I love it when I get packages in the mail — especially when those packages contain keepsakes that have been treasured and used by favourite members of the family.
This particular package included two soft-covered booklets of recipes: Rawleigh’s Good Health Guide 1959 Almanac and Cook Book, and Specially Selected Recipes, a publication of the National Home Monthly.
The books belonged to my late aunt, Iva Johnson, formerly of the Calderbank area, and Central Butte. They were passed along to me by my cousin, Lyla Payne of Coronach, and I thank her very much for thinking of me when she was sorting through her cupboards.
Some research shows the National Home Monthly was published in the 1920s-30s in Winnipeg and contained materials on agriculture, home and family, politics and the economy, and items of interest to females, males, the middle and working class, and anyone with national consciousness.
This particular cookbook was edited by Gertrude Dutton, described as a celebrated dietitian in charge of the better cookery department of the magazine.
“Our happiness, efficiency and general well-being depend, more than on any other factor, upon the food we eat. It has always been our aim to keep in mind the many problems confronting the women of our western country, who have the responsibility of making homes for their families,” Dutton says in the preface of the book.
“We give careful thought to the matter of time to be devoted to the preparing and serving of food, and the dish-washing. The majority of women in our country do not have help. Three nutritious meals a day should not require more than their share of the housekeeper’s time and strength. We try to select recipes and methods of food preparation and cooking which will not consume an undue amount of time,” Dutton said.
Today’s recipes come from this cookbook and the ones chosen today have been check-marked by my aunt, an indication she would recommend them for use in kitchens of today.
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Apricot Biscuits
Make a sweetened baking powder biscuit dough, roll out 1/4 inch thick and cut with a large round cutter. Put half of a cooked apricot in the centre of each, fold over, moisten one edge and press the edges firmly together. Brush the top with melted butter, sprinkle with granulated sugar and bake in a hot oven. A spoonful of jam of any kind may be used in place of the apricot.
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Date Patty Cakes
3/4 cup butter
4 eggs
1 cup milk
3 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
2 1/2 tsps. baking powder
1 1/2 tsps. cinnamon
1 lb. dates, cut in pieces
Cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs and beat the mixture till light. Add the milk alternately with the sifted flour, baking powder and spices, then the floured dates. (Part dates and part raisins may be used.) Beat till light. Fill greased muffin tins half full and bake in a moderate oven.
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Scrambled Eggs with Tomato
In a saucepan put either undiluted tomato soup or a tomato sauce made by straining canned tomato, adding flour for thickening, butter, salt and pepper. Heat and into it break the desired number of eggs, stir until thick and the eggs are cooked. Serve on toast or crackers.
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Scrambled Finnan Haddie
1 1/2 lbs. or 1 can finnan haddie (white fish)
4 tbsps. butter
4 tbsps. flour
2 cups milk
4 hard-cooked eggs
salt and pepper
1/2 cup dried crumbs
Put the fish in cold water, bring to a boil and simmer 20 minutes. Remove the skin and bones and flake, or use the canned finnan haddie.
Make a white sauce of the milk, butter and flour.
Slice the hard-cooked eggs and arrange in alternate layers in a bake dish with the fish and sauce. Cover the top with buttered crumbs and brown in the oven.
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Sardines on Toast
Toast and butter slices of bread. On each hot slice arrange a few sardines. Squeeze a little lemon juice over them if wished.
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Pumpkin Pie
1 1/2 cups pumpkin
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups rich milk
Mix and bake in one crust. Pumpkin pie is delicious if served with whipped cream, ice cream, a spoonful of strained honey on each serving, or with grated cheese put on the top and set in the oven long enough to melt the cheese. Either canned or fresh pumpkin may be used, the latter steamed and mashed or strained through a potato ricer or a sieve.
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Thought for the day: “We endeavour to make the fullest possible use of the many food products which are readily available to us here, especially the products of our own farms, without giving much consideration to the more costly luxuries, and what is usually known as fancy cookery, which we can well forego.” — Gertrude Dutton.
Joyce Walter can be reached at 691-1259 or jwalter@mjtimes.sk.ca
