Herb Cheese Spread (Pickity Place)

Pickity Place was always a favorite stop when our family was touring the area near Mason, New Hampshire. It features wonderful herb and flower gardens, a greenhouse shop, a gift shop, and a restaurant. My favorite part was the Grandmother's Cottage, a little red cape-style house that served as the model for the cottage in the 1948 Golden Book edition of Elizabeth Orton Jones' Little Red Riding Hood.

I was lucky enough to come across their cookbook, Country Herb Cooking; Four Seasons of Recipes from Pickity Place, in the Swap Shop at our old New Hampshire town recycling center. This is one of the appetizers that they serve at their luncheons.

1 tsp. fresh thyme

1 tsp. fresh chives

1 tsp. fresh sage

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sour cream

Blend all ingredients well and serve with crackers.

French Pork Pie (Tourtière)

So many people in New England come from Canada--now that I live in New Mexico, I miss hearing all those [anglicized] French last names. The French Canadian traditions include this wonderful pork pie, which you can usually only get if you know somebody's mom who still makes tourtière.

This version comes from one of those little cookbooks you get for free along with your

subscription to Yankee Magazine. This one was published in 1980 and is called Yankee's Main

Dish Church Supper Cookbook. It was apparently a small edition of a full-sized cookbook

of the same name, which is now out of print.

Crust:

1 cup shortening

1 tsp. salt

3 cups flour

2/3 cup water

Cut half the shortening into salted flour, then add the remaining 1/2 cup of shortening. Mix well and

stir in water. Roll out. Makes enough pastry for one 10" two-crust pie.

Filling:

2 lbs. pork, trimmed of fat and ground or cut into 1/2" cubes

1 lb. ground beef

1 cup hot water

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. allspice

2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 tsp. pepper

3 cups bread crumbs

Mix all ingredients together, place in a pastry-lined 10" pie plate, and top with the remaining

pastry. Cut a few slits in top crust to allow steam to escape.

Bake for 1 - 1/2 hours at 325° or until the pie is nicely browned. Serves 6-8.

Chinese Pie

I have an old 1962 cookbook called Creature Comforts that was compiled by the Ladies' Evening Circle of the Chester Congregational-Baptist Church in Chester, NH. Chester is the town next door to Candia, where our family spent so many wonderful years. This recipe is contained in that cookbook.

When we first arrived in New Hampshire from Washington state, we were puzzled by a number of things. For instance, we could hardly understand what people were saying a lot of the time. I took a call at work from someone in the "Kearsarge" School District and couldn't for the life of me understand the name of the district. It was pronounced something like Keeeahhhsaaaj and, since I had never heard of the place, I was at a loss as to what to write on the message pad. Asking the person to spell it didn't help at all--my request just resulted in a mystifying series of unfamiliar sounds: K-E-A-Ahh-S-A-Ahh-G-E.

Ladies who sewed shared dress "pattens"--back in those days when there were ladies and sewing and dresses.* And patterns.

Dinner was suddenly called supper (suppah), and lunch was dinner (dinnah). A "little lunch" could be eaten as an evening snack--perhaps after the business part of a community meeting.

Something else we had never heard of was "Chinese Pie," which was a popular dish served in school lunchrooms and at potlucks. My questions about it were met with incredulity--You've never heard of Chinese Pie??? Here is the recipe, courtesy of the Congregational-Baptist ladies of Chester.

1 lb. ground beef, fried

1 onion, cut up and browned

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cans cream-style corn

5 or 6 potatoes, cooked and mashed

Put beef in the bottom of a buttered casserole with onion and seasonings. Add the corn and cover with the mashed potatoes. Bake in a moderate oven till hot [I'm guessing this would be a 350° oven for 35 to 45 minutes]. Serves 4.

***

*Here is a delightful "household hint" from this same 1962 cookbook (incidentally published the year I graduated from high school): When ironing dresses for school girls, put hanky in pocket before hanging it up.

Don't you just love it? Ironing! Dresses! School girls! Hankies! It makes you think about how much times have changed.

Rhamkuchen (Cheese Cake)

Ben is a great fan of cheesecake, so I am always on the lookout for recipes for making this dessert from scratch. This one is from my old 1951 cookbook, A World of Good Eating; a collection of old and new recipes from many lands; tested in the kitchen of a New England housewife.

1 - 1/2 cups rolled Zwieback crumbs

3 tbl. butter

2 tbl. sugar

1 lb. cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Rind of 1 lemon

1 tbl. lemon juice

2 eggs, separated

1 cup thick sour cream

1 tbl. sugar

Vanilla

Blend the rolled crumbs with melted butter and 2 tbl. sugar. Press into the bottom of a 9" spring-form pan. Place in warm oven (350°) for 5 minutes to set crust. Cool.

