Three Bean Salad

Retro Salad Still Popular at Potlucks

Recipe by Robin

Childhood memories are slippery. What one person remembers about someone else can be 180 degrees different from what a sibling or cousin remembers. Yet certain people’s distinctions are indisputable. For example, my Auntie Vel was universally known as our family’s best cook. She was most creative and nuanced, plus knew how to throw one helluva party. Three bean salad was one of her summer staples. Nobody else’s recipe came close to the perfect sweet-sour flavor of her dressing and combination of soft beans and crunchy veggies. But this recipe is darn close. “When are we going to have that again?” asked my husband when I said I was blogging it.

Sista Chrissa’s Vegetarian Chili

Recipe Adapted from BUNWC*

My sister claims not to cook, but don’t believe it. While raising her kids a generation or so ago, she made amazing meals every night. Everything that she makes is scrumptious. Including this amazing veggie chili recipe with its surprise ingredients: cashews, raisins, and red wine vinegar. The latter two impart a sweet-sour flair to the usual beans, tomatoes, and savories. The second surprise is allspice, most often tasted in apple pie. It’s counterintuitive to combine it with chili powder and cumin, and you might just have to try it to believe the delectable results.

Sharmoula

Served as Dip = Sharmoula

Recipe by A. and Robin

I messed up. When trying to recreate my cousin A.’s delicious sharmoula, a traditional Libyan salad, memory didn’t quite serve. I got the ingredients right. I cut them right. I adjusted the proportions to maximize deliciousness. I made an acceptable substitution of green onions for red. I made it with love like A. said to. BUT, “Wait, you put the bread IN the salad?” asked A. when I sent a photo. I’d forgotten that the bread goes on the side, to serve like a dip. Still, my salad saved my days-old bread quite tastily.

Mom’s Potato Salad

Recipe by Mom

It’s been more years than I’ll admit since I helped my mom make potato salad. And yet, I’ve never made it at all since I left home decades ago—until now. The secret of Mom’s potato salad is that the potatoes themselves are highly flavored. This eliminates the need to flavor-compensate with seasonings like mustard, dill seed, and pickle relish.  The potatoes themselves are the stars of the salad, complimented by a large quantity of eggs, a variety of finely chopped crunchy veggies, and of course mayo.

Seared Sea Scallops Au Champagne Gratin

Elegance with Few Ingredients

Recipe by Robin

Back in the days when I first left my birthplace in New England, my parents would ask me what I wanted to eat when I visited from California. My dad’s scallops were always high on my list. He’d pan-fry the scallops, crumble Royal Lunch milk crackers over them after plating, then top off with butter sauce. Since original Royal Lunch crackers have been replaced with an odd and expensive substitute, and fresh scallops aren’t too available here, I’d never tried to duplicate his recipe. Until inspired by some scrumptious-looking sea scallops I saw at Costco recently while shopping for chicken. Seafood night!

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins

My Mom Served 'Em with Butter

Recipe Adapted from The 250 Best Muffin Recipes

From ‘way back when I was a preschooler, I have two vivid memories of special breakfast foods. Though we mostly ate cereal and milk, like most kids of our era, every so often my mom would make us something special. In the winter, it was fresh squeezed orange juice, crafted with a special attachment on Mom’s Mixmaster. In summer, it was blueberry muffins: fresh, fruity, and unpretentious. This recipe tastes pretty close to what Mom used to make: not too sweet or buttery, loaded with beautiful berries.

Rose’s Abe Lincoln Cake or Marbled Pound Cake

Recipe adapted from Aunt Rose's

A quick internet search on Abe Lincoln cake brings up numerous recipes for almond cake. But decades before the internet, my husband’s aunt was making this Abe Lincoln Cake from a family recipe for her children and their lucky cousins. Instead of almonds, it’s flavored with a touch of orange and nutmeg. Perhaps in a past generation, someone had a nut allergy, so the almonds were replaced with spices. The perfect proportions of butter, sugar, and eggs make what is essentially a pound cake a moist, dense loaf with thin and crunchy crust. This crust is the magic that makes this cake unusually addictive.

