Anna Sultana’s Soft Molasses Cookies, Iced Soft Molasses Cookies and Newfoundland Molasses Raisin Bread / Tossing Christmas Cookies by Margaret Ullrich

Went grocery shopping yesterday.
They don’t have any sugar, neither white nor brown.
I saw another shopper crying.


Honey and molasses are sweet, traditional and still on the shelves.
A cook’s gotta do what a cook’s gotta do, especially during the holidays.
Okay… a few days ago I posted honey recipes.
Today we’ll take a look at molasses recipes.

Here are a few molasses recipes I’ve posted over the years.
Some are even traditional for Christmas.
The Newfoundland Molasses Raisin Bread is served for morning toast with butter during the Holidays.
Tell the family to think of the new recipes as a cultural experience…
or whatever excuse you think they’ll swallow.


Anna Sultana's Panettone and Gingerbread
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2021/12/anna-sultanas-panettone-and-gingerbread.html

Gingerbread and Seven Minute Frosting / Buttermilk Substitute for Baking - Margaret Ullrich
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2011/12/gingerbread-seven-minute-frosting.html

Anna Sultana’s German-Style Chocolate Cake, Kuchen and Gingerbread for Father's Day
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2023/06/anna-sultanas-german-style-chocolate.html

Anna Sultana's Qaghaq ta' l-Ghasel (Honey or treacle rings, Maltese Style)
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2010/12/anna-sultanas-qaghaq-ta-l-ghasel.html

Anna Sultana's Qaghaq tal-ghasel #2 - Treacle Rings, Maltese Style
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2013/08/anna-sultanas-qagaq-tal-gasel-2-maltese.html

Anna Sultana’s Pfeffernüsse (German Christmas Cookies)
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2015/12/anna-sultanas-pfeffernusse-german.html

Anna Sultana’s Gingersnap Cookies
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2015/12/anna-sultanas-gingersnap-cookies.html

Gingerbread Cookies (Christmas Cookies) and Royal Frosting - Margaret Ullrich
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2011/12/gingerbread-cookies-margaret-ullrich.html


Hints:

About the Soft Molasses Cookies…
Combine 1/2 Cup raisins with 1/2 Cup of the flour mixture before you add them to the molasses mixture.
These cookies will stay fresh, covered at room temperature, for one week.

About the Newfoundland Molasses Raisin Bread…
You may need to add a little more flour so that your dough will not be sticky.

Molasses bread generally takes a bit longer to rise than white bread does.
Make sure the dough rises at least a couple of inches above the bread pan’s rim before baking.


                        Soft Molasses Cookies

Have on hand 3 ungreased baking sheets.

Sift together into a medium bowl
2 Cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Set aside.

Place in a large mixer bowl
3/4 Cup shortening or oil
1 Cup sugar (brown will be fine)
Beat on high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Add
1/4 Cup dark molasses
Beat until combined.
Add
1 large egg
Scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed, beat until well combined.
Gradually add the dry ingredients, about 1/2 cup at a time, to the creamed mixture.

Place in a rimmed pan
1/2 Cup sugar (add more if needed while making the cookies)

Preheat the oven to 350º F

Form dough into balls about 1 1/2 inches, and roll them in the sugar in the pan.
Place on a baking sheet, about 3 inches apart.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until browned and edges appear set.
Let cool for five minutes on baking sheet before transferring to cooling racks.
Repeat with remaining dough.


                        Iced Soft Molasses Cookies

Yield 36 cookies
Line 4 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Sift into a large bowl
3 1/2 Cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves
Set aside.

Place in a 2 cup measuring cup or medium bowl
3/4 Cup molasses
3/4 Cup buttermilk, room temperature
Stir well with a fork to thoroughly mix.

Place in a large mixer bowl
3/4 Cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 Cup packed brown sugar
Cream together until fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Add
1 large egg, room temperature
Add the molasses / buttermilk mixture.
Scraping the bowl often, stir mixture on low. It will look curdled.
Gradually add the dry ingredients and stir just until blended.
Turn off the mixer and stir a few times with a spatula, scraping the sides and bottom.

Preheat oven to 350° F

Drop measuring tablespoon size balls of batter onto the cookie sheet, two inches apart.
Bake for 12 minutes or until the cookies are done.
To test poke a cookie with a finger. If the indent bounces back then they’re done.
Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Repeat with remaining dough.
When the cookies have cooled, make the icing.

Icing

Place in a medium bowl
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 Cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 Cup cream or milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Stir together until well combined and smooth.
Either dip the tops of the cookies into the icing bowl or spoon the icing over the cookies, allowing the excess icing to run off.
Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired.
Allow the icing to set before serving.


                        Newfoundland Molasses Raisin Bread

Makes 2  1 1/2 pound loaves

Grease well 2 9x5x3 inch loaf pans

Place in a small bowl
1/2 Cup lukewarm water
1 Tablespoon sugar
Stir together and add
2 teaspoons dry yeast
Let stand without stirring for 10 minutes.

Stir together in a large mixing bowl
2 Cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
When the yeast is ready, stir it and add to the flour.
Stir in
1/3 Cup melted butter
1/2 Cup molasses
3/4 Cup lukewarm milk
1 large egg, beaten
Mix slowly for 5 minutes, or until the mixture is smooth with no lumps.
Gradually add
2 Cups flour
You might need to add more flour for a soft dough that leaves the sides of the bowl.
Add
2 Cups raisins
Knead until the raisins are evenly distributed in the dough.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface to knead for 10 minutes.
Place the dough in a large bowl, then cover the bowl with a damp tea towel.
Leave it to rest and rise for two hours.

Punch the dough down and knead it for a few minutes, then let it rest for 10 minutes.
Divide the dough into 6 equal portions and form each portion into a ball.
Place 3 balls of dough in each prepared loaf pan.
Cover with a tea towel and allow to rise until it is about 2 inches above the rim, about 2-3 hours.

Preheat oven to 350° F

Bake for 45 minutes. The top and bottom crust should have good colour.
Turn the loaves out onto a wire rack to cool.
Brush the tops with melted butter to soften the top crust, if desired.


                                                       ~~~
I also wrote the following essay about Christmas traditions for our CKUW radio show ‘2000 & Counting’. Over the years our listeners asked for some seasonal stories to be repeated.
They seemed to like being reminded that we were all in the same holiday boat, a communal ship which made us feel like we were all sinking fast.

Ah… Christmas shopping, holiday baking and holiday customs…
Why do we do it?

I don't know about you, but as far as I'm concerned, there are two questions no one should ever ask a woman.

The first is How old are you?
The second is Have you done your holiday baking yet?

Why is it that, when the thermometer falls, we're supposed to bake? 
Does the Queen whip up a fruitcake before writing her speech?
I don't think so.  

Holiday baking has been with us an awfully long time.
Did you know that ginger was popular in Greece over 5,000 years ago? The Egyptians were eating gingerbread when the great pyramid of Cheops was just a brick and a prayer. I wonder what their gingerbread men looked like.

A few years after Egypt's building boom, an English King and his hunting party got lost in a blizzard on Christmas Eve. Well, they were clever lads full of English pluck, so they threw everything they had - meat, flour, sugar, apples, ale and brandy - into a bag and cooked it. Wallah!!  Plum pudding. The Iron Chef would've been proud.  

On Christmas Day in 1666, Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary that he had risen earlier than his wife Who was desirous to sleep having sat up till four this morning seeing her maids make mince pies. 
I really admire Mrs. P. She just sat and watched her maids do the work, yet her husband felt guilty about her workload. How did she get him to suffer like that?   

Some Christmas carols seem a little too focused on food.  For example:
     Now bring us some figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer!
     We won't go until we get some, so bring it out here.
Those were somebody's friends?  Somebody should've called the cops.


Holiday baking has followed us into modern times. The 1970s was the decade of old time family television shows like The Waltons and memoir books.
Have you ever browsed through a memoir book? It could make you weep. They reminded us of times like this...
Evenings when a cold blustery wind howled outside were perfect for sorting through recipes. They were cozy times. The children were sitting at the oak table helping Mama chop fruit and raisins. Papa was cracking and shelling nuts and crushing fresh spices in the grinder.

Isn't that sweet? Sentences like that convinced me that if we did things just like people did before television was invented, the world would be a kinder, gentler place.

