Pear Boats

I know that chocolate and pears is an acquired taste. But I imagine the recipe for Pineapple-Mint Sundae with mint jelly and crushed pineapple would be worse.

Pear Boats:
Simmer canned pear halves in their own syrup 2 min., adding speck of cinnamon, if desired.  Refrigerate.  Place 2 pear halves, with hollow sides up, in each serving dish.  Top with vanilla ice cream.  Cover with Chocolate Sauce.

That's it for the Good Housekeeping Ice Creams and Cool Drinks.

Joshua and his fellow bakers in my house will be taking a break this Sunday too and I'll explain why with photos next week. Molly's post is coming up, too.  Plus I have a series of Pie Party programs in August, so get ready for Plenty of Pie recipes here too.
(and perhaps Plenty of Prunes for the official Prune Off write up with Molly...)

Toddler Special Ice Cream Treat

Don't get your hopes up. This is one of the weird from the Good Housekeeping Ice Creams and Cool Drinks. But it looks better than the Cran-Banana Frappe.


Toddler Special

2 cans strained apricot-applesauce (baby pack)
2 tsp. lemon juice
Pinch salt (oh boy)
1 tablesp. granulated sugar
2 scoops ice cream (any flavor?)
1 cup milk

Beat all ingredients just until blended. Pour into small glasses. Makes 4 toddler servings.
Now my toddler eats quite a bit. Almost as much as my 7 year old. But a serving he'd eat of this would be small indeed.

I do love the illustration of the toddlers in the pool. The one on the right looks like she is about to dump the drink, and who could blame her?

Flaming Praline Ice-Cream Ring

I love flaming desserts. That is, the idea - my husband will not let me experiment with these. I'm not really going to explain that, but perhaps his fears are justified around here...

This is also from the Good Housekeeping Ice Creams and Cool Drinks. I just don't know why anyone would want to light this one up. Wouldn't the ice cream melt, and put out these candles? Looks like an accident waiting to happen. But perhaps that's just past experience for me.

Praline Ice-Cream Ring
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup broken pecans
2 1/2 cups corn, bran or wheat flakes (bran? Really? I'm surprised they don't suggest prunes to adorn the dish.))
Vanilla Ice Cream
Refrigerate a 1 1/4-qt. ring mold.  In saucepan, boil butter, sugar just 2 min.  Add pecans, cereal flakes; with fork, toss to coat.  Press lightly into mold.  Refrigerate 10 min; unmold onto serving dish.  Place spoonfuls of vanilla ice cream, with rounded sides up, in center.  Garnish with whole strawberries and pineapple slices. 
To serve aflame: Pour bit of lemon extract on sugar cubes; set on pineapple slices; light; carry to table. (Get extinguisher ready.)

Staying Cool with Ice Creams and Cool Drinks

I've blogged from this one before, the 1958 Good Housekeeping's Ice Creams and Cool Drinks, volume #17 of their pamphlet series. But it's perfect for this week. There are a variety of wonderful and weird recipes in here, but for some reason, there are a profusion of Pineapple/Mint combos. Gross. But there are also some delicious treats. While I don't understand why they are dying the coconut pink here (and yes, I know you know I love to dye things colors), this sounds pretty tasty:

Coconut-Raspberry Parfaits:
Tint flaked coconut pink:  Dissolve drop of red food color in 1 tablesp. milk; toss with about 1 cup flaked coconut till evenly colored. Spread out to dry.  In each sherbet or parfait glass, place layer of soft vanilla ice cream, then layer of thawed frozen raspberries.  Repeat till glass is full.  Top with pink coconut.

I'll bet this would work with vanilla pudding, too, or coconut - Jello has instant varieties of both.
Yum.

I've moderating a panel Wednesday at the Romance Writers of America conference with Simone Elkeles, Susan Gibberman, Ally Carter and Melissa De La Cruz. I do love my work.

Joshua's Sunday Sampler: Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yesterday we awakened at 3:30 a.m. to a basement with water coming in the windows. Six inches of water fell in 4 hours here and most people got something. It took us four hours to fight it and keep the waves at bay, then we were zombies a lot of the rest of the weekend!

