Cherry‑Almond Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Mom & Cousin Terri, ca 1949
(both cookie lovers!)

The chocolate-cherry-almond combination in these cookies makes them delicious and a little out of the ordinary for chocolate chip cookies. They won a blue ribbon at the 2013 Clatsop County fair in the Chocolate Chip division (the first time I'd entered anything in a fair).

Cherry‑Almond Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 Tbs (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup (packed) brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup old‑fashioned oats
1 to 1-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 to 1 cup dried tart cherries
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Preheat oven to 325° F. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and brown sugar in large bowl until well blended. Mix in egg and both extracts. Beat in flour mixture. Mix in oats, then chocolate chips, cherries and almonds.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake cookies 12 to 14 minutes. Dough can be prepared ahead, formed into “logs” wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated. Then slice and bake.

Makes 2 dozen.

Excellent Chocolate Fudge Cake and Frosting

It isn't hyperbole--this really is an excellent cake, well worth making "from scratch."

Excellent Chocolate Fudge Cake

3 squares unsweetened chocolate

Me with cousin Terri, Roseburg, OR ca. 1955
(Chocoholics from childhood)

2-1/4 cups sifted cake flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened

2-1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

3 large eggs

1-1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup sour cream

1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350° F. In a small bowl melt chocolate over hot, not boiling water. Let cool. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans. Sift together the flour, soda and salt.

In a large bowl mix together butter and brown sugar, then add eggs and beat at high speed for five minutes until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla and cooled melted chocolate.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in half the dry ingredients alternately with half of the sour cream, beating well with the spoon after each addition until batter is smooth. Stir in boiling water. Pour into prepared pans (batter will be thin).

Bake at 350° F. for 35 minutes or until centers of cake spring back when lightly pressed with fingertips. Cool in pans on wire racks for about 10 minutes, then run a thin knife around sides of pans to loosen and turn onto wire racks to cool completely.

Chocolate Fudge Frosting

4 squares unsweetened chocolate

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened

1 pound powdered sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp of vanilla

Melt chocolate and butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat just until melted. Combine sugar, milk and vanilla in a deep bowl and stir until smooth, then stir in chocolate mixture. Place bowl in a larger bowl filled with ice and water, then beat with a wooden spoon until frosting is thick enough to hold its shape when spread.

Use about one fourth of the frosting to fill between the layers and the remaining to cover the cake.

Cucumber-Pepper Salad

Mom used to make marinated cucumbers as an easy side-dish, but this updated version has a little more punch and nutrition with the addition of onion and red pepper.

Cucumber-Pepper Salad

Dad, August 1965
(about the time we moved to Sunnyside, WA)

3/4 cup white vinegar

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

1-1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp mustard seed 

(in a pinch you can just use prepared stone-ground mustard)

3 unpeeled “English” cucumbers

1/2 purple onion

1 red pepper, cored

Put vinegar, water, sugar, salt, and mustard seeds in a non-reactive pot and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool while you cut up the vegetables.

Slice the cucumbers into thin rounds. Slice the onion half and the pepper into strips (I generally cut them into shorter pieces for less messy eating). Place the vegetables into a bowl and mix, then pour the vinegar mixture over while it is still warm. Stir to mix and place in refrigerator until chilled. This can be stored in two quart-sized jars, if desired. It will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator.

Easter Pâté

Mom made cute cakes for my birthdays!

When I was about 11 years old I was tasked with preparing Easter dinner for my family because my Mom worked. I cranked the oven up to 500° F to preheat while I lined the the roasting pan with foil. I put the ham in the oven and started whipping the cream to frost a cake Mom had baked. 

I poured the pint of cream into a bowl, and then I dumped a one-pound box of powdered sugar into the bowl and started beating the cream. Apparently I'd never really paid attention when Mom had whipped cream, because I thought this one-to-one ratio was correct. After running the beaters on high for about 5 minutes the cream was still not achieving the correct texture, so I added MORE sugar and continued beating. After another five minutes chunks of butter began floating around. That's when I smelled the ham burning. When I opened the oven door I found the ham completely charred on the outside. I can't remember for sure, but I think I started crying about then. I turned the oven down to a normal temperature and gave up on the churned cream. 

How did our Easter dinner turn out? Well, after removing the charred fatty layer from the outside, that was the juiciest and most succulent ham EVER, and Mom made some quite nice buttercream frosting for the cake. So it all ended well.

This recipe is good as a sandwich spread (especially if your ham is a little dry) and uses up some of those boiled Easter eggs. It is also good on crackers. You can substitute leftover beef roast for this recipe to make a sandwich spread.

Easter Pâté

3/4 to 1 cup ham, cut into chunks

2 or 3 hard boiled eggs, peeled

2 or 3 small sweet pickles (or use relish)

2 or 3 Tbs (or squirts) of prepared mustard (I use stone ground)

Enough Mayo to moisten the mixture
Salt, Pepper, Paprika, Dill Weed to taste

Place ham, eggs and pickles in food processor and pulse until very finely minced. Add mustard and mayonnaise and mix to combine. 

