Great Book Finds- Hearty Muffins

Despite telling myself I was not going to buy anymore cookbooks, I couldn't avoid the opportunity to visit my local hospital thrift store. After all the real destination was the computer store across the street, what could be the harm of just popping in to see what they had. Well what they had was a book sale- all paperbacks 50 cents. There went my resolve down the drain.

I got five booklets in the little paperback Good Housekeeping series from the 50's. One of them is the Ten P.M. Cook Book made infamous by James Lileks. Other finds were Martha Logan's Meat Cook Book, 1954 edition and The Home Book of Italian Cooking, 1964 this was originally published as Mama Mia Italian Cookbook in 1957. These two books are little paperback book sized books. I have mentioned before that I am partial to this type of book and always buy them when I find them. They seem to harder and harder to find. Last but not least I found another edition to my collection of Nitty Gritty books, Sunday Breakfast a cookbook For Men, 1971. This book has some really wild illustrations, very colorful and abstract.

Here is a rather odd recipe from it, a variation of the sweet "surprise" muffin:

Hearty Muffins

"Try these with scrambled eggs for a really great breakfast. The corned beef and cheese in the muffins are filling filling."
2 cups biscuit mix
2 tablespoon sugar
1 egg
2/3 cups milk
1 small can corned beef spread (4 oz. size)
1 teaspoon horseradish
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Blend the horseradish and corned beef spread. Beat the egg well, then add the remaining ingredients. Place a heaping tablespoon of batter in the bottom of each greased muffin tin, then a teaspoon of corned beef mixture. Top with another tablespoon of batter. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve warm.

Beer Coffee Cake- Nitty Gritty Quick Breads

This recipe come from the Nitty Gritty book Quick Breads by Kyte and Greenbery 1979. I am getting quite a collection of these little oblong books. When I went to the cookbook store I picked up this one and another double sided one- Quiche & Souffle a 2 in 1 cookbook. While looking at their publications listed in the front I noticed the tag line "Books designed with giving in mind". Don't think I ever got one as a gift. I need to get all of mine together and count how many I have.

The net has hundreds if not thousands of references to beer bread or beer muffin/rolls. I don't think I have come across a beer coffee cake before.

Beer Coffee Cake

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed

2 eggs, well beaten

3 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1 cup chopped walnuts

2 cups chopped dates

12 0z. beer

Lemon Glaze: Mix together,

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Mix in eggs. Stir together flour, baking soda, salt, spices, walnuts and dates. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with beer. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until done. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then turn out on wire rack. Spread on Lemon Glaze. Makes 1 coffee cake.

Orange Grove Cake- Nitty Gritty Cakes & Pies

This bundt cake recipe is from a Nitty Gritty book; Cakes & Pies, 1978. It is double sided one side is cakes, turn it over and pies are on the other side.This recipe is from the bundt cake chapter. I have seen a lot of bundt cake pans in stores lately. I think they are having a comeback. Another unusual thing about this book is the background of the cake section. The pages are a pale pink with cake texture. It looks like they photographed a slice of strawberry angel food cake and used it as the background. The titles of the recipes are in a brighter pink.

Orange Grove Cake

3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons grated orange rind
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs, unbeaten
1/2 cup orange marmalade
3 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 cup walnuts, chopped
Nutty topping- Mix 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs and 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts or almonds together until crumbly.

Prepare Nutty Topping. Butter a 10-cup bundt pan well. Pat topping on bottom and sides (not on the center tube) of the pan. Cream butter and sugar. Mix in orange rind and vanilla. Add eggs and beat well. Stir in marmalade. Sift dry ingredients together. Add to creamed mixture alternately with orange juice and milk. Fold in nuts. Turn batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees about 70 minutes. Cool before removing from pan.

Chicken with Walnuts and Pomegranate Juice- Nitty Gritty Chicken

This recipe is from a Nitty Gritty book- Chicken Cookbook published in 1980. Nitty Gritty published about 45 different cookbooks in the 80's on a wide variety of topics. I believe Pomegranate juice has been in the news as a good antioxidant drink so it should be easy to find. One thing I wonder about this recipe is the 3 3/4 cups of stock. Even with 1 cup of walnuts stirred in it seems like the sauce would be awfully thin because most of the cooking is done covered. Also 1/2 cup sugar seems like a lot. But you never know, this might be a very good recipe.

Chicken with Walnuts and Pomegranate Juice

3 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion thickly sliced
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 cup ground walnuts
3 3/4 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper
1 chicken 3 1/2 to 4 pounds, cut into serving pieces
juice of 1 lemon
1/3 cup pomegranate juice
1/2 cup sugar
rice to serve 4
Pour olive oil into a large skillet. Place over medium-high heat. Fry onion with turmeric until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Remove onion from skillet and place in saucepan. Add ground walnuts and chicken stock to saucepan. Season mixture with salt and pepper. Bring to boil. Cover and simmer stirring occasionally for 20 minutes. In original skillet, saute chicken pieces until brown. Transfer to 9x13x2 inch baking dish. Pour walnut sauce over chicken. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Skim fat and discard. Mix lemon juice, pomegranate juice and sugar together. Pour over chicken and walnut sauce. Stir well. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Arrange chicken on platter of rice. Cover with sauce. Makes 4 servings.

Apple Crisp- Nitty Gritty- No Salt No Sugar No Fat

This recipe is from one of my Nitty Gritty Books- No Salt No Sugar No Fat Cookbook revised 1982 edition. It has a lot of tips and hints and quite a few good sounding recipes.

Apple Crisp
Crust
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup Grape Nuts cereal
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup unsweetened apple juice
Filling
2 cups slice apples
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup unsweetened apple juice
1 to 2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons cornstarch or arrowroot
To make crust, combine dry ingredients. Stir in apple juice until mixture holds together. Press half of mixture in bottom and up sides of a non-stick 9-inch pie pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Save remaining crust for topping. To make filling, combine all ingredients in a medium-sized saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer about 10 minutes. Apples should be only slightly tender. Remove apples and raisins with a slotted spoon and place in pie shell. Increase heat and continue cooking sauce until it thickens. Pour sauce over apples and raisins. Crumble remaining crust over filling. Bake in 375 degree oven for 30 minutes. Makes 6 to 8 servings.