Recipes

No, I am not fixing to die over here, just cleaning up my hard drive. I provided this to somebody who was attempting to put together a family recipe book a few years ago. I don't know if anything was ever done with it.

First, here are 3 simple recipes that my mother used a lot when I was growing up. She wrote them out for me when I had my first apartment in Ann Arbor. I tweaked the punctuation and spelling but left the rest alone. My comments within the recipe are in [brackets] and after the recipe are in italics. Susan copied the cookie recipe from a recipe written out by my mother.

Sloppy Joes

2 lbs. hamburger
salt and pepper
1 medium onion cut fine
2 stalks or pieces of celery cut fine
2 Tablespoon butter
1 cup catsup
1/2 cup [yellow] mustard
2 Tablespoon [cider] vinegar
4 Tablespoon sugar
pinch of cloves

Melt butter, add onion and celery, simmer about 5 minutes. Add hamburger, salt and pepper and simmer until a little brown. Sprinkle a little flour on. Add rest of ingredients. Cook about 15 minutes over low heat, ready to serve.

My mother got this recipe from a neighbor in Livonia, Joyce Botelho. My preference is to lose the cloves. Susan also omitted the vinegar when our boys were growing up, but I prefer it with vinegar. In case it is not obvious, this is served in hamburger buns.

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Macaroni Salad with Tuna

2 cups uncooked macaroni
1 can tuna
1 cup Miracle Whip
1-1/2 cup diced celery
12-14 sliced stuffed olives or more if you like

Cook macaroni in 2 quarts water plus 1 teaspoon salt. Chill macaroni in cold water and drain. Add remaining ingredients.

I usually end up adding a fair amount of salt to this.

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Goulash

Cook 2 cups macaroni
1 lb. Hamburger
1 onion diced
1 can tomatoes large
1-1/2 teaspoon salt, a dash of pepper

Brown hamburger with onions, add tomatoes from can and break or mush them up, add macaroni, then add enough juice [from the can] to make goulash a little soupy, add salt and pepper and cook slowly for 15-20 minutes or longer if so desired. Stir to keep from sticking, add more juice from can if needed.

Again, this ends up needing salt.

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The next two recipes came from my mother but are in my words, not hers, and probably altered a bit since I have been making these at least once a year since the 70’s.

Giblet Gravy

The night before, boil giblets and neck for 5 hours. Done when the meat pulls off the neck bone. Stick the pan with giblets and liquid in the refrigerator overnight, boiling more in the morning if necessary. Don’t lose the liquid.

In the morning, after removing the meat from the neck bones, put giblets and neck meat in the blender with enough of the liquid to cover the meat. This should be about half of the liquid. If it isn’t enough to cover, add water. Cover, put blender on low setting briefly, enough to mix and chop the meat. You should have a muddy, lumpy sort of substance. Put in a bowl, salt and pepper to taste, refrigerate.

After the turkey is cooked, combine the giblet mixture with the turkey drippings. Heat on the stove, add flour and water, simmering. Continue to add flour and or water until consistency is right.

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Stuffing

A couple of days before you cook the turkey, cut white bread into cubes (1 to 1-1/2 cups for each pound of turkey). Put the bread in the roasting pan. Every few hours, turn it.

In the morning, fry 4 medium onions (for a big turkey) in butter, and add it to the bread. Cut up two apples (I use Rome apples, but that is my tradition, not my mother’s) into small pieces and add that. Add some water to the remaining giblet juice. You are going to want enough liquid to make the mixture soggy. Pour liquid over bread. Add 2 Tablespoon of sage. Mix thoroughly with hands. Salt the neck and body cavities of the turkey. Stuff it.

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Tomato and Sauerkraut Juice

I posted this one to sauerkrautrecipes.com