Cabbage Borscht

At Thomas' request. The recipe I "use" is in The Mennonite Treasury of Recipes, but as I was looking at it the other day I realized that if one followed this recipe verbatim it has the potential to become a pot of bones with a lump of onion and a whole cooked cabbage... so I'll write it out the way I make it. It's one of those "start with what you've got, and see where you end up" kind of recipes. So... let's see where we end up.


You will need: soup bones and/ or beef bouillon, a large onion, a small green cabbage, 4 or 5 medium potatoes, fresh dill or dried dill weed, fresh or dried parsley, a bay leaf, a can of condensed tomato soup, cream/whole milk/condensed milk. *Leftover roast beef is a good add-in option. I frequently make this soup with bouillon and add leftover beef at the end, with the tomato soup.

If you're starting with soup bones, put them in a large pot and cover with cold water. Simmer for 3 hours; Remove bones and strain the broth into a large bowl.

Finely chop the onion, and grate, shred or finely chop the cabbage (as for making Cole slaw). Clean and/or peel the potatoes, then dice them.

Put onion, cabbage and potatoes into the large pot. Add the beef broth and measure in enough water to cover, OR just cover with water. For every cup of water you use, add 1 teaspoon of beef bouillon. Add the dill, parsley and bay leaf.

Cook until the vegetables are tender.

Add the tomato soup. If you have quite a large pot full, (if your cabbage was bigger than mine or something) you may have to add two cans of soup. Let it simmer for a few minutes to blend the flavours. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Just before serving, add cream/milk/condensed milk (1-2 cups) OR have the cream available for each person to add as much or as little as they like.

Sausage Soup

Copied from a recipe of Grandma Friesen's into my recipe box, it was called "Mother's Best Soup" in her book. This is our "potato, carrot, sausage, bean" soup. A family favourite, and always good on a cold winter day. It's not a terribly "exact" recipe, as I use my recipe as a guideline, but I'll do my best to give you some amounts so it tastes good for you too. It tastes very good without the cream, so can be served dairy free if desired. If you have issues with dairy, serve it with the cream on the side, allowing everyone to add it as they like.


4 small potatoes (figure 1 small potato per person)
4 large carrots (again, about 1 carrot per person)
Half a package of farmer sausage
Water
1 medium onion, finely chopped, or 1 tablespoon onion powder
2 bay leaves
1 piece of whole anise seed (or 1/4 teaspoon anise extract)
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried savoury, or 3 pieces of fresh summer savoury (in herb/plant form)
salt and pepper to taste
1 can kidney beans, drained (large or small can doesn't matter)
cream*

Cut potatoes, carrots and sausage into small cubes/ pieces. Put in large pot together with onion and spices/ seasoning. Cover with cold water, then bring to a boil. Simmer together until vegetables are soft and sausage is cooked. (let it simmer for at least half an hour)

10 minutes before serving, add kidney beans, and check for seasoning (adding salt and pepper if needed)

Immediately before serving, stir in enough cream (or canned milk) to give the broth a creamy look.

Serve with fresh buns and cheese for the full Mennonite experience.

And enjoy.

Should serve 4-6

*To keep it dairy free, put the cream on the table rather than adding it directly to the soup. Let everyone add it to their bowl after the soup is served.

Light Peppernuts

A Christmas family tradition from Grandma Friesen. They are small, round cookies that are especially delightful with coffee. My theory is that cookies like this became a Christmas holiday treat because of all the chilling and freezing involved. In the days before refrigerators and freezers it would have been difficult to make these in the summer. Definitely worth the trouble.

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup hard margarine
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon mace (substitute nutmeg if you can't find mace)
1/4 teaspoon ground star anise (or 1/8 tsp anise extract)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sour milk or buttermilk
4 cups all purpose flour

In medium sized saucepan, bring sugar, corn syrup, margarine, cloves, ginger, mace and star anise to a boil. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

To cooled syrup mixture add egg, baking soda and milk. Mix in flour. You will have a very stiff batter/ very soft dough.

Refrigerate/ chill for half an hour, or until dough is firm.

Roll the dough into strips; I use a large plastic spatula to scoop out a "hand full" of dough, then quickly roll it into 1 to 2 inch diameter strips. If the dough feels too sticky, rolling it on a large plastic container lid has been successful, and the odd time I've been in a hurry and have tried rolling dough before it's chilled enough, actually rolling it WITH the spatula ON the plastic lid has worked.

