Thursday, May 7, 2015

An old recipe book has surprises

On another matter, recently I visited a friend in a nursing home in Ducktown, TN. While there she and I began talking recipes, like I usually do. As we talked, she asked me if I knew about a cook book produced by the teachers and faculty (even down to the janitors and lunchroom staff). It was a school cookbook from Epworth School. The school is actually in Epworth, Georgia. It still stands today and is still in operation in some form today.

Well, she asked if I ever made banana pudding and of course I had. Then she asked if I had ever
make lemon pudding- substituting lemon pudding for banana. I can't remember if she said she still used bananas or not. But I have to agree, this one was a new one for me. When I see her again I will ask her for more information.

After I visited her, I called another friend who has a home up here, but lives elsewhere and asked
her if she had ever heard of that cookbook. She said no and asked why. I explained about the recipe and she said she just read about it, or one similar to it. Hers had bananas in it, but lemon pudding and meringue. Sounds awful to me, but to each his own. She has collected recipes for years and was
just sitting going through a bag of them. I love doing that.

I also collect cookbooks, especially old ones, and loose recipes too. My collection has overgrown my space, but I can't make myself stop, I'm addicted. I'm afraid I don't want to be cured either.
Have any of you ever looked at some of the old cookbooks? Look at the drawings or pictures and maybe even the writing. I have some that were handwritten, then printed. And that particular book
has drawings of all the historic homes in the town. This is from my hometown, and most of the homes are still there today!

Do you need help with a recipe? Or do you need to know how to do something? Let me know...


I'm Back!

Hey guys, sorry I've been gone. I still bake and still like a challenge. Like the upcoming trip to Sevierville, TN in a couple of weeks.

It is a bbq cook-off, but it has ancillary events for Friday night and a dessert contest for Saturday after the meat categories have been turned in. To tell you the truth, these are fun for me. Even though I am a baker, even had a bakery, I never have won the dessert category. I like a challenge- like the bean category and sausage category. I've won these several times. It amazed me the first time, even the second time. But I began pushing myself even more since then, just to see how far out I can go and still win.

Since I love to bake so much, I usually try to make something sweet with the beans or sausage.
The two times I tried to make something savory with sausage, I didn't win.

The first time I made Cajun crab cakes with sausage and a spicy remoualade sauce. I expected to win because of the taste tests I did before I made it for the contest. After the contest was over, one of the judges came to talk to me and said that if I hadn't put in the little cup of sauce, I would have won.
He said that if the judges (local people) not smothered both sides of the little crab cakes with it, and instead  used it just to lightly dress the crab cake or dip it lightly, then it wouldn't have burned them so badly. After all, it was called Cajun crab cakes-what would you think that would mean? HOT!

Anyway, after another failure, I went back to my old standby- sweets. Now even sweets didn't
work for me with sausage, but on the third try, it did!

Before at another contest, I made turtles with sausage and LOST again. The judge representative came over to our site and asked if I was sure this was my sausage entry. I told him yes, the he said he wasn't sure how it would go over. I didn't think about that, no one had told me there were restrictions against using sausage for dessert. Regardless, they threw it out. Told me it was absolutely great, but improper use of sausage. How dare they!

Now when I go to contests, I ask before I make anything. This year in our contests, I'm going to concentrate on winning the dessert category. It's embarrassing to lose these when I am a baker.

Follow me and see what I make this year at Tennessee.