What's in Grandma's Recipe Tin?-Corn Gems

This week's recipe was a simple, yet very tasty, cornbread muffin. Wednesday, June 19th was Juneteenth, and I wanted to celebrate the holiday. Traditional foods for this holiday are picnic-style foods, as well as something red to drink. In addition to the muffins, I also whipped up a batch of my potato salad recipe. I was going to make a boxed variety of cornbread muffin but I was lucky enough to find the perfect recipe to try in my grandmother's recipe tin, so I made that instead. Everything turned out great!

This recipe is a clip-out recipe card from the Family Circle magazine, from June of 1966. It's a quick recipe, I whipped it up after work in the evening and I don't think it took much longer to make than a boxed variety would have taken to make.

Here's all the ingredients, minus the shortening that was melting on the stove. I always like these line-up shots!

First things first, all the dry ingredients are mixed in a bowl. I sifted the flour before measuring it, and then sifted it again with all the other dry ingredients before adding the cornmeal and whisking well.

Here it is after you mix in the egg and buttermilk.

And here is the final product after you stir in the melted shortening. The difference is subtle, but you can see that it is a bit smoother than without it.

Here we go into the muffin tin! The bottom and sides did want to stick to the paper liners a bit, so you might consider spraying the liners with cooking spray just to help combat that.

And out of the oven, exactly the 20 minutes it calls for seemed to do the trick.

Here was my final dinner plate. I made the potato salad the night before, and bought the chicken from the deli that night. The red drink next to it is a store-bought frozen juice concentrate I got to help with my plantar fasciitis. What?-You're probably asking me right now. Yep. It turns out that rolling a frozen can of juice concentrate helps stretch and ice the muscles in your foot. And then you get to drink the juice afterwards. (My feet were clean and I had a towel over the can, don't worry!)

I ate the muffins with butter, and a glug of sorghum syrup to dip them in. The sorghum syrup was really tasty with it! I highly recommend this. The only thing to keep in mind with this recipe is that it doesn't not hold out over time. I tried them the next night and they were too dry to be edible. If you make this recipe, I recommend sharing it with others and eating it all the same day you make them.

So, there you have it! A really basic, simple cornbread muffin recipe that is a great starting place if you're not familiar with making them from scratch. It has just enough sugar to be slightly sweet, but not overly sweet like a lot of boxed varieties can be. This is a fast recipe, so don't worry about waiting till after work to make it. And for the most part, it's all ingredients people tend to have on-hand. All I had to buy was the buttermilk, which I never keep on-hand.

I encourage everybody to study up on Juneteenth, and try out this recipe next year to join in with the celebration! Happy eating and celebrating!

-Foodie

What's in Grandma's Recipe Tin?-Piña Colada Cheesecake

All right, so this week's recipe was a fun one! It presented quite a challenge to me, one I really enjoyed conquering! I chose this cheesecake recipe for a specific reason. One of my friends has some health issues that makes eating difficult, and this weekend is the Jewish holiday of Shavuot/Shavuos, the "dairy" holiday, as she explained it to me. She encouraged me to eat as much dairy as I possibly can this weekend in her stead, and I happily stepped up to the challenge! And as her grandmother passed away just a couple days ago, I thought if I could find a good recipe that fit the dairy bill, I could use my grandmother's recipe, to honor her grandmother's memory. So, I looked through the box and found one cheesecake recipe that has cream cheese, butter, and sour cream all in the ingredient list. That's quite a bit of dairy in one recipe, so I knew it was the perfect one to try out.

The recipe's original title is "O Grancho Cheese Cake" or at least that's what it looks like written on the card. There is no known source of this recipe written on the card, so I don't know if that's the name of the person who created the recipe or a company from long ago that created it, or what, but to me, it means nothing. And it tells me nothing about the cheesecake. I looked at the list of ingredients to see if anything stood out. Crushed pineapple in the batter, and coconut flakes in the crust. Bingo! Piña Colada Cheesecake, a much better and accurate name for this recipe.

As I said, this recipe presented me a few challenges. There were very little instructions on what to do to make the crust other than "mix and press in buttered spring-form pan," and that basically tells me nothing. I had to guess and hope for the best. Fortunately for me, it all worked out rather well! And as it turns out, you don't need to butter the pan. So, without further ado, let me share the recipe with you:

Piña Colada Cheesecake

16 oz. cream cheese
2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs, beaten
3 cups sour cream*
1 can crushed pineapple** (reserve the pineapple juice)

Crust:
1 cup Graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup slivered blanched almonds, toasted
1/2 cup coconut flakes
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. almond extract

Mix the cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar well, until fluffy.

Add the beaten eggs, and blend well.

Add the sour cream and mix until completely blended.

Fold in the well-drained pineapple, and set aside to pour into the crust.

