I love cookbooks. Love them so much, that I have been known to check them out of our local library, just to read them. Love looking at all those possibilities for weekend suppers, breakfast casseroles or quick breads for brown paper bag lunches. But, even if I never make any of the recipes I read -- I do love reading them because they inspire me -- and, more often than not -- make me hungry.
Lately, I've been in search for good recipes for an apples -- it's almost October and this time of year, apples just come to my mind for baking. When I mentioned this at Stitchers a few weeks ago, my friend Jane said she would look in her Mother's cookbooks and see what she could find. Jane's Mother may have passed away a few years ago -- but her cooking/baking legacy lives on in the cookbook that Jane loaned me.
As you can see, this collection of recipes was well used -- along with the printed recipes are many personal recipes -- recipes that were used on a daily/weekly basis. Some the recipes had personal notes written in the margins. Notes of where she got the recipe or how that recipe turned out or how she changed it to suit her family's tastes. These handwritten recipes and notes were little bits and pieces of the attention to detail that she put into cooking for her family. It was like going back in time and I recognized many of the same recipes that my own Mom prepared for our family.
There were also many recipes clipped from magazine, newspapers and even can labels. The picture above shows the label from a can of Libby's solid pack pumpkin -- the label may be from the 60's or 70's -- but, the recipe is still the same (I compared it with a current can of pumpkin) -- the recipe is still a 'keeper' -- why mess with a good thing !
In reading the cookbook, I did find a recipe for 'Stephenson's Apple Cake' that I'm going to try -- it's loaded with apples (5 cups!), spices and nuts. I'm hoping to make the cake this weekend. If I do, I'll post the recipe and pictures of the finished product next week.
In the meantime, I want to post a recipe for Jane's Mom's Biscuits -- the line under the title says it all -- 'from cabinet door' -- this was a recipe that was used a lot.
Biscuits - Mom's Second Recipe (from cabinet door)
3 C flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2/3 C shortening
1 C + 2 Tbsp buttermilk
450 degree oven, 10-13 minutes
That's it -- only the ingredients are given.
Because that's all she needed.
And, I'm sure the biscuits were wonderful !!!
Thank you Jane for sharing this wonderful book with me.