Mom’s Crab Salad with Dungeness Crab

Like Mom Used to Make

Recipe by Mom

At last it’s Dungeness crab season in Santa Cruz, after a nasty algal bloom that nixed the usual winter celebrations with our favorite crustaceans. Although it’s not cheap and the season seems off, let’s support our local crab fishermen, who’ve had some tough times this year. After filling my family with steamed crab, I made Mom’s “crabmeat salad,” which she prepared with canned crab back in the 1960s. Canned crab isn’t what it used to be—now it’s a shredded mess that tastes metallic. Fresh local crab is the ticket.  Mom’s recipe is extremely simple, and contains no ingredients that might overshadow crab’s subtle flavor.

Mom's Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Fabulously Retro Cake

Recipe from Mom’s Best Desserts

Among my earliest childhood memories are the wonderful desserts that my long-gone mother made.  It’s hard to find some of these recipes nowadays. How lucky I was to find Mom’s Best Desserts, a treasure trove of retro recipes, at the library. After bookmarking 30 pages, I realized that I knew the second author, Fran Raboff. A fantastic baker and chef, Fran used to bring me homemade treats years ago when she studied sculpture in the community college art department where I worked. “This is for you, not the students,” she would say. Knowing her dessert expertise, I immediately bought the book. This cake tastes just like my mom’s.

Persimmon Walnut Bars with Browned Butter Frosting

Perfect for Holiday Sharing

Recipe adapted from old magazine clipping

When it comes to desserts, old school is often the best. At least that’s what I hear whenever I bring an old fashioned treat somewhere to share. This recipe came from Bruce’s parents’ recipe collection. Back in the 70s, most cooks kept a small metal box full of index cards with recipes written or glued onto them. This recipe came from just such a box. Although not terribly practical—since these boxes are small, most contain folded-up recipes that didn’t fit—these little boxes give us a glimpse back into the past, especially when they’re filled with tried and true family recipes. This recipe is more like a moist spice cake than a chewy bar cookie. The browned butter frosting has gone out of fashion, but its exquisite yet simple flavor makes it a delicious and unexpected addition to modern holiday baking.

Turkey and Veggie Meatloaf

Turkey Loaf Requires a Variety of Fall Veggies

Recipe adapted from The Cooking Decade

It’s that turkey time of year here in the US, and the colder weather makes me crave more comfort foods. Yet, it would be smartest not to gain weight before December’s usual slide into decadence. This spinoff from classic beef-and-onion meatloaf is chock full of healthful veggies and lower-fat ground turkey. My sister clipped this recipe from an unknown source many years ago. She presented it to me in a binder of family favorite recipes a few years back. She claimed to be starting her second “non-cooking decade,” and since I was just starting to cook family recipes, she dubbed this binder “The Cooking Decade.” Her kids loved eating this turkey loaf while they were growing up, and so will yours. Turkey Veggie Loaf is perfect for this time of year because it's hearty enough to stand up to cold weather and also takes advantage of the last of this  year's red pepper harvest. 

Parsley New Potatoes

Just Like Mom Used to Make

Recipe Inspired by Mom

My mom had a thing for parsley potatoes, especially parsley new potatoes. Back when I was growing up, most New Englanders simply boiled their potatoes, but Mom insisted that parsley improved both flavor and eye-appeal. At the time I didn’t appreciate her obsession, but now have grown nostalgic for those days and for my long-departed Mom. And she was right, parsley is the perfect enhancement for young potatoes. The flavor and aroma of this dish take me back in time. Or perhaps it brings Mom forward, since I can feel her looking over my shoulder as I work, and imagine her eyes widen with delight when the dish is completed.

Popover Pancake with Strawberry Sauce

Easy to Make and Fun to Serve

Recipes by Philippa and Mom

As the years go by, I appreciate my cousins more and more. Most are far away but remain close to my heart. A few years back, after a 30-year hiatus, I visited my cousin/godfather Dick, and Philippa, his wife of nearly 50 years, in Pennsylvania. Both had inspired my early study of music by their interest and by their own musicianship. Amongst the catching up, Philippa whipped up the most amazing meals, including a light and airy popover pancake for breakfast one morning. She assured me that it was easy to make. It didn’t seem possible that its puffy, soufflé like proportions could be easily duplicated. But surprisingly this impressive dish takes little time and effort and uses few ingredients.

