Recipe Box- Recipe  #7

Company Short Ribs and Limas

Good Housekeeping is our friend!

3 lbs beef short ribs

Salt, Pepper

1 med onion, sliced

2 Tbsp shortening

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp dry mustard

1 Tbsp flour

2 Tbsp vinegar

2 Tbsp lemon juice and 1/4 tsp grated lemon rind

1 Bay leaf

3 1-lb cans, cooked dried Lima's, drained

Raw onion rings

About 2-1/2 hrs before serving:

1.  Start heating oven to 400 degrees F.  Sprinkle short ribs with salt and pepper.

2.  In Dutch oven or heavy skillet, heat shortening; in it brown ribs well; remove to 3-qt. casserole.  In same shortening saute onion till golden; pour off drippings.

3.  To onion, add brown sugar, mustard, flour, vinegar, lemon juice, lemon rind, bay leaf and water.  Bring to boil stirring, then pour over short ribs.

4.  Bake, uncovered, 1 1/4 hours or until meat is almost tender.  Stir in limas; bake uncovered, 1/2 hour longer or until fork tender.  Garnish with onion rings.  Makes 6-8 servings.

Serve with broccoli, tossed green beans with shredded raw carrots, warm French bread chunks, baked apples and Viennese coffee (coffee with whipped cream).

 Hello again from recipe box land!  This next item is a recipe and it's in my wheel house because I don't have to bake anything!!  And, it involves short ribs!  One of my absolute favorites.  I have been cooking short ribs for years.  I used to cook them in the oven but now that I have my new kitchen best friend (Cuisinart slow cooker) I cook them in the slow cooker.  There is usually red wine involved although, I recently found a delicious easy recipe using ketchup and soy sauce.  So yummy.

Short ribs are a love!! These are beauties!!

This recipe is titled Good Housekeeping Recipe of the Week.  It says that their recipes are famed for their wide appeal and unfailing accuracy.  They are checked and rechecked in the Good Housekeeping Institute kitchen.  I did some research and learned that the institute was founded in the year 1900 in order to improve the lives of consumers and their families through education and product evaluation.  I have always liked their magazine and was also surprised to learn that they won't let anyone advertise in their magazine until the product has gone through rigorous testing and earns the Good Housekeeping seal of approval.  That is pretty cool.

So...here we go!

Right off the bat, I cringed when I saw shortening listed as one of the ingredients.  I don't usually cook with shortening and prefer to brown my short ribs in a little butter and/or olive oil.  But, as I've said, I'm trying to stay as true to these old recipes as is possible so I thought I would show you a photo to prove it.

That white blob is the shortening.

 The other strange ingredient were the lima beans.  I have never heard of putting lima beans in with short ribs and have never seen another recipe similar to this one.  I researched this, as well, and found out that this is not uncommon in Southern cooking, using lima beans and short ribs.  I'm so curious to find out how this all will taste!  I love Southern food and recipes so I'm very excited. The other thing that was confusing about this recipe, and the lima beans, is that the recipe calls for cans of "cooked, dried limas".  I didn't know if I should cook from dried limas (soaking the dried beans) not the canned? What convinced me to use the canned limas was the "drained" reference.  Anyway...sort of weird.

The shortening melted quickly and the ribs seemed to like it!  They browned very nicely and smelled amazing.  

Browning the short ribs is important- seals in juices.

It's funny because I was just talking to a friend about using shortening to season an iron skillet.  Then we talked about, when we were kids, our mothers keeping a jar (I think it was an empty coffee tin) under the sink and all of the bacon drippings going into that jar.  Bacon drippings were then used to fry up all kinds of things.  It kind of seems gross to think of that now (a grease jar under the sink).  BUT...there are folks who are still saving bacon grease because I found a grease keeper container for sale on Amazon.  If we could only turn bacon grease into gold!! 

Grease keepers still in use!!

I actually have a vintage grease jar of my own, but it's part of my vintage kitchen items collection and I don't actually save grease in it.  It's made by the Anchor Hocking Company and the jar is absolutely clean as a whistle so, I guess, it's former owner didn't save grease, at least in that jar.

My sweet little non-grease jar!

Anyway...back to the recipe...

The onions also loved the shortening and got very golden and smelled amazing!  No better smell than onions sauteing, in my opinion.  Onions and short ribs are a match made in culinary heaven!  I ended up draining the grease from the onions by emptying the skillet into a colander in the sink which worked pretty good. 

Onions sauteing are the best smell in the world!

