Strawberry Freezer Jam

One day a year in the early summer, my mom woke us up at the crack of dawn to drive to a farm and pick strawberries with her. It had to be early morning, before the fields got too crowded and the sun got too hot. She did give us the choice to stay home but I always went because even at 6 years old, the occasional getting up with the sun made me feel good. Everything is quiet and peaceful and golden, especially in the countryside. You feel like you're getting a head start on the day. I still remember the very first time I went. A couple of my mom's friends came too, and she gave me an ice cream pail with a handle and a hole cut in the top to put my strawberries in.

I didn't really like strawberries at first, but I did like to pick them. I used to roll them in sugar before eating them because I found them too sour. I didn't like jam either, though I did love the look of the bright red jam my mom made inside their little glass jars, much brighter colored than the store bought strawberry or grape jam. I was a little sad when she put it in the freezer because it never looked quite as clear and pretty after. I was a peanut butter sandwich girl for a long time. I cried when I received my siblings' peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by mistake. Sometimes I ate them anyway.

As I got a little older and started to eat strawberries without a hefty coating of sugar, one morning I was making peanut butter toast for breakfast and decided to try Mom's strawberry jam on a corner of the toast of my own free will.  It converted me, just like that. I couldn't believe it. It was exactly how I wanted strawberries to taste when I was little. It took me a while to get used to it mixed with peanut butter, but it is to this day my favorite jam in the entire world. I started paying attention to how she made it, and started making my own once I found myself as an adult with an abundance of strawberries. Since then I've graduated to making jam with other freshly picked fruit, especially raspberries (which my parents love!) and sour cherries when I can get them, but strawberries are particularly easy to prepare because you don't need to remove seeds or pits.

I love freezer jam for three major reasons:

• First, you barely cook the fruit, which means it tastes more like the fresh fruit you made it out of. I am grossed out by cooked strawberries in most applications, so this is a very good thing for me. You can also keep the fruit more whole (I like large pieces of fruit in my jam).
• Second, you can make it with less sugar than you'd find in a store bought jam, which I think also helps with making it taste more like the fresh fruit (most store bought jam is too sweet for me).
• Third, it tends to set softer than traditional jam so it is easier to spread and doesn't look as gelatinous. This was a huge sticking point for me as a kid because I don't like the texture of a gelatinous thing that has been vigorously mixed after setting. (Oddly specific, I know.)

Notes:

• This is the recipe from inside the box of reduced sugar pectin and I can confirm this is the one my mother also used.
• Use the freshest, highest quality fruit you can find. I'm not gonna tell you how to live your life, but I generally don't bother with making homemade jam unless I can get freshly picked in-season fruit that I grew myself, picked myself from a farm, or bought directly from the producer at a farm market.
• You can use frozen strawberries that have been thawed. Just make sure they aren't too watery and are not freezer burned.
• This recipe requires pectin specially prepared for use in reduced sugar recipes. It comes in a pink box.
• Accurate measurements are very important for this recipe.
• Make sure your jars are VERY CLEAN before putting the jam inside.
• *As long as the jam doesn't grow mold, it's safe to eat for longer than 3 weeks kept in the fridge (we regularly used to keep the same jar in the fridge for 2-3 months). I've also eaten it after it's been frozen for several years and though the quality degrades a little bit, it's still delicious.

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RECIPE:

Strawberry Freezer Jam

from Sure-Jell

Makes about 7 cups

2 lb or 2 quarts fresh or frozen and thawed strawberries, enough to make 4 cups crushed fruit
1 box (1.75 oz, 49g) Sure Jell Less or No Sugar Recipes Fruit Pectin (pink box)
3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup water

Make sure your jars or other containers are clean and dry before beginning.

Prepare fruit: If using fresh: Rinse strawberries in cool water, then drain. Remove stem, leaves, and hull from each berry and cut in half. For fresh or frozen: Place berries in a clean mixing bowl. Mash berries with a potato masher, leaving some large pieces. You should end up with 4 cups; measure with a dry measuring cup to be sure, and if you have any extra, reserve it for another use.

Make jam: Place exactly 3 cups of sugar and entire packet of pectin in a saucepan and stir gently until thoroughly combined. Add 1 cup water. Place on stove over medium-high heat and whisk until thoroughly mixed and sugar is dissolved. Continue to stir constantly while letting it come to a boil. Let boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat. Working quickly, stir in crushed strawberries until thoroughly incorporated. Ladle the jam into clean canning jars, leaving at least 1/2 inch space at the top. Let stand with lids off to cool to room temperature, then put the lids on and let stand at room temperature for another 24 hours. The jam can be eaten immediately, stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks*, or in the freezer for up to 1 year*.

