There is a deed at Yorktown dated August 19, 1749, which shows that William Parks had as partner in the printing establishment and store-house in Williamsburg, Mrs. Sarah Packe, widow of Capt. Graves Packe. Mrs. Sarah Packe allegedly was my 7x great-grandmother.
"It was not until 1742 that a cookbook was published in America, when William Parks, a Williamsburg printer, gave the public The Compleat Housewife. This was a reprint of a London bestseller published fifteen years earlier."
The American Antiquarian Society has a copy of this scarce book which is in excellent condition. There is a picture of it on their Web site.
The following are recipes in it:
A recipe for cold tablets, it makes Buckley's Cough Syrup appealing, and other cold remedies in in may be found on-line at The Journal of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. You can also go to http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.com. Click on Publications then click on CW Journal. Finally, click on Past Issues. It's found in Wit, Mirth & Spleen: "A method to cure a Cold" in the Summer 2000 edition of Colonial Williamsburg.
A number of years ago, I published a limited run edition of a cookbook I had compiled. I am now offering it on-line. I have removed the quotes to my Quotes page and the area at the end of each recipe for "My Ideas."
Originally, I planned that every week we'd feature a recipe which we have enjoyed during the past month. Sometimes things do not work out the way you plan.
Year 1
Week 1: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Jeremy loves Tim Horton's cookies and so do I. I tried to recreate them as accurately as I could. Did I succeed? You can be the judge. Regardless, you'll love the savings.
Servings: 40
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, not packed
2 eggs
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375oF. Cream margarine, shortening, peanut butter, and sugars. Stir in eggs. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with base of spoon. Bake until dark brown around the edge (8 to 10 minutes). Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet.
Week 2: Peanut Butter Kisses
"Snacks can contribute to good nutrition if chosen carefully. Good snacks are low in sugar, fat and salt. Healthy snacks provide vitamins and minerals."
This healthy snack, one of Jeremy's favorites, can be rolled around in shredded coconut. This document also contains a recipe for "Walking Apple Salad."
Week 3: Oven Roasted Potato Wedges
Week 4: Southern Fried Potatoes
Week 5: Beginners Omelette
Week 6: Cinnamon Biscuits
Of all the recipes that I was taught in Home Economics, this is the only one that I can remember. Perhaps it was because Mrs. nice, my teacher, shared with us the following memorable kitchen tip:
Kitchen Tip:
"...Cut the roll (across the length) into sections that are about one inch thick. Use a sharp knife or if one is not available take a piece of thread and wrap it around the roll where you want to cut it. Take both ends, so that they cross, and pull until the dough is cut all the way through."
The thread made neater bisuits than a knife.
Week 7: Puffy Oven Pancake with Fruit Filling
This has quickly become one of my favourite recipes, although my son doesn't like it. I beat 1 Tbsp. of sugar into the beaten eggs. The cranberries are optional.
You could make the fruit filling by itself and serve it as a side dish.
While I making this recipe, I often think of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in "Sleepless in Seattle." He says of his late beloved wife, "She could peel an apple in one long strand."
Week 8: Spanish Quinoa from Eden Books
Week 9: Hogs Head Cheese
I do not anticipate making this recipe in the near future, but my mother remembers my great-grandmother Maggie Weatherford making head cheese.
Week 10: Good Hominy Grits - And Other Hominy Recipes
My mother remembers my great-grandmother Maggie Weatherford making hominy.
Week 11: Frogs' Legs
I do not anticipate making this recipe in the near future either, but my mother remembers my great-grandmother Maggie Weatherford cooking frogs' legs.
Week 12: Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich
Unlkie Elvis the Pelvis, we do not fry our sandwiches. A recipe from Elvis Presley's Memphis on Beale Street for a grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich is listed in The First Edition Clinton Presidential Center Cookbook with recipes from President and Senator Clinton, their friends and family and celebrities from around the world. President Clinton is a long-time Elvis fan.
Week 13: Moose Stir Fry
According to my parents, grandfather James Rex Keats frequently cooked with the moose meat and rabbit that he hunted. This Web page contains other "Healthy Heart Cooking Recipes" courtesy of the Department of Health and Community Services, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador (1996).
Week 14: Kentucky Fried...Squirrel with Biscuits & Gravy?
I do not anticipate making this recipe in the near future either, but my mother remembers her mother cooking squirrel.