Pennsylvania Dutch German Hot Potato Salad

Hot And Hearty Fare

Recipe adapted from Midwest Gardeners Cookbook

Back in the day, my longtime deceased aunties were cooks at a Pennsylvania convent. They liked making tasty foods on a budget. When the Mother Superior (nun in charge) declared that God had sent them, one quickly replied, “He didn’t have to work very hard to get us here.” Luckily, that Mother Superior could appreciate my aunt’s sense of humor, and good food. A favorite in the convent, and at home, was "German Potato Salad," made with vinegar and bacon and served hot.

Chicken Soup for the Body and Soul

Ladle Full of Love and Comfort

Recipe inspired by Mom

If it’s a cold, rainy night in Santa Cruz, or if your husband is recovering from gum surgery, or if you feel a bit under the weather yourself, a big pot of chicken soup is a good bet. If all three of those circumstances occur at once—welcome to my week—it’s almost inevitable. Unlike vegetarian soups, which typically require pre-sautéing of vegetables to bring out flavor, chicken makes plenty of yummy juice when simply thrown into a pot with some water and a few seasonings. This simple preparation is a boon to the ailing cook, and even the Mayo Clinic agrees that chicken soup can help a body with cold symptoms feel better quicker.

Turkey Stuffed Peppers

Ready to Bake

Recipe adapted from Mom’s

As of last week it’s been 10 years since my mom died. Cooking was her passion, and it was indeed sad when she had to give it up due to disability in her latter years. Still, she remained interested in food and its preparation till the end, watching cooking show on TV and perusing menus from local restaurants. Even when she was barely able to feed herself, she enjoyed a rich variety of foods and knew which menu items were tastiest. Like many of Mom’s recipes that I’ve blogged, stuffed peppers were made without a written recipe.  Throughout the years I’ve made many attempts to recreate this classic Polish recipe.  Finally, I’ve gotten pretty darn close.

Mexican Style Gazpacho: Chilled Veggie Soup

Colorful, Seasonal, and Yummy

Recipe by Sheila

My cousin Sheila and I met at a party, and it seemed like we’d known each other forever. Technically, we weren’t cousins yet, since she married into the Horn family years before I did. We shared thoughts on gardening, homesteading, and cooking. I was intrigued that she was fixing up an old farmhouse in Idaho, where she grew and preserved crops. We began emailing recipes to each other, and she sent me this gazpacho recipe back in 2002. When I visited shortly thereafter, Sheila made us a garden-based dinner of vegetarian goodies. She assigned preparation of the gazpacho to my hubby’s sister and me, while she prepared more complicated dishes like chili relleno. Gazpacho results were fresh and savory, even though Lisa and I forgot to add the salsa.

Plum Cobber AKA Plum Crisp

Late Season Black Plum Crisp

Recipe by Mary

Two things that many Americans remember from their childhoods are family friends and fruit cobblers. Our parents’ friends become our own friends as we share experiences that become treasured memories of our childhood. We might not see these friends frequently as we age, but they are forever in our hearts. When we do talk, it seems as if no time has passed. Like old friends who are always there for us, so are fruit cobblers: easy to be with, reassuring, and nostalgic. Old friends and cobblers remind us of our youth, of summers gone by. And a cobbler made by an old friend gives us a double dose of comfort.

Plum Upside Down Cake

Plum Upside Down Cake: Top with Cream, or Not

Recipe by Bruce’s Mom

Collecting and preserving family recipes was one of my motivations in creating Seasonal Eating. Rarely are these recipes written down in step-by-step format. Often they are written as quick reminders to a cook who has made the recipe many times and doesn’t need details. And when this cook passes away, we inherit the notes, make the recipe, and it doesn’t taste quite the same. Yet with each experiment we fine-tune the process and sometimes the ingredients, until our results match our memories. My husband Bruce says that this cake is very close to his Mom’s Satsuma Plum Upside-down Cake, even with the substitution of yellow plums.

Scalloped Potatoes

Just Like Mom's, but with Green Onions & Gold Potatoes

Recipe inspired by Mom

My mom’s delicious cooking is one of my earliest and most persistent memories. When I was very young, she made the most tantalizing delights on her old electric stove, teaching me the various methods of preparation by osmosis: baking, broiling, boiling, and frying. This was before anyone in New England had heard of stir-frying or steaming (except for suet puddings), and before anyone I knew had an electric frying pan, if they were even invented yet. One of Mom’s old time recipes, often served with ham or beef, was scalloped potatoes. Although they weren’t my favorite back then, recent work stress brought on a craving for this classic comfort food. So I put together a recipe like hers…kind of.