by Ann B. Ross
103/4-ounce can cream of mushroom soup
1 medium onion, chopped
1 egg, slightly beaten
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup Cheddar cheese, grated cracker crumbs for top
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Mix all the ingredients, except the Cheddar cheese and cracker crumbs, and pour into a casserole. Sprinkle the top with the grated Cheddar cheese and cracker crumbs. Dot with butter. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes.
Serves 8.
Savory Succotash
One 16-ounce can French-style green beans, drained
16-ounce can whole kernel corn, drained
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1 cup soft bread crumbs
1 tablespoon butter, melted
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Combine all the above ingredients except the bread crumbs and butter. Place in a baking dish.
Combine the bread crumbs and the butter and sprinkle over the top. Bake for 30 minutes or until the crumbs are toasted.
Serves 6.
(Hazel Marie, I tried to get specific amounts for the following recipes, but Lillian said to just put in what looks right. Good luck with that.)
Here is a neat little trick that Lillian says she wouldn’t recommend if you’re cooking for a crowd. But for just one or two, you can take a sheet of tinfoil, put diced yellow summer squash on it, add a little cut-up onion, salt and pepper, and butter. Fold the tinfoil over it all and put it in the oven at 350°F until the squash is soft.
Do the same with potatoes, peeled and diced, instead of squash. And furthermore, Lillian says you can bake apples the same way, although you leave out the salt and pepper. Instead, you add a good bit of sugar and be generous with the butter, especially if you’re using Granny Smith apples.
Lillian says she has so many dessert recipes, both in books and in her head, that if you want to try anything other than the ones here, just let her know. She recommends that you find (by trying several different ones) your favorite recipe for old stand-bys like apple pie and pecan pie. That way, she says, after you’ve made them half a dozen times, you can whip up either one blindfolded. I think I’d just keep the recipes close to hand.
My Dream Pie
Stir together:
141/2-ounce can sour red cherries with juice
20-ounce can crushed pineapple with juice
11/4 cups sugar and 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour (combine before adding to fruit)
Mix the above and in a pot and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and add two 3-ounce packages of orange Jell-O. Stir until dissolved and let cool at room temperature.
Add 1 cup of chopped pecans and 4 sliced bananas.
Pour into a baked 9-inch pie shell. Chill 2 to 3 hours.
Serve with whipped cream on top.
Serves 6 to 8.
Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
4 canned pineapple slices
At least 5 Maraschino cherries for garnish
Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a 9-inch heavy skillet, melt the butter with the brown sugar. Cool slightly and arrange the pineapple slices on the sugar mixture and garnish with the cherries.
Prepare the following:
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
11/2 cups sifted cake flour
11/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Cream the butter and sugar until light. Add the egg and mix well. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together into a separate bowl and add alternately with the milk to the butter mixture, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla. Pour this over the pineapple and cherry mixture.
Bake the cake 50 minutes. Turn the skillet upside down to turn out the cake. Serve warm.
Serves 6.
(Hazel Marie, the above recipe for Pineapple Upside-Down Cake is a very old one—you can tell by the instruction to sift the flour. Lillian says you don’t have to do that now because flour is finer than it used to be. Anyway, she says her granny got the recipe from a lady she used to cook for in Georgia, and that lady got it from another lady, who saved it the time that Atlanta went up in flames. I’m not sure I believe all that, because in the case of a fire, a recipe would be the last thing I’d have on my mind.)
Best Chocolate Cake
Cake Batter
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
12-ounce can chocolate syrup
1 cup self-rising flour
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer (you may use a hand mixer). Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each. Add the vanilla. Stir in the chocolate syrup and flour alternately. Beat only until the ingredients are just blended. Pour the batter into two well-greased and floured 8-inch cake pans. (You may also line the pans with wax paper cut to size to prevent sticking.) Bake for 25 minutes or until the cakes test done. Cool slightly and turn out the layers onto a rack. Cool completely before icing.
Icing
1 stick butter
1/2 cup heavy (whipping) cream
6-ounce package semisweet chocolate morsels
1/2 teaspoon instant coffee (optional)
11/2 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
Melt the butter, cream, and chocolate morsels in a double boiler or heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cool. Whisk in the confectioner’s sugar until it reaches a desirable spreading consistency. Makes approximately 11/2 cups.
Serves 8.
(Hazel Marie, the finished cake can be held in the refrigerator. When you’re ready to serve it, warm each cake slice in the microwave just until the icing begins to melt. Serve with vanilla ice cream. If you like chocolate, and I know you do, you’ll love this cake. Lillian just told me that it’s the one she decided not to make while you were expecting. She was watching your weight and didn’t want to tempt you.)
