Last week while the 19 yo girl child was here to visit. (hmph-should be while the 19 yo was home-but she claims this home she has never lived in, in a state where she has never lived, is not home, darn big kids) we went to a lovely junk shop and coffee house. (fab combo-more places should do that)
They had a great selection of retro cookbooks and cookbooklets-once you found them on the bottom shelf in a back corner, behind stuff, under stuff, etc. One of the ones I picked up is “The Holiday Cookbook” from the Staff Home Economists at the Culinary Arts Institute, published by Culinary Arts Instituute, Chicago 1, IL. 1955.
I think we will have a lot of fun with this one as the year goes by, but since Halloween is nigh…let’s start there. First it is “Hallowe’en” in this lovely book. Second, well, some of the Hallowe’en Garnishes make me giggle….though the cheese pumpkins are on my list.
My scanner is not cooperating today but let me share the first recipe our family tried from this cookbooklet. It was a big hit at Sunday breakfast-and as my 13 yo said- “Like Starbucks, but not too sweet and just better”
Hot Spiced Cider
Combine in a large saucepan:
2 qts apple cider
1/4 cup sugar (you could probably skip this if you start with a sweet cider)
12 whole cloves
6 whole allspice (I substituted 1 tsp ground allspice)
4 3-in sticks cinnamon
Heat slowly to boiling. Boil 3 to 5 min. Remove spices. (I didn’t-my kids are accustomed to feel better tea so won’t flip out over a stray clove)
Serve hot garnished with orange slices or rings of unpeeled red apple with whole cloves forced through peel. 16 servings
(Ok, I didn’t garnish and 16 servings? We got 5 average sized mugs out of this recipe. Granted they were not punch glass sized. Of course, I guesstimated on the cider amount. I had a gallon and used half-ish but I didn’t measure. My Tupperware measuring cup that does well with large measures is MIA. )
