Monday, February 22, 2016

A Few Thrifty Goodies ~ Time Life Holiday Cookbook and The Art of Chinese Cooking

The Time Life Holiday Cookbook, published in 1976. Adapted from the Time Life Foods of the World Series, with over 300 recipes.

Up first is The Spirit of Christmas, beginning with Cocktail Party Fare consisting of fondue, ham balls, steak tartare rolls, cheese balls and Galatine de Canard - a four pages recipe (including an illustration on how to debone a duck in the French manner), followed by Holiday Dinners consisting of roast goose stuffed with apples & prunes, caramelized potatoes, bread dumplings, Christmas Eve borscht, roast pheasant and Yorkshire pudding.

Christmas Breads and Desserts consist of  Polish Christmas poppyseed rolls, stollen, a gingerbread house, Irish Christmas cake (a white fruitcake), plum pudding, gateau Saint-Honore, bourbon balls and divinity, with the Cheerful Glass offering eggnog, glogg, hot buttered rum, a claret cup and Kentucky Christmas punch.

Saluting the New Year is the next holiday/chapter with recipes for The Open House ~ baked ham with brown sugar glaze, hopping John, quiche, cassoulet, herring salad with sour cream sauce, Swedish meatballs, stuffed onion rolls, a Linzertorte and Scottish black bun cake, and Punch Fizzes and Cocktails ~ bloody Mary, green dragon (vodka with creme de menthe), milk punch and absinthe Suissesse. The Chinese New Year is celebrated with egg rolls, Peking duck, bird's nest soup, mandarin pancakes and steam sea bass with fermented black beans.

Moving onto to Winter Revels, a few of the options in Sweets for Valentines include strawberry cream rolls, gypsy creams (Hungarian), almond nougat and maple walnut fudge balls,with Mardi Gras Time doling out gumbo, king cake and Creole champagne punch. On Washington's Birthday we are offered all things cherry ~ cherries jubilee, sour cherry pie or cold cherry soup ~ and for Purim there is honey cake. Lastly, St. Patrick's Day Specials encompasses colcannon, corned beef & cabbage, soused mackeral and Irish soda bread.

The Rites of Spring delves into Easter Favorites: Greek egg & lemon soup, Yugoslavian marinated leg of lamb, crown roast of lamb, scalloped potatoes Dauphinoise, Greek Easter bread, babka and Paska (Russian Easter cake), and The Passover Seder: gefilte fish, chicken soup with matzo balls, latkes and macaroons. There are also dishes for a Derby Day Party: turkey hash, burgoo, tomato aspic and mint juleps.

With Family Celebrations the fare is varied, with Special Luncheon Parties contributing a brioche loaf, ginger-ale salad, sole & crab mousse, Chinese water chestnut & watercress salad and a Rhine wine cup, and Special Occasion Entrees presenting rolled stuffed fish fillets, chicken Kiev, lobster souffle and beef stroganoff. There are also a few Dramatic Desserts ~ bananas flambe, baked Alaska, chocolate mousse and a Spanish torte.

Some of the patriotic fare in the Fourth of July includes BBQ spare ribs with red sauce, maple BBQ ribs, charcoal broiled T-bone steak, BBQ stuffed salmon, three bean salad, ratatouille, swordfish shish kabobs, Boston baked beans, Kentucky fried chicken, corn sticks, steamed mussels in white wine, cioppino and molded salmon with cucumber sauce. There are also a few Cold Soups and Garden Salads ~ cold split pea soup with mint, coleslaw, celery slaw, gazpacho and spinach or Caesar salad and or course yummy All-American Desserts ~ fresh blueberry pie, strawberry shortcake, huckleberry cake, ginger peach ice cream, sangria, planter's punch and daiquiris.

Nearing the end, October Festivals include an Autumn Beer Fest with sauerbraten, German yeast dumplings, spiced sauerkraut, steamed bratwurst in a sour cream sauce, German potato salad, red cabbage with apples and potato dumplings with Columbus Day Dishes trotting out pizza, ravioli, minestrone soup, spinach gnocchi and gelato. Succoth (a Jewish harvest holiday) delivers cold borscht, kreplach (meat filled dumplings), pickled fish, beef & sweet potato stew and Israeli chicken with kumquats and Treats for Halloween contributes sugar doughnuts, brownies, pecan stuffed date cookies, sand tarts, apple fritters, licorice cookies and crullers.

The last chapter, The Thanksgiving Table is loaded with All American favorites from Virginia peanut soup, roast turkey, cornbread, sausage & pecan stuffing, spiced acorn squash, creamed onion, mashed turnips. corn pudding, plus pumpkin bread, a cornbread loaf, cranberry chiffon pie, pecan pie, sherried walnuts and a few libations ~ grasshopper, cafe Brulot and an interesting quaff titled "between the sheets" (lemon juice, brandy, rum & Cointreau).

The Art of Chinese Cooking, published in 1956. This copy is the 40th printing, published in 1975. Written by the Benedictine Sisters of Peking, who originally moved to China in 1930 to serve as missionaries at the Catholic University of Peking. They were held as civilian prisoners during World War II, and stayed in China (Shanghai, then Formosa) until the spread of communism led to relocation in Japan. To raise funds, the nuns started a Chinese cooking school that started with six students and eventually grew to 150 students (per week!). A petite book, with only 92 pages, there are Chinese proverbs scattered among the pages, along with whimsical drawings. Each recipe is listed in English and Chinese (written and in character form).

Pork starts of the recipes with lotus root sandwiches, won ton, braised pork with bean curd, pork dumplings, sweet & sour spare ribs and lion's head (ground pork, dried mushrooms - shaped into balls - then simmered on bok choy leaves), followed by Fowl which offers braised duck, mushroom or pineapple chicken, chicken eggplant or chicken velvet (with gravy).

For Beef, a few of the selections include beef with cauliflower & snow peas, string beans & beef, and sweet & sour beef balls with pineapple & peppers, with Seafood doling out sweet sour fish, shrimp Foo Yung, shrimp balls, braised prawns, shrimp on toast and shrimp with cucumbers.

Some of the Vegetable choices are Peking style asparagus, spinach & mushrooms or bamboo shoots with mushrooms, with Soups dishing out crab, egg and mandarin (pork, mushrooms, carrots & spinach).

We end with Desserts ~ caramel squares, cream puff pie, snowballs, lemon sponge pudding and honeyed fruit bars (coconut & chocolate chips) and a few Miscellaneous recipes: fried rice, egg noodles and Chinese salad dressing (vinegar, soy sauce and ginger).




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