Tomatoe Cocktail

by Mrs Marvel

When I think of a cocktail, I think of an alcoholic drink, but a cocktail can also be a combination of fruits and/or vegetables, pureed, chopped up, or otherwise combined. Fruit cocktail is a combination of chopped fruits in a syrup. The recipe above is for a tomatoe [sic] cocktail, probably along the lines of V8 juice. Depending on how it tasted, it might have been good as the base for the famous cocktail known as a Bloody Mary (and a favorite in my family). If you don’t like these ingredients, or wish to change it up, it would be quite easy to add garlic, carrots (chopped fine), or even cucumber. Just be aware that some veggies can produce more liquid, like a cucumber might, so be prepared for either more juice at the end or cut the amount of water. It might take a few tries to get this right for your preferences, but I don’t know if I would want to make that much tomato juice. If you put this into jars, be sure to seal them carefully with proper canning technique to prevent bacteria.

UPDATE: Because of Diane B’s comment, I looked up how much a peck of tomatoes would be, and it is 10-14 pounds. That IS a lot of tomatoes, but as Gramma A said, if this was going into the cellar for the winter, it would last quite a while.

Tomatoe Cocktail

1 Peck of tomatoes

2 onions

2 or 1 stalk of celery

4 green peppers

1 quart of water

Boil 20 minutes

Strain

Add 2 tablespoons salt

Add 2 tablespoons sugar

Bring to a boil again

Put in jars and seal

Chocolate Walnut Dollars and delish!

by Mrs Marvel

The recipe I posted today was just too tempting, and since I have some time on my hands lately, I decided to try out the Chocolate Walnut Dollars. Okay, here we go!

Ingredients

First I creamed the shortening and sugar, then added the egg and finally the rest of the ingredients. Before I added the nuts I made sure they were finely chopped, considering how thin the slices would need to be. I could have chopped them even finer, honestly. This is a very dry recipe. With the recipe as written, it was just crumbs, so I added between 2-3 tablespoons more milk. If you make this yourself, I suggest starting with the 2 tablespoons called for and increasing by 1 until the consistency is moist enough to bind but not mushy at all.

Next I rolled the dough in waxed paper and refrigerated it for 40 minutes. It probably could have gone to 60 minutes. I noticed that the more firm the center of the dough was, the easier it was to make clean slices. I used a sharp knife but you could get an even cleaner cut with one of those wire cheese cutters I bet. The nuts did get in the way of a clean cut and the dough did mush down as it warmed to room temperature.

Before baking

Each slice stayed exactly as it was while it baked. They don’t melt like some cookies do, so you could get maybe 15 per sheet instead of 12. Since the recipe didn’t have a temp or time, I went with 350 and started checking at 5 minutes. After 7 minutes they were firm and I didn’t want them to cook too long, so out they came. As I said, they looked exactly the same as when I sliced them. The finished cookie is not sweet, but also not an overpowering chocolate taste either, which is my preference. They are firm but not hard. You could liken them to a shortbread cookie, sort of. If you really wanted to go all out, these would be great dipped in chocolate. I enjoyed them with a glass of milk. The yield is over 50 cookies, depending on how thin you slice and how small you roll the dough log.

Ready for snack!

Chocolate Walnut Dollars

by Mrs Marvel

Back in the day when ink came in a fountain pen, this kind of paper was not your best friend. The ink tends to find the fibers in the paper and bleed along them. If the surface of the paper was damaged in any way the words blurred as the ink saturated the inner fibers. This paper is like kindergarten paper, that sort of brownish paper that the weird kid ate during assemblies.

This particular sheet appears to have the end of one recipe and then a complete recipe for Chocolate Walnut Dollars. The way it reads down the ingredient list, it calls for 1 teaspoon of egg, but I don’t think that is correct. I think it calls for one egg, which is what I’m going to list. If you believe otherwise, please comment. These sound delicious. I wonder if they become crispy, like a wafer, or stay soft. I may have to find out!

UPDATE: Check out my review of this recipe before you try it. Click here to read my next post!

Chocolate Walnut Dollars

2 1/4 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoon BP

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening

2 tablespoons milk

2 squares Baker unsweetened C melted

1/2 cup walnut meat chopped

1 teas vanilla

Shape into 2 inch roll

Cut in 1/8 inch slices

Meat and Cabbage aka Sarmas

by Mrs Marvel

Here we have a simple sounding dish which my mother called cabbage roll ups and this cook called meat and cabbage. It is very similar to the Armenian sarmas which my friend one year made me for my birthday. So delicious! Sarmas and dolmas are similar, being a little roll of filling surrounded by a leaf, often a grape leaf or cabbage, sometimes a chard leaf. (My personal preference is the grape leaf) The word sarma actually means “a wrapped thing” in Turkish and the word dolma translates as “a rolled thing.” Traditional sarmas and dolmas are generally made with lamb, beef, pork, veal, or goat, minced finely and combined with spices and other items such as rice and diced vegetables, then boiled or baked, depending on the chef’s style and the region. Most are savory but a few can be sweet, more like a dessert, as in Greece. They can be topped with sour cream sauce or served steaming hot. Some like them at room temperature with a little goat cheese. They can be skewered with a toothpick and served as an hors d’oeuvres with a yoghurt dip. Should you decide to try this recipe, it may lead to a culinary voyage through the Mediterranean, Middle East and Central Asia, as these little leaf-wrapped pouches can be found all through that vicinity. Try out variations of the meat and other ingredients, preparations and toppings. Your taste buds will thank you!

A couple notes about the recipe. It is printed below exactly as it is above, you can see. No where does our cook indicate whether to combine the meat and other ingredients, precook the meat, or what sauce is to be poured over the rolls. However, you will combine most of the ingredients except the tomato soup and the cabbage leaves, as if making a meatloaf. The onion should be cooked in the butter until transparent. Next, 2 tablespoons seems too little to spread over 6 cabbage leaves, so either spread the meat out evenly or use more leaves. Your rolls should be about 1″ diameter by 3 1/2″ long. Once you put them into the saucepan, pour the tomato soup over them. You can mix it with water if you need more sauce. Sarah WH can confirm this for me based on her expertise; I know from experience that she makes very good sarmas! :-)

Meat and Cabbage

1 pound hamburger

1/2 cup uncooked rice

2 tablespoons butter or other shortening

1 onion sliced fine

1 egg well beaten

1 can tomato soup

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon parsley, minced

1/2 cup celery, chopped

salt and pepper

6 cabbage leaves

Wash the cabbage leaves and boil until tender. Put 2 tablespoons of meat mixture in each leaf and roll tightly. Secure each roll with a toothpick. Place in a saucepan and pour sauce over rolls. Cover pan tightly and cook slowly for 3 hours.

Hey we were in a magazine!

by Mrs Marvel

I was invited to share a recipe in OC Family magazine, a magazine dedicated to parenting in Orange County, CA. After much thought I decided on the brownie recipe from my Grammie Hennie, featured here back in June 2010. I’m delighted to share with you now a pdf of the page from the May 2011 issue of OC Family. Pictured are my husband, daughter and me. I don’t know the people in zebra stripes, even though it’s obvious I am in fact a supermodel. Please take a moment to head over to their site and check out the great content they have. OC Family is published monthly and is FREE, so look out for it at your local restaurants, Subway sandwich shops, grocery stores, and other locations around Orange County.