspect this one was clipped from the Mobile paper.

    Dauphin Island Crab Gumbo

    2 cups finely chopped celery
    2 cups finely chopped onion
    1 bell pepper, finely chopped
    Minced parsley
    3 tablespoons bacon drippings
    3/4 cup sifted flour
    2 cups raw crab meat
    2 cups canned tomatoes (or fresh peeled tomatoes)
    1 cup cut okra
    1/2 teaspoon of salt
    1/4 teaspoon pepper
    1/4 teaspoon chili powder
    Paprika (optional)
    hot sauce (optional)
    1 tablespoon gumbo file (find it in the spice section of your store or at your local spice house or favorite mail order)

    Saute celery, onions, peppers and parsley in drippings in covered skillet until soft. Remove from pan. Brown flour in drippings, (I hate that part!I have no patience but it really is worth it and the only way to make gumbo) add to vegetables. Add three quarts water and crab, then cook for 30 minutes. Add tomatoes, okra and seasonings; simmer for one hour. Remove from heat; stir in file.

    Serve over rice.

    Note: If cooked crab meat is used, add 10 minutes before removing from heat. Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

    Category Recipes, Soups | Tags: | No Comments

  3. Main Dish Salads

    May 3, 2011 by Tarrant Figlio


    Teen girl doesn’t quite understand the joy of horrifying food photography. She also doesn’t understand that the tempting pictures she sees on say…Epicurious are the stomach turning pictures of the future.

    She also hasn’t ever lived in a time where these were tempting and the “fancy food” that we wished our mothers or grandmothers might tempt our stomachs with instead of liver and onions or beef stroganoff or pea soup. Ok, the tomato cup with chicken salad seemed to be the ultimate in grown up food. I may have rolled my eyes like my daughter at the ham mouse or macaroni salmon salad. I didn’t like bean salads as a child (and really don’t delight in most as adults) Macaroni-Salmon Salad and Hot Tuna Salad would have never happened. My father didn’t eat meat that didn’t oink or moo. My mother had an aversion to tuna and we would only rarely have tuna in any form. No matter what, I would have eaten what was served or at least enough of it to escape the notice of my parents.

    So here is one of the pictures she found particularly horrifying in the Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook, 1961. I don’t know…the ham mousse might be worth trying. Which would you try? Or are you running to some pretty modern pictures of food?

    Category retro food | Tags: | 1 Comment

  4. Easy Oatmeal Bread

    May 2, 2011 by Tarrant Figlio

    I love a good yeast bread. Nothing fills a house with the smell of “home” like a loaf of yeast bread baking. I suspect I am not the only one who thinks so. This bread is an easy one to start with if you aren’t friendly with yeast yet.

    Easy Oatmeal Bread

    3/4 cup boiling water
    1/2 cup rolled oats
    3 tbsp soft shortening (do not fear the shortening!)
    1/4 cup light molasses
    2 tsp salt
    1/4 cup warm water (not hot! 110-115 degrees F. I use my wrist like one would do with a baby bottle if bottle feeding)
    1 pkg active dry yeast
    1 egg
    2 3/4 cups flour

    Stir together boiling water, oats, shortening, molasses and salt in large mixer bowl. Cool to lukewarm. (yes, really–you don’t want to kill the yeast!) Dissolve the yeast in warm water. Measure flour. Add yeast, egg and half the flour to lukewarm mexture. Beat 2 min, medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of the bowl frequently. Add remaining flour, blend in with spoon until smooth if you don’t have a heavy duty mixer. Spread batter evenly in greased loaf pan. SMooth out top of loaf.

    Let rise in warm place (85 degrees works perfectly) until batter reaches about the top of the 8 1/2″ pan or about thumb width from top of a 9 inch pa. (about 90 minutes) Heat oven to 375. Bake to 50-55 min. Test loaf by tapping the top crust. It should sound hollow. The crust will be a dark brown. Immediately remove from pan and place on cooling rack. Brush top with melted butter.

    Recipe and picture from Betty Crocker’s New Picture Cookbook, 1961.

    Category Breads | Tags: | No Comments

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