Cooking from Scratch

As we continue on our 1942 journey we have made it to the end of January. We are cooking traditional meals and trying out new / old recipes. I have found many foods we have eaten through time in the old books but we have varied the ingredients along the way.One thing I like about doing the 1942 project is finding out how much we have changed and one big change is how we have supersized so many things.This weekend we made stuffed peppers from one of our 1942 recipes.We have many homemade recipe books and purchased books. my mother collected recipes for most of her adult life and I have over the years organized her clippings and hand written recipes We should never have a shortage of old ......

CHICKEN WITH NOODLES1 large fowl, cut in pieces6 cups cooked noodles1/2 pound sliced mushrooms1/2 teaspoon saltdash of pepper 3 tablespoons butter 1 cup chicken broth1 cup milk, scalded1/2 cup buttered bread crumbsCook chicken until tender and remove meat from bones.Place hot noodles, chicken and mushrooms in alternate layers in greased hot casserole, using 1/2 of each; repeat layers with remaining amounts. Add salt, pepper and butter to hot broth and milk pour over filled casserole; cover with crumbs and bake, uncovered in moderate 350 degree oven about 20 minutes or until browned. Serves 6 to 8 portionsThe post before this one called The Grocery Ads has more abou ......

These are Scotch Cream Scones. I will be adding more color photos back in my post so it does not get too dreary, I feel you get the idea of this being 1942 at our house.SCOTCH CREAM SCONES2 cups sifted flour3 teaspoons baking powder1/2 teaspoon salt1 tablespoon sugar1/2 cup butter2 eggs, beaten1/2 cup light creamMix and sift dry ingredients and cut in 5 tablespoons butter. Beat together eggs and cream, and stir into dry ingredients. Toss dough on to lightly floured board and divide into 2 equal parts. Roll dough lightly into sheet 1/2 inch thick, cut into diamond shape pieces with floured knife.Place in greased round baking pans, brush tops with remaining melted butte ......

Recently I did a post called the Chuck Pantry. It was about stocking a pantry like the pioneers but in today's modern world.I believe in keeping a stocked pantry so we do not have to go to the grocery store as often as most people do these days. Another reason is so if we have a power outage we can continue to cook for our family. Our generations before us did this and there is no reason to not do it today. We are being responsible.So today's post is how to make biscuits with shelf stable goods.First let me remind you that to be weather/emergency ready we need to think about all aspects and that is how are we going to cook if the power is out? We have a fire pit ......

I was asked by a blog visitor if I could post my flour tortilla recipe. The photo above is a store bought flour tortilla on the left and all the others are homemade. I wanted to show you that we can make our own and taste much better.Here is the recipe for four tortillas.1 & 1/2 cups all purpose flourLarge pinch of salt1 teaspoon baking powder2 tablespoons light olive oil1/2 cup very warm watermakes 4 tortillasIt is very important to use very warm water to make this dough.Assemble all of the things you need. Bowl, flour, salt, baking powder, olive oil, warm water.Once I showed my husband how to make these tortillas he has taken over making them because he likes to make them ......

This is the recipe for the blueberry dessert seen in a recent post and recipe has been requested...This is a dessert I have made since my children were young. We called it fruit pizza and it was very popular many years ago. I would make it with different fruits but blueberry was the favorite so this is what I stuck with and call it blueberry dessert.preheat oven to 375 degrees.The bottom crust is a cookie crust.2 and 3/4 cups all purpose flour1 teaspoon baking soda1/2 teaspoon baking powder1 Cup softened butter (two sticks)1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar1 Egg1 teaspoon vanillaMix flour, baking soda and baking powder in one bowl and in another bowl cream butter and sugar, add egg and va ......