But tonight Kyle, Josh and Own made chocolate chip muffins in the train muffin tin given to us years ago by our friends Carol and Tom. It's an adaptation of the recipe from one of my favorite modern cookbooks:  The Muffin Lady.

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
pinch salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 tsp.  corn syrup
1.5 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients and add the eggs, milk, oil, melted butter, lemon juice, and corn syrup.  Fold in vanilla and chocolate chips. Makes about 9 muffins from fancier tins, or 12 regular round ones.

Re-read some Simone Elkeles titles this weekend and read The Rules of Attraction for the first time to get ready for a panel I'm on with her this week. I adore her as a person and as an author. She did one of her first talks at STDL, and it's been exciting to see her career rocket after that. She is always kind to my teens and remembers ones by name when I see her now. If you like good romances, you can't bet TRA and it's first title, Perfect Chemistry. Rules of Attraction Plus her book trailers are hilarious.

Pecan Pie

Last night I gave my Southern Vintage Treats, (mentions the book The Help) for the Schaumburg Twp. Library. Great fun! We all enjoyed red velvet cake, Moon Pies, Coconut Pies, and Pralines. I've served mini Pecan pies, and I always talk about them. It is definitely a favorite for many people, and comes from the Southern cuisine traditions, as the crops of pecans were so popular in Louisiana.

Farm Journal’s Complete Pie Cookbook has these variations of pecan pies:  Apple, blender, butterscotch, souffle, date, easy, mocha, orange, puff.  What on earth is Blender pie? It can be made with molasses, maple, Karo syrup. It was also popular with chocolate, bourbon, whiskey

Thought to be invented by French when they settled in New Orleans, there is no known recipe before 1925, and not in cookbooks until 1940, when it appeared in Joy of Cooking and Fannie Farmer.Karo syrup claims credit for the invention in the 1930’s, though not proven – certainly it helped popularize it.
 
Wayside Inn Pecan Pie


The Wayside Inn, in Middletown, VA, since 1797, is famous for its maple pecan pie.  This recipe is from my Southern Heritage Southern Living Pies and Pastry volume. Maple syrup makes this distinctive from other pecan pies. Try it!

2 tablespoons butter or margarine softened

½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 cup maple syrup

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 eggs, beaten

2 cups coarsely chopped pecans

1 unbaked (9-inch) pastry shell

Combine butter, sugar, syrup and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl. Add eggs, and beat well. Stir in pecans. Pour mixture into pastry shell. Bake at 325F for 1 hour or until set.

Tropical Sundaes

A year ago yesterday we moved into our lovely vintage house. I still type this in a room with paneling... The move jump started us in so many ways. I started the Vintage Cookbook talks, we all made lots of new friends, and we do a lot more as a family. It's amazing with a different house and town can do. We actually keep up with keeping things neat inside and out - I hadn't thought that was possible, though I can see we need a little pickup around here this morning...

On to the Tropical Sundaes. This photo is still from the BHG Barbecues and Picnics book - and that is Hawaiian chicken salad. Usually "Hawaiian" in vintage cookbooks means something has a little pineapple on it, but that actually looks a bit more elaborate. There are menus galore in here for "Hawaiian" picnics, but I liked this very interesting Hawaiian Tropical Sundae:

3 tablespoons mashed ripe banana

1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice

1/2 cup pineapple-apricot preserves (not sure they have this at Target...)

Rum flavoring to taste (oh boy)

Vanilla ice cream

1/2 cup flaked coconut, toasted

Tonight I have our annual Chicago Swordplay Guild program at the library for teens. We'll have our own Teen Corps picnic outside first. Tomorrow I return to the library for work, then back tomorrow night to give my Vintage Southern Treats talk based on the book The Help. I'll be serving red velvet cake, pralines, coconut pie, and Moon pies. I think all of these things will be fun, except perhaps the picnic with the teens.... Outdoor events bring out the teen in teens.