We'll never know. Paul told me, in no uncertain terms, that he was too busy to grind nuts for a cake he didn't even want.
Alright. Scratch Paul grinding his nuts. I bought ground nuts.

Step two... the batter had to be mixed. Back to that memoir...
When all the fruits were in, Grandmother called, 'Come, stir the batter!'
We all took turns giving it a stir - clockwise for good luck - and made a wish.

I made a batter, threw in the fruits and called out Come, stir the batter!

Carl pointed to the electric mixer sitting on the counter and said that he was staying on the eighth level of his computer game, The Temple of Ra. He also told me, in no uncertain terms, that he was too busy to stir batter for a cake he didn't even want.

I stirred the batter, clockwise.
Don't ask what I wished.


It's been downhill ever since. Do you know about the charming Swedish custom of hiding a whole almond in a serving bowl of rice pudding? The lucky person who finds the almond has to get married or do the dishes. Either my husband or my son - the fink never confessed - managed to swallow the almond every time.

I tried the German version: whoever finds the almond receives a marzipan pig. By then Paul and Carl had their own tradition: swallowing the almond. I felt so guilty looking at that poor rejected pig.
I started my own tradition and ate him... along with the cake.

There's a Christmas carol that goes: Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...

Well, the goose isn't the only one.

Anna Sultana’s Orange Honey Cookies, Honey Cookies and Honey Cake / A Christmas Bargain by Margaret Ullrich

Honey Cake

This has been quite year for cooking in Canada.

Starting in February 2023, the Windsor Salt workers in the salt mines in Pugwash, Nova Scotia and Windsor, Ontario went on a 192 day long strike.
Since Windsor is the salt supplier in Canada that meant that the there was a gaping hole on the shelves where we normally could pick up some salt.
Yes, just like toilet paper at the start of COVID-19, salt was nowhere to be found until September.

Then, on September 28, 138 workers at Rogers Sugar refinery in Vancouver went on strike.
For a while there was enough sugar on the supermarket shelves.
Well, now it’s holiday baking time and the shelves are bare.
The clerk told me that people are showing up at 7 a.m. hoping that a bag or two will make an appearance.
Professional Canadian bakeries and chocolate makers are also having problems due to the lack of white sugar.
The sugar strike has been going for two months and there’s no end in sight.

In Canada salt is supplied by Windsor and sugar is supplied by Rogers.
That's it. Nobody else.
So, if they aren’t producing there’s nothing on the store shelves.
Okay… first world problems, but we’ve just gotten through the COVID-19 restrictions, we’re tired and we just want to do a traditional thing, like cooking up family favourite recipes.

Alright, on to plan B.
Sugar is out, so honey and molasses are the sweeteners for the duration.
They may not be what the family is expecting, but home baked items are less of a a shock than ending a holiday meal with Oreos and a McCain cake.


Hints:

About the Cookies…
Don’t like orange? Use lemon extract and lemon juice.

These cookies are very soft and lose detail when they bake.
Just use really simple cookie cutters. Non-detailed, simple round cutters work best.


                        Orange Honey Cookies

36 cookies

Grease well or line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper

Sift into a medium bowl
2 Cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Place in a large mixer bowl
3/4 Cup butter
1/3 Cup brown sugar
1/2 Cup honey
Beat at medium speed until well blended.
Add
1 large egg
1 Tablespoon grated orange rind or 1 teaspoon orange extract
Stir in the flour mixture, about 1 cup at a time.
Cover and chill 1 1/2 hours.

Place half of the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out 1/4 inch thick.

Preheat oven to 350º F

Cut dough into desired shapes and place on prepared sheets.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until they are a light golden brown.
Remove cookies to a wire rack to cool.

For the Orange Butter Frosting

Combine in small bowl
1 teaspoon grated orange rind or 1/4 teaspoon orange extract
1 1/2 Tablespoons orange juice

Place in a small bowl
1/4 Cup butter
Beat until soft, then blend in
2 Cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
alternately with combined juice and rind.

Ice the tops of the cookies using a baster brush or a knife.


                        Honey Cookies

36 cookies

Grease well or line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper

Place in medium bowl
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 Cup light brown sugar

Place in small pot
1 Cup honey
Over low heat, heat until boiling, then add to the butter and sugar.
Stir until sugar is dissolved then cool 10 minutes.

While honey is cooling, sift into a large bowl
2 1/2 Cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Add to the butter and sugar
1 large egg, beaten
Stir to combine, then add to large bowl.
Stir well then add
1/4 Cup buttermilk
Stir to combine.
Cover and chill overnight.

Place half of the dough on a lightly floured surface.
If it feels sticky gently knead in 1/4 Cup flour.
Roll out 1/4 inch thick.

Preheat oven to 350º F

Cut dough into desired shapes and place on prepared sheets.
Bake 12 minutes, or until they are a light golden brown.
Remove cookies to a wire rack to cool.


                        Honey Cake

Heavily grease an 8 inch square pan

Sift together in a medium bowl
1 1/2 Cups flour
3/4 Cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves

Place in a large bowl
1/2 Cup shortening or oil
1 Cup oatmeal
Stir in
1 Cup boiling water
Let stand 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325º F

Add
2 large eggs
1 Cup honey
Beat to combine well.
Stir in the sifted dry ingredients.
Bake 60 minutes, or until cake tester inserted into centre comes out clean.

While the cake is baking place in medium bowl
1/4 Cup butter or margarine
3/4 Cup chopped nuts
1/3 Cup honey
1/4 Cup coconut, flaked or shredded
Combine to make a topping.

Remove cake from oven and spread topping on cake.
Broil until bubbly, then remove from oven.


                                                       ~~~
Back in November, 2002, I wrote an essay for the CKUW radio show ‘2000 & Counting' about getting Christmas gifts.  
It was a meant as a light piece, filled with hints.
Many of our listeners were seniors or college students, folks known for having to stretch their dollars.
Now, in addition to Covid-19 and its variants making us nervous about going to crowded places, we’re facing problems in the supply chain.
Christmas shopping never gets any easier.  Darn!!


Okay… listen up! There are five weeks left until Christmas. That means gifts. I know, I know, it's more blessed to give than to receive. But, unless you have ways of shopping that you'd like to keep secret, giving gifts means money.  

It's a little late to start a Christmas gift account at your bank and the utility companies really lose that Ho Ho Ho spirit if you try to skip paying their bills. 
 
If the charge cards are already maxed out - or you just want to keep your nearest and dearest on a cash and carry basis - gift getting is going to take a little effort.  

Desperate times call for desperate measures. As we're all stuck with holidays - oh, lucky us - I'll tell you some of my desperate measures.

Live off your hump. You know what I mean. Things like the 18 cans of tuna you have left from the time you bought 20 cans so you could get 50 bonus airmiles. Now's the time to crack those babies open. I know the family hates tuna. That's why there are 18 little cans of fishies swimming around your pantry.
Well, the family would hate a Giftless Christmas even more.

Think about it. Lousy dinners happen to everybody. But the family Grinch who comes up giftless at Christmas gets blabbed about throughout the neighbourhood and the generations.
You don't want to be remembered by your great-great-grandchildren as Granny Grinchie.

Try creative cooking. Pretend you're on the TV show Iron Chef. You've just been given a tube of ground beef, a bag of marshmallows, a jar of salsa, a bottle of raspberry vinegar, a carton of frozen spinach, a jar of maraschino cherries and a box of rice-a-roni. Think only a nut throws odd things together? How do you think raspberry vinegar was invented?
If the family gets snarky, tell them you found the recipe in a magazine. Drop names. Martha is always good, and if they can't appreciate all the effort you put into making dinner interesting… Well!
You know the speech.
Remember, guilt, when the other person has it, is a good thing.

Go ethnic. Granny's recipes don't have to be saved for Folklorama. God bless family. Go to an Italian restaurant and get a load of the prices they charge for a plate of Pasta Fagioli. That's two cheapies: noodles and beans! Grandma would die laughing if she saw those prices. Starch and beans got millions of people through tough times. Go thou and eat likewise.
  
Beans aren't good enough? Go past the recognizable cuts and shop the mystery meats. Put enough spices on them and the family won't know what hit them. I once made spaghetti and meatballs using animal organs only a mother could love. Guess what? Hubby had invited a friend. Well, the buddy was getting a free meal, so I followed the Cook’s Golden Rule: Don't apologize and don't explain.
The buddy said it was delicious, like the meatballs they serve at the Bay.
Hmmm… I notice the Bay is still in business. There's more than one way to skin a cat.   
  
