I found the recipe for these Orange Muffins in a 1945 Carnation Cookbook by Mary Blake. Mary Blake was the director of the home economics department of Carnation Company. In a letter in the front of the cookbook, the cookbook was a new one just like Carnation milk was new. Sounds like it may have been the first cookbook printed after the introduction of Carnation evaporated milk. She then goes on to explain how to use the convenient and economical canned milk. It is quite an interesting cookbook to read full of information especially helpful for beginners.
I love orange muffins and these seemed so easy to make. We did so enjoy them.
ORANGE MUFFINS
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1-1/2 cup cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup evaporated milk, undiluted
1/4 cup orange juice
Grated rind of 1 orange
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Cream the butter and sugar,
add egg and beat well;
add milk, orange juice and grated orange rind,
then flour and baking powder sifted together. (Don't overmix.)
Bake in muffin tins 18-20 minutes. (The batter may be stored in refrigerator several hours before baking.)
Remove from pan and cool on wire rack. (I used paper liners but you don't have to.)
Almost three years ago we enjoyed a weeks stay in Myrtle Beach, SC and then stopped by to visit some of my husband's relatives in NC on the way back home. The morning we left my husband's cousin, I was looking at a road map and saw the town of Mount Airy, the hometown of Andy Griffith. Since it wasn't too far off the highway we were on, we decided to take a slight detour and visit the town. It was one of the added highlights to our trip. We even ate lunch at the Snappy Lunch. You can read more about it here.
Finding this cookbook at a recent estate sale, I had to buy it. It was called Aunt Bee's Mayberry Cookbook by Ken Beck and Jim Clark. In addition to the 300 recipes, the cookbook is "also chock-full of wonderful, rare photographs from "The Andy Griffith Show" and offers entertaining glimpses into "the friendly town." Many of the recipes are favorites from members of the show's cast and crew.
While there are several I want to try, this one caught my eye first. I made it for us to enjoy at Friend Fran's house when we met to play canasta. It was fabulous!
I plan to make it again in a few weeks when we are going on vacation again. Our resort will have a full kitchen and all of the ingredients can be bought and used for the pie. The leftover lemonade I can just mix up to drink. I hope to find a few more recipes like this that will be easy for me to make without lots of added ingredients that I won't have and won't want to buy for just a spoonful, etc.
OPIE'S LEMONADE PIE
1 8 - ounce carton Cool Whip
1 6 - ounce can frozen lemonade concentrate (I could only find the larger can now. Just measure out 6 ounces according to a glass measuring cup of the concentrate.) *(See note at the end of the post)
1 14 - ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 9 - inch graham cracker crust
In a large bowl combine the Cool Whip, lemonade, and sweetened condensed milk, blending well.
Pour the mixture into the crust and chill until firm, about 2 hours. (I ended up putting mine in the freezer and took it out about 10 minutes before ready to serve it.)
*While on vacation, I bought the ingredients to make this pie so that we would have dessert to eat. When I was looking for the frozen lemonade, I couldn't find the brand I had used back home. Then I saw frozen limeade and immediately knew I wanted to try it. WELL, I like it even better with the frozen limeade. Just like with the frozen lemonade, I had to buy a can that was 12 ounces. I just measured out 6 ounces in a glass 1 - cup - measure. I can't call it Opie's Limeade Pie because he liked the lemonade, but you can just call it Limeade Pie.
Today's recipe for Apple Walnut Cobbler was contributed by Lois Rhodes from Harrisonburg, VA and was in Wanda E. Brunstetter's cookbook, The Best of Amish Friends Cookbook Collection. I had some apples and since it was baked in an 8 - inch square pan, it sounded like just the right amount for my husband and me.
Cobblers come in all different types. Some have a lot of liquid and some have little. I probably have a fondness for the ones with a lot of liquid because that is what my mother always made. My husband likes the ones what have very little liquid. This is one of those with little liquid that I did enjoy.
When I make recipes with fruit that call for sugar coating the fruit, I usually use stevia instead. I don't feel like the sweet fruit needs a lot more sugar. I did the same with this recipe. Since there isn't much liquid in the finished cobbler, I would recommend that you use the real thing, aka sugar, for the batter portion.
APPLE WALNUT COBBLER
1-1/4 cups sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, divided
4 cups sliced tart apples
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, well beaten
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/3 cup margarine, melted
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease an 8 - inch square baking dish.
Mix 1/2 cup of sugar (I used stevia here), cinnamon, and 1/2 cup nuts.
Place apples in bottom of baking dish.
Sprinkle with cinnamon mixture.
Sift together remaining 3/4 cup sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt.
In mixing bowl, combine egg, milk, and butter;
add flour mixture and blend until smooth.