Week 16: Classic Potato Salad
There is a good recipe for traditional potato salad at this Web site. I add 2 tablespoon chopped sweet pickles.
Week 20: Peking Roast from The Roast and Post Coffee Company
My mother celebrates both her birthday and anniversary in May. Today, I'm cooking this recipe for her to celebrate both occasions.
I first found this recipe in a 1950's housekeeping book. I figured what did I have to lose by trying it. It has become one of my favourite recipes. You can make this recipe with a tough, cheap cut of meat and it will be tender and juicy by the time you serve it. If you do not like coffee, you can not even taste it. The more that you reheat the leftovers, the more tender they get. It also a great recipe to help you work out your fustrations. Get out your sharp knife and stab deep holes into the meat as much as you want before you marinate it. The more that you do it, the more tender the meat will be.
Week 21: Easy Bake Oven Recipes
In the month of May, my mother celebrates her birthday, Mother's Day, and her anniversary. This year, my son made his grandmother a birthday cake with his Easy Bake Oven. It tastes really cood and your child feels the pride of making food for the ones that he loves all by himself.
You could also serve this easy-bake bread with strawberries and whipped cream.
Week 23: Strawberry Pizza
In May, in Oxnard, the "Strawberry Capital of California," they have a strawberry festival where they serve strawberry pizza, a dessert pizza topped with strawberries, sour cream, cream cheese and whipped cream on a sweet bread baked like a pizza, and strawberry kabobs dipped in powdered sugar.
This is just one of the many cool festivals in the US that kids can learn about at theLibrary of Congress.
Week 24: Classic Egg Salad Sandwich
Assumptions should never be made about what your child would like to see in its lunch bag. Here's one of Jeremy's favorite recipes.
Week 25: Southern U.S. Cuisine: Scalloped Potatoes
Week 26: Blueberry Muffins
The cinnamon and sugar topping are optional.
Week 27: Almond Cookies
I fell in love with almond cookies.
Week 28: Fried Fortune Cookies
The cinnamon is optional. My son wisely observed that the cooking cookies are like pancakes. If you can make pancakes, you can make these.
When my son and I lived in Montreal, he could have tried food from any number of cultures. He fell in love with Chinese dinners, something we could have tried anywhere.
Rather than fortunes, I put quotes from my quotation page in these tasty cookies.
Week 29: Lemon Meringue Pie
Once, my son's father gave me a Lemon Meringue Pie for my birthday, presented in a most unusual manner. It's one of my favourite desserts.
According to my grandmother, it was one of my great-grandfather Allen Young's favourite desserts.
Week 30: According to my mother, some of my grandfather Young's favourite foods were oatmeal, bananas, cornflakes, watermelons, sweet potatoes, and cucumbers.
Week 31: There is a recipe for coconut cream pie at my Presidential Recipes Web page. It's one of the favourite desserts of both my son's father and my mother.
Week 32: Mom's Refrigerator Rolls
This truly "goof-proof" recipe is a great recipe for rolls to use during the "dog days" of summer. It is so easy that we were taught a variation of it in junior high school home economics. The dough keeps in the fridge for up to five days. I use it as pizza dough.
Week 33: Blueberry Wine
According to my father, great-grandmother Esther Ellen Curtis made blueberry wine. At one point in time, she got into trouble with the law. He believes it was during the prohibition era.
Week 36: Fluffy Pancakes Recipe
It's week 36 and the kids are back in school and the "Pancake Lady," my son's nickname for me, is back to making pancakes in advance and freezing them for quick breakfasts on cool autumn mornings.
This batter is awfully thick. Stir in enough water or milk until the batter pours easily (Today, I added an extra 1-1/2 cups of milk. I also added 1 cup of frozen blueberries.). I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to ladle the batter.
Week 37: Tea Time Recipes and Features
If you are cold, tea will warm you; if you are too heated, it will cool you; if you are depressed, it will cheer you; if you are exhausted, it will calm you. ~William Gladstone~
Week 39: Chess Pieces, 12 cavity
"One menu in the fifteenth century included a chessboard cake with icing made of brown or white almond milk. The chessmen were made of molded sugar."
Sugarcraft takes intenational orders.
Week 40: Pumpkin Soup
This recipe makes people wrinkle their noses but is pumpkin soup any stranger than tomato soup? They're both vegetables, or fruit, depending on who you ask.
