I have a lot of guilty pleasures ... one of them is old church or community cookbooks. The contributors, usually women, provided their best recipes for these fund raising books. The older the books, the better I like them, less store bought ingredients and the more interesting things can be. Recently at a thrift store, I found one from a Methodist church - circa 1961. Some time later I'll post their favorite bits about the size hat you should wear depending on the frame of your body, and how long your gloves should be ...
The recipe I found was between some sticky pages, always a good sign, and was from a newspaper. The name and date of the paper are missing, but the recipe is AWESOME! (Yes, jumping up and down and using too many exclamation points - that excited!)
My idea of apple pie is something that is too sweet, too complicated, and has a lattice cover. Since I have never made a pie dough, the thought of that was beyond me and my ambitions.
This recipe spends no time on the dough (hence I got help from the lovely people at Pillsbury) and is all about the apples.
Oh.
And the brown paper bag.
A little sugar, flour, nutmeg, lemon juice, and a store bought crust and you can make HEAVEN on earth.
I followed the directions - almost. Forgot about the bag. Should have either turned down the oven a bit or shortened the cooking time.
The result was truly perfect. And I even did it with Splenda.
The question about a recipe is always, would you do it again?
Heck yeah, I would. I'd even branch out into other fruits and use the same technique.
My mother in law was known for her cooking, ability to see a packed refrigerator as a world of possibilities, and her adventurous pallet.
From the late 1930s through the 1990s she collected ideas in notebooks and index card boxes full of recipes she gleaned from newspapers, magazines, friends and neighbors. Sure, we all do it today, but we organize on computers. Or in my case, I get the recipes, promptly save them in the appropriate file, and forget I ever received them.
Then there is the infamous scratching of the head at dinner time.
*Sigh*
Is this for dinner tonight?
Probably not. But it does give an idea as to additional possibilities.
The recipe I found was between some sticky pages, always a good sign, and was from a newspaper. The name and date of the paper are missing, but the recipe is AWESOME! (Yes, jumping up and down and using too many exclamation points - that excited!)
