{pretty, funny, happy, real} with recipes

I think everything looks pretty in this Japanese bowl.  Mr Park, the church pianist, gave it to me when I admired it.

My Mother-in-Law kindly wrote out the Guest family’s Biscuits and Tomato recipe a month or two before I got married.  It’s a Depression era recipe that stuck around as her in-law’s favourite, though, when she married, the major baker had just died, and she had to re-create it.  James Beard’s cream biscuits were closest to what my Father-in-Law remembered his grandmother’s biscuits tasting like:

Pre-heat oven and baking sheet (with a smidge of butter to melt on it) to 400 degrees

mix together

2 c flour

1 t salt

1 T baking powder

2 t sugar

stir in 1 cup cream, kneed briefly, roll out to 1 inch, cut into rounds, dip in the melted butter, bake for 15-20 min.

I imagine the tomato gravy is to take the place of sausage gravy, thus making it cheaper, even with the cream.

mix 2 T flour and 2 c milk together.

Heat a 20 oz can of tomatoes in a sauce pan, add the milk mixture.  Stir constantly until bubbly and thickened.

Butter is a big part of this meal, right before the gravy hits the biscuits.  Which is funny, because you’d think butter was expensive in the depression, or maybe not until WWII?  My Mom’s favourite chocolate birthday cake growing up was “Dom. Ecom. Cake,” a recipe left over from WWII that didn’t use butter or eggs – or was it actual chocolate and eggs?

Like butter, salt and pepper makes this meal.  I really do set the table this way, my pepper pot broke.

This meal always makes my husband happy, I’m glad I finally got it right.  Even with the recipe, it took a year before my sauce was dependable.

I love having a story for the kids about history, frugality, and how sometimes you hit on something lasting and wonderful, because you couldn’t afford what you thought you wanted in the first place.  Someone in the ’30’s was very clever.