I first had pumpkin soup during Christmas day dinner at Shucker's Restaurant at Saint John's Delta Brunswick Hotel. It's delicious. Honestly!
Week 41: Fruit and Yogurt Parafit
Ingredients:
1/2 C. Danon Low Fat Vanilla Yogurt (I use their regular vanilla yogurt.)
1/4 C. frozen mixed berries, thawed (We really like the quality and taste of Europe's Best.)
1/8 C. crushed Harvest Crunch Honey Nut Cereal
Put 1/4 c. yogurt in the botton of a parfait dish (We use glasses, at home.). Evenly pour the berries over the yougurt. Evenly put the remaining yogurt over the berries. Evenly sprinkle the granola over the yogurt. I crush the cranola by putting it in a zipped ziploc bag and tapping the bag with a hammer.
This is Jeremy' favorite item on the menu at McDonald's. (The brand of the yogurt used in their parfaits is not top secret; they advertised it in the edition of TODAY'S PARENT OUTDOOR FAMILY FUN.)
Week 42: Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese Spread
The recipe is very similar to the one that my junior high school French teacher taught me. Freel free to remove the green onions, walnuts, and curry powder from it. Also, compare with Rosalynn's Plains Cheese Ring, a link to which is below.
Week 43: CafeZOOM Cinnamon Toast
Week 44: Apple Crisp
You can make individual apple crisp too.
Week 45: There is a recipe for spruce beer at my Presidential Recipes Web page. My mother and father remember my great-grandfather Curtis making it.
Week 47: Thanksgiving in a Pan
You can substitute chicken for the turkey and chicken gravy for the turkey gravy in this recipe.
Week 48: Latkes
This recipe halves easily to serve two people.
Week 49: Every year, I make St. Nicholas Day cookies for Jeremy based upon the book "The Baker's Dozen: A St. Nicholas Tale" by author Aaron Shepard. "A legend of colonial America in which a greedy baker learns the importance of generosity in business, thus initiating the custom of the "baker's dozen.""
I make the pattern for the cookies by enlarging on a photocopier a photocopy of a cookie in the book. I then cut out the cookie pattern and glue it onto a piece of cardboard. I then cut out the cookie pattern from the cardboard. A finished patten is shown on this page.
The cookies can be made from any gingerbread cookie recipe.
The icing should be made from icing that hardens, a royal icing, for example, rather than a buttercream. Also, royal icing is pure white. I divide the icing in two and I colour one half with red food coloring paste. The icing sould be covered when not in use to prevent it from drying.
Using a knife, I spread the red icing over the cookies except for an upside-down, triangular area for the face. The cookie should be permitted to dry before you move on to the next step. I put the white icing in a heavy-duty ziploc bag and I snip off a bit of a corner to make a decorating bag. Using the pattern as a guide, I decorate the cookies.
Week 50: Honey-Glazed Chicken Stir-Fry
A variation of this recipe has become my favourite meat dish since I tried it last December. It's simple, quick (it does take 25 minutes or less to make.), and delicious!
Week 51: Holiday Simmering Potpourri
This is not a recipe in the traditional sense. But it is made from traditional holiday ingredients and it smells so wonderful!
Week 52: Snowball Dessert
We served this dessert this year for our Christmas dinner dessert.
Source: Mrs. Esther Ross, my aunt.
Servings: 8
Make this recipe to congratulate your little sculptors for sculpting the best looking snowman on the block!
1 cup boiling water
2 envelopes gelatin
4 tablespoons cold water
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup orange juice
Pinch of salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 pint whipping cream, whipped
Angel food cake
1/2 pint whipping cream, whipped
Unsweetened grated coconut, if desired
Add gelatin to cold water. Stir in boiling water to melt gelatin. Add salt, sugar, orange juice, and lemon juice. Let partially set. Fold in whipped cream. Line a bowl with waxed paper. Cut cake into small pieces. Alternate layers of gelatin mixture and cake. Finish with gelatin mixture. Set overnight. Turn out on plate. Frost with whipped cream. Sprinkle with coconut, if desired.
Kid's Tip
Place dessert on a foil-covered piece of cardboard. (We purchased ours, ready-made, at a bulk food store.) Decorate dessert to make it look like a either a ski or sliding hill or an igloo. Small plastic figurines may be purchased at cake decorating supply stores.