To make the crust:
If you have whole graham crackers, use a gallon-size bag and a rolling pin or a food processor to grind them. I used a food processor for mine. When well-ground, place them in a bowl large enough to fit all the crust ingredients. Place the coconut flakes and toasted almonds in a food processor and process until they're the same size as the crushed graham crackers. Place them and the sugar in the bowl with the cracker crumbs and blend well.

Melt the butter and add the almond extract to it. Pour into the bowl and stir well to fully incorporate it with the crust ingredients.

Dump the crust ingredients into a springform pan and press into the bottom and up the sides. This makes enough to cover the sides nearly to the top. Try to make sure it's uniform, especially on the bottom.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake the crust for two minutes to help it set. When that's done, remove it from the oven and pour the batter into the crust. It will nearly cover the sides of the crust.

Bake for 1 hour in the oven, before checking to see how set it is. You will definitely want a sheet pan under this on a lower rack, because butter will melt out of the bottom of the pan and you will regret the mess to clean up, if you don't.

After 1 hour, it may need a little more time to bake. Cheesecake baking is difficult in that it's really hard to tell if it's done, unless you have done this a lot. As I haven't baked a cheesecake in probably 15+ years, I was definitely rusty, and erred on the side of baking longer than it probably needed.

This was after an hour and 15 minutes, and just out of the oven.

This is after it fell. Cheesecakes fall, it's just what they do, don't worry when it happens to yours! It's browner on top than I would like, and cracked around the edge, but I would rather have a browner top than a raw center. Figuring out just the right time to bake comes with practice, and I need more of it, I think! I will admit, it's not the prettiest cheesecake I've ever made or seen, but it's the taste and texture that matters most. I was happy with the results, ultimately. When this is done, let it sit for a while to cool down a bit before placing it in the fridge to cool overnight.

The next day I took it out of the fridge and removed the side of the springform pan. It was time for a taste test.

I found it actually tasted better when it wasn't super cold, so I recommend letting it sit for a while and come closer to room temperature. The texture isn't perfect, and I can't tell if it's because of the pineapple, or over-baking, or a combo of both, but the flavor is pretty good. But it wasn't pineappley enough for my tastes. So, I thought and thought about it and the answer came to me: the leftover pineapple juice that I had saved from the crushed pineapple. I poured it into a pan and and slowly reduced it over medium heat until it was thick and syrupy. Can I just tell you how amazing it tastes poured over the cheesecake?! I poured the rest of it over the rest of the cheesecake and then for a bit of texture, I sprinkled the extra graham cracker crumbs on the top.

I left a little bit without graham crackers on top so that when I take it to work tomorrow, my coworkers can try it with or without if they like.

So, what did I learn from this baking experiment? I learned that I miss making cheesecake and I should probably do it more often to perfect the timing. I learned that even when a recipe doesn't have all the steps written out, if you have enough of a cooking/baking foundation, you can pretty much figure it out, even without them. I learned that pineapple in the cheesecake might make the texture taste a bit funny, but it still tastes great. And honestly, it's the pineapple syrup that takes it over the top. Do not miss this step. Don't be afraid to experiment. It didn't call for that at all, but it just "made" the dish!

This cheesecake is really rich, and the original recipe says it makes 12 servings. I didn't cut mine into 12 pieces, but feel like those are probably big slices and can probably be cut smaller to make more servings. There's a lot of sugar in this, so smaller pieces are probably the way to go!

Cheesecakes feel really fancy, but they aren't that hard to make. They are hard to gauge the doneness, however. That just takes time and practice. What better time to start practicing, than right now!

I don't know if this recipe is kosher or if my friend's grandmother would have enjoyed it. Some people really hate coconut! But I did take some time while making the cheesecake to think about the elders in our lives, and how it's good to listen to them and learn from them while we have them in our lives. This project is helping me to remember that. I would encourage all of us to listen to our elders, learn from them, learn their stories, while they're still here with us. Make sure to hug your grandparents while you still can!

Happy Baking!
-Foodie

*I actually measured the sour cream into cups, rather than used a pint and an 8oz. container of sour cream. This ended up using a few tablespoons more than those, so make sure you have plenty of sour cream on hand!
**The original recipe does't say what size of a can to use and I had every intention of buying an 8oz. can, but the store brand was all out of that size and there was no way I was paying the price of the name brand, so I ended up with a 19oz. can of the store brand, which was probably still cheaper than the smaller size of the name brand. I didn't use all of it, but as you'll see later, I did use all the juice from it, so I recommend the larger size can.

What's in Grandma's Recipe Tin?-Wiener Schnitzel

My original plan was to make this meal last weekend, Memorial Day weekend, when I was going to Leavenworth on Saturday, but I had misplaced the recipe and couldn't find it, and was just too lazy to deal with it all, so I scrapped it till this weekend. I chose this wiener schnitzel recipe because Leavenworth is a Bavarian-style town, and I like German food, so it was a perfect connection. While there, I picked up a package of spaetzle to try, because I've never had it before and it's the quintessential German side dish. Neither disappointed.

