Cookbook Perusing: Florida's Natural, Favorite Recipes From Our Groves

Florida's Natural, Favorite Recipes From Our Groves (1998) is a hardcover collection of recipes from the co-op of growers who make Florida's Natural Juices. There are lots of large color photos of the prepared recipes, vintage black and whites of the citrus industry and photos of vintage citrus crate labels. There is short but interesting history of the Florida citrus industry and recollections by growers.
There are recipes from many recipe categories, appetizers to desserts.
This orange recipe sounds very easy and something a little different than the widely seen onion soup and cream soup recipes. It is an older recipe so it calls for whole cut up chicken. Now people would probably use breasts or thighs.

Poulet A L'Orange

2 broiler-fryer chickens, cut up

2 medium navel oranges, unpeeled and cut into thick slices

1 envelope onion soup mix

1-1/2 cups orange juice, home-squeezed style

Place chicken and orange slices in large roasting pan. Add onion soup mix. Pour orange juice over chicken and orange slices. Bake 1-1/2 hours in 400 degree oven until tender and glazed, basting and turning occasionally. Serve with pan juice. Serves 6.

I don't see many grapefruit recipes in cookbooks but this one has quite a few. A pie, cake, several main dishes and others.

Pork Chops With Grapefruit Glaze

6 pork chops

1 grapefruit, squeezed for juice

1/2 stick butter or margarine, melted

2 tablespoons honey

To prepare glaze, mix melted butter, juice from the grapefruit, and honey. Set aside. Cook chops on medium hot grill; 15 minutes before done brush with glaze. Turn chops and continue to brush with glaze until done.

Fresh-Cherry Tart

I was looking through one of my old recipe clipping files today and found this Good Housekeeping Mag. recipe from 1979 that features fresh cherries. They are available around here for a reasonable price now. Usually when I buy them they all get eaten up as a snack before I can use them in a recipe.
The recipe was one of their 30 Minute features, but I think this recipe would take longer that that because you need to pit the cherries.

Fresh-Cherry Tart

2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/2 of 10-1/2-ounce bag miniature marshmallows (2 cups) or about 20 regular marshmallows
2-1/2 cups oven-toasted rice cereal
1 (3-1/2- to 3-3/4 ounce)package vanilla instant pudding and pie filling
1-1/4 cups milk
1 cup heavy or whipping cream
1 teaspoon almond extract
1-1/2 pounds sweet cherries

In 2-quart saucepan over low heat, melt butter. Add marshmallows; heat until marshmallows are melted, stirring frequently. Remove saucepan from heat; stir in cereal until well mixed. With buttered hand, pat mixture into greased 10-inch tart pan or 9-inch pie plate.
In large bowl with mixer at high speed, beat pudding mix and remaining ingredients except cherries 5 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Spoon mixture into cereal crust. Refrigerate.
With cherry pitter, remove pits from cherries or cut each cherry in half but not all the way through to remove pit. Gently press cherries into cream filling. Makes 8 servings.

Cookbook Perusing: Home Economics Fund Raising Books

I have decided to incorporate one of my other recipes blogs into this one. It is more trouble than it is worth to post on a bunch of different blogs. So I will move the posts over here. Cookbook Perusing has random posts about some of the cookbooks in my huge collection. This was the first post from that blog:

Cookbook collectors usually have different categories of books that they like to specialize in. Some particularly like the organization or church books usually called community cookbooks. I used to collect those but gave most of them to my husband to sell. I still collect fund raising books put out by home economics teachers. I guess that is partially because I have a degree in home economics and in hindsight wish I had got a credential and been a teacher instead of getting into child development. Plus they always have recipes that the average person would actually make. Well anyway this recipe is from a particularly good Home Ec book The Nice & Easy Cookbook.

Beef and Broccoli Chowder- Martha Cox, Georgia

1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 package potatoes au gratin (the dry mix type)
2 medium carrot, chopped
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
6 cups water
1 10 oz. package frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
Brown ground beef with onion in skillet, stirring frequently; drain. Add potatoes, carrots seasonings and water. Simmer, covered, for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add broccoli. Cook, covered, for 10 minutes longer. 8 servings at 139 calories.

Appetizers- One elegant, one not so much

Last week I learned from a post by Louise on Months of Edible Celebrations that May 8th was Military Spouse Appreciation Day. Today I was looking at a book I had pulled out of one of my boxes a few weeks ago and remembered the author was a military spouse. Food With A Flair Special Recipes for Special People by Doone Lewis is a collections of recipes that she gathered from many different Naval duty stations here in the US and overseas. The book was published in 1979. Doone must have had to host quite a lot of cocktail parties as there is a large section on appetizers and starters.
This recipe seems like it would make a fancy presentation. I remember my Mom had a copper chafing dish she would use for hot appetizers at her cocktail parties. My Dad was a career Naval officer so my parents did a lot of entertaining.

Saganaki-" Simple, attractive, and delicious"

1 pound raw shrimp, deveined (frozen are fine)
1 package frozen artichoke hearts
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 pound small whole mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, minced fine
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
Freshly ground pepper or Lawry's seasoned pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Blanch artichoke hearts in boiling salted water for 2 minutes and drain. Heat olive oil in a frying pan, add shrimp and mushrooms. Cook, stirring, until shrimp turns pink. Add artichoke hearts, garlic, salt, pepper and oregano. Heat thoroughly and sprinkle with lemon juice and parsley. Serve hot in a chafing dish or casserole on a burner, with toothpicks. Makes about three dozen appetizers.