This year, we picked up our icing sugar decorations at a bulk food store. We reserved some of the whipped topping to frost the entrance to the igloo. The entrance was a slice of chocolate roll cake placed against the "igloo."
"CATHEDRAL WINDOW COOKIES
Plan ahead...needs to chill
From her kitchen in Meriden, Connecticut, Diane S. shares this treat that’s bound to become a family favorite. “These cookies are great for bake sales and holidays,” she writes. “Kids of all ages love the colorful mini marshmallows, chocolate and chopped nuts.”
1 package (10-1/2 ounces) pastel miniature marshmallows
1 cup chopped walnuts, optional
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter or margarine, cubed
Place marshmallows and nuts if desired in a large bowl; set aside. In a heavy saucepan, melt chocolate chips and butter over medium-low heat. Pour over marshmallow mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
Shape marshmallow mixture into a 12-in. roll; wrap in waxed paper. Refrigerate for 4 hours or until firm. Unwrap and cut into 3/8-in. slices; cut slices in half. Yield: about 4-1/2 dozen."
Year 2
Week 1: Turkey Chili Recipe
Use a bunch of the leftovers "...as the sauce and filling for enchiladas (which, by the way, is a terrific way to use up extra chili)." 2 cups chopped onion 3 garlic cloves, chopped fine 1 large diced green or red pepper 2 tbsp olive oil 2 (35 oz) cans stewed tomatoes, crushed 1 can (540 ml) chickpeas 2 (15 oz) cans kidney beans, drained 2 Tbsp chili powder (or up to 4 Tbsp if you like it really hot) 2 Tbsp ground cumin 1 teaspoon dried oregano 3 to 4 cups of shredded, cooked turkey meat Shredded cheddar cheese, chopped red onion, sour cream for optional garnish. 1 In a large, 8-quart, thick-bottom pot, cook the onion and green pepper over medium high heat, stirring, until golden, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, chili powder and cumin and cook, stirring, for a minute or two more. Add a bit more olive oil if needed. 2 Add tomatoes, beans, oregano, peas, and cooked turkey meat. Bring mixture to a simmer and reduce heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, for an hour. 3 Salt to taste. Add 1 to 3 teaspoons of sugar to take the edge of the acidity of the tomatoes if desired. The chili may be made in advance and chilled for 2 days, or frozen for 2 months. Serve with shredded cheddar cheese, chopped red onion, and or sour cream. Serve alone, over rice, or with corn bread.
Week 2: Trash Can Turkey
During the Fall of 2005, I lived in Bangor while I was working at L.L. Bean. While there, I saw many ads for Trash Can Turkey dinners. Regretfully, I do not drive so I did not go to one.
Week 3: Chocolate Eclair Cake
While I was working at L.L. Bean, we had a potluck supper. This was one of the dishes that someone brought in. A long time ago, there was an independent grocery store in Millidge Place with a wonderful bakery. This recipe reminded me of that bakery where I had my first chocolate eclair and the store in which I saw a picture of Princess Diana for the first time.
Week 4: Crispy Fried Oatmeal Slices
Bagel Central, a koshe deli, is located in downtown Bangor at 33 Central St.. This is one of the items on their menu which is produced from scratch.
Week 5: Tomato-Vegetable Stew with Quinoa
Week 6: Cinnamon Sensation Coffee Cake presented by Castle in the Country Bed & Breakfast
The first piece of coffee cake that I ever had was cooked by my uncle, an excellent cook and a good poet, who was a sergeant in the Canadian Army.
Week 7: Chocolate Dessert Waffles
Serve with sweetened whipped cream and frozen mixed berries which have been thawed and sweetened.
Week 8: Festive Spiced Apple Juice
1 Tbsp. lemon juice may be substituted for the 1/2 lemon, thinly sliced, and 1 Tbsp. orange juice may be substituted for the 1/2 orange, thinly sliced.
Week 9: Champorado (Chocolate Rice Pudding), or Chocolate Quinoa Pudding
It's a Filipino recipe. Our household substitutes quinoa for rice in this recipe.
Week 10: French Fries, Dressing & Gravy
This week, we used summer savoury grown in our community garden for this recipe. I remember eating this recipe at a little restaurant/take-out in Port Blandford.
Week 11: Southwest Chicken Skillet
"Bite into a fiesta of flavors in this south-of-the-border quick and easy skillet."
