Cookies

This recipe I am putting on, as I can't bake it, do to the hot weather. As I don't wish to heat up the house. It has been over 100 degrees for over 30+ days. Starting on the second month worth. Our gardens are drying up. I only have one tomato plant left, every thing the rabbits ate or the heat took over. I have friends who are very worried about their outside livestock. I don't live on a farm, but can see from news reports, that the main wheat and corn crops are pretty much dried up. They are even selling off the cows so that they can be somewhere cooler to finish growing. If you have a chance I suppose buying wheat, beef would be a good idea, as the prices will be going up again.
Ok, enough talk, back to the cookies!!

This recipe looks like it would be similar to the Mexican Wedding Cookies or Russian Tea Cakes. I went on google search and found similar ingredients to this cookie recipe. There are many different recipes.

My mom received this from a lady named Betty,in Azusa, either at a PTA meeting or a cake decorating class. Betty's phone number was on the paper. This is back when we did phone numbers with a word and numbers, as our are of numbers started with Edgewood and then the number. Remember the song Beechwood 45789, by the Marvelettes? If not, you can look it up on youtube, good song memories there. My sister-n-law just reminded me we also had party lines, too funny!


Translation of the recipes:
Cookies by Betty
3 sticks of butter or margarine, soften
6 tablespoons powered sugar
3 cups flour
1 cup walnuts, chopped
Mix first 3 ingredients with hand, until a stiff.
Add walnuts and roll in small balls.
Bake at 350 degrees on a cookie sheet for about 25 minutes. Take out and let cool on cooling racks.
In a zip bag put in powered sugar. Put in a cooled cookie and shake until covered. Place back on cooling rack.
Serve on a platter or plate.
This should make about 3-4 dozen cookies.

Recipe for the cake:
Jello Cake No. 1
(Use Angel Food Cake Pan)
1 package of Lemon Cake Mix
1 small (4 ounce size) Lemon Jello
2/3 cup water
4 eggs
Mix all ingredients together for 4 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes.

Glaze
Mix juice of 1 orange and 2 lemons with 3/4 cup sugar.
Pour over hot cake.
Store in refrigerator.
Serve with whip cream.
If this was Jello cake #1 then where is #2? We'll never know.
Enjoy! Let me know what you think!

Strawberry Pie x's 3!

Have been wanting to make a strawberry pie that was made long ago at the Lompoc Flower Festival. You see our church group made every year a1000 pies for this festival. Lots of helpers to accomplish the task. Usually by Saturday all the pies would be gone. They are that good. I asked for the recipe and a good friend Doris had it. Then I was looking in my mother's recipe box and found a recipe in my grandmother's handwriting. Plus another from the 1950's cookbook by Barbara Stuart Peterson. So I am putting all three recipes here. I chose to make granny's recipe. Before summer is over I hope to also make the recipe from the Lompoc days. Good memories!

Granny's recipe:
Large Strawberry Pie

Crust:
2 cups flour
1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
Mix well and press into 9x13" pan and bake at 350 degrees until lightly brown. Cool.


Wash 3 or 4 boxes strawberries and drain real dry. Slice on crust (save a few for top garnish).

Let come to a boil and stir the whole time:
2 cups sugar
1 - 6 ounce box strawberry Jello
6 tablespoons corn starch
2 cups water
2 tablespoons butter
Let cool just a little pour over strawberries.


Let cool and cover with large bowl of Cool Whip.
Decorate with whole strawberries.


What I did different. I started this pie for the 4th of July picnic. Before I began I looked to see what strawberries I had on hand, none! I did have raspberries and blueberries, so I went with that. Also I realized I only had enough to make 1/2 of recipe.
I took the berries and thawed and drained them. Using the juice to replace the liquid in the recipe. Well as it started to thicken, I noticed the raspberries were too mushy and didn't hold they shape. So I added the gelatin mixture with the berries and it turned into a lovely jam. The crust recipe makes kinda a big sugar cookie. So I spread 1/2 of the jam mixture onto the crust and put some of the cool whip on top. Too sweet! It tasted good, but I didn't want to be responsible for other people buzzing away. So we tossed that pie. (I am using the other 1/2 as jam.) I knew I couldn't turn on the oven again, as it has been over 100 degrees. So I bought a graham cracker crust and made more of the gelatin mixture. This time I spread some of the gelatin mixture on the bottom, then sliced some strawberries for the next layer, some more gelatin mixture on and then put whole strawberries on top. I was going to whip up some whip cream, but never got around to it. Much better and I will be making this again, but with whip cream.

The other recipes:
This recipe I call Lompoc Strawberry Pie, as I will remember it this way from the Lompoc Flower Festival. If anyone else has a recipe from this festival, please let me know and we will compare. Dates I was there: 1986-1989. But this recipe is much older than that as they (the church ladies) made it way before I came.



RUTH'S STRAWBERRY PIE – (This is Ruth VanCamp's recipe)

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 cup water
1/4 cup mashed strawberries
Red food coloring (maybe just a drop)*

Mix sugar and cornstarch together. Add water and red food coloring. Cook over low heat until thick.

Add mashed berries.

Fill bottom of baked pie shell with 1/3 of sauce. Fill shell with fresh whole berries (about a pint). Pour remainder of sauce over whole strawberries.


Let chill. Serve with whipped cream.
*Note: not too much red food coloring is needed, if any at all. I didn't use red food coloring in this pie. And I did like Granny's recipe better, it held up well, although if you want not as sweet, I would suggest this recipe.


Recipe from the book called: 1950's Cookbook by Barbara Stuart Peterson
Strawberry Cream Pie
Serves 6
Ingredients:

1 baked single crust pie shell

4 cups strawberries (1 quart)

1 cup sugar

1 ¼ cup cold water (divided)

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 cup whipping cream

Directions:

Select one cup of the poorer berries, removing stems and washing thoroughly. Place in a pot with the sugar and one cup water. Bring to a boil and slowly boil 15 to 20 minutes. Strain through wire sieve, crushing the berries with a spoon. When all the juice is squeezed from the berries, throw away the pulp (I wouldn’t throw this away, but put in some plain yogurt or in a juice smoothie) and return the juice to the pot. Dissolve the cornstarch in ¼ cup water and add. Stir constantly while adding until the mixture again comes to a boil. Simmer very slowly until it becomes a thick, heavy syrup.

While the syrup is cooking, prepare the rest of the strawberries by washing, removing stems, and removing the little white hard center from the strawberries. This can easily be done with a small, pointed knife. When the strawberries are cleaned and prepared, cut them into halves or quarters, according to the size of the strawberries. Then pour the boiling syrup over them and put into refrigerator to chill.

Whip the whip cream and fill the pie crust with it, spreading level. Then place the cold strawberries and heavy syrup on top of the whipped cream.

Interesting that this recipe is reverse of what I thought. Cream first and then the berries.

Hope you enjoy these and let me know which recipe you like best!