Jul 26
Tarrant FiglioSalads
Bacon! That should be enough to grab your attention. Wilted salad can sound so blah though if you have either not had one or have only had a really wilted one (which makes it icky in my opinion).
This recipe makes 6 servings of salad. Best made fresh and served immediately. Do expand the image to read some interesting history of wilted salads. This came from The Evening Sun, but no idea what year.
Wilted Lettuce Salad
8 strips bacon
1/4 cup vinegar
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 quarts torn leaf lettuce
1/4 cup chopped green onions
2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
8 minutes cooking time. Cook bacon in 10-inch skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 6 minutes. Remove bacon and drain on paper towels. Crumble bacon and set aside. Pour off all but 3 tablespoons bacon drippings. Combine vinegar, water, sugar and salt with the 3 tablespoons bacon drippings. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar, about 2 minutes. Combine lettuce, onions, and bacon in large serving bowl. Add hot vinegar mixture and toss to coat lettuce. Garnish with hard-cooked eggs and serve at once.
Dec 15
Tarrant FiglioRecipes, Salads, retro food
Magpie’s comment to my pie disaster caused me to look for the red hot jello recipe. It doesn’t appear to be here. How can that be? It is the family FAVORITE. Even the vegetarian child who knows gelatin has animal products in it makes an exception here. It is his ONLY exception.
I have eaten this since a child and served it on holidays my entire life. This was the last food requested (and I believe the last meal eaten) by a woman whose child I cared for as her nanny. She passed away in her early 40s from breast cancer after a horrible last couple of years. Mostly though, I associate this with my kids, holidays, and gathering together in joy.
Red Hot Jell-o
1/4 to 1/2 cup cinnamon imperials/red hots-I encourage the kind from the candy section-the ones in the decor/baking section do not reliably dissolve perfectly and cost more. On the night before Christmas-I will take them in any form whatsoever if for some reason we are out.
2 cups water
1 packet Knox Gelatin
1 large box strawberry banana Jell-o
1 jar applesauce-unsweetened (but if you get sweetened it won’t be the end of the world)
Set water to boil on stove with candies in it. Stir and wait for all candies to dissolve and rolling boil to be reached. While doing this mix the dry gelatin with box of strawberry gelatin. (Yeah you can do the soften gelatin in a few tablespoons of water thing-but I end up with lumps and why bother if you can mix it together dry.) When candies dissolve and you have a good boil (usually boil comes first) dump that into the gelatin combo. Stir until all gelatin is dissolved. Add one cup cold water and the jar of applesauce. Stir. Now…here is the thing about this…if you let the gelatin partially set before you add the applesauce or if you stir while the gelatin sets-you will get a more even distribution of applesauce. Otherwise, you end up with about 1/4-1 inch of non textured jello. This really doesn’t matter to anyone but me. I often forget to do this because I am too busy making other things on holidays. If you don’t add the Knox-no worries-it won’t come out as firm and I wouldn’t flip it on a plate but it is still yummy. Add another cup of cold water, more applesauce, more red hots. It is a forgiving recipe. It also doubles well.
Oct 22
Tarrant FiglioRecipes, Salads, retro food
I confess I haven’t cooked since Sunday. I probably shouldn’t have cooked then–but of course Funeral Potatoes with Ham were a big hit. Unfortunately, I made them through a cloud of fever. I have had a lingering cold since before BlogHer Food. It had reached the eh, cough a few times phase last week. This isn’t unusual for me and colds. Then on Saturday night I felt suddenly really bad. Sunday, I continued to feel bad. In the midst of that I started running a fever. I also felt like death warmed over. Monday had me realizing that I would have to go to the doctor.
Doctor pronounced sinus infection and probable H1N1. He ordered blood tests-because you see the scary part of me having a fever is I am on immune suppressing drugs which mean even when normal people run fevers, I do not. Luckily the blood tests didn’t say head to hospital forthwith. The blood tests said “oh she is on the low end of normal for WBC but still in the normal range” (note: when YOU have an infection your white blood count goes up) I am on antibiotics for the sinus infection. We decided against the antivirals. We are in that stage of waiting for the past three days. Bonus points: headache has gone away. Unfortunately, fever seems to come and go.
