Low-Salt and Delicious -- Sweet and Spicy Crackers Abraham Lincoln Might Have Enjoyed

Part of what we do here at Potluck Paradise is to research and write about old recipes.  I've written six books that are a fusion of history and food. Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen is my newest. This recipe is from that book and is one of the absolute favorites in our kitchen and wherever we have served these unusual treats.

These are kind of like cookies. They are sort of like crackers. They are absolutely delicious and ridiculously easy to make. And, once made, they keep for days, even weeks, if you can stop eating them.

They are called APees.  Pronounced "A Peas" not aps.  And they date way, way back. I've made them for years, first finding the recipe in a Civil War-era cookbook. I was thrilled to find a recipe for them in the newspaper Abraham Lincoln would have been reading in New Salem, Illinois, in November of 1833.

I don't think store-keeper Lincoln would have made these himself. He was sleeping on the counter of his store and taking his meals with families in town or at the Rutledge Tavern. Ann, the daughter of tavern keeper and New Salem founder James Rutledge, was said to have been Abraham Lincoln's first true love. They were, at the very least, good friends and mutually devoted to learning. Neighbors recounted seeing them together, often with their heads bent over books.

Lincoln was elected to his first term in the Illinois Legislature in 1834 and the Rutledge family sold the tavern and moved to a nearby farm. Ann made plans to enroll at Illinois College in the town of Jacksonville the following year. However in August 1835 Ann became ill, probably with typhoid fever. Lincoln rode to visit her for what the family feared would be one last time. The two spent an hour alone together as the grieving Abraham sat by her bedside. She died two days later. She was just 22 years old.

Lincoln was said to have become deeply saddened and seen to be wrapped in profound thought as he walked around town and in the surrounding woods. Years later, as Lincoln was leaving Springfield for the White House an old New Salem friend asked Lincoln about Ann. Lincoln is said to have replied, "I did honestly & truly love the girl."

These delightful treats are memorable, too.

 APees   -- adapted from an 1833 recipe

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon mace
1 1/2 tablespoons caraway seeds
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold, salted, or unsalted, butter
1/3 cup white wine

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the flour, sugar, spices and the 1 1/2 tablespoons of caraway seeds in a mixing bowl, or in your food processor. Slice the butter into small chunks and cut into the flour mixture with a pasty cutter, two knives, or using the food processor, until the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal. Mix in the wine with a fork or the processor and knead until you have a smooth dough. Roll out on a lightly floured surface about 1/8-inch thick. Prick all over with a fork and cut into squares with a rotary jagging iron or just a knife. Place on lightly greased sheets and bake until light brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. The Apees shrink as they bake.  Makes about 7 dozen small cookies.

Note: these are great to eat all by themselves, but are particularly tasty -- and unusual -- as a base for cheese, spreads--ham would be great, or a bit of cream cheese and homemade apple preserves--see our recipe for February 2!

Copyright 2015 Rae Katherine Eighmey. All rights reserved.

Celebrate Honest Abe's Birthday with His Gingerbread Men

This Wednesday, February 12, will mark 206 years since Abraham Lincoln was born on his family's farm in Kentucky.  The family lived there until Abe was nearly eight, moving to homestead in wild southern Indiana. Lincoln later wrote a poem in which he described those early Hoosier settlement days. One stanza says:

When first my father settled here, 

'Twas then the frontier line:

The Panther's scream, filled the night with fear

And bears preyed on the swine.

Among the young boy's favorite treats were these gingerbread men, made either by his mother Nancy who died when Abraham was nine, or by his step-mother Sarah. Lincoln described these soft cookies several times, almost giving a recipe. When he was in the White House President Lincoln told the story about those men describing the two key ingredients--sorghum and ginger--and the texture, being able to eat one quickly in two bites.

Lincoln had first used the homey anecdote to great advantage during the Lincoln-Douglas debates when he diffused the excessive and insincere praised heaped upon him by the "Little Giant" Senator Douglas. The tall, eloquent lawyer from Springfield allowed as how he was like his poor neighbor "Hoosier boy" back in Indiana who loved gingerbread more than anyone and never got any. Lincoln said that he was so unaccustomed to praise that he forgot to get angry even at the misrepresentations Douglas had insinuated within it.

Abraham Lincoln won the hearts and the humanity of the audience that day, even though he lost the election. It was the second and last one he would ever lose in his long political career in the Illinois Statehouse, United States' Congress, and the Presidency.

These easy-to-make treats will win your hearts, too. Perfect to make with children or grandchildren and celebrate Lincoln's birthday or President's day in two weeks.