Sunday Sampler with Joshua: Banana Cocoa Muffins

I pulled out one of Molly's Prune Off recipes this morning and couldn't face it (though they actually look pretty good). We had three mushy bananas left, so I used them to make muffins with J and O this morning. I altered a recipe from Esther Brody's 500 Best Muffin Recipes, one of my favorite more modern cookbooks from 2003. Hers was for Very Ripe Banana Muffins, and I added Cocoa. Mine turned out a bit dry, so I'm adding more moisture to your version here. You can also apply a light frosting of peanut butter to add flavor and moisture.
(Starting to understand why I got a treadmill for my anniversary present?)

1 cup mashed overripe bananas
1/4 cup plus 3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
pinch salt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 350F
Makes about 10 - 11 muffins. I have pans with shapes, so I am not sure how many round this would make. We did hearts and stars. Don't fill these too much - notice how much mine puffed up.

In a mixer bowl combine bananas, oil, sugar and salt; mix on low.  Add egg and vanilla; beat well.
In another bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder. Add to banana mixture slowly; lightly mix.
Spoon batter into greased or paper-lined muffin tin. Bake in preheated oven 15 minutes.

Peach Roses and Peach Shortcake Dessert Cups

Yesterday was my 15th Wedding Anniversary. My husband got me peach roses Tuesday night when I came home from a teen CSI event, and then we spent yesterday antiquing. I found a recipe box with handwritten recipes and several vintage recipes for a steal. Kyle found a redline Hot Wheels car for his collection. My gift was a treadmill - sexy? No. But it is what I wanted. Kyle wanted a big Lego kit. The traditional gift for 15th is Ivory. Since we didn't want to be illegal, we chose things we wanted...

Peach roses (like the ones in my bridal bouquet which is dried and preserved in a frame) made me think of this recipe and photo from the same Barbecues and Picnics Cookbook I was writing about earlier in the week. Here is the recipe for Peach Shortcake Dessert Cups:

Fill sponge cake dessert cups (from a package) with sweetened whipped cream. Top with chilled canned peach halves, hollow side up.  Center with dollop of whipped cream.  Pass extra sliced peaches.

Nostalgia Foods and Nutty Pups

The wonderful staff at the Fox River Grove Memorial Library made this sign for my program last night and they were kind enough to make me a copy. I had so much fun talking about the history of Moon Pies, Snoballs, Googoos, S'mores and Mallomars. That audience was wonderful - great stories and comments. Great fun!

I have a few more frankfurter art recipes from the Barbecues and Picnics book:
Nutty Pups
Broil franks to suit yourself.  Serve in hot toasted buns spread with chunk-style peanut butter. Great when made with Frank Wrap-ups.  Pass pickle relish. (and Pepto Bismol)

Sloppy Joe Franks "Youngsters like this as is.  Grownups dash in more hot pepper sauce."  (Why? Does it taste bad?)

1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons butter
1 pound 8 - 10 frankfurters, cut in thirds
1 can condensed tomato-rice soup
1/3 cup water
1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons bottled steak sauce
1 tsp. prepared mustard
4 drops bottled hot pepper sauce
Coney buns, toasted, buttered
Melt butter in skillet over coals.  Add onion; cook till soft.  Add remaining ingredients. Let bubble slowly without covering, about 15 minutes or till sauce is nice and thick.  Stir once in a while near end of cooking.  Ladle into buns.  Makes 8 - 10.

Tonight I have one of my favorite teen programs of the year - CSI with Michael A. Black and Dave Case. Both men are police officers and authors. They do a crime scene for my teens which is always fun.

Fancy Franks

Now I've seen a lot of what I would have to call frankfurter art in vintage cookbooks, but this is unusual even for my collection. These are from the Better Homes and Gardens Barbecues and Picnics, c1963. The top dish in this photo is "Circle Pups," with "Rafted Wieners" on the bottom. 

Circle Pups

1 1 pound can sauerkraut

1 tablespoon flour

1 tsp. sage

1 pound frankfurters:  If using the chubby dinner-size franks, count on 2 to make each circle.  Curve on break making ends touch. (Seriously, it says that.)

8 - 10 slices rye bread, buttered

Prepared mustard

Drain kraut, reserving 1/2 cup juice.  Mix flour, sage and reserved juice; stir into the drained kraut.  Heat and stir till mixture thickens.  At 1/2 inch intervals, cut slits across franks, going almost but not quite through.  Broil franks over hot coals until hot through.  They'll curl as they cook.  Place franks on bread; fill center with hot kraut;  top with mustard.