This means I have slept/lounged all day for a couple of days. I am getting nothing done around the house. (Yes, I thought “ooooo sick days-I can clean off my desk-before realizing-oh yuck. Sick day. I wear myself out walking to the other end of the house) McDonalds kindly provided dinner last night. Goode and Fresh is providing tonight’s dinner. (though I really don’t care since antibiotics hate my guts-literally) Leftover funeral potatoes and ham were dinner the night before. At one point yesterday I cursed that we didn’t have #bertollifrozen in the house and that Bertolli is all Italian food which definitely is wearing thin around this house, at least for me.
Tomorrow-fever or no I must work lest I go insane. I also need to change my mother’s sheets and mop her floor. I also need to figure out what I planned for meals this week. I did it on the fly and didn’t write it down though I know we got special ingredients.
I know it won’t involve this recipe. My family has rebelled against vegetables in gelatin. This one is even beyond me to think palatable. But it does come from a Knox Gelatine cookbooklet (1961) called Meal Planning for the Sick and Convalescent with Menus and Recipes. If you are into canned peas and shredded carrots as well as aspics-you could give it a try. I am very sure that offering this as required eating to any malingerer in your family will cause instant cure though.
Jellied Vegetable Salad
Mix 1 envelope Knox unflavored Gelatine, 1-2 tablespoons sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt together thoroughly.
Add 1 3/4 cups very hot water and stir until gelatine is thoroughly dissolved.
Add 1/4 cup lemon juice. Chill to unbeaten egg white consistency.
Fold in 1 cup shredded carrots and 1/2 cup well-drained cooked or canned peas.
Turn into 3-4 cup mold or individual molds. Chill until firm.
Makes 6 servings.
Apr 06
Tarrant FiglioRecipes, Salads, Sauces, retro food
Spring is lettuce season! Yay! Spring! But…lettuce can get so dull. The following could be called thousand island dressing…and does resemble it. I do love the “India Relish” listed on my recipe card. If you are scratching your head–just pick the regular pickle relish from your fridge.
Head Lettuce Salad with Dressing
1 cup Miracle Whip Mayonnaise
4 Tablespoons ketchup
2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
2 Tablespoons India Relish
2 hard cooked eggs
Mix well: add eggs cut in lengthwise sections. Pour over quartered heads of lettuce.
Feb 16
Tarrant FiglioPoultry, Recipes, Salads, retro food
Last night’s dinner was a sherried chicken. (Throw a cut up whole chicken in a 9 x13 pan with about a cup of cooking sherry and a can of evaporated milk and half can of water-bake at 350 until done.)
There were leftovers–girl child was not home for dinner and the chicken was bigger than normal in the beginning. That means real chicken salad today for lunch. Ok, so I also made some mock chicken salad too.
I tend to go with the thought that the best chicken salad is the simplest.
1-2 cups cut up leftover chicken
2 stalks celery finely chopped
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
Enough mayo to stick it together
Add about a teaspoon of lemon juice if the chicken was baked plain or boiled without additional flavor.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Chop everything about the same size. Mix together. Dollop on some bread. Add a slice or two of tomato and a leaf of lettuce if you want to get fancy. Also makes a lovely ladies luncheon served on a lettuce cup.
Nov 11
Tarrant FiglioDesserts, Fruits, Recipes, Salads, retro food
I am not sure who Norma Peterson was in relationship to my great-grandmother. I do know though that this is a fab cranberry recipe.
Cranberry Fluff
2 c. raw cranberries, ground
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 cup seedless green grapes
1/2 cup broken California Walnuts
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups tiny marshmallows
2 c. diced unpared tart apples
1 c. heavy cream, whipped
Combine cranberries, marshmallows and sugar. Cover and chill overnight. Add apples, grapes, walnuts, and salt. Fold in whipping cream. Chill. Turn into serving bowl or serve into individual lettuce cups. May omit apples and grapes and serve as a dessert. Takes 24 hours in all. Serves 8-10.