Shop your house. No kidding. Grab a bag and stroll through your house. Look for things somebody foisted… uh… gave to you. Well, why should you be stuck with it until you're six feet under? Unless it was made by your preschooler - don't even think it, they DO remember - you're free to pass it on to someone else.
Just don't give it to the person who gave it to you.
   
Pack your own. Ever notice the little overpriced goodies the stores stuff into baskets and bowls? One current gift item is a box of pasta, a tin of sauce, some cheese and some wooden spoons nestled within a large bowl.
Are you too stupid to do the same thing? I didn’t think so. It's one way to get rid of some of those extra airmiles purchases. Let somebody else eat the tuna.


Still thinking about the folks in the flyers looking wildly happy over a toaster? 
Toss the flyers. Those models were paid big bucks. Stores want you to buy. A stress-free family holiday is not their goal. If they had their way you'd replace everything and pay 50% interest.
     

Remember how the best presents were things that showed that someone cared?
Maybe somebody hunted down an out-of-print book by your favourite author.
The gadgets that looked amazing seem strange on December 26.  
    
While you're shopping, get yourself some treats. 
I have a friend who picks up a bag of  pfeffernusse cookies every year. When she feels like all she's doing is giving, giving, giving, she pops a pfeffernusse into her mouth and gives herself an old time Christmas. It doesn't take much.   

God bless us, everyone.

Anna Sultana’s German-Style Chocolate Cake, Kuchen and Gingerbread for Father's Day

Goodness! Next Sunday is Father's Day!
I hope that the weather will be great and that everyone will enjoy the day.

My Pop loved chocolate cake.
Every Sunday after Mass he would pick up one, along with a half dozen loaves of bread, from the Italian bakery.
Because Pop loved chocolate cake I always think of making one for Father’s Day.

Over the years I’ve posted a few chocolate cake recipes.
If you’re curious, just type ‘chocolate cake’ in the Search box and click.
The most popular chocolate cake recipe I've ever posted - it’s received 3,287 visits - is Carmela Soprano’s Baci Cake
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2011/01/carmela-sopranos-baci-cake.html


Maybe your Dad enjoys chocolate cake, too.
It’s been a while since I posted a chocolate cake recipe.
It’s definitely time for me to post another.

An old favourite of mine is Anna Sultana’s Mocha Cake
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2016/02/anna-sultanas-mocha-cake-and-mocha.html

Another is Anna Sultana’s German Chocolate Cake
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2017/04/anna-sultanas-german-chocolate-cake.html

German Chocolate Cake was a recipe Mrs. Kekelia had shared with Ma.
Just like Baci Cake it takes a bit of work, and is delicious.
We’ve been having an awfully hot June and, if you’re like me, a simpler cake is all you can handle.
Simpler doesn’t mean it can’t taste good.
Ma had hot and busy Junes, too, so, she tweaked the German Chocolate Cake and created a simpler version.

If you have the time and energy, well, go ahead and use it.
If you’re looking for simple but good, give this variation a try.


If your Dad isn’t a chocolate fan he might enjoy a slice of Kuchen.
Kuchen (pronounced koo-ken) is the German word for cake, but it’s more like a custardy fruit pie.
Gingerbread is is really easy and really good.

If you, or your Dad, would rather not barbecue, I’ll post some dinner recipes on June 14.


Hints:

To make a substitute for buttermilk for cooking, just place about 1/2 teaspoon vinegar in a measuring cup and add enough milk to make 1/3 Cup soured milk. Stir and use. It isn’t an exact recipe.

About the German-Style Chocolate Cake…
For best results, bring the ingredients to room temperature.

You can make the cake in advance. Let the layer cool completely, then wrap it in plastic wrap and place in a freezer bag. It can be frozen for up to one month.

Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator.

About the Kuchen…
Kuchen can be made with whatever fruit is available. Instead of peaches you can use apples, plums, apricots, cherries, berries, pears, whatever you have.
If you don’t have fresh fruit use canned or frozen. All you need is 2 cups of fruit.

About the Gingerbread…
The cake is very moist and makes its own glaze.
You can sprinkle confectioners sugar over it, but it really doesn't need it.


                                                               German-Style Chocolate Cake

For the Cake:

Grease a 9x13 inch pan  

Place in a small bowl
1/3 Cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1 large egg white
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
Lightly beat together and set aside.

Place in a 1-quart saucepan
2/3 Cup water
1/2 Cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/4 Cup unsweetened cocoa, packed
Cook, stirring occasionally, over medium heat until the butter melts. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350º F

Sift together into a medium mixing bowl
1 1/4 Cups flour
1 Cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Add the warm liquid mixture and stir to combine, about 30 seconds.
Add the buttermilk mixture and stir together for another 30 seconds.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.
Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.
Cool on wire rack while making the frosting.

For the Frosting:

Finely chop pecans to make 3/4 Cup
Lightly toast and set aside.

Place in a 2-quart saucepan
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2/3 Cup sugar
2/3 Cup evaporated milk
Pinch salt
5 Tablespoons unsalted butter
Stir to blend in the eggs.
Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil, then cook, stirring constantly, for another 8 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 Cup unsweetened shredded coconut
the toasted pecans

Spread the warm frosting over the partially cooled cake.
Serve at room temperature.


                                                               Kuchen

Grease an 8 inch square baking pan

Combine in a small bowl
1/4 Cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg or cinnamon

Place in a medium bowl and stir together
1 Cup flour
3/4 Cup old fashioned oats
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cut in
1/2 Cup shortening
Stir in
1 egg
2 Tablespoons milk
Press the dough across the bottom and 2 inches up the sides of of the prepared pan.

Preheat oven to 400º F

Evenly place over the crust
2 Cups canned sliced peaches, drained (or you can use fresh)
Sprinkle the brown sugar / spice mixture over the peaches.
Bake for 10 minutes.

While the crust is baking, place in a small bowl
1 Cup whipping cream
2 large egg yolks or 1 large egg
Beat together to make the custard.

After the kuchen has baked for 10 minutes remove the pan from the oven.
Pour the custard mixture over the fruit, then put it back in the oven.
Bake for another 30 minutes, or until the custard is firm.
Serve warm, topped with whipped cream (optional).


                                                               Gingerbread

Preheat oven to 350º F
Grease and flour a 9 inch square pan

Sift into a medium bowl
2 Cups flour
2 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt

Place in a large bowl
1/2 Cup butter or margarine, at room temperature
1/2 Cup sugar (white or light brown)
Cream together and add
1 egg
1/2 Cup buttermilk
1/2 Cup applesauce
1 Cup molasses
Stir in the flour mixture and pour into prepared pan.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until knife inserted in centre comes out clean.

                                              ~~~
This is a piece I wrote in 2006 for my CKUW show. Hope that it gives you a chuckle.

I hope all you Dads will have a great Father's Day.

People talk about how Christmas has changed over the years. Well, I think Father's Day has changed even more than Christmas has.

In the fifties, Father's Day was pretty simple. It was a snap to shop for Dads. Moms were hard. There were so many different toilet waters. Lipstick colours changed every year. One year Lucille Ball Red was popular. The next year every lady was wearing Flaming Fuschia. I mean, how was an elementary school kid supposed to know what to get?  
   
Dads were easy. They always needed a pair of socks or another tie. There WAS something about an Aqua Velva man. The bottles of blue water came in a variety of sizes and they were all cheap. If you had to soften Dad up for the report card that was coming, you could splurge on Old Spice or English Leather for a few pennies more.

If you'd blown all your money for Mother's Day - an easy thing to do - you could get another tube of Brylcreme. Those little dabs went fast and Dad always needed another tube so he could look debonair and Mom could run her fingers through his hair.  

Keeping the family car spiffy has always been a Dad's job. Remember when they were unwrapping their presents in the movie A Christmas Story? Dad Darren McGavin was thrilled to get a tin of Simonize for his car. It was big. It was heavy. It was cheap.

That was the Golden Age for Dads gifts. But now? Let's just say that Dads are getting to be as big a problem as Moms are, gift-wise.

I always thought of men as being rough and ready in their grooming needs. I raised a son. He once took a bath, answered nature's call, then went straight to drying everything - and I mean everything - with the bath towel. He thought cutting out a small step would save some time. At least that was his explanation when I asked him about the skid marks on the yellow towel.