Added the rest of the ingredients and quickly brought to a boil.  Poured it all over the ribs.  At this point, the mixture smelled very vinegary (is that a word?).  Well, we must trust our friends at Good Housekeeping, right? 

Ready for the oven!

Here's the other thing...I always cook my short ribs covered, so it's another new thing for me to cook them uncovered (but, again, I have trust issues). Also, I'm concerned about the cooking time. Usually short ribs take at least 3 hours, or so, in the oven.  I'm following the recipe to the T and we will see how it turns out.

So, they have been cooking for 1 1/2 hours and I just added the lima beans.  Not good news to report. They are still very under cooked.  I think we all like our short ribs to be falling off the bone and these are no where near that shape.  I so want to put a lid on them.  I will give it the 1/2 hour additional time, listed in the recipe, but then might have to make some adjustments as we want to eat dinner before midnight tonight!

Okay, so after cooking for 2 hours they are still not "falling off the bone".  I have made an executive decision and covered my casserole.  I would say that they probably need another 45 minutes, to an hour, of cooking.  

So much for the checking and rechecking of Good Housekeeping.  But, I won't be too hard on them. Maybe people used to eat their short ribs more tough back when this was the recipe of the week? Maybe the meat was more tender back then?  Maybe the ovens were hotter?  Who knows?  But, I won't be throwing my Good Housekeeping under the bus! I'm still a fan!  

We are now at 2 hours and counting.  Meat still not done (in my opinion).  Just added a cup of water because all liquid has been dissipated.  Hungry and getting cranky.  I'll check back in another 1/2 hour. By the way, I just noticed again that the title of this recipe is Company Short Ribs and Limas.  If I had company over tonight, they would be drunk and hungry waiting for this to be done! Not a good way to have a party.

So, its been 3 hours and I am exhausted and hungry.  I would still like the meat to be a little more tender but we have to eat.  Final reviews in a minute.

I really don't care for this dish.  It was too sweet.  I missed the savoryish (another new made up word) of the onions.  Maybe I'm too used to short ribs done my way.  I tried to open my mind to this new taste but I'm just not feeling it.  

I actually like the lima beans in it (and hubby did too...and...normally...he doesn't like lima beans!).  

I think that there are so many great crock pot recipes for short ribs and they taste way better.  

If you get the chance to cook short ribs don't be deterred by this recipe!!  If you want some great recipes, just leave your email in comments!!  See you next recipe or whatever is up next in our loved recipe box!! 

Recipe Box- Recipe? #6

IDEAS FOR PENNY PINCHERS

Good day to you my faithful recipe box readers!  The next item in the recipe box was, again, not a recipe but an adorable article about pinching pennies.  

The motto of the article is "use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without".

These are tips for stretching pennies in our every day lives which, I don't know about you all, I know I need do be doing more of!

Use it Up:  Author recommends melting leftover bar soap by heating it in a microwave oven.  Place soap pieces on wax paper and heat until soft; remove and gently shape into one large piece of soap.  It will harden quickly.  Or, you can make liquid hand soap by putting leftover pieces of bar soap in a jar with a small amount of water.

Wear it Out:  If you have items that you can't wear because of spots and stains, the author recommends the following tips.  For ballpoint pen ink, apply a generous amount of hair spray then rub gently with a clean, dry cloth.  Remove grease on double knit by applying club soda the spot.  To eliminate white hem lines on old blue jeans, mix permanent blue ink with water and apply to the jeans with a small brush.  (I'm not sure what she is referring to when mentioning white hem lines? hmmm...)  I just googled it and this is referring to lengthening blue jeans (which I don't believe I've ever done).  When you lengthen the jeans there would be white hems lines showing.

Make it Do, Do Without: Avoid the temptation to buy more kitchen gadgets and appliances.  (This one definitely applies to me!)  Take inventory of what you already own and re-read the instruction booklet that came with your appliances.  They might suggest new-use idea's.

Finally, don't buy on impulse.  First, ask yourself "Can I do without it?" Many impulse purchases turn out to be much less suitable than they seemed at first.

I, for sure, love the motto.  I'm getting the feeling that the owner of this recipe box was probably trying very hard to be thrifty and maybe did do some of these suggestions (I hope that saving money wasn't somehow tied to the Narcotics Detective note that we found earlier).  My biggest challenge with being more thrifty is in the area of food.  Because it's my passion, I probably spend too much money on food and food related items.  There is nothing I love more than to go into a specialty food store and shop.  But, boy, one can drop a ton of cash and not leave with much!  I've been trying also to not waste the food that I buy and to actually eat the leftovers or re-purpose them for other meals.  But, there ARE two things that I know that I can't do without...a jar of candied jalapenos and my Cuisinart Slow Cooker!!  

