Friday, May 31, 2013

Food Friday: The Problems of Skinny Children Solved!

I love the title of today's cookbook, Food 'N Folklore. Really when you think about it, it's not just the food that's important in our family histories but also the stories about the food.



As I was looking through this cookbook, I came to a section on home remedies. In an era before increased access to physicians, women's abilities to heal their families was vital. Most women had recipes for different types of tonics and salves that could help their family with whatever ailed them.

One of the recipes for a home remedy in this book reminded me of a remedy my own maternal grandmother had.

You see, when I was a child we would go and visit my grandmother every year at her home in the mountains of Arizona. We would stay a week and enjoy the cooler weather, slower paced life, and family gatherings. One year, my grandmother decided that my brother had worms.

Yes, worms.

Not the kind of worm that has burrowed in your skin but like a worm that was inside his stomach causing him to be be too skinny, in her estimation.

I will preface the rest of this story by letting you know that I personally have never suffered such an ailment. So I was never in any danger of having to consume this remedy.

(c) 2013 Gena Philibert-Ortega



So my grandmother told my mother that she must feed my brother a dosage of salt. Yes, salt. Like take a spoonful of salt, or more,  to get rid of his "worms."


Now, my brother owes my mother big time because she refused to give him salt for his "worms." I on the other hand was begging my mother to listen and honor  her mother by feeding my younger brother salt. I was about middle school aged at this point and it sounded like a good way to torture my younger brother.

So imagine my surprise to see this cure for children's worms.


Makes taking a spoonful of salt seem not so bad.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Good Friday: Green Tomato Pie

I love it when a cookbook is more than just a cookbook. Today's Food Friday comes from Bellaire's Own Historical Cookbook. Bellaire Women's Civic Club, Bellaire Texas. 1969.


This is the type of cookbook every community should publish, full of histories, vintage images and names. Oh and there are recipes, in fact the recipes are in a few chapters of this book including one entitled Early Families with Their Recipes.



So today's Food Friday is courtesy of Bellaire pioneer Mrs.  H. Z. Kelley.



I love how the recipe ends "Bake as apple pie and you will be surprised." I love fried green tomatoes and pickled green tomatoes so I'm sure I would love this.


Have a family from Bellaire, Texas? Email me and I would be glad to do a look up for you.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Food Friday: Lox Spread from Florida

I was pleasantly surprised this week when a package arrived with some community cookbooks sent by my friend and fellow genealogist Debbe Hagner, AG.

One of the cookbooks she sent was this one with a title no one can resist, The Happy Cookers from Temple Ahavet Shalom Sisterhood, Palm Harbor Florida. You've got to love a cookbook with a sense of humor. Plus there are over 300 pages of recipes.





Besides the names associated with each recipe, there is also a list of those who served on the cookbook committee.



So for Food Friday, I thought I would feature a recipe that I would love to try. One of my favorite breakfast dishes would be bagels and lox and of course lox spread is equally delightful .