Well, that’s it, and I say that with a great sigh of relief—not because it’s been a burden but because there have been so many distractions to hinder me. But I hope that you will find these recipes helpful, and if you don’t, that you will at least enjoy reading them and knowing that they were both given and collected with love.
Julia S. Murdoch
LuAnne’s Helpful Household Hints
LuAnne Conover showed up again at my house a week or so later, just when I thought my recipe project was over and done with. Having finished copying Lillian’s recipes into the book, I was just about to wrap it for a formal presentation to Hazel Marie. To tell the truth, I was hoping that LuAnne had forgotten about her Helpful Household Hints, but she came bustling in, confident that Hazel Marie couldn’t run a house without her help.
“Now, Julia,” she said, “you don’t need to rewrite any of this. You can copy it all into your book just as I have it, and I want Hazel Marie to know every word came from me.”
I glanced at the notes, handwritten on her personal stationery, and assured her that I wouldn’t dream of changing anything. “In fact,” I said, “I’ll put your name at the top of the page.”
That was because I didn’t want Hazel Marie to think they were my recommendations. Sometimes LuAnne gets carried away, and this was one of those times.
After looking over what she gave me, I said, “LuAnne, Hazel Marie doesn’t play bridge. She doesn’t know how, and, besides, bridge parties aren’t as popular as they used to be.”
“O
h, Julia, bridge is just an example. Now, listen,” she went on, “I wrote these just as they occurred to me, so they’re not in any particular order. But that just makes them more interesting, don’t you think?”
Glancing farther down the list of Helpful Household Hints, I wondered if, in spite of my promise to keep them as written, I could safely omit a few that were over the top. Hazel Marie was so naïve about many things that she might take them to heart and try to follow them to the letter. Maybe I could get away with a little judicious editing.
Keep a guest book on a hall table, so you’ll always have a record of who visits and who doesn’t.
Always stay abreast of your social obligations. If someone asks you to a party, a dinner, or whatever, you must return the favor. It is not necessary, however, to return tit for tat. For instance, you may be invited to a dinner party, but that doesn’t mean that you have to have your hosts for dinner as well. It is perfectly acceptable to invite them to a bridge party or something similar.
When you decide to have a dinner party, invite only as many people as your dining table will seat comfortably. You may think that is self-evident, but you’d be surprised at the hostesses who will seat eight in the dining room, then have a card table for four in the living room. That’s like discrimination or something, and it’s no fun to be cut off from the main party.
Anyway, when you plan a dinner party, you would be smart to plan some other event for the day after—like maybe an afternoon tea. And if you’re really smart, you’ll plan something else on the day following that, like maybe a small luncheon. That way, you only have to clean your house real good one time. You’ll have your good china out and your silver polished, ready to use, and your flower arrangements should hold up for three days. You’ll be killing three birds with one stone, and get a lot of paying back done in one fell swoop.
Afternoon teas or morning coffees are excellent ways to fulfill your obligations. You can invite those people you owe, but who you don’t feel especially close to or don’t even like. It’s easier to entertain them in a crowd of women who’ll stand around and talk over each other than it is to have them at your table, where you actually have to make conversation with them.
Remember that it is an honor to be asked to pour at a tea or coffee, so you should ask someone special to do it. It can be your closest friend or the minister’s wife or anyone else except the honoree, if you have one. The honoree should be at the door with you to greet guests as they arrive.
Whenever you use your good silver, be sure to count each piece as you wash it afterward. If you’re missing a piece, look through the garbage before throwing it out. Chances are the missing spoon will be there, or else in the laundry, along with the table linens.
You should hand-wash your good silver, especially the knives, because the heat in the dishwasher will loosen the silver handles from the blades.
Whenever you receive a wedding invitation, it’s a good idea to send the bride a piece of her silver or, if she’s especially close, a place setting. As a general rule, if she doesn’t get all her silver as wedding gifts, she may never get it.
It’s also a good idea to select a silver pattern for each of your daughters while they’re young. That way, you can add a piece over the years on their birthdays and at Christmas. By the time they’re engaged to marry, they could have complete sets. I realize that many young women these days don’t even list a silver pattern with department stores, preferring instead an everyday pattern in silver plate. They are making a bad mistake, especially if they marry well and are expected to entertain with some formality.
Watch the January white sales. Neiman Marcus calls them “pink sales,” so don’t get confused. If you’ll buy one sheet set every January or so, you’ll always have decent linens and save yourself some money, too.
Keep several cans of tuna in your pantry, and you will always have a meal in the making—tuna salad, tuna sandwiches, creamed tuna, or tuna casserole. If Mr. Pickens doesn’t like tuna, don’t tell him what it is.
