By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 30). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).
This is one of those unique combinations of ingredients that has been copied by other restaurants under various names. Some places used celery seed and others used poppy seed, but the basic idea was for a cornstarch thickening in a cooked pudding-like mixture that’s cooled and seasoned.
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup water
1/3 cup vinegar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
5 tablespoons sugar
1 envelope Good Seasons Italian Dressing mix
INSTRUCTIONS:
Put it all in a blender, blending thoroughly until smooth. Transfer mixture to a sauce pan on medium heat, stirring until it comes to a boil and begins to thicken, resembling a pudding. Remove from heat as soon as you see the first bubble of a boil surface. Cool and refrigerate several hours before using to allow it to stabilize. Makes about 1 3/4-cups.
CELERY SEED DRESSING – LIKE WOMEN’S CITY CLUB, DETROIT
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 30). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).
[From Mackus Red Fox House Dressing] This is one of those unique combinations of ingredients that has been copied by other restaurants under various names. Some places use celery seed and others use poppy seed, but the basic idea was for a cornstarch thickening in a cooked, pudding-like mixture that’s cooled and seasoned.
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup water
1/3 cup vinegar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
5 tablespoons sugar
1 envelope Good Seasons Italian Dressing mix
1 teaspoon celery salt*
1 tablespoon celery seed
INSTRUCTIONS:
Put [first 5 ingredients, as listed] in a blender, blending thoroughly until smooth. Transfer mixture to a sauce pan on medium heat, stirring until it comes to a boil and begins to thicken, resembling a pudding. Remove from heat, as soon as you see the first bubble of a boil surface, [then] stir in celery salt and celery seed.
Cool and refrigerate several hours before using to allow it to stabilize. Makes about 1 3/4-cups.
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 16). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).
INGREDIENTS:
1/2-cup table salt
1/2-cup dehydrated celery leaves
1/4-cup celery seed
INSTRUCTIONS:
Combine [ingredients, as listed] in a blender, on high-speed, until powdered. Makes 1 ¼ cups. Keeps for ages [in a sealed container] at room temperature.
Spring begins tonight AND April is just around the corner – which is, among other things, National Lawn And Garden Month, as well as National Garden Month! I’ve written in other blog posts, of how growing your own food saves money on groceries – especially if you don’t factor in the value of your time – but gardening is beneficial in other ways, too.
Most gardening requires some amount of physical care and a continuous dedication of time to such care. When Mom started her newsletter in 1974, she used to dedicate about a page to gardening tips and tricks. She was an avid gardener, when she had time. As her business grew, her gardening time shrunk.
Except for most perennials, you can’t just drop some seeds and come back in a few months to reap the harvest. If only it were that easy! Gardening, after tilling the soil and planting the seeds, usually requires a lot of daily, weekly, and monthly activities – like fertilizing, mulching, watering, trimming, pulling weeds, etc.
However, on the upside, all those activities burn calories. Plus, our bodies get a lot of essential Vitamin D, as we’re doing all that outside, in the sunshine, which is a natural source for it! Gardening also contributes to many important life skills like having faith, patience, and commitment, just to name a few.
OrganicLesson.com’s infographic, 6 Surprising Health Benefits of Gardening, explains how gardening can also strengthen our immune systems, relieve stress, elevate feelings of happiness, provide a physical workout, stimulate the brain, and even encourage a healthier diet. Check it out.
Gardening is classified as “moderate” or “light aerobic” exercise because it works all the major muscle groups – legs, buttocks, arms, shoulders, neck, back and abdomen – as you stretch, bend, lift, pull, push, etc. Tasks that use these muscles build strength and burn calories.
Gardening is also known to improve heart and lung health and help prevent obesity. It also lowers the risks of high blood pressure, diabetes, and osteoporosis. Plus, it stimulates serotonin production, in the brain; regulating mood, anxiety, and happiness. There’s growing research on all the positive effects gardening has on, both, mental and physical health.
One hour of light gardening and yard work burns more than walking, at a moderate pace, for the same amount of time, as it works more muscle groups. An hour of gardening, depending on the specific activities involved, can burn about 324 calories or more. Feel the burn!
Pushing a bagless lawn mower (not a self-propelled or rider style) for 1 hour can also burn about 324 calories and raking up the grass clippings for another 30 minutes, burns an additional 171 calories, according to 20 Everyday Activities and the Calories They Burn, by the Editors of Publications International, Ltd. (date unknown), on HowStuffWorks.com.