Now men have discovered their inner Alan Alda. They know about brands like Nivea. Soap on a rope has lost its oomph. Blades and a can of Barbasol just won't cut it anymore. Guys have discovered grooming sets: shower gels, body washes, face scrubs, after shave balms and a post shave soother that the nice sales clerk swore will control his beard's growth. You know, the same crap and sales pitches they've been throwing at women for years.  

And for the guy who's really into his feminine side, there are events like the Papa-razzi Package at the Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver. The 36 hour getaway includes an hour-long massage, a facial, foot care, a souvenir shaving kit and a round of golf. The package costs $2,165 plus taxes and airfare if you don't happen to live in Vancouver. Hey, femininity never came cheap.

Tools have always been popular gifts. Something is always getting lost or broken, right? Time was when, after being showered with a 32 piece wrench set, a 14 piece clamp set and a 65 piece screwdriver set, every Dad was ready, willing and eager to wrench, clamp and screw any and everything in the house.

Fellows, I was wondering… if a man receives a 205 piece drill and screw driving set (consisting of screw driving bits, nut driving bits, spade bits, high speed drill bits, hole saws, masonry drill bits, sanding drums and a countersink which, I've been told, are ideal to use on wood, metal, plastic, brick, mortar and concrete) would he really use them all or just stick to a half dozen favourite pieces? You know, the way we women use the same favourite spoons and pans in the kitchen.  Sometimes wretched excess is just, well, excessive.

Speaking of the kitchen, a Dad's cooking used to be basic. Raw meat plus fire equaled hard small hockey pucks served with ketchup and relish in a bun. Raw onion slices were added for the July first weekend. Up to now the most exciting thing I'd ever seen a man do at the barbecue was to stick a can of beer up a chicken's butt so it could stand and roast. It looked almost patriotic.  

Dads made simple basic food. And healthy. No E coli bacteria could ever survive a Dad's barbecue.  

Now folks are dropping like flies because Dads have discovered cuisine. Ketchup and mustard have disappeared. Guys who flunked Geography and can't find their way to their in-laws across town without a CAA trip-tik are now into Japanese, Mexican and Thai recipes.

While at the Liquor Commission, I picked up the freebie Flavours magazine. On the cover it said Sassy sauces for your grilled goodies. Uh, huh. I don't know what my Dad would've thought of things like sorrel-spinach sauce. On salmon, yet.

There was also an article about the joys of salt water. According to the folks at Flavours, soaking food in brine is the key to a killer barbecue. I don't know. I remember one picnic forty years ago when the boat tipped over, everyone and everything fell out and everything got doused with good old salty Atlantic Ocean water. No one thought that was anything worth repeating ever again.

Shish kebabs used to be simple. Meat, onion, green pepper… meat, onion, green pepper… meat, onion, green pepper… until you ran out of everything. Well, now bamboo skewers aren't good enough anymore. Oh, no. One recipe in Flavours should earn a cook a Boy Scout badge. Get this: Peel fresh ginger and cut into several four inch long skewers. Then carve the ginger on one end into a sharp point. If your local grocer is out of long chunks of ginger, don't panic. You can also do the same thing to lemongrass stalks.  

Oh, pull-lease!! If God meant us to spend our short summers carving little sticks He never would've made those nice clean bags of bamboo skewers. Life - and a Manitoba summer - is way too short for that kind of nonsense.     
 
There was a time when a bag of coal big enough to burn down a house could warm the cockles of a Dad's heart. It could keep a fellow busy for a whole summer's worth of Sundays. Now charcoal has some competition. Have you been exposed to Mesquite-Flavoured wood chips? Our neighbour, Lou, really loves mesquite. He chopped some chips up and sprinkled them on the salad. Okay.  Lou isn't quite right in the head. Last week he served up what he called grilled pizza. Uh, huh. Like we didn't notice the take out boxes stacked next to his recycling.  

We have an old gas barbecue that chugs along with 11,000 BTUs. It has been doing a dandy job of turning meat into blackened briquets for quite a few happy family gatherings. Have you seen the new barbecues? When did guys start pimping their grills? The big selling feature for these monsters is how many BTUs are under the hood.  

I checked the dictionary. BTU means British Thermal Units. Well, that was a big help. I needed to get BTU into terms I could understand. I looked around my house and found that my gas water heater has 30,000 BTUs. The heater is plastered with little notes from Furnaceman. Cheery messages like: Third degree burns can occur in six seconds when the water is 60º C. Death is also possible. 

Hmmm… My water heater has 30,000 BTUs and it can get water hot enough to kill somebody.

A Kalamazoo Bread Breaker Two Dual-Fuel grill with an infrared rotisserie cradle system and a side burner has a 154,000 BTU capacity. It has a temperature gauge that reaches 1000º F. It also has nighttime grilling lights. Why? Would a middle-aged hubby, after his 3 a.m. pee, get an uncontrollable urge to wander out to the Kalamazoo and grill a couple of turkeys?

According to the manufacturer, it's geared to the Man cook with fire market segment.    

Middle-aged men, who normally think it's a hassle to reheat leftovers in a microwave, are gathering around these monster barbecues and acting like a bunch of teenage boys. They're checking under the hood, twisting dials and rattling off phrases like "Mounted smoker box… warming rack… hi-dome cooking lid… porcelain coated cooking grid… heat plates" with the same slobbering enthusiasm most had for their first car.

There are also barbecue accessories. I'm not talking long handled forks and aprons that tell folks to kiss the cook.  

The Centro food prep station is a buffet, cooler and more. It can be connected to the barbecue to create a complete outdoor kitchen. Hey, fellas! There's a room that has all this stuff. You're welcome to come and flex your cooking muscles all year round. Sorry the oven only goes to 500º F, but, we girls have been able to crank out complete holiday dinners in it. It's called the kitchen.

Maybe the Discovery Channel was trying to do a public service. They recently had a special on the 1883 Krakatoa catastrophe. When Krakatoa went Kabooie, it produced an ash cloud. The ashes and gases reached 1000º F. Most of the people in a 30 mile radius were killed by the extremely hot air which liquified their lungs.
     
Dads, if some fool gave you the Bread Breaker, think of Al Gore and take it back.
The ozone layer will thank you.
The environment will thank you!
The lungs of everyone within 30 miles will thank you!!

And, most important, the family's burgers and wieners will thank you!!! 

Cheap Eating: Mashed Potato Pancakes, Banana Bread, 1-2-3-4 Cake, Poor Man's Cake, Poor Man's Pudding

Banana Bread

Just got a letter from Statistics Canada asking how we were doing.
Well, wasn’t that sweet of them?

Statistics Canada, formed in 1971, is the Government of Canada agency which produces statistics to help understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture.

Basically they’d like to know how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected our financial well-being, and they want us to take part in a survey.
They said this survey can make a difference.
I find that hard to believe but, well, surveys keep the folks in Stats Can employed.

They have quite a few questions…
Are families able to save for retirement and for their children’s education?
Are pension savings adequate as more Canadians move toward retirement?
What financial challenges face those just entering the workforce?

Paul and I are in our early 70s.
Years ago we did what we could to save for our retirement.
Our middle-aged son entered the workforce about 20 years ago.
Frankly I don’t know what we can tell them that'll help, but we’ll do our best.


There have been quite a few news stories about the rising food and gas prices.
This is a food blog and my best hint is to use every bit of the food you buy.
it is hard to know exactly how much to prepare for a meal, or how much fresh fruit to buy.
But the leftovers and over ripe fruit can easily be recycled into something tasty.


Hints:

About the Mashed Potato Pancakes…
This recipe works best with dryish mashed potatoes. If your leftovers are creamy, add more flour for them to hold a patty shape. Do not stir in instant mashed potatoes.

You could also leftover mashed potatoes to make gnocchi:

Anna Sultana’s Gnocchi with Sausage & Tomatoes or with Peas & Pancetta; Homemade Gnocchi
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2022/11/anna-sultanas-gnocchi-with-sausage.html

Carmela Soprano's Gnocchi
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2014/01/carmela-sopranos-gnocchi.html

Don’t have leftover mashed potatoes? Make some… NOW.
Peel and quarter
2 pounds or about 7 medium russet potatoes
Fill a large pot with water.
Add
1 Tablespoon salt
the prepared potatoes
Cook until the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork.
Drain well and mash in
4 Tablespoons butter
Let cool to room temperature and mash.
Mashed potatoes can be made up to 3 days in advance for the patties.