Candied jalapenos are great with eggs!

Hi to you on this, again, snowy Sunday! (Will it ever end?!) The next recipe in the box uses an ingredient that I wasn't able to find this week, so I thought I would just write about what was on my mind.

After watching a new show from the Food Network, I found myself really perturbed.  I am so sick and tired of hearing celebrity chefs talk about how much they love junk food but they only weigh a size 1 or 2.  Really people?  "Oh, I just love to eat pizza, pizza, pizza"!  Yeah, right.  If they are eating the amount of junk food that they say that they are, they must be working out 2-3 hours a day if not more.  It's so duplicitous of them to think that we, the viewers, are so stupid to actually believe those statements.  They try to act like they are just the typical american food eater but it's just so ridiculous and saying it, doesn't make it so.

Maybe I'm wrong?  I've been wrong before.  Maybe these supposed Junk Food Junkie Celebrity Chefs do watch the Super Bowl eating gobs of Wings, chips, dips and other wonderful junk food.  And, then go on to eat more of it the next day... and then, go to work out for hours at a time (because they can afford personal trainers).

When someone looks very, very thin on tv (and supposedly tv adds 10 pounds to the way you look), you can only imagine how thin they really are.  Is there a -2 size?

I think my main point with all of this is that when very thin people say that they love junk food it makes the rest of us (who really like junk food or just are occasional bingers) think "what is wrong with me?" because we are not size 1's or 2's.  She or he can eat crap and still look great.  Again, very disingenuous.

I kind of started out liking this new show but, after watching this weekend, I think I'm done.  The whole thing seems forced and canned and I don't believe that the four of them actually like one another.  Two other things really bugged me as well.  At the end of the show they do a "what am I into" and "what am I over"? One of them stated that she wished the moms wouldn't put plastic water bottles in their kids lunch box and that it is wasteful (seemed very angry about this issue).  Again, really?  If I want to put a plastic water bottle in my kids lunch box, who are you to lecture to me about it?
Another one of them stated that he was into going to 'Old Diners' and eating diner food with his family. How many 'Old Diners' are even around anymore and I would venture to say that there are few in downtown Manhattan.  Paleese!

Again, my advice would be to stop pandering to who they think "the average american" is.  Get your demographic straight for your show and above all else...be honest with your viewers.

Recipe Box- Recipe #5

CHOCOLATE WHIP PIE

2 tsp unflavored gelatin

1/4 cup cold water

2 squares Bakers unsweetened chocolate

1 cup cold milk

2/3 cup sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 package Dream Whip

1 baked 9" pie shell, cooled

Sprinkle gelatin on cold water to soften.  Melt chocolate in 1/2 cup of the milk over hot water.  Beat to blend.  Add gelatin, sugar and salt; stir to dissolve gelatin.  Chill until slightly thickened.  Combine the remaining cold milk, vanilla, and Dream Whip; whip as directed on package.  Fold into the chocolate mixture.  Pour into pie shell.  Chill until firm.  Garnish with additional Dream Whip and shaved chocolate.

Will mine look like this?  Probably not.

Thank goodness the next one is a real recipe.  The post before this one was a little strange. Good to be back in the land of cooking food.  In this case, it is dessert.  Chocolate Whip Pie.  There is even a picture of what it is supposed to look like when completed.  I can assure you that my finished product probably won't look nearly as nice!  

I've never really been great at baking but in this case, I get to use a pre-made pie shell which is pretty hard to mess up!

This should be a breeze, right?

So, right away I noticed something that I had never heard of.  Dream Whip.  What in the world is it?  I've never seen it in the store and was wondering if it was a product that was not used anymore.  I had to google it and saw that it is still made and was to be found in the aisle with the gelatin.  Should be interesting... Here we go!

A couple of things...to melt the chocolate into the milk I made a little double boiler out of two pots.  Water goes in the bottom one and the milk and chocolate go into the top one.  Gently boil the water as the chocolate melts slowly.  The other thing was the recipe said to beat (but didn't specify using what kitchen tool) to blend.  I used a whisk to do this pretty successfully. (As it turns out later, not so successfully)

You might notice the vanilla that I'm using.  There is a farm, not too far away, which sells all kinds of products for cooking, as well as wonderful veggies.  I had mentioned that I was going to go there last fall and a friend of mine starting talking about this special vanilla which they sell.  He said that its called pure mexican vanilla and is the best vanilla in the whole world.  Needless to say, I was a little skeptical of such a claim. But when I went to the farm, they had a whole write-up on it and how wonderful it is.  I think they even featured it on an episode of the Oprah show.  Of course, me not being a baker, knew nothing about this vanilla.  But, I had to buy it anyway (because I'm a foodie nut).  And, it is not cheap!  That little bottle was $11.95!  You can google mexican vanilla and read more about it if you're interested.  True bakers seem to go wild over this stuff.

