From Our Kitchen

2/3 cup butter
1 1/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup white syrup
1 can (1 1/3 c.) Eagle Brand sweet condensed milk
Dash salt

Boil and stir 20 minutes after first bubble. (Test by cold water drop). Butter 7 x 9 dish. Pour in mixture and cool.

Char R. from Rockford

2 cups bottled milk or 1
cup evaporated milk and 1 cup water

6 tablespoons cornmeal
2 tablespoons molasses
1/4 cup brown sugar,
firmly packed
3 tablespoons butter
2 eggs, well-beaten
1/2 tsp. each of ginger and cinnamon
1/4 tsp. each of nutmeg and salt
1/2 cup sour milk or sour cream

Scald milk over low heat, then stir in the cornmeal very slowly. Remove from heat and add next 8 ingredients. Just before turning into a 1 1/2 qt. casserole, add the sour milk or cream gradually. Bake in a slow oven of 275 degrees for 2 hours or until silver knife inserted in center comes out clean, stirring once during baking. Serve warm with cream. Serves 4-5.

The Good Housekeeping Cook Book 1944

2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup melted butter
6 cups sliced, pared,
cored apples

1/2 cup granulated sugar or brown sugar firmly packed

1/2 tsp. nutmeg or mace
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon     juice

1 tablespoon grated lemon rind

1/2 cup water

Combine the bread crumbs and melted butter and arrange 1/3 of this mixture in bottom of greased 1 1/2 qt. casserole. Cover with half of the apples and half of the remaining ingredients, which have been combined. Cover with 1/3 of the crumbs, then rest of apples and next the rest of the sugar mixture. Top with rest of the crumbs. cover and bake in 375 degree oven for 1/2 hour. Remove cover & bake 1/2 hour longer or until apples are tender. Serves 6. Serve warm with cream. Option: use 6 cups of sliced peaches for the apples.

The Good Housekeeping Cook Book 1944

Soak stale bread overnight in sour milk, mash the bread fine in the morning, and put in one-half teaspoon of salt, two eggs, two teaspoons of baking soda, dissolved in hot water, and thicken with finely sifted flour.

The International Jewish Cookbook by Greenbaum 1921

The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book 1919

Food Lessons

Cranberries, along with Concord grapes and blueberries, are one of the three native North American fruits. American Indians combined crushed cranberries with dried deer meat and melted fat to make pemmican--a convenience food that would keep for a long time. Cranberries are grown in bogs or marshes. Cranberry plantations are built on peat swamps, therefore the term "bogs". To cultivate cranberries, the bogs are drained of all water, cleared, leveled, spread with a layer of sand and vine cuttings planted. Three main necessities in cranberry growing are acid peat soil, sand and a fresh water supply. Three-five years are needed before a cranberry crop is large enough to harvest. Once established, cranberries will produce indefinitely. Some cranberry bogs are over 100 years old! Cranberries blosson in late June or early July. The harvest begins right after Labor Day and continues though the Fall. Fresh cranberries are low in calories and sodium. A 1/2 cup has only 25 calories. They are available through December. They can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one month. The freeze well by double wrapping in plastic for up to nine months. Do not thaw when using. Sort and rinse in cold water to prepare for cooking. Chop by hand or put through a food processor. Cranberry sauce with last serveral days in the refrigerator or up to nine months in freezer.

Cranberry Cooking Tips

· 12 ounces cranberries = 3 cups

· stir 1/2 cup chopped cranberries, sprinkled w/ 2 tablespoons granulated sugar for every 6 muffins into muffin batter

· make cranberry apple sauce by cooking together equal amounts of fresh cranberries & apples sweetened to taste.

· fill center of apple with cranberries, sugar and cinnamon before baking.

Jalapeno Garlic Vinegar

Cut a few small slits in two jalapeno peppers and place in sterilized pint jar with two cloves split, peeled garlic. Heat wine or apple cider vinegar to just below the boiling point. Fill the jar with vinegar and cap tightly. Allow to stand 3-4 weeks. Strain. Discard pepper & garlic. Pour vinegar into a sterilized jar. Seal tightly.

Recipes from:"Bringing in the Leaves...Herbs, That Is!" Cornell Coop. Extension L. Earley

A piece of trivia......in 1904 tea merchant Thomas Sullivan invented the teabag.

the "American Century Cookbook..." by Clarkson Potter 1997

Another piece trivia...in 1851 the first cheese factory in the U.S. was built by Jesse Williams near Rome, Oneida County, N.Y. Next door in Herkimer County was the center of the cheese industry in the U.S. for the next 50 years.

"Cheeses of the World" USDA 1972