Yum yum. Should we drink any leftover kraut juice?

Rafted Wieners

Slit frankfurters lengthwise, not quite through.  Grill over hot coals.  Arrange bacon slices on piece of foil, turning up edges to catch drippings; cook on grill top.  Insert a strip of pickle and cheese in each frank and heat on foil a few minutes, place 2-3 franks crosswise on toasted and buttered coney buns.  Lay 2 slices crisp bacon across the top.

Which do you want for dinner tonight?

Joshua's Sunday Sampler: Baked Blueberry Donuts

We did pull out the baked donut pan again today. Readers here know I got it for Mother's Day and have been having my cakes and eating them too. Are they Cake Donuts? (going with the ambiguous recipe theme from last week) Perhaps - but they were delicious. We adapted a recipe that came with the pan to add blueberries, which Josh has been wanting to do. the other photo is a dinner this week, when we were running late and decided to have pancakes. My husband is great with the food art!

Blueberry Cake Donuts
 11/2 cups flour
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1 tsp. baking powder
pinch salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup milk
2 tblsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 325F.
Combine flour, blueberries, baking powder and salt (gently). In separate bowl mix eggs, sugar and vanilla until thick. Combine milk and butter. Alternately combine egg mixture and milk mixture with flour mixture and mix lightly until lumps of flour disappear. Spray pan with cooking oil.  Fill donut spaces with batter. Bake 10 minutes until top springs back when pressed lightly. Cool; remove from pan.

These were sweet enough without glaze. Yum!

Blueberry Funny Cake-Pie

I pulled out the Farm Journal's Complete Pie Cookbook, c1965 and discovered that they have several blueberry pie recipes. I was a bit intrigued by this one:

Blueberry Funny Cake-Pie (With different sauces, I think this could be Strawberry, raspberry, etc.) (But not prunes)
Unbaked 1" pie shell
1/4 c. butter
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 c. sifted cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
Blueberry Sauce
Vanilla
Cream butter; add sugar and mix thoroughly.  Add egg and mix well.  Sift flour with baking powder and salt; add alternately with milk to creamed mixture.  Add vanilla.
Pour batter into pie shell.  Gently pour lukewarm Blueberry Sauce over top.
Bake in moderate oven (375F) 35 - 40 minutes, or until cake tests done.  Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.  Makes 8 servings.

Blueberry Sauce:  Thoroughly drain 1 (15 oz.) can blueberries, saving 1 tblsp. juice.  Combine the 1 tblsp. juice with 1 tblsp. lemon juice, 1/2 c. sugar and blueberries.  Heat just until sugar is dissolved.  Cool to lukewarm.

Blueberry Treat

Still on the blueberry kick here. Still also on the Farm Journal Country Cookbook. Still recovering from the Battle of the Bands at the library Tuesday night...While we had great bands, moving in the middle of the program to an indoor location as the skies opened and enjoying window rattling heavy metal inside the library while explaining to some teens why they need their shirts in the library was a little crazy.

I need a:
Blueberry Treat!
"Off the beaten path in blueberry desserts - rewarding taste adventure" (sounds scary)
1 1/2 c. graham cracker or vanilla wafer crumbs
1/4 c. sifted confectioners' sugar
1/4 c. melted butter or margarine
2 eggs, unbeaten
1/3 c. sugar
1 (8 oz.) pkg. softened cream cheese
1/4 tsp. salt
2 c. fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 c. sugar
2 tblsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c. water
1/4 tsp. grated orange rind
Mix together crumbs, confectioners sugar and butter; press in layer 8x8x2" pan.  Beat eggs; add 1/3 c. sugar, cream cheese and salt; blend together.  Pour over crumb crust; bake in moderate oven (375F) 20 minutes. Cool.  Cover with 1 c. blueberries.  Blend together 1/2 c. sugar, cornstarch, salt and water.  Add remaining blueberries and rind.  Cook over low heat until clear and thick stirring constantly.  Pour over berries.  Chill before serving.  May garnish with whipped cream.  Makes 8 servings.