About the Banana Bread…
Over the years I’ve posted quite a few banana bread, cake, and dessert recipes.
Just type ‘banana’ in the search bar under my intro, click search and enjoy.


About the 1-2-3-4 Cake…
Sift the flour first and then measure 3 Cups.
This cake is usually baked in three 9 inch round cake pans for 20 minutes.
You can also bake the batter in a bundt pan for 40 minutes.
Use any kind of frosting on this basic cake.


About the Poor Man's Cake…
This classic cake recipe was created during the Depression Era in the 1930s.
You could add nuts, such as walnuts, to the batter.

Adjust the confectioners sugar depending on how stiff you'd like the icing to be.
The cake is also fine without frosting, or with just a sprinkling of confectioners sugar.

                        Mashed Potato Patties

Place in a large mixing bowl
4 Cups mashed potatoes
2 Cups (8 ounces) shredded Mozzarella cheese
1 large egg
1/4 to 1/2 Cup flour
2 1/2 Tablespoons chopped chives or dill
Use a large spoon or potato masher to mash the mixture together.

Form a heaping tablespoonful of potato mixture into a round, 1/3 inch thick patty.
If the potatoes are too moist to hold a shape, add flour a Tablespoon at a time.
Dredge both sides of the patty in
1/2 Cup plain bread crumbs
Set patty aside and repeat with remaining mashed potatoes.

Place in a large non-stick pan
2 Tablespoons light olive oil or canola oil
Heat over medium heat and, once oil is hot, add patties in a single layer.
Fry 3 to 4 minutes per side, or until golden brown, remove then set aside.
Repeat with remaining patties, adding more oil if needed.
Serve hot with sour cream or apple sauce.


                        Banana Bread

2 loaves

Grease well 2 9x5x3 inch loaf pans

Sift together in a medium bowl
3 1/2 Cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Place in a large bowl
5 ounces oil
Stir in 1/4 Cup at a time
1 1/2 Cups sugar
Continue beating until light and fluffy.
Add
4 eggs
Beat well.

Preheat oven to 350º F
Making 3 dry and 2 wet additions, add the flour mixture alternately with
2 Cups mashed, fully ripe bananas
Mix after each addition only enough to moisten the dry ingredients.
Turn into prepared pans.
Bake for 70 minutes or until it tests done in the middle.


                        1-2-3-4 Cake

Grease a 9x13 baking pan

Sift into a medium bowl
3 Cups pre-sifted flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder

Place in a large mixer bowl
1 Cup butter
2 Cups white sugar
Cream until fluffy.
Add one at a time, beating after each addition
4 large eggs
Stir in
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 350º F

Making 3 dry and 2 liquid additions, add
the sifted flour mixture
1 Cup milk
Just stir enough to lightly blend.
Spread the mixture in the prepared pan.
Bake 35 to 40 minutes until brown on top and tests done in the middle.
Let cool before frosting.

Easy Chocolate Frosting

Sift together into a medium bowl
3 Cups confectioners sugar 
1/2 Cup cocoa

Place in a clean large mixer bowl
1/2 Cup butter, softened
1/4 Cup plus 2 Tablespoons milk, more or less
1 teaspoon vanilla
Beat to blend well.
Gradually add the confectioners sugar / cocoa mixture
Mix all ingredients with mixer until smooth.
Spread on cooled cake.


                        Poor Man's Cake

Grease a 9x13 baking pan

Place in a large pot
2 Cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons oil
15 ounces raisins
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
2 Cups hot water
Stirring, bring to a boil, then remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 350º F

Combine in a cup
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons hot water

Stir into the spiced sugar mixture
the dissolved baking soda
3 Cups flour
Stir well to form a batter and pour into prepared pan.
Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Cool in the pan. Frost, if you wish.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Place in a medium mixer bowl
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon grated orange zest (optional)
Beat until smooth.
Gradually beat in
2 to 2 1/4 Cups sifted confectioners sugar
Beat until smooth.
Frost cake and top with chopped walnuts (optional)


                        Poor Man's Pudding

Makes 6 servings

Grease a 9x13 baking pan

Place in a medium pot
3 Tablespoons butter
Melt over medium heat.
Stir in
1 1/2 Cups brown sugar
1 1/2 Cups water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Stir over medium heat until well blended, then bring to a boil to make a syrup.
Remove from heat and set aside.

Sift together in small bowl
1 1/2 Cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350º F

Place in a medium bowl
3 Tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
Cream together.
Stir into the creamed butter
the flour mixture
Add
3/4 Cup milk

Pour syrup into the prepared pan.
Drop the dough by spoonfuls over the syrup.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Can be served with berries or chopped fruit and topped with whipped cream.

Anna Sultana’s German Chocolate Cake & McCain’s Deep ‘n Delicious / Barbecuing Dads

Happy Father's Day!
Hoping that the weather will co-operate on Sunday and that everyone will be able to enjoy the day.

My Pop loved chocolate cake.
Each Sunday after Mass he would pick up one, along with a half dozen loaves of bread, from the Italian bakery.
Maybe your Dad enjoys chocolate cake, too.

It’s been a while since I posted a chocolate cake recipe.

A little over a year ago I posted the recipe for Ma’s Dark Chocolate Cheesecake.
Over the years I’ve posted quite a few cheesecake recipes.
Cheesecake was a staple on the program The Golden Girls.
Whenever the girls had to gather for something major, out came the cheesecake.
Most women would admit cheesecake is basic comfort food.

Well, it’s definitely time for me to post another chocolate cake recipe.
And with Father’s Day coming, why not go for a special one.
German Chocolate Cake takes a bit of work, and is delicious.

Mrs. Kekelia had given me a slice when I was four years old.
Well, I told Ma about it, Ma asked Mrs. Kekelia for the recipe, Mrs. Kekelia kindly gave her a recipe, and Ma made her usual tweaks.
Don’t ask me which version I found most delicious.

Ma also found a recipe for German Chocolate Cake on a box of Baker’s Chocolate.
Here it is, with Ma’s tweaks.


McCain Deep’n Delicious Chocolate Cake is a Canadian treat.
A few years ago KFC included a cake in a very popular bucket deal.
If you can’t find McCain cakes in your local grocery store this is a good match.
Enjoy!!


Hints:

To make soured milk, or a substitute for buttermilk for cooking, add vinegar to regular milk.
For example, place 2 teaspoons vinegar in a measuring cup and add enough milk to make 3/4 Cup soured milk.
It’s not an exact science.

Store leftover cakes in the fridge.

About the German Chocolate Cake…
For best results, bring the ingredients to room temperature.

You can make the cake in advance. Let the layers cool completely, then wrap them in plastic wrap and place in a freezer bag.
Layers can be frozen for up to one month and can be frosted while frozen.

Both frostings can be made ahead and stored in a covered container in the fridge.
Remove containers from the fridge about an hour before you need them so that they’ll be easier to spread.

About the McCain’s Deep ‘n Delicious cake…
You can use a piping bag fitted with a star tip to make the frosting look like the real thing.
It tastes just as good if you just spread it on the cake.


                        German Chocolate Cake

For the Cake:

Grease 3 8-inch round cake pans.   
Line bottom of pans with waxed paper.  


Sift together
2 Cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt   

Place in a sauce pan
4 ounces German or Sweet Chocolate
1/2 Cup water
Melt the chocolate and water together over low heat.
Set aside to cool.

Place in a large mixer bowl
1 Cup softened butter
2 Cups sugar
Cream until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add, one at a time, beating after each addition
4 large egg yolks
Blend in
1 teaspoon vanilla
the melted chocolate

Making 3 dry and 2 liquid additions, add
the flour mixture
1 Cup buttermilk
Blend at medium speed after each addition.

Preheat oven to 350º F   

Place in a medium mixer bowl
4 large egg whites
Beat at medium speed until foamy.
Increase the speed to high and beat until stiff peaks form when the beaters are lifted.      
With a spatula gently fold about a quarter of the egg whites into the mixture.
Repeat 3 times.

Spread batter in prepared pans.
Bake 30 minutes, until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean.
Remove from oven. Run a spatula around the layers.
Let the layers cool in the pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes.
Remove the layers from the pans and let them cool completely.

