Food Friday: Sauerkraut and Oysters

"I like your cooking , I just don't like it when you cook stuff from 1870."
      --My youngest son to me after being asked why he didn't like Pink Stuff.


Contrary to popular belief I do not make my children eat foods from the 1870s, for the most part. For the Holidays I decided to go ahead and make Pink Stuff, a jello dish I described in a previous post. While the adults loved it, the children were less then thrilled. They complained that the mixture of ingredients sounded awful (dry jello, cool whip, pineapple and cottage cheese) and that they didn't like the texture of cottage cheese.

Honestly, that suited all of us adults fine because that meant there was more for us.

For this Food Friday, I am posting a recipe for a dish where the ingredients don't sound like they would be good together but like Pink Stuff, this dish might be great. Sauer Kraut and Oysters is not a combination most people eat today. However, I love sauerkraut and like to imagine dishes aside from hot dogs were its use is embraced. 

This recipe is from the "Cloud City" Cook Book by Mrs. Wm H. Nash (Ladies Congregational Church). Leadville:Co. Herald Democrat Steam Book and Job Printing House. 1889. Available from Internet Archive at
http://www.archive.org/stream/cloudcitycookboo00nash . The recipe was submitted by Mrs. Werner and can be found on page 44.

The history of Oysters in the United States is an interesting one. Our ancestors loved oysters and they were plentiful . I would highly recommend the book by Mark Kurlansky. The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell. New York: Ballantine Books, 2006.

Food Friday: Oh The Things We Eat During The Holidays

I love that the Holiday season is like a time of free reign over eating pretty much everything and anything. Foods you would not eat during the rest of the year become fair game during the winter months.

So what types of things do you eat during the Holidays? I came across a series on unique holiday foods on NPR called Chompsgiving to Chew Year's: Holiday Dishes. This is a great series that shares family recipes and I highly recommend it.

From Flickr Commons

One of the reminiscence in this series is about ambrosia salad. Entitled, When Ambrosia Salad Spells Dread it tells the story of one man's repulsion to a jello dessert that in my family was officially called "Pink Stuff."

Now I must admit that I was considering making it for our Christmas luncheon. I like the stuff and I wonder what's not to like; it has dry jello folded into Cool-Whip with cottage cheese and fruit. It's not like some jello salads that I have seen recipes for that include ingredients like fish and cheese.

But to each his own. The one lesson in this is, write down those holiday recipes that are unique to your family so they can be passed down the generations.

Here is our family's recipe for the Pink Stuff though this is just one variation of the salad. I've also heard of people adding different canned fruits and even nuts.

Pink Stuff
This is a Jello dessert salad that my mom would make to serve at different holiday dinners.

1 package Strawberry Jello (You are using it in powdered form, do not prepare it)
1 tub of Cool Whip
1 contained of Cottage Cheese (small curd)
1-2 cans of mandarin oranges

Mix all the above ingredients together, mix well or the Jello crystals won’t dissolve. Once mixed, put in the refrigerator for a few hours to “set.”

You can choose to use different flavors of Jello and different fruit combinations.

Food Friday: Sandwich Spread

Is it just me or do sandwiches always taste better when someone else makes them? I can use the same ingredients as a friend but when she makes the sandwich it tastes so much better. Maybe that explains the popularity of sandwich places where you pick what you want but someone else makes the sandwich right before your eyes. You could make your own gigantic sandwich at home but one a stranger makes tastes different, even with the same ingredients.

Today's Food Friday comes from the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Illinois Rural Letter Carriers Associaiton (1935).

From the Collection of Gena Philibert-Ortega

What could make a sandwich even better is if you used a sandwich spread.  The following recipes may provide you some ideas for a homemade sandwich spread. These recipes also provide ideas for any green tomatoes that you might have.

War Time Food: Remembering Pearl Harbor

From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/5531627685/

World War II in the United States was a time that affected all Americans. If we just focus on food, civilians were encouraged to eat less meat, use up all they had and grow as much as they could. Publications and propaganda posters of the time suggested ways to can and preserve foods, grow victory gardens, and how to substitute certain foods. Ration coupons helped insure supplies of both food and goods.

As you think about preserving your family's food heritage, consider finding out more about what your family ate during World War II. Look around your home and the home of relatives for cookbooks, recipes from newspapers, recipe booklets, and ration stamp books. Ask your family questions.

Bringing up the subject of food during World War II might stir up memories in family members you are interviewing. Some types of questions to consider might revolve around how what they ate was different during the war years (consider things like alternative meats that were consumed, food substitutes and rationing). Did the family grow and preserve their own foods to supplement what they purchased? What recipes do they remember from this time period?

Food history is a part of your family history. Now is the time to record this more recent food history so it's not lost to future generations.

Have You Documented the Holiday Foods You Ate?

In my Thanksgiving blog posting, Thanks for the Memories: Thanksgiving I provided some ideas for questions to answer about your memories of Thanksgiving. The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories, a month long series of blogging prompts, encourages bloggers to write up their Holiday food memories for December 2nd.

Check out the blog for links to blogger's posts about food memories. Remember, you don't have to be a blogger to record your food memories. That information can be included in a journal, family history book or a family cookbook.

Food Friday: Cheese Loaf

Cookbook appears courtesy of Gary Clark, www.phototree.com

Now my true confession for this Food Friday is that I love cheese. Cheese is my food downfall and probably will result in a future heart attack. However, the following recipe for Cheese Loaf makes me wonder what the end result would taste like. The combination of cottage cheese and peanut butter is... interesting. This recipe is from the Bentley (Kansas) Community Cookbook 1942.

 It's hard for me to imagine how you would use this. Would you slice it for a sandwich? Would you use it as a side dish? If you have partaken of the Cheese Loaf, please feel free to leave a comment for this posting and let me know.

The onions and peanut butter in this  recipe also reminds me of a jr. high school history teacher I once had who enjoyed peanut butter and onion sandwiches. (But that recipe will be left for a future Food Friday).