Back in the Kitchen

Holy schmoly, it's been way too long since I've posted.  Sadly, I've thought about getting back into the swing of things, but kept procrastinating.  Thanks for the kick in the butt, Mrs. S!

In the past year and a half, I have been doing a remarkable amount of cooking.  Most of it has been repeats of banana bread (busted out Grandma's recipe, which has been a huge hit with the neighbors and friends), M&M cookies, and random dinners on the grill.  Back in June, I tried a chocolate cake recipe that failed epically. Thankfully, the Halloween version was much more successful.

The holidays this year have brought on a surge of baking, from testing a dressing for Thanksgiving (thanks Bobby Flay, that was some good mushroomy awesomeness), and Thanskgiving itself, I'm on a roll.  I made a batch of banana bread the other day, and followed it up with another four loaves tonight.  In addition to the banana bread , I busted out another Grandma recipe - applesauce cake.

It's been rather therapeutic to bake while rocking out to my Manheim Steamroller Christmas music channel on Pandora. Winston even helped lick some spatulas for me.  In drought-stricken Texas, us water conscious folks call that the pre-rinse cycle.

So, minus the gaps due to the crazy work travel schedule, I'm getting back in the kitchen, and online with more of Grandma's recipes. Some past adventures I'll catch up with include my pickling adventure and the applesauce cake.

Organizing the Recipes

Holy crap, do I have a lot of recipes!

Yeah, I know!  But here's  the thing..looks are deceiving.  Don't get me wrong, I still have a lot of recipes.  There's some pretty awesome, old school cooking things I get to learn from this project.  And, I discovered, recipe organization was NOT Grandma's strong suit.

I dove into that pile of loose recipes first.  I still haven't made it through, even after spending at least an hour each night this week.  The first thing I discovered was that there was no rhyme or reason to the pile.  So, I emptied out the green recipe box.  Thankfully, there wasn't any rhyme or reason to this box either.  

First, the tabs:

The tabs in the green box are simple alphabetically labelled tabs, unlike the other boxes which are organized by the type of recipe - Cakes & Pies, Breads, Eggs & Cheeses, etc.  So, now I have a choice to make.  Do I organize by the type of recipe - all types of pies go under "P"- or, do I organize by name, i.e. Pecan Pie goes under "P" and Apple Pie under "A".  Never one to tie myself down, I'm going with a hybrid - some frostings will go under "F" for frosting, unless it's clearly labeled by a flavor such as "B" for banana frosting.  We'll see how long I remember this system.

Second, the repeats:

I'm slowly discovering there are many repeated recipes.  I don't know (yet) if this is because my aunt combined her recipes with Grandma's (Susan did a lot of cooking at Grandma's through the years), or if Grandma just didn't realize she had repeats.  Granted, there are many recipes for baking a chocolate cake, so I definitely verify that the recipe isn't a repeat.  If it clearly is a repeat, then, I'm starting a separate pile to give to someone.  Plus, I'm also rewriting a number of recipes.  Call me anal, but I like things to be similar.  So, when I come across a piece of paper, I just have to copy it onto an index card.  I don't need everything to be on the same type of card (yeah, I'm not that anal-retentive), but 3.5x5 inch index card is a must.  Plus, some of the typed and handwritten recipes are bit hard for me to decipher.  I'm keeping all the originals in the back of the green box (I really can't throw away a perfectly good piece of history), but at least legible copies will be (semi) neatly organized.

Now that I've made a reasonable mess of my coffee table, I need to keep organizing, and cooking!  I was all geared up to cook dinner rolls this week.  In my first, cursory glances at the recipes, I remember seeing at least three recipes for rolls.  I'll be damned if I can't find them now!  I'm sure they're in one or the other of the boxes I haven't gotten to.  Then, in the midst of writing this blog, I found two of the recipes.  A glance through the ingredients glaringly pointed out a new lesson I need to take to heart: 

Check the ingredient list before beginning.

Ooops!  Who cooks with YEAST anymore?!?  So, I won't be doing dinner rolls tonight.  Instead, I started browsing for another recipe for this evening's adventure.  I had some set criteria in mind.  The recipe needed to meet the following requirements:

1. I possessed all the ingredients at home already;

2. Prep time was minimal;

3. Cook time was minimal.

I have a big meeting first thing Friday morning, so I don't want to be up until midnight cooking a three layer cake.  As I'm browsing the recipes, it's extremely hard to choose just one.  First, I think coffee bread cake will do, then I glimpse the next recipe for "Breath of Spring Cake".  But, can I really pass up something called "Lazy Daisy Cake" and frosting?  And don't even get me started on the fudge options!  (Side note:  Peak of Perfection Frosting has been refiled from "F" for frosting to "P" for Peak, as I just discovered the Peak of Perfection cake recipe!)  

I'll let you know how it goes this weekend!  ;)

If you can't stand the heat...

So, I acknowledge that this is entirely inspired by a melodramatic moment last night.  I finally broke down and watched Julie & Julia, the movie where Julie Powell decides to bake every single recipe from Julia Child's The Art of Mastering French Cooking.

But, my personal adventure is much more sentimental than a 29 year old trying to make sense of her life.  While I am 29 (okay, creepy!), I pretty much know where I'm going in life.  Where this adventure starts is in Glenn County, the family seat.

My grandma Kate was a true lady.  She had the hospitality and grace of a western frontier lady.  She grew up during the depression, married a quality man, gave birth to two amazing sons, and was the epitome of "grandma."  Catherine Carlise Fiack Lohse passed away in November 2010, after 92 amazing years.

During the clean-up of her house, I had two goals in mind:

1. Get her china;
2. Ger her recipes.

Three stuffed to the edges recipe boxes and a stack that easily fill a fourth box later, and a month and half after her death later, I'm ready to start.

I promised the women in the Lohse family I would compile a cookbook of our favorite recipes from Grandma, and that'll happen.  But, during this process, I'm making a promise to myself:  Once a week, I will cook a recipe.

So, here's to you Grandma.  You made the best spaghetti sauce, the yummiest cheese amburgers on white bread, and by far the most amazing, perfectly cooked M&M cookies!