Grandpa's Home Cooking

Strawberries Forever

Grandpa created this dessert in 1978 when I was dating Nancy. I had invited her to come to my apartment for dinner. I was shopping for our meal at the Treasure Island store on the near north side of Chicago. As I selected special foods, I began to think, "What will I do for a special desert?" I came up with this idea and set about to make it a reality. It was very special. Nancy loved it and said, "What do you call this?" I came up with the name in a flash and said, "Strawberries Forever." You must taste this dessert to fully appreciate the name!

Ingredients:

• Premium strawberry ice crean
• Fresh, red ripe strawberries, cut into quarters
• Amaretto Di Saronno (The original Italian Liqueur)*
• Whipped cream

*Buy only this brand or you'll be disappointed. What is it? It tastes like an almond liqueur. Therefore, people assume it contains almonds. It does not. It is a combination of fruits and spices. But it tastes soooo delicious you might wish to drink a little glass of it from time to time, especially after a memorable meal. I suggest you buy a large bottle.

Instructions:

Put a luscious big scoop of premium strawberry ice cream in a glass. Spoon fresh red ripe strawberries on top of the ice cream. Pour Amaretto di Saronno Italian liqueur over the strawberries and watch it slide down over the ice cream. Ahhhh yes. Now pull another big scoop of premium strawberry ice cream from the container and put it on top of the strawberries. Spoon more cut strawberries on top of the ice cream. Then pour more Amaretto di Soronno on top of the strawberries. How much do you pour?:-) Well, as much as you like. Remember. This is for your love. Finally, cover the top with whipped cream and top the creation with a whole fresh strawberry.

Yellow Cake & Mom's Caramel Icing

My great grandmother and my mother were wonderful bakers. Lately I've been remembering the wonderful cakes that my great grandmother made. I quickly decided I wanted to make a good yellow cake from scratch and ice it with Mom's caramel icing. This is by far my favorite icing. I found an interesting cake recipe and got busy.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups King Arthur cake flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 & 1/2 cups sugar
• 8 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup of whole milk

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two, 8 inch cake pans. In a medium size bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set the bowl of dry ingredients aside. 

Use your mixing bowl to cream together the butter and sugar well. Then beat in all of the egg yolks, 1 yolk at a time. Stir in the vanilla extract. Mix in the dry ingredients and milk alternately in small amounts until all of the dry ingredients and milk are mixed into the batter.

Pour the cake batter into greased  and floured cake pans and bake the cakes in a preheated 350 degree oven for 24 to 30 minutes. Be very careful not to over bake this cake. When the cakes are golden brown, insert a tooth pick in the center of the cakes and if the toothpick comes out clean the cakes are done. 

In my gas oven, the cakes are done in 24 minutes.  When done, use hot pads to pull each of the cake pans out of the oven and set them on a rack or the top of the stove to cool. In 15 minutes lay a plate on top of one of the cake pans and flip the dish over. The cake should drop easily from the pan onto the plate. Turn the other cake out on a cooling rack. Let both the cakes cool completely before trying to ice them.

Now mix up your icing and when the cakes are cool, ice the top and side of of one cake. Then carefully move the other cake on top of the first layer and complete the icing to the top and sides of the cake. 

Mom's Caramel Icing

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of pure butter
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed (I had dark brown)
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1 and 3/4 to 2 cups confectioner's sugar

Instructions:

Melt butter in a sauce pan. Add brown sugar; boil over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add milk; stir until mixture comes to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat; cool. Slowly add confectioner's sugar, beating well with a spoon after each addition, until thick enough to spread.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I got very hungry for one of Mom's Pineapple Upside Down Cakes. So I rounded up my daughter and said, "Let's make one of Grandma's Pineapple Upside Down Cakes." Marta was all for it. She said, "Which recipe do we want to use?" I replied, "Let's start with the easy one." Mom had 3 recipes for Pineapple Upside Down Cake.

I got out my cast iron skillet, put it on the stove top, and started gathering ingredients. Mom's original recipe was for a from scratch cake. The second was a variation of the first recipe. And the last recipe uses a Duncan Hines Butter Golden cake mix.

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 stick of butter (you'll need another stick for the cake mix)
• 1, 20 oz can of Dole pineapple slices in pineapple juice
• Jar Maraschino cherries
• Duncan Hines Butter Golden Cake Mix
• Iron skillet (or a Pyrex dish)
• Cake platter
• Container of Cool Whip

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the cake up using the ingredients and instructions called for on the back of the cake mix box--EXCEPT--substitute pineapple juice instead of using water. You'll find the can of pineapple slices packed in juice will contain enough juice to more than satisfy the liquid requirement for the cake mix.