Scotcheroos

This is one thing I always loved but my family didn't make. I think I first had one at my dad's company picnic. I was in love with the sweet-salty, crispy bottom and chocolate frosting with some delicious extra flavor I couldn't identify. They popped up occasionally throughout my childhood but they were always at large events with lots of people where I didn't know who brought them so I couldn't ask about what they were.

Fast forward to college after I'd met my husband. I went over to his house once and he had come back from visiting his grandma with a big plate of these. I got really excited. Finally, I could ask someone! Scotcheroos, they were called. I looked up a recipe. They're like Rice Krispies treats but with peanut butter mixed in and a butterscotch-chocolate frosted top. The mystery flavor was butterscotch. I had watched my mom make Rice Krispies treats so I knew they'd be easy to make for myself. Oddly it took me quite some time after that before I ended up making them myself, maybe because he started bringing me to his family reunions shortly thereafter and I knew I'd get my fill of these at least once a year.

The family reunions have stopped now that Grandma C is no longer with us, but thanks to her I can make my own now.

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RECIPE:

Scotcheroos
from Rice Krispies
Makes 1 9x13 inch pan; serves 24

1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
6 cups Rice Krispies or other unsweetened puffed rice cereal
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips

Place corn syrup and sugar in a large saucepan over medium heat on the stove. Cook, stirring frequently, until sugar is dissolved and mixture has come to a boil. Remove pan from heat and stir in peanut butter until well mixed. Stir in cereal until well coated, then turn out the mixture into a greased 9x13 inch rectangular pan. Working quickly, press into an even layer. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile, place the semisweet chocolate chips and butterscotch chips in a medium microwave safe bowl. Heat on high for 15-20 seconds at a time, stirring well after each heat time, until melted. Spread evenly over the cereal mixture in the pan and let stand until set. Cut into bars when completely cooled. Store covered at room temperature.

No Bake Cookies

These were one of my favorite cookies as a kid, and easy for me to make too since they did not require the use of an oven so it was one of the first things I learned to make when I started cooking. This recipe comes from one of my mom's church cookbooks. They have chocolate, peanut butter, and oats in them.

Notes:

• Be sure to use old fashioned oats; if you use the instant kind they may dry out the mixture too much.

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RECIPE:

No Bake Cookies
Makes about 48

½ cup (4 oz) butter
2 cups granulated sugar
½ cup milk
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup creamy peanut butter
3 cups old fashioned oats

Place first four ingredients in a saucepan, and heat on medium heat until they melt and begin to boil. Boil the mixture for one minute, then remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and peanut butter until well blended, and mix in oats last. Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper or press into a 9x13” pan, and let cool. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Puppy Chow

A friend of my mom's introduced my family to this treat when I was about 6 or 7 years old by having us help her make it. It gets its name from looking sort of like dog kibble. You may know it by another name, such as People Chow or Muddy Buddies. This is another thing that you only ever used to be able to get by making it yourself, but I have seen it fully prepared and for sale in some grocery stores. I have very recently found friends who also know what this is from their childhood and absolutely love it. If you love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter and you also like sweets, you'll probably love it too.

If you want to be extra (gross), you can put it in a bowl, pour milk over it and eat it like cereal, like I did very occasionally when I was a kid. Yikes! Seriously, it tastes better all by itself.

Notes:

• Instead of shaking it in a bag to coat it with powdered sugar, my mom used to leave the cereal in the bowl, sift the powdered sugar over the chocolate coated cereal, and mix until it was coated. This way tends to coat the pieces less evenly but might potentially be less messy and involve fewer containers.

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RECIPE:

Puppy Chow
Makes about 8 cups, serves 8-12 as a snack

6 cups Crispix cereal (about 1 12 oz box)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup creamy peanut butter
½ cup (4 oz, 1 stick) butter
2 cups powdered sugar

Place cereal in large mixing bowl and set aside. Melt together chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter on stove or in the microwave on high power in 30 second increments, and mix until fully combined. Pour chocolate mixture over cereal and stir gently until coated. Place 1 cup powdered sugar in a large, clean paper or plastic bag; add half of the cereal, close the bag and shake until coated. Repeat with second cup of powdered sugar and other half of cereal mixture. Store in an airtight container.

Pistachio Dessert

My family has always touted this as a very special treat fit for the likes of winter holidays. I think it's because of the bright green pistachio pudding layer and lots of nuts. Pistachio pudding was one of my favorite desserts growing up so I always enjoyed eating this very fancy version when it appeared in our house.

