Food Friday: Favorite Recipes of Jaycee Wives

From the collection of Gena Philibert-Ortega

This last week I spoke to three societies about researching women. I encouraged researchers to check out membership groups their ancestors may have belonged to. It's important to search women's groups as well as female auxiliaries to men's groups like the Masons,Oddfellows and the Grand Army of the Republic.

Today's recipe comes from The Favorite Recipes of Jaycee Wives: Casseroles Including Bread. Published by the Capital City Jayceettes of Montgomery, Alabama (1969).

According to the  Jaycee website, the Jaycees full organizational name is the United States Junior Chamber. Members are "18 to 40, who bring energy and insight to solving problems locally and around the world." They were founded in 1914.

In an online history of the Annapolis Jaycees, they have a section on "the early role of women" which may provide some light on the organization of at least that  wives' auxiliary. "Women first participated in the "Jayshees," (sic) a wives' auxiliary club...Concerned about the amount of time their husbands were spending with the Jaycees, they decided the only way to see their husbands and help in the community was to form an auxiliary." This particular auxiliary was formed in 1950.

The introduction to this cookbook points out one of the important aspects of any community cookbook. "Each recipe has been cooked again and again in the kitchen of the Jaycee wife whose name appears with it. It is a favorite of her family." Community cookbooks are books that contain recipes for the foods our families actually ate. They provide a look at our ancestor's everyday lives.

This book contains 2,000 recipes for  casseroles (the majority), bread, and some "international" favorites. Recipes were submitted by women throughout the United States, 374 pages of names, but unfortunately there is no index of the names.

I was intrigued by the chapter entitled "meat combinations." At the very least you have to love the name of this recipe.

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Food.Family.Ephemera on Genealogy Gems

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of going to Lisa Louise Cooke's home, sitting with her, and talking about my new book From the Family Kitchen. We had a great afternoon and even spent some time using one of her grandmother's kitchen gadgets, the Toas-Tite. (I definitely need to purchase one of those. To learn more about it see the video mentioned below).

You can find that interview with Lisa on the Genealogy Gems podcast page. The interview is part of  Episode 137. If you scroll to the end of that podcast's blog page you will see a special offer for my book, good until the end of this month.

The videos for part of the interview and the cooking segment can be found on YouTube (shown below).

A special Thank You to Lisa for inviting me over and spotlighting my book. Lisa and I love some of the same things including quilts, vintage kitchen items and researching female ancestors. I had such a great time talking to Lisa and looking over her collections.

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Food Friday: Evansville Favorite Recipes by the Girl Scouts

Well it would seem that my four cases of Girl Scout Cookies are almost gone (yes, I do enjoy supporting them by buying massive amounts of cookies), so it's only fitting that we spotlight a Girl Scout cookbook today.

Evansville Favorite Recipes Compiled by Evansville Girl Scouts (1939) includes recipes from the girls as well as the moms. On top of that there are advertisements for businesses in Evansville (Minnesota).

I love the cover of this book because it is made out of oil cloth. A great idea that I haven't come across before in other community cookbooks. Oilcloth is the perfect cover for a cookbook because you can easily wipe up spills. Oilcloth is basically a cotton fabric that is treated with oil and other ingredients  to make it waterproof. It has almost a plastic feel to it on one side.

From the collection of Gena Philibert-Ortega

Not only do we get the names attached to each recipe, as is standard for a community cookbook, but we also get a list of names for the girl scouts.

This recipe for Spanish Rice is a good example of how immigrant foods sometimes got lost in the translation as other groups reinterpreted the recipes. The only ingredients that would hint at being "Spanish" are the tomatoes and onion. Not sure how adding ham would make anything Spanish.  But cured pork products can make any recipe  a "good dish."

I love when the cookbooks provide even more information about a community by including advertisements. These are just two of the pages of advertisements. Notice how the Tip-Top Grocery ad includes the name of the female proprietor (Belle Gutten). The Erickson Company is a furniture and funeral service establishment. At one time furniture makers also made the caskets for our ancestors. This is a great example of how the two were combined. It's also a good reminder for us that when you are looking for the funeral home for your ancestor, it  might not be a traditional funeral home.

While there are cookie recipes in this cookbook, sadly they are not official Girl Scout Cookies.

