10.05.2009

Need a Receipt

My grandmother was always the "expert" cook in our family. If you needed to know how to make something you would give her a call. She loved that her family was cooking and she loved that she felt "needed" when you called her. She would always ask "so you need a receipt?" as her joking way of asking if you needed a recipe.

For high school graduation she gave me one of my most treasured gifts. She hand wrote all of her favorite recipes. Everything from canning pickles, banana bread, several cake recipes, jelly recipes, pies, cookies, Christmas candy, casseroles, bread, the list goes on. There has to be over 50 recipes that she wrote out for me on recipe cards that either say "Grandma's kitchen" or from the kitchen of Frances Harnish. I have always loved having these recipes in her hand writing but now that she is forever gone I treasure them even more. I think of her always when I go to pull out one of her receipts.

Bret was working yesterday and it was the most amazing fall day. I had some apples that I need to make something with and was not in the mood for pie or crisp. I went to my trustee recipes and found one for her infamous Chip Apple Cake. Several years ago my second cousin made this cake for 4-H and it got a blue ribbon at state. GM was so proud that she renamed it the Blue Ribbon Chip Apple Cake. LOL

As I looked over the recipe to make sure I had all of the ingredients I noticed that the cake recipe didn't call for any flour. Strange. So I called my aunt Jeanie to clarify before I started my cake. She laughed and said that yes, the cake did indeed call for flour and that GM must have left it off. Some of her recipes she had made for so long she would write them off from memory. I also noticed that my recipe called for more cinnamon and nutmeg and aunt Jeanie's didn't. My aunt thought it ironic that I had called about this specific recipe since she had made the same cake just last week and her oldest daughter had mentioned after church that she was going to make it also. My cousin who was making had mentioned that her recipe from GM also called for Nutmeg and had the same amount of cinnamon as mine.

It was so bitter sweet to know that we were all thinking about her and strangely in the same way (even the same recipe) but at the same time we couldn't call her up and ask about the Nutmeg or tell her how much we enjoyed the cake. Which of course we did. It's not the frosted type of cake so I wasn't sure what the kids would think but they loved it..nuts and all. So if you are looking for an amazing way to get into the fall spirit here is GM's most loved receipt.

GM's Blue Ribbon Chip Apple Cake

4 c peeled/chopped apples
2 c sugar
2 sticks margarine
2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3 c flour
1 c chopped walnuts.

Mix sugar in with apples and let sit for 10 minutes. Melt margarine and pour over apples. Stir in remaining ingredients. Spray and flour your pan. You can use a 9x13 pan or I use a bunt pan. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes or until your knife comes out clean. You can glaze it with a simple powdered sugar/apple juice glaze or we like it just plain. Enjoy!

1 comment:

Jennifer Juniper said...

I learned that True Blood is a book and an awesome recipe all in one day from you! I never knew they were a book, I thought they just stole the idea from Twilight. Off to Barnes and Noble...