For my brother's wedding today, he requested that we make this and bring it to the dinner celebration, a perfectly reasonable feat given that the entire party was less than 20 people. I learned later that his wife's family also made this very same pistachio dessert for holidays growing up (a huge surprise to me since I had never met anyone else before who knew of it), so it was an especially fitting dessert to celebrate their marriage.

Notes:

• My mom prefers to make this with walnuts but you can also use pecans or even pistachios. Toast the nuts before using them if you can to deepen their flavor.
• If you are skeeved out by Cool Whip and want a more natural alternative, you would likely be able to use an equivalent volume of sweetened stabilized whipped cream (about 6 cups whipped, from 3 cups liquid heavy cream) instead. Most stabilized whipped cream recipes seem to involve gelatin but you can also use cornstarch or cream of tartar. Please note that I have not yet personally tried this substitution so I am not sure how well it will work.
• My mom most recently made this with 3 packages of pudding mix and 3 3/4 cups milk and she liked the larger volume of pudding in the dessert.
• Do not use non-dairy milk; the pudding will not set.
• You can also make this in individual servings in plastic wine cups as we did for the wedding, or glasses or jars (for "jarfaits" as a friend termed them once) if you want the containers to be reusable. My mom was making them big enough to fill the cups to the top so we ended up with 13, but I feel like that serving size was just a little too large. I would aim for 16 servings. If serving them in 8 oz/1 cup jars you could probably make 18-20. Bake the crust in the pan and then break it into crumbles after it has cooled, then layer the ingredients in the smaller containers as described.

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RECIPE:

Pistachio Dessert
Makes 1 9x13 pan; serves 16-20

4 oz (1/2 cup, 1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp granulated sugar
3/4 cup finely ground walnuts or pistachios
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup powdered sugar
16 oz (1 large package) Cool Whip, divided
2 small packages (3.4 oz each) instant pistachio pudding mix
2 1/2 cups milk
1/4 to 1/3 cup chopped walnuts or pistachios

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium bowl combine butter, flour, granulated sugar, and 3/4 cup ground nuts until well blended. Press evenly into the bottom of a 9 x 13 x 2 in rectangular pan and bake for 10 minutes or until fragrant. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Beat cream cheese and powdered sugar together until well blended, then incorporate half of the Cool Whip in several additions until creamy. Spread over the cooled crust and place in the refrigerator to stay chilled. In a third medium bowl, beat the dry pudding mix and milk on low speed or stir with a whisk until thickened and well blended, about 3-5 minutes. Spread the pudding mixture evenly over the cream cheese layer in the pan. Spread the remaining Cool Whip evenly over the pistachio pudding layer and garnish with 1/4 cup chopped nuts. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours until all layers are well chilled, then it is ready to serve. Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

White Bean and Chicken Chili

My mom started making this after I left for college, but it reminds me strongly of her. I had it once during a visit home and couldn't get enough of it so I had to get her recipe.

Notes:

• The original recipe called for 1 tsp ground white pepper but I found that a little too much for my tastes. 1/2 tsp is good for my mild-end-of-medium preference.
• If you can find canned Hatch chiles, they are particularly good in this! I accidentally bought the spicy/hot ones rather than mild ones but found that they're not terribly spicy and I was able to handle them.

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RECIPE:

White Bean and Chicken Chili
Adapted slightly from the recipe from the Appleton Post-Crescent, early 2000s
Serves 4

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast halves (2-3 breast halves)
1 tsp olive oil
1 large onion
1 tbsp bottled minced garlic
15 oz Great Northern white beans
19 oz cannellini beans
4.5 oz chopped green chilies
1 ½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp pepper, preferably white (use less)
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
14.5 oz chicken broth
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp water
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese (optional, for topping)
Sour cream (optional, for topping)

Partially defrost chicken. Meanwhile, heat olive oil over medium heat. Peel and coarsely chop onion, adding to the pot as you chop. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking. Cut the chicken into bite-size chunks, add to the pot and stir occasionally. Add garlic and continue to cook. While the chicken cooks, rinse and drain both types of beans and drain the chilies. Add the chilies to the pot along with the cumin, white pepper and cayenne pepper. Raise the heat to high and add the broth and drained beans. Cover the pot and bring the chili to a boil. Meanwhile, combine the cornstarch and water in a small container that has a lid. Shake well to remove any lumps. When the chili boils, the chicken should be cooked through. Add the cornstarch mixture a little at a time, stirring constantly. Continue to boil until the chili reaches the desired thickness. Remove from heat and serve. Garnish with cheese and sour cream, if desired.