For the Coconut Pecan Frosting:

Chop
pecans to make 1 1/2 Cups

In a large saucepan combine
12 ounces evaporated milk
1 1/2 Cups sugar
4 egg yolks
3/4 Cup butter
Cook over medium heat about 5 minutes, stirring, until mixture comes to a full boil.
Stirring constantly, cook 2 more minutes, until mixture is a caramel colour.
Remove from heat and stir in
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 Cups coconut
the chopped pecans
Cool slightly.
Beat until cool and thick.

Place an upside down cake layer on a serving platter.
spread one-third of the frosting over the layer.
Top with second layer and cover with half of the remaining frosting.
Top with third cake layer and cover with remaining frosting.


                        McCain’s Deep ‘n Delicious

For the Cake:

Grease  a 9 x 13-inch baking pan
Line with parchment up the length of 2 sides.         

Sift together in a medium bowl
1 3/4 Cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 Cups granulated sugar
2/3 Cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350º F

Place in a large mixer bowl
2 eggs
2/3 Cup buttermilk
1/2 Cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
Whisk together.
Stir in flour mixture until just combined.
Whisk in
1/2 Cup hot water
Pour into prepared pan.         

Bake 30 minutes, until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean.
Let cake cool in pan on a rack for 30 minutes.
Place rack on top of cake, then invert and remove baking pan and parchment.
Cool completely, about 30 minutes, then invert cake onto serving platter.

For the Icing:

Combine in a medium bowl
4 1/2 Cups icing sugar, sifted
1/2 Cup cocoa powder, sifted

Place in a large mixer bowl
3/4 Cup butter, softened
Beat on medium-high, until fluffy.
Reduce speed to medium-low and, making 3 dry and 2 liquid additions, add
icing sugar mixture
1/3 Cup milk
Pipe with a star tip or spread icing with a spatula on cake.

                                                             ~~~

This is a piece I wrote in 2006 for my CKUW show. Hope that it gives you a chuckle.
Stay safe and well, everyone!

     I hope all you Dads will have a great Father's Day.

     People talk about how Christmas has changed over the years.  Well, I think Father's Day has changed even more than Christmas has.

     In the fifties, Father's Day was pretty simple.  It was a snap to shop for Dads.  Moms were hard.  There were so many different toilet waters.  Lipstick colours changed every year.  One year Lucille Ball Red was popular.  The next year every lady was wearing Flaming Fuschia.  I mean, how was an elementary school kid supposed to know what to get?  
   
     Dads were easy.  They always needed a pair of socks or another tie.  There WAS something about an Aqua Velva man.  The bottles of blue water came in a variety of sizes and they were all cheap.  If you had to soften Dad up for the report card that was coming, you could splurge on Old Spice or English Leather for a few pennies more.

     If you'd blown all your money for Mother's Day - an easy thing to do - you could get another tube of Brylcreme.  Those little dabs went fast and Dad always needed another tube so he could look debonaire and Mom could run her fingers through his hair.  

     Keeping the family car spiffy has always been a Dad's job.  Remember when they were unwrapping their presents in the movie A Christmas Story?  Dad Darren McGavin was thrilled to get a tin of Simonize for his car.  It was big.  It was heavy.  It was cheap.

     That was the Golden Age for Dads gifts.  But now?  Let's just say that Dads are getting to be as big a problem as Moms are, gift-wise.

     I always thought of men as being rough and ready in their grooming needs.  I raised a son.  He once took a bath, answered nature's call, then went straight to drying everything - and I mean everything - with the bath towel.  He thought cutting out a small step would save some time.  At least that was his explanation when I asked him about the skid marks on the yellow towel.

     Now men have discovered their inner Alan Alda.  They know about brands like Nivea.  Soap on a rope has lost its oomph.  Blades and a can of Barbasol just won't cut it anymore.  Guys have discovered grooming sets: shower gels, body washes, face scrubs, after shave balms and a post shave soother that the nice sales clerk swore will control his beard's growth.  You know, the same crap and sales pitches they've been throwing at women for years.  

     And for the guy who's really into his feminine side, there are events like the Papa-razzi Package at the Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver.  The 36 hour getaway includes an hour-long massage, a facial, foot care, a souvenir shaving kit and a round of golf.  The package costs $2,165 plus taxes and airfare if you don't happen to live in Vancouver.  Hey, femininity never came cheap.

     Tools have always been popular gifts.  Something is always getting lost or broken, right?  Time was when, after being showered with a 32 piece wrench set, a 14 piece clamp set and a 65 piece screwdriver set, every Dad was ready, willing and eager to wrench, clamp and screw any and everything in the house.

     Fellows, I was wondering… if a man receives a 205 piece drill and screw driving set (consisting of screw driving bits, nut driving bits, spade bits, high speed drill bits, hole saws, masonry drill bits, sanding drums and a countersink which, I've been told, are ideal to use on wood, metal, plastic, brick, mortar and concrete) would he really use them all or just stick to a half dozen favourite pieces?  You know, the way we women use the same favorite spoons and pans in the kitchen.  Sometimes wretched excess is just, well, excessive.

     Speaking of the kitchen, a Dad's cooking used to be basic.  Raw meat plus fire equaled hard small hockey pucks served with ketchup and relish in a bun.  Raw onion slices were added for the July first weekend.  Up to now the most exciting thing I'd ever seen a man do at the barbecue was to stick a can of beer up a chicken's butt so it could stand and roast.  It looked almost patriotic.  

     Dads made simple basic food.  And healthy.  No E coli bacteria could ever survive a Dad's barbecue.  

     Now folks are dropping like flies because Dads have discovered cuisine.  Ketchup and mustard have disappeared.  Guys who flunked Geography and can't find their way to their in-laws across town without a CAA trip-tik are now into Japanese, Mexican and Thai recipes.

     While at the Liquor Commission, I picked up the freebie Flavours magazine.  On the cover it said Sassy sauces for your grilled goodies.  Uh, huh.  I don't know what my Dad would've thought of things like sorrel-spinach sauce.  On salmon, yet.

     There was also an article about the joys of salt water.  According to the folks at Flavours, soaking food in brine is the key to a killer barbecue.  I don't know.  I remember one picnic forty years ago when the boat tipped over, everyone and everything fell out and everything got doused with good old salty Atlantic Ocean water.  No one thought that was anything worth repeating ever again.

     Shish kebabs used to be simple.  Meat, onion, green pepper… meat, onion, green pepper… meat, onion, green pepper… until you ran out of everything.  Well, now bamboo skewers aren't good enough anymore.  Oh, no.  One recipe in Flavours should earn a cook a Boy Scout badge.  Get this: Peel fresh ginger and cut into several four inch long skewers.  Then carve the ginger on one end into a sharp point.  If your local grocer is out of long chunks of ginger, don't panic.  You can also do the same thing to lemongrass stalks.  

     Oh, pull-lease!!  If God meant us to spend our short summers carving little sticks He never would've made those nice clean bags of bamboo skewers.  Life - and a Manitoba summer - is way too short for that kind of nonsense.     
 
     There was a time when a bag of coal big enough to burn down a house could warm the cockles of a Dad's heart.  It could keep a fellow busy for a whole summer's worth of Sundays.  Now charcoal has some competition.  Have you been exposed to Mesquite-Flavoured wood chips?  Our neighbour, Lou, really loves mesquite.  He chopped some chips up and sprinkled them on the salad.  Okay.  Lou isn't quite right in the head.  Last week he served up what he called grilled pizza.  Uh, huh.  Like we didn't notice the take out boxes stacked next to his recycling.  

     We have an old gas barbecue that chugs along with 11,000 BTUs.  It has been doing a dandy job of turning meat into blackened briquets for quite a few happy family gatherings.  Have you seen the new barbecues?  When did guys start pimping their grills?  The big selling feature for these monsters is how many BTUs are under the hood.  

     I checked the dictionary.  BTU means British Thermal Units.  Well, that was a big help.  I needed to get BTU into terms I could understand.  I looked around my house and found that my gas water heater has 30,000 BTUs.  The heater is plastered with little notes from Furnaceman.  Cheery messages like: Third degree burns can occur in six seconds when the water is 60º C.  Death is also possible. 

     Hmmm…  My water heater has 30,000 BTUs and it can get water hot enough to kill somebody.

