Yellow Squash Supreme

by Mrs Marvel

We used to grow yellow squash in our backyard (zucchini too) and they were lovely, large gourds. Yellow squash when it is immature lacks flavor, and when overripe has a bitter taste, but when just right, is delicious. It is the type of food that can accommodate many other flavors in a dish and not lose itself. While I don’t think of casserole when I think of yellow squash, this one sounds interesting and may be worth trying one day.

Yellow Squash Supreme

350 – 30 minutes

2 cups yellow squash

1 onion chopped

1 cup sharp cheese

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

2 eggs

2 slices white bread (cubed)

1/2 cup milk

Cook squash & onion until soft. Grease 2 quart casserole dish. All the ingredients are mixed together and poured into dish. Top with seasoned bread crumbs and sprinkle with a bit of Parmesan cheese.

 

Stewed Rhubarb

by Mrs Marvel

I must admit that rhubarb is not high on my list of veggies. It is tart on its own and must be sweetened or combined with something else to temper the flavor. Some time recently I enjoyed strawberry rhubarb jam. It was….perky. I think that’s the best way to describe it. Since the rhubarb and strawberry seasons coincide, they are often paired in jams and pies. While in food preparation only the petioles (stalks) are used, some medicinal concoctions use the leaves and roots. However, don’t eat them on their own because they have toxins in them that unbalanced with other ingredients are harmful to humans. Visit the Rhubarb Compendium for more information on this interesting vegetable. This note paper has two recipes for stewed rhubarb that look like they would be a side dish of some kind.

Stewed Rhubarb

7 cups rhubarb

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

1 pk strawberry Jello

Cook till soft

 

3 cups rhubarb

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup water

1/4 cup tapioca (scant)

Cook till soft

 

 

Crumb Cake

by Mrs Marvel

We are going to brunch this coming Sunday with friends and I tend to think of crumb cakes as a brunch dish, like a coffee cake. But when you think about it, really a coffee cake or crumb cake was made to be served with coffee mid-morning or mid-afternoon, sort of like taking tea.  This recipe will give you a nice sized crumb cake to share with a large group of friends the next time you host a bridge party with coffee. Or not, maybe something else. Or brunch after all that. :-)

Crumb Cake

2 cups flour

2 cups granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

1 cup milk

Sprinkle on nutmeg

Mix first 4 ingredients, then keep 1/2 cup of crumbs to put on top. Put in eggs & milk, mix well. Pour into 13×9 pan. Put crumbs on top and sprinkle on nutmeg. Bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes.

Sweet as a peach

by Mrs Marvel

Quite a while ago I posted this recipe for Peach Tart Pie, which had been one of my Gram’s recipes. At the time I commented that it would probably be a dessert that looked impressive but would be very easy. Well, passing through the market the other day I saw peaches…you know what happened next, right? I brought up the recipe (right there in the store) and realized it had very few ingredients: peaches, sugar, cornstarch, pie crust. Now, the real recipe does in fact have the ingredients for a pastry crust, but I freely admit I am all thumbs when it comes to pie crust, so I cheated and picked up a Pillsbury pre made.

Ready to make pie!

I wasn’t sure how many peaches would be needed so I bought several, and of course you never know which ones are going to ripen first. So, first I put the pie crust into the bottom of the pie plate and trimmed the edges. Next, I washed and halved the peaches. The first two were just the perfect ripeness and the pit was easy to remove. I peeled them with hardly any effort. The third peach was soft on the outside and hard as a rock on the inside. Ugh, that is so annoying! So I set that one aside and went on the another, until I had 8 halves.

The recipe indicates to save out 1/4 cup of the sugar/cornstarch mix and spread the remaining on the bottom of the pie. Then you place the peach halves cut side up onto the sugar. I was a little uncertain here if I was doing this right, but carried on all the same. There was a spot that looked too open, so I placed a 1/3 of a peach there intending that would be for my young daughter. Next I sprinkled the remaining sugar mixture on top of the peaches, and sprinkled on cinnamon.

All sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon

As I prepared to put this into the oven I realized that the recipe does not indicate how long to bake this for. Of course, Gram would have just known how long. I looked in my favorite cookbook and checked a few fruit pie recipes for their baking times. Finally, I settled on 20 minutes, then checking on the crust. I did not want to exceed 45 minutes, so when I checked the crust and it was not in bad shape, I put another 20 on the timer.

Once it came out of the oven it smelled so mouth watering delicious!

Where's the whipped cream?

The peaches for the most part held up, but the 1/3 piece broke down. The juice was pretty liquidy, which I attributed to it still being quite hot. Since it was late, we decided to wait until the following day for a taste test. I shared with my mom (Gramma A) that I had made this and she remembered it from her childhood. She said that the pre made crust is just fine, and that Gram would have cut this into wedges, giving each person one peach half. You can see that I have six nice looking halves, one mangled one and the 1/3, also mangled. If you used a smaller pie plate you could probably get away with six halves.

When I got home from visiting, I decided it was time to give Peach Tart Pie a whirl. The juices never set up for me, so either use more cornstarch, or bake it a bit longer to get the juices to thicken more. I put each piece in a bowl with a dash of whipped cream and it was heavenly! Even my husband, who infamously said peach tart was “not high on his list” asked for seconds. It is sweet with a fine finish and the cinnamon adds just the right spice.

Rasins or Black Walnut Cup Cakes

by Mrs Marvel

I don’t know if I’d call this a cake as it seems more like a muffin, but without trying it first, I’m a bit unsure. Of course, very old cakes were more like what we consider muffins or breads anyway. The oldest tradition I could find concerning a wedding cake was to pile a bunch of bread and scones in the center of a cloth and the bride and groom kissed over it. The higher the mound the more prosperous the couple could expect to be. This dates from the Middle Ages in England. Around the reign of King Charles II in the 1660s, it became fashionable to neatly arrange cakes in tiers and ice them, giving rise to what we consider a wedding cake today. Of course, a traditional British wedding cake is made from fruit cake. Regardless of how you intend to use these Raisin or Black Walnut Cup Cakes, I hope you enjoy them!

Raisin or Black Walnut Cup Cakes

1 cup Sun Maid raisins or nuts (sliced or chop)

1/4 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1 3/4 cup flour

3 teaspoons Baking powder

1 teaspoons lemon extra(ct)

Cream butter with sugar, add beaten egg, sift flour with baking powder and add alternately with milk to creamed mixture. Mix thoroughly, add raisons, lemon extract and blend well. Fill greased muffin pans one half full. Bake about 20 min in hot oven. 12-14 cakes.