Family Recipe Friday- French Dressing

Vera Mariani’s French Dressing

3 cloves garlic, crushed           1 ½ cup olive oil*

2 tablespoons sugar                 1/3 cup wine vinegar*

1 ½ teaspoons salt                   1/3 cup water

¼ teaspoon pepper                  1 lemon, squeezed

¾ cup catsup                          

Mix all.

*Only use Star brand olive oil in the large tin.  Vinegar was Mariani wine vinegar- over 100 years old!  Near equivalent is Granzella’s Premium Red Wine Vinegar from Williams, California.  Almost as good!

Family Recipe Friday Tuna and Mandarin Orange Soufflé with Red Onion Slices

My “Aunt” Vera (she wasn’t really an aunt, but more like a family fixture) used to make the most delicious foods.  She’d cook for days and hours and plan for weeks and years and make the best food ever. 

Except I seriously can’t believe that the recipe my dad asked me to find for him was her “Tuna, Red Onion, and Orange Salad.”  He said that he used to love it.  Since I hate seafood, I am not a big fan of even the IDEA of this salad, but I went ahead and asked Mom if she remembered it. 

Mom said, “The only tuna thing I remember Vera making was a tuna soufflé that had mandarin orange slices in it.”  Oh dear lord.  If that doesn’t even sound grosser, I don’t know what would.

Thankfully, she didn’t have the recipe so I don’t have to type it here for you.

You’re welcome.

Family Recipe Friday - Flask Pankaka

My grandmother (Signa Viola Felt) had this from her sister, Dorothy (Felt) Gross.

Family Recipe Friday: Swiss Steak

I remember my grandmother making this Swiss Steak and when Skeet shared her recipes with us, I found out it was her grandmother’s recipe.  What I didn’t really know was that Swiss Steak isn’t really Swiss… but it is good.  If you grew up with it. 

Swiss Steak

3 to 4 lbs. round steak                            Kitchen Bouquet

Onion to taste – cut in rings                 ¼ c green pepper cut into rings          

Salt and pepper to taste                         shortening

Cut round steak in serving sized pieces.  Prepare a bowl of flour (about 1½ cups I think) and add salt and pepper - stir up (I use a fork to mix the salt and pepper in the flour).  Coat each piece of steak in flour and brown in melted shortening in large frying pan.  Brown both sides and remove from pan and place in roaster.  You may have to add more shortening to get all pieces browned.  Then add enough shortening to make a thin layer of melted shortening in bottom of frying pan; sprinkle flour to cover the shortening and add salt (takes quite a bit of salt to flavor it).  Brown this and slowly add cold water stirring continuously while doing so.  This will take about 3 to 4 cups of water and will be very thin. Add 3 or 4 drops of Kitchen Bouquet to gravy and stir in.  Pour over steaks.  Add onions and peppers if desired. Bake at 350 degrees for 1½ to 2 hours. 

We always had mashed potatoes and corn with this.

Family Recipe Friday - Skeet's Brownies

Alvina Ann Felt (aka Skeet) was my dad's cousin.  I met her when I was a baby, but I don't remember.  What I do remember was knowing her via email as an adult.  About 10 or so years ago, she decided that she wanted to learn of her family history.  Her other cousin, Janet, put her in touch with me and we began a wonderful friendship over email  Skeet gave me all her grandmother's recipes (my great grandmother's) and even put together an entire huge binder full of HER recipes for me.  With notes and histories of each.  I treasure that book, as I treasured being able to know her.  Skeet passed away in 2007 and I'm sad that we never got to really meet again.

But that said, her brownies are amazing!  I try to put her name on each of her recipes, renaming them so that Skeet is remembered.  So while her recipe calls them "Brownies for a Crowd" and says they were her mother-in-law's brownies, my recipe calls them. Skeet's  Brownies.