The afore mentioned article additionally asserts that reducing waste reduces the waist, since picking up yard waste can also reduce your waist size; claiming that 4 hours, of hard yard work, burns about 1,800 calories. That’s a whopping 450 calories per hour! Did you know that riding a bike for an hour only burns about 135 calories?
FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
Gloria Pitzer’s Mixed Blessings – Recipes & Remedies (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; March 1984, p. 171)
IN THE GARDEN – THORNS OR ROSES
WHENEVER I FIND PEOPLE unable to master a difficult experience, I like to think of Charles Schwab’s theory about sweetening somebody’s self-image with a little praise.
Whatever the situation in life, there are few people who do not do better work, nor put forth greater effort, under a spirit of approval than they ever would under a spirit of criticism. I like to think of approval and praise as our emotional dessert!
The conflict of opinion between the ‘down-home cook’ and the so-called ‘food purists’, over what is good, and which is bad for our diet, reminds me of the story of the two children playing in a garden where their mothers were visiting. One of the children came running to her mother, crying that the garden was a dreadful place!
When the mother asked her why, the child cried that it was full of bushes that had long sharp thorns that scratched her. The other child soon came skipping back to her mother exclaiming that the garden was a delightful place to play and she was having such a wonderful time there.
When the mother asked this child why, the little girl replied that every thorn bush in the garden was full of lovely red soft roses that smelled so nice and felt so soft to the touch… So it must all boil down to what we are looking for in life – the thorns or the roses!
Early spring is usually when I start pruning our large patches of roses and wild, black raspberries, growing in the backyard. Cutting out all the dead stems and canes makes room for new ones to grow. Thick gloves are highly recommended for this task, to help prevent the hands from getting impaled by the thorns!
Because they’re perennials, not much care is required afterward, until it’s harvest time. But I have to closely watch the timing of that or the birds will harvest all the raspberries, first! And while I am happy to feed our backyard feathered friends, I’d like to be able to gather some, myself, for jam and pies and such.
Early spring is also a wonderful time for bird watching, as flocks return (from down south) to roost here! Our cats have been sitting in our dining room window a lot, lately; watching the birds eating from their feeders and around the lawn, and building nests in the houses my husband made and hung for them.
The spring perennials have started peeking through the thawing ground and the bright sunny yellow of witch hazel is popping against the fading winter landscape. But the arrival of Michigan’s state bird, the red-breast robin, is usually one of our first signs of spring, around here.
Some robins don’t even migrate south, in the fall, anymore – not like they used to. I wonder if their adaptation to our more-mild-than-normal winters, lately, is just another sign of the increase in global warming.
A wide variety of birds like to roost in Michigan, March through October. Others are here all year long like the cardinals, woodpeckers and blue jays. However, most of the varieties that we see are migraters – in with the spring season and back out by mid-autumn. Many people, here, are that way, too – they’re affectionately called “snow birds”.
Bird watching is said to be very therapeutic and, trust me, if you feed them, they will come! I remember Mom always putting out special treats of peanuts, bird seed, and peanut butter for the backyard birds (and squirrels). Watching the birds, she said, relaxed her and inspired a flow of creative thoughts, for her writing. My husband and I do the same.
Throughout the spring, we like to put out orange halves and small cups of grape jelly for the orioles that migrate to our backyard. I’ve seen the woodpeckers enjoy these treats too! It’s also a joy to watch the yellow finches fight over the perches on the thistle feeder. But when the oriole wants thistle, all the finches grudgingly move out of the way.
One of our resident woodpeckers made himself heard, early the other morning, with a loud “rat-a-tat-tat”, on an old tree behind our house. It echoed in our quiet neighborhood. Meanwhile, a big “Mama” robin, was perched in another tree, looking into our garden – probably for worms rising from the thawing earth or stuff to add to her nest.
MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
Gloria Pitzer’s Mixed Blessings – Recipes & Remedies (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; March 1984, p. 15)
KITCHEN DESIGN
COOKING IS ONE OF THOSE personal accomplishments that afford us all the opportunity to express ‘talent’. We love being approved of. In fact, we eat it up! It’s the little pat on the back that gives us the incentive to continue trying. And where else, but in the kitchen, can you try to win approval with such satisfying results!
I’m very partial to my kitchen because it is the one place in our home where I feel the most comfortable! Whether I’m there alone, working on a recipe, or sitting at my desk, looking for inspiration on a new article I’m writing, or sharing a cup of coffee with a neighbor or a friend, who’s dropped by – it’s my favorite room!
