Because great recipes need to be shared!
THIN VANILLA [BLENDER] ICING
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… The Joy Of NOT Cooking – Any More Than You Have To (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Nov. 1983, p. 182)
INGREDIENTS:
¼ cup hot milk
¼ cup melted butter or margarine
2 tsp vanilla
Dash of salt
1-lb powdered sugar
INSTRUCTIONS:
As listed, put it all into your blender and blend on high-speed about a minute or until smooth. Drizzle over warm, baked cakes or coffeecakes. Makes about 1 2/3 cups icing.
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CAKE MIX COBBLER
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… The Joy Of NOT Cooking – Any More Than You Have To (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Nov. 1983, p. 182)
INGREDIENTS:
¼ cup oil
18-oz box yellow cake mix*
2 eggs
½ cup water
20-oz can fruit pie filling*
(cherry, apple, strawberry, or blueberry)
*[NOTE: You can substitute “sugar-free” or “no sugar added” products.]
INSTRUCTIONS:
Place oil in 9½x13½x2-inch cake pan, tilting pan back and forth until oil covers bottom of pan evenly. Combine cake mix with the eggs and water, using low-speed of electric mixer about 3 or 4 minutes or until batter is smooth.
Fold the pie filling into the batter [gently] with a rubber scraper, making a marbled effect. Spread batter evenly over bottom of oiled cake pan. Bake at 350°F – about 45 to 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool cake in pan on wire rack for about 15 minutes and then drizzle top of cake with 1 recipe of our “Thin Vanilla Icing”. Cool completely before cutting to serve 6 to 8.
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GYPSY 48-EGG TORTE, LIKE DODGE FAMILY’S
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… The Original 200 Plus Secret Recipes© Book (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; June 1997)
INGREDIENTS*:
For the cake:
48 eggs, separated
3 cups sugar
1 lb. chopped pecans
3 cups fine bread crumbs
2-oz bottle of rum extract
Toppings:
2 lbs. prepared vanilla frosting
2 lbs. chopped walnuts
2 oranges (freshly grate the rind and then slice for garnishing)
INSTRUCTIONS:
Separate eggs, yolks from whites, into two large mixing bowls. Add the sugar to the yolks, blending for 10 minutes [with electric hand/countertop mixer]. Beat the whites until peaks form when electric mixer is removed.
To the egg whites, fold in the pecans. To the yolk mixture, blend in bread crumbs [then] rum extract. [Then] fold in the whites mixture.
Spread evenly in a 17x11x2-inch pan. Bake at 350°F, 30-35 minutes or until “tester” inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. While still warm, spread with frosting and, on top of that, sprinkle the walnuts and orange rind. Garnish with orange slices. Refrigerate. Cut to serve 50. Leftovers freeze well!
*NOTE: Recipe can be halved.
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OPEN PITZER BBQ SAUCE
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 76). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup bottled apple butter
1 cup ketchup
1 cup Catalina dressing
INSTRUCTIONS:
Mix together, [ingredients, as listed]. Refrigerate in covered container up to 3 months. Makes 3 cups sauce. Recipe may be cut in half or into thirds. To add zest, stir in Tabasco or Worcestershire sauce, to taste.
See also…
HUNCH PDQ – BBQ SAUCE
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 92). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup Coca-Cola
1 cup A-1 Steak Sauce
2 cups ketchup
¼ cup bottled Italian salad dressing
INSTRUCTIONS:
Blend until smooth, [ingredients, as listed]. Keep it refrigerated in a covered container for up to 2 weeks. Sufficient to cover about 2 ½ to 3 pounds of chicken wings.
See also…
PECAN PIE, LIKE BIG BOY’s
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 239). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
Big Boy restaurants have several good pies – this was always one of my favorites. Simple to prepare! Have a good, rich pie crust handy – I suggest my Butter Crust recipe!
INGREDIENTS:
2 partially baked, 9-inch, Butter Crust pie shells
¼ lb. (one stick) butter or margarine
1 lb. brown sugar
½ cup milk
3 eggs
1 TB vinegar
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups broken pecans
INSTRUCTIONS:
Have the Butter Crust pie shells in the oven, partially baking per the crust recipe. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in brown sugar, a little at a time, using an electric mixer on medium speed until very creamy. Add milk in small amounts until completely incorporated. Beat in eggs one at a time, then vinegar and vanilla. Beat about 3 minutes on high-speed.
Remove the beaters and stir in pecans. Divide mixture equally between the 2 partially baked pie shells. Place the pie pans on a cookie sheet and bake on center rack of 350°F oven for almost an hour or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool the pies before cutting to serve. Garnish top of each serving with a dollop of whipped cream. Each pie will serve 6 to 8 nicely. If you want to cut the recipe in half, to bake just 1 pie – use 2 medium eggs, in place of the 3 eggs (above.)
