Historical Nibbles

Happy Birthday, Jesus Cake

/ sandramervillehart

The tradition of birthday cakes for Jesus began over 500 years ago when desserts were a rare treat.

Children looked forward to baking a cake to celebrate Jesus’s birthday. Moms often hid little gifts inside the batter. Children found tiny toys like marbles or even a coin in their servings.

The cake itself contains special meaning. White cake symbolizes the sinless life of Jesus. I followed a yummy vanilla cake recipe from the Food Network for my white cake recipe.

The cake rises while in the oven to represent His resurrection.

Red icing reminds folks that Jesus died to save us from our sins. I made a basic buttercream frosting and tried to dye it red using red food coloring. The icing became bright pink.

My sister, who sometimes decorates cakes, suggested using red paste, which is available at cake and candy decorating specialty shops. Next time I will purchase this paste to create red icing.

The light of a single candle reminds us of the star the Wise Men followed to Bethlehem. Candlelight also means that Jesus is the light of the world.

I wrote “Happy Birthday, Jesus” on my bright pink frosted cake. I gave the children red and green M&M’s to decorate their own piece. It was a hit.

Merry Christmas!

-Sandra Merville Hart

“Basic Vanilla Cake,” Food Network, 2017/11/01 http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/basic-vanilla-cake-recipe-2043654.

 

 

Wacky Cake Recipe

/ sandramervillehart

I thought I’d share a few family recipes around the Christmas holidays. My grandmother used to make a wacky cake, probably earning its name from preparing the dessert in the baking pan.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons cocoa

1/3 cup vegetable oil (may use melted shortening)

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an 8×8 baking pan with cooking spray.

Sift dry ingredients into the baking pan and mix well. Make three holes and pour oil, vanilla, and vinegar into separate holes. Pour water over the top.

Mix well. My grandma used a fork to combine the wet and dry ingredients. It took about two minutes to stir the mixture, but do not beat.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Leave the cake in the pan.

Frosting ingredients

½ cup sugar

½ cup milk

2 tablespoons butter

1 ½ tablespoon flour

½ cup coconut

½ cup nuts (optional)

½ teaspoon vanilla

Combine all ingredients except vanilla in a saucepan and cook on a medium heat until the frosting thickens. This takes 2 – 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and stir well. Tip–if  you omit the nuts, you can increase the amount of coconut to 1 cup. Or,  you may omit the coconut and use 1 cup of chopped nuts.

The frosting is almost pourable consistency. Frost cake while still warm.

This is a delicious, dense chocolate cake and would be a fun recipe to make with elementary-aged children. Thanks for the recipe, Grandma!

I’d love to hear if you try this. Enjoy!

-Sandra Merville Hart

 

Calico Potato Salad Recipe

/ sandramervillehart

I thought I’d share a few family recipes around the Christmas holidays. This is a potato salad that I made often as a teenager and recently rediscovered.

Because of its festive colors and unique flavor, this potato salad makes a fun and tasty addition to holiday meals.

Ingredients

6 cups diced, peeled, cooked potatoes

½ cup diced cucumbers

½ cup chopped onion

¼ cup chopped green pepper

3 tablespoons canned pimentos

1 ½ teaspoon salt

¾ teaspoon celery seed

¼ teaspoon pepper

2 eggs, hard-boiled

½ cup whipping cream, whipped

½ cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons vinegar

1 tablespoon prepared mustard

My aunt gave me a tip about making potato salad when I was a child. Boil unpeeled potatoes to keep your potatoes from turning to mush in the pot. When done, pour out the hot water and run cold water into the saucepan. Then drain and set aside to dry and cool. This is the way I still cook potatoes for potato salad.

While the potatoes cook, chop onion, green pepper, cucumber. Then peel and dice the potatoes when they cool.

Combine first 8 ingredients. Chop eggs and stir into the potato mixture. Chill until about ½ hour before serving.

Whip the cream with a mixer in a separate bowl. Then add mayonnaise, vinegar and mustard to the whipped cream. The mixture becomes very creamy.

Stir creamy mixture gently into potato salad about ½ hour before serving.

Delicious! This is not your typical potato salad. It has a light, refreshing flavor that works well for festive potlucks around the holidays.

I’d love to hear if you try this. Enjoy!

-Sandra Merville Hart

 

 

12 Christmas Traditions You can Begin this Year

/ sandramervillehart

by Sandra Merville Hart

Like so many others, I love the Christmas season! Children look forward to doing the activities they enjoyed last year. Adults also like the nostalgia of specific traditions and activities.

Here are a few things that are fun to do every year. Maybe there is a new idea tucked inside this list for you!

