Sunday, January 03, 2010

More of Grandma Curtin's Recipes


My Mother's Mother, my Grandma Curtin, would have had her birthday today. So I was looking at my transcripts of her handwritten recipes and clips today, and found these. She was a wonderful baker and cook. She also knit, sewed and crocheted. I show a slide of her and Grandma Alessio at the beginning of my shows, and discuss how the recipes and programs make me feel closer to their memories.
Now these recipes are a bit mysterious - remember I typed them in exactly as I found them. Also the BBQ Beef has no BBQ sauce, but I know it's delicious.
I've been looking at several binders and recipe boxes of handwritten recipes for a new freelance project lately. Do you have one gathering dust from your family? These things are filled with treasures.
‘Plain Cake’ 400 for (no minutes written)
1 ¼ cups sugar
½ cup butter
Cream those two well.
1 cup milk
2 ¼ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Last break 2 eggs in batter and beat well. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Makes 2 layers

Barbecued Beef
Six servings
½ cup chopped onions
1 tablespoon of fat or oil
1 ½ lbs. ground beef
½ cup chopped celery
¼ cup chopped green pepper
1 bottle (14 oz.) catsup
1 cup of water
½ cup of tomato paste
1 teaspoon each; prepared mustard, salt, and brown sugar
¼ teaspoon of celery salt

Cook onions in fat for five minutes. Add beef and cook about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add remaining ingredients and simmer uncovered about 45 minutes.

1 comment:

Janice said...

So many projects, so little time. I'd love to catalogue all those old recipes I have. Including the ones I have handwritten myself at the start of my cooking journey. I 'get' the BBQ beef, that mix of catsup (ketchup) brown sugar and mustard gives a gorgeous sticky sauce just like bbq. Thanks for sharing.