This one isn't elegant but I know I would like it as I like all the ingredients. Yes, I am a cream of mushroom soup fan, I admit it. I am sure the amount of margarine could be cut way down or even eliminated.

Hot Clam Dip-" This different dip takes only a few minutes to whip up."

1/2 cup margarine, melted
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese
Dash of Tabasco sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cup chopped clams, drained
1 can cream of mushroom soup

Put all ingredients into the melted margarine and heat slowly while stirring; do not boil. Serve hot with dip chips or crackers.

57 Prize-Winning Recipes From Heinz

57 Prize-Winning Recipes From H. J. Co. was coincidentally published in 1957. The subtitle says $25,00 Cook With Ketchup Contest but nothing in the content mentions the contest. It has lots of those great mid-century illustrations. Such as this tomato man:


Some of the recipes such as the cover recipe for Country Captain sound fine. Some of the others including the eight dessert recipes are quite far out. This is what it says about the dessert recipes: "For truly distinctive desserts cook with Ketchup. Contrary to popular belief, the tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable. So why not use tomato ketchup in desserts?"
It is rhubarb season now in case anyone cares to try this recipe:

Major League Rhubarb
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups soft bread crumbs
3 cups unpeeled rhubarb in 1-inch pieces
1 medium banana
1 medium tart apple
1/2 cup Heinz Tomato Ketchup
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons butter
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine first 5 ingredients. Mix 2/3 of this mixture (1-1/2 cups) with rhubarb in greased 1-1/2 quart casserole. Peel and thinly slice banana and apple; place in casserole. Combine ketchup, lemon rind and juice; pour over fruit. Sprinkle with remaining bread crumb mixture. Dot with butter. Bake, covered, 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours. Serve warm or cold. Garnish with whipped cream or cottage cheese. Makes 8 servings.
There is also a spice cake recipe that I imagine is quite similar to tomato soup cake recipes.

This is their recipe for Country Captain:
3 to 3-1/2 pound chicken, cut up
1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup shortening
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped green peppers
1 clove garlic, minced
1-1/2 cups water
1 bottle (14 ounces) Heinz Tomato Ketchup
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ground thyme
3 cups hot, cooked rice
1/3 cup dried currants
1/2 cup chopped toasted, blanched almonds
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Remove skin from chicken; coat with mixture of flour, salt and pepper. In Dutch oven or roaster, brown chicken in shortening. Remove from pan. Add onions, green peppers and garlic to same pan; saute until lightly browned. Add water, ketchup, curry powder and thyme; mix well. Add chicken, making sure each piece is well coated with sauce; cover. Bake, stirring occasionally, 1 hour or until chicken is very tender. Remove chicken to large platter; surround with rice. Add currants to sauce: pour over chicken. Sprinkle with almonds. Makes 6 servings.

I am glad I discovered this interesting booklet on my cookbook shelf. Who knows how long it had been there. I don't remember looking at it before.

A package in the mail

I received a large exciting package yesterday. A fellow member of paperbackswap had picked up a huge lot of cook booklets through Freecycle and had offered them to someone in exchange for some credits. I took her up on it and was completely surprised by the number of booklets. I know there are at least one hundred.There were so many I couldn't get them all in the photo. Most of them are fairly new but there where two 1926 Crisco oil books and several from 1948. There were quite a few special Xmas issue magazines which I happen to collect. It is going to take me a long time to go through them, something I will really enjoy doing.
This recipe is from one of them, a 1968 Pillsbury publication- Pillsbury's Bake-Off Breads Cook Book.
Merry Mince Brown Bread
2 cups cornmeal
1-1/2 cups Pillsbury's Best All Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1 cup prepared mincemeat
3/4 cup dark molasses
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients; mix well. Divide batter into 4 well-greased 20 oz. cans or well-greased 2-quart ring mold, filling 2/3 full. Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 to 65 minutes until top springs back when touched lightly. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from cans. Cool completely.

I used to enjoy canned brown bread with a baked bean dinner. The last few years I have been unable to find it in any local grocery stores and have thought about making it. I also have a jar of mincemeat in the cupboard. Mincemeat is usually quite expensive so when I found a jar on deep markdown I bought it. I think this recipe will come quite close to the brown bread with raisins that I used to enjoy so I am going to definitely try it. I just need to get four cans of pineapple and use them up so I will have the cans to bake in. :)

Easter Leftovers? Wilted Spinach-Ham Toss

Here is a recipe that uses two common Easter dinner leftovers, ham and hard cooked eggs. It is from a classic 1979 Better Homes and Gardens book, Pork, Sausage & Ham Cookbook.

Wilted Spinach-Ham Toss
1/2 pound fresh spinach
Whole black pepper
1 or 2 slices bacon
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups fully cooked ham cut into thin strips
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup sliced green onion
2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped

Wash spinach and pat dry on paper toweling. Tear spinach into bite-size pieces (total about 6 cups) and place in a mixing bowl. Grind a generous amount of pepper over the spinach. Set aside.
Cut uncooked bacon into small pieces. In large skillet cook bacon till crisp. Stir in vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, and salt. Gradually add ham, mushrooms, and green onion to the skillet mixture; stir constantly. Remove from heat; add spinach. Using two spoons or forks, toss the spinach mixture to coat evenly with ham mixture. Turn spinach mixture into serving dish. Sprinkle with chopped, hard-cooked eggs, serve immediately. Makes 4 servings.