Oatmeal Cookies

by Mrs Marvel

Recently site visitor Auburn Meadow Farm pointed out that people used to write on whatever scraps of paper they had around and this is another example of it. Gram used lots of scraps of paper and Gramma A believes it was because of the Depression. They saved and reused everything if it had value of any kind. I expect that our patron was of a similar mindset.

Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup brn sugar

1 cup butter or lard

2 eggs

4 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoonful baking powder

1 cup chopped nuts

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups of oatmeal

1 cup flower (flour)

Pot Pie Dough (Ms. Ferby)

by Mrs Marvel

I apologize for my lag in postings, I have had a lot going on lately! I will be putting up a couple more of our Farmer’s Record recipes, and then Gramma A is going to step in for a bit while I am away. Don’t worry, it’s all good, I just need some down time. :-)

This recipe was jotted on a slip of paper that looks a lot like the paper they give to school children. Maybe our patron was a school teacher. Also, I blacked out a phone number that was written under the title and next to “Ferby” which I assume was the name of the person who gave her the recipe, but it could be related to the phone number. It’s a mystery now. What I do know is that good pot pies always feature delicious light and flakey crusts. You would combine the ingredients to make a dough, then I expect you’d roll it like a regular pie crust. Let us know in the comments if you concur or have better information.

Pot Pie Dough

2 cups of flour

salt

1 teaspoon butter

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

Dandelion Wine

by Mrs Marvel

I have never tried dandelion wine but I have heard it is somewhat comparable to mead (which I do enjoy) and may even have a honey taste. There are many variations to making dandelion wine, some with more citrus, some with more raisins and other dried fruits, so let me qualify this one by saying I have never made it and provide no guarantee it will be something you want to actually drink! :-)

There are many websites dedicated to wine making and I recommend you visit such a site before taking on this project. It seems like a little bit of knowledge will help guide you through this process rather easily. Some of it has to do with individual preferences, and other aspects deal with the fermentation process. In a nutshell, you are going to make a dandelion tea, then add some fermentation food (yeast), and set your brew aside for a while as it turns into wine. I will try to provide a bit of information here, but again I recommend reading up on home brewing if you really want to try this. You also need to identify a location where you will leave your brew to ferment for several months to a year. In the old days, it might have been a root cellar. Consider a location that does not have wide fluctuations in temperature based on the seasons.

Dandelions seem to grow all the time but they are most prevalent in North America in spring and summer. Try to harvest flowers that have not been sprayed with an herbicide or pesticide, and harvest them in the midday so the flowers will be fully opened. I will add some more directions after the recipe, in italics.

I found the site for WineMaker Magazine to be a great resource for this article! Click through to their post for dandelion wine. There is also a great step by step with photos at WikiHow.

Dandelion Wine

4 qts dandelion flowers

12 qts boiling water

Let it stand for 24 hours then strain through cheese cloth

4 lemons, add juice

4 oranges, add juice

1 lb raisins boiled 1 hr then run through seive add juice wine and 10 lbs sugar

1 cake fleischman’s yeast dissolved in warm water

Use sunmaid raisins

Day 1 – harvest and clean your dandelion flowers by washing and removing all green parts, ideally leaving only the petals. Add to boiling water. Let stand 24 hours.

Day 2 – Strain flowers through cheese cloth and discard them. Juice the lemons and oranges ensuring there is no pith in the juice. Add the juice to the dandelion liquid. Boil the raisins and strain them, discarding the fruit. Add this liquid to the dandelion liquid, as well as the sugar.

Let the mixture boil at a slow boil for 1 hour, then let it cool. Pour it into a winemaking vessle, such as a jug and add the yeast. Let it set for three days then strain into a second winemaking vessle. You will then need to secure the opening to ensure no unwanted yeast spores enter the bottle while it is turning into wine. Some sites suggest a balloon with a few small holes pricked into it. The wine should sit for three to six months and will need to be strained into another bottle at least once.

Crab Cakes

by Mrs Marvel

Here is a recipe for crab cakes that is lacking any instruction. To clarify, the crab meat should be cooked. You might want to use an Italian style salad dressing because of the spices usually in that type of dressing.  No other recipe I have looked at called for baking powder, so I am not sure where she was going with that. I will add some basic instructions in italics below the ingredients. You can either fry crab cakes in hot oil or you can broil them, depending on your preference.

UPDATE: Thanks to the great reader input, we now know that the baking powder will make these crab cakes light and fluffy, and that the salad dressing listed is most likely something like Miracle Whip. I forget that spreads like that are also called dressing. Thank you ladies!!

Crab Cakes

1 lb crab meat

2 pieces of dry bread

salt & pepper to taste

celery & parsley leaves

mace

1 tblsp of melt butter

1 tblsp of salad dressing

1 teasp baking powders

1 egg & 1 hard boild egg

Shred crab meat, cut bread and vegetables and hard boiled egg into small pieces. Combine in a bowl with remaining ingredients. Form into small patties and cook as preferred. Hot oil = 4-5 minutes per side, broiling = 8-10 minutes; both cook until golden browned.

Cho(co)late Cake

by Mrs Marvel

I hate to think badly of our patron who provided all these recipes that I consider the “farmers” recipes because of the Farmer’s Record booklet, but this one has some misspellings, missing information and such an odd note at the end….was she getting a bit up in years? I am going to guess that the amounts are cups.

What do you all think??

Cho(co)late Cake

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sweet milk

1/2 cup chocolate

1/2 teaspoonfull soda

1/tablespoonful baker ??

Make them stiff