This is a very restrained sample of the persimmon recipes in the Priscilla vault.
I have many FoodDay recipes in my file as well. The Oregonian food section was the best. I have recipes I never made but I respect those Oregonian food ladies so much I’ve hung onto them. I’ll get to them eventually.
Check out these Fred Meyer handouts.
This one overlaps. Looks like Priscilla typed up some of these recipes for her recipe notebook.
This is the famous Priscilla persimmon cookie recipe — this is the recipe card she made for me shortly after we got married.
I have the ingredients out in the kitchen. Time got away from me so I haven’t even started yet. This isn’t much of a test recipe since I’ve made these before — in fact, earlier this year. Someone brought us persimmons from California.
I love this note. Poor Bob. He got married at just the right age.
I had hoped to do more intensive test recipe cooking but a number of things have conspired to diminish my enthusiasm for this project so I’m not sure how things will go for the rest of the month.
There is a very particular Thanksgiving recipe I want to make and I haven’t been able to find it. I’ll do one more dig through what I have here before I ask my sister-in-law if she has it.
This recipe looks worth a try although I don’t know about the raisins and cinnamon.
I scanned it because of the quotes around time.
What do you think that’s all about?
I included this one because it’s from a ditto machine.
I can still hear the sound of one of those, copying off our school worksheets.
There’s that great scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High where they all sniff their papers.
I hope none of this is coming off as mean-spirited because it genuinely is not. Our moms had a different set of tools to work with. There wasn’t the variety of ingredients available or a bazillion diverse recipes at your fingertips like we have now.
But still, some of these recipes are a trip.
Curious as I am, I don’t think I can bring myself to try this frozen cheese salad.
Obligatory link to the I Like Cheese audio file.
My mother-in-law loved her seafood.
Every holiday or get together we’d have some sort of shrimp thing or crab thing. I will be recreating one for Thanksgiving. Stay tuned.
There are crab recipes throughout all her recipes. There another deviled crab recipe in one of the books that is the mostly thoroughly loved recipe in the entire book — spattered and crumpled.
I am only a medium crab fan. One Christmas I managed to have three crab dinners. One with Priscilla, one with Mom and Dad, and one at the Moreheads.
That was a lot of crab.
It’s tough to tell from this photo how old and worn this notebook is.
It’s one of my favorites.
It’s about half-full of newspaper and magazine clipped recipes.
I love the graphic on the Ice Box Rolls.
Under the recipe it says (capitalization as in original): An Old Irish Custom Which Lasted Until About 1860 Was for Green Grocers to Decorate Their Stores With Four Leaf Clovers. This Was Supposed to Keep Their Food From Going Bad Before It Was Sold.
Tonight is our first test recipe: Cream Cheese Tuna Bake from the Executive Mansion. (Recipe here.)
If you know me, you know that the first thing I did was adapt the recipe.
Mrs. Evans wanted me to use 4 oz. of uncooked macaroni.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
I’m not going to all this trouble and then using a tiny amount of macaroni. I tripled that.
She also didn’t call for cooking the green pepper and onion first and I did not feel confident about that cooking enough from the time in the oven.
I did add a can of mushrooms. I had a 12 oz. can of tuna and I added about 2/3rds and left the rest for Bob to make into something next week.
I thought I was okay but when I opened the tuna I thought it smelled terrible.
But the finished casserole smelled good and I ate a generous helping. It was fine. Not my favorite but not terrible.
Quote from cooking: It seems good except for the tuna.
My husband loved it and had to drag himself away so that he could have the leftovers this week.
I haven’t picked a test recipe for next weekend yet. I’ve still got lots to choose from.
Priscilla grew up in Port Townsend and this little cookbook was sitting at the top of the pile. Bob mentioned seeing the Governor’s wife’s tuna casserole recipe and I knew I had to make it.
I do not like tuna and have suggested to Bob that if he wants to eat it, he should to go outside.
But I’m going to make this for fun and education! I bought all the stuff. Notice it doesn’t say what size can of tuna. I decided to go all in and bought a big one.
I will try to document the process and post on Sunday but if I run out of time it might be later in the week.
What’s not to love about this recipe? Super simple. US Forest Service notepad. Obviously well loved.
Here’s how I interpret the instructions:
Fry the onions first. Take onions up and put in hamburger; add 2 tablespoons of chili powder to the hamburger, mash in lard. Add 4 eggs beaten up; add 3/4 lb. of cheese, 1/2 cup tomato catsup. Add the onions, salt and pepper. Cook slowly until done.
After eating don’t breathe near an open flame for at least four hours!
