Cookbook #77: Feed Me! I’m Yours, Vicki Lansky, Bantam Books, 1979.

This is one of my cookbooks – I bought it new, for me, for advice on feeding my son, who was born in 1980. I was so scared at first to let him eat anything but breast milk! it seemed odd to feed him solids for that first time. Of course I got over that pretty fast, but that’s why I got this cookbook, I wanted help!

Now it’s 2014 my 7 month old grandson is visiting. My daughter is determined to get this kid eating solids! I pulled Feed Me! I’m Yours from the shelf, and we both pored over this decades-old book.

This is a friendly and helpful book. In the first chapter: “Are you a bit nervous about making your own baby food?” Yeah! Lots of suggestions to get a young mother going along a path of homemade foods for her baby. The content was reviewed by a pediatric nurse – this is a sensible as well as friendly book.

Most of the nutrition information agrees with what my daughter has learned from the Internet and current baby care books. One big change is that honey used to be okay for babies, but now is a big taboo. Some of the recipes and food suggestions in Feed Me! I’m Yours have more sugar in them than my daughter wants her son to have.

So what foods do we try on our little . . . test child? Sweet potatoes, potatoes, bananas, oatmeal, pureed fruits, and almond butter.

Ahem. These foods do not simply go into my grandson’s mouth . . . they are gooed all over his face, his arms, his tummy, they go in his mouth and out, they get under his feet and smooshed on the chair. Since he is still in the cereals-and-mashed-fruits-and-vegetables stage, and since most Feed Me! I’m Yours cracker recipes have sugar in them, I decide to go online and see what young moms are cooking for their babies these days. Wow, what an amazing wealth of information is at the fingertips of today’s moms! I found this cute cracker and daughter-approved recipe:

This recipe is from the Super Healthy Kids website. They have whole wheat flour, oatmeal, wheat germ, olive oil, and cheese in them. Grandma got to make Jo his first homemade “cookies”!

Cookbook #75: Favorite Brand Name Cookie Collection, Publications International, 1992.

This is a great cookie book. Hmmm, guess that’s why I chose to give it to my mother in 1996! Even today, in 2014, I can find many recipes I’d like to try. There must be over 700 recipes in this cookbook.

“Brand Name”? I usually don’t like “brand names” because it usually means a lot of pre-packaged mixes are used. Plus, this is not a “personal” cookbook, with interesting notes from an author. But most of the “brand names” in this cookbook can be substituted with any brand, and many are from-scratch recipes. Can’t judge a book by it’s cover.

The chapters are arranged by cookies with chips in them, brownies, bar cookies, drop and shaped cookies, fancy tea-time cookies, cookies for kids, and holiday cookies. My mother marked a couple recipes as “delicious” but didn’t seem to use this cookbook a lot. Not surprising, as her cookie repertoire was pretty full.

I decided to try “German Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies” for this blog. As per the “brand name” theme, it calls for “Butter Flavor Crisco”. It also calls for “German chocolate”, but not by brand.

If you decide to make these cookies, regular vegetable shortening will work fine! I used rolled oats from a “natural” store, but substitute any non-instant oatmeal.

German Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
makes 4-5 dozen

• 3/4 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 8 ounces German chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1 tablespoon water (this is odd! but I did use it)
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups oatmeal (quick, old fashioned, or rolled oats)
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup flaked coconut

Combine shortening, sugars, and eggs; beat with mixer until well blended (“creamed”).

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix into the creamed mixture at low speed until blended, then stir in oats, nuts, and coconut.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto parchment-lined or greased baking sheets. Bake at 375˚ for 10 minutes.

Comments

I tried these just out of the oven and was sort of disappointed. But later that night, and the next day, these tasted excellent, and were a big hit! For nutrition reasons, I like the large proportion of oats in these cookies, as well as the pecans. For flavor reasons, I love the chocolate and coconut.

A keeper!

Cookbook #74: America’s Bake-Off Cookbook, 29th, The Pillsbury Company, USA, 1980.

I think I bought this booklet. No writing in it at all.

Too many of the recipes call for pre-packaged refrigerated crescent rolls, hot roll mix, or cake mixes. From the few that are from scratch, I noted two to copy to try in the future and one to try for this blog. But, after that, America’s Bake-Off Cookbook, 29th, will go into the recycle pile.

I chose to try “Glazed Oatmeal Raisin Bread”. The oatmeal, raisins, low amount of shortening, inclusion of molasses, and low amount of sugar qualify this as “fit for breakfast” (see this blog post).

Hey, this 1980 Bake-Off Cookbook includes nutritional information! I don’t remember any of the earlier ones doing that.

I used a third of the called-for ingredients to make just one loaf. Although I felt that boiling/soaking the raisins really wasn’t necessary, I went ahead and did it. I substituted some of the white flour with white wheat flour, and used whole oats (not quick cooking). I used my breadmaker to knead and rise the dough. Here is my baked loaf:

Note how huge the loaf is! That’s because of the wet raisins. Since I was using my breadmaker to knead the bread, I added the raisins about halfway through the kneading process. But with these soaked raisins came a lot of water, so I had to add about a cup more flour. Still, the baked loaf smelled good, and I looked forward to a toasted slice of this raisin bread in the morning. But this is what I got:

What happened to the raisins?? Oops, shouldn’t have added the raisins so early in the kneading process. The breadmaker ground them up into raisin meal.

Oh well. That’s how we learn.

But this bread is really good for toast. I munch in, and get this huge sweet taste of raisins, even though there are no visible raisins in it. It could be a mystery bread!