School Cafeteria Rolls from 1960s

 https://www.reddit.com/r/Old_Recipes/comments/122bvoq/comment/lipryif/

 

 manager, Mrs. Johnson, in the late ‘70s.

School Rolls

5 cups flour (1.25 quarts) 1/2 cup sugar 2-teaspoons salt 3/4 cup dried milk 2 cups warm water 1/4 cup yeast (4 packs) 1/4 cup melted butter 1/4 cup oil (vegetable oil)

Sift dry ingredients together. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Mix butter and oil, add to yeast mixture. Add dry ingredients, mix well. Cover and let stand until double in bulk. Punch down and knead 2-3 minutes. Roll out to 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick. (I prefer I/2”). (May freeze on cookie sheet at this point.). Let rise until doubled in bulk. Bake at 350* for 12 minutes.

Thanks Mrs. Johnson, and my brother who requested her recipe, because we loved those school rolls.

How to Make Cheese Cookies - like southern cheese straws but without a press

 I first tried a cheese cookie in middle school at a 4-H event, and it was love at first bite. Melissa Deal, a 4-H member, gave me a copy of her recipe. I've been making them for close 50 years now.

Cheese Cookies

Ingredients

8 oz cheddar cheese - grated

3/4 cup butter

2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Let the cheese and butter sit out so that it's not so hard.

Grate the cheese.

Use a knife or large fork to mix the cheese and butter together. It's still quite clumpy.

Pour in flour, salt, and cayenne.

Use your hands and squeeze the mixture until it is smooth, yellow, and rolls into a large ball. This takes a while and a good amount of muscle. 

Make little balls out of the mixture. The balls should be smaller than a ping pong ball but larger than a marble.

Put a sheet of parchment paper on your cookie sheet.

Use your fingers to flatten each ball and put on the cookie sheet. I think they are best if you mash them thin. I'd estimate about twice as thick as a quarter. They rise a little  as they bake but don't really spread out, so you can put them close together but not touching. 

Bake at 325 F for 10 to 15 minutes depending on thickness and oven. Watch close - you want them to cook but not to burn or get too dark. When done they are cheese colored and not browned like other cookies. 

Use a spatula to lift them off the pan and on to a cookie rack or on sheets of paper towel.

Let them cool totally before eating. Most cookies are best warm, but cheese cookies taste strange when warm. When they cool off, they are delicious.

Tip: If you like spicy food, you may want to go with 1 teaspoon of cayenne. I'd suggest going lighter to start with to see what you like. You can also sprinkle cayenne on top of some of the cheese cookies before baking so that you have milder and hotter cookies. The cayenne on top is easy to see so that those who do not like spicy foods can avoid the ones with red sprinkles. Go easy on the sprinkle though.

Stir Fry with Chicken - Easy and Very Good

I was wanting stir fry, and it's a half hour to get to town, so I decided to make some. It was delicious, and I don't even want to go to town now. 

rice cooked earlier or the day before and refrigerated- makes it stay separated better

chicken breast cut in one bite sized chunks 

egg or eggs

vegetables - frozen peas and corn and scallions

seasonings

teriyaki sauce

It's best to cut the chicken into inch chunks and have the vegetables cut and ready to go. This recipe makes up fast once you get going.

First, put a little oil in the skillet. I used a 12 inch cast iron pan. Let the oil heat up in medium to med high heat.

Season chicken and put in skillet. Brown quickly until cooked. Then take chicken out of skillet and set to side

Pour in frozen peas, carrots and fresh cut scallions and stir them around until warm.

Sprinkle some seasonings. You can just do salt and pepper or other flavors you like.

Move veggies to side of pan and then scramble an egg or two on the other side.

Pour in cooked rice from fridge and stir that good.

Sprinkle with teriyaki sauce - low sodium

Add chicken in and stir.

Do all this quick.

Ready to serve. 

 

Pumpkin Bread - one loaf

Ruby got sick, and the vet suggested bland foods with pumpkin. Since Ruby is tiny, I had pumpkin left over and decided to make a pumpkin loaf of bread. I looked at a variety of recipes and combined some and came up with this bread which tastes a lot like applesauce cake that Grandma used to make.

