Pickled beets

Mom taught me how to make these from memory but I'm sharing the recipe from the Melting Pot of Mennonite Cookery, p. 44.

Cut off the beet stalks.
Boil red beets until tender (editor's note:  I also used golden beets but if you mix red and golden, it's a waste of effort because the red beet juice colors the golden ones so you can't tell any difference)

Slip skins off (editor's note:  easy!  much better than pealing prior to boiling)

Boil together:   (editor's note:  for the amount below I had 4 batches of beets, 4 in each batch, each about the size of a baseball.  Adjust the amounts so you have enough liquid to just cover the beets while they simmer. )

1 quart vinegar
1 pint sugar
1 T. cinnamon
1 t. allspice
1 t. mustard seed (but I've used dry mustard instead of mustard seed)
1 t. cloves
1 t. salt

Add the beets to the spiced vinegar mix.  Simmer 15 minutes.

Seal in clean hot jars.  (editor's note:  but I just store these in the refrigerator. )

One challenge is to be careful about the beet juice; it sure does make a good stain if it spills.

What to do about those beet stalks?
This time around, I made
1) vegetable soup (onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, diced tomatoes) and at the last 5 minutes I added  beet greens cut into slivers plus brown sugar)  Mmmmm-mmmmm!  I had a mixing bowl full of sliced beet greens and I used 5 cubes of brown sugar.
2) sauteed bacon with onion and then added beet greens cut into slivers.  As the greens are warmed they take up a lot less space.  Then I added wine while they simmered.  Cooked up penne pasta and served the pasta tossed with the bacon/beet greens and grated parmsan cheese.  Very tasty!  But then what isn't when it includes bacon?

Another word of wisdom from Dorothea:  when one stores pickled beets, they are stored in the spiced vinegar mixture, but when one serves beets, the vinegar mixture is left in the jar.  Mom saved the juice and reused it.

Soap

Here's the story of soap making....

And here's the recipe....

 From Grandma Regier -- (Editor:  not sure this is Helen (Toevs) Regier or C.P. Regier's mother)


3 pints H2O
1 can lye
10 C. fat (cleaned)
1/2 c. borax
1/2 c. amonia

Pour water on lye, stir til dissolved.  Add Borax, stir til dissolved.  Cool to lukewarm.  Pour lye mixture into cool, melted fat and stir seven minutes.  Add amonia and stir 3 minutes longer (the more you stir, the whiter the soap will be).  Let set until hard.  This makes pretty white granulated soup that will keep indefintely.  Dry thoroughly.

Peppernuts (Goering)

Peppernuts (Goering)


4 c. sugar
2 c. shortening
2 c. w. syrup
4 c. cream
2 eggs
4 T. baking powder
18 c. flour
2 t. each of following spices:  cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, mace, allspice, cardema, salt, star Anise.


Cream shortening, add sugar, add well beaten eggs.  Add syrup, then cream.  Sift flour, baking powder, and spices together and add to creamed mixture.  Make dough stiff enough to make long rolls, and cut 1/8 inch each slice and bake at 400 degrees.  Makes about 4 gallons.

Peppernuts / Dad / 350

Peppernuts are tiny crispy cookies.  Dorothea always included peppernuts in her Christmas packages to us children.

The Melting Pot of Mennonite Cookery describes making peppernuts as mixing dough and storing it in 5 gallon crocks and keeping the crocks cold in the basement.  The crocks were let sit for several weeks to let the spices permeate the whole dough; then on a Saturday all hands were busily engaged in baking.  The dough was rolled out in long thin rolls, cut into 1/2 inch pieces, placed on pans, and baked in the oven.

One of the last conversations I had with my mom was about the batch of peppernuts I mixed up right after Thanksgiving.  I had used the recipe with 14 cups of flour and was chilling it in the refrigerator -- it was taking up a lot of space.  Mom said, "14 cups!  You'll have peppernuts all year!  Here's what you do:  roll that dough into snakes and store it in the freezer.  Then when you have time, cut up a batch and bake them."  So that's what I did.

I found 4 peppernut recipes in the tin box!  Here's the one marked Dad and 350.

1 1/2 c. butter
2 c. sugar -- cream
3 c. dark syrup
4 eggs  -- mix and cream well
2 t. soda
2 t. ground cardemon
1/2 t. star Anise oil
14 c. flour inough dough
1 t. cloves

Editor's note:  this doesn't include an oven temperature, but most recipes call for around 350 degrees.

Coffee

Massive quantities of coffee:

H2O      Coffee
12 cups   1/2 c.
18 cups   3/4 c.
24 cups   1 c
30 cups   1 11/4 c.
60 cups   2 1/2 c.

16 T = c.
16Tx3t = 48 cups coffee
1 1/4 c. instant coffee for 55 c. pot
1 1/2 c. instant coffee for 60 c. pot