An Airport and a Good Lenten Meal

Lunken Airport in eastern Cincinnati has been a popular destination for our family for generations.  When it was dedicated in 1930, it was the largest commercial airport in the U.S.  This photo was taken on a visit to the new terminal in the 1930s, showing my little sister, cousin and me.

I still enjoy visiting the airport, having lunch and watching planes with my youngest daughter and her two children.  They’re just as fascinated as I was on my childhood visits.

In the 1980-90s, my office was across the road from the airport and we enjoyed special lunches at the Sky Galley restaurant.  The first meals served on a commercial airliner (American Airlines) were prepared here.  The Sky Galley is in the original Art Deco terminal building and the ambience is wonderful – lots of airplane memorabilia and a view of the runways where some company jets and many small planes are constantly landing and taking off.  The food is good, plain home-style cooking.  It was a tradition for my oldest daughter to meet me for lunch on Good Friday and to enjoy their special Lenten meal of salmon patties, macaroni and cheese, and scalloped tomatoes.  Now that I’ve been retired for 14 years, I make it a point to cook the same meal several times during Lent and certainly on Good Friday for my two daughters.   I’ve posted the recipes for my version of salmon patties, macaroni and cheese, and scalloped tomatoes.

In addition to being just plain good food, the dinner brings back memories of grand old Lunken Airport.

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Mom’s Salmon Patties

 

I make these patties the way my mother used to make her “salmon” patties, which were actually mackerel.  Mother didn’t have the money for the expensive salmon and I think mackerel was about 10 cents per can back in the 1940s.  Although I loved her version and didn’t have a very big food budget when I married, I always made the patties with salmon and used her method of adding only crackers, onions and seasoning to the mix, no egg (my mother used as few eggs as possible in every dish).  My family prefers them this way and they are never as crispy on the outside and moist on the inside as when they are fried in Crisco. 

MOM’S SALMON PATTIES

• 1 Tblsp. olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• One 14-15 oz. can Alaskan pink salmon
• 12 saltine crackers, crushed
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Crisco for frying

In a small skillet, heat oil and saute onions on low heat until they are soft. 

Drain salmon and remove any bones.  Place salmon in a bowl and add the sauteed onions.  Add the crushed saltines and a grind or two of black pepper.  The saltines add enough salt for our taste.  Mix together and form into 6 patties.  The mixture should hold together but still be slightly moist. 

Melt Crisco in a large skillet and add the patties, browning/cooking about 5 minutes on each side. 

We always serve the salmon patties with macaroni & cheese and scalloped tomatoes.

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Old Time Scalloped Tomatoes

 

 

This dish has been a family favorite from over 25 years ago when I had a lot of tomatoes at all times.  My husband had every variety in large amounts in his garden and I spent a lot of time canning and freezing them for use all through the year.  This is a favorite side dish to serve with salmon patties and macaroni and cheese.

OLD TIME SCALLOPED TOMATOES

• 1 Tblsp. oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• One 14-15 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes, drained
• One 14-15 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 2 Tblsp. butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• Dash of salt and a few grinds of black pepper
• 2 cups soft bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

In small skillet, heat oil and saute onions on low heat until soft.  Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.

In 8×8″ baking pan place tomatoes.  Roughly cut up the whole tomatoes.  Add the sauteed onions.

In the same skillet used for the onions, melt the butter, stir in brown sugar until dissolved.  Add to tomato mixture and stir to blend. 

Sprinkle crumbs on top of tomato mixture and bake @ 350 degrees F for approximately 20 minutes until tomatoes are heated through and topping is browned. 

Yield:  6 servings

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Shannon’s Macaroni and Cheese

 

I’ve used several good macaroni and cheese recipes through the years, but this one has become my favorite because, with the use of lower fat ingredients such as milk, cheese and cottage cheese, it is not too bad cholesterol-wise and is still delicious.   

SHANNON’S MACARONI & CHEESE

• 3/4 cup dry macaroni
• 3/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 2 Tblsp. dried onion
• 3/4 cup cottage cheese
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp. yellow mustard
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 2 slices bread, processed into crumbs (about 2 cups)
• 3 Tblsp. Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray a 9×9″ pan with non-stick spray

Cook macaroni in salted boiling water for approximately 8 minutes.  Drain.  Place in large bowl, add cheese and onion.

In a blender or food processor, blend cottage cheese, milk and mustard.  Pour over the macaroni mixture.  Add salt and pepper.  Pour macaroni into prepared pan.  Sprinkle bread crumbs on top of macaroni and add a sprinkling of the Parmesan cheese. 

Bake for 20 minutes @ 350 degrees F.

