"Home Cooking to Help Warm Our Spirits as Well as Our Bodies" 1/30/14

We have had five Thursdays this month. Funny how it seems as if tt has been January forever! I cannot recall ever being at home so many days in a row.  A new batch of snow is quite beautiful to just look at  through my window panes, but to have it last forever and then get another few inches on top of the old is hard on the emotional status of those of us who do not venture outside. The future forecast is not inspiring with record low temperatures headed our way.  I will try to remember that Spring is only two months away  and control my complaints when it is too warm for comfort next summer.

I remember in the mid l930’s I was in the sixth grade and we lived on a farm between Waterloo and Auburn, Indiana.  Our home was a fair distance from the road.  The temperature was 17 degrees below zero. School was not closed. We lived right next door to the bus driver.  The bus had just bench seats down both sides of the bus with about a foot wide seat down the middle. The boys straddled it and the girls sat side saddle. My two youngest sisters were in the 2^nd  and  3^rd grades.  The bus driver put them on the side seat clear up beside him where it was warmer.  I was talking to my sister this week about that and she told me that our oldest brother who was in high school grabbed her by the hand when we came home and said ”Come on, Kork, we are going to the house”. He was in high school and took her by the hand and started running up the driveway.  She said her feet touched the ground about every six feet.  Memories are greater than the experience of living them.  That year we got our first sled for a Christmas present. We were thrilled with it because at least three of us could ride on it.

This will be a little late for you, but with the forecast for cold weather means that we should have some good home cooking to help warm our spirits as well as our bodies.  The first recipe is one that I have never heard of. I usually pass up frankfurter recipes because my taste for them has diminished greatly for them in recent years.  They are not nearly as good as they were when I was a kid and we seldom had them at home. My parents rarely bought any meat at the grocery store. But I think I might try this idea when I have some company to help me eat it.

                        

BROTHER JOHN’S  FRANKFURTERS

12 frankfurters

2 medium onions, minced

2 tablespoons butter

2 cans condensed tomato soup

1 pint dairy sour cream

Brown rice or mashed potatoes

Saute onions in butter. Slice frankfurters into ½ inch discs Add to onions and cook over medium heat until browned. Stir in undiluted soup. Heat thoroughly. Add sour cream. Heat without boiling. Serve over rice or potatoes.

                                   

CHICKEN AND RICE CASSEROLE

3 cups diced cooked chicken

4 cooked eggs, chopped

1 1/2cups celery

1 onion

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 cans (10 oz.) mushroom soup

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup soft bread crumbs

1 tablespoons butter

Combine chicken, eggs, celery, onion, lemon juice, soup, and mayonnaise. Spread into lightly greased baking dish. Combine bread crumbs and butter. Sprinkle over top of casserole. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

After stewing chicken, cool it in the broth before cutting into pieces, It will have twice the flavor.

Lettuce keeps better in the refrigerator without washing it. Keep the leaves dry. Wash it when you use it.