Joan’s Country Kitchen

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I love historic cookbooks and collect them wherever I go. I think one of the best ways to learn about life in the past is to know how people ate, what recipes they used and how women saw their role in life. Most historic

cookbooks, like Early American Cookery: “The Good Housekeeper,” 1841 by Sarah Josepha Hale, not only contains recipes but household hints for cleaning, caring for the sick, living on a budget and nurturing children, among other topics.

Sarah Josepha Hale was born in 1788, in New Hampshire and as an author and magazine editor, she was very influential in shaping the lives of 19th century women. She was the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book for 40 years. Godey’s, considered a forerunner of the modern women’s magazine, was the most widely read periodical in the US during the Civil War, with 150,000 subscribers.

Sarah Josepha Hale also wrote novels and our modern Thanksgiving dinner owes it’s beginnings to her description of that holiday dinner in Northwood; or, Life north and south: showing the true character of both.

The historic cookbook, Good Housekeeper, was written in 1839, when there were probably less than 30 American cookbooks published. Other cookbooks of the time focused on frugal living but Hale wanted to combine frugal with healthy, to teach “how to live well, and to be well while we live.” She includes “cheap dishes” like Cheap Bread, Pork and Beans and Pea Soup, but she also addresses the “proper quality of food” to promote health, especially for children, who, in the 1800’s, often died before their second birthday.

The Good Housekeeper also gives advice for cleaning and first aid. To clean straw carpets, “wash them in salt and water and wipe them with a clean dry cloth.” For burns, “Apply cotton wool dipped in oil as soon as possible and it it on till the fire is entirely out, which will usually take from two days to a week.”

The Good Housekeeper contains recipes for the sick as well. Here’s a recipe for gruel, commonly thought to be an easy to digest meal for the sick. “Sift the Indian meal through a find sieve; wet two spoonfuls of this meal with cold water, and beat it till there are no lumps; then stir it into a pint of boiling water, and let it boil half an hour, stirring all the time.”

Other sound health advice - “In setting out early to travel, a light breakfast before starting should always be taken; it is a great protection against cold, fatigue and exhaustion.”

The Good Housekeeper also contains recipes, naturally. There is a chapter on making bread, cooking meat from partridges to mutton, making sausage, salting meat to preserve it, how to make gravies, jams and jellies, and how to use herbs and spices.

Reading historic cookbooks helps us to realize how women’s lives are woven together with their sisters down through the years. Our concerns about family and managing a household haven’t really changed entirely - we’re all still interested in preparing healthy food on a budget, caring for our children and spouses. We have much in common with those who came before us and it’s good to know what they went through to give us the life we have today.

When I was a kid, Spam was something new and every mom loved it. It was an easy to use protein that didn’t cost much. Today, you can buy Spam in lots of sizes and flavors but it’s still a great bargain for the budget conscious cook.

Here’s a tasty country style Spam recipe to try for your family.

Spam Country Style Casserole Recipe

Ingredients

1 can Spam

2 12 oz cans of potato soup

1 chopped onion

4 cooked potatoes, mashed

2tbs butter

1/8 cup milk

8 oz frozen veggies of your choice

¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions for Country Style Spam Casserole

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Steam the potatoes. Once they are tender, add butter and milk and mix with a hand mixer until they’re smooth. Set them aside.

Cube the Spam and saute in skillet. Add onion and cook until both are browned.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine vegetables, cooked Spam and onions and the two cans of potato soup.

Spoon the entire mixture into a 3-quart casserole baking dish. Spread mashed potatoes over Spam mixture.

Sprinkle Spam Casserole with Parmesan cheese.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

This Spam casserole recipe makes 6 servings.

Looking for Spam Recipe Books?

I love historic recipes and when my mom gave me an old Iowa Farm Bureau Cookbook, published in the 1920’s, I was in heaven. Since I now have the cookbook my own mother and grandmother used to make many of our family dishes, my dad asked me to find a piccalilli recipe for him.

There was one very funny story involving piccalilli relish in a book I was just reading, All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot about a British country vet, set in the 1930’s. Many on the farms in England, and here in the US on country farms, loved piccalilli relish.

Here are two piccalillli relish recipes from my historic Iowa Farm Bureau cookbook. Some directions in historic recipe books seem very vague to us these days, but most farm wives back then already knew all the basics and took the directions for granted.

Ingredients for Piccalilli Relish

1 package green tomatoes
6 medium onions
1 medium head cabbage
1 1/4 c salt
6 green peppers
1 red pepper
2 cups sugar
1 tsp cloves, cinnamon and mixed spices

Directions

Put vegetables through a food chopper, then add salt. Let misture stand over night and then drain off liquid.

Add vinegar and spices and cook “gently” for one-half hour.

Put into sterilized jars and seal while hot.

