Who knew?

You can whip Milnot just like cream into stiff peaks? Well you can.

We had asked Brian's mom for some of her "secret" family recipes. Brian had been talking about his mom's no-bake cheese cake since we started dating. She gave it to us a while back and we finally got around to shopping for the ingredients that we don't usually have on hand - Milnot and lemon jello.

Now remember Brian's momma is of the generation that bought the whole  "fast food for better living" that was promoted in the 60's and 70's. Less time in the kitchen you know and more time to do  other things. 

We try to avoid processed food as much as possible. So no Milnot hanging around the kitchen at our place. 

Once we had the Milnot and the jello I didn't have any excuse for not making the cheesecake so I got started:

8 oz of cream cheese softened was mixed with 1 cup of sugar (I started wondering if you could cut down the sugar or use honey instead... best not to experiment the first time you try something new.) Added the teaspoon of vanilla to this mixture and set it aside.

1 cup of boiling water added to the jello to dissolve and that lemony mix was put in the fridge to cool.

Crushed the graham crackers and added butter (I refuse to use margarine. You gotta draw the line somewhere.) Pressed the crumb mix into my favorite pie plate. It seemed like an awful lot of crust. Brian wasn't around to ask and I didn't have Mom Jordan's phone number handy so I pressed on.

Then I took on the Milnot. I had chilled it in the fridge overnight. I poured it into a mixing bowl and attacked it with the beaters. Call me a skeptic, but I just couldn't believe you could make whipped Milnot.

It didn't take more than a couple of minutes and I had stiff peaks. Really? who knew?

Then the jello got mixed into the cream cheese mixture. At this point the directions weren't very clear to me, so I folded the cream cheese mixture into the whipped Milnot.  OK up to this point I had been fighting the urge to taste it. It looked and smelled really good. I gave in and scooped up a dollop on my finger. Pretty good stuff! Sort of tasted like those yogurt "Whips" from the store.

So then I poured it  into the waiting pie plate. OOPS! there was way too much to fit in the pie. So I put the extra in some bowls.

Of course when Brian got home he informed me that his mom made it in a 9 X 13 cake pan not a pie plate. Oh and that I forgot to put a little sprinkle of graham crumbs on the top to make it pretty.

I'll do better next time.

Brian said it tasted just like mom's even if it was in the wrong pan and minus sprinkles. He loves graham cracker crust so he was happy it was extra thick. I don't really like graham cracker crust so I enjoyed the bowls of  "extra" filling.

It is amazingly good once you get your mind past the fact it has Milnot and Jello in it. I'm going to try making it with raw heavy cream, natural unflavored gelatin, honey and lemon juice the next time.



Grandpa Webb's barn

I did these drawings of  Great Grandpa Webb's barn when I was 12 or 13. I loved this old barn. It was dim and smelled of hay and manure. Dust motes danced in the sunlight from the open door in the hay mow. Swallows nested high in the eves. The beams were heavy and wide enough to walk along without fear of falling- but only if the grownups weren't watching.

My grandpas, my Dad and my brothers stacked sweet smelling hay in the loft every summer when I was little.Later I drove the tractor while they picked up hay in the fields and I pushed the bales from the wagon onto the hay conveyor. Much later, I stacked hay in this old barn myself and milked my cow in the cool shade of it's lean to.

My drawings don't show the garage that was added on the North side. Just the barn. I never did feel like that after thought of a garage really went with the rest of the building. Not so very long ago, they tore the poor old barn down and put up a big yellow pole building. A combination garage workshop and tacked on the back a milking stall for my mom's cow.

It's just not the same. No swallows. No hay mow. No beams like massive wooden muscles holding everything together. No smell of hay and warm wood.

I miss that old barn. They just don't make them like that any more.

Cookie Sheet Chocolate Fudge Cake

Mixe together: 2 cups sugar, 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon baking soda

Heat 1 cup water, 3 tablespoons cocoa and 2 sticks margarine.
Pour over sugar-flour mixture while hot. Beat well.
Add 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 cup buttermilk and 2 beaten eggs.
Mix well, batter will be very thin.

Bake at 400 degrees in a cookier sheet/ sheet cake pan for 20 minutes.

Icing:

Boil together 1 stick of margarine, 3 tablespoons cocoa and 6 tablespoons buttermilk about one minute. Add 1 box powdered sugar and 1 cup nuts. Mix and spread on hot cake.

Pecan Pie

This is Brian's mom's recipe.  Brian always says she wasn't much of a cook, but she can make sweets!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup margarine (melted)
3 eggs lightly beaten
1 1/2 cup pecan halves
9 inch unbaked pie shell

Stir sugar, corn syrup, salt and vanilla into margarine.
Blend in eggs and stire in pecans.
Pour into pie shell
Bake at 350 degrees or until done.

Brian's Mom's Potato Chip Casserole

Brian and his girls love this. I think it's tooooooo salty.

1 can tuna drained
1 can mushroom soup
1 bag potato chips

Mix all together. Preheat oven to  350 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes.

Brian's Mom's relish recipe

So much of our family memories involve food. I thought I should start adding in recipes with the memories.
This is Sandy, Brian's mom's, relish. I haven't tried it yet, but I think I will this summer.

12 large cucumbers
6 green peppers
6 onions

Chop all together. Put handul of salt on mixture and let stand one hour. Drain and put on stove and add 1 1/2 pints vinegar, 4 cups sugar and 1 teaspoon celery seed.
Boil for 20 minutes.
Drain.
Put in jars and seal.

The recipe doesn't say if she water bath cans... hmmmm I better ask.

Grandma Dorothy's retirement letter