jello is older than you think

RED CANDY APPLES

Well as promised I am publishing the "Candy Apple" recipe. This is the red hard candy apple. Not the Carmel which is what you see more often now a days. In the Grocery store around this time of the year you will see a Kraft display of their bagged caramels by the apple in the produce department. The recipe for caramel apples is on the Kraft bag. We have all made those apples, and while they are good...they are not the "State Fair" kind of candy apple. That is what makes this recipe so neat. Not everyone does these anymore..and they are really easy and only have 5 ingredients plus the apples.
I was interested in the origins of the Candied Apple and read that a veteran Newark Candy maker, William W. Kolb produced the first one in 1908, working with his cinnamon candy around Christmas time. Needless to say they were a big hit.

My recipe calls for cinnamon extract and red food coloring, but you can use the cinnamon candies for flavor and color. The real important ingredient is the corn syrup (I like Karo). These are easy, and the apples I suggest are of course Red Delicious, but you can use any you like. Even Granny Smith looks kind of neat with the red.

Have fun let the kid help and have a batch for Halloween on a platter and see how many are left after the Witches away.

Keeping with the Halloween and candy theme, I will be posting my Grandmothers Peanut Brittle on the next post, with a little history about this candy, and some family history also. Mean while test out these apples and let me know.


3 cups sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup of water
1 teaspoon cinnamon extract(cinnamon candies to taste and color)
1 teaspoon of red food coloring
8 apples


Cook sugar, corn syrup, and water until it reaches 285 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from fire add cinnamon, food coloring and stir until color is blended. Insert wooden sticks into top of the apples and dip into mixture. Drain apples on buttered pan, wax paper or foil.

Halloween and Homemade Candy

With Halloween approaching I remember back to some of my favorite times of "trick or treating",  and they all revolved around getting the best candy.  Of course back then when things were safe, and everyone was trusted, we preferred homemade candy to the store bought.

We could get Snicker Bars and Baby Ruths all through out the year...but homemade candy and treats were reserved for holidays with Halloween being the King of Get Candy days.  It was the only day that you could eat all the candy you wanted, without being told, "That's enough, you are going to make yourself sick"....which we did sometimes.  But after all how many times does an eight year old have a bag full of so much chocolate at their disposal. 

Not only did we remember the houses that had given homemade candy and treats the year before...we actually got together and compared notes with the other kids as to which houses were on their list.  Between us, we made the rounds.  Sometimes we were disappointed when time had been a factor, and one of our favorite treaters had dropped tootsie rolls instead of last years candied apples in the bag.  Yes Candy apples were big, as well as popcorn balls.  

Speaking of pop corn balls, this was my Mothers treat some years.  They were colored with orange food coloring and had stick candy inserted in them so you ate them like a candied apple.

She sometimes would include peanuts in the mix, and many years later "Fiddle Faddle" used the same ingredients in their concoction.  For those of you who have not had "Fiddle Faddle" it is a popcorn ball left loose in a box.  All the ingredients including the syrup, popcorn, nuts, vanilla, but not shaped in a ball.  Use to be in a red box.  I am not sure they still make it...if anyone knows let me know.

Since times have changed and we no longer let our children eat homemade goodies from our neighbors...who we don't know, we all check to make sure the Hershey bars, bubble gum, and such has not been tampered with before we allow the chomping down.

Still this month I will start posting candy and homemade treat recipes in celebration of days gone by.  You can make them up for your family and friends.  Some of you may want to keep the recipes and use them during the upcoming Holidays and maybe give some at Christmas. 

These are old recipes from my Mothers collection, and some from my Grandmothers.  I will start with  the Pop Corn Balls.  They are fun for the little ones to help make and can make a great Halloween decoration.

HELON'S HALLOWEEN POP CORN BALLS

1 CUP SUGAR                                               

1/3 CUP WHITE CORN SYRUP

1/3 CUP OF WATER

1/4 CUP BUTTER

1/2 TEASPOON SALT

1 TEASPOON VINEGAR

1 TEASPOON VANILLA

3 QUARTS POPPED CORN

ORANGE FOOD COLORING(OPTIONAL)

1 1/2 CUPS OF SALTED PEANUTS (OPTIONAL)

 

Combine sugar , syrup, water, butter, vinegar, food coloring, and salt.  Cooke, stirring until sugar is dissolved.  Continue cooking without stirring until syrup reaches 270 degrees or forms a brittle ball when dropped in cold water.  Add vanilla.  Pour syrup over popped corn,(and nuts) stirring until all kernels are covered.  Grease hands with butter and shape into balls.  Makes 12.  Do not double recipe.  Best to make in small batches since you are working against the syrup hardening.

You can form this around a Tootsie Roll Pop leaving the stick out to form a stem for the ball.  It is also a nice surprise  after you eat the ball.

You can color these any color you choose.  We did orange and green for the Holiday colors...once year we tried black not very pretty, but tasted fine.

Hope you enjoy. Next Post is Red Candy Apples

Rice Is Nice

A couple of weeks ago, I had dinner with some new friends that had moved from Chicago. As we looked over the menu, I realized that not everyone is as taken with rice, as people from Louisiana are. In fact, my friends thought the stuff was awful, since where they come from; it is served as a hot cereal. Naturally, you can't expect them to think of rice with gravy, or beans and rice, as edible. All they can think, is breakfast cereal should not have gravy on it. In fact, they weren't' too thrilled with gravy either.

This brings me to the blog subject this week, you guessed RICE. I am going to give a little background for those not raised eating rice. Louisiana grows 370,000 acres a year in rice. They are the number 3 producers of rice in the United States, behind Arkansas, California (can you believe that) Florida, Mississippi, Texas and Missouri (again who would have thought).

