[From Gloria Pitzer’s 2002-2004 free recipes, media promotion sheet.]
Ingredients:
1-pound Ball Park franks, each frank sliced in quarters
1-pound bacon, sliced in half
1 small box of round, wood toothpicks
1 cup each: ketchup and sugar
Instructions:
Cut each of the franks into 4 pieces of equal length. Cut each strip of bacon into 3 pieces of equal length. Wrap one piece of bacon around one piece of frank, securing with a toothpick and repeating until all the frank pieces have been wrapped in the bacon pieces.
Arrange all the wrapped and secured pieces in a single layer in a shallow baking pan. Bake at 400°F for 10-15 minutes, until bacon is “wiggly”. Remove partially-cooked pieces from pan and place in a slow cooker so that they fill it half-full.
Combine equal parts ketchup and sugar until you have enough mixture to keep the pieces submerged – I use 1 cup of each. Cover with a snug-fitting lid and turn it on high for 1 hour and then on low for 2 hours, or until ready to serve.
The toothpicks become nice little handles for picking them up and the heating process does not affect the wood, nor does the wood affect the sauce. Makes 8 to 10 appetizer-sized (4 to 5 pieces) servings. Leftovers, if any, can be refrigerated up to a week.
[This recipe was part of Gloria’s original 200 recipes collection, from the early 1970s, and has been printed in many of her self published cookbooks; the first one being The Secret Restaurant Recipes Book (National Homemaker’s Newsletter, Pearl Beach, MI; Jan. 1977, p. 32), which is no longer in print, and the last one is Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 247)]
The crust:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Put ¼ pound butter or margarine in a 9-inch, square pan and into the preheating oven until butter melts. Meanwhile, put a 10-ounce package Lorna Doone Sugar Cookies (or plain sugar cookies) through a blender until fine crumbs. Combine crumbs with 1 envelope unflavored, gelatin powder and ¼ cup sugar. Add ½ teaspoon cinnamon if you wish. Mix it well.
Remove pan containing butter from oven as soon as it is completely melted. Mix in crumb mixture, reserving ¼ cup of this and setting it aside to use over filling later, and stir to blend thoroughly. Pat remaining crumb mixture evenly and firmly over bottom of pan. Return to oven to bake exactly 8 minutes – which gives you just enough time to prepare the filling (below.)
The filling:
Mix the following until light and fluffy: 2 large packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, one 8-ounce carton dairy sour cream, 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 2 large eggs, 1 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed.
As soon as crust is baked, just slip rack out far enough, without even removing the pan from the oven, so that you can pour filling into hot crust. Sprinkle top of filling lightly with the reserved ¼ cup crumb mixture. Return to oven to bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until you can insert the blade of a table knife into the filling, 1 inch from the edge of pan, and it comes out clean. Cool about 30 minutes before cutting to serve – OR chill it thoroughly and serve it quite cold with whipped cream or Cool Whip topping to garnish. Makes 8 servings.
[This recipe was originally printed in Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook(Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, p. 329)]
Ingredients:
1 cup milk
½ cup Nestlé’s quick chocolate drink powder
3 cups slightly soft vanilla ice cream
Instructions:
Put ingredients in blender, using on/off agitation and blending until smooth. Stop motor occasionally to scrape mixture away from blades and repeat blending until creamy. Makes one serving.
Whenever Mom was asked “how it all began”, she found it hard to pinpoint that one moment. Over the years, she had mentioned numerous times that, as a pre-teen, she was inspired to be a writer after watching a 1946 Warner Brothers Picture about the Bronte sisters, called “Devotion”. That was definitely when she began serious journaling on a daily basis! In fact, from then and for the rest of her life, Mom continued journaling – which came to more than 71 years of chronicles – now that’s devotion!
Mom, likewise, mentioned that, around the same time as seeing the movie, she had also penned a poem for a class writing assignment, which was published in The Detroit News – and how that was probably the turning point when her creative writing interest became serious, as she was so surprised that others found her composing to be that good! After that, Mom loved entering creative writing contests and, often, did so.