12)  Send out Christmas cards. It’s still nice to be remembered around the holidays—especially if your loved ones live far away. Some folks decorate their homes and apartments with Christmas cards.

11)  Buy or make a new ornament or Christmas decoration. My husband and I began this annual tradition as a newly married couple. Children love this one!

10)  Decorate your home for Christmas. I love the fresh smell of a real tree every year, but my husband is not a fan. Whether you put up a tree or not, a few decorations add to the festive mood of the holiday.

9)    Decorate a Gingerbread house. Perhaps you are about as artistic as me. Thankfully there are gingerbread kits you can buy. The children in your life will love decorating a house with candy that they can eat afterward!

8)    Listen to Christmas music as you drive around looking at Christmas lights. My family had very little money growing up, but we did this every year—a special memory.

7)    Donate a gift to a charity or needy family. If this gift involves shopping, include your child if feasible. They will feel part of the giving.

6)    Looking for gift ideas for your children? Take them to a toy store. Observe the items where they linger longest. Then write down ideas when they aren’t looking.

5)    Treat yourself to a meal out after a long day of shopping. Even if it’s fast food, you won’t have to cook!

4)    Plan an evening to watch Christmas movies/shows with family or friends. Serve holiday desserts or popcorn. This can be an easy holiday gathering. Just have fun.

3)    Bake and decorate Christmas cookies. Include your children. Praise their efforts and creativity. Invite grandparents if you like. The whole house will smell wonderful.

2)    Visit a Nativity.

1)    Attend Christmas Eve services.

What is your favorite holiday tradition?

 

Holiday Peas & Rice Recipe

/ sandramervillehart

I thought I’d share a few family recipes around the Christmas holidays. This is a dish that my grandmother on my dad’s side used to make.

Ingredients

½ cup long grain rice—not minute rice (I used organic brown rice)

1/8 teaspoon sage

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

1 can chicken broth

1 cup frozen peas

2 tablespoons diced pimentos

Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Stir in sage. Add rice and sauté in the melted butter for about a minute or until it begins to brown.

Stir chicken broth into the rice mixture and bring to a boil. Then reduce to low heat. Cover and simmer.

After simmering for 15 minutes, add peas and cook about 10 minutes longer or until done, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and let it set, covered, for five minutes to allow the rice to soak up any remaining broth.

Stir in pimentos. This recipe makes 6 ½ cup servings. Double it to serve a larger crowd.

This dish has just a hint of sage that I found to be a refreshing change. If you like a bit more, increase this seasoning to a ¼ teaspoon when adding to the melted butter in the beginning, but remember that sage has a strong flavor. A little goes a long way.

This vegetable dish has festive green and red colors that will complement holiday meals. Thanks for the recipe, Grandma!

I’d love to hear if you try this. Enjoy!

-Sandra Merville Hart

 

 

Chili Porcupine Meatballs Recipe

/ sandramervillehart / 2 Comments

I’ve been craving a dish that my mother used to make when I was a child. My mother passed away a few years ago. My sisters didn’t have the recipe so I despaired of ever tasting this meal as she made it again.

Then I found the recipe in an old family cookbook. I couldn’t wait to try it. Yum! It was as delicious as I remembered so I decided to share it with you around the Christmas holidays.

Ingredients

Meatballs

1 pound lean ground beef

1 pound lean ground pork

1 egg, beaten

½ cup milk

2/3 cup long grain rice (not minute rice)

1 teaspoon chili powder

2 teaspoons salt

Sauce

2 cans diced tomatoes

4 cups water

2 tablespoons chopped onion

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon chili powder

½ cup long grain rice

Mix the meats together. (You might as well use your hands—a method my grandmother taught me. Sometimes spoons just don’t work as well as your fingers.) Beat the egg in a separate bowl and then add egg, milk, 2/3 cup rice, 1 teaspoon chili powder, and 2 teaspoons salt to the meat mixture. Mix well. Form into 1 ½ inch meatballs. (My batch made about 25 meatballs.) Melt about 2 tablespoons of shortening into a skillet. Brown meatballs in batches and drain on a paper towel. Add shortening as needed for browning.

For the sauce, add tomatoes, onions, and water with the remaining rice and seasonings into a large stockpot. Bring the sauce to a boil then gently add meatballs to the pot. Reduce to low heat. Cover. Cook about 1 1/2 hours. Stir occasionally. Add water as needed.

I could barely wait until the meatballs cooled to dish up a serving. A wave of nostalgia struck me as I ate. It was almost as if my mother had cooked for me one last time.

Enjoy this comforting meal on a cold day!

-Sandra Merville Hart

 

Cream Soup Recipe

/ sandramervillehart

This recipe for Cream Soup was found in an 1877 cookbook under “Food for the Sick.”

