If You Are Missing an Ingredient...

If thee needs anything and cannot find it, just come to me and I'll tell thee how to get along without it. ~Etta Macy (quoted by James Alexander Thom in "Indiana's Self-Reliant Uplanders," National Geographic Magazine, March 1976).

I just typed up a recipe that included sour milk among the ingredients. Of course, you can substitute buttermilk for sour milk, or you can make your own, by adding a spoonful of lemon juice or white vinegar to sweet milk and letting it stand for a few minutes to sour.

Experienced cooks learn these tricks over time. If you would like to see a nice collection of food substitutions in recipes, please check out the About.com: Home Cooking page on Recipe Substitutions.

Orange Bread

This is a very flavorful bread--the aroma is great! The recipe comes from Maine's Jubilee Cookbook, published in 1969; I've added my own glaze.

1 orange

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup buttermilk [you may substitute plain yogurt. ~CZ]

1 tsp. soda

1/4 tsp. salt

2 - 1/4 cups flour

Put the raisins and the orange, peeling and all, through the food chopper. Cream butter, sugar, and eggs. Add the soda to the buttermilk, then mix all ingredients together in the order given. Add the raisin-orange mixture last.

Bake in a well-greased loaf pan at 350° for one hour or until done.

Drizzle while warm with a mixture of 1/2 cup powdered sugar stirred together with just enough orange juice to make a thin glaze.

Let cool completely before slicing.

All-Bran Yeast Bread or Rolls

From Maine's Jubilee Cookbook, published in 1969.

1 tbl. dry yeast

2 cups lukewarm water

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

1/2 cup All-Bran cereal

1/4 cup melted shortening

1 tsp. salt

6 cups flour

Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water. Add molasses, beaten egg, and All-Bran. Mix well.

Add remaining ingredients, mix well. Turn out onto floured board, knead well.

Let rise until doubled. Punch down and let rise a second time until doubled.

Form into loaves or rolls, let rise a 3rd time until double.

Bake in 350° oven for 35 minutes for loaves; or 400° for 25 minutes for rolls. Test for doneness.

Ugly Crackers

These are called ugly because they look a little odd, being made with blue cheese. They are so good--nice with a glass of wine--and really fun to make. From The Harlow's Bread & Cracker Cookbook.

3/4 cup good blue (bleu) cheese

6 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups milk

1 cup sesame seeds

1 tbl. salt

1 tbl. baking powder

Mix all ingredients together until they are thoroughly distributed in the dough. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Roll out the dough as then as possible [we use use our pasta maker on the lasagna noodle setting]. Place large sheets of dough onto parchment lined cookie sheets and cut across and down into squares, using a rotary pastry cutter.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. The crackers will turn golden around the edges of the pan.

Grape-Nut Bread

I am a fan of Grape-Nut cereal, and I must come by that honestly. When we first moved back to New England from the west coast we discovered that people there loved Grape-Nuts, especially in Grape-Nut Pudding. I have to admit that I never quite "got" that pudding, but this bread (from Maine's Jubilee Cookbook, published in 1969) is a very tasty way to eat your Grape-Nuts.

1/2 cup Grape-Nuts cereal

1 cup sour milk (if you don't happen to have any, use this method)

1 egg

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 to 3/4 cup flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tbl. melted shortening

1 tsp. vanilla

Soak the Grape-Nuts in the sour milk for 10 minutes. Sift together the dry ingredients. Mix the egg, vanilla, and shortening. Add the egg mixture to the sour milk. Add the sifted ingredients and mix well.

Pour into a well-greased loaf pan. Let rise for 20 minutes before baking. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes.

Chicken and Rice with Choose-Your-Own Toppings

For some reason, the kids just loved this meal, probably because they could act as their own cooks-at-the-table. Here's how it worked: Everyone was served some steamed rice and some chunked-up cooked chicken. Toppings were placed all around the table in little bowls, and people could choose as many or as few as they wished.

Toppings:

Finely chopped green onions

Chopped peanuts

Thinly sliced celery

Toasted coconut

Chopped tart apple

Cooked green peas

Cream of chicken soup, thinned with a little milk and warmed

Chutney

Curried Pork Chops

Here is another of our family's old-fashioned pork chop recipes.

Brown pork chops on both sides in a little olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, then sprinkle both sides well with a good curry powder. Cover with a sliced onion and a chopped tart apple. Add about 1/2 cup water to the bottom of the pan.

Simmer, covered, until the chops are done, about 45 minutes, adding water if necessary to keep them from going dry.

Serve with steamed rice, chutney, chopped peanuts, and a vegetable of your choice.

Paprika Pork Chops

This is a comfort food, pure and simple. We used to serve these chops in the winter time, along with mashed potatoes and creamed corn. That doesn't sound very modern, does it?

Brown pork chops on both sides in a little olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, and then really dust them well with lots of paprika (sweet or hot, your choice). Cover them with a sliced sweet onion, then add about a half a cup of water.

Simmer, covered, until the chops are done, about 45 minutes. Check on them from time to time, adding a bit of water if they get too dry.

Warren's Really Good Stuffed Hot Peppers

My brother-in-law, Warren, makes the best pickles and jams. Whenever Ben comes home for a visit, he checks out all the cupboards for "Warren's jars." These peppers make a wonderful appetizer.

One jar of hot cherry peppers
Provolone cheese
Prosciutto ham

Olive oil

Drain the liquid from the jar of peppers. Remove any pepper stems and shake out seeds--do not rinse them, or wash out the jar.

Roll some prosciutto around a small piece of cheese and stuff into the center of each pepper.
Place the peppers back in jar and add olive oil to the top. Screw the lid back on and keep refrigerated.

Note: The olive oil will harden in the fridge. Let it warm up a bit to room temperature before serving.