Louisiana grows 3 grain sizes, long, medium, and short. Medium grain is the preference for Southern Louisiana cooks. Northern Louisiana cooks, like the long grain to go with their smothered steak and gravy. In fact 90% of the rice grown in Louisiana is long grain. Louisiana exports rice, so apparently long grain is the favorite in other states, and other parts of the world. Speaking of the World, the USA exports 13% of the world's rice. Also rice is the predominate food source for over 40% of the world. I include a link for those of you interested in reading more about rice. Some interesting facts, ya'll worth a look.

My friends from Chicago are not the only people not sure what to do with rice, other than put sugar and milk on it for breakfast. I had the same feedback on my trips to the North East. Let me assure you, Bostonians don't do rice.

Having said that….let's move on to this. I will be posting recipes using, or staring rice. I grew up with rice, never ate it for breakfast, but did have it sweet when made into my Grandmothers rice pudding.

I love my rice; I love it with beans, with gravy, in dirty rice, and Jambalaya. I don't cook many meals that I don't have rice. I want to share some great rice dishes with you. Mamie Eisenhower's Green Rice is the first recipe. I chose this one, as you can tell, it is from the 50's, because it makes a pretty casserole, and is great for company, easy to fix, and it taste real good.

Hope you like this: Check tomorrow for another rice recipe.

Mamie Eisenhower's Green Rice

1 cup raw rice

½ package of frozen spinach (chopped)

1 cup finely chopped onion

2 Tablespoons butter

¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Salt

Pepper

Cook rice in boiling, salted water. Cook spinach according to package directions and drain well. Sauté onions in butter. Reserve 3 tablespoons of cheese for the topping. Layer in oven proof casserole, rice, spinach, onions, cheese, and liberal amounts of salt and pepper. Repeat about three times or until all is used. Sprinkle the top of the casserole with the reserved cheese. Bake 20 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Serves 6-8

USA Rice Federation: About USA Rice: Production

USA Rice Federation: About USA Rice: Production

Coca-Cola Cake

Keeping with recipes from stand alone products such as the Jell-o mold below, I wanted to use another favorite product from my childhood, and even now. The only difference is that I drink Diet Coke, instead of the traditional Coke. This name is known around the world, and why someone felt the need to add it to a recipe, I will never know….but it is really good. Southern Cooks are always adding a "little of this" and a " little of that". Someone decide to add the Coke to the Cake recipe. This recipe came about in the 1970"s as best I can remember….at least it is in a 1976 .

There are several different versions on the Coca-Cola Cake, but I believe this to be the authentic. If any of you know different, let me know.

Try this recipe, maybe for Easter. It is a really good cake.

Coca-Cola Cake

1 sticks of butter or margarine

½ cup Wesson oil

3Tbsp cocoa

1 cup of coca-cola

¼ tsp of salt 1½ cups miniature marshmallows

Bring first 5 ingredients to a boil, and then add marshmallows. Set and let cool.

1 cups sugar

2 cups flour

2 well beaten eggs

½ cup buttermilk

Sift flour and sugar together, and set aside. When the above has cooled, mix with flour and sugar. Add eggs, buttermilk, and soda. Pour in greased and floured 9 x13 pan bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees or until done.

Icing

¾ stick butter

2 ¼ Tbsp. cocoa

4 to t Tbsp coca-cola

3 cups powdered sugar

Let first 3 ingredients come to a boil in saucepan and pour over powdered sugar. Beat well and frost cake immediately. Add one cup of pecans if desired to frosting.

JELL-O IS OLDER THAN WE THINK

How many of you remember your first Jell-O? Was strawberry your favorite, or was it orange?
In the South Jell-O was the dessert of choice for kids. Sometimes there was fruit in it. But mostly it was just the wriggle alone, that we loved. I wanted to give you something different in recipes, which led me to look through my Mothers notes in her cookbook, and I found a whole section, hand written mind you, of recipes for Jell-O salads, desserts, and even party Punches.
It made me want to know more about the history of the Wiggle, and I was surprised to find out that Jell-O was invented in 1845, Developed into a fruit flavor in 1897, by a carpenter, and the company was sold in 1899, for $450. Is that a hoot or what. The first flavors were strawberry, raspberry, orange and lemon. The carpenter, Mr. Pearle Waite, wife May named the the wriggle Jell-O. In 1902 the first Jell-O ads proclaimed Jell-O " Americas most favorite dessert"
In 1930 congealed salads became popular, leading to the creation of the Lime Jell-O, which brings us to our recipe. "7 UP JELL-O CONGEALED SALAD"
Please follow the link at the bottom to find out more about the history of Jell-O, it is Jell-O's official site, and I think you will find it informative and very interesting.
Back to this recipe, every Church dinner had a Jell-O salad. Some were better than others, but this one is a favorite of mine. This is a version my Mother made. She is not the only one to make this salad, but I liked hers the best.
It is colorful and easy. With warm weather, coming, have your girl friends over and serve some finger sandwiches, chips and salsa, and this salad. It serves as a desert.

7 UP JELL-O SALAD

1 pkg of lime jello(small)
1 large can crushed pineapple
1 cup chopped pecans
1 10 oz 7-up
1-8 oz pkg. cram cheese(room temp)

Heat y up to boil. Add jello and dissolve. Mix pineapple with cream cheese and pecans. Add to Jell-o mixture when cool. Pour into mold, or 8 x8 glass baking pan. Refrigerate until set. If you use a glass dish, you cut in squares, serve with a dollop of whip cream, and sprig of mint, if you want it to be fancy.
Enjoy!! Remember your childhood.!



JELL-O History - JELL-O Gelatin, Pudding, and No-Bake Desserts