Pour over apples.
Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup nuts.
Bake for 50 minutes.
Serve with whipped topping or whipped cream sprinkled with cinnamon if desired.
Seems like whenever my husband finds me in the kitchen baking, he always asks, "Who are you making this for?" I guess I shouldn't be surprised since I do give most of what I bake away. I surprised him this time when I told him I was making it for us. (I wasn't completely honest since I did take four generous servings to my son and his family when we went to visit with them later that afternoon.)
Mary T. Reene from the St. James Women's Council in Cazenovia, New York did call it Banana Cake. It has the consistency more like bars though. But I guess it really doesn't matter what it call it. They were really good. I liked spreading the chips out to make a frosting. It was really pretty before but even after the cake cooled, the chips spread really nicely.
BANANA CAKE
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup sugar/stevia blend.)
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sour cream
1 cup mashed bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (6 ounces) chocolate chips (I used 60% cacao dark chocolate chips)
Cream margarine;
gradually add sugar, beating well.
Add eggs, one at a time,
beating well after each addition.
Combine the flour and baking soda; add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix after each addition.
Stir in banana and vanilla.
Pour batter into a greased 9 - inch square baking pan.
Sprinkle chip over top (I didn't use the full 1 cup.)
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack.
You can serve the cake as it comes out of the oven - OR -
you can take a knife and spread the chips out over the top and
it will make a nice icing.
"Better than Starbucks!" That's what the serviceman in the tax office at Fort Leavenworth stopped to tell me after taking one bite of these Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies. The ladies in the office just wanted to know if the recipe was on my blog.
My husband and I had to file an amendment to our tax returns and I just couldn't go without taking them some "goodie" to eat. These cookies were so fast and easy and so good. I haven't eaten a cookie from Starbucks so I can't say if I agree with him or not. I can say I thought they were really good too.
The recipe came from a 1978 cookbook I bought at an estate sale (where else would I find one?) called Treasury of Baking Recipes from Better Homes and Gardens. It has a basic drop cookie recipe and then shares 5 different varieties of it. I plan to try a couple of the other one soon.
OATMEAL-CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine (I did use butter)
1/4 cup shortening
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup quick oats
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate pieces (I used 60% cacao dark chips)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a mixing bowl, cream together the sugars, butter, shortening, egg, vanilla, and milk till light and fluffy.
Stir together the flour, salt, baking soda, oats, chips and walnuts.
Stir dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. Blend well.
Drop dough by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet and bake 8 to 10 minutes. (I used a small cookie scoop that holds 1 tablespoon.) (I tried these cookies on a greased cookie sheet and on parchment lined cookie sheet. I preferred the latter. The edges wanted to cook too much around the edges on the greased cookie sheet. I had to cook them the full time on the parchment paper.)
Allow cookies to cool about 30 seconds before removing them to cool on a wire rack.
Makes almost 3-1/2 dozens.
The cookies cooked just on a greased cookie sheet
On the parchment paper
The cookie on the left was baked on the greased cookie sheet and the one on the right was baked on parchment paper. You can make your own decision.
I have made a number of baked chicken recipes over the years, but I have to say that this Amish recipe for Baked Chicken produced the juiciest and most moist chicken I have eaten.
The recipe was in my Amish Cooking cookbook. I love looking at the recipes all of which have pictures of the finished dish and reading the added information and pictures about Amish living. The book was edited by Mark Eric Miller but other than that no credit is given to any of the recipes.
The recipe called for 1 cut up broiler or young chicken. Rarely do I cook a whole chicken now a days. I had four chicken tenders which is about our "speed" so I used them.
BAKED CHICKEN
1/2 cup flour
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
3 teaspoons salt (I used only 2 teaspoons)
1 cut up broiler or young chicken (I used 4 chicken tenders and had plenty of mixture left for more)
1/4 pound butter (I used 1/4 cup since I was only cooking 4 tenders)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix the dry ingredients well in a plastic bag. (Since I was using tenders, I just mixed the ingredients in a dish.)
Coat the cut up chicken parts (or tenders) with the mixture.
In a cake pan (baking dish) melt the butter. (I used a 10 -inch square baking pan)
Place the chicken parts in the pan, but do not crowd them.
(I decided to place the tender in the melted butter and then turn it over so that both sides were coated with the butter.)
Bake for 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until done. (I baked the four tenders 25 minutes.)
Cream the butter and sugar, 
add egg and beat well;
add milk, orange juice and grated orange rind,
then flour and baking powder sifted together. (Don't overmix.)
Bake in muffin tins 18-20 minutes. (The batter may be stored in refrigerator several hours before baking.)
Remove from pan and cool on wire rack. (I used paper liners but you don't have to.)