FROM MOM’S MEMORIES: The National Essay Award sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution offered a $100 scholarship [which was a large sum in the mid-1940s] for the best essay written by a high school senior, entitled ‘What it Means to be an American’. I worked so hard on that paper – gave it my all! At graduation, I received the scholarship check and I knew, then, that I would be a serious writer after all. [My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989, p. 20)]
WDEE-Radio, in Detroit, gave me a portable radio for a recipe that took 1st place in a contest they conducted – and in 1962, it was WBRB-Radio, in Mt. Clemens, that gave me a check for 1st place in their recipe contest. Soon after that, Better Homes & Gardens sent me a check for a recipe in a contest they had conducted; and, in 1964, WJBK-Radio [Detroit] gave me a maple stereo and radio set for their [contest about the] most unusual experience while listening to the radio, when I wrote to them about our ‘Picnicking in the Snow’. Again, the story was food related, including recipes for having a cook-out on the beach at Metropolitan Park [on Lake St. Clair in Michigan] in the middle of winter, with the radio going to keep us in the proper mood. [Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 294)]
As a young wife and mother in the 1960s, the successes Mom continued to have with writing always had something to do with food and homemaking. Besides doing just about every conceivable job in a small town newspaper office, as had Mom’s ancestors; the editors for whom she worked, often, assigned Mom to also do those type of homemaker/food columns, since she knew how to cook and was the only “married lady” on the staff. As sexist as that may sound, that’s how it was back then. Regardless, it was all a ripple effect that eventually turned Mom’s love for writing, and “writing about what you know best”, into her legacy of love…her empire of Secret RecipesTM.
Hi Neighbors – Appreciation Continued!
Last week, my blog was a big “thank you” note to many radio stations, as well as their shows’ hosts, who became family. There were so many though! I couldn’t get everyone into one blog. Most of those listed in last week’s blog were from a “thank you” page that Mom had originally dedicated to her radio family, as well as some television shows and some members of the press family, in her favorite, self-published cookbook, The Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983).
By the way, that was the book that Mom had me rewrite for her, during the last few years of her life (and have published by Balboa Press), so it could be shared once again with a new digital generation! The “new” cookbook is now called Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective and is available, for sale through the publisher, Balboa Press, at $20.99 each; eBooks are also available for $3.99 each! This particular cookbook, is truly the best of Mom’s legacy – nothing made her happier before she passed than knowing her writing was going to live on!
Illustration by Gloria Pitzer
MY WRITING WAS NEVER A HOBBY
FROM MOM’S MEMORIES: Journalism is a peculiar profession to follow. I’ve been a serious journalist [since graduating high school in 1954]. I’ve worked among writers who wrote to live, while the rest of us lived to write. We had to communicate, to reach out to someone with ideas…thoughts…reasonings and remembering.
While I live to write, I must consider that others do not. Writers never retire, not if they’re truly writers. Editors may retire and reporters may retire…at some given point. But, old writers never die, they just run out of words. [My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989, p. 22)]
I never thought I’d see the day that Mom would run out of words. I’m sure she didn’t either! But, now, her words live on forever in all of her books, newsletters, columns/editorials and so on that people still have! I have heard from quite a few people, since starting these blogs last year, who’ve told me that they still have their copies of Mom’s publishings and how special they are to them. I pour through my copies all the time for inspiration for, both, cooking and writing! Please contact me at [email protected] or on Facebook (@TheRecipeDetective) with your memories of my mom! I’d love to hear from you as well!
I must say, the internet is an awesome source of information and archives to find some of Mom’s old No Laughing Matter columns; as well as her old cookbooks that have been out of print for years, which can still be found on Amazon and eBay (sometimes for ridiculous amounts because they are no longer in print), in addition to her last cookbook, Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective, that was published by Balboa Press and came out just before Mom passed away last year.
