Cherry Crunch

I turned on the stove today for the first time in months - it seems most dinners this summer came from the deli or we ate out, which I did not mind at all. It was nice to actually make something and almost complete another goal on my Mission 101 list. The goal is to make five recipes from the Home Christian Cookbook, a tome of 1960s vintage Mennonite recipes. So far I have made Company Casserole, apple cumble, another casserole which I can't quite remember and now cherry crunch, which is actually a little different from the apple crumble. It was good because I was able to "pantry shop" instead of having to buy more ingredients and it was a quick way to use up a bag of frozen berries real fast!

1 cup flour 1 cup brown sugar 1/8 tsp of salt 1 cup oatmeal 1/2 cup soft butter 3 cups cherries Mix all but fruit till crumbly. Put 1/2 of the mixture in a greased pan. Pour thickened or ready mix fruit over crumbs. Spread remainder of crumb mixture over top of fruit. Bake 30 minutes at 350. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream. (Blueberry, apple or other fruits may be used). Attributed to Mrs. Kenneth Nightengale, Copeland, Kansas. I took three pictures of the delicious dessert, and couldn't decide which to use, so be sure to check the other two out on Flickr.

Hamburger Luscious

I'm not sure I'll get all my Mission 101 things done by the end of 2010, but here's another one to cross off the list - another hearty recipe from the Christian Home Cook Book. I wanted to make a casserole on Sunday that would make a good leftover on Monday, and casseroles are this book's specialty. After reading it again, I'm not sure we even have a skillet big enough to hold all these ingredients! I easily baked it for about 45 minutes at 350 in the oven.

1 lb hamburger
1 stalk chopped celery
2 cups fine dried noodles
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 lb American cheese, sliced
1 No 2 can of tomatoes
1 small onion, diced
1 tsp salt

Now this is where the recipe shows its age. I wasn't sure what they meant by fine noodles, so I boiled some penne separately, drained it and placed it in the casserole dish. I didn't know what a number 2 can of tomatoes was either! According to the Internet, a number 2 can equals 20 ounces. I used one 14 ounce can of diced tomatoes and about half a large can of crushed tomatoes (the other half going into Wednesday's dinner) and that seemed tomatoey enough. The rest of the recipe goes:

Brown meat slightly in a skillet, season with salt, pepper and onion. Arrange the remaining ingredients in layers as listed over browned meat. Spring salt and pepper over noodles. Cover, bring to a boil on high heat; then reduce to simmer and cook for 30 minutes. Occasionally remove cover and press noodles into the liquid.

It was quite tasty; I didn't know celery could be so flavourful before. That's four recipes from the cookbook I have tried now; one more and I'll be done the goal. My full list can be seen on Livejournal.

Chicken casserole, Mennonite style!

With craft sales almost overwith, it's fun to cook again. It's also fun to have food in the house - until yesterday we were pretty much down to Coke Zero and coleslaw in the fridge! Last night we had another recipe from the Mennonite Christian Home Cookbook. One of my Mission 101 goals is to make five recipes from this book, and this was #3.

This cookbook is a particular challenge because it was published over 40 years ago and some of the ingredient sizes have changed. It also has no pictures and little instruction. With most recipes you can guess how they'll turn out even without the help of food stylists, but these are real chin scratchers. Mixing mushroom soup, tomato soup, cream cheese and crackers together is not something you'll find in the average cookbook. It's also unintentionally funny - there are three recipes for ham loaf, but only one is called Delicious Ham Loaf. There are five recipes for chop suey, but one is subtitled "The real Chinese way" :-)

So it was with great intrigue that I combined celery, cheese, mushroom soup, chicken broth, crushed crackers and chicken in the casserole dish. I crossed my fingers that an hour later it would come out tasty; after many trips to the Country Cousins restaurant out in Linden I had great faith that there is no such thing as a bad tasting Mennonite meal.

But I had second thoughts as I dished out the casserole. To be honest, it looked like barf on a plate. The diced cheese had melted and was suspended in little globs in the mushroom soup while the celery bobbed up here and there. My husband looked down at his plate and I recognized that look of fear and disappointment from the orzo loaf disaster years ago. He didn't say anything but politely dug in. To our complete surprise, it was amazingly delicious! I don't know how, I don't know why, but it just was. That's the magic of Mennonite cooking, I suppose! I could see substituting pork chops next time.


Chicken Casserole
Submitted by Mrs. Ben Barker, Rich Hill, Mo.

1 large hen cooked and removed from the bone (I used raw chicken breasts)
1.5 cups diced celery, cooked (I left mine raw - it was fine)
1.5 cups diced cheese (I used cheddar)
1 small onion (oops, realized I forgot this!)
1 tsp salt (omitted because I used salted crackers)
1.8 tsp pepper
4 cups chicken broth (I actually used two due to the size of the dish)
4 cups crackers (I actually used two due to the size of the dish)
2 eggs, beaten (omitted because we don't eat eggs)
1 can mushroom soup (left unprepared)

Arrange chicken, crackers, cheese and celery in layers. Combine eggs, broth and mushroom soup and pour over chicken cracker mixture. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

I actually cooked mine for about one hour and fifteen minutes. I just realized that there's a typo - while onion is mentioned, it's not in the instructional part. I assume that you would dice the onion.