What is the common denominator among recipes for Easy Cheesecake, Belgian Cheesecake, Scrapple, and Orange Soda Pop Cake?
Hmmmm. Three are desserts, but that leaves out Scrapple, which is a cornmeal/meat mixture that is chilled, sliced and fried, then served for breakfast. Perhaps they’re all breakfast foods?
No, not even close. The only thing these recipes have in common is Recipe Box and our wonderful community of talented, passionate cooks. Four people sent in requests, and now they have their answers, along with advice, comments and information from their fellow Recipe Box readers.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012 RECIPE BOX RECIPES:
Orange Soda Cake
Easy No Bake Cheesecake
Belgian Cheesecake
Pennsylvania Dutch Scrapple
How does it work, you ask? Easy-peasy, as they say.
If you’re looking for a recipe – a long-lost family favorite, one of Grandma’s specialties that you remember enjoying as a child, a wonderful dish from the last church potluck, or a restaurant favorite – send in a request, including all the information you can remember about the recipe, your name, full mailing address, and phone number. It works great if you can email it all to me, pretty please.
As there is space, the request is included in the Help Wanted box located at the end of this article.We publish only your name, city and state. The phone number is for fact-checking, and the mailing address is so we can eventually send all of the recipe responses directly to you.
Then we wait. Other readers send recipes directly to our office – all the mailing information is in that Help Wanted box below – and they are filed. Again, sending recipes by email works great. Through random selection, or based on a theme, recipes are selected to be published in a future issue. One, two or three recipes are selected to be printed, and then it depends on the space we have available as to whether they all appear in the magazine. The recipes you’re about to enjoy were selected because they sounded good, and because the Scrapple file folder was getting way too full.
One or two things for those of you sending in responses. Please send one recipe per page, and include your name and address on each one. It also helps to indicate in which issue you found the request, and the name of the person making the request. We don’t include the full mailing address with the requests; all the response recipes come to our office, and then we send them on to the person who made the original request.
After a requested recipe is printed, we wait a few months. That’s because a few responses always trickle in late. Never fear, though, because eventually all of the recipes sent in response to your request are bundled up and mailed to you. And you’ll have a grand old time looking at each recipe, reading the comments from your fellow cooks, and trying a few, just because you can.
When you receive all those recipes, please don’t feel overwhelmed. People understand that it is not possible to write a letter or thank-you note to every person in that stack of recipes. Your family’s enjoyment of that particular dish will be thanks enough.
And above all, we hope you enjoy reading Recipe Box, trying new recipes, and helping out your fellow readers.
See you in the kitchen!
Senior Associate Editor Jean Teller regularly wows the GRIT office with her Cheesy Potatoes; it’s a must-have on food days!
• Sandra Ward, Sacramento, California, is looking for a Lemon Jello Cake recipe she remembers from the late 1950s or mid-1960s. It used a white or yellow cake mix and lemon-flavored gelatin.
• Betty Fry, Marion, Iowa, used to have an Easter casserole recipe that included ham, sliced boiled eggs, Worcestershire sauce and a white sauce. It might have been published in Capper’s.
• Lance Ladue, Essex Junction, Vermont, is looking for a recipe he believes was published in the late 1970s in Grit. He’s looking for a bean and sausage stew or soup recipe that was probably published in a fall/winter publication.
• Cliff Newland, Nevada City, California, writes, “My grandmother used to bake a cake called Chocolate Sour Cream Cake. I have an incomplete recipe. It was from Capper’s Farmer Magazine in the early 1940s. It included sour cream, whole milk and heavy cream.” Cliff’s recipe lists these ingredients: 2 cups flour, 4 tablespoons cocoa, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 1/4 cups sour cream, 2 eggs, and 2 teaspoons baking soda in 5 tablespoons water. The cake was baked at 350°F. Can anyone fill in the blanks?
• Jeana Johnson, Bemidji, Minnesota, is looking for a Water Pie recipe. Her aunt used to make the Depression-era pie with water, sugar, butter and cinnamon.
If you’ve been looking for a long-lost recipe, or can provide one, please write to Recipe Box, c/o Grit, 1503 S.W. 42nd St., Topeka, KS 66609, or email us at RecipeBox@Grit.com. Please include your name, address and daytime phone number. Recipes cannot be returned, as they are eventually sent to the person requesting the recipe. Recipe requests and responses will be printed at our discretion and as space allows. Addresses are not printed to allow Grit the opportunity to publish recipes before sending them on to the requesting party.