Beef Marinade

My family has made this for holidays and special occasions for as long as I can remember. Filet mignon is not really something that needs this kind of preparation to taste good, but it definitely tastes good this way to me.

My dad told me about the reaction this got the first time my grandma made it. I'm not sure where my grandma got the recipe. It was for some sort of family party. He helped her prepare a large amount of venison (something like 10 pounds) and mix the marinade, and then ended up needing to go somewhere for a few hours. He came back to find that it was all gone. All of the meat had been cooked and eaten before my dad could have some. Maybe this is why he always makes so much of it, so that he and we will always have as much as we care to eat.

Part of me thinks he'd be upset with me for sharing it here because he's told me not to share it before (I don't know how serious he was) but honestly, what is the point of secret recipes? Who are we keeping it a secret from and why? I sort of get why they were a thing before the internet but not anymore. It's not like we run a restaurant where we stand to gain financially from a proprietary recipe, or have friends that only like us for our delicious food that would stop coming to see us if they could make it themselves. Personally, I love sharing good recipes because then more people can enjoy the delicious things we make.

Notes:

• I realize some things could probably be executed better, but this is how you get it to taste like family nostalgia. If you like doing things a little differently, absolutely go ahead and improve upon it.
• This would probably work well with other cuts of beef and other kinds of meat. My grandma first made this with venison.
• Grilling is by far the best way to cook this. If you can't grill it, broil it.

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RECIPE:

Beef Marinade

from my grandma

Serves 4-6

1 lb beef tenderloin

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp molasses

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup water

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 large onion, chopped

Cut beef tenderloin into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices. Stir remaining ingredients together in a large bowl until sugar is dissolved. Add beef and marinate for 6-18 hours. Grill over medium-high heat for about 1-2 minutes per side, or to desired doneness.

Cucumber Noodle Salad

This is a recipe from my grandma (my mom's mom). As with many things I post on this site, this was a food I did not like as a child but once I was an adult and learned to like cucumbers, I actually tried it and grew to love it. In general, pasta salad is not something I eat, but I think this one is good because it's got a light vinegary dressing and is great for the summer when it's full of cooling, fresh in-season cucumbers (if you grow them you probably have times where you don't know what to do with them all). I got on a kick last summer where I kept making this and I can't wait for later in the summer when the cucumbers are good again.

Notes:

• Choosing cucumbers
• This recipe works best with pickling cucumbers (they are small, have thin edible skin, and tend to have very small seeds or no seeds). If you can't get those, get English or Persian cucumbers, which have similar characteristics.
• If you can only find regular cucumbers, buy the skinniest ones you can find, peel them (the skin can be bitter and tough depending on the time of year), and cut them in half lengthwise before slicing.
• If the seeds in your cucumbers are big, scoop out the seeds and watery middle part with a spoon. I find it unpleasant to eat this salad with large cucumber seeds in it.
• Substitutions
• Pasta: Other similarly sized, dense, compact shapes of pasta that hold sauce well will work nicely; I have also made it with egg noodles. This salad can be made gluten free if you use gluten free pasta; I found some brown rice rotini that worked great. This salad can also be made vegan if you use pasta that does not contain egg.
• Vinegar: Instead of white vinegar I have used a number of other types (rice vinegar, champagne vinegar, white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar), all of which I thought were pretty good.
• Canola oil: any other neutral, mild tasting oil will work. I usually use olive oil.
• My grandma's version calls for 1 1/2 cups of sugar but I felt this was too sweet so I reduced it to 1 1/4. You can reduce it further if you like, but for the best flavor I think at least 1 cup is necessary.
• I usually add a large pinch of salt (the original recipe does not call for it).
• I'm working on a version with less water because a bunch of water comes out of the cucumbers the longer it sits and it dilutes the dressing.
• This salad makes great potluck/picnic food.

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RECIPE:

Cucumber Noodle Salad
Adapted from my grandma's recipe
Makes about 4 quarts, serves 12-16 people

1 box (16 oz/450 g) rotini noodles
8-10 pickling cucumbers (about 2 lb/900 g)
1 medium sweet onion (about 1/2 lb, 225 g)

Dressing:
1 1/4 cups (2/3 lb, about 300 g) sugar
1 cup (235 ml) water
3/4 cup (175 ml) white vinegar
1 tbsp prepared mustard
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp dry parsley (or 3 tbsp fresh minced)

Cook rotini noodles as directed on package, until on the firm side of al dente. Slice cucumbers about 1/8 inch (~3 mm) thick -- if you have a mandoline slicer, it makes quick work of them. Finely chop or slice sweet onion. Place in a large bowl and set aside while you prepare the dressing.