Nov 10
Tarrant FiglioFruits, Recipes, Salads, retro food Jell-o
This is a large large mold that doesn’t require any fresh cranberries. Yay! Boo! This one is better received among the younger folk because of it.
Holiday Cran-Pineapple Mold
2 envelopes unflavored gelatine
3 1/4 cups cranberry cocktail juice
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1 8-oz can crushed pineapple in juice
1 cup non-dairy whipped topping.
In small saucepan, combine gelatine, 1/2 cup cranberry juice, sugar, nutmeg and allspice. Cook and stir over low heat until gelatine dissolves. Drain pineapple, reserving juice. Add cranberry juice to pineapple juice to make 3 and 1/4 cups, mix in dissolved gelatine. Remove 1 1/2 cups to a small bowl. Chill until mixture mounds when stirred with spoon. Fold in topping. Coat the inside of a six-cup mold with Pam. Pour in whipped mixture. Chill until almost set. Meanwhile, chill remaining juice mixture until slightly thickened; fold in crushed pineapple. Carefully spoon over mixture in mold. Chill at least 6 hours or overnight.
Nov 09
Tarrant FiglioFruits, Recipes, Salads, retro food jell-0
And now we begin our week of cranberry recipes. Cranberries rank as one of my favorite fruits. Unfortunately, finding them out of season proves difficult. So, enjoy them now.
Cranberry and Cream Cheese Salad
1 pkg orange jello
1 pt hot water
1/3 cup sugar
1 teasp. vinegar
2 cups cranberries
1 3-oz cream cheese
Dissolve gelatine in hot water, add sugar, salt, vinegar and set aside to cool and thicken. Run cranberries through food grinder (or processor) twice. Add to gelatin. Mash the cheese fine and add to gelatin mixture. Beat with rotary beater until well blended. Chill. Serve on lettuce.
Sep 16
Tarrant FiglioRecipes, Salads, retro food
Macaroni salad is a favorite around here….a favorite fall back. This is a sweet cooked dressing rather like you buy in a jar.
Macaroni Salad
1/2 lb macaroni-cooked
2 carrots-grated or chopped
1 c celery-sliced fine or chopped
1 pepper-chopped or substitute small jar of diced pimentos
2 hard boiled eggs (optional)
Dressing
1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c vinegar
2 eggs
1 T cornstarch
1 tsp mustard
pinch of salt
Mix dressing ingredients over medium heat until sugar dissolves and mixture thickens. Pour over other ingredients, stir to blend. Chill for 2 hours or overnight.
Aug 13
Tarrant FiglioCandy, Desserts, Recipes, Salads, retro food Jell-o, marzipan, retro
Marzipan is hot these days. After years of being a creepy, foreign seeming thing (though my father loved it and my mother made real marzipan for him every other year or so), marzipan is popping up all over…even in some of our new grocery stores.
This recipe though is from long ago and is an easy-to-make marzipan that doesn’t require almond paste! If you are making this mainly for the pretty decoration and don’t like the heavy almond flavor you can even cut down or eliminate the almond extract or use vanilla instead. (oh the Marzipan purists will be horrified)
Marzipan
1 package Baker’s fine grated coconut
1 package (3 oz) Jell-0 Gelatin (any fruit flavor)
1 cup grated blanched almonds
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
Thoroughly mix all ingredients. Shape as small fruits, vegetables, hearts, Easter eggs or other forms. If desired, use food coloring to paint details on fruit and add stems of whole cloves or angelica. Chill until dry. Store, covered, at room temperature. Makes 2 to 3 dozen candies. From Joys of Jell-0, ~1960
For fruits use:
strawberry – strawberry gelatin
bananas, pears, lemons-lemon gelatin
green apples, leaves-green gelatin (err lemon-lime/lime)
oranges-orange gelatin
Cherries-cherry or black cherry gelatin
Older Entries
Bacon! That should be enough to grab your attention. Wilted salad can sound so blah though if you have either not had one or have only had a really wilted one (which makes it icky in my opinion).
RSS