A few common ingredients made this an easy recipe for cooks and nurses to give to patients. It was probably given to wounded soldiers during Civil War.

The main ingredient is toasted bread, which was heartier 150 years ago than white bread readily available on grocery store shelves. I made a loaf of white bread in my bread machine and baked it in the oven. This gave me bread slices with denser consistency.

I toasted sliced bread “very brown” under the oven broiler. It felt more authentic than sliding them into a toaster.

Pour two cups of boiled water into a medium-sized serving bowl. Add ½ cup of heavy cream and ¼ teaspoon of salt and stir.

Break two slices of toast into pie. Pour the cream broth over the pieces in a serving bowl.

Eat immediately.

I tasted this soup. It surprised me how much I like it—possibly because I really like the homemade bread.

For this reason, I feel that any of the hearty breads you love would work well in this soup. Feel free to experiment with your favorite breads. If you buy the bread, this soup can be ready to eat in about 10 minutes.

I’ve often eaten toast when sick as well as serving it to my daughter. Cream and nourishing bread—I understand why this was given to convalescing patients.

I’d love to hear from you if you try this dish. Enjoy!

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Compiled from Original Recipes. Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping, Applewood Books, 1877.

 

 

Cherry Tarts Worthy of a Love Story

/ sandramervillehart / 8 Comments

Today’s post is written by fellow author, Sandra Ardoin. I enjoyed reading her Christmas historical romance where the heroine is a baker. Sandra shares a recipe from the time period of her book. Welcome, Sandra!

 Unlike my heroine in The Yuletide Angel, I’m not much of a cook. Oh, I can do it. It simply isn’t something I enjoy. However, I don’t hesitate to collect recipes. Go figure.

When I discovered Violet Madison possessed the joy of baking, it left me with a question. What recipes would she prepare in 1890? So, I went to one of my favorite resources for 19th–century research: Google Books. Did you know the site holds over two centuries-worth of tested and tried recipes (or receipts) printed in old magazines and cookbooks? I found the following in a digitalized version of Warner’s Safe Cook Book: Compiled Especially for Warner’s Safe Yeast Company, 1887.

Here is the recipe Violet might have used, as stated on page 301 of the company’s cookbook (punctuation is mine):

CHERRY TART NO. 2

“Line patty pans or pie plates with puff paste. Stew the desired quantity of cherries with a liberal amount of sugar and a little water. Add a tablespoonful of flour for a pint of the stewed cherries. Fill the shells and bake in a quick oven. When the crust is done remove from the oven. Dust with powdered sugar when serving. Dried cherries make excellent tarts. They require to be soaked for several hours before being heated and must then cook very slowly and for only a short time.”

The term patty-pans threw me. If it did you, too, don’t fret. It’s another term for a miniature tart pan, the kind you’d find in stores today. As for the “puff paste” or pastry, if you’re dieting, you might want to rethink this one, since it contains a heart-stopping amount of butter.

Shy, little Violet certainly knew the way to a man’s heart: sweets. But her cherry tart was only one of the reasons Hugh Barnes fell in love with The Yuletide Angel.

-Sandra Ardoin

BIO:

Sandra Ardoin writes inspirational historical romance. Her Christmas novella, The Yuletide Angel, and the Grace Award-winning novel, A Reluctant Melody are available on Amazon. Visit her at www.sandraardoin.com and on the Seriously Write blog. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Goodreads, and Pinterest. Sign up for her newsletter.

Available on Amazon

BLURB:

It’s Christmastime 1890 and someone ventures out at night to leave packages at the homes of the needy. Dubbed the Yuletide Angel, no one knows the identity of this mysterious benefactor. No one, except Hugh Barnes, who finds himself drawn to the outwardly shy but inwardly bold Violet Madison.

But a phantom figure lurks in the shadows, prepared to clip the wings of the young woman who risks her safety to help others.

Widow Jones’ Apple Pie

/ sandramervillehart / 10 Comments

 

Today’s post is written by fellow author Amber Schamel. This recipe is from her book, Dawn of Liberty. Welcome, Amber!

Sam says: I’ve convinced Mrs. Jones to share with us the recipe for her special apple pie. She prepared this for John Hancock and myself when we fled from the battle of Lexington as told in A Shot at Freedom in the Dawn of Liberty Short Story Collection.

 “What a feast. You have outdone yourself, Madam,” Hancock said with a smile.

“For dessert, I’ve one of my special apple pies in the oven, just for you, John.”

At those words, Hancock’s face split into a huge grin. “Well then, shall we commence?”