Super Vanilla!

So far, I've got the chocolate chilling a bit, the pie crust is baked nicely and now I'm on to Miss Dream Whip.

As I'm whipping up dreamy, I'm thinking why would anyone use this product when you can just whip up a dreamier version using heavy cream, a little sugar and the wonderful fancy vanilla?  In fact, I felt a little weird putting that fabulous vanilla in such a product.

I realize that the whipped cream version is much higher in calories, and fat, but it's dessert for cyin' out loud.  The Dream whip only has 15 calories per 2Tbsp prepared but even though the ingredients say that it contains milk- there are a lot of non-food things in this prepared dessert topping.

This is the best that I could do.  I can tell you that the chocolate without the dream whip tastes like a hyped up chocolate pudding.  When it is slightly chilled (but still a little warm) it tasted delicious.  I could have eaten the whole pot of it!  When I added the dream whip, I just didn't care for it.  It's like I can taste all of the non-food things in the whipped product.  The pie is chilling now but I don't think I want to use anymore Dream whip to decorate.

I know, not true to the recipe but I just couldn't do dreamy anymore.

Also, it was difficult to fold in the chocolate mixture.  I'm not sure if it's because I chilled it too long or what?  Maybe I should have used my mixer to blend the chocolate and milk?  All questions such as these could readily be answered by a baking oriented cook.

There are lumps of chocolate gelatin-definitely not silky texture

 Final reviews were not too bad.  My husband thought that the pie crust was really good.(Hehe, remember I didn't make that!)  He also pointed out that he thought that this was a pie for kids.  I agree with that assessment.  I think there are probably much better chocolate silk pie recipes out there and I really didn't care for the Dream Whip.  I wouldn't make it as an ending to a nice meal entertaining a group of adults.

Doesn't look like the picture from the recipe, does it?

Recipe Box- Recipe? #4

SUSPICIOUS NOTE

So, evidently, a recipe box can also contain secret notes.  This was in the box looking like a folded recipe.  You can imagine my surprise when I opened it.  In the photo, I blocked out the detectives name for privacy reasons.  

My imagination ran wild thinking of all the things that could be possible for this note to be in a recipe box.  Who wrote the note?  Was it a mother whose child was in trouble with drugs?  Who was keeping it a secret?  Was it hidden in the box because there was danger associated with it?

Was it hidden in the box because someone was meeting with the detective and didn't want others to know it?

Maybe the box was used to transport messages back and forth from one home to another as the recipe box was lent out supposedly for recipe sharing?

As I thought about it, I realized that a recipe box would be a great place to hide things other than recipes.  Who would think to look among the recipes for secrets? Nowadays, we have our laptops and other electronic devices where we can hide things.  But, back in the day an unassuming little wooden recipe box would have been an excellent vessel for hidden items.

Well, I knew that exploring this box would be fun but didn't figure on intriguing as well. I'm excited to see what else we can find!

Recipe Box- Recipe #3

MYSTERY ROLL-UPS

So, this next recipe looks very well used.  It must have been a favorite... back in the day.

In fact, the title was ripped and I wasn't able to see the full title of this recipe, hence the Mystery Roll-Up title.

Here we go!

Remove crusts from 1 lb. loaf unsliced bread.  Slice lengthwise into 6-8 slices.  Blend together 2 eggs, 2 Tbsp. Heinz Ketchup, 2 Tbsp. water, 1/4 tsp salt, and a dash of pepper.  Dip bread into mixture.  Brown on both sides in a lightly greased skillet.  Spread each slice with cheese spread (doesn't specify what kind) and Heinz ketchup.  Roll jelly-roll fashion.  Secure with toothpicks.  Roll in grated parmesan cheese.  Bake on lightly greased oven in a 475 degree oven for 5 minutes.  Serve with soup or salad.

Only 5 ingredients needed.  I have never heard of anything like this recipe and am thinking that it maybe could have been an entry in a Heinz ketchup contest? 