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PINEAPPLE UPSIDE-DOWN COFFEECAKE
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Eating Out at Home (National Home News, St. Clair, MI; September 1978)
INGREDIENTS:
1 (20-oz) can pineapple chunks, in heavy syrup
¼ cup + 3 TB melted butter or margarine
½ cup brown sugar, packed
1 ½ cups sifted flour
½ cup granulated sugar
2 ¼ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
¼ tsp mace [pepper]
1 egg, beaten
2/3 cup pineapple syrup
½ tsp grated lemon peel
INSTRUCTIONS:
Grease sides of a 6-cup ring mold. Drain pineapple, reserving syrup (add water, if needed, to equal 2/3 cup). Combine 3TB of the melted butter/margarine with the brown sugar, in bottom of the mold. Add pineapple chunks and set aside.
Resift flour with the sugar, baking powder, salt, and mace [pepper]. Add egg, pineapple syrup, ¼ cup of the melted butter/margarine, and lemon peel. Blend well, for 1 minute, by hand. Spoon batter over pineapple chunks, in mold. Bake in center of oven at 350°F for 35-40 minutes.
Cake should spring back when touched lightly. A small, wooden skewer inserted in the center should come out clean when cake is done. Let stand 10 minutes then invert over serving plate. Best when served warm. Makes 8 servings.
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GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH – College Dorm-Style
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 187). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
Butter both sides of 2 slices of bread. Slip a slice of American cheese between them. Wrap it up in a piece of kitchen foil. Set your steam iron on “cotton” and press each side of the sandwich firmly with the hot iron, allowing about 2 to 3 minutes per side. It’s perfectly permissible to open one end of the foil to check the degree of “doneness” and continue until it suits you.
If Paul would have been content with a steady diet of grilled cheese sandwiches and lunch meats, the rest of our married life, I would have seen no need for even having a stove. But we do all have our peculiar preferences and there was no way that I could master bean soup with the steam iron, so I resorted to a stove and had to learn how to use it over the years. But that’s marriage for you!
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CREAM SOUP BASE – BASIC RECIPE
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 117). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
INGREDIENTS:
1 ½ cups milk
½ cup flour
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
¼ teaspoon season salt
dash of pepper
INSTRUCTIONS:
Put all 5 ingredients through the blender for a minute or so, until smooth, and transfer to a 2 ½-quart saucepan. Stir the mixture constantly over medium-high heat for 3 to 4 minutes, until it thickens and becomes smooth. Remove from heat as soon as you see the very first bubble of a boil so that it won’t be apt to scorch. To this mixture, you can add any of the following seasonings and ingredients for making homemade creamed soups – just as the restaurants do!
VARIATIONS/OPTIONS…
CREAM OF CAULIFLOWER: To the above mixture, as soon as you remove it from the heat, stir in 1 ½ cups cooked, drained and still-hot cauliflower buds, a pinch of sugar (or a dash of artificial sweetener), 2 tablespoons dry minced onion, ½ teaspoon dry minced parsley flakes, ½ teaspoon onion powder, 2 tablespoons chicken bouillon powder and 2 tablespoons extra-dry (white) vermouth – optional, however, the vermouth DOES make the soup! Serves 4.
CREAM OF CELERY: Just as in the Cauliflower Soup (above), to the basic cream soup base, as soon as you remove it from the heat, stir in 1 cup of cooked, diced and still-hot celery plus 1/2 cup of the liquid in which it was cooked. Continue as the Cauliflower Soup otherwise directs.
NOTE: Other variations for this soup base can be found in…
See also…
CORNED BRIEF
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 185). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
INGREDIENTS:
4- to 5-lb, well-trimmed, corned beef
2 cloves garlic
1 onion, the size of an orange
INSTRUCTIONS:
Put beef into an accommodating, oven-proof kettle with a tight-fitting lid. Add enough water to keep beef covered. Add onion, cut in 4 pieces and studded with garlic cloves (2 or 3 per piece of onion). Cover the kettle and bring to a boil on the stove top.
Allow it to boil for 5 minutes and then place it in a preheated, 350°F oven for 90 minutes. This makes it easier to slice later. When tender to your liking – you may want to leave it in the oven a bit longer, until it is – then, let it cool to lukewarm.
Chill it completely before slicing. It is important that you slice it at an angle across the grain of the meat, not up and down like bread – or the meat will fall apart, and you’ll end up with it shredded. So, do be careful when you begin to slice it for the sandwiches.
Serves 12. Leftovers refrigerate up to a week if well-covered. Freezes up to 3 months.
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