Warm the cream cheese to room temperature and break up with a fork. Blend in the sugar and lemon juice, rind and vanilla. Drop in the egg yolks, one at a time, and beat well after each one. Beat the egg whites stiff and fold into the mixture with a spatula.

Pour over the crumb base and bake for 45 minutes at 300°.

Mix 1 tbl. sugar and the vanilla into the sour cream. Spread lightly over the top of the cake and return it to the oven to bake 10 minutes more.

Let the cake cool and remove the rim of the spring-form pan to serve.

Pommes de Terre Anna

I came across this recipe in my old 1951 cookbook, A World of Good Eating; a collection of old and new recipes from many lands; tested in the kitchen of a New England housewife.

The recipe reminded me of the times my father would make Potatoes Anna and recount his experiences as a waiter working in the dining room of the Copley Square Hotel in the late 1920s. We would listen to his stories while watching his careful preparation of this beautiful dish, which turned out looking something like this picture from Wikimedia Commons.

6 medium-large potatoes

1/4 lb. butter

1/2 tsp. prepared French mustard

Salt and pepper.

Butter a 9" pan that is about 2 - 1/2 inches deep.

Pare and slice the potatoes thin and brush or spread the slices with butter into which the mustard has been worked.

Arrange the slices around the edges of the pan and covering the bottom, overlapping the slices. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Continue to build up the layers this way until the pan is filled. If any butter remains, melt and pour it over the top. Press the layers down so that the pan is well filled.

Bake in a hot oven (400°) until the slices are tender when tested with a sharp knife (40 - 50 minutes).

Remove from the oven and let stand a minute or two. Then run a knife around the edge of the pan, invert and unmould the golden brown potatoes onto a hot serving plate.

Poppy Seed Cake

I think that this recipe first came into fashion in the late 1950s when people were experimenting to see how they could gussy up those cake mixes so beloved by housewives of the day. I certainly remember our mom serving this cake proudly, and it was delicious (if you didn't mind the little seeds getting stuck in your teeth).

This version comes from Tastes of Our Town, a cookbook compiled in 1994 by the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Candia (NH) Volunteer Fire Department.

1 box yellow cake mix

1 pkg. instant vanilla pudding mix

4 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1 tsp. almond extract

1 cup hot water

4 tbl. poppy seeds

Mix all the ingredients together well. Pour into two greased loaf pans.

Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes. Remove cake from pans and put on racks with a plate underneath to catch the icing overflow. Now, poke holes in the cake.

Mix:

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp. almond extract

1 cup powdered sugar

Mix and pour over loaf cakes.

Blueberry Pudding Cake

This is one of those pudding recipes where the cake batter starts on the bottom and the baked cake ends up on the top of the filling. From Tastes of Our Town, a cookbook compiled in 1994 by the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Candia (NH) Volunteer Fire Department.

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

1 - 1/2 tbl. lemon juice

1 - 1/2 cups sugar, divided

1 cup flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

3 tbl. butter

1/2 cup milk

1 tbl. cornstarch

1 cup boiling water

Place the blueberries in an 8" square pan and sprinkle with the lemon juice. Sift together 3/4 cup of the sugar with the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix with the butter and milk. Pour over the berries.

Mix the remaining 3/4 cup sugar with the cornstarch. Sprinkle over the flour mixture. Pour the boiling water over the top.

Bake at 350° for 50 to 60 minutes.

Good served with vanilla ice cream. Makes 9 servings.

Copper Pennies (Sweet and Sour Carrots)

Candia, NH, Fire Department

Years ago, when we lived back east, my ladies knitting group went out to lunch in Concord, New Hampshire at a place that served copper pennies. I had never heard of them; all the others had, so I assume that this is an old New England favorite.

This version comes from Tastes of Our Town, a cookbook compiled in 1994 by the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Candia (NH) Volunteer Fire Department. Reading it make me so nostalgic and homesick I can hardly stand it!

2 lbs. carrots

1 large green pepper

1 large green onion

3/4 cup vinegar

1/2 cup oil

1 can tomato soup

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. dry or prepared mustard

Cut carrots crosswise into coins; cut the pepper and onion in slivers. Cook the carrots till tender but firm. Layer vegetables in casserole.

Mix the rest of the ingredients in saucepan and cook about 10 minutes until it thickens. Pour the sauce over the vegetables. Serve hot or cold.

Broccoli Salad

I first had this at a family picnic in Massachusetts.

1 bunch raw broccoli* flowerets

1/2 lb. bacon, fried crisp and crumbled

1/2 lb. shredded Mozzarella cheese

1 medium onion

Dressing:

1 cup Miracle Whip or mayo

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbl. vinegar

Mix dressing into first 4 ingredients; stir well and chill.

*Can substitute cauliflower for broccoli or use a combination of the two