Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Recipes from "Knox Gelatine Desserts, Salads, Candies and Frozen Dishes"

I received a little booklet from a friend in Maine, who has a knack for picking out tiny publications that are exactly to my fascination and excitement. There are so many incredible sentences and recipes in this particular booklet, I can barely decide where to begin. So I will provide a few of the more interesting recipe names, and maybe a few pictures too.

SARDINE APPETIZERS
Rinse shallow pan in water. Pour in a thin layer of jelly, following Foundation Recipe, page 20. When it begins to thicken, arrange on jelly a layer of thinly sliced tomatoes. Pour over another layer of liquid jelly. Chill, and when partially congealed, arrange a sardine on each tomato slice. On each side of sardine, place a design of hard-cooked egg yolk and parsley, finely chopped. Pour over a little liquid jelly to set the decorations. Chill thoroughly. Cut out in squares or rounds and serve each appetizer on a tiny lettuce leaf.

PERFECTION SALAD
Soften gelatine in cold water. Add sugar, salt and hot water, and stir until dissolved. Add vinegar and lemon juice. Cool, and when mixture begins to stiffen, add remaining ingredients. Turn into mold that has been rinsed in cold water and chill. To serve, remove from mold to bed of lettuce leaves or endive, and garnish with mayonnaise dressing. Or cut salad in cubes, and serve in cases made of red or green peppers, or turn into individual molds lined with canned pimientos.

TOMATO JELLY RIBBON LOAF
Combine cream cheese, mayonnaise and seasonings. Soften gelatine in cold water. Place bowl in boiling water and stir until gelatine is dissolved. Add to cheese mixture. Pour half of Tomato Jelly into loaf pan that has been rinsed in cold water and chill. When mixture is practically congealed, add cheese mixture. Serve sliced on crisp lettuce.

Here are a couple more I would like to make, but I won't type out all of the recipes at once:

Plain and Fancy Desserts:
GRAPEFRUIT SNOW PUDDING

Sunday Night Suppers / Bridge Parties
PRUNE-ORANGE-CHEESE SALAD

Now a couple of visual excerpts:
Now this is what I call a centerfold:
With the help of my friend Becky, who has an extensive collection of molds, I will be making a few of these recipes very soon! I will report back on outrageous looks and tastes.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Grandma Dot's Lemon Cake

Recently the Emergency Food Hotline made a post about a Red Velvet birthday cake...and in that post, mentioned a delicious Lemon Cake that was also present at the celebration. A few readers have requested the recipe for it, so Rhonda has obliged! Lucky us.

GRANDMA DOT'S LEMON CAKE

ingredients:
1 box lemon cake
1 box lemon instant pudding
1 box lemon jell-o
some real lemon juice, about 1/4 cup altogether give or take
heavy whipping cream
-some sugar to taste (you don't want this very sweet)
-vanilla extract

1.make the cake, let it cool
2.make the jell-o using slightly LESS water than the box says, and add some healthy squeezes of lemon juice, set aside (let it set almost all the way but not completely, it should be pourable still without being hot by the time you get to step 6)
3.whip the heavy cream with an electric mixer, adding some sugar to taste and a splash of vanilla extract. you don't want this to be overly sweet. make sure you mix it till it is nice and thick since this will be your top layer and you don't want it to be runny. set aside
4.make the pudding using slightly LESS water than it tells you to and substitute that water with lemon juice instead, set aside
here comes the important part...
5.poke holes all over the cake with whatever instrument you have handy, i.e. your finger or the end of a spatula. you will be pouring the jell-o over the cake to fill in these holes, so wherever you want the jello to get, poke a hole there.
6.once your jello is at it's usable point, pour it on the cake, aiming for the holes till they are all filled in.
7.next you will simply add a layer of the pudding, about 1/4" thick
8.add the next and last layer of the whipped cream and spread it thickly across the top without mixing into the pudding.

THAT is IT! easy, delicious and my grandma usually makes the cake at least a day in advance for whatever reason. I guess so it's not rushed at the end.


Lemon Cake shown in the middle.

enjoy...RHONDA
...not sure if it needs to be noted that the lemon jello is cook n serve?
don't know if they have instant jello. but this is not the instant kind.

Thanks, Rhonda!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Alicia's Zucchini Pie

My friend Alicia has been a constant inspiration for the Emergency Food Hotline. She has invariably requested advice down to the most specific of steps and measurements (unsatisfied with generalities or un-verified amounts), as well as trusting me every step of the way. From the amount of time to soak black beans to dairy substitutions in macaroni & cheese, she has asked the Hotline for more advice than anyone else. Which is why I’m happy to post one of her updates, the first one with accompanying photographs! Hopefully, she will also send me the recipe she made this delectable pie from, and then we can all enjoy it as well. Here’s an excerpt of her email:

Dearest Jennie B.,

Attached are the pics of the zucchini and the pie. I sent all you of them so you could pick for yourself which ones you'd like on your bloggy blog. There are not a lot of pics of the actual pies because my battery died, and we ate them pies before we recharged the battery... heehe. hope they are ok; sorry it took a while to get them to you.

Also, not least of all, but most of all, I hope everything is super swell with you!

yours, etc,
alicia h.

Now, I’ve never made a zucchini pie before. I’ve made chocolate zucchini cupcakes, I’ve made squash tarts, onion pies, but never this! But the main issue was the ratio of cooked or raw zucchini to eggs, and whether there would be enough for two small pies. I was pretty sure that what she had begun was going to work out just fine, but we discussed the possible variables and made a few slight alterations (which I will note once I have the recipe). But for now, enjoy the pictures:



I want to eat this very soon!