Fresh Blueberry Pie

Readers here know I love the Farm Journal series. I have a separate volume dedicated to Pies and pastry but this 1959 volume is wonderful as well. I have a lot of blueberries here and want to make something. I'm just not sure this is it...
Fresh Blueberry Pie "Awakens laggard appetites" (It really says that.)

1 baked 9" pie shell
4 c. fresh or frozen blueberries (Um, what is the name of this recipe again?)
1 c. sugar
3 tblsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 c. water
1 tblsp. butter or margarine
Line cooled pie shell with 2 c. blueberries. (I can't imagine this - would you have to place each one down?)
To make sauce, cook remaining berries with sugar, cornstarch, salt and water over medium heat until thickened.  Remove from heat, add butter and cool. 
Pour over berries in shell.  Chill until serving time.  If desired, serve with whipped cream.

On the next page are some Prune-Apricot Tarts:  "Grandmother's prize turnovers often were fat with this luscious fruit filling." Too bad I didn't see this one when I sent Molly her recipes!

Molly MacRae Monday: Mousseline of Sole

It's the First Monday of the month again, and that means funny mystery author Molly MacRae is back...

Here’s news that tickled my family this spring – the International Herb Association http://www.iherb.org selected dill as herb of the year for 2010.


We love dill at our house, and that’s both good and necessary, because dill lives up to its name “weed” and grows in lush swaths everywhere – along the fence, amongst the peonies, with the asters and iris, between the bricks in the corner of the patio. Our favorite stand each year, though, is the hearty line that sprouts in the expansion crack between the edge of the driveway and the back steps. By mid-summer it’s as tall as I am. It’s a dill hedge, and in the swaggering central Illinois heat, our yard, our driveway, our house, all smell like pickles.

Dill is good with potatoes or cucumber soup or tossed in the occasional loaf of bread. But we’re always looking for new recipes to make a dent in our bounty. Imagine my delight when my husband, Mike, said he’d found a recipe for fish I might like. Dill + fish = Mmm!

Or not. As Amy says, any recipe that calls for meat or fish being pressed through a sieve is suspect. The lovely recipe for Mousseline of Sole, comes from the March 1944 issue of Life Magazine, page 102. It appears in an ad for Goebel beer, several bottles of which might be an integral part of enjoying this dish.

You can find that issue of Life and others from the 30s through the 70s, and more numbing recipes here: LIFE - Google Books.

Speaking of suspect and numbing recipes – I’ve sent Amy some very nice prune recipes to enjoy with her friends and family. She has, in turn, sent me some that have me worried. The question is, who will prevail? Amy “Pruneless” Alessio or Ms. Prune Whip? Stay tuned for reports from The Great Prune Off of 2010.

Sunday Sampler from Joshua: Happy Fourth of July!

This beautiful cake was made by all four of us last night for my sister's 4th party. It is a variation on Mushy Cookie Pudding - which we were requested to bring. My sister wanted me to dye it red or blue, but while everyone who reads this knows I Love food coloring, chocolate just doesn't look good with either red or blue dye.  So I put on colored sugar and in between the layers - with generous help from 2 year old Owen. Like our 4? We did a new fancy variation on this from a modern Jello cookbook my father bought me. I can't reprint the recipe as it is so new, but it has a crust made of crushed vanilla wafers, and the pudding has a little cool whip in it to hold up the layer of cookies in the middle. There is also drizzled chocolate as a layer. Oddly enough, the photo in the cookbook does not look like this.

My husband and I used to don the Civil War clothes and do a couple parades on each 4th. Yep, in the hot wool for him, and in the layers of hoops for me. It was kind of fun, though, being part of the historical festivities like that. What are you doing to celebrate today?

Patriotic Parade of Foods: Frozen Lemon Cream

This is from The Complete Holiday Cookbook, late 1960's. I have a couple from this series, and they always have many many strange menus for every single holiday. For the 4th, there are 3 menus. Here is the menu for Patriotic Parade of Foods:
Minute-Man Spareribs
Squash and Tomato Casserole
Garlic Butter
Colony Rolls
Peas Gourmet
Liberty Slaw
Frozen Lemon Cream

Not sure how the lemon cream got in there, but I love the recipe. Try it!