The recipe is from a newspaper clipping from an unknown year, from one of the Seattle newspapers, because I can see Seattle-related things advertised on the other side of the clipping, but no date or year listed anywhere. It does say the recipe is a reprint from the San Francisco Chronicle originally. I'll type it out because it's larger than the last recipe and won't show up very well in a photograph.

Wiener Schnitzel
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes

4 pork cutlets, each about 1/2" thick or slightly less (about 1 1/2 lbs.)
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 1/2 cups panko or homemade breadcrumbs (see note)
2 Tbsp. butter, plus more as needed
1 1/2 tsp. sea salt or kosher salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 lemons, halved

Preheat oven to 225 degrees and place a serving platter in the oven.

Pound the cutlets until they measure roughly 7" by 10" and are very thin, about 1/8" thick. It takes about 4 minutes per cutlet to accomplish this. The cutlets can be pounded the day before and wrapped in plastic wrap until ready to cook, if desired.

Pour the milk in a shallow bowl, and put the beaten egg in another. Sprinkle the panko or breadcrumbs on a sheet of aluminum foil.

In a large frying pan, melt the butter over medium-high heat. While it is melting, dip one cutlet into the milk, then the egg, and then lay it in the panko or breadcrumbs, then turn and coat the other side. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. When the butter foams, put the breaded cutlet into the hot butter. If the pan is large enough, repeat with a second cutlet.

When the crust is golden brown, about two minutes, turn and repeat on the other side, 1-2 minutes. Remove and place on the warm platter in the oven. Repeat, adding more butter as needed, until all are done.

Serve hot, along with half a lemon.

Note: To make homemade breadcrumbs: Simply put dried baguette or other artisan bread in a blender or food processor and chop or process to medium light crumbs.

I started off with two thin-sliced pork chops. Basically one pork chop, cut down the middle. The recipe doesn't say exactly what kind of cut of meat to use, which would have been helpful, so I just went with these, because they were already thinner, and affordable.

And as you can tell, I don't always follow directions as they are written. This is usually because I don't actually really read them until just before cooking, and then I generally wing-it as I go, as long as I got the ingredients right, which I also sometimes don't follow either, cuz what's the fun of following the rules? I mixed the egg and the milk together, like you would for dipping bread for French toast, and you know what? It turned out just fine. Don't bother dirtying up a third plate for the breading process, it's totally ok to mix the egg and milk.

Here is the finished result! I used panko, and half of it falls off, so don't freak out if that happens to you too. Enough will stay on to be delicious and coat it all. And as you can tell, it's not nearly as thin as the recipe says it should be. This is because I spent forever pounding them with a meat mallet and that's as thin as they got. I got worried my apartment neighbors would start to get upset if I kept at it, so I just stopped. Again, if it had said what cut of meat to use, it would have helped because some work better than others for this, and clearly the pork chops I had weren't the right cut. It's ok if yours don't get as thin as they should either, just know that you'll need to cook them longer, but it'll all work out fine in the end. Don't panic.

Here they go in the melted butter. The butter immediately sucked up into the breadcrumbs and I had to keep adding more and more that I finally switched to oil because I was tired of using so much butter. It still needed way more than it called for, so be prepared emotionally to be consuming so much butter and oil in one dish, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, you know? Just work out a few extra minutes the next day and you'll be all good.

Here's the first flip. It does take a few times on each side to get it really browned. Be careful with the tongs because the breading is delicate and will scrape off if you press too hard with them. And make sure to take extra care to fry the edges too, because they won't brown on their own if you don't. If they were thinner, they'd cook faster and probably cook the sides better too. But, just adapt to what you ended up with and it'll be fine!

Here's the spaetzle I bought in a German cheese shop in Leavenworth. It was expensive, but worth it. It's an imported item and you're supporting a small, independent store, so I had no problem shelling out some extra money on it. I just followed the directions on the package exactly, which are thankfully in English, and it turned out great. I know sometimes people fry these in butter after they're cooked, and I'd definitely eat it that way. It would just make it that much more awesome. It's a good alternative from other, more common forms of side dishes, and a must for German entrees!

Here's the final result! Nicely browned, crispy breading which you must put lemon juice on, it just takes the flavor up to a whole other level of deliciousness! This didn't go exactly as the recipe said it would, but it still turned out great. That's the important lesson to be learned with cooking. Don't be intimidated by the instructions. If one way doesn't work for you, find another way!

If you like German food, or want to explore German cuisine more, this is a great starter recipe. It's pretty basic, and quick and easy. I think you'll all enjoy this one! Happy Cooking!