Abraham Lincoln's Gingerbread Men

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sorghum syrup, you may use light or dark molasses
3 1/3 cups flour
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold salted butter

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease two baking sheets. Pour the milk into a glass measuring cup and add the sorghum. Stir to mix. In a medium mixing bowl combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda and ginger. Slice the butter into small pieces and cut into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or two knives until the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal. Add the milk mixture and stir with a fork or spoon, kneading until smooth like children's play clay.

To make a gingerbread men about 4 inches high, break off a piece of dough a little larger than a golf ball. Place it on your work surface and roll it lightly under your palms to form a pencil-thin rope of dough about 12 inches long. Break off a piece about 4 inches long and set aside. This will become the arms.

Fold the remaining rope in half to form a narrow, upside-down V. Grasp the folded top and pinch together one inch down from the top and twist to form the neck. Put the arm piece under the neck and place on the baking sheet.  Make the remaining men.

Bake until the cookies are lightly browned, about 15 to 20 minutes. Watch carefully as the sorghum or molasses in the dough can burn quickly.

Makes 18 gingerbread men 4-inches high.

A Little Here. A Little There. Next Thing You Know, a Great Meal

Here at Potluck Paradise leftovers are our middle name.

We grew up watching our mothers take the last little bit of the Saturday roast beef, clamp the cast-iron food grinder on the edge of the kitchen table, and convert the un-chewable bits into tender minced meat. Next step--mix with leftover gravy, toss in some canned mushrooms and pour the mixture on a slice of white bread, or two.

If we were really lucky, there were leftover mashed potatoes. Those got mixed with an egg, or two, and some flour and formed into pancakes. Browned in butter to crispy doneness sheltering warm mash, they were the perfect base for the beef.

Flash ahead to today where from time to time we find ourselves looking at impossibly small bits of leftovers. A drib of soup, a drab of mixed vegetable. And, not having a dog, or even a cat, the thought can be, "Oh well. it's is just a little, let's toss it." I'm not going to lecture us on the amount of food wasted in the United States, or in other countries. We all know it is a serious problem.

But not so fast.  There are simple solutions if we just take a minute to consider proactively. That soup can help mellow a sauce or gravy. The vegetables can be frozen and tossed into the next batch of soup. And the last cup of chili is the perfect filling for an acorn squash!

So there's not real recipe this blog. Just a consideration.  Look at those leftovers and be thankful for the refrigerator with a large freezer so they can be set aside and, in effect, be harvested for another meal. Put the small bits into a special spot in the freezer so they are readily at hand. I have a large plastic food container in the door shelf and that's where the carefully labeled and securely wrapped bits are stored. Then think creatively. How can these be combined?  Even a mere tablespoon of mashed potatoes can be set aside to thicken a white sauce to creamy goodness. The last quarter of a cup of mashed sweet potatoes ended up in the chili above. Chili itself can be home for the last bits of the Saturday pot roast or the Sunday chicken.

In short, they're not leftovers, they're ingredients!

Copyright 2015 Rae Katherine Eighmey. All rights reserved.

Healthy, Fruit-Filled Chocolates Easily Made with Love and Honey

Sure the fancy heart-shaped boxes are nice, but why buy chocolates for your Valentine when you can make these delicious treats filled with healthful dried fruits and nuts. Here at Potluck Paradise headquarters, we're always ready to test chocolate recipes. These easy to make candies are at the top of our list. They taste like the richest bon-bons and no one will ever know the secret filling unless you spill the beans. The recipe dates from World War I when sugar was restricted to two tablespoons a day. Natural ingredients made these Honey Fruit Chocolates popular holiday gifts for Christmas 1917.

Make some for your special someone and watch him. . . or her. . . smile! The filling keeps frozen for weeks, ready to make a few more whenever you want a delicious little bite.

Honey Fruit Chocolates
1 12-ounce package raisins
1 8-ounce package whole, pitted dates
2/3 cup figs, diced
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
grated rind of half an orange
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons honey
1/8 teaspoon salt
chocolate for dipping,
such as melted dark or semi-sweet chips
Run the fruit and nuts through an old-fashioned grinder, or pulse in
a food processor, until ground into a rough paste. Stir in rind, juice,
honey, and salt. Chill mixture until firm. Form into balls, about 3/4
inch in diameter. Melt chocolate chips and dip balls to enrobe
filling. Cool on waxed paper or foil. The filling can be frozen and
made into chocolates in batches. Makes about 6 dozen.