I have a desk in the kitchen right next to the [sliding glass] door…that overlooks the yard. Our daughter, Debbie, and our son-in-law, Jim, gave me a flowering crab [apple] tree last Mother’s Day, which they planted right in the middle of the yard. I can enjoy it’s flowers each spring; also the very long bare, red branches during the autumn and it’s snow-covered limbs all winter.
It’s my sundial, by which I observed the seasons and the changes involved with this natural wonder. While the Scotch pines around this little tree never change, never go through the transition of bud to blossom to barren branches and then buds again, I can see the contrasts that are parallel to our own personal predicaments.
Some things, places – and yes, even people – never seem to change, while others go through budding and blossoming and withering away, only to come right back to life again in the sunshine of human kindness; as does my tree, in the sunshine of the seasons.
LAST THOUGHTS…
Before Covid-19 hit us, Mackinaw City used to host an annual “Mackinaw Raptor Fest”, celebrating the unique convergence of migrating birds every spring and fall, due to the area’s exceptional location at the rare intersection of two peninsulas and two of the Great Lakes. Mackinaw was one of my parents’ favorite map dots to go for a long weekend.
In honor of March, being National Celery Month, here are THREE of Mom’s copycat recipes – Mackus Red Fox House Dressing, Celery Seed Dressing (Like Women’s City Club – Detroit), and homemade Celery Mix; as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, pp. 16 & 30). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition)].
Combine, in saucepan, the starch and ¾ cup of the COLD water. Sprinkle gelatin powder over the other ¼ cup of the COLD water, to soften it. Then stir the HOT water into the starch mixture and heat until it comes to a boil, stirring constantly, until clear.
Turn off heat and add gelatin mixture. Add soap flakes and stir, to dissolve well. Divide into 4 or 5 equal sized containers, such as [small] margarine tubs [or baby food jars] and stir [different colors of] food coloring into each, as you wish. When cooled and thickened, apply to large sheets of art paper with fingers or paint brushes to create artwork.
Keep unused paints tightly capped and refrigerated, to use within a few weeks.
My version of this grocery shelf product [originally], dated 8/14/76, provided a one-pan (6-qt kettle) or Slow Cooker mixture that did not require much attention.
NOTES ON SLOPPY JOE RECIPE: This is a good recipe to make, when using a Slow Cooker, if you have to be away for several hours and want it ready when you got home, sufficient to feed a big group or ‘make ahead’ to freeze in small portions, for rewarming quickly later in the microwave
INGREDIENTS:
3 lbs. ground beef (sirloin or round steak)
1 cup chopped onion
3 stalks celery, sliced thin
2 envelopes dry onion soup mix
2 cans (28-oz each) tomatoes, undrained and broken up well
10-oz can [condensed] tomato soup, undiluted
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp anise extract (licorice flavoring)
1 TB soy sauce
1 TB Worcestershire
¼ cup dark molasses
½ cup sweet pickle relish
½ cup ketchup
6-oz can tomato paste
1 tsp garlic salt
1 TB crushed sweet basil leaves
1 TB dill seeds
1 tsp paprika
INSTRUCTIONS:
Brown beef until pink color disappears. Add everything else and simmer gently, 6 hours, covered. Cool. Freeze in small portions. [Makes] enough to fill 6-doz hamburger buns.
Tomorrow observes, among other things, National Write Down Your Story Day and Sunday is National Let’s Laugh Day! For many years, before Mom began her Secret RecipesTM business, she wrote satirical columns for various papers. Mom’s stories about how she delt with various situations, in our family and at work, always make me laugh.
Mom wrote down her story, often, in all of her self-published books and newsletters. Most notably, she wrote her (and our family’s) story in her self-published book, My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989), from which I often reference her anecdotes (aka: “MOM’S MEMORIES”).
Mom’s stories, about her dealings with our family’s humorous life-happenings, often blended facts with a little fabrication – just enough to entice a laugh. She was a talented writer. As I mentioned in last week’s blog post, she was greatly inspired, throughout her life, by many talented and funny women like Carol Burnette and Erma Bombeck, just to name a couple.
March is also National Craft Month. Writing a story/book can be considered a craft (an activity involving skill in making things by hand). Like Mom, since I was a young girl, I’ve always loved writing, drawing, and crafting things. Creativity was always encouraged and nurtured by our parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles – whenever I or my siblings crafted anything. I’ve written enough poetry to produce a book or two but I’ve yet to try to publish them.