So, right off the bat there was a problem.  My french bread was a day old but it was still very difficult to cut.  The recipe doesn't say how thick the slices should be and in slicing the bread, it became mushy and hard to cut.  I managed to get only two slices out of my

whole loaf.  Good thing I'm not making this for company for the first time!

Couldn't get the french bread sliced thinly enough.

The bread quickly soaked up the egg mixture, so depending on how thick your slices are you might need to add more eggs, ketchup, etc.

My bread is also sticking to the skillet even though I lightly greased it with some butter.  This reminds me of cooking french toast only its ketchup.  I'm frying the slices on med-high heat for about 3-4 minutes per side.  I was also nervous about not cooking them long enough because of the raw egg inside the bread.  Fry the slices like you would do for french toast is my recommendation.

I would also recommend getting your cheese spread to room temperature because it will tear the bread if not soft enough.

Finished product.  Not sure even proper plating would help the looks of these.  They don't look very appetizing.

These look pretty bad.

Reviews are mixed for this recipe.  It kind of reminds me of a riff on a grilled cheese with similar flavors (because I love tomatoes in my grilled cheese).  My recommendations are (if you want to try this recipe) to use the sliced french bread that you find in the bread aisle of the grocery store.  That way, the slices are already cut and uniform (you can still cut the crusts off).  Using that type of bread will also give you thinner roll-ups because using the french bread, thick slices, was just too "bready".   Another suggestion was to add bacon to the roll-ups.  Well, we all know that bacon makes everything better, right?  How 'bout a little salami or bologna? 

I love ketchup and especially home made or ketchup's flavored with different things.  You can find specialty ketchup's in specialty food stores but I'm also seeing some popping up on grocery store shelves.  Here are two that I'm trying.  The balsamic ketchup is really good and I'm looking forward to trying the jalapeno flavored.  Experimenting with flavored ketchup's could also add a new dimension to the roll-ups!

Recipe Box- Recipe #2

PITS: FROM GARBAGE TO GARDEN

So, recipe #2 isn't really a traditional recipe but a fun newspaper clipping about how we can turn some of our kitchen garbage into part of a lovely garden!

This little gem from the recipe box couldn't have shown up at a better time.  I live in a state that gets the winter season and this particular winter has been brutal.  It's always about now that I start to get itchy for spring to arrive.  I'm determined to have a little vegetable garden this year and this article speaks to starting some spring in our homes using vegetable pits and actual veggies themselves (article calls them our "kitchen friends").  I love the end of the article which says, "Pits from pennies produces plants"!

AVODADO:  One of my personal favorites! Take out the pit, wash it and let it dry.  Then, stick 3 toothpicks in it, one on either side, and then one facing you.  This part is KEY (and I never could remember this)...Make sure that the small end is up, the large end down.  Put in a glass with the toothpicks resting on the side, the bottom third of the pit in the water.  Set in a sunny window, soon the seed will split and a long tap root will emerge from the base.  After a thick set of roots form, plant the whole seed in soil and you will end up with a large, tree-like plant.  Giving it a try today!

PINEAPPLE:  Whaat?  Cut the top off a pineapple with an inch or two of fruit attached.  Scoop out fruit (and enjoy eating fresh pineapple!).  Let it dry for three weeks.  Then, put in a pot and bury it up to the foliage to root.  In time, it will produce another pineapple.

Encourage it to produce the fruit by covering the whole plant in a clear plastic bag with a few holes in it.  Drop any ripening fruit in, preferable an apple, for a week.  Set it in the shade.  The gas produced will promote flowering.  The flower turns into the fruit.  After apple and bag are removed, the pineapple needs full sunlight.  Cut it back from time to time to promote bushiness.

Here is my experimental pineapple...poor thing doesn't know what its in for!  This will be a very interesting thing to do and I'll keep you posted.

LIMA BEANS:  Plant a few lima bean seeds in a pot of soil.  Place the pot in a very sunny window.  You'll grow a plant with green leaves, blossoms and even pods with beans on them. 

CARROTS, BEETS, RADISH, PARSLEY, PARSNIPS:  Buy the veggies fresh with foliage still attached.  Cut off one inch of the root and place it in a shallow dish of water.  It will root and then you can bury an inch deep in soil. 

PECANS, WALNUTS, CITRUS AND SWEET POTATOES:  These also can be cultivated into thriving plants!

I think these things would be fun to do with kids as well! 

I don't know what other things will show up from this recipe box as I have not peeked ahead...Should be an interesting adventure!!

If you want more information, just post in comments and I'll get back to you.