Set the cast iron skillet on a burner turned to medium. Melt the stick of butter and stir in the cup of brown sugar. Place pineapple slices around the skillet and one in the center so that the entire skillet contains a single layer of pineapple. Place a Marachino cherry in the center of each pineapple slice.

(If you use a Pyrex dish instead of an iron skillet, melt the butter in the dish in your oven, stir in the brown sugar, and follow the same instructions for adding the pineapple and cherries.) 

Pour the cake mix batter on top of the pineapple rings in the skillet (or dish).

Put the iron skillet (or dish) in the oven and bake the cake until it is done.

If you're using an iron skillet, the cake will be baked in about 30-35 minutes.

The baking time will vary if you bake the cake in a Pyrex dish. Dish sizes and baking times are shown on the back of the cake mix box.

The cake is done when you insert a tooth pick, pull the toothpick out, and the toothpick comes out clean.

Let the cake cool for 5-10 minutes on the top of your range. Put a cake platter on the skillet/dish and holding both the cake skillet/dish and platter together firmly, carefully flip the containers so that the cake will fall perfectly onto the platter.

Serve the cake warm with Cool Whip cream.

 

Lloyd Pipes Famous Fudge Since 1937

Everyone and I mean everyone, wanted my dad, Lloyd Pipes, to make his creamy and buttery fudge for them. He made it for family, employees he supervised at Western Electric in Indianapolis (a former AT&T company that manufactured phones for Bell Telephone), neighbors, church members, and in colossal quantities for ministers and their guests. Dad never tired of making his candy. He put pure love for people and candy in every batch. Dad was amazing. We always had Dad's fudge for every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day. He was  often in the kitchen  working on his candy while Mom was cooking dinner. Sometimes he finished making his candy and served it to family and guests right before Mom served the dinner(to Mother's dismay)!

Dad passed away in November, 2007 at age 92, but you'll always remember him if you master the art of making his fudge as he did. When properly prepared, it's very special candy. You'll be in the race to clean the platter with everyone whose in the room with you.

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups of sugar
• 2/3 cup half and half
• 1 square unsweetened baking chocolate, grated
• 2 Tablespoons clear Karo syrup
• 2 Tablespoons butter, plus butter to cover the candy platter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup black walnut pieces 
• Heavily buttered platter

Instructions:

Combine the sugar, half and half, grated unsweetened chocolate, and Karo syrup. Heat to soft ball stage.

Use your candy thermometer to determine the temperature required for candy to be at a soft ball stage (240 degrees).  Dad continually tested the bubbling chocolate by spooning a drop of fudge in a cup of ice cold water and working it together with his index finger and thumb to try to work it in a ball. I remember his doing this methodically over and over until the candy reached the desired temperature to form a ball between his fingers.

I use a candy thermometer to determine when the heated ingredients reach the soft ball stage; Dad never did this and scoffed at my doing so. Dad’s fudge was always creamy and he stood by his manual efforts in getting this result.

Now add 2 Tablespoons butter and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Drop a big silver spoon in the hot candy pan to start whipping the hot fudge immediately. Steady motion, not fast.  Dad always beat the candy by hand rhythmically, until the candy was stiff. He used the same heavy pan for years and stirred the fudge with a his big metal spoon. I can see his arm moving now and it never stopped until the fudge was ready. I use to say, “Dad doesn’t your arm feel like it will fall off,” and he would smile and say, “Oh no, I'm fine.” Dad was always fine! I don't know how he did it! To be honest, my arms are not strong enough.

I use a big Kitchen Aid mixer and beat that mixture until it gets stiff. I made a batch today. I used the paddle to mix the hot candy. I set the mixer dial on stir. I turned the machine on and let it stir the fudge until it started getting thick.  On the stir setting, the machine mixed the fudge at about the speed of Dad's arm. It worked perfectly! 

Quickly stir in the black walnut pieces and quickly push the mixture out on a heavily buttered plate with a spatula. Let it set until the fudge is set up. Cut it in squares and take the platter to the family room and start serving the candy to family and guests -- even though Mom may be about ready to serve her Christmas dinner:-) 

Mom used to say, "Lloyd don't be serving that candy now ... no one will eat my dinner." He'd give her a big kiss and she'd look around to all of us ...  smile real big and say ... "I'll never be able to change him ... he's a sweetheart!" 

Lloyd and Charlotte Pipes love never failed. We always had a happy home. 