In my blog posts, I’ve often written about how Mom inspired me – as a writer, artist, crafter, homemaker, cook, mother… The list goes on. A variety of artistic and creative skills seem to run in my family. If there is such a thing as an “artistic gene”, I feel lucky and grateful that my family and I seem fortunate to have it.
MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
My Cup Runneth Over And I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989, pp. 25-28)
THE LITTLE STEPS [cont’d]
WHEN I WROTE THAT very first poem that the Detroit News published when I was in the fourth or fifth grade at the US Grant School in Royal Oak, I was headed toward this livelihood and didn’t even know it.
When I wrote “The Young Pioneer” that same year with the girls who lived on the block, after we saw the movie about the life of the Brontë sisters, I was being directed towards this livelihood… Each was a little step in the right direction, in the direction toward which our entire family would come, and gratefully so.
The beginning of my interest in writing seriously began with the poem – a class assignment – and no one could’ve been more surprised than me to find it published in the newspaper… I remember that it was [after] the war ended… World War II. Every Saturday, the kids on the block would walk up town to the main theater where, for 11-cents, we could see a double feature, cartoons and a cliffhanger serial.
The movie that made the biggest impression on me and really started my emotional batteries to move me into writing, was the story of the Brontë sisters [Devotion(Warner Bros. Pictures, 1946)] – Anne, Charlotte and Emily Jane. One of them [Charlotte] wrote ‘Jane Eyre’ and [Emily] wrote the classic novel, ‘Wuthering Heights’.
They wrote without the benefit of a typewriter, which made an impression on me then. So, on the way home from the movie, I coaxed my friends into stopping with me at the dime store so I could buy a pack of notebook paper and a pair of long, heavy shoelaces.
I was going to fashion these into a manuscript like the Brontë sisters used in the movie. Ordinarily, we would’ve gone to the Royal Oak Sweet Shop on Main Street near Fourth for a soda or some Divinity or fudge to nibble on, but I was saving my quarter for writing paper.
It is good, sometimes, in looking back at how far we have come from the first steps that were to lead us into a bright direction… In our office, I have a file drawer that is full of newspaper clippings that have been written about us and our recipes. These go back to 1974…
Before I ever wrote the ‘Secret Recipes Book’ [in 1976], I [had] assembled a small volume of American dishes to celebrate the bicentennial. Several copies of that little book, ‘The American Cookery Cookbook’, were purchased by the Henry Ford Museum at Greenfield Village in Dearborn [Michigan].
A curious young reporter, who was going through the Museum’s collection of new books, came across mine. He tried to purchase a copy, he later told me, by contacting every bookstore in the area. No one had even heard of me. I was not even listed in the ‘books in print’ directory.
So he returned to the museum and copy down the address from the cover of my book, looked us up in the phone directory and gave us a call. Once Dan Martin of Newsday Wire Service Features saw what the production of our monthly newsletter was like, he lost interest in that little bicentennial cookbook.
When he knocked on the door, that day, it was like inviting him into a Jean Kerr production of ‘Please Don’t Eat the Daisies’. There were a dozen baskets of ironing here and there in the large dining room, each [one] tagged with the name, phone number and date promise to the customer who left [it] with me to be ironed.
Two long tables under the windows were covered with freshly mimeographed 4” x 6” cards of recipes, spread out for the ink to dry. Several times a week, I printed up to 200 recipes and about 50 copies of each. At that time, we sold these through our newsletter for five-for-a-dollar or $.25 apiece. We did very well with them too!
In the living room, Debbie’s friends had gathered with their drivers’ training manuals to quiz each other for the big day coming up when those six teenagers would be taking their driving tests. In the kitchen, Cheryl and Lorie were working on Girl Scout badge projects with some of their friends. It was a madhouse!
Mr. Pipersack was shuffling in and out of the side porch door, trying to unplug the bathroom pipes and clean out the septic tank for us. In the back room, where the prehistoric furnace was located that heated our 80-year-old house.
A man from the gas company was arguing with a man from the Edison company about what was wrong with our furnace and why it wouldn’t work. They finally asked me if my husband owned a screwdriver. I told them, ‘of course!’ They looked at each other and then looked at me, then one of them said, ‘hide it!’
Our oldest son, Bill, was hunting through the kitchen drawers for some tools at that moment, so that he could get under the hood of his mustang out in the driveway and then let Mr. Pipersack pull his truck into the yard. Mike, our next oldest, was on the phone trying to convince a girl that the things she had heard about him weren’t true and if he could get his dad’s car on Saturday, would she go to the movies with them.
