Easter Recipes

I have at least enough recipes and funny comments in cookbooks to get through until Easter, so today let us begin. This is from the Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Book, 1959. The caption for this cute photo reads:

"Gala Easter buffet follows the season's tradition. Easter-egg tree, a symbol of new life, sets the stage! Ham - beautifully glazed and trimmed with a candied-orange daisy - is the star of this dinner. Spring-y accompaniments - frilly leaf-lettuce salad, asparagus with almond topper, Parleyed New Potatoes. Serve hot rolls, coffee."

I don't know about that tree being a symbol of anything other than someone who has too much time. Symbols for me are the lamb cake which I would make to see it fall apart each year, or religious symbols.

The book also suggests making salad 'baskets': (like those served at McDonald's Tea Room) (can't be the reference I know): "fit two lettuce cups together. Fill with tossed salad. Split green-pepper ring for handle. Top with dressing and crumbled blue cheese. Trim with 'marigolds', notched carrot slices and topped with carrot chunks." Not sure I get this, but it sounds cute. Nothing gross in there anyway.

This book refers to Dad as "meatman" doing the carving. Um. OK.

I hope those are potatoes in the bowl made with perfect scoops.

Does any readers here have a strange Easter food tradition? Let us know! I do have a few, but more on that soon...

Gooey Butter Cake from JA Konrath

Gooey Butter Cake

Thanks, Amy, for allowing me to guest blog and share my favorite cake recipe.

By way of brief introduction, my name is JA Konrath. I was an author in the anthology Amy edited for Echelon, MISSING. My story was co-written by Henry Perez, and features my series character, Chicago Homicide Lieutenant Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels.

I'm currently on a blog tour, appearing on a different blog every day in March to promote a horror novel I wrote under the pen name Jack Kilborn. It's called AFRAID, and comes out on March 31st.

Since the book is frightening, I thought I'd share a frightening recipe.

This recipe is terrifying for two reasons:

1. Even though it is delicious, it looks weird and gross, very much like my book, AFRAID.

2. It has enough sugar and fat in it to give you a heart attack, very much like my book, AFRAID. This recipe was given to me by my mom, who clipped it from an ancient issue of Good Housekeeping. And believe me, it is one of the strangest--yet most decadent and tasty--baked goods you will ever have.

This cake holds a very special place in my clogged heart, because Gooey Butter Cake is my birthday cake of choice, and my mom has baked me one almost every year of my life. She's also making me one today, because today is my birthday. :)

Gooey Butter Cake:

2 sticks softened butter

1 package pound cake mix

1 pound confectioners sugar

4 eggs

8 oz. softened cream cheese(Didn't I tell you this is a myocardial infarction waiting to happen?)

Beat butter with two eggs, and gradually add the powdered pound cake mix. Spread this beaten mix into a 9" x 13" baking pan. I asked my mom if I needed to grease the pan and she told me,

"Hon, you've got half a pound of butter in there already." She said it kind of sarcastically, too.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Remove 1/4 cup of confectioner's sugar and set it aside.

Mix the remaining sugar, eggs, and cream cheese, and beat until the lumps are gone. Pour/spoon this mixture into the baking pan, on top of the pound cake mix.

Run out and buy AFRAID by Jack Kilborn. This step is essential, or your cake will be ruined.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the top is lightly brown but not fully set. This cake is supposed to be really gooey, remember? Let cool, then dust the top with the remaining powdered sugar. My mom uses a strainer to do this. I just sorta pour it on and then lightly blow on it to distribute it, which is what I think most of the top chefs do.

Eat in moderation.Warning: the author assumes no responsibility for clogged arteries or passing out from sugar high. Seriously, this is even better than chocolate. Trust me.

And thanks, Mom, for the recipe. :)-----------Joe

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Translucent

Here is another from The Dessert Book from Family Circle. the captions reads:

In the middle of the summer heat, try Peppermint Snowballs. Grown-ups as well as kids will enjoy the icy-cold dessert. It has a translucent green topping.

Er, yes, because that is what I always look for in a yummy dish. Translucent green topping.

This is made of:

2 pints lemon sherbet

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract

Green food coloring

Nasty. Basically you mix the corn syrup and peppermint extract and tint it green. Pour it over the lemon sherbet.

I read a great teen mystery for the Crimespree column: Undone by Brooke Taylor. It's about a teen who looks for answers after her best friend's death and discovers many family secrets.

Tomorrow my mentor and great author J.A. Konrath will guest blog on here as part of his month of touring for his new book, Afraid. It is his birthday on 3/29 and he promised to bring a beloved recipe. If you don't know Joe's books or have not visited his excellent blog on writing, don't miss out. Joe also has a fun short story with Henry Perez in Missing.

Dessert Cookbook

Originality seems to elude this vintage cookbook, with the title of Dessert Cookbook. It is from Family Circle, 1972. While I wouldn't say I wouldn't eat this, I am unsure of what the foil ads to the setting. And why scoop a pile of ice cream into one big bowl? How would anyone enjoy the hot fudge at the bottom that way? Unless that is one person's serving. Who am I kidding? I could eat that...

Here is the caption:

Ice cream forms the base for many frozen desserts (amen). And what better than ice cream balls drizzled with a rich chocolate sauce.

Several variety of sundaes are explored here, including Calypso Sundaes, 'a taste of the West Indies'. Really?

1 can (about 1 pound) pear halves, drained

1 can (8 oz.) crushed pineapple

1/2 cup mint jelly (uhoh)

1 tsp. lemon juice

2 pints lemon sherbet

Maraschino cherries.

1. Break up pear halves with spoon in medium size saucepan; add pineapple and juice and mint jelly; simmer 10 minutes, or until blended and slightly thickened; add lemon juice; chill. That is thoroughly disgusting.

2. Spoon over sherbet in serving dishes; top with maraschino cherries.

In what part of the West Indies do they eat mint jelly?

I already see about three more sundae recipes that make me wonder how this one got published...

So Good Meals

So Good Meals is the title of this vintage gem from 1963, a Better Homes and Gardens book. I love the brown and white piggie in this photo. Helps distract from the awful meat, and the beans bouquet style in the mug. Ick.

This meal is also supposed to have Cranberry Sherbet, which apparently could be a dessert or appetizer:

Let this be the refreshing finale to your big meal. It's pretty pink and ever so smooth. Terrific as a cool appetizer, too-

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 envelope (1 1/2 tsp.) unflavored gelatin

Dash salt

1 pint bottle (2 cups) cranberry juice cocktail

2 tablespoons lemon juice

In saucepan, mix sugar, gelatin, and salt. Stir in 1 cup of the cranberry juice cocktail. Heat and stir over medium heat till sugar and gelatin dissolve. Remove from heat; add remaining cranberry juice cocktail and the lemon juice.

Here's where it gets really interesting: Freeze in refrigerator tray till firm; break in chunks and beat with an electric beater till smooth. Or freeze till partially frozen; beat smooth with a rotary beater. Return to refrigerator tray; freeze for several hours. Serve in sherbets. Trip with mint sprigs. Serves 8.

Serve with mint? Really? This is pretty nasty. Also, I want no dessert that can double as an appetizer.

I finished another mystery for my column deadline, yesterday, a title in the Hotlanta teen series. This is written by two funny and savvy African American women and it is kind of like a gossip girl with diverse characters, only a whole lot more interesting.