Yorkshire Pudding

Yorkshire Pudding

1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 200C (400F).
In a bowl, sift the flour with the salt.
Make a well in the flour mixture and add the milk.
Beat vigorously.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.
Beat in ½ cup cold water, beating until bubbly on top.
Put batter in fridge for 1 hour before using.
Pour into well greased muffin tins and bake in oven for 30 minutes.

I do recall mom making this in the blender... so you could just add ingredients into the blender as listed in the steps above.

This is a great addition to a roast beef dinner... especially when you have dinner guests as bratty as I was who refused to eat beef!

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's my birthday today... so I've created a collage with a collection of cakes mom made for my birthday each year: One, a bunny; Two, a snowman; Three, a doll with a dress; Four, Hansel and Gretel's house; Five, Hickory Dickory Dock clock; Six, appears to be what is still my favorite... angel food with pink icing. These were the days before Martha Stewart... mom was inspired by the Australian Woman's Weekly cookbooks. (Click on pic to see an enlarged view.)

Garlic Press

Retro Garlic Press - A blog needs photos to make it interesting, I know. I'll try to post some pics of food soon, but I'm not that organized ... for now, I just have photos of objects...

Shortbread Cookies

2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp cornstarch
1 cup butter (room temp)
1/2 cup icing sugar

Set oven to 130C (270F)
Sift together flour and cornstarch.
Cream butter until smooth.
Add icing sugar and continue creaming till fluffy.
Add flour mixture, and mix till mixture is crumbly, then smooth.
Place in fridge to set. Roll out dough to desired thickness. (Dad always liked his shortbread to be thick.)
Place on ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 40 min, or until cookies are pale gold.


Cream together butter and icing sugar.


Add flour mixture and blend till smooth.

Roll out dough and cut shapes.

Place on baking sheet and you're ready to bake!

Mom made these every Christmas... she used cookie cutters to punch out shapes: partridge, moon and star. The partridge was special, as it got a silver ball for an eye. She would make them early on in the Christmas season, then hide them so that the flavor would mature. It drove me crazy, as they are my favorite cookie, and I wanted to eat them right away!

Scones

Scones

2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
½ cup butter – cold and cubed
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 205C (400F).
Mix dry ingredients.
Cut in cold butter with pastry cutter or use fingers until mixture resembles fine bread crumbs.
Add milk all at once with a metal spoon.
Tun out onto floured surface and pat out with fingers until approx. 1” thick.
Cut out into desirable shapes.
Brush tops with milk if desired.
Bake for approx. 12 min or until golden brown.

Note: handle scone mixture as little as possible. Too much handling results in hard scones.

Mom used to roll out the entire mixture to make either cheese rolls or cinnamon rolls - 'cindies' as dad called them. Dale has perfected the cindy recipe, and we still have to perfect the cheese recipe... so I will post those variations once they've been tested ;)

Refrigerator Bran Muffins

Refrigerator Bran Muffins

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup margarine (or oil)
2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
2 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp soda
1 cup boiling water
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups All Bran
1 cup Nabisco 100% bran
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup raisins or dates

Add boiling water to bran and raisins. Let stand until cool.
Sift together flour, salt and soda.
Cream together sugar, butter and add the flour mixture.
Add the bran mixture.
Bake in muffin tines at 400F for 15 – 20 min.
This mixture can be kept in the fridge until you need a batch of fresh muffins.

Notes:

* I omit the raisins, cuz I don't like them!

** I use All Bran for both bran portitions of the recipe.

Festive Layered Salad

Festive Layered Salad

1 cup small macaroni shells
4 cups shredded Romaine lettuce
4 carrots, pared and cut into 2-inch sticks
1 pkg (10 oz) frozen green peas, thawed
1 small red onion, halved, sliced crosswise and separated into rings
1/2 pound piece cooked ham, cut into 1/2 in cubes (2 cups), optional
1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese (or Cheddar)(2 oz)
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
1 tsp curry powder
2 hard cooked eggs, cut into wedges

Cook macaroni shells following package directions. Drain well in a colander. Cool to room temperature.

Place lettuce in an even layer in the bottom of a 3-quart clear glass bowl. Arrange the carrot sticks in an even layer over the lettuce. Cover with a layer of macaroni, then the peas, onion and ham. Sprinkle the top with the cheese.

Combine the mayonnaise and curry powder in a small bowl. Mound the dressing in the center of the salad. Arrange the egg wedges around the dressing. Cover with plastic wrap. Chill several hours.