The cat was having a litter of kittens under the sewing table and our police dog, Susie, was about to have a litter of pups and was moping about, looking for comfort. I now wonder how any serious writer could have found inspiration in that kind of environment.
I almost wish we had given the impression that we were like the Brady Bunch so that the article the reporter was going to write, would have reflected better on our being normal and average; but frankly, I think I like the Brady Bunch because we could all learn so much from their faultless fantasies about family life.
One of my earliest memories of me & my mom is when she taught me how to write the alphabet and my name, from how to hold the pencil and draw the letters, to putting those wonderful letters together into words. I grew to love writing and crafting, mostly because of Mom. English and art were two of my most favorite subjects throughout school.
I was always amazed and inspired by how Mom managed to work at the newspaper and start her own business, doing what she loved most (writing), while juggling all of her other responsibilities; with a husband, 5 kids, and a dog for which to care. We were a dysfunctional, “real life” version of the Brady family.
LAST THOUGHTS…
There’s no better time than now to write your story down. Leave your legacy in a memoir. Capture the essence of who you are. Include your traditions, life-lessons, values, special moments, accomplishments, beliefs and hopes. Share your favorite pictures, too. It’s your story, run with it!
Turn it into a printed book – size doesn’t matter. There’s a lot of options online for “print on demand” companies. Your local printer can probably do it, too. Believe it or not, your story can be a great, personalized gift for family (and close friends) on any holiday or special occasion.
March is unofficially Maple Sugaring Month in Michigan! It’s not a national holiday but making maple syrup is a big event around here! There’s a really great article about sugaring [which is the process of gathering maple sap and making it into sugar and/or syrup – NOT the hair-removal process by the same name] at the Michigan State University’s Extension’s website, called March is Maple Syrup Season in Michigan.
[NOTE: Lent began on Wednesday, Feb. 22nd, and will run throughout March, until Thursday, April 6th (for 2023).]
Sunday March 19th is… National Chocolate Caramel Day and National Poultry Day! [NOTE: Mar. 19, 1991, is also the anniversary of Mom’s second appearance on The Home Show (Los Angeles; ABC-TV), with Carol Duvall.]
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – Best Of The Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 165). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
The Wine Country Inn located in St. Helena, California, has been a Napa Valley landmark for years. It was originally designed to look like a well-aged vintage tavern with modern lines. One nice thing, that I personally liked about the Inn while I was in California, was a long table of displayed menus from restaurants that the Smiths, who operate the Wine Country Inn, would recommend. On the same table was a serving of juice and fruits in homemade breads like this particularly different quick bread.
Thaw strawberries and set aside. Beat eggs until light and fluffy, adding oil and sugar a little at a time. Beat in the thawed strawberries and any liquid with these. Set aside as soon as it is thoroughly blended. In a medium-sized bowl combine the remaining ingredients, except for the nuts.
Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the strawberry mixture. Combine only until all dry particles are thoroughly moistened. Do not over beat. This should be treated as you would a muffin batter. Stir in the nuts. Pour into 2 greased and floured 9 x 5 x 3” bread loaf pans. (I sprayed my pans with Baker’s Joy.)
Bake loaves, spaced 2 inches apart on center rack, centering the 2 pans as best you can for an even rotation of the heat during baking and bake at 350°F for almost an hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center of each loaf comes out clean. Cool in pans about 15 minutes, placing pans on wire racks for this time.
Then turn out of pans to allow loaves to completely cool. Bread should be chilled before slicing to serve. May be rewarmed in microwave oven on defrost a few minutes or wrapped in foil in a 350°F oven for about 8 to 10 minutes. Then slice and serve with cream cheese [or my “Strawberry Freezer Jam” (see “Recipes” tab)].
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Mostly 4-Ingredient Recipes (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; April 1986, p. 101).
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups self-rising flour
2 TB sugar
1 cup milk
4 TB mayonnaise
INSTRUCTIONS:
In 1½-qt mixing bowl, stir the self-rising flour with the sugar; and, in a cup, whip the milk and mayonnaise together, until very smooth. Pour over flour mixture, stirring briskly until all of flour has been completely dissolved. Whip with mixing spoon or use [electric] mixer on lowest speed.
Divide batter equally between 12 paper-lined cupcake tin wells. Bake at 350°F about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pan, on rack, for 10 minutes, before serving. Makes 1 dozen [muffins].