Whisk all dressing ingredients together in a medium bowl. Pour over noodles, cucumber, and onion and stir to coat. Tastes best when left to stand in refrigerator for several hours before eating.

Chip Dip

Posting a recipe in honor of my grandmother because it is her birthday today and this recipe is one that I know from her. I realize it sounds low-key gross just looking at the ingredient list, and maybe it is, but for me nostalgia wins on this one. This takes me straight back to family reunion cookouts in her backyard on Independence Day weekend. The fact that I still like it as an adult is enough. It is a mix of slightly sweet, salty, creamy, and tangy flavors.

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RECIPE:

Chip Dip

from my grandmother

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/3 to ½ cup tomato ketchup, to taste

1/3 to ½ cup red French dressing (she is partial to Western brand), to taste

Beat all ingredients in a medium bowl with electric mixer until thoroughly blended. Serve with potato chips.

Chicken Grape Salad

This is one of my mom's recipes. When she and my dad were married but before they had children and were living in Colorado, a woman she worked with taught her how to make this salad. I didn't like mayonnaise or creamy dressings when I was a kid but I finally tried this salad when I was in high school, and I've been in love ever since. She told me that you can sprinkle toasted sliced almonds on top, but she generally didn't when she served it at home. It's especially nice in the summer a little cold from the fridge, but it's good any time really.

My local grocery store makes this salad, and while I don't like that it's overdressed and they keep the grapes whole, I do love that they put cashew pieces in it. So now I put cashews in it too. ;) Still not sure whether I prefer the chicken cubed or shredded. I think shredded chicken helps the dressing stick a little better but I very slightly prefer the texture of cubed. Try both and decide for yourself.

Notes:
2/15/19: Admittedly I think the recipe amounts could use some adjustment. As written, it makes kind of a lot of dressing for the amount of salad ingredients. I find that if you put in too much celery it's hard to taste the sweet flavors. Try not to make the dressing too thin or it will sit at the bottom of the container instead of sticking to the ingredients. I have been working on alternatives to Miracle Whip. For this latest batch I used a mix of plain Greek yogurt and Kewpie mayonnaise, because it's what I had and I thought straight regular mayonnaise might be too heavy. It worked all right but I think I needed to add a little more sugar and lemon because it was lacking the tang that Miracle Whip adds. I was using a particularly crappy brand of bottled lemon juice which didn't help.

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RECIPE:

Chicken Grape Salad

Salad:
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast

1 tsp olive or canola oil
1/8 tsp garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste
¾ lb red grapes, washed
2 stalks celery

Dressing:
¾ cup Miracle Whip
1 tbsp lemon juice (fresh is best but bottled will do)
1 tbsp sugar, or to taste
¼ to 1/3 cup milk

Garnish (optional):
Sliced almonds or cashew pieces, toasted

Preheat oven to 375°F. Rub oil on chicken pieces and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Bake until interior is no longer pink, about 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool enough to handle. While the chicken cools, chop celery into small pieces and cut each grape in half. Place celery and grapes in a large bowl. You can also prepare the dressing if you need more time for the chicken to cool.

For dressing: place Miracle Whip, lemon juice, and sugar in small bowl and mix with wire whisk until just combined. Add milk a little at a time until desired consistency. Set aside until ready to use.

When chicken is cooled, cut into bite size pieces or shred with a fork, and add to the bowl with the celery and grapes. Pour dressing over the salad ingredients and mix gently to coat. This tastes best when refrigerated for several hours before eating. Sprinkle with slivered almonds, if desired. Sprinkle toasted almond slices or cashew pieces immediately before serving, if desired.

Nutmeg-Lemon Cutout Cookies

This is my mother's family's Christmas cookie recipe. My mother and I attribute this recipe to my grandma, though I am not sure if she came up with it, it was passed down to her from relatives or friends I never met, or found it somewhere, tried it out and loved it so much she just kept making it.

What distinguishes this recipe and what makes it so much more tasty and interesting than a simple sugar cookie is the sour cream, nutmeg, and lemon extract. The dough is soft but just firm enough after chilling to be rolled. They are initially somewhat crisp when they come out of the oven but soften after being frosted. They are not very sweet on their own, so they can take a bit of frosting and sprinkles without being overwhelmingly sweet.