Today I made hamburger buns....I have several posts about making bread. This time of year is a good time to go back over a simple basic bread dough recipe. We can make our bread by hand or by bread machine or both. I have trouble kneading sometimes due to a back problem so sometimes I use the bread machine just to knead my dough and on a good day I just knead it by hand, the way I prefer.But what is important is having a good basic dough recipe that will make many things which will help you to not rely on the grocery store for processed food.We can make basic rolls...Bread......cinnamon rolls....and this morning the dough is going to make hamburger buns.This recipe can make ......

A boiled frosting is a more old fashioned frosting and boiled frosting and puddings are a bit of a technique but not hard to do.I recently posted a recipe for a yellow cake with boiled chocolate frosting. A couple of people are having issues with it being too thin, it is softer than most frosting's of today but it is not suppose to be runny so I updated the page with the yellow cake with boiled chocolate pudding to clear up a few things.That said, don't give up on these old fashioned recipes, practice making them so they can be passed down.This particular boiled chocolate frosting is something like a thick pudding. It does not harden but remains creamy. It should not run of ......

I am behind posting requested recipes so I will try and catch up a bit starting with my yellow cake with boiled chocolate icing.Grandma Donna's Yellow Cake with boiled chocolate icing Recipe2 and ¼ cups unsifted all purpose flour 1 and ½ cups granulated sugar ( I use organic sugar) 3 and ½ teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 and ¼ cups milk ½ cup extra light olive oil (extra virgin olive oil is too strong for baking) 1 stick softened butter 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract 3 eggs (Update, I have been asked can you use vegetable oil in the cake batter instead of olive oil and yes you can.)Preheat oven to 350 degrees, cut wax paper to fit the ......

Here is how I make Strip dumplings. First boil the chicken for about an hour. In this recipe I used 4 chicken thighs and two breasts but I was cooking extra chicken to make chicken salad the next day. In the strainer is some onion, garlic and just a bit of bell pepper and I simmered it then poured the broth from that into the chicken. Our family has food allergies so instead of using powdered spices we just boil some things for flavor and add the broth to the pot. You can just season the chicken as you like.Once the chicken is boiled, remove it from the pot and let it cool enough to handle it to shred the chicken. There should be 5 to 6 cups of broth in the pot, if not add ......

I have had requests for my blueberry muffin recipe, some saw a photo of them in another post. I like a cake like muffin so mine are probably more like blueberry cupcakes.This recipe is a bit different than some because I converted a cake recipe that I have used for years and adjusted the recipe to make an even dozen muffin/cupcakes. 1 Cup plus 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour3/4 cup Sugar1 teaspoon plus 1/2 teaspoon plus 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder1/2 teaspoon salt5 ounces milk1/4 cup light oil, I use extra light olive oil1/2 stick butter2 medium eggs1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extractDirectionsFirst preheat oven to 350 degrees and this will bake for 20 to 25 minutes.I use cup ......

Yesterday I cleaned up the victory garden, carrots gowing on the right, raspberries, parsley, beans, cilantro, basil and coneflowers to the left. Oh and an olive tree in the middle of the right side. Today I will stay inside.Today will be in the 90's so early this morning before it got hot I decided to make some Madelines and share the recipe with you. Madelines are a very old dessert but is making a come back. It is a cross between a cookie and a cake. I prefer to make mine more like a cake but I will show you both ways.I use cake flour but you can use all purpose flour and either of then are to be sifted. Pre- heat your oven to 350 degreesYou will need a madeline pan ......

We continue on our journey living like the past. We have been discussing eating like the past, meal planning and getting back to basics. This post is about breakfast.At our house we get up very early because my husband leaves out early in the morning. This means I need to get up before him to make breakfast. We have been discussing what we ate when we were growing up and have been reading older books on meals. This has led us to eating more like we did in the past. Let me first say I am not a nutritionist. Each one of us eat different foods. I have visitors to this website from all over the world and some of us eat very different. This post is about eating like people did in ......