     A Kalamazoo Bread Breaker Two Dual-Fuel grill with an infrared rotisserie cradle system and a side burner has a 154,000 BTU capacity.  It has a temperature gauge that reaches 1000º F.  It also has nighttime grilling lights.  Why?  Would a middle-aged hubby, after his 3 a.m. pee, get an uncontrollable urge to wander out to the Kalamazoo and grill a couple of turkeys?

     According to the manufacturer, it's geared to the Man cook with fire market segment.    

     Middle-aged men, who normally think it's a hassle to reheat leftovers in a microwave, are gathering around these monster barbecues and acting like a bunch of teenage boys.  They're checking under the hood, twisting dials and rattling off phrases like "Mounted smoker box… warming rack… hi-dome cooking lid… porcelain coated cooking grid… heat plates" with the same slobbering enthusiasm most had for their first car.

     There are also barbecue accessories.  I'm not talking long handled forks and aprons that tell folks to kiss the cook.  

     The Centro food prep station is a buffet, cooler and more.  It can be connected to the barbecue to create a complete outdoor kitchen.  Hey, fellas!  There's a room that has all this stuff.  You're welcome to come and flex your cooking muscles all year round.  Sorry the oven only goes to 500º F, but, we girls have been able to crank out complete holiday dinners in it.  it's called the kitchen.

     Maybe the Discovery Channel was trying to do a public service.  They recently had a special on the 1883 Krakatoa catastrophe.  When Krakatoa went Kabooie, it produced an ash cloud.  The ashes and gases reached 1000º F.  Most of the people in a 30 mile radius were killed by the extremely hot air which liquified their lungs.
     
     Dads, if some fool gave you the Bread Breaker, think of Al Gore and take it back.
     The ozone layer will thank you.
     The environment will thank you!
     The lungs of everyone within 30 miles will thank you!!

     And, most important, the family's burgers and wieners will thank you!!!  

Anna Sultana’s Hot Cross Buns / A Traditional Family Easter

 

Happy Passover and Happy Easter!

Yesterday a Colorado Low wended its way north and dumped snow through the states it passed while on its way to us here in Manitoba.

Just what we needed.

Since we’d had a few days warning and everyone had been told to stay indoors during the blizzard it was a perfect day for us to catch up with some holiday baking, such as making some Hot Cross Buns.

Hot Cross Buns are a Maltese Lent staple.
Okay, it's originally an English recipe.
But the English had been in Malta since the time of Napoleon.
Thanks to Napoleon, I was born a British subject.
Long story.  Google 'Malta'.


Even though Malta became independent in 1964, some English folks stayed.
They'd been in Malta since the time of Napoleon.
That's enough time to get settled in and have roots in a place.

The English were never going to live on bread and water alone.
Maltese bakers cooked for their English customers, too.
Maltese folks tried the buns.
So, we have Napoleon to thank for Hot Cross buns.
Every cloud, even an invasion by Napoleon, can have a silver lining.


Hints:

If you have a container of egg whites in your fridge you can brush the buns with a few tablespoons of that instead of the egg yolk / water mixture.



                                        Hot Cross Buns

Makes 24 buns
          
Grease a large cookie pan or two smaller ones         

Combine in a large bowl
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 Tablespoons yeast
1/2 Cup warm water
Let sit 10 minutes.

While the yeast is sitting combine in a small bowl
2/3 Cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Measure out in a medium bowl
1 Cup raisins
1/2 Cup currants
1/2 Cup diced citron
Dust with flour and set aside.

After the 10 minutes have passed add to the yeast mixture
4 Tablespoons margarine
2 Cups warm water
4 eggs
the spice / sugar mixture
the floured fruit
Blend well.

Gradually stir in
8 - 9 Cups flour
Knead the dough on a floured surface 15 minutes.
Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise 1 1/2 hours.
Punch down and divide evenly into 24 balls.
Shape into buns and place on prepared pan(s).
Cut a shallow cross on top.

Combine
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon water
Brush buns with egg mixture. 
Let rise 35 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400º F  

Bake 25 minutes.
Cool 15 minutes.

While the buns are cooling, combine for icing crosses
1 Cup icing sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon extract
enough water to make a firm frosting
Spoon icing in cross grooves on the buns.


                                                          ~~~
I had originally written the following story for my radio show ‘2000 & Counting’.

In 2007 it was published in 'A/cross sections : new Manitoba writing', which was edited by Katharine Bitney and Andris Taskans, and published by the Manitoba Writers Guild. 

The book is still in the Winnipeg library system, adult nonfiction section.  Check it out.  You'll find lots of stories and poems by other Manitoba writers in it.

Why am I always writing about food?


                                        A Traditional Family Easter

    I made a loaf of soda bread to serve with the corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day.  I don’t know why I did it.  I’m Maltese.  My husband is German/Swedish.  Not a single Irish person among our ancestors.  Then, on March nineteenth, I made a lasagna and cream puffs for St. Joseph.  I’d be twenty pounds lighter if I just ignored holidays.

    Yeah, right, like that’ll ever happen.     

    I’m a sucker for holiday traditions.  And, just like Christmas, Lent and Easter are loaded with holiday traditions.  Lent is the time to really clean the house.  Ah, spring cleaning.  Scrub and wax the floors, wash the windows and launder the curtains.  Everything from cellar to attic is glowing.  After being sealed in tighter than a drum all winter who could argue with giving the house a good cleaning?

    Lent is also a time to cut back on the calories.  Let’s be honest.  Who doesn’t want to drop the pounds gained during December?  Between the fasting and the exercise we get from cleaning house, we’re almost able to fit into the clothes we wore before Christmas.  Alleluia!!  Religion can be good for the body as well as the soul.  

    And then there’s Easter, when Christians celebrate Christ’s Resurrection.  We attend church in new outfits.  Little boys in little suits and little girls in fluffy dresses and shiny white patent leather shoes make families look like Hallmark cards.  

    Easter has more customs than the Bunny has eggs.  A popular tradition is to gather together and share a feast.  Over the centuries women have made this a glorious occasion with beautifully decorated eggs, colourful coffee cakes and traditional breads.

    According to tradition, an angel appeared to Mary to tell her that Jesus would arise on Easter.  To show her joy, Mary baked bread to share with her friends.  And to make the loaf more special, she put an egg, a symbol of life, on the top.  Now, I have to admit I don’t know what I’d do if someone told me that a recently deceased relative was rising from the dead.  I guess baking bread is as good a thing to do as any.  The only problem is that over the past two millennia something got lost in translation as that bread recipe went from country to country.

    And that’s when Easter went to hell in a bread basket.

    During my earliest years in Corona, a small town in Queens, New York, Easter was Italian.  Palm Sunday was the Day of the Olive.  Small blessed olive branches were offered as tokens of peacemaking.  For Easter breakfast we had Colomba di Pasqua.  Colomba is bread shaped to look like a dove, the symbol of peace, and covered with almond paste and almonds.  An Italian Easter dinner also had traditions.  First we had manicotti.  That was followed by a roasted whole baby lamb with a mixed salad, sauteed spinach and roasted artichokes.  For dessert there were cream tarts, cookies, spumoni, nuts and roasted chestnuts.  The adults had coffee.

    Then my parents moved to College Point, another small town in Queens, which had been settled by Irish and German families.  They had their own Easter customs.  Since Easter was not as commercial as Christmas, no one noticed when we followed our own customs.


    When I was seven I had to follow what Ma told me were the Church’s rules during Lent.  I ate kwarezimal, an almond cookie that was topped with honey and chopped pistachio nuts.  Ma said we could eat it during Lent because it didn’t have any fat or eggs.  For Maundy Thursday Ma baked bread in the form of a ring.  Its top was crusted with sesame seeds and pierced with roasted almonds.  Our Easter dinner menu was the same as it had been in Corona.  But, instead of making a Colomba di Pasqua, Ma baked a figolli, a Maltese sweet bread with a marzipan filling.  

    A figolli was harder to make than a colomba.  The dough was rolled about one centimeter thick.  Then Ma cut the dough into pairs of figolla with a figolla cutter.  They looked like a large letter J, but the stick part ended in a fish’s tail.  On one side of a figolla Ma spread jam and marzipan.  Then she covered it with the identical shape, as if she was making a sandwich.  After the figolli had been baked and cooled, they were covered with colored icing and piped royal icing.  Then a decorated Easter egg was placed on top of each figolli.  For the final touch a cardboard woman’s face was inserted into the mound of the J.  