The nostalgia I have for these cookies cannot be understated. This is what Christmas smells like to me. I have many happy memories of decorating these with my mom and siblings, and we even have home videos of this process from many different years. My favorite is the one where my 2-year-old sister was still up at midnight by herself with my mom, in a cycle of shaking the sprinkles onto the frosted cookies, shaking it too close and getting frosting on the sprinkle shaker top, and licking it off every time before continuing to sprinkle (lol ew). In another year, I wanted purple frosting (which was every year, let's be honest) and my mom mixed red and blue coloring but it turned a very gray purple instead, and we frosted circle shaped cookies with it, and my brothers called them "dirty snowballs" much to my dismay. The year I studied abroad in Japan, I couldn't go home for the holidays so my mom mailed me sprinkles (which are not widely available there) and I made these cookies for my host family.

You likely have your own family traditions, but if you decide to give these a try I really hope you like them. It's also worth mentioning that you don't have to wait for Christmas to make these! They're good anytime you want a frosted cutout cookie. My mom has been known to make these for Halloween too.

Notes:

• Be sure the dough is well chilled before you roll it and be generous with the flour when rolling because it tends to be pretty sticky.
• We had a set of Mirro cookie cutters in my house growing up (and I have some now too, because nostalgia). My mom went for simpler shapes without lots of skinny bits or points because she wanted to not have to worry about these bits warping or breaking, and wanted the cookies to bake evenly. This dough is able to handle being cut into more complicated shapes but you may have to be extra careful not to stretch or break them.
• If cutting more than one shape, try to bake shapes of similar sizes together.

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RECIPE:

Nutmeg-Lemon Cutout Cookies
from my grandma
makes about 4 dozen

Cookies:
1/2 cup Crisco or other shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp pure lemon extract
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Frosting:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Milk to thin to desired consistency (usually about 2-3 tsp)
Food coloring (optional)

Sprinkles, for decoration (optional)

Cream Crisco and sugar together in a mixing bowl until fluffy. Mix in egg, sour cream and lemon extract. Sift dry ingredients together and stir into Crisco mixture until well blended and a soft dough has formed. Cover and place in refrigerator for at least 1 hour to chill.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375°F. Roll chilled dough to ¼ inch thick on a well floured surface with a rolling pin, and cut into shapes with cookie cutters dipped in flour. Bake until edges just start to brown (about 7-8 minutes). Move cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. They may be frosted and decorated when completely cool.

To make frosting, beat all ingredients together in a small bowl until smooth. Tint with food coloring if desired, then spread about 1 tbsp of frosting on each cookie. Scatter sprinkles over the top for decoration before the frosting sets, if desired. Let stand on the cookie for about 30-45 minutes until frosting sets. Store at room temperature in an airtight container with parchment or wax paper between layers of cookies.

Home Style Applesauce

Apples are one of my very favorite fruits. Every fall I get so excited that I go straight to the orchard in September once Cortland apples are ready, pick more than I can eat, and then come winter I have these soft apples in my crisper that aren't really good for eating fresh or most baking anymore. But one simple, delicious thing you CAN still make out of them is applesauce. This is something my mom would make intermittently throughout the winter for a snack or dessert, though you could serve it on the side of some kinds of meat dishes (pork is a pretty common choice). It was especially nice when we were craving apple pie but weren't quite up to the work and had apples to use up. This is yet another instance where no store bought version can really compare.

The recipe has 3 ingredients -- most any kind of cooking/baking apple, water, and sugar -- and easily scales to the number of apples you have. Cortland is my favorite variety to use, though I've used Regent, Macoun, Northern Spy, and Macintosh apples in recent memory with good results. I do not recommend Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, or Gala apples, or any really crisp/firm variety.

Important Note: Please do not use Red Delicious apples for this or anything you actually want to enjoy eating. As far as I'm concerned, Red Delicious apples are not food. They were bred to look good and that's about it. Personal tastes aside, they don't really break down in the way that most other apples would when they cook -- they get mealy and grainy, which is not a pleasant texture for applesauce.

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RECIPE:

Home Style Applesauce
serves 4

6-7 medium-large baking apples
2 tbsp granulated sugar, or to taste
1/3 cup water, possibly more depending on preference
Ground cinnamon (optional), for finishing

Peel, core, and slice your apples into a heavy bottomed pot. Add sugar and water (if you need more than 1/3 cup, make sure it's just enough to boil to get the apples cooking on the bottom). Put on medium-high heat. When it boils and steam starts to come up, turn heat to low and cover the pot. Uncover and stir every few minutes to move the uncooked apples on the top toward the heat and to help break down the ones cooking toward the bottom. If it gets too thick and you're worried about it burning, add a little more water. After it's mostly cooked, taste it for sweetness. Add a little more sugar if you think it's not sweet enough. It is done when all the apples are cooked through (you should be able to cut the bigger pieces with a spoon with almost no effort) and the texture is to your liking. It usually takes about 15-20 minutes for me and I like it mostly broken down with some larger pieces still intact. If you like cinnamon, sprinkle it on the hot applesauce just before you eat it. Get you some Penzey's Vietnamese cinnamon for a real treat.

