The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    APPLESAUCE RAISIN SQUARES WITH BROWN BUTTER FROSTING

    By trkingmomoe on Mon, 05/25/2015 - 11:56pm |

    I have had this recipe since high school and it came from McCall’s magazine.  For a long time I used the clipping from the magazine until I started transferring my recipes to 4″ x 6″ cards and I added that it came from McCall’s.  The magazine has been out of publication now for over a decade.  But in its hay day it offered great recipes that anyone could make.

    I would read the magazines every summer at my Aunt Helen’s house.  McCall’s and Redbook would publish every month a small novel for their readers.  I loved those stories and read them every one I could get my hands on.  The good thing my Aunt would save the magazines for her church paper drive.  Only she would never seem to get them to the church so I had at least 10 years worth I could read while I was visiting her.  When she wasn’t looking I would cut out a recipe or 2 that I wanted.  I think by the 1980’s they stopped publishing the monthly short novels in the magazine. I didn’t buy as many after that.

    The recipe is moist and just the thing for summer days and a take along to picnics because it will feed a crowd.  You will need a sheet cake pan 10″ x 15″ or a jelly roll pan.  The frosting is easy to make and just the right flavor to slather on top.  It is just as good with just a dusting of powered sugar but you will need to wait to do that until you are ready to serve.  The sugar disappears into the squares over time.  What also dates this recipe to the mid 20th century is the shortening.  Cookie and cake recipes called for shortening instead of butter.  I have tried butter but I like the texture of the shortening for this recipe because it is less crumbly.

    You don’t just have to serve it in squares, the cake can be rolled up as a jelly roll.  Just turn the warm cake out onto a flour sack towel while it is warm and roll it up.  Make the filling and gently unroll the cake, spread filling and roll back up.  You can also slice the sheet cake into three pieces that are 5 inches wide after the cake is cool.  Frost between each layer as you stack them ending with frosting on the top.  This makes an old fashion “Spanish Bar Cake.” Spanish Bar Cake was very popular and every bakery offered their version of the rich spice cake with raisins in the 1940’s and 1950’s. I think it is still popular in some parts of the country. Anyone who collects old fund raising cookbooks will find a recipe for Spanish Spice Cake or Bar Cake in that era of cook book. When ever any family came for a visit my mother would run to the store and buy a Spanish Bar Cake for dessert. For me this recipe brings back wonderful memories of picnics and visitors.

    Applesauce Raisin Squares

    1/2 cup shortening

    1 cup sugar

    2 egg

    1 1/2 cups applesauce

    1 teaspoon vanilla

    2 cups sifted flour

    2 teaspoons baking soda

    1/4 teaspoon baking powder

    3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

    1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

    1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

    1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

    1 teaspoon salt

    1 1/2 cups raisins

    1/2 cup walnuts

    Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Prepare jelly roll pan or sheet cake pan with vegetable spray.

    Cream shortening and sugar together with an electric mixer.  Add eggs and beat.  Add applesauce and vanilla and mix. Sift together flour, spices, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Now add slowly the sifted ingredients to the other mixture about a half a cup at a time until all of it is mixed in. Stir in raisins and nuts.

    Spread in pan.  Bake for 25 minutes or until it springs back when gently touched on the surface.  Cool.

    Brown Butter Frosting

    3/4 cup butter (no substitute)

    3 1/4 cups sifted Confectioner’s sugar

    4 to 5 tablespoons of light cream

    1 teaspoon vanilla

    Lightly brown butter in a small skillet on low heat. In a mixer add butter with sugar.  While mixing add 4 tablespoons of cream and vanilla.  Beat until smooth.  If needed add more cream to make it the right spreading consistency. Spread on cool cake and serve.

    Comments

    I was doing what I call cabinet cooking.  I went through what I had on hand and tried to think of how I could use these assortment of odds and ends. This can be a real problem when you have to make do.  On top of that is was a holiday and wanted to make something nice. 

    I go to Goodwill once a month to look for cook books when my SS check comes.  I like to find cooking magazines yearly annual recipe cook books.  I pay just $3.99 for them.  That is actually cheaper then buying a magazine. I keep a index card in my purse that lists the years that I need for Taste of Home and Southern Living. I usually find one or two.  I sit and enjoy them all month. They sit on the coffee table until they get replaced with a new one. They are beautiful books with lovely covers.  I also look for their special issue cookbooks. I never get tired of them because I am always looking for ideas.  The computer is nice but the cookbooks I can skim through faster and I later remember I have an recipe just right for what ever I have on hand. Living in South Florida these cookbooks are easy to find in thrift stores and they are just like new. For me they are a necessary as a stove, pots and pans.  

    Red states have been busy trying to limit what SNAP can be used when shopping for groceries. This really gets me mad because I know that food stamps have been cut back to the point that people are also dependent on food pantries. You just get what they give you and you go home and make do.  Wisconsin made their list out of restrictions that included bulk beans and spices. This ruffled my feathers because who do these men think they are?  I bet they can't even program their contemporary oven to come on let alone cook. Law school certainly didn't teach any of them basic cooking and shopping skills. Boy did Wisconsin legislators look really stupid. 

    Dried beans and spices are a important staple when you are trying to make do. I buy all my dried beans from bulk dispensers at a organic store because they are cheaper and I get just the amount I will use. They also sell spices in bulk.  I can fill my cardamom jar about half full with just a $1 worth. A new jar would cost around $7.  When refilling my high end spices I just get what I would use in a few months. This way I am able to keep on hand some of the high end spices and herbs that you see on the top shelf in pretty jars when you are shopping. Spices can also be found in small inexpensive bags in the Latino section in grocery stores. 