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Food Friday: Directory and Cook Book Maryville, Missouri

from the collection of Gena Philibert-Ortega

The Directory and Cook Book compiled by the First Baptist Church of Maryville, Missouri is unique. It's the first one that I have seen that has "Directory" in the title. Many of these community cookbooks are directories of the recipe contributors and the  local businesses who have ads in the cookbook. These cookbooks serve as a  "directory of local women." In this case, that statement is completely true since two of the pages have the names and street addresses of the women from the Ladies' Auxiliary of the First Baptist Church of Maryville, Missouri.

None of the recipes are attributed in the cookbook. Like many cookbooks of this time period there is a little bit of  everything from recipes, to menus and household advice. In this case the advice includes caloric counts for food and what temperatures to cook food when doing  "oven cooking." After having done some research  on those listed in this cookbook, I would say it dates from 1925 to 1940.

As we bid good-bye to June 2012, consider trying the June Luncheon (#6) this weekend.

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Food Friday: Oh the Things you can do with Fritos

Today's Food Friday will be a little different. It contains no genealogical significance except for maybe your World War II era family liked to pick up recipe booklets and experiment. And just maybe those experiments found their way into the everyday food of your family and it's only when you try to serve that food at a potluck do people question how you came up with such an interesting food combination. Kinda like when I served a tater tot casserole at a work potluck.

So what has your family done with Fritos? Anything interesting aside from having them with sandwiches or serving them with dip? We actually do have an interesting Frito recipe in our family that involves using them for Chilaquiles. Imagine cooking the chips with oil, cheese, eggs and such. I didn't say it wasn't a heart stopper but let's face it anyone can be mesmerized by fried foods covered in cheese.

One of my all time favorite recipe booklets has to be an advertising book put out by the Frito Co of Dallas, Texas in 1947. As you can tell from the price tag on the cover, I got this booklet for the right price (free). Though to be honest, I would have paid much, much more.

From the collection of Gena Philibert-Ortega.

The recipes are great in this cookbook and include all kids of meals. One of the last pages of the cookbook explains why you should add Fritos to pretty much everything. They have "nourishing goodness." Sure that statement is right up there with "living near an atomic bomb test site will cause you no harm" but I digress.

I love a recipe book that provides menu ideas and this one does so beautifully with the page on "Children's Parties." Sure, what kid wouldn't want a good "Toasted Minced Tongue Sandwich" for their birthday followed by "Ice Cream topped with Frito crumbs." My favorite has to be the Frito Fudge which I am secretly planning to make for my family without their knowledge (please insert evil laugh here).

If all else fails you can just go to the old standby, Jello and Fritos.

Small Print Disclaimer: If anyone from the Frito-Lay company is reading this, I think you have a fine product and have eaten it on more than one occasion. But even you have to admit this is one of the funniest recipe booklets of all time. I do this out of love and with no intent to harm. I also am not saying in anyway that eating Fritos equals the damage done by living close to an atomic bomb test site.

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Food Friday: Sandwiches from 1902

Who doesn't like a great sandwich? I personally think sandwiches taste better when someone else makes them but I digress. Today's recipe/s comes from the Souvenir Cookbook of the F.K.A. (Free Kindergarten Association) of Columbus, Georgia. Containing Favorite Recipes of Various Notable Columbus Housewives (1902). Though this example doesn't show any, this cookbook includes contributors names.

This list of possible sandwiches are interesting. While some you may have no problem trying there are a few others that may not be too your liking. I really like the lettuce sandwich which I have seen in other older cookbooks. It really goes to show that you can put anything on a sandwich.

The other great thing about this cookbook is the list of abbreviations used. Always look for these kinds of keys to help you understand your ancestor's recipes.

In my search for more information about the Free Kindergarten Association (FKA) I did find a manuscript collection for a FKA in Savannah, Georgia housed at the University of North Carolina's Southern Historical  Collection here. By conducting a Google Search on the phrase "Free Kindergarten Association" you will find links to manuscript collections for records from New Orleans, Cincinnati, and more.

This cookbook can be found on Internet Archive.

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Food Friday: Texas Style Beans and Occupations

Today's recipe is from a cookbook that isn't particularly old; most likely it was printed in 1992. Eclectic: A Cookbook by the Kenner Professional Woman's Association is unique in that it is a professional woman's association which means that in addition to the names listed there are also the names of the recipe contributor's employer.

One important lesson from this cookbook is that you should always look through an entire resource for additional information. In this cookbook, I noticed that some names that appeared throughout the cookbook didn't always have their affiliation with their name. So a researcher could easily miss that affiliation if they didn't go through the entire cookbook.

Today's recipe is Texas Style Beans by Alex Galleguillos of the Days Inn New Orleans Airport/Kenner.

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