Recipe 2 for Piccalilli Relish

This version will be spicier and makes more than recipe one.

Ingredients

1 package green tomatoes
8 large onions
1 cup salt
2 quarts water
1 quart vinegar
2 cups sugar
2 quarts vinegar
1 tablespoon white mustard seed
2 tbs ginger

1-2 tbs cayenne pepper
2 tbs cinnamon
1 tbs cloves and allspice

Directions

Chop fine tomatoes and onions, stir in salt and let it stand over night.

In the morning, drain off liquid.

Boil 2 qts water and 1 qt vinegar with tomatoes for 20 minutes.

Drain, put in kettle.

Put spices into cheesecloth and form a bag. Add this to the kettle, along with 2 quarts vinegar. Boil these together for another 20 minutes.

Add sugar if more sweetness is desired.

Makes 7 pints.

his holiday season, many are looking for money saving ideas. One easy way to save money on gift giving is

to make your own gifts in the kitchen. Homemade holiday treats are a wonderful way to say how much you care to everybody on your gift list. They’ll appreciate the gift even more, knowing you made it yourself.

Visit our cool Cookbook Store

The cranberry casserole makes a beautifully festive dish for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. Cranberries

increase your immune system to help protect you from colds and flu in the winter. What more could you ask from this holiday cranberry dish?

Ingredients

2 20 oz cans of pie apples (not pie filling)
1 16 oz bag whole cranberries
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar

Topping Ingredients

1/2 stick butter
1 1/2 cups crushed corn flakes
2/3 cups sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well.

Spray 2 quart baking dish with cooking spray and fill with apple/cranberry mixture.

For topping, melt butter in a saucepan. Add other topping ingredients and toss well to totally cover.

Spoon topping over apple/cranberry mixture in baking dish.

Bake for one hour.

Serve hot or at room temperature.

Serves 4 to 6 people.

Would you like to review your favorite - or not so favorite - restaurant and read what others have to say? FoodConnect offers a FoodConnect Restaurants section where you can search for restaurants in your own city or town or find a good eatery when you go on vacation.

Membership with FoodConnect is totally free and sign up only takes a few minutes. Once you sign up, when you go to the restaurant section, your own city automatically comes up. For instance, I live in north Texas so area restaurants come up with type of cuisine, address, phone number, web address and any reviews that have been posted by other members. I can sort through them for my favorites and write my own review and add a photo or search for a new place to eat. If I don’t want to write a full review, I can also give it a rating of how many forks it deserves out of 5 or answer quick questions about price, service, parking, whether or not it has take out and delivery and other topics.

I travel with my husband when he takes business trips so if I’m going on a trip, say to Washington, DC, I can change the city to Washington, DC and find great places to eat on my visit. You can also search restaurants by type of cuisine or restaurant name.

With FoodConnect you can create a file of your favorite restaurants to go back to later or browse others favorites in the featured section.

FoodConnect.com also offers great articles, recipes, featured cookbooks, menus and a food-loving community to make new friends. One new article I really liked was on Spicy Seafood Kakiage by Luke McKinney of Toronto.

FoodConnect currently has many Canadian members but not many from the USA. Sign up for a free membership today and tell everyone about the great restaurants in your hometown.

This was a paid review by Foodconnect.com. However, I am a member and love their site.

I love my crock pot. It’s easy to make just about any type of recipe in the crockpot from soups to desserts. I always love to add to my crockpot cookbook library and recently found this terrific addition by Stephanie O’Dea entitled Make It Fast, Cook It Slow: The Big Book of Everyday Slow Cooking which even offers a crockpot version of banana bread, chai tea latte and caramel apples. This isnt’ just another crockpot cookbook!

Stephanie’s crockpot cookbook offers 454 pages of delicious-sounding, easy to understand recipes with ingredients you actually have on hand. I haven’t had a chance to try more than a few but Stephanie gives readers her family’s “verdict” on each recipe, including the specific verdict of her young children. If you’re a mom who wants to cook delicious food for hard to please youngsters, this book is for you.

Stephanie O’Dea’s blog, crockpot365.blogspot.com, is dedicated to slow cooking and offers more delicious recipes.

Drinking tea has been linked to many health benefits and white tea is especially high in antioxidants. Its delicate flavor is lighter than other teas and is especially good for adding fruit to make a delicious iced tea drink. You can read more about the benefits of white tea and buy some high quality silver needle, white peony or a wonderful white tea sampler at WhiteTea.com.

White tea is made from buds and young tea leaves, which are picked just prior to the buds being opened fully, while green tea is made of more mature tea leaves.

Delicious White Tea Smoothie

Ingredients

1 1/2 c frozen mixed berries
3/4 cup berry flavored yogurt
1/2 cup brewed white tea
1/2 cup pomegranate juice
1 small banana

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