Yield:  6 servings

This dish can be made early in the day and refrigerated until time to bake.  Add 10 minutes baking time if it has been refrigerated.

We like to serve this macaroni and cheese with salmon patties and scalloped tomatoes.

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A Red Linus Quilt

 

Each year I donate at least 3 quilts to our local Linus Project, which distributes quilts to hospitals to give to seriously ill children.  My first one this year is made with red scraps using the Economy 2 block in my EQ6 software.   Because these quilts have to be laundered frequently, we’re encouraged to use simple blocks and I notice what my 4-year-old granddaughter likes in my quilts and use those ideas in the Linus projects.  This one has bright colors and a variety of block themes.   The quilt is 45×70 inches and I was thinking about an older girl – maybe 8 to 10 years old – as I made the quilt.  The nurses at the hospitals choose the quilt to go to a particular child.  The first row contains scottie fabric….

The second row has different kinds of fruit….

The third row shows some funny ladies doing housework….

The fourth row contains cute cats….

The fifth row has some miscellaneous blocks.

The backing is a red print.

When I take this quilt to our distribution center, I’ll also be taking along three beautiful crocheted afghans my daughter made.  In each case she used a heart pattern.

We like to think that four children will enjoy snuggling with our pieces.

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The Fragrance of a Horse Barn

 

One of my favorite bloggers, hensteeth, had a post recently about the smells of different kinds of food and the memories they invoke.  (Be sure to read through the other posts on her blog – she writes so well and comes up with unusual topics.) 

This made me think of one of my favorite smells, which is not related to food.  I love the smell of a horse barn – the combination of straw, horses, dust, even a little manure.  

 

My father spent his childhood in various horse barns since his father was a blacksmith and made part of his living traveling to county fairs to shoe the harness horses that were there for the races.  This is a ca. 1914 picture of my grandfather and my father in the doorway of their horse shoeing shop.

My father had been one of the youngest harness horse drivers in the area but gave up working with horses when he married and had two daughters to support.  Of course, we always went to the county fairs and spent most of our day hanging around the horse barns, talking to the owners, trainers and drivers.  One of my earliest memories is sitting on a big trunk in a barn, collecting pennies from the horsemen for singing, “When I Grow Too Old to Dream”.  I loved listening to the conversation as I took in the ambience of the dusty barn with the plaid blankets hanging on the wall, the sharp smell of the Absorbine used on the sore muscles of the animals, and the horses snorting, neighing and kicking their stall doors. 

When I was very young, people would ask me what I was going to do when I grew up.  I always said I was going to get a job and help Daddy buy a horse.  Within months after graduation and getting my first job @ $30.00/week, my father told me he had a horse in mind and was ready for my contribution.  This is one of our early horses winning a race in 1955.  I made the jacket and cap my father is wearing.

I owned shares of my father’s horses off and on for many years until he was better established and my own expenses with four children didn’t leave enough to support a horse.  My father continued to be a top driver/trainer in the southwestern Ohio area.  In 1978, at age 66, he was driving a horse called Peter Horn at a track in northern Kentucky.  After finishing second in a photo finish, he died of a heart attack.  Our family said they knew if he died on a track, he died happy except that he would have wanted to be the winner.  This is a winning photo of my father and Peter Horn in 1975.

A few days after his death, I was at work when I suddenly got a whiff of a familiar smell – straw, horse, barn, tobacco – the unforgettable essence of my father in his plaid shirt and twill pants.  I turned around quickly, wondering who had come into the office directly from a horse barn and, of course, no one was there.  Or maybe someone had been there and walked briskly off, as he always did – always in a hurry to get to some horse or some fairgrounds or some barn.

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President’s Day and Cherry Fudge Pie

For my 70th birthday (5 years ago), my daughters gave me all kinds of collectibles and memorabilia dated 1932.  This handkerchief was one of them – commemorating George Washington’s birth.

I like to get it out for display each year on President’s Day.  And what better way to celebrate the occasion than a cherry pie.  In 1985, I was trying to come up with a unique idea for an Ohio State Fair cherry pie contest.  My oldest daughter suggested something with chocolate in it.  I developed this recipe incorporating chocolate and although it didn’t win the contest, it became a family favorite.

At that time, we had a country home with fruit trees – apple, pear, plum and one little cherry tree that produced huge amounts of fruit.  Pitting the cherries took forever but they were wonderful.  I never see fresh tart red cherries in our local markets but the canned cherries also make a delicious pie.