    I also buy red lentils at that store and use them as a meat substitute or stretcher in dishes. I have never seen them in local grocery stores.  I sometimes treat myself to black rice or wild rice just getting a half of cup. These types of rice add a nice nutty flavor to a simple soup. They also have soup blends for different types of bean soups that saves you from buying the beans separate. I get pearl barley and pearl tapioca.  Even rolled oats are cheaper per pound then what is sold at Walmart.  I know all of it is organic and no GMO's.  They just recently added a Food stamp sticker on their door to draw in more local business. This shop is close to the house and I have been shopping there for 15 years. 

    In my cupboard I found a can of frosting that had cinnamon in it. I must of got it in my food pantry box. I also have quite a few small boxes of raisins and several cans of applesauce. So I made the applesauce raisin bars.  I actually didn't do the brown butter frosting that I normally make with these because I wanted to use this can of frosting. This old fashion inexpensive recipe calls for many spices. Then I thought of those foolish white lawyers wasting their time on showing how stupid they are in a kitchen. I certainly didn't feel shame from their efforts only just how dumb the GOP has become. 

    Another thing that was on my mind as I cooked today was about hunger in retirees.  PBS did a segment on this and talked to retirees in Naples Florida that uses a local Food Pantry to help them keep from starving. Naples is the last strong hold for the Republicans in South Florida and there must be poverty hiding all over down there.  

    http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/senior-hunger-photo-essay/

    Many of them have never faced this before and don't know how to cope except by hiding it.  I know they would never take the steps I have when the situations calls for it. Getting past the shame can be hard. This is a real crises that is growing. I feel lucky because I have learned my way around.  

     


    by trkingmomoe on Tue, 05/26/2015 - 9:04am

    I poured over an old cookbook my mom kept on top of the frig when I was a kid - I think she got a perverse pleasure out of watching me go for it via the nearby stool. It was falling apart, but I loved the old-fashioned recipes and "regular" ingredients. People have mostly considered me crazy over the years whenever I'd mention cookbooks as a favorite source of reading material.

    Some of the most enjoyable cooking I've ever done has been due to putting what was on hand together and making it edible. Even better if it tasted good! Thanks for another nudge down memory lane, momoe ...


    by barefooted on Tue, 05/26/2015 - 4:27pm

    I learned from a couple of old cookbooks when I was a kid.  One was the 1952 edition of Betty Crocker Cookbook.  Collectors call it "The Red Book."  and the other was the 1938 edition of Joy of Cooking.  I have both of these editions that were my mothers.  Here is a picture of one. 

    IM001139

    I had this in my photo file.  I haven't taken a picture of the other one. The Betty Crocker Cookbook was one of the first books to include how to pictures in steps.  There may of been others at the time but this was the most popular cookbook of that era.  My mother was really a bad cook but she did try.  Her sisters were excellent and they took an interest in teaching me when I spent a few weeks with them in the summer. Like you I enjoyed looking and reading cookbooks. I think the Betty Crocker Cookbook was a gift from one of her sisters. It was well known that she was dangerous in the kitchen. 

    Making do is a skill that most learn in the kitchen because of economical challenges.  Not having enough money to buy groceries is common even in middle class households. This is the result of being in a depression. 


    by trkingmomoe on Tue, 05/26/2015 - 8:47pm

    Guess who also has a fetish for cook books? Me!

    My favorite, hands down, belonged to my grandmother. It was published by the Detroit Times, a long defunct newspaper, and was used so much by her that when I inherited it in the mid-seventies, it no longer had any covers.

    My favorite recipe from it, hands down, is how to cook broccoli. According to the book, broccoli is an Italian cauliflower and to prepare it, one must remove the outer leaves and boil it for three quarters of an hour. Salt may be added as well as a pinch of bicarbonate of soda. One must be gentle while removing it from the pan because it is very tender and falls apart easily.

    Gee. I wonder why.


    by wabby on Wed, 05/27/2015 - 10:43am

    Truth be known that was the way many of them was taught to cook.  I have one from Glenna Snow that wrote for a Akron paper.  It was published in the 30's.  Some those recipes are so much fun to read.  They really did cook some things to death. Some times in the recipe they will tell you to heat your oven until the hair stands up on the back of your hand.  Believe it or not but that is what your hair on your hand will do at moderate temp of 350 degrees. They would open their oven up and stick their hand in to see if it was warm enough. Cooking really did improve after WWII because of stoves with thermostats.  Then came TV and cooking demonstrations. The best scratch recipes comes from the 1950's and 60's.

    Today I think the best recipe collections are being published by Taste of Home Magazine.  I just love their yearly recipe Annuals.  


    by trkingmomoe on Wed, 05/27/2015 - 11:08am

    I remember McCall's magazine!

    I liked to cut out the Betsy McCall dresses and paper doll. I remember I cut off the fold over tabs to keep the dresses on the doll. Every. Damn. Time. So Betsy McCall was always in her underwear all the time and never got to wear any pretty clothes when she lived at my house.

    I think Rosie O'Donnell took over the editor job for a while and after that, I don't know what happened to it.


    by wabby on Wed, 05/27/2015 - 10:34am

    Rosie changed the magazines name to Rosie and then got into a fight with investors. She wanted her own way and the magazine folded. I haven't cared to watch Rosie since.  Her ego gets bigger then her brain sometimes. 

    Thanks for the comment. 


    by trkingmomoe on Wed, 05/27/2015 - 10:43am