If you need to store it long term, it can be frozen in a plastic bag for up to a year. Just thaw and serve it hot.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Possibly an unpopular opinion: the best chocolate chip cookies have oatmeal in them.

These was my mom's go-to cookie recipe when we were growing up, and the first cookies I ever learned to make by myself. It's the recipe on the back of the Quaker oatmeal box with semi-sweet  chocolate chips. My mom tells me these were also her mother's (my grandma's) go-to cookies as well. When she learned to make them, my grandma impressed upon her the importance of only putting half the bag of chocolate chips in, rather than the full 12 oz bag it called for. I imagine it's because she had 9 children and not a lot of money for chocolate, but I think there is such a thing as too many mix-ins in a cookie. At some point you have to stop calling it a cookie. Plus, I've had too many chocolate chip cookies where the cookie part is an afterthought -- a sugary, tasteless slog just to get to the chocolate bits. The oatmeal part of the cookie is just as good as the chocolate bits here. :)

I still remember the first time I made them because that night I learned an important lesson. I was probably 11 or 12 years old. I got ambitious and made a batch of these cookies after dinner one night while my mom was at work, all by myself. Being that it was my first batch of cookies, I saw that the ingredient list included salt. But sweet things don't need salt, I reasoned, and deliberately skipped it. My mom came home and was pleasantly surprised that I had made cookies and used the oven all by myself (and most importantly I had not burned down the house). I gave her one to eat. She took one bite, and the first thing out of her mouth was "they're good, but you didn't put salt in them!" and I was like "HOW DID YOU KNOW??" Then I remembered a batch of egg bread she had made a while back that we all thought tasted weird. The memory stuck in my mind because it was the weirdest tasting bread I had ever eaten. We both looked at the recipe and mom realized it hadn't called for any salt. I suddenly understood how my mom would know just by tasting. Salt is important, kids.

I had to retrieve the original recipe from my mom's stash because the one currently on Quaker's website halves the salt and then calls it "optional" (as if). You need some salt. It makes them taste better. Reduce it if you must, but do not leave it out completely. Below is the recipe as I make it. I take Grandma's advice with the chocolate chips, and cut some of the butter out because I was too lazy to cut a third stick in half once, and I never miss it.

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RECIPE:

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Quaker Oats, with input from three generations of my family

1 cup (2 sticks/225 g) butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup (150 g) brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (200 g) all-purpose flour
1 tsp (5 g) baking soda
1 tsp (5 g) kosher salt (less if you're using salted butter)
3 cups (260 g) old fashioned oats, uncooked
6 oz (170 g) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 375 F/190 C. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on medium speed until thoroughly mixed, lightened in color, and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, and mix until well combined. Add flour, baking soda, and salt to the bowl and mix on very low speed until just incorporated. Add one cup of oats at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition until incorporated. Either mix in chocolate chips by hand or with the mixer on low speed until evenly incorporated. Drop by rounded spoonfuls (about 2 tbsp each) or scoop balls of dough with a medium size cookie scoop onto parchment paper lined baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-9 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Makes about 3.5-4 dozen.

Edit 7/8/22: I've made these a couple of times now with half butterscotch chips and half chocolate chips and I really like them this way.

Raspberry Pie

Raspberries are one of my favorite fruits. Until I was about 20 years old, I had only ever had fresh raspberries from the grocery store in the little plastic clamshell boxes. Expensive, few, and precious, a special treat. But now they are even more special because for me, they are steeped in the generosity of others.

My life experience with raspberry pie began rocky. My mom made a raspberry pie one time when I was a child, thickened with tapioca. I distinctly remember this because the tapioca didn't get thoroughly cooked and it was grainy and had white flecks. Then I met my husband, and he told me his grandma's raspberry pie was one of his very favorite desserts, despite not liking fruit pie in general. Early in our relationship, he went to visit his grandmother in the summer, and in typical grandma fashion she sent him home with a huge pile of fresh raspberries that she grew, the largest amount of raspberries I had ever seen in one place, way more than one could possibly finish before getting tired of them or the fruit going bad. I made a pie for him with my mom's strawberry pie recipe (which I like) but with raspberry ingredients. Half of it rotted in the fridge and I was a little sad but I have to admit that even I thought it was just OK.

