Monday, August 25, 2008

December Kitchen Tips

Don't ask me for homebaked cookies in August. The last thing I want to do is to turn on the oven and add more heat to my South Texas kitchen. But when the first fall leaf plunges to the ground, I'm game for cooking--whatever!

This week, the Word Quilters will give a few of their best kitchen tips for December. My tip is to find some old recipes with simple ingredients. I stole the essence of this idea from the food columnist of The Courier, Conroe, TX where my weekly column appears. Candace Carver suggested buying old cookbooks as gifts because of the simple ingredients.

Her advice immediately resonated with me because so many of the cooking shows on TV or diets in magazines list ingredients that are not in my pantry. The older cookbooks use simple and fewer ingredients. For young cooks or those who love vintage recipes, search out old cookbooks at yard sales and library sales.

I'll share a recipe for "Cold Slaw" from a cookbook put together by the founding members of Almeda, TX. My husband's grandmother Beulah Messecar was only six when her family moved from Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) and settled in Almeda. Not all the old recipes sound appetizing like the chocolate cake with saurkraut in it (I have made it. It was very moist) or the "Plum Pudding" with suet, but most sound very yummy.

Velma Hughes' Cold Slaw

1 lg head Cabbage
(finely chopped)
1/3 cup Wesson Oil
3 Tablespoons prepared mustard
1/2 cup \Apple CiderVinegar
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Salt

Mix mustard, sugar, wessonoil, vinegarand salt. Pour over cabbage. Chill.

Cathy's note: This is tangy, but very good, quick and easy! Enjoy!

1 comment:

Wandering Writer said...

I often use my Betty Crocker cookbook that I received as a shower gift when I got married--40 years ago! Does that make it vintage? If so, does that make me vintage?