Just before serving, toss well to coat. (Or you can leave it in the layers and it will get mixed as it gets dished up.)

Serves 8

This was titled 'Festive Layered Salad' from the Family Circle 1984 clipping! This was a potluck classic... and if we were lucky, there would be leftovers the next day, when it was even tastier, if possible. I often crave this salad... though it's slightly large for a meal for one!

Hearthside Cook Book

This Watkin's Hearthside Book was published in 1952 and cost $2.50! There are some great cakes and pies in it that were mom's standbys. I baked the classic Lazy Daisy (a white cake with a toasted coconut topping) out of here tonight... but I still need to work out the bugs in the recipe and ensure it's up to scratch before I can post it!

Lemon Snow

1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 1/4 cups water
3 eggs, separated (yolks, slightly beaten)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tbsp butter

Combine sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan. Add the water gradually, stir until smooth.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Remove from heat.
Stir small amount of cooked mixture into beaten egg yolks. Add egg mixture to remaining cooked mixture in saucepan.
Return to heat and bring to boil, careful not to let the mixture burn on the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and the butter.
Beat egg whites until they form soft peaks and fold into filling mixture. Cover and refrigerate until set.

I emailed mom to ask her for this recipe, and this was the note at the bottom when she emailed the recipe back: Try to remove the "white umbicks" from the eggs lest you find a lump in your pudding when it is your mouth!!!!!

( You can substitute the lemon juice for 1/4 cup of passion fruit juice.)

Lasagne Florentine

1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, finely chopped
1 lb (500g) ricotta or cottage cheese
1 pkg (300g) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
1 cup (250 ml) shredded mozzarella cheese
1 jar – (500 ml) pasta sauce (your favourite flavour)
½ cup (150 ml) water
9 Catelli lasagne noodles

Preheat oven to 180C (350F)

Heat oil in a saucepan and cook garlic and onion until tender.
Combine ricotta cheese, spinach, half of the mozzarella cheese and onion mixture.
Combine sauce and water, mix well.

In a 9x13 baking dish:
Lay out 3 lasagne noodles.
Spread half cheese mixture over noodles.
Spread 1/2 sauce mixture over noodles.
Top with with 3 more noodles.
Spread remaining cheese mixture over noodles.
Top with remaining noodles, sauce, then extra mozzarella cheese.

Cover and bake for 45-50 minutes. (You may need to remove the foil just at the end if the cheese hasn't quite browned up yet.)
Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Tips... if using ready to eat lasagne noodles, still soften them in boiling water before using them.

Butter Tarts

l/3 cup butter
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup raisins (or dried cranberries)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg


Melt butter in small saucepan remove from heat and add corn syrup, brown sugar, raisins, vanilla and salt.
Beat egg slightly and add to above mixture - mix well.
Spoon mixture into pastry lined muffin cups about 2/3 full.
Bake @ 350 for about 20 minutes, until pastry is golden brown - check as time may be less if smaller tarts are made.
Loosen edges with pointed knife and allow tarts to cool at least 10 minutes before removing fron tins.

For pastry lined muffin cups; make 1 yield of pie crust recipe. Chill. Roll out and cut out circle shapes to fit muffin tins.

Pie Crust

What better start to the recipe blog with none other than the pie crust recipe... the foundation for many of mom's recipes. If memory serves me correctly, this recipe originated with mom's mom, Mary.

Pie Crust

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup shortening
1 egg
Milk to suit

Place 1 egg in a measuring cup. Beat slightly and fill to ½ mark with milk.
Combine flour, salt & baking powder in a bowl. Work shortening into the dry ingredients, then add milk/egg mixture.
Place in fridge to set.
Yields top and bottom crust for a pie.

(*Note – Coarse salt and the Crisco stick that comes in the new 3 pack makes for an even flakier crust. We discovered that at Christmastime when I made mom's chicken pie. Recipe to come soon.)

Intro

I've been working on collecting recipes from my mother's collection to go into a recipe book to share with my brothers. However, the book is taking much longer than expected. I have started this blog to share recipes with them as I go... and anyone else along the way.

I have called this blog Three Teaspoons of Sugar: 'Three' for the three of us children, 'Teaspoon' because teaspoons are just cute little things, and 'Sugar', because sugar is just another word for love.

I have tested all the recipes posted here, and to the best of my knowledge, you should get the correct results from them. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions, comments or concerns.