Copyright 2015 Rae Katherine Eighmey. All rights reserved

Always Ready! with Rolls of Cookies in the Freezer

Here at Potluck Paradise headquarters we learned long ago--at our mother's apron strings-- that one of the keys to successfully surviving days with scores of children about is to have a freezer well stocked with rolls of slice and bake "icebox" cookies. Easy to make on demand by the handful, dozen, or cookie tin full for midnight snack, after school treat, or gift to a neighbor in need.

Our mothers and grandmothers knew how to make this work. Pick a day when you are in the kitchen anyway, cooking something that needs a constant eye, or in today's world, if there is something you want to watch on television and don't want to just sit there. Mix up and form the rolls. Wrap them securely--we've been using the "Press-n-seal" plastic wrap and then put them in s freezer bag. A small investment for a lot of easy pleasure.

If you have kids, or grandkids, around these are wonderful recipes to make with them.  I've cooked with our young grandsons. We all know how it goes. They can be all excited about the project, but after about five or ten minutes the lure of matchbox cars takes over. By dividing the project in half, you have the perfect project.  The Butterscotch in particular work with for making with kiddos -- Mix the dough with a spoon, or even with "perfectly clean" hands and then come back to it later.

Since we stared taking these to book talks we've found many a person had the same memories. And, they, like us, had not made these wonderful cookies in years. Post a picture of the Date Pinwheel and the "likes" will explode across Facebook. the chocolate spirals are fancy, but for flavor give me the Old Fashioned Butterscotch. We've shared that recipe in this community before but it is well worth repeating.



Classic 1950s Ice Box Cookies
(makes 8 dozen cookies -- but not all at the same time!)

2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup melted butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups flour
1 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Stir the sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla together until completely blended. Add the dry ingredients, mixing thoroughly then stir in the nuts. Knead the dough with hands if necessary to get a smooth dough. Divide the dough into quarters. Form each roll into a log about one inch high and one inch wide. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill at least 2 hours in refrigerator. (You can firm dough more quickly in the freezer for about 20 minutes.)

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease baking sheets. Slice dough about one-eighth inch thick with a sharp knife. Place sliced on baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake until lightly browned, about 10 to 12 minutes.  Makes 8 dozen -- but not, necessarily, at the same time.


Classic Date Pinwheels from the 1950s 

These Date Pinwheels can be a bit messy to make.  And be sure the dough is very, very cold when you slice them. But they are well worth the effort to have on hand in the freezer. If you want to be totally indulgent, frost them with a bit of burned butter icing--just a glaze.  Oh my!

Date-Filled Icebox Pinwheel Cookies

Filling:
1 pound pitted, dried,dates
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup water

Cookie Dough
1 cup shortening or butter at room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon banilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups flour

First make the date filling. Cut the dates into small pieces. Combine with the sugar and water in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the dates fall apart, making a jam-like mixture. (Note: if the dates are very dry, you might have to help them along with a few pulses from an immersion blender.) Set this mixture aside to cool while you make the dough.

In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugars. Stir in the vanilla and eggs, mixing well. Stir in the baking soda and flour.  To make the cookies--cover your work surface with waxed paper or plastic wrap. Divide the dough in half and roll out one half into a rectangle 1/4 inch thick. Carefully spread the half the cooled date jam over the cookie dough. Then, using the paper wrap as an aid, roll the dough up from the long side, making a spiral of date filling. Repeat with the other half of the dough and filling. Wrap this dough log in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours. Store in the refrigerator for one week, or in the freezer for months.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease baking sheets. Cut across the roll in 1/4-inch thick slices with a very sharp knife. Place slices on the sheets and bake until golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes.

Copyright 2105 Rae Katherine Eighmey. All rights reserved

Women's Heart Health Goes Red Deliciously

Hearts collide in February here at Potluck Paradise headquarters, No, we're not talking about lover's spats, we're celebrating the double-duty heart benefits of Valentine's Day celebrations and the American Heart Month promoting heart health especially among women. Well, what could be better to celebrate our Potluck Paradise National Potluck Month than a Red Dress -- Red Dinner. Although we're more likely to wear a red sweater and jeans.

Enough healthy red foods come to mind to easily fill a potluck table. Whole-wheat pasta tossed with tomatoes and red peppers, or in a red marinara sauce. Salmon is kind of red and then there is red snapper. We could even include some red meat -- a nice piece of lean steak -- smaller than a deck of cards, mind you -- with all the fat trimmed. Of course there are bushels of red vegetables! Tomatoes and red potatoes are too easy. What about red radishes in a non-fat dip, delicious red beets either simply roasted or slivered into a saucepan in the recipe below. Red cabbage is one our favorites. This recipe has all the flavor and hardly any fat. Just two tablespoons of butter for a whole head. 



