Eggless, milkless, butterless cake
I have a wonderful recipe that Mom sent to me in 1967 when I first got to Alaska with very little left of the $100 I had in my pocket when I left Colorado with three little kids and three suitcases.
I use this recipe when I do not have eggs, am low on milk and am always out of butter.
It was clipped from the Denver Post and filled the empty spot of sweet-toothed kids (and me!) I had complained in my weekly letter to her that I could not get eggs very often and had to use dried eggs and learn to use dry milk for the kids to drink and use for breakfast. I looked for a source of “real” milk. Unkies had a “real” cow and they were selling milk by the gallon glass jar. I only had coffee cans to cook out of because I did not have the money or the room to ship my pots and pans to Alaska. I looked and looked for a gallon glass jar to put real milk in.
Elsie Moore at the Hunger Hut, a local gathering place where you could get a hot meal, get your mail at the little post office in the corner of the bar, or you could get a hair cut in a real barber chair. Of course, you could get your favorite drink too! But most of all it was the local radio station, newspaper and gathering of families to catch up on the local and home town news. No phones or newspaper in those days!!
Elsie had a half-empty jar of green olives at the bar and I asked her if I could have it when it was empty. It took three weeks, but I got my empty jar. I bought some of Elsie’s Flauco’s for supper and headed home very happy.
When days and weeks were skinny in our household, this was the best-tasting breakfast cake, snack after lunch and dessert after dinner I have ever made. My Mom’s old standby, and mine for years.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Oil a 9 x 13-inch pan, set aside.
2 cups raisins
1 cup white sugar or ½ white and ½ brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups hot water
½ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon allspice
Bring all ingredients to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Cool to warm.
Stir in:
½ teaspoon soda
3 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Stir until smooth. Pour into oiled pan and bake 45 minutes to an hour. Test with a toothpick. Drizzle with 2 cups powdered sugar, 2 drops of vanilla and hot water. Cut in squares while warm. Or Served cold; it’s just as good!!
Messy-Can Salmon Patties
“Mom, can we have messy-can eggs?” “What in the world is messy-can eggs?” I asked “Oh you know, Mom, those eggs you make with salsa and cheese.” “Oh! You mean Mexican eggs!” “Yeah-that’s what we said.”
So anything that says Mexican reminds me of my little kids and their sincere, quiet attitude, staring up at me with heads tipped back, knowing that I WAS the ONE that heard it wrong!! Good-Happy Memories.
So this recipe is Salmon Patties with a Mexican twist — thus Messy-Can Salmon Patties
1 pint drained salmon with dark pieces removed — or 2 cups of left over salmon-cooked
1 cup cold mashed potatoes or make 1 cup of instant
1 egg
1 small can of diced green chilies — do not drain
½ cup diced onion
4 or more shakes of hot sauce
½ teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Mix and form into 6 patties. Fry in vegetable oil until nicely browned. Top each patty with Monterey Jack or other Mexican cheese. Place lid on skillet until cheese melts. Toast hamburger buns. Place patties on buns. Slather with mayonnaise, dill or sweet pickle, slice of tomato, and a big slice of onion.
Put bun on top.
Serve with jalapeno-flavored chips and a big glass of lemonade, while you are sitting at the picnic table with the kids discussing Messy-can cooking.
Sauteed Zuccini
The best way to use up zucchini. I love this recipe!
2 cups sliced zucchini
½ cup sliced onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 can of stewed, diced or sliced tomatoes
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon butter
Salt and pepper to taste.
Sautee zucchini and onion in oil and until limp-tender. Add tomatoes, sugar, butter and salt and pepper. Heat through, and serve in a bowl with a dollop of butter floating on top.
Crush two saltines and sprinkle over top. Heated hard rolls go with this also. And for dessert peach cobbler.
To all hunters
Frontier cooking is a theory that the cook should enhance and not destroy the original flavors of the raw food. In our attempts to use certain foods and meats the cook often in her/his attempt to disguise the food very often destroy the delicate flavors of the dish.
Such a dish is moose liver and onions. Properly prepared from the first shot to down the animal, the skinning and the care of the organ meats, proper cooling is essential. Since the invention of the plastic bag, moose and other game meat has taken on the “other” flavor” — plastic!! Actually, some meat has been totally destroyed because of the improper cooling and storing of meat in plastic. So if you ever have a chance to shoot a moose, caribou, deer, bear, sheep, goat — for goodness sake — read up on the proper way to cool and transport and store meat. I have prepared some awful wild meat because of plastic. You can smell it the minute you heat it. Case in point is liver. Moose liver has a wonderful delicate flavor if prepared without the help of the plastic bag.