• 1 cup raisins and 1/2 cup water
• 2 cups flour
• ▢ 1 ½ cups sugar
  
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• ▢ ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ ¾ teaspoon salt
  
• ▢ ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  
• ▢ ½ teaspoon nutmeg
  
• ▢ ½ teaspoon allspice
  
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 cup nuts - pecans or walnuts are good
  
• ▢ ½ cup  canned pumpkin - not pumpkin pie filling
  
• ▢ ½ cup vegetable oil
• ▢ ⅓ cup cold water
• ▢ 2 large eggs
• 
  
• Simmer the raisins in a small pan to plump up the raisins. Drain off the water and save it for the liquid step. You may need to add a little water to get it back to 1/2 cup.
• 
  
• Combine all the dry ingredients and stir them well. If you don't have all the spices, you can use the ones you have. It's really good with all of them if you do have spices at home. Cinnamon alone would be okay though.
• 
  
• Make a hole in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in nuts and raisins and stir just a bit to get a little flour on the nuts, so they don't sink to the bottom.
• 
  
• Fix the hole in the center again and add oil, water, pumpkin, and eggs. Then mix in gently with a spatula etc. You don't want to over beat a quick bread.
• 
  
• Prepare the bread loaf pan  with a little veg spray and then put parchment paper in the bottom to prevent sticking. It should hang out over the sides. 
• 
  
• Pour batter in pan and tap pan to spread it out.
• 
  
• Bake in preheated oven 350 F for 50 minute or until a toothpick comes out clean when put in the center of the loaf.  
• 
  
• Let cool a little and lift out with the parchment paper.
• 
  
• Slice and serve.
  

How to Make Parmesan Potatoes

 Mrs. Ratledge made the best Parmesan potatoes when I was growing up. She made those and oven roasted pork chops many nights when I was over at their house.

I tried and tried to make the potatoes over the years. She wrote down the recipe, and she told me and gave tips. No  cigar. Mine never turned out right. Turned out that she used shredded Parmesan cheese, and I used the shake cheese in a container, because that's the only kind of Parmesan I had heard about back in the day.

So, now I know the problem, and I can make those delicious potatoes any time I want.

Parmesan Potatoes (like Mrs. Ratledge used to make)

potatoes

olive oil

salt pepper

Parmesan cheese (shredded in a bag at the store)

That's the basics, and I also add garlic, parsley flakes, and other seasonings like Lowry's seasoning salt.  

Wash and cut the potatoes in chunks with some skin on if the potatoes are newer with soft skins. You casn peel them if the skins are thick and tough. Chunks should be an inch by inch or close.

Get a plastic bag, or you can use a bowl. Put in potatoes and oil and shake or stir until potatoes are coated. You don't need a lot of oil. Maybe a tablespoon for 4 or 5 medium sized potatoes.

Shake seasonings in bag and massage the plastic bag to get them evenly distributed.

Add about cheese to the plastic bag and again shake and massage.

Put tin foil on a baking sheet with small sides. Pour potatoes out on the pan. Don't overcrowd.

Add a little cheese in bare spots with your hands until everything is coated.

Bake at 400 for around 30 minutes or until outside is brown and crispy.

 

How to Make a Chocolate Zucchini Cake

 

 

 

 

Caleb and Eli always loved this chocolate cake. The zucchini makes it extra dense and moist.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

1 cup softened butter

2.5 cups sugar

3 cups plain flour

½ cup baking cocoa

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon salt

4 eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup milk

3 cups shredded zucchini squash

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat. Combine all dry ingredients. Rotate dry and milk and mix. Add vanilla and mix. Fold in zucchini and mix.

Bake at 350 F for around 40 minutes in a sheet cake pan like 9 x 12 inches.

Good plain or add frosting.

Chocolate Frosting

½ cup butter

3 tablespoons baking cocoa powder

3 tablespoons Coke or Pepsi

1 box of powdered sugar – one pound size

1 cup nuts

1 teaspoon vanilla

Bring butter, cocoa and soda to a boil. Take off heat.  Mix in nuts and vanilla. Pour over cake while it’s still warm.

You may want to hold out a 1/4  cup or so of the powdered sugar to start with, because it can be too thick some days. You can add more powdered sugar if it’s thinner than you like. But, you want the frosting to run and spread and to look smooth and shiny.