 

CHERRY FUDGE PIE

• Pastry for two-crust pie

Fudge layer:

• 1/4 cup plus 2 Tblsp. sweetened condensed milk , not evaporated
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Cherry filling:

• 3-1/2 cups fresh tart cherries or two 14-15 oz. cans of tart cherries, drained (Note:  not cherry pie filling)
• 3 Tblsp. Minute tapioca
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 2 Tblsp. brandy
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp. almond extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

In small saucepan stir condensed milk and chips over low heat until chips have melted.  Stir in vanilla.  Set aside.

In medium mixing bowl, place cherries, tapioca, salt, brandy, almond extract and sugar.  Stir to blend.

Place pastry in 9″ pie pan.  Spread chocolate mixture over bottom surface of crust.  Pour in the cherry mixture.  Dot with butter.  Add the top crust, brush lightly with milk and cut vents.  Set on a flat pan to catch spills.  Bake @ 375 degrees F for approximately 45 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack.  Makes one 9″ pie.

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Small Lone Star Wall Hanging

 

The first time I tried a Lone Star type quilt, I wasn’t happy with the results.  The points weren’t sharp, the center didn’t lay flat and the entire quilt was difficult to square up.  This was my post about the first quilt.

I wanted to try another Lone Star but not a huge quilt and heard about Kaye Wood’s Small Lone Star, one of many projects in her book, Quilt Like a Pro, using her Starmaker 8 ruler.  I’m happy to say that the ruler and her instructions made the difference between a quilt with problems and a wall hanging which I consider to be very nice and with just a few places that are not perfect – my fault since I have difficulty with  precision measuring, cutting and sewing.  

 

The “small” wall hanging is 23×23 inches with only binding, no border.  I machine quilted the piece with in-the-ditch stitching around the diamonds and decorative stitching in the squares and triangles.

For the backing, I took quite a few more hours to piece together a lot of scraps of various sizes, and I like the patchwork look of this.

Some day I might undertake another bed-sized Lone Star quilt, but for now I’m happy with the smaller version – and it even has some green in it, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day.

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Dolphin Bakes Valentine Cookies

Granddaughter Dolphin (4-1/2) came for her weekly visit and she made some beautiful Valentine cookies.  While I started the mixer for our old standby recipe for butter crisps, she waded through my big copper breadbox of vintage cookie cutters.  She came up with three heart-shaped cutters and was soon rolling out dough and cutting cookies.

I helped her get the cookies onto a baking sheet and she was able to paint with an egg wash and decorate without any help from me this time.  She was very discreet with the colored sugar and didn’t have mounds of the stuff on the cookies as she and her brother have done in the past.

She brought four buddies along with her – a stuffed cat named Ruby and 3 giraffes, all named Buford after the famous Civil War general and bought in Gettysburg.

 

The cookies were beautiful little Valentines when they were finished and Dolphin was very proud.  She ate just one and took the rest home to her parents and big brother.

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Valentine’s Day in the 1940s

In the 1930s-40s, I lived in downtown Cincinnati and attended old Raschig School on Central Parkway.  In those days, Valentine’s Day was a major holiday in school.  A week ahead of time, the teacher brought in a big cardboard box which we decorated with cutout hearts and bits of paper lace doilies.  A slot was cut in the top and we were encouraged to bring a Valentine for each person in class and put it in the box, waiting for the big day.  The Valentines were “penny Valentines” and probably cost less than a penny apiece in those depression-World War II days.

Then on February 14, it was time to get the Valentines out of the box and distributed to the class.  A boy was chosen to be mailman (never a girl!), outfitted with a paper hat and mailbag.

In 1993, I wanted to make a Valentine for family members and did a sketch of the scene, incorporating my memories of two boys in my class.  Rollo was the only black boy in the class, always well dressed in knickers and argyle socks.  Otto was from the poorest part of the school district and seemed always to be a little grungy with a sole-flapping shoe.  I was a proper little girl with waist length finger curls and a dress made by my mother.  In 1993, I didn’t have a color printer and printed the cards in black and white, then hand watercolored each one.

Imagine my surprise when about 10 years later, my oldest daughtergave me a Valentine gift of my sketch in redwork.  I had just started quilting at that time and put together a wall hanging with the redwork as the centerpiece.

The dress on the card was actually a black and white check which my mother later made into a doll dress.  I took a picture of the fabric and printed it in a nine-patch to use as two of the blocks…..

I also printed fabric blocks with vintage pictures of myself and old Raschig School to add to the history.  I wish I had pictures of Rollo and Otto, but they didn’t take class pictures at our school in those days.

When I see my grandchildren laboriously writing their names on their little Valentines to take to school and pre-school, I remember musty old Raschig and all the fun of Valentine’s Day.

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