Mom made many mentions throughout her book, My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989), about her radio family (the stations, talk show hosts and their listeners) that I want to thank in today’s blog. I started a “thank you” list in last Monday’s blog, Hi Neighbor. However, I continue to find more and more names throughout Mom’s writings, who should also be thanked! Mom’s radio family was her major inspiration for what to “sleuth-out” in the food industry. They were the ones who initially nicknamed her the Recipe DetectiveTM – a name (and challenge) Mom proudly accepted for decades to come!
#RadioFamily
Additionally, as I continue to come across more names in Mom’s writings, I will also continue to add their “thank you” notes and internet links (if I can find them) in my blogs and #RadioFamily…as well as on social media! I’m also planning on adding a “Thank You” tab (or something along those lines) on this website, dedicated to all of those whom have made a ripple in Mom’s life as the ORIGINAL Recipe DetectiveTM.
The names for these NEW “thank you” notes that follow, were collected from Mom’s book, My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989, pages 58-61)]. All of these stations, talk show hosts and reporters contributed to the ripples of success for the Recipe DetectiveTM. So, on behalf of my mom and our family, I want to say a big “THANK YOU” to…
…Jan Michaelson of WHO-Radio, Des Moines, IA [NOTE: Jan had, also, previously worked with Mom out of a Cincinnati radio station, but I couldn’t find the call letters for it.]
…who, after talking to me for only 5 minutes, had so inspired his listeners to want to try our recipes that we received nearly 1,000 letters within 2 days after the radio visit…[Thank you for having created new interests in my recipes.] – Gloria Pitzer (1989)
…JB Miller of WKRC-Radio, Cincinnati, OH (1989) [NOTE: JB Miller, of “Miller in the Morning”, was previously from a West Virginia radio station in 1976/1977 when he first worked with Mom.]
‘The Microwhiz’…a new radio visit I thoroughly enjoy…[as she] takes my conventional recipes and converts them to ‘micro’ cooking in no time at all! [Thank you for having created new interests in my recipes!] – Gloria Pitzer
…Jim Warren [RIP], host of Moody Radio‘s “Prime Time America”
…Thank you for giving me the opportunity to meet with and talk to people from all over the country, relative to their recipe interests and food needs… Since our camping experiences with…’Good Sam’, [Paul and I] have truly adopted their slogan, ‘In Good Sam, there are no strangers – only friends we haven’t met yet!’ – Gloria Pitzer (1989)
…Mother Jones Magazine, created in 1976, in the spirit of Mary Harris Jones, is an award winning magazine of investigative journalism that did a story about Mom in its inception.
…called and asked me to think about those typical things that happen here, which they could photograph to accompany the story she was writing about us…
Everyday…things, here, are quite unpredictable! Mostly, it’s a day filled with pleasant interruptions – such as the grandchildren dropping by to see us for a few minutes or a radio station calling and asking me to fill in at the last minute! [Thank you! – Gloria Pitzer, My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989, p. 94)]
…Dick Syatt, of WRKO-Radio, Boston, MA (host of the “Hotline” show) –
I remembered what Dick Syatt, one of our radio friends, had told me about finally getting everything you ever wanted, when he said, ‘Hell is God, giving you what you thought you wanted.’ Sometimes we need to have something, lose it and get it back again, before we can really appreciate what we have. I had that chance and I am so glad for it… Thank you! – Gloria Pitzer [My Cup Runneth Over and I Can’t Find My Mop (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Dec. 1989, p. 96)]
…CR Powers and Loren Mitchell on AGM-Radio, Santa Fe, NM – where Mom shared her sister’s recipe (my Aunt Hazel) for her awesome appetizers, which she called “Hot Dog & Bacon BBQ” (see picture below for recipe).
Again, I’d love to hear from all of you, who are reading this blog! Please contact me at [email protected] or through Facebook (@TheRecipeDetective) with your own memories of my mom! In closing…