I have known for a while that our meals are not balanced. I knew it was time to get back to basic with old fashioned meal planning. I started adjusting recipes and spent a lot of time planning only to find I still did not have it right.I went back to my older books and looked through them and still could not find what I was looking for then I found this one book that brought back so many good memories. My husband and I spent a good part of one day reading together, discussing, talking and laughing about our past. We started remembering things that we had forgotten and compared the differences in our meals while we were still at home with our parents.Here are my Grandmothers. The one on the l ......

This has been a very busy week with Gardening, Ironing, cleaning and severe storms I am a bit tired today.It was a two loaf sandwich bread week due to weather and possible power outages.Our power did go out but came back on. Then went out again but then came on again and we were very fortunate we did not have damage as did so many others. A good thing when you have extra bread is grilled cheese sandwiches.Bernadette enjoyed the hallway bed I prepared for the severe weather which is close to the hall closet (not seen in the photo) to quickly get into if needed which we did when the tornado siren blew and is quite unnerving. I did put the oil lamps, water and a few things in the built in laund ......

Spring must be near because the signs are everywhere. The sun is bright, some of the birds that went away for winter are coming back.The citrus trees are putting out buds.The lavender is blooming.The blueberry bushes are budding.Yesterday morning before we went out in the yard to start our yard work we read the 1948 paper and I noticed that this weekend in 1948 at cash drug store at their food counter they were serving this delicious meal for .50 cents.We cleaned up the small victory garden.And then I started potting some vegetable plants. Here I put soil in my container then dig one, two or three holes, however many seedlings I am going to put in the pot. I dig a hole where each seedling wi ......

My husband enjoys these meat buns that I make so I thought I would share with you how I make them.The first thing I do is make a basic bread dough. I have my bread dough recipe and directions posted on this website under cooking from scratch but I will post the recipe here.I make homemade bread, buns and rolls all the time so bread dough is something that I whip up easily. The more we make it the easier it gets. Since last September and I had some serious health issues I lost some upper body strength and with encouragement from my daughter I gave in and started using a bread machine to simply knead the dough for me. This was a bit of a defeat to stop kneading the dough but after I had gone o ......

Here is my homemade Egg Custard Pie RecipeYou will need a 9 inch pie crust. I have a recipe for the pie crust on this website the previous post.Pre-heat the oven to 400 degreesI bake this in a 9 inch pie pan1/4 cup softened butter. (1/4 cup is half a stick or 4 tablespoons)2/3 cup sugar2 eggs3 Tablespoons all purpose flour3/4 cup evaporated milk1/4 cup waterThis will be cooked at 400 degrees for 20 minutes then reduced to 300 degrees for an additional 15 minute baking.Remember when taking a glass pie pan out of the oven to set it on a towel or oven pad so the glass does not break from touching something cool. Then put it on a cooling rack after it has cooled down a bit.Cream the butter, I us ......

Here is my standard pie crust recipe1 & 1/4 cup all purpose flour1 stick cold butterfull 1/4 teaspoon salt ( I usually make it heaping)4 Tablespoon Ice WaterPlace the flour and salt in a bowl, I use a grater to grate the butter through the flour but you don't have to do it this way.I normally dip the stick of butter in the flour and grate. You can also just chip up the butter with a knife. I do it with the grater because it does not warm the butter by handling it with my hands. Also I use the large hole side of the grater.Once it is grated then take your fingers and work the butter into the flour. I also rub it through my hands working quickly so I do not warm the butter.This is wh ......

If you read the soup post before this one you would know that I went out to the garden and picked some vegetables for soup. We were expecting a freeze so I knew I had to pick what was left on the vine. There were not a lot but enough to make soup or a side dish. I had a few left that I did not need in the soup and had no plans to cook right away so what should I do with them?This post is what to do with those vegetables that you don't want to waste but are not enough to do much with. Save them for soup or a side dish.We simply blanch them and freeze them.All my canning, dehydrating and freezing are done by the Ball Blue Book because I get nervous when people do not follow the ......