    The odd thing about Ma’s traditional figolli was that it was a mermaid.  I asked Ma why a mermaid and not a dove.  She said, “I don’t know.  It’s our tradition.”  

    Well, you can’t argue with tradition.


    In College Point, as Easter approached, the bakeries filled with cross buns, pretzels, braided almond loaves, Easter cookies and marzipan treats.  There were also large decorated sugar Easter eggs which had a hole in one end.  When we looked into the hole we could see tiny bunny villages.  There were also hot cross buns.  Ma knew about the cross buns.  Since Malta was part of the British Empire, Ma had eaten them in Malta, too.      

    We brought samples of our mothers’ holiday baking to school.  There were lots of pretzels.  Since they didn’t have fat or eggs, we could eat them during Lent without risking eternal damnation.  I liked the braided loaves which had been covered with almond paste.  They reminded me of Colomba di Pasqua.  I brought some kwarezimal to school.  After I explained that the almond cookies didn’t have fat or eggs either, my friends agreed to try them.  


    Easter for my family was a simple celebration.  We went to church, wished everyone a “Happy Easter”, went home and ate our traditional foods.  There weren’t any problems until the year Ma’s brother Charlie married an American girl.  Aunt Liz wanted to learn more about Maltese customs.  Ma invited Charlie and Liz for Easter.  

    Pop told his oldest sister, Aunt Demi, that we had invited Charlie and Liz.  Aunt Demi was worried that our branch of the family was becoming too American.  So, Aunt Demi decided that she would come to dinner to make sure that Ma kept everything kosher.  

    Then Aunt Rita, one of my Sicilian Aunts, heard that we were inviting company for Easter.  Aunt Rita always took things personally.  She was insulted.  Why hadn’t she been invited, too?  Ma invited Aunt Rita, Uncle Tony and their children.  We had enough folding tables and chairs to seat everyone in the yard.  As long as it didn’t rain, Ma thought it would be a nice family dinner.

    Easter Sunday morning the sun was shining and the lamb was roasting on a spit in our yard.  The tables had been set.  Aunt Liz was taking notes and learning recipes.  She had brought a dozen cross buns and a jello mold.  The only thing missing was the centrepiece.  Aunt Demi had told Ma that she would bring a proper figolli.  

    It was the biggest figolli I’d ever seen.  The icing was as thick as my thumb.  While Aunt Demi was placing the Easter egg on her mermaid, Aunt Rita marched in and pulled a Colomba di Pasqua out of her tote bag.  The colomba had a three-foot wingspan.  There was barely room enough for one centrepiece.  

    Fish or fowl, which would Ma use?

After forty days of fasting and scrubbing, Demi and Rita were lean, clean, Easter tradition machines.  Filled with the holiday spirit, they glared at each other.

    “What the hell is that?”  Aunt Demi spat.
    “It’s a dove, a symbol of peace, you idiot,” Aunt Rita shot back.  
    “It’s Easter.  We don’t need a damn dove.”
    “Throw that fish back in the sea.”  
    “The figolli is part of our tradition.”
    “Since when did Jesus swim with the fishes?”
    Waving a knife, Aunt Demi lunged.  “Give me that bread.  I’ll cut it up for sandwiches.”
    “Over my dead body.”
    “No problem.”

    My Aunt Liz was fascinated by her new in-laws.  She wrote down everything they said.  Maybe she thought the fight was part of our jolly ethnic holiday tradition.  I stayed close to Liz in case she didn’t have sense enough to duck.  

    Ma went back to the kitchen.  She knew she couldn’t reason with her sisters-in-law.  Her plan was to hide in the kitchen until the smoke cleared.  If they killed each other it would leave more food for the others.

    “Maria, get out here,” Aunt Demi yelled.  Ma came out.  The men and the younger children were nowhere in sight.  They were taking a walk to work up an appetite.  Demi and Rita were rolling up their sleeves.  Liz was taking notes.  
    “I went to all this trouble,” Aunt Rita whined.
    Aunt Demi barked, “Tell this idiot we are using the figolli.”
    “It took me forever to make this,” Aunt Rita whined again.
    Ma tried to be a good hostess.  “They’re so big.  We could put them on chairs near the table.”

    No luck.  The Aunts wanted her to choose one.
   Aunt Demi announced, “We are having a traditional Maltese Easter dinner.  With a traditional figolli.”
    “Do you think our Blessed Mother baked a mermaid?” Aunt Rita sneered. 
    Demi lunged.  Liz wrote.  

    The lamb was ready.  If this dragged on much longer it would be a lump of coal.  


Ma sighed, glared at her sisters-in-law and said, “I don’t care if our Blessed Mother made hot dogs and beans. I’m tired of cleaning. I’m tired of baking. I’m tired of the whole damn holiday.

And I’m tired of bread. A few days ago I gave a figolli to a friend who lives down the street. Yesterday she came over and gave me a loaf of challah. So I have another traditional bread from Mrs. Cohen… Mrs. Cohen. That’s it!!” 

    Without saying another word Ma turned and went back to the kitchen.  In a few minutes she returned with the glossy braided challah on the platter. 

    “Our Blessed Mother was a Jew.  She would’ve made a challah.  And that’s what we’re having for Easter.  It’s traditional.  Shut up, sit down and eat.”

    And, so saying, Ma started our traditional Easter Dinner.

Anna Sultana’s Milkless, Eggless, Butterless Cakes (Chocolate or Raisin) and Two-Egg Sponge Cake

Well, we’ve just gotten through about a month of living in quarantine.

To be honest, for many seniors in Manitoba staying home during early Spring is  just a regular part of our usual way of living.

During this time we have icy sidewalks, what with our usual freeze and thaw weather pattern.

But the shortages at the grocery store is becoming a bit unnerving.

Sometimes it calls for a bit of ingenuity in the kitchen before we can make dinner, or desserts.

Flour is a staple, but it can cause a problem if you run out.

Check the back of your cabinets.

If you have cake & pastry flour and the recipe calls for all-purpose flour, just add two tablespoons to each cup of cake and pastry flour.

If you have all-purpose flour and the recipe calls for cake & pastry flour, just remove two tablespoons from each cup of all-purpose flour.

I’m hoping that you've also got a bag of raisins just sitting on the shelves.

Depression Cake, also called Boiled Raisin Cake or War Cake, is a recipe that doesn’t call for milk, eggs or butter.

Neither does Ma’s Easy Raisin/Sultana Cake.

Got raisins? Got cake.

Hints:

About the Chocolate Cake, when we're over the virus crisis:

Instead of the water you can use 1 Cup lukewarm sour milk or buttermilk.

Instead of the oil, you can use 1/2 Cup margarine, melted.

If you’ve got a tin of frosting, or feel like making some, it would be appreciated.

Chocolate Mocha Frosting

Dissolve

1 Tablespoon instant coffee

in

1/2 Cup hot water

Set aside.

In a medium mixer bowl cream

3/4 Cup Crisco

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 Cup unsweetened cocoa

Making 3 dry and 2 liquid additions, add

4 1/2 Cups sifted icing sugar

Alternately with the prepared coffee.

Beat well until smooth.

You could split the cake to make it more like a layer cake.

                        Chocolate Cake

Grease an 8 inch square pan

Preheat oven to 350º F

Sift into a medium bowl

1 1/2 Cup flour

1 Cup sugar

3 Tablespoons cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

Add

3 ounces oil 

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cider vinegar

1 Cup water

Mix well.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake 40 minutes.

Insert a toothpick to test the cake to be sure it's done.

Place the cake in the pan on a rack.

Allow it to cool for 10 minutes before turning it out onto a platter.

                        Two-Egg Sponge Cake

Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan

Preheat oven to 325º F

Note: This cake batter is thin.

Place in medium bowl

1 Cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Blend together and set aside.

Heat but do not boil

1/2 Cup milk

In a mixing bowl beat thoroughly at medium speed

2 large eggs

Slowly add

3/4 cup sugar

Continue beating for another five minutes.

Gradually add

3 Tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Make 3 dry (the flour) and 2 liquid (the milk) additions to the egg mixture.

Mix lightly, only enough to blend well.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake 30 minutes.

Insert a toothpick to test the cake to be sure it's done.

Place the cake in the pan on a rack.

Allow it to cool for 10 minutes before turning it out onto a platter.