You should keep a shelf or drawer somewhere just for gifts to have on hand for somebody’s birthday that sneaks up on you or a last-minute hostess gift or something like that. Keep wrapping paper, Scotch tape, and so forth with them, so you’re always prepared. Get in the habit of watching for sales so you can buy items for your gift drawer ahead of time. I always start my Christmas shopping early—at least by the end of summer, when there are a lot of sales.
Get your children on a schedule and keep them on it, especially at bedtime. Don’t invite guests for an evening affair until your children know how to behave. There is nothing worse than to be invited to a home where the parents allow their children to run through the house, screaming like wild Indians so you can’t hear yourself think.
Keep a box of Arm & Hammer baking soda near your stove. If you ever have a grease fire, throw some on it and it will put out the fire. Throw the baking soda, not the box.
An open box of baking soda (not baking powder) should be kept in your refrigerator to take care of any odors.
Keep extra candles and batteries of all sizes on hand and in a special place so you can find them in case of a power failure.
Change the batteries in your smoke alarm and your carbon monoxide alarm when Daylight Savings Time switches back to regular time. That’ll be sometime in October, I think.
Which reminds me. Buy Halloween trick-or-treat candy a little at a time—every time you go to the grocery store for a few weeks beforehand. And, if I were you, I wouldn’t go overboard in decorating the front of the house for Halloween. It just encourages children to ring your doorbell.
Whenever you make a casserole or something like spaghetti sauce, double the recipe and put half in the freezer. There will be times you won’t want to cook, so it’s nice to have something already made. Of course, you will have James cooking for you, so tell him to keep the freezer stocked. He might not always be there.
Never go to the grocery store hungry—you’ll buy too much. On the other hand, if you go right after you’ve eaten, you won’t buy enough and you’ll be going back several times a week. The best thing to do is make a list of what you need and stick to it.
I know Julia has told you this, but it’s worth repeating. Always have two CCC suits—one for summer and one for winter—cleaned and ready to wear with all their accessories. A CCC suit is one that is appropriate for Church, Country Club, and Cemetery, so that you’re prepared for any church service, dinner party, or funeral. Black is the best color for meeting the requirements of each of the Cs—with, of course, suitable changes of shoes, jewelry, and tops for the occasion or the season. Décolletage is hardly appropriate for Sunday morning, much less for a funeral at any time.
Whatever you do, don’t get slack about your dinner table. Once you permit your children to eat by the television, they’ll never learn any manners. They’ll ruin your rugs and carpets, too. Teach them table manners early by setting a proper table and expecting them to learn which fork to use and to chew with their mouths closed. Use your good china, sterling, and crystal at least on holidays, until they’re old enough to appreciate everyday use.
Teach them also the correct way to cut meat with a knife and fork. Nothing says poor raising like clasping a fork upright in your fist and holding the meat like it’s trying to get away from you.
And speaking of training children in the way they should go, little rhymes help to remind them. For instance, my children were trained to sit up straight and keep one hand in their laps by saying,
Mabel, Mabel, strong and able.
Get your elbows off the table.
There is also not one thing wrong with teaching children to say grace before they eat. A moment of prayer settles them down and makes for good digestion, besides teaching them to be thankful for what they have and especially for the hands that prepared it.
(Hazel Marie, this is a warning—LuAnne says sh
e has a lot more helpful hints and will pass them along as soon as she thinks of them. So just thank her for her help, then do as you please. You know as much about gracious living as she does and probably more.)
List of Recipes
Best Chocolate Cake
Binkie’s Fresh Peach Cobbler
Binkie’s Law School Spaghetti
Binkie’s Mother’s Corn Chowder
Broccoli Casserole
Cheese Pudding
Christmas Cranberry Salad
Coleman’s Favorite Pie
Coleman’s Hamburgers on the Grill
Coleman’s Shish Kebabs
Company Grits
Cornbread Dressing
Cottage Cheese Salad
Emma Sue’s Famous Dump Cake
Emma Sue’s Good Beef Stew
Etta Mae’s Chicken Cacciatore
Etta Mae’s Granny’s Ritz Cracker Pie
Gazpacho
Good Salad
Helen Stroud’s Lasagna
Helen Stroud’s Shrimp Creole
James’s Orange-Dipped-Rolls
James’s Parmesan-Dipped-Chicken
Lime-Ginger Ale Punch
LuAnne’s Apricot Delight Cake
LuAnne’s Easy Pot Roast
LuAnne’s No-Cook Barbecue Sauce
Mildred’s Beef Stroganoff
Mildred’s Biscuit Tortoni
Miss Mattie’s Chicken and Rice Casserole
Miss Mattie’s Cheese Wafers
Miss Mattie’s Deviled Crab