Skeet's Brownies

1 ¼ cups flour                                  ½ cup butter

1 cup sugar                                      ¼ cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar                           4 eggs

1 tsp. salt                                          8 TBSP cocoa

1 tsp. vanilla                                     ½ cup nuts (opt)

½ tsp. baking powder

Mix ingredients and pour in jelly roll pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.  Do not overbake.  Frost with Chocolate Frosting (below).

 

Skeet's Chocolate Frosting

3 TBSP butter

3TBSP milk

3 TBSP cocoa

2 ½ cups powdered sugar

Melt butter and mix with milk and cocoa.  Stir in powdered sugar and bat until smooth. 

Family Recipe Friday - Swedish Pancakes

This recipe was given to me by Alvina Felt Baer (we called her Skeet).  Skeet was first cousin to my dad and she started doing genealogy a number of years ago.  She contacted me, knowing I'd done a lot already, and we began a nice friendship/family-ship over email.  She was a recipe collector like me and sent me a whole book she compiled of recipes. A number of them were old family recipes.  I treasure the recipes, but not as much as I did Skeet.  Skeet passed away in 2007.

Here is a recipe she gave me from my great grandmother- her grandmother.  Inga Christina Larsdotter Aslund.  Inga was born in Langsele, Sweden in 1887.

Swedish Pancakes
Note: best with a cast iron pan.

2 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
2 beaten eggs
2 cups milk

Combine eggs, milk and butter.  Beat well.  Add flour, salt, and sugar gradually, beating constantly while adding.  Pour soup ladle full in hot frying pan and cook until top is bubbly and edges look cooked.  Flip over and cook other side.  These will be the size of the pan.

Family Recipe Friday - Scalloped Potatoes

When I was a child, every once in awhile, on a very lucky day, my mom would make her famous Scalloped Potatoes. I didn't actually know until relatively recently that this was her mom's recipe. So now I've an old family recipe. Sadly, it requires a food processor, so I still don't make it myself. Yes, I know that Nana made them without a food processor, but I guess I just don't like them THAT much...

But they are the best comfort food ever. I hope you all make them and in payment of respect, Nana sends me more information about her ellusive Shelton ancestors.

Mom's (and Nana's) Scalloped Potatoes

2 lbs. cheddar cheese, sliced in the food processor
5 lbs. potatoes, peeled and sliced in the food processor
Salt
PepperP
arsley Flakes
3 cans evaporated milk

Oil (or use an oil spray) the bottom of a big pan (like one of those disposable ones). Put one can of evaporated milk in the bottom. Layer with potatoes, salt, pepper, parsley flakes, cheese and then repeat all. Keep potatoes moist with evaporated milk throughout.

Bake 350 for 1 hour and then turn so that the cooked top gets distributed underneath.

Bake 45 more minutes and turn again.

Bake until done (about 15 more minutes).

Family Recipe Friday- Vera's Tuscan Chicken and Peas

On my Surnames page, I list the Mariani family as one that I’m researching. I am not in the Mariani family, but they were such amazing friends to generations of my family, that I have to include them among families I’m researching. And when I think of the Mariani’s, I think of many things, but one of them is food. Vera Mariani, the matriarch of the family, was a phenomenal cook. Not chef; cook. She made the most wonderful comfort foods. One of my favorites (because it is easy) is her Tuscan Chicken and Peas.

Vera’s Tuscan Chicken(Chicken Wings and Peas)

Ingredients:
10 Chicken Wings
1 Cup Fresh Chopped Parsley
5 Cloves Chopped Garlic
1 Large Can Tomato Sauce
1 Pkg Frozen Peas
3 Pinches Cinnamon
1 Pkg Small Pasta Shells

Directions:
Brown wings in hot olive oil. Add parsley and garlic and lightly brown. Add tomato sauce, peas and cinnamon. Cover tightly and simmer for 45 minutes. Serve over cooked small pasta shells.
Serves 3

Thighs or breasts can be substituted for wings
Veal can be substituted for chicken
Zucchini can be substituted for peas