Happy Halloween

Just an update since I haven't written in three weeks! I still haven't made the raison drop cookies, not from not wanting to, but like has gotten in the way. First I came down with H1N1 or what I believe to be H1N1, so that wiped me out for about two weeks; second our apple tree decided to this was the year to produce a bumper crop of apples so Jim spent days picking apples, my freezer is full of apple pie, apple crisp and apple strudel. I believe we had 4-5 washtubs of apples. We have been giving them away to all takers, but still have about 1 1/1 washtubs left; and last but not least is that I have been over crazy at work getting ready for mass vaccination clinics for H1N1. I have gotten a little typing of recipe's done, but not much. I hope to finally move this along.
I guess I could talk a little about apple strudel. This recipe is how Jim's mother Erma Paulsen used to make it. Every fall they would have strudel with sausage as a meal. The dough was basically a pie dough (except a little sweeter and rolled thicker) that was rolled out to the size of a 9x13 inch pan. Apples that had been peeled, sliced and cored were mixed with sugar and cinnamon and raisons. This was spread on the dough. Starting on the long side, it was rolled up and put in a 9x13 inch pan. Two rolls were put into each pan and milk was poured into the pan about half way up the rolls. This was than baked until the apples were tender and the crust baked. It is delicious. So instead of a dessert, this was eaten as a main dish for the meal. Who doesn't like dessert for a meal?
Happy Halloween.

Mace

As I have been working on the recipe book, I came across a recipe containing Mace. It is in my mother's Raison Drop Cookies. Somewhere in the back of my mind I did remember hearing about a spice called Mace, but don't remember if my mother ever had any or not. She probably did, but I don't remember any. So I googled Mace and found a plethora of information about mace...from it being a medieval weapon-a big club with metal spikes sticking out of the end, looks like it could do lots of damage; to Mace, the protection spray; to the spice. I looked up the protection spray and it has the name Mace, but is not made from the spice, unlike pepper spray which does use a compound from peppers.
I found the information on the spice very interesting. Originally Nutmeg and Mace came from the Spice Islands. The Spice Islands were controlled by the Dutch up until World War II. Mace is actually a bright lacy covering (or aril) of the Nutmeg. Mace is removed from around the nutmeg and dried. Because there is much less Mace than Nutmeg that is produced from the trees, it is generally more expensive. For every 100 pounds of nutmeg produced, only 1 pound of mace is produced. Mace is generally flattened into "blades" or can be ground. I did look in the store and did find ground mace but no blades. As luck would have it my Penzeys Spices catalog came and they did have the blades to puchase. (Just in case you are looking for some.) The flavoring of Mace is similar to Nutmeg-go figure-but stronger. It is said to work well with cream sauces and custards, cream soups and chicken dishes. I will be making the Raison Drops today and I'll let you know how they turned out. This is also another recipe that just uses the generic "fat". So I'll have to decide which fat I'll be using. I might make two batches, one with butter and one with shortening and see if I think one is better than the other.

Catherine Rose Ritter Donabauer

Just thought I would let you know a little about my mom so you can get to know her through this blog and her recipies. Her heritage is German Catholic, and she was born, lived and died in Stearns County in central Minnesota. She died fairly young, only 62 years old, mainly from the ravages of diabetes and what I suspect was some autoimmune disorder not identified. (You know medical people, can't be satisfied with any one answer and it's never a cold, but pneumonia.) She was married to my dad, Ben until she passed away, raised five children, two sons and three daughters. I am the youngest of the five and definitely not the spoiled one, at least that is what I say! She was a great cook and baker. After we were in school, she went to work at the St. Cloud Hospital in the kitchen and baked there. At some point she stopped working there and started working for my brother's business. The original Carmel Crisp Shop on the east side of St. Cloud. She made subs, caramel corn and candy. I can still see her flipping the caramel corn in the big copper kettle and pouring it out onto a flat pan. At some point she was unable to continue working and was at home. I was going to try baking some of her recipies this weekend, but the demands of garden produce pushed that aside. Hopefully I'll be able to try some out this week and let you know how it is going. I am planning on using my co-workers as the guinea pigs from my baking. I'll let you know if they complain or like what I bring in. Go Twins!

Okay, my second blog...

Hi,
Obviously, I am new to this blogging activity, so that might indicate my age is a little over 30, and we won't get more specific than that for right now. My mother passed away in 1985 and one of the activities or passions we shared was cooking. I have kept her recipe books since she passed away. These are not official books, just notebooks where she kept her recipe's, written down in her own handwriting. Last year I decided I should retype them into a recipe book that I can share with my family, adding in anecdotes and pictures and some family history. I started to retype some of my favorite recipes in this book, and most of mine are ones I have collected over the years. Some I seldom make and some are my families favorites. Just recently I started to type my mother's recipes into this book and realized I had a small problem. Many of the recipes are without directions, some without full measurments and some with vague ingredients. For example, 1/2 cup fat. Doesn't tell me what kind of fat, could be lard, butter or oil. Many also just say add flour. Well how much flour depends if you are making a cake or cookies or bars. So I realized that I would need to test out many of the recipes to ensure their accuracy for the book. So this will be my adventure and I plan to share both the recipes with you and hopefully some of the adventure, too.

My first blog entry!