 Widow Jones’ Apple Pie

 YIELD: 8 Servings

Ingredients:

2 Pie Crusts

1/2 c. Brown Sugar

3 T. Wheat Flour

1/4 t. Salt

1 1/2 t. Cinnamon Spice

1/2 t. Clove Spice

5 c. Thinly Sliced Apples (Your variety of choice)

6 T. Butter

1 T. Lemon Juice (optional)

Instructions:

Begin by mixing sugar, flour, salt and spices together in a bowl. Next, poke holes in the bottom pie crust with a fork to prevent bubbling. Place apples inside the bottom crust. Sprinkle sugar mix over apples.

Cut the butter into pats and distribute them on top. Sprinkle lemon juice evenly over the pie.

Finish preparation by cutting the second pie crust into strips and weaving it over the top.

Bake at 450 for 5 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Serve warm.

-Amber Schamel

Dawn of Liberty Blurb

Liberty comes with a price. Can a fledgling nation bear the cost?

British forces advance upon a struggling colonial army. The time of decision has come. Declare independence, or give up the fight. The weight of a nation rests on Samuel Adams’ shoulders as he joins the delegates of the Second Continental Congress. Can he raise the cause of Liberty above the fear of the King’s wrath in the hearts of his countrymen?

Three riveting short stories follow Samuel Adams as he struggles through the events surrounding the Declaration of Independence and evokes the Dawn of Liberty.

Amazon

Amber’s Bio:

Amber Schamel writes riveting stories that bring HIStory to life. She has a passion for travel, history, books and her Savior. This combination results in what her readers call “historical fiction at its finest”.  Her title, Dawn of Liberty, was awarded the 2017 CSPA Book of the Year award in Historical Fiction. She lives in Colorado and spends half her time volunteering in the Ozarks. Amber is a proud member of the American Christian Fiction Writers Association. Visit her online at www.AmberSchamel.com/ and download a FREE story by subscribing to her Newsletter!

Connect with Amber on Facebook,  Twitter, Pinterest, and Goodreads. 

Oh, Honey, Those are Preacher Cookies

/ sandramervillehart / 1 Comment

Today’s post is by fellow author, Nan Jones.  Welcome to Historical Nibbles, Nan, and thanks for sharing this recipe. I love to find quick, no-bake cookie recipes!

The fellowship hall smelled divine. Fried chicken, squash casserole, fresh green beans, and homemade biscuits were just a few of the delectable treats offered at the homecoming potluck dinner at church. The dessert table overflowed with temptation that I couldn’t wait to succumb to.

Just left of center on the long dessert table was a platter of chocolate cookies — the likes of which I had never seen. “Miss Ina Mae, what are these?” I asked. We were the new pastor and wife at this small Baptist church in the mountains of western North Carolina.

“Oh, honey, those are preacher cookies.”

Preacher cookies? I had never heard of them before that day. But for the past twenty-five years, every church pot-luck dinner has offered a platter full of these delicious nibbles.

Curious about the history, I discovered that these simple no-bake cookies derived their name from real life. Legend has it that Preacher Cookies got their name many years ago when it was common for preachers to visit their church members often. Housewives in the mountains could look out and see the preacher riding on his horse toward her home from a good distance away. Because of the simplicity of the recipe and common household ingredients, she could have the cookies prepared by the time he got to the house. Served up with a fresh cup of coffee, the preacher man received a special blessing.

Recipe for Preacher Cookies

½ cup butter

4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

2 cups sugar

½ cup milk

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 cups quick cooking oatmeal

¼ cup peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix the cocoa powder, butter, sugar, milk, and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Add the peanut butter, vanilla, and oatmeal. Stir well. Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper and allow to cool.

-Nan Jones

About Nan Jones:

Nan Jones is an author/speaker who uses the words of her heart to assist fellow Christians in discovering the Presence of God in their darkest hour. Her book, The Perils of a Pastor’s Wife was a 2016 Selah finalist and her blog, Beyond the Veil, won first place in the Foundation Awards at the 2017 Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. Nan is also a monthly contributor to Inspire a Fire, a far-reaching inspirational blog. When Nan isn’t writing, she enjoys leading prayer retreats, teaching bible studies or sharing God’s faithfulness as keynote speaker for special events. You may visit Nan at her website or her Facebook ministry page. For personal communication you may email Nan.

The Perils of a Pastor’s Wife Blurb

Have you been hurt by the church? Have you felt abandoned by God in the lonely fires of ministry? The Perils of A Pastor’s Wife will speak to your deepest wounds and help you find God’s Presence through it all. Sweet Sister—somewhere, somehow, somebody knows. You are not alone.

The Perils of a Pastor’s Wife is available on Amazon and LPC Books.