WWI Victory Red Cabbage
4 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon minced onion
1/16 teaspoon nutmeg
1/16 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
Soak the cabbage briefly in cold water. Melt the butter in a large frying pan. Add the onion and seasonings and cook until the onion is transparent, stirring frequently. Drain the cabbage and add to the frying pan carefully as the water clinging to the shreds will tend to spatter. Cover and cook over low heat until the cabbage is tender, about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring from time to time. Remove lid, add the vinegar and sugar, stir well and cook for 5 more minutes.

This is a quick and delicious way to prepare beets. It is a little messy to peel and then slice the raw beets. But the flavor is well worth it. Cooking time will vary depending on thickness of slices and how young, or old, the beets are. 
Luscious Steamed Red Beets
3 to 4 red beets
4 large lettuce leaves
grated peel from one orange
Peel the beets and slice very thinly on a vegetable slicer -- about 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch. Take a heavy bottomed 2-to 3-quart saucepan with a lid. Put about a half inch of water in the pan. Put in two lettuce leaves and then put in the beet slices, sprinkling them with orange rind as you fill the pot. Put remaining two lettuce leaves on top. Cook over low heat until the beets are tender, about 15 minutes. Watch carefully so that the water does not completely evaporate! You can eat or discard the lettuce.

And now for dessert!

We're skipping the red velvet cake or chocolate dipped strawberries and suggesting red pears with raspberry sorbet and maybe just a drizzle of dark chocolate. Use the pears just as they are, or poach in a light syrup. You could even use canned pears if you are in a rush. If you do use raw pears, toss them with a bit of lemon juice after you cut them so they don't turn brown as quickly.

Hearty Cornmeal Waffles Stretch Leftovers Deliciously

Here at Potluck Paradise headquarters getting the most from our food dollars is an essential. Good use of leftovers is key to that success.  Now anyone can toss the bits of meat and vegetables into a sauce, add some noodles as the "fill them up" starch and a buttered crumb topping and... Ta-DA -- casserole that elevates the humblest bits into a casserole fit for tasty mealtime--call it a hot dish if you live in Minnesota--but that's a saga for another time.

We've learned, however, that families thrive on variety. And not all meats, especially those with a distinctively tasty sauce do well combined with cream sauce.  A childhood memory got us thinking about new ways to combine leftover meats and a tasty starch. When we were kids our mothers sometimes brought the waffle iron into the dining room. Set it up on a tv tray and made waffles to order for dinner. We ate them the standard way with maple syrup and butter. Looking back, I suspect we did it at the end of the month when money was tight.

Recently, waffles and fried chicken have become a popular food combination on food shows, restaurants, and even some fast food places.

Sorry, but those ordinary waffles don't stand up to the ones we make here in the Potluck Paradise kitchens. Since we discovered these hearty cornmeal waffles from World War I wheat-stretching days, they are the only kind we make for breakfast AND as a superb base for leftover barbecued chicken. They are leavened with sour milk and baking soda, creating a light, and yet sturdy, treat.

The hearty rice and cornmeal texture is the tasty counterpoint to savory toppings. We're suggesting leftover barbecued chicken here, but they work equally well with creamed chicken, vegetables in cheese sauce, or even pork or beef stew. The pockets nicely hold sauces in place so you get deliciousness in every bite. The platform really makes the leftover bits of meat or vegetables go a long way to satisfy a hungry family.

Oh, yes.  They are tasty for breakfast as well. We frequently make a double batch and freeze the waffle squares. They toast up perfectly in the toaster. Just put it on low and toast them twice flipping them over in between.

Tasty World War I Rice and Cornmeal Waffles 

1 tablespoon vinegar
1 cup milk
1 cup cooked rice, cooled -- we prefer brown rice or even wild rice. White rice will work, just don't use the instant kind
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt, optional
1 tablespoon melted butter
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat your waffle iron. Put the vinegar in a glass mixing cup and add milk to the one-cup mark. Stir and set aside for about five minutes as it sours. In a medium mixing bowl combine the rice, cornmeal, flour, baking soda and salt if you are using it. Stir in the sour milk, mixing well to break up any lumps of rice. Stir in the melted butter and eggs. Cook waffles according to the directions of your waffle iron.

Makes about 6 4-inch "Belgian" waffle squares.

Copyright 2015 Rae Katherine Eighmey  All rights reserved