Cooking like Grandma! (choice, America, easter)

[evearael]

Inspired by Booko's quote from the Butter thread:

I cook more like my grandmothers every day. I'm eating more fat, more calories....and losing weight.

I've been getting more and more fascinated by making everything from scratch because I want to have greater control over what my family ingests... especially since we can't afford to shop at natural food stores.

Please share your recipes and any good cookbooks! I'll post my yummy pancake recipe after this migraine goes away.

[Booko]

I have my mother's ancient early edition of "Better Homes and Gardens" cookbook, very yellowed with age. I have a newer version too. The older one is MUCH better.

I have a lot of the family recipes I use, especially for baking.

My best and favoritest cookbook I ever bought though is "Middle Eastern Cooking" it's a Sunset book, now out of print, I think. It has a lot of great ideas. I learned to cook lamb properly from a middle eastern cookbook.

I use Joy of Cooking for some basics, like when I forget roughly how many minutes a pound it takes to do a rib roast to medium rare.

I dunno. I use cookbooks for inspiration mostly, and do the rest by seat of the pants.

I look up a lot of recipes online these days, especially on food allergy sites.

Cookbooks I avoid: Anything produced by a food manufacturer. Blech!

I have no choice but to buy food at health food stores and markets these days. There is so little I can eat in a normal grocery store.

Things I can't eat from grocery stores:
Anything in the dairy section
Condiments (any of them, including pickles)
Salad dressings
Cereals
Baked goods
Junque food
Baking supplies (flour, yeast, spices, baking chocolate)
Soups and sauces (NONE!)
Desserts (ready made or mixes)
Crackers and cookies
Most fruit juice (even 100%, if they add vitamins can't have it)

About the only thing I can eat in a grocery store is Mott's organic apple sauce, veggies and some meats, and brown rice. Thing is, I can get better and cheaper veggies and meats etc. at the local farmer's markets, and even B.J.'s Warehouse, so...uh... why bother?

Evarael, is there a food coop anywhere near you? If so, that would be the place to check out. "Health food" stores can be pricey, but food coops generally are not.

[Booko]

1 part raspberry red wine vinegar (or just red wine if that's what you have)
1 part olive or canola oil or walnut oil
2 T. raspberry or black raspberry preserves for each "cup" of vinegar
(dash of walnut extract)
(pinch basil)
(salt and pepper)

Mix in food processor, blender, or with a wire whip. Adjust sourness by adding more vinegar, or make sweeter by adding more preserves.

I have a corn allergy, so I have to find European preserves, as American companies are stupid and add blasted corn syrup to *everything*. I use seedless preserves from England, but really, anything will do.

Sometimes I use Cascadian Farms organic preserves, which are about the only preserves made in this country that are worth the bother. I left a jar at my Mom's house, and now she won't eat any other brand. So much for you, Smuckers! hah!

Anyone else make preserves or jams?

[standing_alone]

How to make kolaches like my step-Grandma:

Smoke like a chimney. Find kolache recipe. Make them. Blow air into plastic bag and give them to relatives. Kolaches should taste like cigarrette smoke.

[Booko]

Booko's pancake recipe:

3 c. flour (I use whole wheat pastry flour)
dash salt
3 T. sugar (for browning, you can use less if you want)
3.5 t. baking powder
6 T melted butter
2 eggs
2 c. milk (or soy milk or almond milk)

This recipe will feed a family of four. No one eats more than 2 pancakes, usually. These are filling -- not those awful nothing spongy things that come out of the usual mix.

(I can't use baking powder any more, as it's a cornstarch base, but I've read that half cream of tartar and half baking soda works just as well. I'll have to try that out.)

[Booko]

Originally Posted by standing_alone

How to make colaches like my step-Grandma:

Smoke like a chimney. Find colache recipe. Make them. Blow air into plastic bag and give them to relatives. Colaches should taste like cigarrette smoke.

I prefer pipes!!!

[evearael]

(I can't use baking powder any more, as it's a cornstarch base, but I've read that half cream of tartar and half baking soda works just as well. I'll have to try that out.)

EDIT: My buttermilk recipe requires baking soda, not baking powder, and I will add it as soon as I can find it!

1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar (though I usually half this)
1/4 tsp salt
Dash of orange peel
Mix & set aside

1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
Healthy dash vanilla extract
2 tbsp olive oil
Mix together and then with flour mixture

Dice half a banana and add it to the rest. Yummy!

Serves 2 adults and 1 toddler.

Variation:
Substitute the following:
1 cup flour -> 1/2 cup flour & 1/2 cup wheat flour OR 1 cup wheat
2 tbsp olive oil -> 2 tbsp melted butter

Try adding diced strawberries and blackberries.

[Booko]

This recipes is from my French-Canadienne grandma's side of the family. Putsons are traditionally cooked in beef broth, but I prefer chicken or veggie broth myself.

Putsons

Put one egg in a measuring cup and scramble it.
Fill the measureing cup up to 1 cup line with milk (I use soy milk)
Add 1 t baking powder
Pinch salt
Add about 2 cups of flour, until the texture is "right" (it shouldn't be gummy and terribly sticky, but not too dry either).

Roll out on floured board. Slice into strips or squares. These things are going to puff up when you cook them, so don't make them really big or anything. You can roll them out really thick or very thin, whichever you like.

Drop them one or a few at a time into boiling broth (Use a Dutch Oven or really big and deep fry pan). Cook about 20 minutes covered and another 10 minutes uncovered.

If I have already cooked veggies on hand, like leftover carrots, I drop them in at the very end. If I have leftover chicken or turkey, same thing. It makes a whole meal that way, esp. if you just add a salad.

Shortcut: Make Putsons ahead of time. They freeze as well as homemade fat noodles do. Then you can make an easy dinner by boiling broth you have on hand, tossing in the frozen noodles (they'll take a bit longer to cook, but not much) and some frozen veggies at the end, and whatever leftover meat you have on hand, if you want that sort of thing.

Putsons in chicken broth is what we refer to as "Penicillin Canadien" around Chez Booko.

If I can't get that, I hit up my neighbor's restaurant for matzo ball soup.

[Booko]

Originally Posted by evearael

Hmm... this is my pancake recipe and it uses baking soda, but not the cream of tartar. I've just gotten really good at making it and I will be trying to develop a wheat version this weekend:

1 cup flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp sugar (though I usually half this)
1/4 tsp salt
Dash of orange peel
Mix & set aside

1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
Healthy dash vanilla extract
2 tbsp olive oil
Mix together and then with flour mixture

Dice half a banana and add it to the rest. Yummy!

I'll have to try this, especially since you use baking soda and not baking powder! Besides, it might be a way to suggest to my kids that bananas will not kill them.

Have you ever added applesauce and cinnamon to your pancakes? I did that once, and they turned out rat