Place dough strips on a waxed paper or plastic wrap lined cookie sheet, and place cookie sheet in the freezer. (If I plan to bake peppernut cookies a few at a time, I will wrap each strip of dough in plastic wrap and when they're frozen, I'll put the frozen strips in a freezer bag)

Freeze strips until hard, then remove, one at a time, and slice the strips into 1/4 - 1/2 inch pieces. Place 1/2 inch apart on a greased baking sheet, and bake at 350* F. for 5-8 minutes, until golden brown.

Immediately remove cookies from baking sheets to paper towel covered counters. I've found this to be my best bet for cooling cookies, as they're too small to stay on a cooling rack.

When cooled, store in airtight containers or storage bags.

Makes an Extra Large Freezer bag full (38cm X 46cm bag- the ones that come in a box of 10).

Fudge Brownies

This is from "Cooking With Cents" by Donna-Joy Halliday and Norma Bannerman. It was a wedding gift from my sisters, and some of my sanity savers originate in its pages! (the Master Mix and basic recipes like pancakes and muffins got me through babies and toddlerhood!)

It seems to be out of print, but was published in 1983 by Cooking With Cents Publishing Company Ltd., in Calgary Alberta. If you can get your hands on a copy of this one, I strongly encourage it! It's a great cookbook.

I've been expressly told to get the family's favourite brownie recipe posted so children far away can make them. Here we go!


1/2 cup (125 ml) hard margarine, melted
1 cup (250 ml) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (60 ml) cocoa
2 eggs
2/3 cup (150 ml) flour

Combine melted margarine, sugar and cocoa. Stir in eggs and combine well. Add flour and mix until well blended.

Spread into greased 8" square pan. Bake at 350* F. for 30 minutes. Let stand about 5 minutes; ice while brownies are still very warm.

Icing:

3 Tablespoons margarine
2 Tablespoons cocoa
1 cup icing sugar
1 1/2- 2 Tablespoons boiling water

Mix margarine, cocoa and icing sugar together with enough water to make a spreadable icing.

Golden Corn Cake

In the summer of 1990 my Grandma Brown was on her way to visit my Uncle and his family in Toronto. She made a pit stop in Winnipeg for a day, and we had a good time catching up. While she was there, I asked if she could remember a good recipe for corn cake- or "Johnny Cake", as my Mom used to call it. I thought- I grew up with this because my Mom grew up with it, so who better to ask then my Mom's Mom?! Grandma asked if I had anything to start with, and I pulled out my Fanny Farmer Boston Cooking School Cookbook. She quickly fingered this recipe, making a few changes, ("I'd made that a cup instead of 3/4, and that a cup instead of 1 1/4...") and we were golden. Cake that is. Golden Corn Cake.

This is the best eaten warm with butter and golden syrup. At Bible College they used to serve it with pancake syrup, and I learned to like it with peanut butter and pancake syrup. Diabetically speaking, it's very good with a low sugar jam, (I like strawberry with this) but if you like the E.D.Smith No-Sugar-Added syrup you might give it a try with peanut butter and syrup.

1 cup yellow corn meal
1 cup all-purpose flour (I substitute whole wheat flour for added fibre)
1/4 cup sugar or artificial Sweetener
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoos salt
1 cup milk (you might need to add an extra tablespoon or two if you use whole wheat flour)
1 egg, well beaten
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 375*F. Mix dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Add milk, egg and oil. Stir just until mixed. Spread in greased 9" pan / 1.8 L baking dish for 15- 20 minutes, until top is golden brown.

Grandma Morrison's Rice Pudding

The best. This even got a thumbs up from the guys that don't usually like rice pudding!



1/4 cup pearl (very short grain) rice- I used "Compliments Calrose Rice" when they didn't have Pearl Rice
1 cup homogenized milk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup 18% table cream*
Put rice and milk in the top of a double boiler (or in a thick bottomed pot). Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, then cover and simmer slowly for about 2 hours, stirring once in a while, til rice is cooked and milk is almost completely absorbed.
Add sugar, vanilla and cream. Cook for 1 hour more, or til rice pudding is thick, before milk/cream is cooked away. Serve warm or cold.
makes 2 servings:
Per serving:
374 calories, 53 g carbohydrate, 35 g sugars, 14 g fat, 55 mg cholesterol, 7.1 g protein.
*If you used 10% fat cream, you will lower the calories, fat and cholesterol without loosing too much creaminess.