cranberry bread – a true kitchuation
grandma betty is nothing if not concise in her cookbook. some of the recipes assume some knowledge of cooking and force me to rely on what i know to get a dish to come out the way i’d like. the recipe for her cranberry bread (or, at least, i assume it is her recipe because there is no name written after it) is a perfect example. it is less a recipe and more a list of ingredients with a baking temp and time.
grandma betty’s cranberry bread recipe
Betty’s Danish Puff Pastry
Hi, I am Betty’s oldest daughter, and since my daughters have gotten interested in Mom’s recipe book, I thought for our 40th Anniversary I would make these for the kids.
As our oldest grandson Cody observed, mom’s cursive is something to read. So here is the recipe.
Soft Betlasses Cookies – by Dandylion
During a baking day with Joe’s family, I enjoyed learning how to make Grandma’s Soft Molasses Cookies – these may be my favorite cookies! Of course, the recipe doesn’t give us all the info we need, but I (with the help of my help of my aunt-in-law, Heather) figured it out! I got this Grammy – don’t think you can stump me yet…
christmas cookies with the hollenbachs
i had forgotten how a scent can trigger a memory. this weekend, i experienced a moment of such pure scent memory that i felt surprised then all warm and fuzzy inside. it started with grandma betty’s sugar cookies which i was looking forward to making all week – even though it felt like events were consipiring to keep me from it.
i finally got around to making the dough on friday night, but it didn’t really look like i recalled. it was much more shaggy looking. being the dutiful recipe follower, i popped it into the refrigerator to cool and came back to it on saturday. i had stored it in discs like below:
when i started to unwrap the disc, i was hit by the smell that i recalled so strongly from childhood cookie decorating. i couldn’t believe i’d forgotten it and i was giddy as i started to roll out the dough. it truly felt like christmas in the house.
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tom douglas comes to the office
i’ve been slack in making grandma’s cookies because i have a plan: i’m going bake them this week for a christmas gathering hosted by another hollenbach grandkid. i thought it would be a nice treat to have on hand. i’ll probably post about it this weekend.
in the meantime: i met tom douglas!!
yes, the man that potmandu insulted unknowingly at his restaurant. the man who owns a number of restaurants in seattle (two of which are featured on eater.com as must eat restaurants: Brave Horse Tavern and Serious Pie) and may have single-handedly created the worlds most perfect coconut cream pie.
sadly, i’ve not had said coconut cream pie but a colleague of mine gets one every year for his birthday. which speaks volumes to the quality, since he rarely eats sweeets. but that’s not all: his wife is gluten- and dairy-free and this is her single exception.
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Father Frank’s Beef Stroganoff
I actually have a night off this weekend! Sunday night when I get home from work, I’m going to attempt Father Frank’s Beef Stroganoff. I’ve never been a big fan of Beef Stroganoff, but I like the idea of this challenge. If this thing calls for mushrooms, I guarantee that I will not be putting any in my version. YUCK!! Not sure of all of the items in the recipe, but we’ll figure out as we go!
I’m thinking of trying the Chocolate Cookie Drop recipe as a dessert, but we’ll see how much energy I have when I get off work. However, when Christmas gets closer, I will be rocking a bunch of these cookie recipes out! Holiday baking is so close!!!!
Wish me luck!
Getting Sauced!
not what you’re thinking, debbs! grandma betty does have plenty of recipes that call for booze, but unfortunately i’m not reporting in on that one. when we were growing up, i always wanted to make spaghetti sauce just like mom did…well, i never knew how. then the magical book came along at christmas and there was the recipe! i was so excited to finally have my chance to make the sauce that we grew up using! (making a sauce in my house is a huge challenge as it better live up to my italian husband’s standards!)
i tried the recipe immediately after i got it…though i made some adjustments. this is what i got when i was done:
grandma’s christmas cookies
growing up this time of year, we all looked forward to making cookies. mom faithfully followed grandma’s recipe and we kids decorated something like 8 dozen cookies each year.
looking back, i believe the recipe probably only worked for about 2 dozen cookies but my mom must have quadrupled the batch to keep us busy. though her kitchen was a wreck, she could sneak away and wrap presents, watch tv, or just enjoy the silence while the 6 of us blithely decorated and fought and snuck cookies in the kitchen.
it looked something like this:
oddly, dandy lion is missing from this photo. there is a strong chance that she was only a couple months old and therefore not required to participate.
this weekend, i’ll be recreating this recipe from grandma betty. the one recipe that stands out as one my mother tried to pass onto us.
here’s the kitchuation
you know that feeling when you’re standing in your kitchen and the recipe calls for malt syrup and while you don’t know what that is, you definitely know you don’t have it? that’s a kitchuation and we have them quite often. there are those cooks who take this in stride, grab a can of dark corn syrup, and keep moving. then there are those of us who try a quick search to figure out what it is, where to buy it, and whether the grocery store next door may have it. finally, there are those who just grab another recipe or make something they know they love so they always have the ingredients on hand.
those three people are us: dandy lion is our adventurer, i am the one who will go to 6 grocery stores within walking distance then trek down to whole foods if necessary, and snickers has the ingredients on hand to make cra-mazing lemon bars.
we’ve been discussing a blog where we’d share recipes and learn from each other. similar to a cooking club or dinner night, but i’m the terrible sister who moved to seattle and cannot participate in person. more importantly, we are tackling the biggest kitchuation of all: my grandmother’s handwritten, water stained, no measurements notebook. we’ll be working our way through the notebook and having others submit as well. along the way, we’ll be sharing recipes with each other and trying them out as well as discussing kitchuations in which we’ve found ourselves: both good and bad. on the plus side, we’ll have legible copies of grandma betty’s recipes!
welcome and we hope you are inspired to tackle your kitchuation as well.