Mom's Luscious Apricot Squares

 

Mom made her luscious apricot squares every Christmas. She put them up in cookie tins and then put this tin along with her many Christmas cookie tins on the dining room sideboard for family and guests to help themselves as they wished. She baked as often as she needed to keep the tins full and the family happy.

Ingredients:

• 2/3rds Cup *California Dried  Apricots
• 1/2 Cup soft butter
• 1/4th Cup sugar
• 1-1/3 Cup sifted flour
• 1/4th teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 Cup brown sugar, packed tight
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 Cup chopped walnuts
• Confectioner's sugar

* California dried apricots are smaller than Turkish/Middle East dried apricots but they have a sweeter and much better flavor. You'll need to go to a chain supermarket like Kroger or Harris Teeter. You'll find them in the dried fruit section. They'll likely have two rows of the Middle East apricots and one thin row of the California. (You won't find them at Whole Foods.)

Instructions:

1. Rinse apricots. Cover them with water in a small saucepan and boil for 10 minutes. They should still be whole, but soft. Don't overcook the fruit. Cool and chop. 

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 X 8 X 2 inch pan.

3. Mix butter, sugar, and 1 Cup of flour until crumbly. Press into pan and bake for 25 minutes.

4. Sift 1/3 Cup flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually beat brown sugar into eggs. Mix in flour mixture, then vanilla, chopped walnuts, and chopped apricots.

5. Spread over baked layer. Bake 30 minutes or until done. Cool into pan and then cut into 32 bars. Roll the bars in confectioner's sugar.

Eat one and you may not be able to stop! 

 

Sugar Cream Pie

When I was a boy in the 1940s my great grandmother, Margaret See, regularly baked and served Sugar Cream Pie to our extended family as a lunch pie. The other pie great grandma often made for lunch was a custard pie. Then she fixed up fruit pies, cakes, and other baked goods for supper. Far as I'm concerned, you can serve this pie anytime. 

Grandma called this her sugar pie. Some folks call it a Hoosier Pie. Hoosiers is what they call folks from Indiana. Just what does the word "Hoosier" mean? Depends on who you ask. There are all kinds of theories about what the term "Hoosier" means. I don't know, but the one I like is "Hows yur?" (meaning how's your kin).

I'll tell you what. There is not an easier delicious pie to make than this one.

My great grandmother Margaret inspired me to cook. And when I expressed interest, she taught me to cook. She was in the kitchen all day cooking and baking wonderful food for our large extended family. She was a Saint. 

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees if you're using a pie tin or to 425 degrees for a glass pie plate. 

Ingredients:

• 1  9" unbaked pie shell
• 1 1/3 Cups sugar 
• 1/2 Cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 pint heavy (whipping)  cream
• 3/4ths Cup milk, + some to brush around crust (yeah, best be whole milk)
• 2 Tablesppons butter (cut into small pieces)
• Pinch or two of ground nutmeg.

Note: It works well to keep a few unbaked frozen pie shells in your freezer to make pies like this. 

Instructions:

How easy can it get. Pull out a large mixing bowl. Pour in the sugar, flour, cream, and milk. Combine ingredients with a whisk. Pour the mix into the unbaked pie shell. Spread the small pieces of butter about the top of the pie (and watch them disappear). Use you fingers to sprinkle nutmeg over the top of the pie.   

Cover the edge of the crust with foil. I sit my tin or dish on top of a piece of aluminum foil and bring the edges up to cover just the edge of the pie crust. You don't want to burn your crust at the higher temperature.  Bake the pie for 10 minutes. 

Reduce the heat to 350 degrees.

Very carefully pull the pie out of the oven and remove the foil.  Use a brush to apply milk around the edge of the pie crust so it will bake to a golden brown. 

Now put the pie back into the 350 degree oven and bake it for 30 to 35 minutes until the crust is golden brown. It's still going to seem lidquidy, so carefully remove the pie from the oven to the top of the stove. Let it sit to cool for 30 minutes or more until the pie sets up. Then put the pie in the refrigerator.

Your pie ought to look as pretty as the one in the picture. I just pulled this pie out of the oven 30 minutes before I photographed it. The pie is in the refrigerator now and it will be served for supper. Keep what's not eaten in the refrigerator as this pie ought be serve cold. 

Mom's Apricot-Pineapple Pie

Charlotte Lou Allen Pipes was a great pie baker. Mom’s Apricot-Pineapple Pie has been a family tradition for more than 60 years. Baked to mouth watering perfection, we could expect one of these delicious Apricot-Pineapple pies every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years day, as well as other special days throughout the year. In fact, Mom sometimes made several of them along with other baked goods, such as her delicious pumpkin and apple pies. Cake? Well of course.  Mom made wonderful cakes and brownies too. We had lots of fresh baked goods in our house. And Dad (Lloyd) always brought a big container of French Vanilla or Peppermint ice cream from the freezer and put generous dollops of ice cream on the warm baked goods.