Pecan Pie Bars

These bars were another popular cookie we sold at Mom's Seafood Market--and since I made all the cookies we sold and these are pretty easy to make they were one of my favorites. The eponymous name gives it away: they do taste like little pecan pies--but not quite as cloyingly sweet.

Mom and Rick, ca. 1954

Pecan Pie Bars

2 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut into pieces

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup Karo Dark Corn Syrup

2 Tbs butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla

1-1/4 cups coarsely chopped pecans

Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix flour, sugar and salt in food processor; add butter pieces and process until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Press into bottom and 1/4 inch up sides of prepared pan and bake 15 minutes or until golden brown.

In a large bowl, beat eggs, corn syrup, sugar, margarine and vanilla until well blended.  Stir in pecans.  Pour over hot crust and spread evenly.

Bake 20 additional minutes or until filling is firm around edges and slightly firm in center.  Cool completely.  Cut into 1-1/2 x 2-inch bars.

Beefy Dog Biscuits

I usually make several batches of these as gifts for the dogs of family and friends during the Holidays. Dogs love 'em!

Beefy Dog Biscuits

Mom with cousin Terri's dog Whiskers
(Best dog in the world)

1 cup ground beef

1 cup beef broth

1 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 cup whole wheat flour

2 cup cornmeal

1 cup wheat germ

1 tsp salt

Using the paddle blade of a stand mixer stir the ground beef, broth, vegetable oil and eggs together on a low setting until well mixed. Stir the dry ingredients in a bowl then mix them into the wet ingredients. Pat or roll the mixture out to a thickness of 1/2 inch. Cut to biscuit size. Bake on foil-lined cookie sheets at 350 F for 25 to 35 minutes until solid and slightly crispy. When cool, store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Notes: You can usually purchase smaller amounts of wheat flour in the bulk foods section of the grocery.  Wheat germ is also usually near the natural foods section, in the refrigerator.

I’ve found it easiest to just pat the “dough” out on a piece of waxed butcher paper or another cookie sheet, then use bone-shaped cookie cutters near the edges of the dough and just slide it away from the rest of the dough (peel any excess from around the biscuits after cutting). Transfer the biscuits to the cookie sheets and re-pat the dough to cut more.

This recipe is easiest using a large “stand” mixer, but can be mixed by hand using a large wooden spoon and plenty of “elbow grease.”

Applesauce Fruitcake

The ubiquitous Christmas Fruitcake: It is typically dense and baked in a loaf pan (therefore shaped like a brick and heavy enough to serve as a doorstop), usually served in very thin slices (so thankfully one doesn’t have to ingest too much if forced to eat it out of politeness), crammed with nuts and dried fruit (by what stretch of the imagination are hard candied bits of citrus PEEL—the stuff you throw away when you’re eating an orange!—and translucent flavorless bright GREEN cherries considered fruit?), and is sometimes presented to family and friends during the Yuletide season (the gift that says “I really don’t like you very much.”)

In the middle ages fresh food was so hard to come by that having some withered pieces of dried fruit in the winter was a treat. Hell, times were hard, plagues were rampant, and having anything to eat was probably a treat! We have better transportation and refrigeration now—we can eat fresh fruit year-round. But traditions are traditions, so here’s my family’s fruitcake recipe. It includes cocoa, does not contain candied peel, and it’s actually pretty good.

Dad & Rick, Christmas 1953
(No cordless power drills in the 1950s)

Applesauce Fruitcake

2-1/2 cups flour

1-1/4 cups sugar

1-1/2 Tbs cornstarch

2-1/2 Tbs cocoa

2-1/2  tsp soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp EACH cinnamon, nutmeg, 

    cloves, allspice

1/2 cup red wine* 

  (I confess: we use Manischewitz Blackberry)

2 cups applesauce

2/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

4 or 5 rings of dried, sweetened pineapple, chopped*

about 6 oz dates, chopped*

1 cup dried cranberries* 

   (or raisins if you prefer)

1 cup dried cherries*

 (or 1 small container glacé red cherries if you really must)

Preheat oven to 350° F.  Prepare one 10 inch tube pan by cutting parchment or waxed paper to fit bottom.  Grease pan, insert paper, and grease paper.

Sift dry ingredients into a very large bowl; then stir in wine, applesauce and oil.  Fold in nuts and fruit. Bake for about one hour, or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.

*NOTES: the natural foods section of most supermarkets is a good source for some of these dried fruits; it is usually easiest to cut these fruits using kitchen shears. If you do not wish to cook with alcohol you may be able to substitute a fruit juice (such as blackberry or cherry), however I haven’t tried it and would suggest you add just a small amount of vinegar with the juice to increase the acidity level and help the baking soda.