We made this with some of the left-overs from Lasagna Mexicali.
Week 12: Decadent Cocoa Zucchini Bread presented by Letson Loft Hotel
We made this recipe with some of the zucchini that my son grows in his garden.
Week 13: Blueberry (or Banana) Walnut Pancakes
We made this recipe with blueberries that we picked at the former site of Bayview School, and we omitted the walnuts.
Week 14: Uncovered Blueberry Pie
We made this recipe with blueberries that we picked behind Loch Lomond Mall. The first cup of blueberries in the recipe is a good use of the imperfect blueberries that kids pick.
Week 15: Tim Horton's Taste-Alike Roast Beef Sandwich Filling
SarahNB suggestions for saving money tastes like Tim Horton's roast beef sandwich filling:
"Wanna save some money on roasts? I thrw 4 simmering steaks in the crockpot the other day with onion soup mix and water,. I think it was a $5 package. Came out tasting just like a roast...with less fat. i hate spending $10-15 on a roast."
Week 15: Tim Horton's Taste-Alike Roast Beef Sandwich Filling
One of Barbara Ann Kipfer's 14,000 Things To Be Happy About (One of my favorite books.) is:
"chicken fried steak, peas, mashed potatoes, cornbread and butter, and a quart of cold milk," and chocolate zucchini cake (The zucchini was grown in Jeremy's garden.).
Click on each part of the meal for a recipe.
Recipe Links
Web site of Bernardin company.
"The Taste of the Web"
"All you need to know about produce is here, an abundance of information and recipes that make the bountiful varieties, delicious flavors and healthy benefits of fruits, vegetables, nuts and herbs come alive."
"Welcome to the Recipes Plus website, featuring tasty ideas taken from the past 20 years of Recipes Plus calendars. Also, great recipes from your favorite brands in a convenient, searchable format."
Click here for GREEN BEAN & TURKEY BAKE and other recipes using French's French Fried Onions.
Go to BettyCrocker.com to find great recipes and ideas like Spring Baskets and other cupcake capers and recipes for celbrating birthdays.
Jeremy LOVES cheesecake! Check out their Vanilla Cheese Pie. Accompany it with their glazed sugar cookies. Their easter egg page is useful for lerning how to make various colours from food colouring.
Reiman Publications are the publishers of "Light & Tasty," "Quick Cooking," and "Taste of Home."
This web site is dedicated to all those who love peanut butter. Check out our favorite recipes or post your own in the recipe section, participate in our latest contest, find out how peanuts are grown and made into peanut butter, or see how peanut butter stacks up nutritionally. But first, you might want to make yourself a peanut butter sandwich. Our site has been known to induce serious peanut butter cravings!
"Taste of Home's Quick Cooking is the magazine for busy cooks who want to put home-style meals on the table FAST. You'll find more than 100 quick-to-fix recipes in every issue!"
"California software designer Ellen Ferlazzo started her Cheap Cooking website (www.cheapcooking.com) when she was unemployed a couple of years ago.
Although she had a pretty good idea how to live and cook inexpensively, she discovered, as she met other unemployed people, that not everyone shared her knack for budget cooking.
She figured the website, which features shopping and kitchen tips and recipes, coule help those who needed a hand figuring out how to cut back.
"People would ask me for cheap restaurant suggestions," she says with a laugh. "They didn't get it. You don't eat out when you don't have a job. You cook."
- "Homemade lunches can save thousands of dolars" by Shelley Boettcher as published in the Telegraph Journal, May 17, 2004, p. C10.
This cook book includes some of my favorite recipes, like braided Swedish Bread. I also make teddy bears from the dough to give as gifts during the holidays.
"...Tilapia, several species and their hybrids of Oreochromis, are the second most important group of farm raised fish in the world. Tilapia farming and consumption are rapidly increasing in the US. Tilapia is now the sixth most popular seafood consumed in the United States."
According to High Liner Tilapia Fillets, available at our local Superstore, "tilapia is a mild, sweet tasting fish with a firm flaky texture. Perfect for recipes that call for Sole, Cod or Haddock."
"Enjoy over 2000 "Innkeeper Tested and Guest Approved Recipes""
Optimized for Netscape 2.0 or better. Last Updated March 1, 2006.
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Copyright Rexanna M. Keats 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007. All Rights Reserved.
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