Sunday, December 30, 2007

Recipe Box

Over at Mason Dixon Knitting they are having a Show and Tell Contest of your old recipe boxes. This is the one I started in 7th Grade Home-Ec and still have today, though I really don't add to it anymore. Now I type my recipes on the computer and put them into a notebook, inside a plastic sheet cover. Pretty over-the-top, don't you think. Of course my intention is that I'll be able to quickly make recipe books of family favorites for my children when they leave home. Never mind the fact that my daughter moved out a year and a half ago and I've never done it for her, my excuse is she gone Vegetarian.
The box is still stuffed, some hand written, most are cut out of Sunset magazine, some typed. Sadly I don't seem to have any that my mother wrote down, she wasn't much of a cook, but I have a few from her.

One I use often is

Glaze for Strawberry Pie

1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup crushed berries.

Combine all items in a saucepan, cook stirring constantly until it thickens. I usually wait and add the tablespoon of butter last, it seems to clarify the glaze.

For a strawberry pie, I pre-bake a pie crust, fill it with sliced strawberries and pour the glaze over. Refrigerate until set.

I also like to use this for my version of Strawberry Shortcake. I cook a Bisquick crust in a 9" square pan, then put the sliced strawberries and glaze on top.



The Women's Home Companion Cook Book was published in 1942 and has some interesting war time slant on cooking and food. I do still have a few recipe cards from junior high (horrible handwriting), how about this recipe for


Thousand Island Dressing
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons chile sauce
2 chopped sweet pickles
1 hard cooked egg chopped
1 teaspoon minced onion.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:07 AM

    Thousand Island Dressing used to be my salad dressing of choice. Ranch is now. This recipe sounds good, however. I guess the chile sauce give it that pinkish color.

    Your recipe box is cute, Karen. I'm not sure I could have done anything near that well when I was in jr. high.

    Margaret

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  2. Karen,

    My mom took all of her best recipes and put them into a book for my sister and I - back before word processors where accessible. The book has actually had many versions and many lives. A friend talked her into selling the cookbook, so she did, and donated the proceeds for a lot of years to an orphanage in war-torn Beirut, Lebanon. Later, another version, and proceeds went to Habitat for Humanity. I live by that book in the kitchen!

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