1 egg, well beaten
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. shredded lemon peel
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 or 3 drops yellow food coloring (I'd go with red or blue myself.)
1/4 cup melted butter or margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
Pinch of nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped nuts
3 cups Corn Chex, crushed to 3/4 cup
3/4 cup grated coconut
1 cup heavy cream, whipped (Definitely a defibrillator recipe, but sounds delicious)
Line bottom and sides of loaf pan with waxed paper; extend paper over rim.  Combine egg, lemon juice, sugar, salt and lemon peel.  Heat and stir over hot, not boiling, water until mixture coats the spoon, about 12 - 15 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Stir in vanilla and food coloring.  Cool thoroughly.  Combine butter, brown sugar and nutmeg.  Add nuts and Chex crumbs.  Mix until evenly blended.  Reserve 3/4 cup crumb mixture for topping.  Press 3/4 cup crumb mixture for topping.  Press remaining crumbs into prepared pan.  Fold coconut and whipped cream into cooled lemon mixture.  Spoon into pan.  Top with reserved crumbs.  Press crumbs together lightly.  Cover; freeze 6 hours or overnight.  Yield 8 servings.

I was in the mood for romance reading after weeks of YA mysteries.  Try Sarah MacLean's Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake for some Regency fun with a feisty heroine.

Stars and Stripes Blueberry Cake

Here it is! Many magazines have a version where you frost a white cake to look like a flag, but this one has blueberries in the cake, too. It is also from the SH Southern Living Celebrations. That must be the pickled peaches behind it. I'm going to try and make this during the weekend along with mushy cookie pudding in a new format (see St. Pat's Day for a previous one, but this will be better) Enjoy!

3 cups sifted cake flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup shortening
3/4 cup milk
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and drained
Cream Cheese Frosting
Maraschino cherries, quartered (tons of work - try well drained strawberries in half or cherries in half)
Fresh blueberries
Sift together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.  Add shortening, milk, and 2 eggs; beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer.  Add remaining 2 eggs, beating well. Stir in vanilla, and fold in 2 cups blueberries.
Pour batter into a greased and floured 13x9x2-inch baking pan.  Bake at 350F for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pan 10 to 15 minutes; remove from pan, and let cool completely.
Spread Cream Cheese Frosting on top and sides of cake. Decorate cake with rows of cherries and blueberries.  Yield:  one 13x9 cake.

My hands are still a bit colorful from the teen tye-dye program we had yesterday. My shirt is lovely - purple, pink and fuchsia. All my favorite colors. We hired one of my former TAB members who is now an art teacher. She was running the program with another of my former TAB members who is studying to be a teen librarian. I only had to fill dye bottles and help people. Pretty nice to see the two of them as adults, and it was also pretty nice to be a helper and not have to run things!

Apple Lemonade from Stars and Stripes Picnic

This is a greeting card from 1907, pictured in my Southern Heritage Southern Living Celebrations volume, Fourth of July chapter.  There are several suggested menus for the big day, including the Stars and Stripes Picnic. The menu for that is:
Golden Fried Chicken
Corn on the Cob
Dill Pickles
Radishes
Picnic Rolls
Pickled Peaches
Watermelon Fruit Basket
Stars and Stripes Blueberry Cake (coming tomorrow)
Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies
Peppermint Stick Ice Cream
Apple Lemonade

Sounds pretty good - but I don't know about pickled peaches. Anyone like those or another pickled fruit? Also, how would you transport all that food? Another vintage cookbook I have suggests that a whole turkey is great picnic fare. Not if you are the one carrying it. And how would you carve?

The lemonade was new to me. Try this:
Apple Lemonade
2 1/2 quarts apple juice
1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
Ice Cubes
Lemon slices (optional)
Fresh mint leaves (optional)
Combine juices and sugar; stir until sugar dissolves.  Chill thoroughly, and serve over ice.  Garnish with lemon slices or mint leaves, if desired.  Yield:  about 12 cups.