Here are some repeat recipes from family members that I've made
lately. Eating them has brought back memories-- perhaps this is the
first step to finding renewed connections.
(Sorry I haven't written very much on this-- by the time all the stuff
I have to do during the day is over, I just want to sit under a cooler
vent and veg...)
The potato salad recipe I haven't posted before...
Mom's Corn Fritters:
A can of creamed corn, two parts corn meal to one part
flour, one egg, baking powder. Combine, then cook like dollar
pancakes. (That's what my mom wrote in her cooking notebook from the
early days of her marriage-- I had watched her make these enough as a
kid that I remember how to make sense of the "recipe".)
Great Uncle Richard's Lemon Pie:
5 eggs
3/4 C. sugar
1 1/4 C. white Karo
juice and rind of two lemons
1/4 cup melted butter
Beat eggs, mix with syrup; add juice, rind, sugar- mix; add butter,
beat all together. Pour into unbaked pie shell, bake in bottom of 380
oven for ten minutes; move to middle shelf, lower to 350, bake 35
minutes. (His original calls for only one lemon and another quarter
cup each of Karo and sugar. Too cloying for me, even when
refrigerated, which is how I recommend it-- with a nice strong cup of
good coffee.)
Uncle Jerick's Beans:
Break down about 8-10 fatty pork ribs, oil and salt them. After ten
minutes, drizzle a bit more oil in the cooking pot and brown the ribs.
Remove ribs and set aside Deglaze with enough whisky to do the job.
Throw in one large cut-up onion and a little butter, cook until light
gold. Add a half-dozen chopped cloves of garlic, cook for a few
minutes. Add four dried cascabel chiles (or a half-handful of dried
pequins), one pound of soaked pinto beans, the ribs, and enough water
to cover. Add salt and black pepper liberally. Cook covered
medium-low until the water creams up, about two hours or so, stirring
now and then. When you put the cornbread into the oven, remove and
strip the meat from the ribs, then put it back into the pot with about
a half cup of whiskey and a splash of liquid smoke. Take off the lid
and take the heat to medium. Serve with red chile flakes on the top
and sour cream, apple cider vinegar, and Crystal hot sauce on the
side. (For kids, leave off the flakes and let them add ketchup if
they want.) Serves four. [note: Aunt Cor told me his original
recipe used two smoked ham hocks, but after the local smokehouse
went out of business fifteen years ago all he could get was commercial
hocks, which use too much strong artifical smoking agent.]
Aunt Corinna's Cornbread:
In one bowl, thoroughly mix a cup of corn meal, a cup of flour, a
scant 1/4 cup white sugar, 1 T. baking powder, 1t. salt. In another,
mix one egg, 1/3 cup oil, 1 cup milk and the kernels of one ear of
corn cut fresh from the cob. Add wet to dry, mix up all flour but
don't worry about small lumps. Bake in a greased cast-iron skillet or
8x8 pan for about 20 minutes at 400. Check center with a toothpick
for doneness. (If using cast iron, be careful not to get too burned
around the edges unless you like it that way.)
Aunt Corinna's Potato Salad:
Boil three large russets in one pot, three red potatoes in another.
Mash the russets, cut the reds into 3/4 inch chunks. Slice a small
yellow onion and a stalk of celery very thin, stir them into the mash,
then put both bowls into the fridge to cool down. Once cooled, to
the mash add about a cup of mayo, a half cup of each of rough
chopped pickles (dill or sweet), California olives [note: this is what
she calls black olives], thin sliced carrot rounds, and green onion
tops, three tablespoons white vigegar mixed with the same amount
of pickle juice. Then add the red potato chunks and salt and pepper
to taste. Let it marry at least an hour before serving. [note: she
sometimes adds a little bit of curry powder if she's using sweet
pickles, and some chopped fresh dill and chives if using sour ones]