We were still dating the next summer, and that year he decided to bring me to the annual family reunion to meet his grandmother. I was nervous but everyone was kind, especially grandma. She had brought raspberry pie since the raspberries were in season. It was in a 9x13 pan, and the filling was about twice as thick as a regular pie. I loved it and I told her so. From then on, she'd be sure to bring frozen raspberries to reunions to give to me, and she wrote up her recipe for the pie and gave it to me because she knew I liked to cook and bake too. A couple of times, the reunion was not going to happen because she and her boyfriend were planning a long vacation but she invited us to their farm (her boyfriend's dairy farm, but they also grew fruit and vegetables for their own use) to pick the raspberries while they were away, so someone could enjoy them (I'm thankful I got to be the one to do that).

One summer, she invited us to visit and pick raspberries while they were there, on my birthday. We picked fruit for about an hour, and she had of course made a pie and lots and lots of other food. They also gave us furniture they didn't want, and we got to play with the farm kittens. She even dug up some rhubarb and raspberry plants for us to plant in our yard now that we had one. It was a beautiful, relaxing day.

Unfortunately, since then grandma has not hosted a reunion and has had to move away from the farm into assisted living due to her health, and there's no one to care for the raspberries. My raspberry patch had a rough, slow start (my own fault for planting it where I did initially) but has finally established itself, though it still doesn't produce anywhere near enough to bake with.

However, the thread of love and generosity through raspberries continues to grow longer. My neighbors across the street inherited a large raspberry patch that gives their family more than they care to eat, and they share with me.

In the spirit of all this generosity, I try to share this pie with as many people as I can. The year she moved to my city, my sister and I ate nearly a whole pie by ourselves in a weekend while she hunted for apartments. I have brought this pie to work potlucks a couple of times, to rave reviews. Another year I made one, and the next day the electricity went out. The pie has to stay cold because of the gelatin in it but it was 90 degrees and humid outside. Around the 24 hour mark, the neighbors without electricity got together in the evening to while away some time, and we shared this pie so it wouldn't go bad (nobody complained about getting to eat pie). Another summer, my dear friend visited me for lazy vacation time after her bachelorette weekend and we picked raspberries and made a pie together. Picking goes a lot faster with two people, and you have someone to curse the mosquitoes with too. ;)

Grandma C's recipe makes use of ingredients and techniques I wouldn't normally consider to be quality cooking (Jello mix and an oil-based no-roll crust, for example) but the result tastes so good that I can't mess with it. The contrast of textures (crumbly crust, smooth gelatin, soft fruit) and balance of sweet and tart is what really makes this pie good.

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RECIPE:

Fresh Raspberry Pie
from my husband's Grandma C (Sandy)

Crust:

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup (100 g) vegetable oil

½ tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix together flour, salt, 2 tbsp sugar, oil, and milk until combined. Pat into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown, pricking any bubbles with a fork or knife to release air. Remove from oven and place pan on a rack to cool. When it is almost or completely cooled, prepare filling.

Filling:

1 cup sugar

1 ½ cups water

2 tbsp cornstarch
3 oz (1 small box) raspberry flavored gelatin
4 cups (about 1 lb/450 g) fresh raspberries, washed (or 4-5 cups / 20 oz frozen raspberries; see notes)

Place 1 cup sugar, water, and cornstarch in a saucepan. Whisk to combine. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking often so it doesn’t burn. Let boil for about 3 minutes until thickened. Remove from heat and whisk in dry gelatin until well combined; this usually takes about 2 minutes. Gently fold in raspberries and pour into pie shell. Refrigerate until set, about 3-4 hours.

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Notes:

• If you REALLY have a lot of raspberries to burn and a crowd to bake for, double the recipe and make it in a 9x13 inch pan a la Grandma C.
• One thing I have done to improve upon this recipe is making it work with frozen raspberries. Homegrown raspberries are best, of course, but frozen ones from the grocery store would likely work too since they're often harvested and immediately frozen at their freshest. Though the texture might not be as good, I think I may like the taste better than fresh raspberries (not to mention much less expensive...nothing like a $50 pie that also doesn't taste good). If using frozen berries, thaw overnight in refrigerator (or carefully defrost in the microwave) and reserve juice/liquid that comes out after thawing. Add 1 tbsp lemon juice to filling; decrease water in filling by 1 cup and use juice from thawed berries in its place.
• You can also make this with fresh strawberries and strawberry gelatin. I do not recommend using frozen strawberries.
• I usually end up with a little extra filling. You can pour it into small bowls or glasses, put it in the refrigerator to set, and eat