Ingredients:

• 2 pie crusts
• 2 packages of *California dried Apricots
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 small (8 oz) can of crushed Dole pineapple, undrained
• Dab of butter (1 Tablespoon)

Intructions:

1. Cook apricots until tender in just enough water to cover (about 12-15 minutes). I like it better when the apricots are still a bit chunky and not sauced.

2. Mix together sugar and cornstarch. Add to apricots and cook until clear and thickened.

3. Remove from heat and add pineapple and a dab of butter. Pour into pie crust.

4. Cover with the second crust. Bake at 350 for about an hour or until crust is gold and bubbly.

Mom did one more thing that I haven't mastered and this little touch brings the taste even more alive. She somehow put very tiny bits of pastry dough ball crumbs with salt on the top crust. It was good. 

* I wouldn’t substitute with Turkish or Mediterranean dried apricots. There is a big difference. California dried apricots are superior in taste. My experience is that gourmet markets only sell dried apricots from the Middle East. They are much larger and much prettier. California dried apricots are smaller and darker--but they are sweeter! I sometimes have to work at it, but I often find the California dried apricots (Sunsweet) at chain super markets. There you will often find 2 rows of Middle East apricots and one little row of California apricots. And for some reason, the packages are often not marked California. You must look at the fine print. When I find them, I stock up.

“Probably anywhere between 30% and 40% of our business is done internationally, be it retail or bulk packs,” said Jeff McLemore, product manager for North America at Yuba City, Calif.-based Sunsweet Growers Inc. “Consumption levels are strong, if not stronger, in places like Japan. The eastern European countries are also strong.”

History:

Mom invented this pie in the 1940s. On the day before Thanksgiving, Dad was flat on his back in bed as a result of a bad fall. He couldn't work for weeks. When he didn't work he didn't get paid. Mom was about out of money. She had already bought a turkey, potatoes, and vegetables. But she was worried about how to make dad a nice pie for Thanksgiving. She went to the pantry to see if there was anything to put together a pie. She found two packages of dried apricots and a small tin of Dole crushed pineapple. This was enough! She immediately recognized these would be the ingredients she'd use to make Dad a pie. She thought about how she would do it and came up with this recipe. 

This pie, along with pumpkin and pecan pies, have become a family tradition. Mom and members of our extended family have baked this pie for every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years day for over 60 years. My daughter helped me bake the pie pictured. The tradition continues.

Delicious Orange Brownies

As Burl Ives would have sung, "Goodness how delicious, eating orange brownies instead of goober peas." I got this recipe from my daughter Stephanie. She got the recipe from Paula Deen. Paula probably got it from a housewife in Virginia. Whatever. I made these delicious brownies exactly as instructed by my daughter. I garnished the plate with an orange and purple pansy from one of my fall gardens. 

Why don't you drink a cup of hot Orange Pekoe tea with your brownie. And look at the picture of Nancy's teapot which appears below the recipe.

Brownie Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 Cup of all purpose flower (flour)
• 2 Cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 Sticks of softened butter
• 4 Eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure orange extract
• 1 teaspoon orange zest

Glaze Ingredients:

• 1 Cup confectioners sugar
• 2 Tablespoons of orange juice 
• 1 teaspoon of orange zest

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Take that big bowl out from under your mixer. Pour in flour, sugar and salt. Stir the ingredients. Add the butter, eggs, orange extract and orange zest. Mix all of the ingredients with your mixer until you have a smooth batter.  Pour the batter into a buttered baking dish.  Bake the brownies for 30 minutes. Insert a knife or a toothpick in the center of the dish to determine if the brownies are cooked through. Put the dish back in the oven because they won't be done:-) I always have to give them another 5-8 minutes. Maybe it is because I have a gas range. Whatever.

Pierce the top of the entire cake with a fork (so the glaze you're about to make will flow into the brownies!)

For the glaze, combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, stirring until the glaze is smooth. Pour the glaze over the top of the cake.

Wait until the cake is cool ... I know ... it's hard to wait because your gonna want to eat one NOW! Wait. You want to be able to cut the cake into nice squares. As you can see from the picture, I couldn't wait. But I'll tell you this. This piece was delicious!

Hopefully you've heated water in your tea kettle, for I suggest you brew a cup of orange pekoe tea to drink while you're eating your brownie.

Aunt Martha bought this teapot for Nancy 56 years ago in 1954 at Macy's in New York.