CHRISTMAS PROMPTS A STROLL THROUGH MY RECIPE FOLDER

I have never kept an organized book with all of my favorite recipes. Instead, for the past 55 years all the recipes collected from friends, clipped from newspapers and magazines, and, in the last few years, downloaded from the web, have been shoved into an ancient manila folder. 

With a few exceptions, typically for a baked goodie, I follow a recipe once, and never recreate it exactly, rather using it as a guide. I have been told by some who eat something I have make that they really like, "I will never see that again." True, but the surprise is usually better! I call myself a "dump, stir and taste" cook and think that would make a great title for a recipe book someday.

This morning during conversations with my daughters who are doing Christmas cooking (I am not), we discussed the fruitcake that we made as gifts years ago. You can find the simple recipe below. One daughter hated the cake, one loved it and asked for the recipe.

This prompted a quest to find the ancient recipe in my folder, turned a darker and more brownish color than the original manila, stained by who knows what foodstuff ingredients and the passage of time. As I thumbed through stacks of unorganized recipes my cooking life passed before my eyes. I found “Bon Bon’s Fruitcake Recipe,” towards the back, a recipe given to me by a friend when I lived in Hawaii as a young woman. Bon Bon was her daughter’s name.

I made a delightful discovery of a Christmas Eve dinner menu from the 1980s. This was printed in a fairly (for me) legible hand on a page from a legal tablet with a list of 19 family member guests, including two of my children, two sisters and their families, my parents and in-laws, and a brother-in-law and his wife - who was bringing what dish, and a timeline as to when I would prepare the bulk of the traditional turkey and stuffing meal. At the bottom was a shopping list with everything crossed through.

Following the Christmas Eve menu was a similarly organized page for Christmas brunch the next day, also attended by 19 guests. The guest list wast slightly different from the Christmas Eve group. One sister and her family who attended Christmas Eve did not come, but my third sister and her husband came and a son-in-law brought two grandchildren.

Paging through this folder triggered memories of years of feeding family and entertaining friends.  I nostalgically looked at recipes gathered when I worked with home economists that were constantly testing recipes and gathering others from famous restaurants. I noted the changes in food preferences and eating habits. Towards the top was a recipe for humming bird syrup, which sustains our summer deck visitors, and many chicken and pasta recipes. Those containing beef and cheese had inched down into the stack. I need to find that recipe for Peking pot roast, a long ago favorite.

Merry Christmas to all.

Bon Bon's Fruitcake

1/2 lb. S&W glazed cherries

1/2 lb. Glazed pineapple

1 lb. Shelled pecans

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup flour

4 Eggs

2 Tsp. baking powder

1 Tsp. vanilla.

Cut up fruit with scissors into not-too-small pieces. Cut dates in four pieces. Add chopped pecans. Add sugar and mix. Sift flour. Add sifted flour and baking powder. Add beaten eggs and vanilla and work mixture with hands until fruit is all coated. Press mixture firmly into pans lined with heavy wrapping paper, well greased.

Batter should come to within 1 1/2 inches from top. Bake at 325 degrees until a toothpick comes out clean. (Approximately 1 hour 15 min.) This recipe makes two loaf cakes, small size.

Note: I think I put the batter into three small loaf cake pans for gifts.